Manifestations of God

Although God’s existence is far beyond our understanding, His love touches our lives and our beings ceaselessly. The way this love flows to us is through His Eternal Covenant. According to this Eternal Covenant, God never leaves us alone and without guidance. Whenever humanity moves away from Him and forgets His Teachings, a Manifestation of God appears and makes His Will and Purpose known to us.

The word “manifest” means to reveal, to bring forth something that was not known before. The Manifestations of God are those special Beings Who reveal to humanity the Word and the Will of God; thus when we listen to Them, we are responding to the Call of God.

There is an example from the physical world that helps us to understand the concept of “Manifestation” as taught by Bahá'u'lláh. In this world, the sun is the source of all warmth and light, without which life would not exist on the planet. Yet the sun itself does not descend to earth, and if we tried to approach it, we would be totally consumed.

But suppose we take a well-polished mirror and point it towards the sun. In it we will see the image of the sun, and the more perfectly polished the mirror, the more perfect the image will be. The Manifestations of God are like perfect Mirrors that reflect the Light of God in all its Splendour. And all these Mirrors reflect the same light. While God is beyond our reach, these perfect Beings come to us from time to time, live among us, give us guidance, and fill us with the energy we need to progress, materially and spiritually.

There were several Manifestations in the past through whom God sent his Teachings to humanity. Jesus Christ was one of them, as were Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Zoroaster, the Buddha, and Muhammad, and most people were raised according to the Teachings of one of them. Now everyone can receive the Teachings of a new Manifestation, Bahá'u'lláh, whose title means the Glory of God. Bahá'u'lláh's Teachings, then, are in perfect harmony with the Teachings of the Manifestations of the past, but they address the condition of humanity today. If you think for a moment about the plight of humanity, you will agree that the time is right for another Manifestation of God to have appeared. The Writings of Bahá'u'lláh speak about the Day in which we live:

This is the Day in which God's most excellent favours have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things. It is incumbent upon all the peoples of the world to reconcile their differences, and, with perfect unity and peace, abide beneath the shadow of the Tree of His care and loving-kindness.