While based on the Bible, what is the Baha'i conception of the manner of the return of Christ?

Answer: by George Townshend, Hand of the Cause and former Canon of Anglican St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland

The Baha'is believe that the Return of Christ in the Bab and in Baha'u'llah is similar to the return of Elijah in John the Baptist, to which Jesus testified plainly in the Gospel. In Matthew 17 verse 12 Jesus said , “ . . . Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed." And verse 13, "Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist." John 1 verse 21 records, however, that when he was asked, " Art thou Elias?" John said, "I am not." The explanation of the contradiction is that John was speaking of the individuality and physical substance of Elijah. He was not the same as Elijah in that sense. Christ was speaking of the qualities, the character, the virtues of the two men, which were exactly the same in both. In a similar way we say "spring has returned," meaning that all that was found in last spring exists in this spring; or that the blossoms have come back referrin g to their perfume, color, delicacy and form which are the same as last year. When Baha'is affirm that Christ has returned in the Bab and in Baha'u'llah they mean that the essence of the perfections of Christ are to be found in the Bab and Baha'u'llah though the individualities are different. (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)

Reason for the renewal of the Christian Message by Baha’u’llah

The Christian Teaching was illumined by the Divine Sun of Truth, therefore its followers were taught to love all men as brothers to fear nothing, not even death! To love their neighbours as themselves, and to forget their own selfish interests in striving for the greater good of humanity. The grand aim of the religion of Christ was to draw the hearts of all men nearer to God's effulgent Truth.
If the followers of the Lord Christ had continued to follow out these principles with steadfast faithfulness, there would have been no need for a renewal of the Christian Message, no necessity for a re-awakening of His people, for a great and glorious civilization would now be ruling the world and the Kingdom of Heaven would have come on earth.

Proof that Moses was a Prophet of God, an Educator and Trainer

Among the holy, divine Manifestations of God was His Holiness Moses. The sending of prophets has ever been for the training of humanity. They are the first educators and trainers. If Moses has developed the body-politic, there is no doubt that he was a true teacher and educator. This will be proof and evidence that he was a prophet. We shall consider how His Holiness was sent to despair, in the lowest degree of ignorance, and heedlessness, degraded and under conditions of bondage. His Holiness Moses rescued these degraded people of Israel from that state of bondage. He raised them from that condition of ignorance, saved them from barbarism and led them into the Holy Land. He educated them, endowed them with sagacious instincts, made them worthy and honorable. He civilized them, raised them to a higher plane of existence until they were enabled to establish a national sovereignty, the great kingdom of Solomon. This proves that His Holiness Moses was a teacher and an educator. He had neither army nor dominion, neither did he possess wealth. It was only through an idealistic power that he cemented them together proving that he was a prophet of God, an educator and trainer. (From a talk given by Abdu’l-Baha in the Japanese Independent Church, in Oakland California, October 1912, ‘Japan Will Turn Ablaze’, p. 44)

Why is it that the general conceptions about the Day of Judgment are wrong?

Question: Are the terms return, Heaven, earth, death, life, light, darkness, sun, moon and stars etc., to be interpreted symbolically? Could this be proven from the Bible in each case?

Answer: by George Townshend, Hand of the Cause and former Canon of Anglican St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland.

One reason why the general conceptions about the Day of Judgment are wrong is that "the end of the World" with which it is connected is a mistranslation; it should be "the end of the Age" or "the end of the Era." Another is that people do not understand the truth of the succession of Revelators, or the succession of Dispensations. There is a Day of Judgment at the end of every Era when the people to whom the New Revelator comes are tried and tested and judged.

The Jews were judged when Christ came to them and were condemned and cast out of the Kingdom. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman armies and the Jewish people scattered through the whole earth. The Day of Judgment at Christ's Return is similar in a general way but is on a much larger scale since all the peoples of the globe are concerned now and not one nation only.