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.
Another reason is that the portents of the Day of Judgment are usually taken in a literal sense and they are meant as symbols. Scripture is full of symbols and is hard to understand, especially when it deals with the advent or return of the High Prophets. Jesus Himself taught of these mysteries in parables only; and a parable is a symbol. Only those who are humble and detached in spirit and in close communion with God and His Messengers can interpret Scripture rightly -- not those who are merely erudite . Many teachings are given in a difficult way on purpose to test purity of spirit. For instance, Jesus said "let the dead bury their dead." (Matt. 8:22) Clearly, one physically dead man cannot bury another physically dead man; but Jesus revealed that a man may be physically alive and active and yet be spiritually dead through unbelief and lack of eternal life. His meaning was "Let unbelievers bury unbelievers." Life and Death in the Gospel refer especially to the spiritual level of existence; and similarly in Paul's writings.
Jesus' miracles are chiefly spiritual cures; he heals men who are spiritually deaf or spiritually blind, and raises to eternal life those who are spiritually dead. He used to say at the end of a discourse "he that hath ears to hear let him hear," in which he refers to spiritual hearing, that is capacity to grasp spiritual meanings.
Christ said He was "the light of the world"; and the disciples were mirrors of this light. This light is spiritual knowledge; and "darkness" means absence of that knowledge, or a state of ignorance.
(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)
