Trailblazer
Veteran Member
To make a long story short, I was not raised as a Christian or with any belief in God and I became a Baha'i in my first year of college when I was 17 years old. Suffice to say, God was not the reason I became a Baha'i, it was the teachings of the unity of the human race that I was attracted to....1 John 4:8
"He who does not love does not know God; for God is love."
Paul also teaches the same message you mentioned about the "prison of the self" in some of his letters.
Virtually everything you said aligns pretty much perfectly with Catholic teaching. Very cool.
Most people do not believe me when I say this, but I never read even one page of the Bible until I started posting on forums about seven years ago. The reason I started to read the Bible then is because I was posting to Christians on various forums. You see, I was not very interested in religion per se even after I became a Baha'i, but that is a long story I do not have time to explain right now.
Fast forward to seven years ago, the only reason I was reading the Bible was in order to debate with Christians, but as a result of the various conversations I have come to love and appreciate the Bible and now I can see how eerily similar what Jesus said is to what Baha'u'llah wrote, and now I am compelled to share some of my favorite scriptures from each:
Matthew 7:24-27 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
“For every one of you his paramount duty is to choose for himself that on which no other may infringe and none usurp from him. Such a thing—and to this the Almighty is My witness—is the love of God, could ye but perceive it.....
Build ye for yourselves such houses as the rain and floods can never destroy, which shall protect you from the changes and chances of this life. This is the instruction of Him Whom the world hath wronged and forsaken.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 261
All that said, from what I know about each, I feel a closer affinity towards Catholicism than I do towards Protestanism because Catholics believe works are vitally necessary and Protestants believe that we are saved by grace alone, so Catholicism is much more aligned with the Baha'i belief that faith and deeds are both necessary to get to heaven, which is defined as nearness to God, not a place people go.
I will say one last thing before I move on to the many posts I have to answer. Since I was not raised as a Christian or in any religion, the Love of God was alien to me and I still have issues with an All-Loving God, given all the suffering I have endured as well as all the suffering I see in the world, so even though a Loving God is in accord with what is taught in my religion, I cannot relate to it on an emotional level. but rather only intellectually.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
4: O SON OF MAN! I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life. The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 4
My husband, who has been a Baha'i for about 54 years was raised as a Protestant but it never sat well with him. Before he became a Baha'i, he really wanted to be a Catholic but that is a long story. Suffice to say, he never had the 'issues' I have with a Loving God so he never questions God's Love as I do.
The above is 'background' to what I want to share. My husband knows full well I have 'issues' with a Loving God, but he never understood why I listen to Christian music all day long as I work on the computer until I finally told him last night. I told him that the songs give me hope that God is Loving. Clearly that Love came through Jesus so I take no issue with Christian belief just because I also believe in Baha'u'llah. Moreover, I believe that Jesus laid the necessary foundation for humanity to advance to the next stage of its evolution. Baha'is might not believe in 'all' the doctrines of Christianity but we believe in Jesus and what he did for humanity. The following is an excerpt from a longer passage:
“Know thou that when the Son of Man yielded up His breath to God, the whole creation wept with a great weeping. By sacrificing Himself, however, a fresh capacity was infused into all created things...... Through Him, the unchaste and wayward were healed. Through His power, born of Almighty God, the eyes of the blind were opened, and the soul of the sinner sanctified.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 85-86
Baha'is believe in the Unity of Mankind. May our religious beliefs never divide us, that is my hope.