Jesus In India — Page 57
CHAPTER ONE 47 a person feels that he is in this very world, has the same ears, eyes and tongue, but deeper reflection reveals a different universe. The world cannot understand this kind of wakefulness, for the world is living in a state of oblivion. This wakefulness is gotten from heaven; it is given to those who are endowed new senses of per- ception. This statement is indeed true and based on actual occur- rences. Thus if this is how Jesus, the Messiah, appeared to John after the destruction of Jerusalem, though the latter might have seen him while fully awake, and though they might have had some conversation and a handshake between them, nevertheless, the incident has nothing to do with this prophecy. Such phenomena often take place in the world and even now, if I devote some atten- tion to it, I can by the grace of God see Jesus, the Messiah, or some other holy prophet while I am awake. But such a meeting would certainly not fulfil the prophecy contained in Matthew 16:28. What actually happened was that Jesus, the Messiah, knew that he would be saved from the cross and would migrate to another land, and that God would neither let him die nor take him away from this world as long as he had not seen the destruction of the Jews with his own eyes, and that he would not die unless and until the kingdom of heaven, vouchsafed to the godly, realized its aims and objectives. Thus Jesus made this prophecy to assure his disci- ples that they would presently see this sign of his that those who had raised the sword against him would be killed with the sword during his lifetime and in his very presence. Thus, if evidence is of any value, there is no greater evidence to convince the Christians than the fact that Jesus, the Messiah, himself prophesied with words uttered by his own tongue that some of them would still be alive when he returned.