RE: Ark of The Covenant

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Zazaban
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Postby Zazaban » Mon Feb 12, 2007 12:15 am

I hope you don't mind, but I corrected some spelling in your post.

That is interesting, did you know we are actually narrowing down where the ark could be? I say within a few decades we'll have found it.

Welcome to Baha'i Libray Asmarino! :D
Justice and equity are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are revealed such blessed and perspicuous words as are the cause of the well-being of the world and the protection of the nations.
~ Bahá'u'lláh

Zazaban
Posts: 249
Joined: Sun Jun 18, 2006 9:16 pm
Location: Canada

Postby Zazaban » Mon Feb 12, 2007 12:34 am

asmarino wrote:
Zazaban wrote:I hope you don't mind, but I corrected some spelling in your post.
Oops, hope they were not bad and thanx for correcting the spelling!

That is interesting, did you know we are actually narrowing down where the ark could be? I say within a few decades we'll have found it.

Do you mean that Bahaullah had given some clues about the where abouts of the Ark or is it based on historical facts and technologies.


Welcome to Baha'i Libray Asmarino! :D

Thanx , it's a great pleasure!
Historical facts and technologies.

Welcome :D
Justice and equity are twin Guardians that watch over men. From them are revealed such blessed and perspicuous words as are the cause of the well-being of the world and the protection of the nations.

~ Bahá'u'lláh

Dorumerosaer
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Re: RE: Ark of The Covenant

Postby Dorumerosaer » Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:16 am

>>I heard that in Shi'a Islam there is a reference to the ark of the covenant in connection to the coming of the Qaim. Am not really sure where exactly it is written but some one who is a Shi'a Muslim told me that Prophet Muhammed(pbuh) said to his followers that the Qaim would locate the Ark of the Covenant which was lost long time ago from Israel.>>

I wish to suggest that the Ark of the Covenant is a symbol, and that this is one of the incidents reported as actual outward events in both the Old and New Testaments is entirely spiritual and allegorical in nature.

For example, in Some Answered Questions Abdu'l-Baha explains that the incident of Moses striking the rock in the desert twice, and not being permitted to enter the Promised Land, was a symbol, that it refers to God actually punishing the Israelites, and that Moses was sinless.

Another example is Moses leading the Israelites on dry land across the Red Sea. This is a symbol of the safety and salvation a believer receives, he or she is protected by following the divinely revealed Law of God.

Similarly, it says that the priests carried the Ark of the Covenant across the dry land of the Jordan River, when the Prophet Elijah spread His cloak on the water. Again, the dry land is a symbol of walking where the feet do not slip; whereas the unbeliever "drowning" is a symbol of being beguiled and swept away by the things of this world.

In a letter, Shoghi Effendi states that the Ark of Noah and the Flood are symbolic.

The Baha'i Writings do not, to my understanding, specifically state that the Ark of the Covenant and the Tablets of the law of Moses are symbols, but I personally believe they are, too.

It says in, I believe the Book of Kings, that the Temple was built on the site of a threshing-floor. Likewise it says that when the Ark of the Covenant was being carried on an oxcart, past a threshingfloor, a man reached out to steady it, and God killed him.

I believe that the threshingfloor in both instances was not a place for the sifting of physical wheat from physical chaff, but rather a symbol of the power of the Word of God to sift human souls, a symbol Jesus Himself used. So the threshingfloor where the Ark of the Covenant was established, simply means that in each Dispensation, the Word of God is the test, that separates believer from unbeliever.

The Bab, from His earliest Writings, took a spiritual and symbolic approach to the interpretation of the previously-revealed Divine Scriptures.

Brent


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