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closeOn Faith: Baha’i faith could be the world’s next message
Dr. Chris Gilbert
On Faith
I have been asked by readers who follow this column to explain the Baha’i faith. More specifically, some have wondered why the world needs a new religion when those of the past are at the center of many global troubles.
In that good question is a good answer! We receive the teachings of a new faith precisely when past faiths stop serving God’s heavenly purpose and begin to serve the more earthly purpose of man.
In effect, religion is renewed by a God promise to return through the message of His teachers.
That is not to say that the universal truths inside of all the great religions are not as important to our spiritual growth today as they were in the past.
Quite the contrary: Each faith, be it Hinduism, Buddhism, the Jewish faith, Christianity, Muslimism or the Baha’i faith, provides a clear path to creating Heaven on Earth. It is just that mankind tends to take these heavenly messages down to a more self-serving path as they spread over time.
The creation of multiple sects of a first pure faith is one example of this earthly bending of the heavenly rules.
So, as the rules begin to bend, a loving Father sends the next messenger with reminders of the universal truths of the past common to all faiths. And, these manifestations endowed with innate knowledge, bring us new rules to assist our social and spiritual development into new ages.
With more than 6 million adherents worldwide, the Baha’i faith is this next message. It is an independent, world religion that’s founded on the principles of the Oneness of God, the Oneness of Religion and Oneness of mankind.
Baha’is respect all the past manifestations of God by knowing that all religions come from one Source, a God who sends messengers in a progression that’s designed to help our social and spiritual growth.
That is perhaps the most unique spiritual truth followers of the Baha’i faith understand. Rather than looking at religion as based on one Divine teacher who appeared to one people at one time, Baha’is recognize a progress of these holy figures.
Each one brings teachings that are common to all the great religions of the past. They also are imbued with new rules for each age, designed to push society to new, spiritual limits.
All of mankind’s spiritual and material advances have been sparked across different ages by the progression of these Great Teachers.
The latest messenger, Baha’u’llah (in Persian, the “Glory of God”), fulfilled the prophecies of every great faith that another teacher would return in this age.
So, why does the world need a new religion? One of the major sources of disunity in the world are the divisions among and between the great faiths of our world. The conflicts in which the United States is engaged in the Middle East have their roots in religious disunity and social disparity.
The messages of love and unity inside all the original teachings of the great faiths have become lost in internal and external struggles for power, material resources and human identity.
The Baha’i revelation, the newest faith in this long chain, is meant as a spiritual renewal for all faiths.
The new Covenant specifically advocates the equality of men and women, the elimination of all prejudice, the creation of global education systems, the need for a universal language, the elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty, and the protection of cultural, ethnic and gender diversity through unity.
Those issues, now so vital to our world, were prophesied by Baha’u’llah in 1864, a time when they were considered revolutionary and heretical.
But is there anything in this list we don’t want to see come to pass?
The Baha’i faith encourages an individual’s search for truth and spirituality and promotes the harmony of science and religion.
What does that mean to our daily lives? Baha’u’llah said, “Unless and until unity is firmly established upon the Earth, there shall never be peace.”
Baha’is see that as the primary mission of all religions. To become unified under one faith for one great purpose — world peace.
Divisions and a sense of powerlessness are at the heart of our current social, economic, political and spiritual ills. Baha’is focus their lives on creating and supporting community, locally and globally. They understand that inclusiveness, practiced by all faiths, by all peoples and in all nations, is the only answer for healing divisions and eliminating unjust disparities.
Toward that end, there are many spiritual paths to one God, and the Baha’i faith offers the latest education for the journey.
There are remarkable elements of this faith that daily herald a new view and spiritual purpose for our planet.
The Baha’i faith has no clergy and advocates no ritual. We meet regularly every 19 days for a Feast of Prayer and Community. The Baha’i community is built through consultation rather than traditional models of leadership.
Spiritual Assemblies made up of nine who are annually elected community members serve administratively at the local, regional, national and international levels to assist the affairs of the faith.
Only members of the faith can contribute economically to it, and only those older than 15 are allowed to formally and individually declare as Baha’is. This new faith is a wonderful resource that’s available to all and inclusive of all.