Who is the Baha’i Jesus and how does He differ from the Christian Jesus?

[Trailblazer]

Alright fine. At least you have done that. What I am asking is, what analysis have you done? Even if its from the sources you mentioned, what is your analysis? Big or small. Please explain. But explain specifically, because honestly brother most people who make fleeting statements have not made any analysis at all. I trust you to have actually made some analysis so that's why I am asking this question. Thus, please explain specifically.

I used the wrong word when I said I examined the religions.

No, I did not do an analysis of all the religions. I do not even like religion, so why would I analyze different religions?
I did look at some religions after I became a Baha'i, but not before.

Frankly, I did not look at any other religions before I decided to become a Baha'i. I almost immediately recognized it as the truth and I never changed my mind for the last 50 years I have been a Baha'i. Later I did look at some other religions when I came to forums but that just further confirmed that I had made the right choice.

I did not examine all the men in town before I decided who to marry either. I knew he was the one after three days and we got married three weeks later. That was 35 years ago.

I did not examine all the houses in town before deciding which ones to purchase. I did not have to look much before I knew which houses I wanted and I still own all three houses.

 

[firedragon]

“I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

Are you quoting Ezekiel? In that case does not God call Ezekiel Ben Adam? Do you believe that Ezekiel was also a manifestation of God? But God calls him Ben Adam! Also, if you quote Ezekiel and say that "God will dwell among people" what does that mean? Only in the future?

 

[firedragon]

I used the wrong word when I said I examined the religions.

No, I did not do an analysis of all the religions. I do not even like religion, so why would I analyze different religions?
I did look at some religions after I became a Baha'i, but not before.

Frankly, I did not look at any other religions before I decided to become a Baha'i. I almost immediately recognized it as the truth and I never changed my mind for the last 50 years I have been a Baha'i. Later I did look at some other religions when I came to forums but that just further confirmed that I had made the right choice.

I did not examine all the men in town before I decided who to marry either. I knew he was the one after three days and we got married three weeks later. That was 35 years ago.

I did not examine all the houses in town before deciding which ones to purchase. I did not have to look much before I knew which houses I wanted and I still own all three houses.

So you are rich!! Haha, just kidding. I understand what you say. No worries at all.

 

[Trailblazer]

Thus since you claim Muhammad was a manifestation of God I would not dream but affirm that it should be based on Muhammed himself. Did he claim he was a manifestation of God? Is there anything from him who is the source of himself?

Like I said, I do not know the Qur'an well enough to know what Muhammad claimed, but from my perspective it does not matter. As a Baha'i, I believe that the Revelation of Baha'u'llah supersedes the Revelation of Muhammad, so for me, Baha'u'llah is the final authority on all religious matters.

 

[Trailblazer]

So you are rich!! Haha, just kidding. I understand what you say. No worries at all.

I am pretty rich, too rich to be spending all my time on forums.
But I need all the help I can get when it comes to God, so here I am.

 

[firedragon]

Like I said, I do not know the Qur'an well enough to know what Muhammad claimed, but from my perspective it does not matter. As a Baha'i, I believe that the Revelation of Baha'u'llah supersedes the Revelation of Muhammad, so for me, Baha'u'llah is the final authority on all religious matters.

Okay. Thats a fair statement. I have no right to claim your faith is just wrong based on a prior writing while you claim a superseding scripture. I get it.

My discussion will purely be based on your quotation of the Qur'an or any other so called "Islamic sources". My understanding on the Bahai faith is pretty poor because I certainly do not believe knowledge of the faith comes from superficial hearing of a few people or reading one or two books. Its just not enough. All I know is that the Bab based a lot of his work on the Quran as well. His Tafsir I am starting to read but I don't have it, I have only one Pdf which a friend sent me where it has some synopsises. yet for him to even attempt a tafsir he has to include it into his faith. This is why I personally believe the conflict of the Quran and the interpretation of the Bahai's and their faith has the conflict.

Anyway, I do respect your faith because it is yours. Since you say you simply put your faith in the Bahai scripture I shall leave it as your faith. Cheers.

 

[firedragon]

I am pretty rich, too rich to be spending all my time on forums.
But I need all the help I can get when it comes to God, so here I am.

I am jealous. And envy is a deadly sin. So its all your fault. All good. Im sorry I didn't know you were a lady unless I am mistaken again so if I used the wrong salutation like a hundred times I apologise.

 

[Deeje]

Muhammad was a Manifestation of God, so He was not subject to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

And here we have a classic example of Baha'i reasoning that is so incredibly contradictory that it is laughable....Who taught Jesus? Does the God who sent Jesus speak contradictory things through different prophets?

John 8:25-29....
"So they [the Pharisees] began to say to him: “Who are you?” Jesus replied to them: “Why am I even speaking to you at all? 26 I have many things to speak concerning you and to pass judgment on. As a matter of fact, the One who sent me is true, and the very things I heard from him I am speaking in the world.” 27 They did not grasp that he was talking to them about the Father. 28 Jesus then said: “After you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing of my own initiative; but just as the Father taught me, I speak these things. 29 And the One who sent me is with me; he did not abandon me to myself, because I always do the things pleasing to him.”"

If the God and Father of Jesus Christ taught him everything he knew and he passed this knowledge on to his disciples, then how does this same God now manifest himself and preach a new message 500 years later? Where will I find a "manifestation of God" in the person of a man anywhere in the Hebrew or Greek Scriptures? Jesus was not a manifestation of God...he was in every respect a divinely provided equivalent of Adam.

Where will I find Mohammad mentioned in the Jewish Scriptures? Where will I find an offshoot of Islam mentioned anywhere in connection with God's Messiah? Ishmael did not figure at all.
Messiah came through the Jews but they refused to accept him because he didn't fit their criteria.....he wasn't a powerful political figure who liberated them from the yoke of Rome. Instead, he led the "lost sheep" out of a corrupted religious system because they could never live up to their end of the covenant that God had made with them......Jesus passed sentence on them.....

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the killer of the prophets and stoner of those sent to her—how often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings! But you did not want it. 38 Look! Your house is abandoned to you. 39 For I say to you, you will by no means see me from now until you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in Jehovah’s name!’” (Matthew 23:37-39)

Unless we bless the one who came in God's name, and abide by his teachings, we will never feel God's hand of approval on us. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus. (John 14:6) If we fail to abide by the teachings of the Christ, he will abandon us too.

Muhammad revealed His own laws which applied to the His own Dispensation.

If that is what you want to believe then that is your choice...but I so wish Baha'i would just quote their own prophets and stick to their own scripture because trying to incorporate all these prophets and religions into the teachings of one God is ridiculous. There are countless contradictions....God does not speak with a forked tongue and he has always abhorred the religions and gods of the nations....the ones Baha'i seem to want to embrace for some reason. God's worship has always been exclusive, not inclusive.

Now in this new age, Baha'u'llah revealed Laws which apply to the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah.
So now we are back to monogamy as the Divine Standard.

According to my beliefs.

Baha'u'llah had three wives and countless children.....again in direct disobedience to the teachings of Jesus Christ, who returned God's worshippers to a monogamous standard. How can he possibly be Christ returned? They do not resemble one another in any way.

After Jesus left, he made sure that all that was necessary for his disciples to carry on his work after his ascension to heaven, was clear to them. There were to be no other prophets....he was the last one, and his sacrifice paid the ransom demanded by God's law to redeem the fallen human race.

His Revelation to the Apostle John was to take those redeemed ones 1,000 years into the future. What we had after Jesus left was the gradual revelation of understanding things that were already written. Jesus said he would appoint a "faithful slave" to "feed" his fellow slaves their "food at the proper time". (Matthew 24:45) God through his son would provide what we needed to know, when we needed to know it.

Jesus was no mere mortal, but as he himself said...he was "the only begotten son" of God.(John 3:16)
"Only begotten" means the only one of his kind.

How well has that worked?
What is the Christian divorce rate?

That depends on who you classify as "Christians"....the real ones have a very low divorce rate because they care deeply about God's laws.
The 'convenience Christians" basically make up their own rules....which is why the majority are on the road to destruction as Jesus said....(Matthew 7:13-14; 21-23) You have to be "doing the will of the Father", not just talking about it.

That is how I see it....time will tell I guess.

 

[CG Didymus]

If Mohammad was walking the earth over 500 years after Jesus died, then the fact that he practiced polygamy was proof that he ignored the teachings of Jesus Christ, who reinstated the original standard for marriage....one man, one wife.....

Matthew 19:3-6....
"And Pharisees came to him intent on testing him, and they asked: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife on every sort of grounds?” 4 In reply he said: “Have you not read that the one who created them from the beginning made them male and female 5 and said: ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will stick to his wife, and the two will be one flesh’? 6 So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has yoked together, let no man put apart.”

"Wife" is singular....."one flesh" means the union of two....not several. God has one set of laws, not several different cultural versions of the same law.

Since God’s original standard was for the husband and wife to become one flesh, those taking the lead in the congregations had to be "husband of one wife". (1Timothy 3:2, 12; Titus 1:5, 6) This is used to picture the relationship of Jesus Christ and his congregation, his wife or "bride".—Ephesians 5:21-33.
There was no dispensation to alter that arrangement after Jesus left the earth.

"The first Bible mention of polygamy is a descendant of Cain.....Lamech, of whom it says: “[He] proceeded to take two wives for himself.” (Genesis 4:19) Concerning some of the angels, the Bible mentions that before the Flood, “the sons of the true God . . . went taking wives for themselves, namely, all whom they chose.”—Genesis 6:2.

Concubinage was practiced under patriarchal law and under the Law covenant. A concubine had a legal status; her position was not a matter of fornication or adultery. Under the Law, if a man’s firstborn son was the son of his concubine, this son would be the one to receive the firstborn’s inheritance.—Deuteronomy 21:15-17.

Concubinage and polygamy no doubt enabled the Israelites to increase at a much faster rate, and therefore, while God did not establish these arrangements but only allowed and regulated them, they served some purpose at the time. (Exodus 1:7) Even Jacob, who was tricked into polygamy by his father-in-law, was blessed by having 12 sons and some daughters from his two wives and their handmaidens who became concubines to Jacob.—Genesis 29:23-29; 46:7-25."
( Excerpts from Marriage — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY )




God's Laws do not have "exemption" clauses for people who want to create their own rules based on their own wants. The Bible's recommendation is clear...choose carefully and with spiritual maturity....because this partnership is for life.

The Bible does give grounds for separation if there is physical or mental abuse, or failure to provide life's necessities, but there is no freedom for remarriage unless the partner commits adultery. Yet separation is always undertaken with a view to reconciliation. It is God's sanctified arrangement......not something to be entered, or exited, lightly.

This makes it difficult for me to believe in the Baha'i progressive revelation concept. Each major religion is very much tied to the people and culture from where it came from. I don't see how it could ever be thought that a new message in one part of the world would "abrogate" and replace the religion of the people in another part of the world... unless the people were forced to believe the new one and were kept from practicing their old one.

 

[Trailblazer]

I am jealous. And envy is a deadly sin. So its all your fault. All good. Im sorry I didn't know you were a lady unless I am mistaken again so if I used the wrong salutation like a hundred times I apologise.

You would not be jealous if you knew what the rest of my life is like.
What good is money if you don't have time to use it for anything?

Anyhow, now that you mentioned envy, that is probably my biggest cross to bear, because I envy people who have a life, with children and grandchildren, friends, etc. But I have my husband and my health so I should not complain... But I have certain emotional problems that are insurmountable and money won't help me with those. I will probably have to live with them until I die, unless God helps me.

I should have told you some time ago I was a lady, my mistake.... I make lots of mistakes.

 

[Trailblazer]

And here we have a classic example of Baha'i reasoning that is so incredibly contradictory that it is laughable....Who taught Jesus? Does the God who sent Jesus speak contradictory things through different prophets?

There is nothing contradictory about what I said at all if you take off your Jesus glasses and your Bible glasses which only allow you to see what you want to see.

God taught Jesus...
God taught Muhammad...
God taught Baha'u'llah...

Simple dimple.

God does not contradict Himself but humans misunderstand what God revealed in the scriptures so different religions appear to contradict each other, when in reality they do not. There are differences on all the religions but not contradictions.

 

[CG Didymus]

I would change it to point out I do not see they are following False Teachings, what Jesus Christ said is the Truth. Consider I am reading those same passages.

What we do with that Truth, becomes the clouds and veils in each age and why God sends again His Messenger and we can not see them as such.

So that is the key, either Baha'u'llah is the Spirit of Truth, that Jesus Christ was going to send to guide us unto all Truth, or He is not the one promised.

I made my choice and it is up to each person to make their own choices.

Regards Tony

I was responding to you saying, "I say Buddhism is a great example of what happens when a faith is taken hold of by men and make it into what they want in worship."
If you want to look at some Christians groups, then Mormons say Jesus came to America and many Christians say Jesus is God. Baha'is wouldn't call those "false" beliefs?
Then about what Jesus said... How many times to we talk about how the gospels were probably not written by eyewitnesses and were written decades after. Do we know what Jesus really said? Do we trust the gospels to be quoting Jesus accurately? Do we trust the gospels to be accurate in describing the events in Jesus' life?

 

[Deeje]

This makes it difficult for me to believe in the Baha'i progressive revelation concept.

The scriptures do teach progressive revelation of what is already contained in the Bible....but it is never anything "new" or from those who were never authorized by God to speak for him. Clarity would come to those who waited patiently for increased understanding....(Proverbs 4:18) but certainly not from any connection to Ishmael....or Buddhism or Hinduism or any other "ism".

Each major religion is very much tied to the people and culture from where it came from. I don't see how it could ever be thought that a new message in one part of the world would "abrogate" and replace the religion of the people in another part of the world... unless the people were forced to believe the new one and were kept from practicing their old one.

God cannot contradict himself. Either he hates the worship of other gods (Exodus 20:3) and abhors the practice of their religion especially when idolatry is involved (Exodus 20:4-5)....or he has changed his mind about all those things for some reason......
But we know he does not change his standards for anyone.

How could he punish Israel for excursions into false worship and then promote the prophets that presented messages from those false deities?

 

[Trailblazer]

If the God and Father of Jesus Christ taught him everything he knew and he passed this knowledge on to his disciples, then how does this same God now manifest himself and preach a new message 500 years later

God did teach Jesus everything Jesus knew but Jesus did not teach His disciples everything He knew, because it was not timely for Jesus to reveal everything He knew at that time in history. That is why Jesus said:

John 16:12-14 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. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Why can't an omnipotent God manifest himself and preach a new message 500 years later?

History repeats itself so Baha'u'llah said something similar to what Jesus said 2000 years before. He said that God taught Him the knowledge of all that has been but Baha'u'llah did not reveal everything God taught Him and He explained why He did not do so. In short, we did not need to know everything He knew and we were not capable of comprehending it.

“Oh, would that the world could believe Me! Were all the things that lie enshrined within the heart of Bahá, and which the Lord, His God, the Lord of all names, hath taught Him, to be unveiled to mankind, every man on earth would be dumbfounded.

How great the multitude of truths which the garment of words can never contain! How vast the number of such verities as no expression can adequately describe, whose significance can never be unfolded, and to which not even the remotest allusions can be made! How manifold are the truths which must remain unuttered until the appointed time is come! Even as it hath been said: “Not everything that a man knoweth can be disclosed, nor can everything that he can disclose be regarded as timely, nor can every timely utterance be considered as suited to the capacity of those who hear it.

Of these truths some can be disclosed only to the extent of the capacity of the repositories of the light of Our knowledge, and the recipients of Our hidden grace.” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 176

In the future more of God’s truth will be revealed, more and more in each successive age, as humanity progresses spiritually and is ready to hear more truth.

 

[rational experiences]

A male is a human and he has brothers who all own just one self body.

One self should just think on behalf of that one self and not on behalf of his brothers.

The one self would not make any claim if that one self was the only self living on Planet Earth, which is relative to one human life on O one planet to make a claim of speaking the truth for ONE.

In reality.

How many of you actually do this form of inference about one and one self?

Not many in reality, yet that actual circumstance was told to you.

O one Earth, One God and one planet as One self. I would live to subsist as a human until I died as that one self. I would be living with all the Garden Nature, naturally, and with all the animal species naturally.

Then try to make any cult group themes in that one self story for ONE...and you cannot.

That teaching ONE is the actual concept used to teach previously to prove to the group mentality that it was fake, that it dealt in the use of coercive persuasion in a multi formed caused condition, from being incorrectly a bully, or due to scientific brain chemical changes caused in irradiation events.

Natural spirits own cold natural light in a water/oxygenated microbial body that supports all bio Nature with the ONE human self....the only correct and real teachings, to think for self on behalf of self. A human and not tell coercive stories.

Whose human history belongs to group, coercive group control and cause and effect of scientific machination fall out.

 

[Deeje]

There is nothing contradictory about what I said at all if you take off your Jesus glasses and your Bible glasses which only allow you to see what you want to see.

LOL...but of course Baha'i would never be guilty of that....? What about your Baha'u'llah glasses?

God taught Jesus...

Yes he did.....and we have ample proof in the scriptures that "NO ONE CAN COME TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH JESUS"....there is no other. Like other prophets, (Moses and Elijah) Jesus performed miracles....he healed the sick and raised the dead....and he could read people's minds....what did Baha'u'llah do to prove that God was with him?

God taught Muhammad...
God taught Baha'u'llah...

You have no proof for that. You have the writings of a self-proclaimed prophet who did nothing extraordinary to prove that he was who he claimed to be. He did not uphold the teachings of Jesus whom you claim was his predecessor. How could they be so different? How could their teachings be so contradictory? Can you take one obscure verse out of the Bible and point to Baha'u'llah and say...'yep that him!' ???

Simple dimple.

Is it?
Its simple if you ignore most of the scripture you claim to accept....

God does not contradict Himself but humans misunderstand what God revealed in the scriptures so different religions appear to contradict each other, when in reality they do not. There are differences on all the religions but not contradictions.

That's your story...it isn't mine. I'll stick to the Bible....God will sort out this mess very soon I hope. How much worse can it get?

 

[CG Didymus]

The scriptures do teach progressive revelation of what is already contained in the Bible....but it is never anything "new" or from those who were never authorized by God to speak for him. Clarity would come to those who waited patiently for increased understanding....(Proverbs 4:18) but certainly not from any connection to Ishmael....or Buddhism or Hinduism or any other "ism".



God cannot contradict himself. Either he hates the worship of other gods (Exodus 20:3) and abhors the practice of their religion especially when idolatry is involved (Exodus 20:4-5)....or he has changed his mind about all those things for some reason......
But we know he does not change his standards for anyone.

How could he punish Israel for excursions into false worship and then promote the prophets that presented messages from those false deities?

You know the comparing the "Christian" Jesus to the Baha'i Jesus is too general. How does the Jehovah Witness Jesus compare to the Baha'i Jesus?

 

[Deeje]

You know the comparing the "Christian" Jesus to the Baha'i Jesus is too general. How does the Jehovah Witness Jesus compare to the Baha'i Jesus?

They do not compare at all IMV.

The Jesus we believe in was "the son of God"....an "only begotten", one-of-a-kind being, whose life was transferred from heaven to impregnate the womb of a Jewish virgin. He came to earth as God's most trusted servant on a mission that would pay for the redemption of the human race. His life had to be the exact equivalent of the life that Adam lost for his children in order to redeem them. That is why he had to come from outside the now defective human race. A perfect sinless life had to be offered for the one Adam forfeited through disobedience.

It was a weighty responsibility because he had to exist in mortal human flesh and eventually lay that life down for mankind. The devil was never going to let that course be easy. His death was a travesty but he willingly offered it in spite of the injustice and the unnecessary cruelty.

The temptations brought by satan prove that Jesus could have misused his free will, otherwise it would have been an empty gesture.....he tempted Jesus with the same things that had tempted himself. Lust for power, desire for worship, and power over the elements to serve his own interests.

To understand the role of the devil in all that transpired after the fall is to see why Jesus came, why God chose to send him, and what his sacrifice means for us, and life in the world to come.

I don't see the Baha'i Jesus as anything like that.

 

[firedragon]

You would not be jealous if you knew what the rest of my life is like.
What good is money if you don't have time to use it for anything?

Anyhow, now that you mentioned envy, that is probably my biggest cross to bear, because I envy people who have a life, with children and grandchildren, friends, etc. But I have my husband and my health so I should not complain... But I have certain emotional problems that are insurmountable and money won't help me with those. I will probably have to live with them until I die, unless God helps me.

I should have told you some time ago I was a lady, my mistake.... I make lots of mistakes.

Ah. Thats not envy. It is love. Irrelevant but let me explain. When you say "thumnaa" it means something you emit, not absorb. This is the basic root meaning of Envy as in the Abrahmic theology. When I see someone and think "I wish I had a child" (I mean me personally) that is not emitting my imposition on someone else for what they have. This is also not "Havah" which is "Wishful thinking" which is in the word Havah itself means an egoistic position. It means "I don't want others to be or not to have what I don't have".

I went go too much into this but I humbly request you to reflect on what I said. Although, I probably have much less experience than you I am only explaining what's said in the theology. Assalamu Alaikum.

 

[Trailblazer]

LOL...but of course Baha'i would never be guilty of that....? What about your Baha'u'llah glasses?

The thing about my Baha’u’llah glasses is that they do not prevent me from seeing the truth revealed by other Messengers and other religions, and in fact my glasses help me see the truth in ALL the religions.

God taught Jesus...

Yes he did.....and we have ample proof in the scriptures that "NO ONE CAN COME TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH JESUS"....

Sorry, but the NT was written expressly for the Dispensation of Jesus so what you said above only applies to the Dispensation of Jesus. It’s that simple.

there is no other. Like other prophets, (Moses and Elijah) Jesus performed miracles....he healed the sick and raised the dead....and he could read people's minds....

That is what I mean about the Jesus glasses….. there is no other.
I would never say that about Baha’u’llah. Rather, I would say there were many others.

what did Baha'u'llah do to prove that God was with him?

Baha’u’llah also performed miracles but he did not want anyone to know about them because He did not want people to consider that proof of His Prophethood.

Just as was true of Jesus, the greatest proof of Bahaullah was His own Person and the mission He completed. Unlike Jesus, Baha’u’llah also wrote His own scriptures, which are part of the proof.

“But in the day of the Manifestation the people with insight see that all the conditions of the Manifestation are miracles, for They are superior to all others, and this alone is an absolute miracle. Recollect that Christ, solitary and alone, without a helper or protector, without armies and legions, and under the greatest oppression, uplifted the standard of God before all the people of the world, and withstood them, and finally conquered all, although outwardly He was crucified. Now this is a veritable miracle which can never be denied. There is no need of any other proof of the truth of Christ.” Some Answered Questions, p. 101

God taught Muhammad...
God taught Baha'u'llah...

You have no proof for that. You have the writings of a self-proclaimed prophet who did nothing extraordinary to prove that he was who he claimed to be. He did not uphold the teachings of Jesus whom you claim was his predecessor.

You certainly have NO MORE proof for Jesus than Muslims have for Muhammad or Baha’is have for Baha’u’llah. Actually you have a lot LESS proof since the Bible is not verifiable the way the mission and writings of Baha’u’llah are.

Its simple if you ignore most of the scripture you claim to accept....

I do not ignore any scripture, I just interpret it differently than you do; and since Christians also interpret it differently than you do, that means there is more than one interpretation.

That's your story...it isn't mine. I'll stick to the Bible....God will sort out this mess very soon I hope. How much worse can it get?

That is what I meant by Bible glasses. You can wait and hope that Jesus returns with all the other Christians, but from my perspective God already straightened this out through Baha’u’llah.

It can get a lot worse, and it probably will.

“God’s purpose is none other than to usher in, in ways He alone can bring about, and the full significance of which He alone can fathom, the Great, the Golden Age of a long-divided, a long-afflicted humanity. Its present state, indeed even its immediate future, is dark, distressingly dark. Its distant future, however, is radiant, gloriously radiant—so radiant that no eye can visualize it......”
The Promised Day is Come, p. 116

God’s Purpose