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Chapter 7
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The Twelve Apostles (Messengers of God) who promoted the teachings of Christ (the Independent Prophet).
1)
Consider! The station and the confirmation of the apostles in the time
of Christ was not known, and no one looked on them with the feeling of
importance -- nay, rather, they persecuted and ridiculed them. Later on
it became evident what crowns studded with the brilliant jewels of
guidance were placed on the heads of the apostles, Mary Magdalene and
Mary the mother of John.
-- `Abdu'l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan, p. 39
2)
Emmanuel was indeed the Herald of the Second Coming of Christ, and a
Summoner to the pathway of the Kingdom. It is evident that the Letter
is a member of the Word, and this membership in the Word signifieth
that the Letter is dependent for its value on the Word, that is, it
deriveth its grace from the Word; it has a spiritual kinship with the
Word, and is accounted an integral part of the Word. The Apostles were
even as Letters, and Christ was the essence of the Word Itself; and the
meaning of the Word, which is grace everlasting, cast a splendour on
those Letters. Again, since the Letter is a member of the Word, it
therefore, in its inner meaning, is consonant with the Word.
-- Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 60
3)
In each cycle the guardians and holy souls have been twelve. So Jacob
had twelve sons; in the time of Moses there were twelve heads or chiefs
of the tribes; in the time of Christ there were twelve Apostles; and in
the time of Muhammad there were twelve Imams. But in this glorious
manifestation there are twenty-four, double the number of all the
others, for the greatness of this manifestation requires it. These holy
souls are in the presence of God seated on their own thrones, meaning
that they reign eternally.
[1 Rev. 11:16-17.]
-- Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 57
4)
In the days of Jesus only a few individuals turned their faces toward
God; in fact only the twelve disciples and a few women truly became
believers, and one of the disciples, Judas Iscariot apostatized from
his Faith, leaving eleven. After the ascension of Jesus to the Realm of
Glory, these few souls stood up with their spiritual qualities and with
deeds that were pure and holy, and they arose by the power of God and
the life-giving breaths of the Messiah to save all the peoples of the
earth. Then all the idolatrous nations as well as the Jews rose up in
their might to kill the Divine fire that had been lit in the lamp of
Jerusalem. "Fain would they put out God's light with their mouths: but
God hath willed to perfect His light, albeit the infidels abhor it."[2]
Under the fiercest tortures, they did every one of these holy souls to
death; with butchers' cleavers, they chopped the pure and undefiled
bodies of some of them to pieces and burned them in furnaces, and they
stretched some of the followers on the rack and then buried them alive.
In spite of this agonizing requital, the Christians continued to teach
the Cause of God, and they never drew a sword from its scabbard or even
so much as grazed a cheek. Then in the end the Faith of Christ
encompassed the whole earth, so that in Europe and America no traces of
other religions were left, and today in Asia and Africa and Oceania,
large masses of people are living within the sanctuary of the Four
Gospels.
[1 Qur'án 7:171: Yawm-i-Alast, the Day when God, addressing Adam's
posterity-to-be, said to them, "Am I not your Lord?" (a-lastu bi
Rabbikum) and they replied: "Yea, we bear witness."]
[2 Qur'án 9:33.]
-- Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 45
5)
Significance of Twelve:
Thou didst ask as to the tenth to the seventeenth verses of the
twenty-first chapter of Saint John the Divine's Revelation. Know thou
that according to mathematical principles, the firmament of this
earth's brilliant day-star hath been divided among twelve
constellations, which they call the twelve zodiacal signs. In the same
way, the Sun of Truth shineth out from and sheddeth its bounties
through twelve stations of holiness, and by these heavenly signs are
meant those stainless and unsullied personages who are the very
well-springs of sanctity, and the dawning-points proclaiming the
oneness of God.
Consider how in the days of the Interlocutor (Moses), there were twelve
holy beings who were leaders of the twelve tribes; and likewise in the
dispensation of the Spirit (Christ), note that there were twelve
Apostles gathered within the sheltering shade of that supernal Light,
and from those splendid dawning-points the Sun of Truth shone forth
even as the sun in the sky. Again, in the days of Muhammad, observe
that there were twelve dawning-points of holiness, the manifestors of
God's confirming help. Such is the way of it.
Accordingly did Saint John the Divine tell of twelve gates in his
vision, and twelve foundations. By `that great city, the holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God' is meant the holy Law of
God, and this is set forth in many Tablets and still to be read in the
Scriptures of the Prophets of the past: for instance, that Jerusalem
was seen going out into the wilderness.
The meaning of the passage is that this heavenly Jerusalem hath twelve
gates, through which the blessed enter into the City of God. These
gates are souls who are as guiding stars, as portals of knowledge and
grace; and within these gates there stand twelve angels. By `angel' is
meant the power of the confirmations of God--that the candle of God's
confirming power shineth out from the lamp-niche of those
souls--meaning that every one of those beings will be granted the most
vehement confirming support.
These twelve gates surround the entire world, that is they are a
shelter for all creatures. And further, these twelve gates are the
foundation of the City of God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and on each one
of these foundations is written the name of one of the Apostles of
Christ. That is to say, each one maketh manifest the perfections, the
joyous message, and the excellency of that holy Being.
-- `Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Bahá, p. 165
6)
1:1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
1:2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the
Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
1:3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many
infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the
things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
1:4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the
Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
-- Bible: Acts.
7)
6:13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles;
6:14 Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew,
6:15 Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes,
6:16 And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.
6:17 And he came down with them, and stood in the plain, and the
company of his disciples, and a great multitude of people out of all
Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which
came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases;
-- Bible: Luke,
8)
16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock
I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it.
16:19 And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
-- Bible: Matthew,
9)
2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
2:14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain
one new man, so making peace;
2:16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
2:17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
2:18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
-- Bible: Ephesians
10)
1:1 Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are
sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every
place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their's and
our's:
1:3 Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
1:4 I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;
1:5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;
1:6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
-- Bible: 1 Corinthians.
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