THE DOOR, THE SHEPHERD, THE LAMB

INTRODUCTION

Perhaps you've seen the famous image of Jesus Christ with shepherd's crook in one hand and a lamb in the opposite arm. It is true that several passages in the New Testament describe Jesus as a shepherd. For example, Jesus said, "You will all fall away because of me this night; for it is written, 'I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered'" (Matthew 26:31). Also, Paul describes Jesus as "that great shepherd of the sheep" (Hebrews 13:20).

John 10, however, poses a riddle:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber; but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep." (John 10:1,2)

"Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them. I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." (John 10:7-11)

In this passage, not only does Jesus refer to Himself as the shepherd, but also as the "door of the sheep." This saying was very confusing to those who heard it, according to subsequent verses. To confuse matters even further, in addition to Jesus describing Himself as the door of the sheep and the shepherd "who enters by the door," the Book of Revelation describes Jesus as a lamb. So we have Jesus referring to Himself as "the door," "the shepherd," and "the lamb." To make sense out of these confusing metaphors, one must understand that Jesus was speaking here primarily of His return (otherwise known as the second advent or second coming). Verses 16 and 17 offer a clue that Jesus is speaking of His return:

"And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold [or generation]; I must bring them also, and they will [in the future] heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again [the second coming]." (John 10:16-17)

The key to understanding these sayings is that the return happens in three distinct personages or Promised Ones. This corresponds with the fact that the prophet Daniel gives four dates for Jesus. The first date applies to Jesus on His first coming and the other three apply to the second advent.


THE CONCEPT OF RETURN

The notion that the second advent does not occur as a supernatural celestial spectacle is difficult for many Christians to accept. In this respect, history is repeating itself, in that it was difficult for many Jews to accept Jesus for the same reason.

During the time of Jesus, the Jewish clergy, being very familiar with their scriptures, knew that prior to the appearance of their Messiah, the prophet Elijah was prophesied to return (see Malachi 4:5). 2 Kings 2:11describes the ascension of Elijah in the following supernatural terms:

"And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." (2 Kings 2:11)

Because of this, the Jews had an expectation that the return of Elijah would be a spectacular celestial event. However, when Jesus was asked by his disciples about the prophecy for the return of Elijah, Jesus replied:

"Elijah does come, and he is to restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not know him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of man will suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. (Matthew 17:11-13)

Thus, Jesus explained to His disciples that John the Baptist fulfilled prophecy for the return of Elijah. Interestingly, when the scribes and Pharisees confronted John the Baptist about this, John said that he was not Elijah:

And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" And he answered, "No." They said to him then, "Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?" He said, "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' as the prophet Isaiah said." (John 1:21-23)

In other words, John was saying that he fulfilled the prophecies of Isaiah 40:3 which speaks of one who cries in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." He was not the same physical Elijah returned out of the sky, but rather the return of the "spirit and power of Elijah."

. . . and he [John the Baptist] will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared. (Luke 1:17)

This is an important lesson about the meaning of return. If Christians today are waiting for the return of Jesus in the physical sky, they are making the same mistake that the Jews made 2,000 years ago. Rather than waiting for a supernatural event, Christians should be looking for the three Promised Ones who fulfill prophecy.


THE DOOR

The first of these Promised Ones of the second advent is the Bab which means "door" or "gate." Jesus did not speak English or Greek. He spoke a dialect of Aramaic. When the scriptures say "door," Jesus actually said "Bab." The Bab was a manifestation of God, as was Jesus. A manifestation is One Who possesses the Holy Spirit, or the thought of God. They are sent periodically to spiritually elevate humanity. The Bab, along with 10,000 followers, was martyred in Persia after He proclaimed Himself to be the herald of a greater manifestation to follow. His mission was to close the door to the age of prophecy and open the door to the age of fulfillment. He did this on the first date of the Bahai' calendar, March 21, 1844, the very date that hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world were anticipating the return of Jesus, as they had gleaned that date from the Book of Daniel. But because Jesus did not float out of the sky, and the physical dead did not rise out of their physical tombs, most Christians stopped believing in the significance of that date.


THE SHEPHERD

The One Who entered by the Bab [the door], that is, the One Who was heralded by the Bab, is the second of these Promised Ones, the shepherd Baha'u'llah, translated into English as the "glory of God (or Lord or Father)." The apostle Peter says, "So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the suffering of Christ as well as a partaker in the glory [baha] that is to be revealed [in the future]. Tend the flock of God that is your charge, not by constraint but willingly, not for shameful gain but eagerly, not as domineering over those in your charge but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd is manifested [in the future] you will obtain the unfading crown of glory ["of glory" is the English translation of the Aramaic word Baha'i, so the passage can be read, ". . . unfading Baha'i crown"]." (1 Peter 5:1-4)

There is further evidence that Baha'u'llah is the "chief Shepherd." Genesis 49:10 contains the blessings by Jacob of his sons, which are oracles or prophecies: the "scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until [Shilo] comes." Jacob's son, Judah was not a king and did not have a scepter. However, several generations later, his direct male lineal descendent David (who started out as a shepherd) became the first king of the united kingdom of Israel, and that line of kings has continued through the ages and still exists today. It was this line of kings to which Baha'u'llah was born. Verses 22-26 contain the blessing of Joseph; however, earlier verses already contain a blessing of Joseph's two sons, giving us a hint that this blessing of Joseph does not pertain to the genealogical line of Joseph, but rather to a spiritual descendant. Verses 22-24 read, "Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall. The archers fiercely attacked him, shot at him and harassed him sorely; yet his bow remained unmoved, his arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob by the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel." Like the knight on the white horse in the Book of Revelations, this Joseph has a bow. But there is no mention of arrows because this is the same bow that God put in the sky after the flood as a symbol of his covenant ("I set my bow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth." Genesis, 9:13). This true Joseph, who is the same person as the Lamb (as I will demonstrate shortly), cleaves to the covenant of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel. The Rock is a symbol of the Christ (Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 10:4). Baha'u'llah is the return of Christ. The word "Christ" means "anointed, male-sperm descendant of King David." Unlike Christ on his first coming, the return of Christ, Baha'u'llah is seated on the Throne of David and leaves a father to son male-lineal descendency seated on this throne in fulfillment of the Covenant with King David in Psalms 89:3-4 which states: "I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: 'I will establish your descendants for ever, and build your throne for all generations." It is the covenant of Baha'u'llah which unites all nations peoples and tongues for world peace with justice, that the true Joseph promotes throughout the world. (For more about the true Joseph, read the Baha'i Pamphlet, "A Coat of Many Colors.")

Psalm 80: 1 says, "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou who leadest Joseph like a flock!" The Shepherd of Israel is Baha'u'llah who leads the true Joseph like a shepherd leads a flock. There is only one Joseph, and only one member of a flock is a lamb. The Lamb, however, will eventually be joined by a flock of 144,000 pure souls gathered prior to the battle of Armageddon.

Isaiah 40:5 says, "And the glory of the Lord [Baha'u'llah] shall be revealed." Verse 11 says, "He shall feed his flock like a Shepherd: he shall gather the lamb in his arms. . ." Again, Baha'u'llah is the Shepherd.

Jeremiah 31:10 says, "He who scattered Israel will gather him and will keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock." Jesus did not regather Israel. Jesus identifies himself with the Old Testament prophecy which says, "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered." (Zechariah 13:7) However, Baha'u'llah did regather the Jews. The return of Jews from throughout the world back to the Holy Land began late last century, soon after Baha'u'llah brought the throne of David back to the Holy Land.


THE LAMB

The third Promised One of the second advent is the Lamb. As we have seen, this one is symbolized as the Lamb because he is the one who follows, promotes and establishes the covenant of the Shepherd, Baha'u'llah. He does this by setting up the second International Baha'i Council with the Davidic king at its head, thus reinstituting the four stage plan of Shoghi Effendi, the first guardian of the Baha'i Faith. This plan had been thrown out the window by the Covenant-breaking Hands of the Cause in 1963. This second International Baha'i Council with the Davidic king at its head will eventually become a World Court, a duly elected Supreme Tribunal, and in time effloresce into "the House of the Lord" or Baha'u'llah's Universal House of Justice.

There is another reason why this third Promised One is depicted as the Lamb. In the Book of Hebrews, Paul explains that Jesus on His first coming was a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. The high priesthood was an institution set up by Moses. "High priest" means "great educator", and it was the function of the high priest to preside over the religious education of the people. Moses appointed His brother, Aaron to be the first high priest to be followed by his son, then grandson, then great grandson, etc. Moses and Aaron were of the tribe of Levi, as were all the other priests. While Moses was alive, being a Manifestation He was "the presence of God" (or Shekina in Hebrew). After His death, the temple which housed the ark of the covenant (which contained the Torah, or the Law) became the presence of God. It was the function of the high priest to once a year, choose the most perfect animal, hack it up in pieces and sprinkle its blood on the altar of the outer sanctuary to demonstrate that no animal can be God. This was because the Hebrews had a habit of worshipping the golden calf as God. Then he would enter into the innermost Holy of Holies (the room containing the arc of the covenant) and whisper the name of God. He would then read the Torah and return to the outer sanctuary where he would interpret the Word to the rest of the priests and then to the whole Jewish people. Paul explains that although Jesus was of the tribe of Judah and not of Levi, he therefore could not inherit the Levitical high priesthood. Nevertheless he was a high priest who, like Melchizedek of old, was a high priest not through inheritance, but through the fulfillment of prophecy.

As high priest, rather than offering up an unblemished animal once a year as a sacrifice, Jesus offered up himself once for all time as the sacrificial "Lamb of God." This was because when Jesus came the people understood, because of the animal sacrifice performed at the time of Moses, that animals were not God. This time the people had a habit of worshipping human beings, such as Zeus, or Apollo as God. Therefore as High Priest, Jesus saw fit to perform a human sacrifice to show that no human can be God, including Himself. He chose the most perfect human on the face of the earth, Himself, being a manifestation from God, and shed his blood on the altar being the cross in this case, as a perfect sacrifice. Thus Jesus was the "sacrificial Lamb" of God. In almost every Christian church today at the altar is the sign of the cross.

While Jesus was alive, He was the Presence of God. After Jesus died, the apostle John received the Revelation of Jesus Christ as the Book of Revelations. As the revelation of Moses was hidden from the people in the Holy of Holies, so too was the Revelation of Jesus Christ hidden from the people, but in the latter case not physically, but spiritually. The true spiritual meaning of the Book of Revelations has been obscured from the understanding of the people because it is written in symbols, parables and allegories. Only the return of Jesus as the high priest, otherwise known as the Lamb, can enter the spiritual Holy of Holies and interpret the Word correctly.

The Lamb of God's mission was to gather 144,000 pure souls under the protective canopy of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah, and to establish the Kingdom of God "on earth as it is in heaven." The scriptures guarantee his victory.

[A warning to Christians: Paul said, "For if we sin deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, but a fearful prospect of judgment, and a fury of fire which will consume the adversaries." (Hebrews 10:26,27) Christians receive the knowledge of the truth when they profess belief in Jesus. If Christians profess belief in Jesus, they must believe in His words, among them, the prophecies for His return. The word for sin in Hebrew was an old archery term meaning "to miss the mark." The greatest mark to miss is the Promised One sent by God, hence this is also the greatest sin.

As each individual must investigate the truth for him or herself, it is now your responsibility to further investigate the validity of the claims contained in this pamphlet. God forgave the world for missing Jesus the first time, and He has given the world a second chance through the second advent. However, Paul warns us that there will be no third chance. Only Jesus on His first coming offered a sacrifice for the sins of the people who rejected Him. But Paul says that He "will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." (Hebrews 9:28) A "fury of fire" awaits those who deliberately "miss the mark" of the second advent because of their prejudice and vain imaginations.]