Page 183 - Demo
P. 183


                                    179of Jesus (pbuh) for ambiguity. There are, in fact, several instances -as reported in the Gospels- where Jesus (pbuh) give an answer or makes a statement, which is obscure and entirely unintelligible. Leaving his godhead aside, as a Prophet, nay even as a teacher, he was expected to be a straightforward teacher and leader.The other remark is shrouded in still a thicker mystery. “No man born of woman was ever greater than John the Baptist (pbuh) ,” says Jesus (pbuh) , “but the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John ” Does Jesus Christ mean to teach us that John the Baptist and all the John Prophets and the righteous men were outside the Kingdom of God? Who is the “least? That was “greater” than John, and consequently greater than all the people of God preceding the Baptist? Does Jesus mean by the “least” himself, or the “least” among the baptized Christians? It cannot be himself, because in his time that Kingdom was not yet established on earth.If it were, then he could not be the “least” in it since he was its founder. The Churches -rather each Church, orthodox or heterodox, from its own peculiar point of view- have discovered a very abstruse or a very absurd solution for this problem; and that solution is that the “least” Christian washed with the blood of Jesus (pbuh) -either through the Sacrament of Baptism, according to the belief of the Sacerdotalists, or through the regeneration of some kind, according to the superstition of the Evangelicals- becomes “greater” than the Baptist and all the army of the holy men and women, including Adam , Noah, Abraham, Moses, David , Eliah, Daniel, and John the Baptist (pbuh) ! And the reason or proof of this marvellous claim is that the Christian, however, sinful, ignorant, low, and poor he may be, providing he has faith in Jesus (pbuh) as his Saviour, has the privileges which the holy Prophets coveted to have but did not enjoy. These privileges are innumerable; purification from
                                
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