Ahmadiyya Movement — Page 19
19 himself says that only that person ascends up to Heaven, who has come down from Heaven, so that if he was born on the earth he could not ascend up to Heaven, and consequently could not descend from it. And if his being born of the Virgin Mary be described as descending from Heaven, why should we not as- cribe a similar meaning to his ascending up to Heaven ? Again, if Jesus, being born of the Virgin Mary, could be described as having descended from Heaven, why should we not describe the birth of the Promised Messiah from a woman as a coming from Heaven ? Another resemblance which the Promised Messiah bore to Jesus (on both of whom be peace) was that, as Jesus was born at a time when the Jewish sovereignty had been destroyed, so the Prom- ised Messiah was born at a time when the Moslems had lost all their temporal glory, and as Jesus born under a foreign Gov- ernment which had a true conception of Imperialism, and whose rule was based on the sovereignty of Law, so was the Promised Messiah born in a country which was ruled by a foreign people, whose Government imports the true conception of Imperialism and whose constitution is based, like that of the Roman Empire, on respect for and obedience to the Law. Again, as the people of the time of Jesus attempted to drag him into the Roman Courts, so did the people of the present age at- tempted to drag the Promised Messiah into the British Courts, and, as in the case of Jesus, in spite of his teaching, “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things that are God’s,” the people charged him with disloyalty towards the Government, so in the case of the Promised Messiah in spite of his insisting upon loyalty towards the Government, the people charged him with disloyalty towards It and an intention to stir up rebellion, and even carried tales against him to the Government. Stranger still, as in the case of Jesus the Roman Government always looked upon him with suspicion in spite of his declara- tions of loyalty, so also the British Indian Government looked