Conversion is usually a matter of more than a single post. I can show you plenty - including many of yours - that deal with people’s objections to the Baha’i faith.
It is my duty to correct misinformation about the Baha’i Faith and present correct information. This has nothing to do with conversion.
What percentage of your posts are aimed at getting someone to “move the needle” from “less Baha’i” to “more Baha’i?” Do you think it’s more or less than half?
The percentage is zero. I have zero interest in anyone moving their needle. Everyone has their own needle and it TOTALLY their own responsibility what they do with their needle.
I have no aims. I have said this repeatedly. The reason I post about Baha’i is because Baha’u’llah exhorted Baha’is to proclaim the Faith and teach it if people are interested in hearing more. That is all I do.
So when Baha’Is go through the motions of proselytizing, it’s accidental?
What motions are those that you think mean they have intent to convert? Why do you think that? How can you know that unless they tell you?
If “sharing and teaching” is how you describe the behaviour I’ve seen from yourself and other Baha’is, then I’d have to say that it’s just a euphemism for proselytizing.
No, sharing implies intent to share, teaching implies intent to teach, and proselytizing implies intent to convert. Why conflate the meanings of words?
Proselytizing is just a word that some people use to beat people over the head with. It has a specific meaning – convert or attempt to convert someone. Unless you know what someone is attempting to do (their intent) you cannot know they are proselytizing.
You are reading into behavior that you see but you have no way of knowing why they have the behavior. Maybe you are projecting because you cannot imagine why anyone would talk about a religion so much if they had no intent to convert. However, this is ludicrous. Do you think that all the Christians on this forum who talk about Christianity so much are proselytizing? If not, why single out the Baha’is?
That’s right. It’s suspicious in the first place that a god who’s capable of talking to whoever he pleases would ask for human beings to spread his message - i.e. proselytize - but if he did, then it stands to reason that he would have given you better material to work with. The vast majority of people who learn about the Baha’i faith don’t become Baha’i.
God does not talk to people. It does not matter of He is capable or not, the POINT is that people are not capable of understanding God directly, and that is why God sends Messengers as His Representatives. All this is completely logical, so it is difficult to understand why intelligent people cannot understand it. It is so simple a grade-schooler could understand it.
Here is the
reason why the vast majority of people who learn about the Baha’i Faith don’t become Baha’is. It makes logical sense and is verifiable with data.
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
In every new age, the religion at the narrow gate is the new religion God wants us to find and follow, and it is the gate that leads to eternal life. But it is not that easy for most people to find this gate because most people are steeped in religious tradition or attached to what they already believe. If they do not have a religion, most people are suspicious of the new religion and the new messenger. If they are atheists they do not like
the idea of messengers of God or they think they are all phonies.
Jesus told us to enter through the narrow gate, the gate that leads to eternal life, and He said
few people would find that gate...
It is narrow, so it is difficult to get through... It is difficult to get through because one has to be willing to give up all their preconceived ideas, have an open mind, and think for themselves. Most people do not normally embark upon such a journey. They go through the wide gate, the easy one to get through – their own religious tradition or their own preconceived ideas about God or no god. They follow that broad road that is easiest for them to travel. That is human nature.
Eventually it won’t matter how small the Baha’i Faith was in the beginning because in the distant future everyone will recognize Baha’u’llah and enter through the same gate, the gate that leads to life. However, those that enter now will have a huge reward after they die, because they made the effort to look for the narrow gate and they had the courage and common sense to walk through it, rather than following the crowd.
Sounds logically consistent.
No, it is insane. God is not going to take care of the teaching in due time. God does not come to earth and DO stuff. God gave humans free will so we can do stuff. Because we have free will we can choose whether to believe or not. Because we have free will we are all responsible for what we believe.
As far as progressing infinitely in the afterlife, that is true for some people, but nowhere do the Baha’i Writings say that every soul will progress, so if Baha’is use that as an reason not to “share” their Faith are just rationalizing, assuming everyone will just be fine after they die. The caveat is that whatever you end up after you die will be solely dependent upon the mercy of God and prayers of others on your behalf, as you will no longer have free will to advance your own condition. This is a well-known fact in the Baha’i Faith.
It also makes no logical sense that everyone will be fine after they die. Baha’u’llah would never have put so much emphasis on recognizing Him if it did not have repercussions in the afterlife. He was very clear on this matter, just as Jesus had been.
“The Book of God is wide open, and His Word is summoning mankind unto Him. No more than a mere handful, however, hath been found willing to cleave to His Cause, or to become the instruments for its promotion. These few have been endued with the Divine Elixir that can, alone, transmute into purest gold the dross of the world, and have been empowered to administer the infallible remedy for all the ills that afflict the children of men. No man can obtain everlasting life, unless he embraceth the truth of this inestimable, this wondrous, and sublime Revelation.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 183
“Incline your ears to the sweet melody of this Prisoner. Arise, and lift up your voices, that haply they that are fast asleep may be awakened. Say: O ye who are as dead! The Hand of Divine bounty proffereth unto you the Water of Life. Hasten and drink your fill. Whoso hath been re-born in this Day, shall never die; whoso remaineth dead, shall never live.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 213
What some Baha’is do is cherry pick passages but one has to look at ALL the passages in context and try to figure out what they mean. Unfortunately, most people don’t want to go to that much trouble. They are already confident of their own eternal destination, so why care about others? People either care about others as much or more than they care about themselves or not. This has nothing to do with religion but it is the whole ball of wax. Selfish people will go to hell no matter what they believed. There are going to be a lot of people waiting at the gate to heaven, wondering why they are not getting in. They thought belief was enough so they lived for self and the world. It is not as if both Jesus and Baha’u’llah did not give us fair warning or the importance of good works, not just for one’s immediate family.
“Thou hast asked Me concerning the nature of the soul. Know, verily, that the soul is a sign of God, a heavenly gem whose reality the most learned of men hath failed to grasp, and whose mystery no mind, however acute, can ever hope to unravel. It is the first among all created things to declare the excellence of its Creator, the first to recognize His glory, to cleave to His truth, and to bow down in adoration before Him. If it be faithful to God, it will reflect His light, and will, eventually, return unto Him. If it fail, however, in its allegiance to its Creator, it will become a victim to self and passion, and will, in the end, sink in their depths...” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 158-159
(Continued on next post...)
