The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the authoritative views of the Baha'i Faith.
If you’re awaiting a day of resurrection — the “judgment day” famously prophesized in various religious scriptures and holy books — the Baha’i teachings ask you to consider that it has already occurred.
The Baha’i writings declare that judgment day takes place at the time of the appearance of the newest messenger of God, just as it did when Christ and Buddha and Moses and Muhammad first inaugurated their respective revelations: “On the Day of Resurrection God will, in truth, judge all men, and we all verily plead for His grace.”
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Baha’is believe that Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, is that new messenger:
O peoples of the world! The Sun of Truth hath risen to illumine the whole earth, and to spiritualize the community of man. Laudable are the results and the fruits thereof, abundant the holy evidences deriving from this grace. This is mercy unalloyed and purest bounty; it is light for the world and all its peoples; it is harmony and fellowship, and love and solidarity; indeed it is compassion and unity, and the end of foreignness; it is the being at one, in complete dignity and freedom, with all on earth.
When the most recent prophet speaks, teaching the truths embodied by a new revelation, those truths test the character of human souls, judging them according to their response to that new spiritual message.
This moment in history, also known as “the Day of Resurrection” in many scriptures, gives new light to the spiritual world and unlocks tremendous potential for growth, progress, and human solidarity. That “time of the end” marks the era when a new religious dispensation succeeds and supplants the previous ones.
This resurrection day, the Baha’i teachings point out, reveals “the true meaning of being born again:”
Existential rewards consist in the virtues and perfections that adorn the human reality. For example, man was immersed in darkness and becomes luminous; he was ignorant and becomes informed; he was heedless and becomes aware; he was asleep and is awakened; he was dead and is quickened to life; he was blind and begins to see; he was deaf and begins to hear; he was earthly and becomes heavenly; he was material and becomes spiritual. Through these rewards he is reborn in spirit, is created anew, and becomes the manifestation of the verse in the Gospel that says that the Apostles “were born, not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” — that is, they were delivered from the animal characteristics and qualities that are inherent to human nature, and acquired divine attributes, which are the outpouring grace of God. This is the true meaning of being born again. … When these souls are delivered from the darkness of these vices through the light of faith, when they are illumined by the rays of the Sun of Truth and endowed with every human virtue, they reckon this as the greatest reward and regard it as the true paradise.
Baha’u’llah, in his Book of Certitude, defined the meaning of the Day of Resurrection:
Such revelation is confined to His Prophets and chosen Ones, inasmuch as none mightier than they hath come to exist in the world of being. … From their knowledge, the knowledge of God is revealed, and from the light of their countenance, the splendor of the Face of God is made manifest. … Therefore, whosoever, and in whatever Dispensation, hath recognized and attained unto the presence of these glorious, these resplendent and most excellent Luminaries, hath verily attained unto the “Presence of God” Himself, and entered the city of eternal and immortal life. …
This is the meaning of the “Day of Resurrection,” spoken of in all the scriptures, and announced unto all people. Reflect, can a more precious, a mightier, and more glorious day than this be conceived, so that man should willingly forego its grace, and deprive himself of its bounties, which like unto vernal showers are raining from the heaven of mercy upon all mankind?
Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’u’llah’s son and successor, described the advent of a new divine messenger this way:
The spiritual world is like unto the phenomenal world. They are the exact counterpart of each other. Whatever objects appear in this world of existence are the outer pictures of the world of heaven. When we look upon the phenomenal world, we perceive that it is divided into four seasons; one is the season of spring, another the season of summer, another autumn and then these three seasons are followed by winter. When the season of spring appears in the arena of existence, the whole world is rejuvenated and finds new life. The soul-refreshing breeze is wafted from every direction; the soul-quickening bounty is everywhere; the cloud of mercy showers down its rain, and the sun shines upon everything. Day by day we perceive that the signs of vegetation are all about us. Wonderful flowers, hyacinths and roses perfume the nostrils. The trees are full of leaves and blossoms, and the blossoms are followed by fruit. The spring and summer are followed by autumn and winter. The flowers wither and are no more; the leaves turn gray and life has gone. Then comes another springtime; the former springtime is renewed; again a new life stirs within everything.
The appearances of the Manifestations of God are the divine springtime.
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We live in just such a time. Abdu’l-Baha, in his book Some Answered Questions, identified the appearance of each new divine messenger as the return of:
… the Holy Spirit, which is the mediator between God and His creation. It is like a mirror facing the sun: Just as a spotless mirror receives the rays of the sun and reflects its bounty to others, so too is the Holy Spirit the mediator of the light of holiness, which it conveys from the Sun of Truth to sanctified souls. This Spirit is adorned with all the divine perfections. Whensoever it appears, the world is revived, a new cycle is ushered in, and the body of humanity is clothed in a fresh attire. It is like the spring: When it arrives, it transports the world from one condition to another. For at the advent of springtide the black earth, the fields, and the meadows become green and verdant; flowers and sweet-scented herbs of every kind spring forth; trees are endowed with a new life; wondrous fruits are produced; and a new cycle is inaugurated.
It is the same with the manifestation of the Holy Spirit: Whensoever it appears, it invests the world of humanity with a new life and endows human realities with a new spirit. It clothes all existence with a glorious attire, disperses the darkness of ignorance, and causes the light of human perfections to shine resplendent.
The scriptures of all Faiths contain prophecies about “the time of the end,” also known as the Day of Judgment or the Day of Resurrection, when the Promised One appears and brings the Kingdom of God to Earth. That time, Baha’u’llah’s revelation confirms, has come.
David Langness writes and edits for BahaiTeachings.org and is a journalist and literary critic for Paste Magazine. He and his wife Teresa live in the Sierra foothills in Northern California.
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