Answer: by George Townshend, Hand of the Cause and former Canon of Anglican St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland.
The signs of the Second Coming of Christ given in the Bible are many and various. Some of them seem to contradict others . All however are reconciled and fulfilled in the Baha'i Faith through the Coming of the Bab and Baha'u'llah.
For example: It is promised that Christ will come with power and great glory, (Mark 13:26), that He shall be as the lightning shining across the heavens from the East to the West (Luke 17:24 and Matt.24:27); and on the other hand that He shall come as "a thief in the night" (Luke 12:39 and I Thess. 5:2) and as a "snare," taking people “unawares.”
These signs are fulfilled today through the unique majesty and range of Baha'u'llah's Message, through His giving it to mankind while imprisoned, through its rapid extension around the globe, through its educative effect upon human minds impelling them towards an understanding of the oneness of mankind, through its breaking up the old material world order and creating a spiritual system throughout the globe instead, and in many other ways. He is the first of all the Revelators t o claim that He represents the Glory of God Himself; others were entitled "Friend of God" (as Abraham), "Interlocutor with God" (as Moses), "Son of God" (as Jesus Christ ) .
The light of His Revelation shone rapidly and brilliantly from the East of the Holy Land and Persia, even in the Bab's Era, and much more so from 1890 and after, till in recent years the Faith has been propagated from the West chiefly, and America has given shape to the Administrative system, revealed in 'Abdu'l-Baha's Will and Testament. This fulfills Christ's prophecy about the enlightenment of the West.
At the same time the world at large, including its monarchs, its clergy and its philosophers, are utterly unconscious that Christ has returned, and are taken unawares, caught in a snare of prejudice and superstition because the spiritual darkness of their hearts and souls has blinded them so that they cannot understand or perceive the presence of their Lord among them.
Matthew 24 verses 30 and 31 add that He will come "in the clouds of heaven" and God "shall send His angels." Revelations I verse 7 foretells, ''Behold he cometh with clouds. . .” and I Thessalonians 4 verse 16, "...the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven ..." Christ is here represented by the Sun: He is the Light of the world; the clouds represent anything that intervenes between the eye of man's understanding and the Manifestation of God. The body of the Revelator is "a cloud" because the people find it difficult to understand that a human being should be divine in His essence and endued with the qualities of the Godhead. The repeal by a High-Prophet of the customs, rites and laws of the former Dispensation, is also a cloud, being contrary to the ways and desires of men who do not wish to give up practices in which they and their forefathers have been trained for centuries. The heaven from which Christ will descend is not the visible heaven over our heads. The inner meaning of the word is rather loftiness and exaltation; that is, the heaven of the will of God, the heaven of the presence of God. "Angels" are true-hearted believers who, reinforced by the Spirit, have overcome mundane desires and become worthy to serve God's purposes.
The "tribulation" foretold in Matthew 24 verse 29, and elsewhere as a sign preceding Christ's return means especially , Baha'u'llah states , "want of capacity to acquire spiritual knowledge and apprehend the Word of God." Christ will come in a period of irreligion and unbelief, when the very teachers of spiritual truth have lost the true understanding of spiritual things and are blind leaders of the blind. "What kind of oppression, "He asks, “is more grievous than that a soul seeking the truth and wishing to attain unto the knowledge of God should know not where to go for it and from whom to seek it?" (Baha’u’llah, Book of Certitude, page 31)
The unbelief, the hatred, the hardness of heart, the injustice , the iniquity which prevail at the present time, with the strife , the wars, the load of insecurity and fear which burden all hearts -- all these things are a fulfillment of the signs of Christ's Return. So too is the lessening of the prestige of the Churches and of the authority of the clergy. (George Townshend, Questions About the Second Coming Asked by Baha'is of Kampala, Uganda, Africa: Answers by George Townshend; Wilmette, Baha'i Publishing Committee, 1953)
