 |
"Do not tell the white people about this. Jesus (The Messiah) is now upon the earth. He appears like a cloud. The dead are all alive again. I do not know when they will be here; maybe this fall or in the spring. When the time comes there will be no more sickness and everyone will be young again." |
Such were the words of the Palute Indian prophet Wovoka over one hundred years ago written in his announcement to all Indians in North America. This great message was taken to the differing tribes and they were instructed by Wovoka to dance the "Ghost Dance" in harmony and in unison making no distinction between the tribes or the people.
Wovoka had a vision in the year 1889 that he was a messenger for the Indian people to tell them that the Messiah was in the world. Wovoka said the Messiah had come to the earth and that the Indian people were to get ready for the age promised to them for thousands of years that was about to be born. Wovoka saw the future and saw a world where all the people would live together in peace and harmony and the Indian people would be able to live and be happy once again, not like they were at the present time; being herded into numerous reservations, having their land stolen from them and made to take government handouts to feed their families. Wovoka had them dance the Ghost Dance to begin to bring the different tribes together. Tribes that had been enemies and warring against one another were brought together in one common faith of the coming of this great age of peace that the Messiah was to bring.
But who is this Messiah? The understanding at the time, even among the Indians themselves, was that Wovoka was the Messiah, the Son of God come back to the Indian people because the white people killed him last time came them. But this was not so.
"He makes no claim to be Christ, the Son of God, as has been so often asserted in print. He does claim to be a prophet who has received a divine revelation."
"Messiah"
As Christianity had been taught to the many tribes throughout North America by the white missionaries, Jesus Christ was interpreted by the Indian people to be the god of the white settlers. With this concept, Jesus being a "Messiah" was not readily understood. To get to the real message of what Wovoka was trying to say, let us first define the word "Messiah".
The word "Messiah" is the same word in Hebrew as the word "Christ". "Christ" is the Greek translation of the Hebrew "Messiah" or specifically, "Messiah ben David", or "The anointed son of David". Jesus bore the title "Christ" as he was a descendant of David who has been anointed with the Holy Spirit. The Messiah's were the kings of Israel and Judah who were direct descendants of King David who had been anointed by the High Priest. All the kings of Israel and Judah sat on the throne of David and were anointed with oil by the High Priest on their coronation.
Contrary to popular understanding, in the prophecies of the Old Testament there are two Messiah's or Christ's, being descended from David who would come and be anointed with the Holy Spirit by God. One would be a "Suffering Messiah" who would not be seated on the throng of David or be an earthly king. Jesus was not a king seated on throne, as Jesus himself says: "My kingdom is not of this world...". Jesus was descended through Solomon's brother Nathan who was a Prophet as Jesus was to come and deliver the prophecies for the coming of the Kingdom of God on Earth. The "Suffering Messiah" would be persecuted, rejected and killed giving over his life as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
The other descendant of david prophesied of would be a "Redeeming Messiah" who would bring a world government of peace and Justice being seated on the throne of David as a direct lineal descendant of King David himself. To quote from Hal Lindsey the author of the popular book "The Late, Great Planet Earth":
"Two Completely different portraits of a coming Messiah were described by the Old Testament prophets...One portrait of the Messiah depicts Him as a humble servant who would suffer for others and be rejected by His own countrymen. This portrait we may call "the Suffering Messiah." (Look into the porphecies of Isaiah 53 for the perfect picture of this Messiah.)
The other portrait shows the Messiah as a conquering king with unlimited power, who comes suddenly to earth at the height of a global war and saves men from self-destruction. He places the Israelites who believe in Him as the spiritual and secular leaders of the world and brings in an age free of prejudice and injustice...We may call this second picture "the Reigning Messiah." We may find this description is such prophecies as Zechariah 14 and Isaiah 9:6,7"
Much to the surprise of the people, the Old Testament actually describes two Christs or "Anointed" who are to come. In the Book of Zechariah the prophet has a vision in which he sees a golden lampstand with seven lamps on it and two olive branches next to the lamp stand:
"And he said to me, "What do you see?" I said, "I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps which are on the top of it. And there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left." And I said to the angel who talked with me "What are these my Lord?" Then the angel who talked with me answered me,..."These seven are the eyes of the Lord which range through the whole earth."
Seven "Eyes of the Lord" are described as also having lips showing how that thes "Eyes", being at the same time lamps, also speak. These seven lamps are prophets of God who have come delivering the worlds religions like teachers in the grades of school; Adam, Moses, Krishna, Zoroaster, Buddha, Muhammad, and Bab who was the gerald and forerunner of Baha'u'llah. This concept of a plurality of God's messengers is called "Progressive Revelation" meaning the Divine Knowledge of God continues to come to our world in the form of these Holy souls who manifest God to the people as pure reflections of God's will. The vision of Zechariah continues"
"Then I said to him, "What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?"...Then he said. "Then he said. "These are the two anointed who stand by the Lord of the whole earth."
In his vision Zechariah sawthese seven prophets of God or "Manifestations of God" as seven lamps and "Eyes of the Lord", but he also saw two olive trees next to the seven lamps. The angel who gave Zechariah the vision told him the two olive trees or olive branches are the "two anointed who stand by the Lord of the whole earth." "Anointed" in the Hebrew is "Messiah", and in the Greek is "Christ". The Messiah's of Israel were the kings of Israel. They were descendants of King David that had been educated by the High Priest of Israel and then symbolically "anointed" with olive oil upon their forehead. Olive oil was used as a fuel in the lamps of ancient Israel and this was used to represent "enlightenment". Here there are two "anointed" or "Christs" prophesied to come and be anointed with the Holy Spirit. Today this vision is symbolized in the familiar State Seal of the nation of Israel.
| The first Messiah that came was Jesus who was the "Suffering Messiah" who was rejected and crucified. Jesus came and delivered the "Gospel" or "Good News" of the coming of the kingdom of God on earth and, with his own lips, prophesied the coming of the One who would finally deliver this kingdom. In the 8th chapter of the Book of Mark Jesus tells us who this is: |  |
"For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the son of man also be ashamed, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
In the 7th chapter of the Book of Acts, the disciple Stephen is being stoned to death and he has a vision of the two Messiahs:
"But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus, standing at the right hand of God;"
Jesus did not speak English. He spoke a Galilean dialect of Aramaic and what the bible renders as "Glory of God", "Glory of the Lord" or "Glory of the Father", Jesus said "Baha-u-llah". Contrary to the current Christian teaching about the Glory of God, it is not just some nebulous spirit that emanates from God like the Christian clergy try to explain. For instance, they say that the Glory of God that is next to Jesus in the vision of Stephen is a spirit that comes from Jesus, as Jesus is God. But the Bible teaches otherwise:
"And above the firmament over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness as it were of a human form...Such was the likeness of the Glory of the Lord."
The "Glory of the Lord" is not a "spirit"" but is a "human form" meaning a person. A person who is seated upon a throne which is the throne of David. Like Jesus, the second coming of Christ, Baha'u'llah, is a "Manifestation" of God or one who receives the thought of God directly and then reflects it to the people.