Page 180 - New English Book L
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of Jesus (pbuh) for ambiguity. There are, in fact, several
instances -as reported in the Gospels- where Jesus (pbuh)
give an answer or makes a statement, which is obscure
and entirely unintelligible. Leaving his godhead aside, as
a Prophet, nay even as a teacher, he was expected to be a
straightforward teacher and leader.
The other remark is shrouded in still a thicker
mystery. “No man born of woman was ever greater than
John the Baptist (pbuh) ,” says Jesus (pbuh) , “but the least
in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than John ” Does
Jesus Christ mean to teach us that John the Baptist and
all the John Prophets and the righteous men were outside
the Kingdom of God? Who is the “least? That was
“greater” than John, and consequently greater than all the
people of God preceding the Baptist? Does Jesus mean
by the “least” himself, or the “least” among the baptized
Christians? It cannot be himself, because in his time that
Kingdom was not yet established on earth.If it were, then
he could not be the “least” in it since he was its founder.
The Churches -rather each Church, orthodox or heterodox,
from its own peculiar point of view- have discovered a
very abstruse or a very absurd solution for this problem;
and that solution is that the “least” Christian washed with
the blood of Jesus (pbuh) -either through the Sacrament of
Baptism, according to the belief of the Sacerdotalists, or
through the regeneration of some kind, according to the
superstition of the Evangelicals- becomes “greater” than
the Baptist and all the army of the holy men and women,
including Adam , Noah, Abraham, Moses, David , Eliah,
Daniel, and John the Baptist (pbuh) ! And the reason or proof
of this marvellous claim is that the Christian, however,
sinful, ignorant, low, and poor he may be, providing he
has faith in Jesus (pbuh) as his Saviour, has the privileges
which the holy Prophets coveted to have but did not
enjoy. These privileges are innumerable; purification from