Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era

The “Coming of the Lord” in the “last days” is the one “far-off divine event” to which all the Prophets look forward, about which Their most glorious songs are sung. Now what is meant by the “Coming of the Lord”? Surely God is at all times with His creatures, in all, through all, and over all; “Closer is He than breathing, nearer than hands and feet.” Yes, but men cannot see or hear God immanent and transcendent, cannot realize His Presence, until He reveals Himself through a visible form and talks to them in human language. For the revelation of His higher attributes, God has always made use of a human instrument. Each of the Prophets was a mediator through whom God visited and spoke to His people. Jesus was such a mediator, and the Christians have rightly regarded His appearance as a coming of God. In Him they saw the Face of God and through His lips they heard the Voice of God. Bahá’u’lláh tells us that the “Coming” of the Lord of Hosts, the Everlasting Father, the Maker and Redeemer of the World, which, according to all the Prophets, is to take place at “the time of the end,” means no other than His manifestation 213 in a human temple, as He manifested through the temple of Jesus of Nazareth, only this time with a fuller and more glorious revelation, for which Jesus and all the former Prophets came to prepare men’s hearts and minds.