ethical tests?

[nathanielfirst]

do Baha'is believe that God would test any 'normal' person, not a manifestation of God, with ethical tests?
​

 

[Boethiah]

As in, God testing a certain individual by tempting him/her and seeing if he/she would do an unethical thing?

No, I don't believe so. I don't have any scripture to back this up with but I can't imagine a benevolent God actively trying to make people do bad things.

 

[arthra]

do Baha'is believe that God would test any 'normal' person, not a manifestation of God, with ethical tests?​

We assured that the tests will never be greater than our capacity to overcome them.. so many of us do not really know our own capacity except God knows..

and here are some excerpts:

Besides all this, prayer and fasting is the cause of awakening and mindfulness and conducive to protection and preservation from tests....

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 368)

TRIALS A GIFT FROM GOD

Thou hast written concerning the tests that have come upon thee.

To the sincere ones, tests are as a gift from God, the Exalted, for a heroic person hasteneth, with the utmost joy and gladness, to the tests of a violent battlefield, but the coward is afraid and trembles and utters moaning and lamentation.

Likewise, an expert student prepareth and memorizeth his lessons and exercises with the utmost effort, and in the day of examination he appeareth with infinite joy before the master.

Likewise, the pure gold shineth radiantly in the fire of test. Consequently, it is made clear that for holy souls, trials are as the gift of God, the Exalted;

but for weak souls they are an unexpected calamity.

This test is just as thou hast written: it removeth the rust of egotism from the mirror of the heart until the Sun of Truth may shine therein. For, no veil is greater than egotism and no matter how thin that covering may be, yet it will finally veil man entirely and prevent him from receiving a portion from the eternal bounty.

(Abdu'l-Baha, Baha'i World Faith, p. 371)

 

[BruceDLimber]

do Baha'is believe that God would test any 'normal' person, not a manifestation of God, with ethical tests?​

Indeed!

If fact, multiple scriptures say this:

"Do men think when they say 'We believe' they will be let alone and not put to proof?"

As well as:

"God verily will sift them and test them!"

Peace,

Bruce

 

[Boethiah]

I suppose I misunderstood "ethical test".

 

[nathanielfirst]

hey Bruce, do you have a source for that? which scripture? in addition it sounds as if this idea must be not prominent if not all Baha'is are well aware of it?

 

[arthra]

Try Qur'an 29:2...

"Do the people think that they will be left to say, "We believe," without being put to the test?"

Bruce is citing here the Qur'an which we Baha'is also acknowledge.

Again there is the assurance that we will have the capacity to endure..

"...we are aware of the assurance which Bahá'u'lláh Himself has given the believers that they will never be called upon to meet a test greater than their capacity to endure."

(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 341)

 

[BruceDLimber]

Both of these passages are also in the Baha'i Scriptures, in The Book of Certitude.

Best!

Bruce

 

[nathanielfirst]

how well developed would you say the concept is? I figure a concept is always well developed if it is mentioned often, like in Zoroastrianism you find the constant refrain 'good thoughts, good words, good deeds' - since it is repeated so often, it is well developed, drilled into the believers brain; in Christianity there is a verse: Mark 4:26, which suggests God doesn't have foreknowledge - a single verse can't mean that much, and elsewhere Jesus repeatedly refers to predestination/election, so really Christians end up believing in Election, mostly... is this so with the idea that a Baha'i may be tested by God? a well devleloped concept?

 

[arthra]

Off hand I would say the teachings on unity and oneness are principal themes you will hear most often among Baha'is.. So our values and our institutions are set up in such a way to emphasize harmony and distance ourselves from say divion and piolarities among us...

"The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion. War shall cease between nations, and by the will of God the Most Great Peace shall come; the world will be seen as a new world, and all men will live as brothers."

~ Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 19