Claims and Teachings - Ahmad The Promised Messiah and Mahdi — Page 35
35 not a single expectation of the Jews was fulfilled. Yet between these wonders and those promised for the second advent of Jesus,. no line can be drawn. No sensible person would ascribe such an inconsistency to Jesus as that while refusing to manifest to the Jews those promised wonders and visible signs and telling them to take all promises metaphorically, he promised to his dis- ciples similar wonders and similar visible signs to be taken literally, regarding the second advent of the Messiah. Nay, it would not be an inconsistency, but an intentional deception practised upon the people. When a consientious man explains. certain wonders and signs as merely metaphorical descriptions of spiritual phenomena, he must be understood to be talking metaphorically when he himse. lf speaks of the occurance of similar wonders and phenomena. If the Jews were culpable in rejecting Jesus, the conclusion is unavoidable that the wonders relating to the second advent must be construed metaphorically, and if they were not, the claim of Jesus to Messiahship was false. Why condemn the poor Jews if we ourselves must wait for the fulfillment of similar signs and wonders literally and not metaphorically, physically and not spiritually. The path of the Jews was no dout obscure, but ours has been rendered clear by the example of the Jews themselves. They were not in a position to see so clearly the truth of the spiritual interpretation as we are. They had no example to guide them in that great difficulty, but we have an example. All those who believe Jesus to be the Messiah- leaving out of consideration the question of his divinity for the present and taking him as he was expected (as a man and not as a God) and as he actually appeared to the people at the time are constrained to believe chat his. second advent must take place in the same manner as was the second advent of Elijah, and the wonders relating to it must be taken spiritually