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Who Was Baha’u’llah, and How Can We Evaluate His Claims?

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
Well the Bab and Baha'u'llah are definitely right. :D

You did ask.

Regards Tony
Yes, to Baha'is the "Three Woes" are Muhammad, the Bab and Baha'u'llah. But "definitely" right? To me, the context doesn't fit any of them.
Rev. 8:1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 2 And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them...

6 Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them.

7 The first angel sounded his trumpet, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was hurled down on the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.

8 The second angel sounded his trumpet, and something like a huge mountain, all ablaze, was thrown into the sea. A third of the sea turned into blood, 9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.

10 The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— 11 the name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.

12 The fourth angel sounded his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

13 As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice: “Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels!”
If things weren't bad enough, now the last three trumpet blasts were to be sounded.

Rev. 9:1 The fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from the sky to the earth. The star was given the key to the shaft of the Abyss. 2 When he opened the Abyss, smoke rose from it like the smoke from a gigantic furnace. The sun and sky were darkened by the smoke from the Abyss. 3 And out of the smoke locusts came down on the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4 They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5 They were not allowed to kill them but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes. 6 During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.

7 The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8 Their hair was like women’s hair, and their teeth were like lions’ teeth. 9 They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10 They had tails with stingers, like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11 They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is Apollyon (that is, Destroyer).

12 The first woe is past; two other woes are yet to come.
That's the first "Woe". What does that have to do with Muhammad? It's sure seems to me a continuation of judgements like the previous trumpet blasts. Then comes the next "Woe". Does this sound like it is describing the Bab?

13 The sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice coming from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God. 14 It said to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. 16 The number of the mounted troops was twice ten thousand times ten thousand. I heard their number.

17 The horses and riders I saw in my vision looked like this: Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue, and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions, and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. 18 A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. 19 The power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails were like snakes, having heads with which they inflict injury.

20 The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands; they did not stop worshiping demons, and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood—idols that cannot see or hear or walk. 21 Nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality or their thefts.
This second "Woe" goes into chapter 11 before it ends. During that time the Two Witnesses appear, which Baha'is say are Muhammad and Ali. But we just got finished with Muhammad in the first "Woe" and now here he is again in the middle of the second "Woe"?

11 I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. 2 But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months. 3 And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth”...

14 The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.
Believe it if you want, but the Baha'i interpretation of all this is too contrived and too vague to be meaningful to anybody but a Baha'i.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
It is proven the same way or has always been proven. By the Message given, as it is from God and is suited to the age.

I do not know what is coming to make people look with new eyes and hear with new ears, but I suspect the world will suffer across all Nations, it is building CG. There is no stopping the financial collapse now and that is one front of the war being waged.

Regards Tony
Yes, things could easily fall apart. But... Does the Messiah come during the Tribulation, after it or before it? The Baha'is have the Messiah come before the Tribulation, get imprisoned and exiled, die and then, because he was rejected by the leaders of the world, now we go into wars and rumors of wars and all sorts of disasters. Do the prophecies support that, along with there being two end-time manifestations, the Bab and Baha'u'llah, or does it have the Messiah, in his lifetime restore things and establish peace and God's kingdom?
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
"The Prophets of God are the first Educators. They bestow universal education upon man and cause him to rise from the lowest levels of savagery to the highest pinnacles of spiritual development.
And which manifestation accomplished that? Raising people from savagery to the "highest" pinnacle of spiritual development?

Yet the reality we see generally shows that reason, rational thought, the move away from blind adherence to dogma is what raises a society to better things.
It its interesting that you have not addressed that part of my argument. The evidence that secular, liberal democracies offer more peace and unity than theocracies or highly religious nations.
Why do you think that is?
Yes, we've had to be "saved" from religious people that wanted to force and enforce "God's" laws on people.

Nonsense. There is literally zero chance of the entire world following the Baha'i faith.
The best chance for world peace and unity is the acceptance that people are different, and not trying to impose our own ideologies on others. Mutual cooperation and understanding, rather than meaningless platitudes is the way forward
That's the thing... Is the Baha'i Faith destined to rule the world? If so, what are they going to do with it? Everyone is going to go along with Baha'i laws? Especially the sexual moral laws? And what about no drugs and alcohol?

If some people don't want to go along with those laws, will the Baha'i government impose those laws on everybody? Plus, has any religion been successful at getting their own people and their own leaders to follow the laws? I doubt if the Baha'i people and their leaders will be able to be any different. And then what do religious people do? They do all their "sinning" in private and try to look all holy in public.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
Indeed. Their deluded confirmation bias is staggering. I bet if the internet was used as an example of a global, unifying force, they would claim it was Bahullah who invented it. :tearsofjoy:
I'm pretty sure they would and probably do. I think they say that special stuff was released in the air. People invented the telegraph, then telephone, the TV's, the computers then the internet. All because of Baha'u'llah. Then people invented machine guns and AR 15's and missiles and nuclear bombs. All thanks to this new knowledge God released and allowed humans to access. Thanks God. You the best.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
The whole "All previous religions were corrupted versions of the one true religion" was claimed by Islam, so Bahaullah just nicked it from Muhammad.
Of course they've been corrupted. How else can they explain away the contradictions. But, what funny, is Christians trying to explain away contradictions within the gospels. One story has Jesus and the family going to Egypt, the other gospel has them go to the Temple in Jerusalem and then on up to Nazareth. They find a way to make both true, since there's no way they can contradict.

But then comes Islam... They have Mary giving birth to Jesus under a palm tree. So, forget Egypt. Heck, forget Bethlehem. For Baha'is, the Quran is more accurate than the Bible or the NT. Unless, it says something that contradicts Baha'u'llah, Then the Baha'i writings are what is really true. So, it's not even that the religions became corrupted, but the Scriptures of all the other religions can't be trusted either.
 

CG Didymus

Veteran Member
Because citing words are not enough if people want to twist them away from their proper context and place or outright lie about terms in language and phrases.
Is the Baha'i belief that there will be two "manifestations" in the end-times something that is supported in Islam? Also, that the first manifestation would come in the year 1260?
 

Link

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Is the Baha'i belief that there will be two "manifestations" in the end-times something that is supported in Islam? Also, that the first manifestation would come in the year 1260?

Supported in what way? I'm sure they can come up with some weird explanation and quote Quran and hadiths, so sure, supported.

Same way Sunnis argue against Ali (a) by saying Aisha fought him but remains our mother or that Abu Baker and Umar are from original Muhajareen and are guaranteed paradise, as such they can't be hypocrites or disbelievers like they would be if Imam Ali (a) is appointed by God.

Everything can be supported. I've even seen dark arts and black magic justified in Shiite Islam at various levels including the Zodiac cosmology. This despite it being evil and from Satan.

I am sure if I really wanted to play word games, I can even prove Ali (a) to be incarnation of God as some sects use to believe and justified through Quran.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Because citing words are not enough if people want to twist them away from their proper context and place or outright lie about terms in language and phrases.
That's true, but all believers do that, Baha'is and Muslims and Christians and Jews..
Everyone believe THEY have the correct interpretations so THEY know what the verses mean.
This is nothing short of ego because there is no reason to believe THEY know any more than anyone else.
 

Link

Veteran Member
Premium Member
That's true, but all believers do that, Baha'is and Muslims and Christians and Jews..
Everyone believe THEY have the correct interpretations so THEY know what the verses mean.
This is nothing short of ego because there is no reason to believe THEY know any more than anyone else.

Not everyone does that or no one would go to paradise. Because all those who interpret God's words without clear insights and proofs and follow something made up in their own minds and is in fact ambiguous and follow unclear, per Quran and hadiths, will got hell.

Anyone who interprets God's words per their caprice will end up in hell.

Only hard hearts don't put God's words in their proper context per Quran and hadiths.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Atheists are just as likely to be moral, just and compassionate as religionists.
Ironically, you have just demonstrated the blind intolerance of the religious mindset by insisting that atheists cannot display those virtues, simply because they duo not believe in gods.
I fully agree.
But they clearly are not from god, as "godless" people can display them.
The fact that atheists can and do display them does not mean they are not from God.
There is no logical connection.
Yet the reality we see generally shows that reason, rational thought, the move away from blind adherence to dogma is what raises a society to better things.
I cannot argue with that. There is nothing worse than blind adherence to dogma.
Nonsense. There is literally zero chance of the entire world following the Baha'i faith.
You cannot know that because you are not God, and only God knows the future, but no matter because it s not a Baha'i belief that someday the entire world will follow the Baha'i Faith. We have to go by what was written by Baha'u'llah and below is what was written:

“Warn and acquaint the people, O Servant, with the things We have sent down unto Thee, and let the fear of no one dismay Thee, and be Thou not of them that waver. The day is approaching when God will have exalted His Cause and magnified His testimony in the eyes of all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 248


That passage means that in the future everyone will know about Baha'ullah and His Cause, which is God's Cause, and God's Cause as revealed by Baha'u'llah will be exalted to everyone in heaven and on earth. It does not say that everyone will become a Baha'i. People have free will so they will always have a choice.

“That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and all else naught but error.”
The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 91


If God has ordained that there will be one universal Cause, one common Faith, that is what will transpire, since what God ordains always comes to pass eventually. The passage does not say it will be the Baha'i Faith. By the time humanity unites under one common Faith another Messenger of God might have come and the Faith will be called by another name.
The best chance for world peace and unity is the acceptance that people are different, and not trying to impose our own ideologies on others. Mutual cooperation and understanding, rather than meaningless platitudes is the way forward.
That is true and that is what Baha'is try to do. We try to cooperate with everyone and we do not impose our beliefs upon anyone. Perhaps Baha'is could do better at trying to understand the atheist perspective but not everyone is able to see both sides. I see both sides since I have a tendency to listen and question and analyze everything, rather than just believing everything because it is in scripture.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Not everyone does that or no one would go to paradise. Because all those who interpret God's words without clear insights and proofs and follow something made up in their own minds and is in fact ambiguous and follow unclear, per Quran and hadiths, will got hell.

Anyone who interprets God's words per their caprice will end up in hell.

Only hard hearts don't put God's words in their proper context per Quran and hadiths.
Christians say the same things about God's words. They all believe that they interpret God's words with clear insights and proofs, led by the Holy spirit, but that is logically impossible since they all have different beliefs about what the words mean. The same can be said of Muslims reading the Qur'an.
 

Link

Veteran Member
Premium Member
Quran says differences and disputes occurred despite clear proofs and knowledge. It's not that guidance is not clear, it's people turn away while knowing better not to.

So it's not that you don't know or others don't know. Knowledge is not the issue. There is no Sunni that doesn't know Ali (a) is successor to Mohammad (s).

The issue is being sincere to God his guidance and submitting to the light and clear truth.

Imam Hussain (a) said concerning his revolt to Yazid and summoning people to overthrow him "what let your enemies rule over you is resorting to ambiguity despite there being among you clear proofs...."

People only don't see Ali (a) in Quran because they wish to testify to God and Mohammad (s) and also stick to the dunya and religion be an issue of convenience.

Anyone who fears God will enter paradise per Quran. The problem is hard hearts who twist words of God as well as Messenger's (s) words out of their place, don't fear God at all.
 

samtonga43

Well-Known Member
Paul changed the course of Christianity. Whether he corrupted it or not is a matter of opinion.
According to you, Tb, this ‘corruption’ of which you speak is a fact. (#643)
Now, since it is a fact that Paul ‘corrupted’ Christianity, show us how. What teaching did Paul corrupt? Of course, to do this, you would have to know what Christian teaching BEFORE this ‘corruption’.
Over to you.

Words do not produce fruits. Words mean nothing without deeds.
More contradiction:
Tb 1. Actually, Baha'u'llah's Words will produce fruits for all of humanity, if humanity chooses to follow them.
Tb 2. Words do not produce fruits.

You rely on the words because without them there will be no fruits.
 

samtonga43

Well-Known Member
If Baha'u'llah is God's Manifestation, then rejecting Baha'u'llah is akin to rejecting God.
Note the conditional statement: If P then Q (p→q)
Here is another conditional statement:
If Father Christmas is God's Manifestation, then rejecting Baha'u'llah is akin to rejecting God.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
"God Who is the Author of all life can alone take it away, and dispose of it the way he deems best."

This means that however a person dies, it is god's doing and the manner that he "deems best".
Therefore if a baby dies in agony from a congenital condition, it is god "taking life away, and disposing of it the way he deems best".
Two problems:
1. You have quoted Shoghi Effendi out of context.
2. You think you know what he meant by that statement, but it can mean more than one thing.

Obviously it is not true that God alone can take life away since people take their own lives away through suicide all the time.

You said: if a baby dies in agony from a congenital condition, it is god "taking life away, and disposing of it the way he deems best"

If a baby dies in agony from a congenital condition that is because the baby inherited that congenital condition. The only way you can trace that back to God is if you say that God is responsible for fate so it was that baby's fate to inherit that congenital condition.

Obviously, that opens up a whole can of worms because lots of things happen to people that they did not choose, so that was their fate, and God is responsible for those things, both the good and the bad. Abdu'l-Baha said that but Baha'is do not see the obvious implications.

“Some things are subject to the free will of man, such as justice, equity, tyranny and injustice, in other words, good and evil actions; it is evident and clear that these actions are, for the most part, left to the will of man. But there are certain things to which man is forced and compelled, such as sleep, death, sickness, decline of power, injuries and misfortunes; these are not subject to the will of man, and he is not responsible for them, for he is compelled to endure them. But in the choice of good and bad actions he is free, and he commits them according to his own will.”
Some Answered Questions, p. 248

Believers only want to look at the Good things and thank God for those things, they do not want to look at the Bad things for which God is responsible. Instead, they try to say that all the Bad things are really Good because suffering is good, and God can never be responsible for anything Bad. These religious apologetics are patently illogical.

God is not off the hook as it would be illogical to blame man for things that are beyond his control. It's too bad most believers cannot think logically and realize this, since they have to maintain their God is Loving stance.
 

samtonga43

Well-Known Member
Indeed. Their deluded confirmation bias is staggering. I bet if the internet was used as an example of a global, unifying force, they would claim it was Bahullah who invented it. :tearsofjoy:
You know, I think they actually do say that MrB invented the internet. If they don't, they will find a connection somehow. And the irony lies in the possibility that this connection will be explained in archaic language, rather than that of the current age.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
According to you, Tb, this ‘corruption’ of which you speak is a fact. (#643)
Now, since it is a fact that Paul ‘corrupted’ Christianity, show us how. What teaching did Paul corrupt? Of course, to do this, you would have to know what Christian teaching BEFORE this ‘corruption’.
Over to you.
I do not know. That is something the scholars know and much has been written.
The sources are cited in the link I provided.

How Paul changed the course of Christianity

I will leave it to you to figure it out, or not.
More contradiction:
Tb 1. Actually, Baha'u'llah's Words will produce fruits for all of humanity, if humanity chooses to follow them.
Tb 2. Words do not produce fruits.

You rely on the words because without them there will be no fruits.
Your quoting me out of context to try to say I contradicted myself is duly noted. :rolleyes:

Here is the context of Tb2:

That is absolutely false. Fruits are the result of successful work or actions. I rely upon Baha'u'llah's works to show me His fruits. His works can be seen in what He accomplished on His mission, which anyone can read about in the various accounts of Baha'i history.

Words do not produce fruits. Words mean nothing without deeds.


Tb2
Baha'u'llah did not rely upon His words to produce His fruits.
Baha'u'llah's words did not produce His fruits, His deeds produced His fruits.

Tb1
Baha'u'llah's words (His Writings) will produce fruits for all of humanity if humanity chooses to follow His words and do deeds that produce fruits.
So, it is true that the Baha'is rely on the words because without them there will be no fruits.

Fruits: the pleasant or successful result of work or actions: fruit
 
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