The Baha'is

[Trailblazer]

Complete baloney! Jesus was worshipped in his physical body, generally after his resurrection but also before: Matt 28:9, Mat 28:17, Luk 24:52, John 9:38.

It is interesting that you say "Jesus was worshipped in his physical body" because Jesus never wanted to be worshiped...
Jesus said to worship only God.

Mark 10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

Matthew 4:10 Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan! For it is written: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."

And Jesus pointed out in no uncertain terms the unimportance of the physical body:

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

You are free to believe in those resurrection stories if you want to. I am a firm believer in free will.
Moreover, I have no need to convince you of what I believe...

No, there is no way the Baha'i Faith can be reconciled to traditional Christian beliefs. I accept that and I look for the beauty of Jesus' teachings rather than what has been tarnished by Christianity. I am able to filter out what I believe are falsehoods and see the essential truths of Jesus' teachings.

I listen to Christian radio all day long as I work at my job and work on forums because the essential truths about God's love and God's grace and the sacrifice Jesus made for us come through loud and clear. Baha'u'llah reiterated God's love for us and what Jesus did for us (see passage below) but I do not get the same message of personal salvation from the Baha'i Faith because that was not the mission of Baha'u'llah. It was Jesus' work to reveal God to us (bear witness unto the truth about God); that was His mission, in addition to sacrificing Himself on the cross, at which time His mission came to a close.

John 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

Being resurrected was not part of the mission of Jesus, it was just some stories men wrote about Jesus, Imo.

More importantly Paul was only engaged with the risen Christ, the Christ who now ruled the universe from his place on God's throne, which accounts for the differences between him and the other apostles. That is why Paul calls him "Christ". Jesus was the name of a human being. The risen Jesus has a different name, that "no man knoweth" (Rev 2:17).

This is where Christianity went off the rails. Imo, the belief in the bodily resurrection is the worst thing that ever happened to Christianity because it allowed all kinds of other superstitious beliefs to creep in, such as Jesus ascending into the clouds and returning in the clouds.

Jesus' work ended on the cross; Jesus said so.

John 17:4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Then after that stories were written about Jesus to try to bring Him back to life and it worked for most Christians who could not accept that Jesus was dead and never coming back to earth, completely ignoring what Jesus said before he left this world.

John 17:11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

So Baha'i has nothing to do with Christianity. It promotes a heresy in place of Christianity, a heresy that Jesus did not come to save anyone but to merely promote peace and good will.

No, that is not what Baha'is believe about Jesus. The following is what we believe about Jesus:

“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. Its evidences, as witnessed in all the peoples of the earth, are now manifest before thee. The deepest wisdom which the sages have uttered, the profoundest learning which any mind hath unfolded, the arts which the ablest hands have produced, the influence exerted by the most potent of rulers, are but manifestations of the quickening power released by His transcendent, His all-pervasive, and resplendent Spirit.

We testify that when He came into the world, He shed the splendor of His glory upon all created things. Through Him the leper recovered from the leprosy of perversity and ignorance. 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

No, Baha'i has nothing to do with Christianity, but it does not promote a heresy in place of Christianity, because it is not its intention to replace Christianity, but rather to fulfill the promises of Jesus and reveal additional truth from God that is pertinent to this age in history.

Such a false "gospel" would have been condemned not only by Paul but by all the other apostles too in the strongest possible terms. All Baha'is would have been excommunicated by just about every single Christian denomination in the early church.

Galatians 1:8-9 “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

If the Baha'i Faith had been revealed while the Dispensation of Christ was still in force, if it had in any way interfered with the gospel message of Jesus back in the days of Jesus, it would have been worthy of condemnation as Paul said, but the Baha'i Faith was not revealed back in those days. Moreover, the Baha'i Faith does not have a gospel message, only Jesus had a gospel message. The Baha'i Faith has a new message based upon a new Revelation from God to Baha'u'llah.

 

[Riders]

It is interesting that you say "Jesus was worshipped in his physical body" because Jesus never wanted to be worshiped...
Jesus said to worship only God.

Mark 10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

Matthew 4:10 Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan! For it is written: "Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only."

And Jesus pointed out in no uncertain terms the unimportance of the physical body:

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

1 John 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

You are free to believe in those resurrection stories if you want to. I am a firm believer in free will.
Moreover, I have no need to convince you of what I believe...

No, there is no way the Baha'i Faith can be reconciled to traditional Christian beliefs. I accept that and I look for the beauty of Jesus' teachings rather than what has been tarnished by Christianity. I am able to filter out what I believe are falsehoods and see the essential truths of Jesus' teachings.

I listen to Christian radio all day long as I work at my job and work on forums because the essential truths about God's love and God's grace and the sacrifice Jesus made for us come through loud and clear. Baha'u'llah reiterated God's love for us and what Jesus did for us (see passage below) but I do not get the same message of personal salvation from the Baha'i Faith because that was not the mission of Baha'u'llah. It was Jesus' work to reveal God to us (bear witness unto the truth about God); that was His mission, in addition to sacrificing Himself on the cross, at which time His mission came to a close.

John 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

Being resurrected was not part of the mission of Jesus, it was just some stories men wrote about Jesus, Imo.

This is where Christianity went off the rails. Imo, the belief in the bodily resurrection is the worst thing that ever happened to Christianity because it allowed all kinds of other superstitious beliefs to creep in, such as Jesus ascending into the clouds and returning in the clouds.

Jesus' work ended on the cross; Jesus said so.

John 17:4 I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.

John 19:30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Then after that stories were written about Jesus to try to bring Him back to life and it worked for most Christians who could not accept that Jesus was dead and never coming back to earth, completely ignoring what Jesus said before he left this world.

John 17:11 And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.

No, that is not what Baha'is believe about Jesus. The following is what we believe about Jesus:

“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. Its evidences, as witnessed in all the peoples of the earth, are now manifest before thee. The deepest wisdom which the sages have uttered, the profoundest learning which any mind hath unfolded, the arts which the ablest hands have produced, the influence exerted by the most potent of rulers, are but manifestations of the quickening power released by His transcendent, His all-pervasive, and resplendent Spirit.

We testify that when He came into the world, He shed the splendor of His glory upon all created things. Through Him the leper recovered from the leprosy of perversity and ignorance. 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

No, Baha'i has nothing to do with Christianity, but it does not promote a heresy in place of Christianity, because it is not its intention to replace Christianity, but rather to fulfill the promises of Jesus and reveal additional truth from God that is pertinent to this age in history.

Galatians 1:8-9 “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

If the Baha'i Faith had been revealed while the Dispensation of Christ was still in force, if it had in any way interfered with the gospel message of Jesus back in the days of Jesus, it would have been worthy of condemnation as Paul said, but the Baha'i Faith was not revealed back in those days. Moreover, the Baha'i Faith does not have a gospel message, only Jesus had a gospel message. The Baha'i Faith has a new message based upon a new Revelation from God to Baha'u'llah.

I agree with Baha'is on this. I do not believe i9n the resurrection of Christ but he was The Son Of God. I also believe in the inner Godself or Christ self.

 

[Riders]

I wish you all the best in your search. No Baha'i should push their faith on another.

My advice would be to do book 1 Rhui as it is aimed at building communities.

Make it known from the start that all you want is to learn and nothing else.

I would be happy to join in the zoom, as I am aware of your wishes in that regard and it is always great meeting people you have spoken to on the net.

Regards Tony

The time will be 5 pm tomorrow night central standard Texas time. if you want to come let me know here and I will send you the info message it to you tomorrow.

 

[eik]

I agree with Baha'is on this. I do not believe i9n the resurrection of Christ.

Do you have any evidence that he wasn't resurrected?

 

[eik]

Baha'is do not believe that God can have a begotten son because God is not a biological creature who can produce offspring. Rather, we believe that "Son of God" refers to the relationship Jesus has with God, who was His Father in a metaphorical sense:

“Although the Bahá'í writings say nothing about the title 'Son of God (or 'only begotten Son of God, [John 3:16]) there is much that can be said about it from a Bahá'í perspective. 'Son of God is an extremely important title of Jesus for Christians, so much so that in the minds of many Christians 'Son of God' defines the relationship of Jesus with His Father. But often Christians do not think about the symbolic meaning of the title; indeed, many seem unaware that the title is symbolic at all.

What does the term 'Son' mean? Normally, the word has a simple biological meaning, but that meaning is the very one that cannot apply to the relationship between God and Jesus, for God does not have genetic material to confer upon Jesus, nor does God have a body with which He could unite with Mary to produce a son. Christian theology never meant the term to be understood literally; as the above quote from Gregory of Nazianzus emphasizes, God begot Christ 'without passion, of course, and without reference to time, and not in a corporeal manner' ('The Third Theological Oration – On the Son' 161). The Qur'án echoes Gregory's recognition of God's transcendence when it says, 'Allah is only one God. Far is it removed from His transcendent majesty that He should have a son' (Qur'án 5:171).

Consequently, the word 'Son' must be understood in a metaphorical or symbolic sense; the same is true of the verb 'begotten' when applied to Jesus.”
Jesus Christ in the Bahá'í Writings

That said, Baha'is do uphold the Virgin Birth:

"First regarding the birth of Jesus Christ. In light of what Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have stated concerning this subject it is evident that Jesus came into this world through the direct intervention of the Holy Spirit, and that consequently His birth was quite miraculous. This is an established fact, and the friends need not feel at all surprised, as the belief in the possibility of miracles has never been rejected in the Teachings. Their importance, however, has been minimized."
(From a letter dated December 31, 1937 written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer)

Jesus was a Savior in the sense that He sacrificed His life on the cross for the sins of humanity, but there is no reason to believe that sacrifice is all that would ever be necessary for mankind throughout all of eternity. That is a Church teaching, not a teaching of Jesus. Who do you want to follow, Jesus or the Church?

John 16:12-13 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Jesus said he was God's begotten son (John 3:18). You make Jesus out to be a liar. You make the gospels out to be lies. You are a 99% muslim.

If God made the world, why could he not create a biological son who came down from heaven? Is your God so small? Clearly he is not a powerful God.

There are 6 million Bahá'ís. There are 2.3billion Christians. Not surprising is it?

 

[Trailblazer]

The time will be 5 pm tomorrow night central standard Texas time. if you want to come let me know here and I will send you the info message it to you tomorrow.

So you are from Texas? I have been to many of the states but that is one of the states I have never been to; but I have had several forum friends who lived in Texas, a Hindu, a Christian and an atheist.

I saw something on the news about Texas last night, about the counties that have no cases of Covid-19.
Of course these are the sparsely populated counties.

 

[Trailblazer]

The biblical word for worship, proskyneō, simply means to do homage to one of superior rank. It has no theological connotation except superiority. It doesn't mean that Christ was God, for 1 Cor 11:3 "God is the head of Christ, who is the head of man who is the head of woman."

So man can do homage to Christ whilst recognizing God as the head of Christ. Christ was regarded as superior because he was one with the Father, even the begotten son of God. Jesus did want to be acknowledged as the son of God, "blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." John 20:29

I do not disagree with any of that.

Free will won't get you to heaven.

But belief in Baha’u’llah coupled with good deeds will get me there.

Mind you, Baha’is do not believe that heaven is a geographical location, but a Baha’i once asked the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith (Shoghi Effendi) how to get to heaven, and here was his answer...

"To 'get to heaven' as you say is dependent on two things--faith in the Manifestation of God in His Day, in other words in this age in Bahá'u'lláh; and good deeds, in other words living to the best of our ability a noble life and doing unto others as we would be done by. But we must always remember that our existence and everything we have or ever will have is dependent upon the mercy of God and His bounty, and therefore He can accept into His heaven, which is really nearness to Him, even the lowliest if He pleases. We always have the hope of receiving His mercy if we reach out for it."
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, January 12, 1957)

Lights of Guidance (second part): A Bahá'í Reference File

There is a Messianic Jewish Christian on another forum who keeps telling me I am going to hell simply because I do not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, but he is wrong, because Jesus never said that was a requirement for eternal life:

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

1 John 5:13 “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”

That is similar to what Baha’u’llah said about belief in His teachings

“Such is the teaching which God bestoweth on you, a teaching that will deliver you from all manner of doubt and perplexity, and enable you to attain unto salvation in both this world and in the next. He, verily, is the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Bountiful.” Gleanings, p. 87

You're completely deluded, because all the gospels show Jesus teaching that he was the Christ. That's what he wanted people to believe:

John 11:27 "She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world."

Jesus was the Christ, and Baha’u’llah was the return of the Christ, Imb.

No, his mission to the lost sheep of Israel came to a close on his crucixion, but his mission to the world commenced via the Holy Spirit which he gave on his resurrection, and which was poured out on all men.

The bodily resurrection of Jesus had nothing to do with His Mission. How do you explain these verses?

John 19:28-30 After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Finished means finished. The belief in the bodily resurrection is completely superfluous and it distracts from the teachings and the primary mission of Jesus.

You're wrong. "You will not let your holy one see decay." Ps 16:2 quoted in Acts.

I already addressed that on the other thread. The body of Jesus matters not at all because it nothing but flesh. Only the soul (spirit) of Jesus matters because it is eternal. This is logic 101 stuff.
The same applies to all our bodies vs. our souls.

How could he come to the Father unless he had been resurrected?

That is an excellent question. The soul (spirit) of Jesus ascended to the Father when he died on the cross and took on a new form, a spiritual body. Thereafter Jesus was sitting at the right hand of God, which means he was as close to God as one could be, in spirit.

Jesus never died, only His body died. We are not bodies, we are souls who inhabit a physical body, but only while we are live in a physical body. After our physical body dies we are freed from it and continue to exist in another form, a heavenly form.

“The answer to the third question is this, that in the other world the human reality doth not assume a physical form, rather doth it take on a heavenly form, made up of elements of that heavenly realm.” Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 194

Baha'i is utterly heretical. whatever its intentions.

Baha’i is not heretical to Christianity because it is not Christian.

There is no material distinction between gospel and message. You should take note of Gal 1:8-9, because it applies to Baha'i!

Gal 1:8-9 certainly does not apply to Baha’i and I explained why. Paul was referring to another gospel, but the Baha’i Faith is not another gospel. It is a new religion that was revealed by God.

 

[Trailblazer]

Jesus said he was God's begotten son (John 3:18). You make Jesus out to be a liar. You make the gospels out to be lies. You are a 99% muslim.

Jesus did not say that. The gospel writers wrote that. It is oral tradition.
No, I am 100% Baha'i.

If God made the world, why could he not create a biological son who came down from heaven? Is your God so small? Clearly he is not a powerful God.

God cannot have a biological son because God is not a man. It's that simple.

There are 6 million Bahá'ís. There are 2.3 billion Christians. Not surprising is it?

No, it is not surprising at all given Christianity has been around for over 2,000 years and the Baha'i Faith is only 157 years old.

There were only 7,530 Christians at the end of the first century. There were five million Baha'is at the end of the first century.

“Most scholars of Christian origins tend to exaggerate the size and importance of the early Christian church. This is understandable in the light of the discipline’s intense concentration on the New Testament texts. By confining ourselves in particular to the letters of Paul, the Gospels and Acts, it is all too easy to create a limited and false impression of the ancient world and the place of the Christians within it. Yet the reality is that for all of the first century the Christians were a tiny and insignificant socio-religious movement within the Graeco-Roman world (Hopkins 1998:195-196). Christianity did of course grow considerably in later centuries and it eventually became the religion of the Roman empire, but we should take care not to retroject its later size and importance into the initial decades of its existence.

“Just how small was the Christian movement in the first century is clear from the calculations of the sociologist R Stark (1996:5-7; so too Hopkins 1998:192-193).Stark begins his analysis with a rough estimation of six million Christians in the Roman Empire (or about ten percent of the total population) at the start of the fourth century... There were 1,000 Christians in the year 40, 1,400 Christians in 50, 1,960 Christians in 60, 2,744 Christians in 70, 3,842 Christians in 80, 5,378 Christians in 90 and 7,530 Christians at the end of the first century.

These figures are very suggestive, and reinforce the point that in its initial decades the Christian movement represented a tiny fraction of the ancient world.”

How many Jews became Christians in the first century?[/quote]

 

[TransmutingSoul]

The time will be 5 pm tomorrow night central standard Texas time. if you want to come let me know here and I will send you the info message it to you tomorrow.

Thank you Riders. I looked it up and I am 15hrs in front of your time, so I will be at work and out bush, so can not make it.

Thank you for the invite.

Regards Tony

 

[shunyadragon]

Which tends to raise the question: "what is belief in UU or Baha'i?" I didn't think UU went in for "belief" as such (Unitarian Universalists assert no creed) except for the matter of Jesus having NOT come down from heaven, which I concede does seem to coincide with Baha'i. Yet this is a negative, not a positive. What do you actually believe?

This is a confusing response with little or no understanding of the UU and the Baha'i Faith, except you have a negative agenda against both.

Jesus coming down from heaven? needs more explanation, and there is a distinct difference between the traditional Christian belief and both the Baha'i Faith and the Unitarians.

I believe both the Unitarians and the Baha'i faith do not believe in building walls between faiths, because they believe differently, nor exclude people from the concept of the sense of human community because they beliefve differently.

The both believe in the harmony and unity of the nature of our existence. The Unitarians more from the humanist perspective, and the Baha'i Faith more from the Theist perspective.

 

[shunyadragon]

Doesn't mean anything, as the mantra "son of God" can infer either an adopted or begotten son of God and it seems Baha'is doesn't believe in his physical resurrection so don't believe he was "the" begotten son of God come down from heaven, per Christianity. When I said, "the Christ,"I meant, "the Saviour" (i.e. the "one and only saviour"). Jesus could not be such a saviour if his message incomplete and others needed to fulfil his destiny as indeed Islam teaches. Which is why Baha'i has a very "islamic" flavour to it, which it must do anyway to embrace Mahomet.

Also a more Jewish understanding of the nature of God and the Messiah.

 

[shunyadragon]

Do you have any evidence that he wasn't resurrected?

In logic and reason it is up to the one making the positive claim to present the evidence. Actually it is religious claim and not supported by objective evidence.

 

[eik]

In logic and reason it is up to the one making the positive claim to present the evidence. Actually it is religious claim and not supported by objective evidence.

Nonsense. There is no evidence for non-resurrection.

 

[eik]

Also a more Jewish understanding of the nature of God and the Messiah.

The Jews were never theologically opposed to the resurrection. They were theologically opposed to Christ for not being a jewish (political) supremacist.

 

[eik]

The both believe in the harmony and unity of the nature of our existence. The Unitarians more from the humanist perspective, and the Baha'i Faith more from the Theist perspective.

i.e. neither believe in anything apart from the existence of a distinctly deist "God" whom it is assumed will save all mankind someday.

 

[VoidoftheSun]

Complete baloney! Jesus was worshipped in his physical body, generally after his resurrection but also before: Matt 28:9, Mat 28:17, Luk 24:52, John 9:38.

Lol

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

 

[VoidoftheSun]

I decided to go back and try to take a few more classes on them before I make my mind up on anything. The ladies were pretty nice. I did tell them not long after I started taking classes I was not interested in joining any religion now, they acted insulted and said they never push their religion to get converts.

So I was worried they may have been insulted and lost contact with them. But I decided to take a few more classes before I make up my mind so, got in contact with them today. Hope they can get a zoom class together in the next week or two.

Baha'i is a religion you come to appreciate the more you understand underlying traits within the three previous Abrahamic religions that aren't necessarily as pronounced as other aspects.
Namely though the directly consistent expansion narrative between Deuteronomy (the book of Moses), the four biographies of Jesus and the Qur'an.

Though Jews, Christians, Muslims and Baha'i's like to specifically adhere to their mainline worldviews instead of investigate how weird things actually get.
There are a lot of angles to all of this though, the spiritual angle is the deepest yet most straight forward, the intellectual angle is another, the political angle is another (Israel/Zion vs The Church vs the Khalifah/Imamate vs the NWO).

Conspiracy theories on all three religions are most welcome (it makes it more entertaining), every religion has manifested good and evil sides, things are far weirder and stranger than a mere "so and so religion is evil" or "so and so religion is totally good".

Anyway, the book of Deuteronomy, Gospel of John, Surah 2, 5 and 36 of the Qur'an and Baha'u'llah's Kitab Iqan are all essential reading IMHO.

 

[eik]

Jesus did not say that. The gospel writers wrote that. It is oral tradition.
No, I am 100% Baha'i.

Baha'i is 99% Islam

Anyway you reject the gospels, along with Islam.

God cannot have a biological son because God is not a man. It's that simple.

Ever heard of the virgin birth?

No, it is not surprising at all given Christianity has been around for over 2,000 years and the Baha'i Faith is only 157 years old.

There were only 7,530 Christians at the end of the first century. There were five million Baha'is at the end of the first century.

“Most scholars of Christian origins tend to exaggerate the size and importance of the early Christian church. This is understandable in the light of the discipline’s intense concentration on the New Testament texts. By confining ourselves in particular to the letters of Paul, the Gospels and Acts, it is all too easy to create a limited and false impression of the ancient world and the place of the Christians within it. Yet the reality is that for all of the first century the Christians were a tiny and insignificant socio-religious movement within the Graeco-Roman world (Hopkins 1998:195-196). Christianity did of course grow considerably in later centuries and it eventually became the religion of the Roman empire, but we should take care not to retroject its later size and importance into the initial decades of its existence.

“Just how small was the Christian movement in the first century is clear from the calculations of the sociologist R Stark (1996:5-7; so too Hopkins 1998:192-193).Stark begins his analysis with a rough estimation of six million Christians in the Roman Empire (or about ten percent of the total population) at the start of the fourth century... There were 1,000 Christians in the year 40, 1,400 Christians in 50, 1,960 Christians in 60, 2,744 Christians in 70, 3,842 Christians in 80, 5,378 Christians in 90 and 7,530 Christians at the end of the first century.

These figures are very suggestive, and reinforce the point that in its initial decades the Christian movement represented a tiny fraction of the ancient world.”

How many Jews became Christians in the first century?

More nonsense stats. Acts 4:4, denoting events shortly after the resurrection, lists a total of 5,000 believers. By 350AD, 33.8million is estimated. There was effectively no non-Christian religion in Europe, apart from by Islamic conquest and Judaism until occultism, deism and atheism began to be accepted as alternatives to religion in the 17th & 18th & especially 19th centuries.

 

[VoidoftheSun]

Anyway you reject the gospels, along with Islam.

So do you. Both of them, the Gospels and Islam. If you understood the Gospels you would not be a Christian, you would be a Jew.

 

[eik]

Lol

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

I guess that would be a prophecy about you then?