Baha’i
As a Christian I believe in the second coming of Christ. This is the same idea the Muslims had when they were waiting for “the Bab” to return. In the year 1844 someone from Iran proclaimed that he was it. His name was ‘Ali-Muhammed, but he took on the title of “the Bab,” which means ‘”door” in Arabic. His message was that god had sent him to prepare the people for the coming of a new age and there would be another messanger that would come after him. Thousands of people fell for this except for the government who had him executed six years later.
After the Bab had been executed another guy named Baha’u'llah came around claiming that he was the next Messanger that the Bab had foretold. He was not popular either and they sent him into exile where he wrote a lot. Baha’is (followers of Baha’i) use the writings that Baha’u'llah did as their scripture now. After his death his son and grandson became the main leaders of the faith.
So what do they believe?
Baha’is is the belief that god is breaking down barriers between races, classes, religions, and nations. They stand for world peace and they want all people to be treated as being part of a “global family.”
They believe that World peace is possible. So is one international language. They believe that all religion is in harmony with logic and science, and everyone should be educated. Each person can independently search for truth. They also hold that women are fully equal to men, you shouldn’t be prejudiced, and there should be one world government.
Of course the main teaching of Baha’i is unity, there is “one religion and one humanity. They would claim that god is beyond our ability to understand so he sends us messangers to teach us about himself. All of the different messangers in the world from all the different religions are all here to teach us about the same god. The way you grow spiritually is to listen to god’s messanagers, pray, and trust god.
What’s the main attraction to this religion?
People like the idea that we are all one big family especially women and minorities. And as we all live in this one big family we all serve the same god because all religions come from the same source and have the same purpose-helping humanity progress.
They do believe in one god, and they do believe in all the prophets in the bible, but they also believe in islam, buddhism, and all the other religions and their prophets as well. They believe that you can get to god through many different teachings, which means they disagree with Jesus when he says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except by me.”
The Baha’is believe that once you die you simply continue to get closer to god. Heaven and hell are not really actual places but simply they are spiritual conditions. Heaven is close to God and hell is further away from god. You can experience heaven and hell while you are still alive. They don’t have weekly services nor do they have official priests or clergy. The only thing they get together for is special occasions such as marriage or death. Groups get together every nineteen days for devotions, counseling, and fellowship, and they fast from March 2nd to March 20th every year.
Baha’is are in more contries than any other religion in the world except Christianity, but their geographic center is in India. There are 5 million Baha’is worldwide, 130,000 right here in the U.S.A.
So what is the big deal? If the gods from all of these different religions are the same god, then why are the messages from all of the prophets contradictory? That means that the world has a god that tricks people, contradicts himself, lies, and every other thing you can possibley imagine, and if that is the kind of god we have then how can we trust him, and why should we? The idea of all of the different religions serving the same god is ludicrous.
Research and some Information came from: “Why so many God’s” by K. Etue.
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