So I guess I only have one question... what's this all about?
A lot, in Rev 14:1 we have a lamb again on Mt.Zion with 144,000 and it says that the hour of His judgment has come.
But we already had Muhammad, the Bab and Baha'u'llah come as the 3 Woes. We already had all the beasts and dragons come. Now what's happening?
Do keep in mind that the book of revelation does not follow a methodical chronological order. We've discussed this before and I have used as an example how the seven headed ten horned beast features in several chapters 12, 13, and 17 as well as in Daniel 7.
There are no specific references to this verse in Chapter 14 from the Baha'i writings.
Mt Zion rather than a physical location near Jerusalem is most likely the holy mountain. For the Baha'is this would be a reference to Mount Carmel which the Baha'i writings specifically associate with Isaiah 2:2-5 and Isaiah 9:6-7.
The word lamb is a Messianic symbol for Christ and the Mesiah. In this context it is most likely Abdu'l-Baha who bears the name of His Father, Baha'u'llah. Abdu'l-Baha is also buried in the shrine of the Bab on mount carmel and was born the same night the Bab first declared. As Abdu'l-Baha is the perfect exempler of His Father's teachings, His appointed successor, and the one who wrote tablets of the Divine plan which would lead to the worldwide establsih of his Father's faith, then being identified with the lamb here makes sense to me. In addition he is the first fruits which is an important conceept in Jewish and Christian thought.
Let's look at the verse:
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
The 144,000 I believe represent the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel times the tribes of all the other nations = 144 times 1,000 being a great multitude. In summary many peoples from all the nations and regions of the earth.
I would be interested to hear what my fellow Baha'is make of this verse.
But in chapter 17 we have an explanation. The beast once was, is not and come back. 7 hills are 7 kings... 5 have fallen, 1 is and another is to come, and the beast is an 8th king. 10 horns are 10 kings that will wage war against the Lamb. The Lamb wins because He is the King of Kings. The woman is the Great City.
We do not have any specific Baha'i writings referring to chapter 17 either but it is the same seven headed, ten horned beast again, so the Islamic Caliphate as characterised by the Umayyad dynasty.
This part about the different Kings will have different explanations. Let look at the verses:
And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
We have seven dominions or empires symbolized by seven kings. Five will have fallen under the control of foreign powers before their conquest by the
beast. These five were perhaps the Roman (Byzantine) dominion around Damascus (Syria, Palestine), the dominions of Arabia, Egypt, Africa (Libya), and Andalusia (Spain). One dominion "is," meaning that it will remain sovereign until the "hour" of the beast. This was Persia. The dominion which "is not come" was Turkestan-Transoxania.
In the first century, the region now known as Turkestan was occupied by nomadic pastoralists and sedentary cultivators. The region became Turkish in the sixth century AD, about 500 years after the writing of the Apocalypse. It was conquered in the late seventh and early eighth centuries by the Umayyads who
gave the region the name of Ma Wara'an-Nahr, "the land beyond the Oxus" or "Transoxania." Verse 10 explains that the dominin will continue a short space. The prophecy means that Turkestan-Transoxania will cease to exist with the invasion of Genghis Khan 1218-1220 AD.
Verse 11 explains that the beast will have an eighth ruler, who is one of the seven, and who will ultimately be destroyed. This refers to The Caliph. The caliphate was abolished by the Turkish Grand National Assembly 1924, less than three years after the Ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha.
(Adapted from Robert Riggs, the apocalypse unsealed)
Once again, the views of my fellow Baha'is would be helpful.
Then in 18:9 there's more "Woes" ...Babylon's doom has come.
And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Babylon symbolises corrupt theology as Jerusalem is the pure revelation of God. These verses remind us that the kings and merchants of the earth have become rich by making use of false doctrine, and serving the whore.
In chapter 19 the wedding day of the Lamb has come. The beast and the kings are captured.
Simply the day when the law of God is exalted and closely embraced amonsgt the peoples again and injustice and iniquity are conquered.
Chapter 20 Satan locked in the Abyss for a 1000 years, then released and destroyed. There's Gog and Magog. Then the New Earth and New Jerusalem and God and the Lamb are its Temple. And only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life included, the cast into the Abyss.
These verses prophesy another time of troubles following them millenium of peace. "Gog and Magog" symbolize the rulers and peoples who are ruled by satanic forces. That these are not literal names can be inferred by comparing this use of the terms with their use by Ezekiel. In Ezekiel, Gog is the prince of the Rosh, Mesehech, and Tubal in the land of Magog.
With chapter 21 and we do have some references from the baha'i writings:
Every heart should radiate unity, so that the Light of the one Divine Source of all may shine forth bright and luminous. We must not consider the separate waves alone, but the entire sea. We should rise from the individual to the whole. The spirit is as one great ocean and the waves thereof are the souls of men.
We are told in the Holy Scripture that the New Jerusalem shall appear on earth. Now it is evident that this celestial city is not built of material stones and mortar, but that it is a city not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.
This is a prophetic symbol, meaning the coming again of the Divine Teaching to enlighten the hearts of men. It is long since this Holy Guidance has governed the lives of humanity. But now, at last, the Holy City of the New Jerusalem has come again to the world, it has appeared anew under an Eastern sky; from the horizon of Persia has its effulgence arisen to be a light to lighten the whole world. We see in these days the fulfilment of the Divine Prophecy. Jerusalem had disappeared. The heavenly city was destroyed, now it is rebuilt; it was razed to the ground, but now its walls and pinnacles have been restored, and are towering aloft in their renewed and glorious beauty.
In the Western world material prosperity has triumphed, whilst in the East the spiritual sun has shone forth.
PARIS TALKS
The Manifestation of God or the Word of God becomes the new temple. There are various allusions to this in the NT and Baha'i writings.
So I guess I only have one question... what's this all about?