1977-December-23

Bilalian News

The Mystery Of Christ Revealed: Part 2

Imam W. D. Muhammad

With the Name Allah (In the Name of God), the Gracious, the Compassionate. As-Salaam-Alaikum

In our previous article we spoke of the transfiguration that Jesus showed to several of his disciples, wherein they saw Moses and Elijah as separate bodies of light that came together to form one light, and that one light was Jesus. What the New Testament is telling us is that Moses, a prophet of earthly knowledge (rational light) and Elijah, a prophet of heavenly knowledge (spiritual light) were in agreement and that their coming together formed the body of Christ.

Now, let us see if Jesus' flesh had anything to do with his identity. If Jesus himself showed his disciples Elijah and Moses as light, then he was showing them as knowledge bodies and not as flesh and blood. By Moses and Elijah coming together as one knowledge body and forming the body of Jesus, then Jesus himself in the New Testament is saying that by identity, he is not flesh and blood, but by identity, he is knowledge.

What can flesh and blood do for us? Nothing. The great men who have led us into greater heights and broader horizons of knowledge can do something for us, but not as flesh and bones. We can't feed on their flesh and bones, but we can feed on their knowledge. What those great men left with us is their knowledge. After centuries, we don't identify them in their flesh and blood, we identify those great leaders in their knowledge. Who wants to see Jesus come back in a flesh body with the same wounds in his hands, in his heart, and in his feet? Who would want to see such a monstrous thing like that? Nothing but some silly minded, misguided people. If you think it over just a little bit, you won't want to see that.

This is a horrible kind of religion unless it is correctly interpreted. If it is not interpreted correctly, it is a monstrous, pagan, cannibalistic religion. But if we interpret it correctly, it is very beautiful. The great message of Jesus was put into a pagan body of idolatry and this is why he has to be resurrected. And when he is resurrected according to
the New Testament, he will not be resurrected as a physical body, but as a knowledge body.

How did John the Revelator see Jesus? Did he see him in his flesh and blood or did he see him in a spiritual body? John the Revelator saw Jesus as an angel. An angel is something that you can't see physically. Look again. Is Jesus God, something to be worshiped? John the Revelator said he started to bow to the angel of Christ and a voice said, "Do it not." So according to the Bible, we are not to worship Jesus, neither in flesh nor in spirit. What does the Holy Quran say of Jesus? The Holy Quran says that Jesus is a Kalimatin. What is a Kalimatin? A Kalimatin means a message, a sign or a word. Is that in the Bible? Yes it is. In the New Testament it says that Jesus is a sign and that Jesus is a word. This Jesus said from his own mouth in the New Testament.

I am not saying that Jesus, the Physical man never existed. I am saying that the physical man of Jerusalem never identified himself with Christ. He said, "Who do you say I, the Son of Man am?" He didn't say, "Who do you .say I, Christ am?"(1) He said, "Who do you say I, the Son of Man am?" Who is the man? The Man is Adam. He was saying that Adam was a natural man, and I am a natural man. "Now, who do you say I, the natural man am?" And Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus said, "On this Peter, I build my Church, I build my congregation." They changed it to Church. He said on this Peter, which means, on this rock I build my congregation. What is this that Jesus is going to build his congregation on? He is going to build his congregation on that that is more significant than his flesh. So he says that he is going to build this on proper knowledge. He is saying that we are not going to build this on common knowledge, we are going to build this on the proper knowledge, and that I am the son of man, but in my role, I am a knowledge body.

Now let us apply this to all other great leaders and teachers, or anyone else you can think of. You have for the so-called Communist world, men like Marx and Lenin. Then you have the great teachers of philosophy such as Plato, Aristotle and others. How have they kept their congregations together: They kept them together with their knowledge. Did they build their following on their human identity in the flesh, or on their identity in a knowledge body? Their following had to be structured by knowledge and not by flesh. So the scripture is telling us that there is substance in identifying with knowledge, but there is no substance in identifying with personality.

Can't you see how you have strayed away from the guidance of God and from the way of Jesus? Instead of Christians following what Jesus wanted them to follow, they are doing the thing that he tried to save them from —the worshiping of personalities. What they should be following is the knowledge that he left for those who are Christians. But, if that knowledge is lost, how can you follow it?

Now we come to the real meaning of the birth, death and resurrection of Christ. The birth of Christ is a revelation. Jesus was born when someone said in the Bible that God was going to do a great thing, and with revelation, Jesus is born. Now what does he die under? He dies under the veiling of revelation. How is that revelation veiled? It is veiled with human flesh and with human blood. You can't see the true Jesus for looking at flesh and blood hanging on the Cross. Again, the New Testament says that Jesus' light appeared and it was not in his flesh and blood, but his light was in his robe.

In the transfiguration when they saw the two lights come together into one light, they (disciples) knew that it was Jesus. Where, then, was the light coming from? It was coming from his robe. When Jesus was crucified, what did the world want? They wanted his robe. They began to throw lots—to gamble to see which one was going to take his robe. Before they took his body, they took his robe. The robe had the light and the body had darkness. It says that his robe appeared so bright with light that no fuller soap on earth could get a piece of material that bright. What it means is that it was a brightness that the world could not match—a divine revelation that God had given to Prophet Jesus. A revelation of moral purity and moral excellence. In order for us to have that righteousness of moral purity and moral excellence, we have to have the combination of two kinds or two aspects of human intelligence which is spiritual and rational.

There are some people who try to get righteous, trying to be morally, clean and beautiful. They want to shine like a silver dollar or like a star in the heavens on spiritual effort alone. To the intelligent they look like dull dung. Then there are others who ignore the other side, and they try to do it all with rational knowledge alone. They make the world into a monster, or turn the world into a beast. In order for us to come to the brightness of human moral nature, we have to have both the rational and the spiritual faculties working. They both have to work and they both have to agree. As long as our reasoning is having problems with our spiritual efforts, we are in trouble, and we are not going to see the light. But, when our reasoning, or when our logic and our spirituality agree with each other, then there is light. (To be continued)

(1) St. Matthew 76.73, 76-78 & 20-"...Whom do men say that I the Son
of Man am?.........He saith unto them,
But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven...And I say also unto thee, that thou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

St. Matthew 76.20- Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.