“And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
(Matthew 24:30)
When did the Lord appear?
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” (2 Peter 3:10)
“… what is meant by the appearance of the Son of God after the calamitous events preceding His coming is the revelation of His full glory and its recognition and acceptance by the peoples of the world, and not his physical appearance. For Bahá’u’lláh, Whose advent marks the return of the Son in the Glory of the Father, has already appeared, and the signs predicted in the Gospel have not yet fully been realized. Their complete fulfilment, however, would mark the beginning of the recognition of His full station by the peoples of the world. Then and only then will His appearance be made completely manifest.” (From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, November 29, 1937)
“… by the term ‘earth’ is meant the earth of understanding and knowledge, and by ‘heavens’ the heavens of divine Revelation. Reflect thou, how, in one hand, He hath, by His mighty grasp, turned the earth of knowledge and understanding, previously unfolded, into a mere handful, and, on the other, spread out a new and highly exalted earth in the hearts of men, thus causing the freshest and loveliest blossoms, and the mightiest and loftiest trees to spring forth from the illumined bosom of man. In like manner, reflect how the elevated heavens of the Dispensations of the past have, in the right hand of power, been folded together, how the heavens of divine Revelation have been raised by the command of God, and been adorned by the sun, the moon, and stars of His wondrous commandments.” (Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitáb-i-Íqán, p. 48-49)
Why did we not see Him in the clouds?
Bahá’u’lláh explains:
“And now regarding His words, that the Son of man shall ‘come in the clouds of heaven.’ By the term ‘clouds’ is meant those things that are contrary to the ways and desires of men. … These ‘clouds’ signify, in one sense, the annulment of laws, the abrogation of former Dispensations, the repeal of rituals and customs current amongst men, the exalting of the illiterate faithful above the learned opposers of the Faith. In another sense, they mean the appearance of that immortal Beauty in the image of mortal man, with such human limitations as eating and drinking, poverty and riches, glory and abasement, sleeping and waking, and such other things as cast doubt in the minds of men, and cause them to turn away. All such veils are symbolically referred to as ‘clouds.’” (Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitáb-i-Íqán, p. 71-72)
‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains:
“Christ said, ‘They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven’.(see Matthew 24:30) Bahá’u’lláh said, ‘When Christ came for the first time He came upon the clouds’. (see John 3:13) Christ said that He had come from the sky, from Heaven—that He came forth from God—while He was born of Mary, His Mother. But when He declared that He had come from Heaven, it is clear that He did not mean the blue firmament but that He spoke of the Heaven of the Kingdom of God, and that from this Heaven He descended upon the clouds. As clouds are obstacles to the shining of the sun, so the clouds of the world of humanity hid from the eyes of men the radiance of the Divinity of Christ.
“Men said, ‘He is of Nazareth, born of Mary, we know Him and we know his brethren. What can He mean? What is He saying? That He came forth from God?’
“The Body of Christ was born of Mary of Nazareth, but the Spirit was of God. The capacities of His human body were limited but the strength of His spirit was vast, infinite, immeasurable.
“Men asked, ‘Why does He say He is of God?’ If they had understood the reality of Christ, they would have known that the body of His humanity was a cloud that hid His Divinity. The world only saw His human form, and therefore wondered how He could have ‘come down from Heaven’.
“Bahá’u’lláh said, ‘Even as the clouds hide the sun and the sky from our gaze, even so did the humanity of Christ hide from men His real Divine character’.
“I hope that you will turn with unclouded eyes towards the Sun of Truth, beholding not the things of earth, lest your hearts be attracted to the worthless and passing pleasures of the world; let that Sun give you of His strength, then will not the clouds of prejudice veil His illumination from your eyes! Then will the Sun be without clouds for you.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 43-44)