Key of Knowledge

SR No.: 006702
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1919
Total Pages: 1204
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 25 MB

Page 578

RESURRECTION
557
The next day John pointed out Jesus to two of his disciples, saying : “Behold the Lamb* of God.”-(John, I. 36).
Thus, John knew the nature of the personality and mission of Jesus full well about the time of his baptism.
That he should have forgotten the evidence of his own senses in less than three years of his witnessing these great things, and in spite of his own mission, is certainly noteworthy under the circumstances.
John's mission in life seems to be confined to straightening the path of the Lord by the baptism of water and the doctrine of repentance. He is also the witness to the coming Messiah, whose shoes he acknowledges himself to be unworthy to bear. Asked to explain the baptism of Jesus, he declared :
“He that hath the bride is the bridegroom : but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice : this my joy is therefore fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all : he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth : he that cometh from beaven is above all."- (John, III. 29-31).
* There is nothing in the expression to reflect any special or unique distinction on the person of Jesus ; on the contrary, it is clearly one which has been borrowed from 'Pagan' creeds. Later Christians have been struck with the close resemblance between Biblical legends and “Pagan fables," and some have even ascribed the authorship of the latter to the Evil One out of a spirit of rivalry to Christianity. As pointed out by Mr. Joseph McCabe (The Bankruptcy of Religion, p. 197)—
“The resemblance to the Christian celebration in the Mithraic temples it went so far that the resurrected god was hailed as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world' - was so disturbing to Firmicus Maternus that he believed that the Devil had conveyed these legends to the Pagans in order to distract them from embracing the true (Christian) version of the death and resurrec
tion !"