Literalism vs Symbolism

What is the True Message?

Biblical Passage

Literal Interpretation

Spiritual Interpretation

Matthew 3:11

I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

John the Baptist wants to prepare the community for when Jesus comes, because Jesus is going to use the Holy Ghost to hold their bodies under fire, if they want to be baptized?

{Jesus never literally baptized anyone in water or with fire. Is it more important to be baptized in a literal ceremony with water, or to be baptized in the belief of the new words-teachings from God, and to follow these new guidelines?}

Although baptism by water was customary, and it is what John the Baptist did, he let the people know that when Jesus comes, baptism by fire = "By the fire of the Love of God the veil is burnt which separates us from the Heavenly Realities, and with clear vision we are enabled to struggle onward and upward, ever progressing in the paths of virtue and holiness, and becoming the means of light to the world"*

The Holy Ghost = The Holy Spirit sent to us by God through Jesus.

John 6:52 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? 6:53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.

6:54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.6:55 For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.6:56 He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

The Jews were very upset and confused by these words. If taken literally, you cannot blame them for rejecting Christ. Jesus tells them salvation is achieved by cannibalism!!!

Many followers were so appalled by what Jesus said they never came back to hear Him again.

John 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Jesus gives a clear and concise response to their objections.....

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

This whole story of eating the flesh and drinking the blood is the absolute example of how Jesus wants us to see the deeper spiritual meaning of not only this section, but in my opinion, the entire new testament !

John 3:3

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3:5

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

3:4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

(You cannot blame him for asking this obvious question.)

To be born again means to recognize the Messiah=Jesus(The Next Holy Manifestation of God, after Moses) and follow his new = updated = reborn teachings.

Water = that which causes everlasting life

Spirit = believe in the holy spirit.

"Until man is born again from the world of nature, that is to say, becomes detached from the world of nature, he is essentially an animal, and it is the teachings of God which converts this animal into a human soul."**

Matthew 15:14 & Luke 6:39
Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Jesus wants literally blind pharisees to hold hands with their literally blind followers and he hopes they will all fall in a ditch ?

Obviously Jesus is not referring to literally blind people, once again he is teaching us about those who are spiritually blind.

Both parties are equally to blame if they fall into a ditch. The problem is that no one wants to admit that they are blind.

*Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 82

**Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith

"Divine things are too deep to be expressed by common words. The heavenly teachings are expressed in parable in order to be understood and preserved for ages to come. When the spiritually minded dive deeply into the ocean of their meaning they bring to the surface the pearls of their inner significance. There is no greater pleasure than to study God's Word with a spiritual mind."

(Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 79)

Such objections and differences have persisted in every age and century. The people have always busied themselves with such specious discourses, vainly protesting: "Wherefore hath not this or that sign appeared?" Such ills befell them only because they have clung to the ways of the divines of the age in which they lived, and blindly imitated them in accepting or denying these Essences of Detachment, these holy and divine Beings. These leaders, owing to their immersion in selfish desires, and their pursuit of transitory and sordid things, have regarded these divine Luminaries as being opposed to the standards of their knowledge and understanding, and the opponents of their ways and judgments. As they have literally interpreted the Word of God, and the sayings and traditions of the Letters of Unity, and expounded them according to their own deficient understanding, they have therefore deprived themselves and all their people of the bountiful showers of the grace and mercies of God.

(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 82)