BahÃĄâ•Žuâ•ŽllÃĄh and the New Era - Knowledge Rush

238 Baháâuâlláh and the New Erachanges according to the evolution of man and the requirementsof the time of each Prophet. For example.... During theMosaic period the hand of a person was cut off in punishmentof a small theft; there was a law of an eye for an eye anda tooth for a tooth, but as these laws were not expedient inthe time of Christ, they were abrogated. Likewise divorcehad become so universal that there remained no fixed laws ofmarriage, therefore His Holiness Christ forbade divorce.According to the exigencies of the time, His HolinessMoses revealed ten laws for capital punishment. It was impossibleat that time to protect the community and to preservesocial security without these severe measures, for the childrenof Israel lived in the wilderness of Tah, where there were noestablished courts of justice and no penitentiaries. But thiscode of conduct was not needed in the time of Christ. Thehistory of the second part of religion is unimportant, becauseit relates to the customs of this life only; but the foundation ofthe religion of God is one, and His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh hasrenewed that foundation.The religion of God is the One Religion, and all the Prophetshave taught it, but it is a living and a growing thing, not lifelessand unchanging. In the teaching of Moses we see the Bud; inthat of Christ the Flower; in that of Bahá’u’lláh the Fruit. Theflower does not destroy the bud, nor does the fruit destroy theflower. It destroys not, but fulfills. The bud scales must fall inorder that the flower may bloom, and the petals must fall thatthe fruit may grow and ripen. Were the bud scales and the petalswrong or useless, then, that they had to be discarded? Nay, bothin their time were right and necessary; without them there couldhave been no fruit. So it is with the various prophetic teachings;their externals change from age to age, but each revelation is thefulfillment of its predecessors; they are not separate or incongruous,but different stages in the life history of the One Religion,