If he proclaimed he was the return of Christ and the Message of God for the Age, that is self-promotion.
Self-promotion for the sake of God because that was His mission from God! That is what God told Him to do.
And I disagree that was necessary. Jesus never went around proclaiming he was the Messiah, did he?
No, He just claimed to be the Son of God and the
the only way man can come to God.
John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
It was the Christians who claimed Jesus was the Messiah.
If you want to compare Jesus to Baha'ullah, Baha'u'llah never claimed that He was the Only Way to come to God. All He ever said was that He was the Manifestation of God for this age.
Baha’u’llah sternly warned us
never to make any distinction between any of the Messengers of God (who are the Manifestations of His Cause) because they all arise to proclaim the same religion, since there is only one eternal religion of God. Baha’u’llah wrote that the works and acts of all the Manifestations of God were all ordained by God, a reflection of His Will and Purpose, meaning that all the religions are
equally true and all the Messengers are
equal in stature.
“Beware, O believers in the Unity of God, lest ye be tempted to make any distinction between any of the Manifestations of His Cause, or to discriminate against the signs that have accompanied and proclaimed their Revelation. This indeed is the true meaning of Divine Unity, if ye be of them that apprehend and believe this truth. Be ye assured, moreover, that the works and acts of each and every one of these Manifestations of God, nay whatever pertaineth unto them, and whatsoever they may manifest in the future, are all ordained by God, and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose. Whoso maketh the slightest possible difference between their persons, their words, their messages, their acts and manners, hath indeed disbelieved in God, hath repudiated His signs, and betrayed the Cause of His Messengers.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 59-60
He left that an open-ended question in the minds of others. "Who do men say that I am?," he asked his inner disciples. And yet they came to that conclusion he was the messiah on their own. That's how he wanted it to be done. Not through his own self-promotion, but through their own inner, subjective relalizations.
Why does it matter what Jesus did? That was another age in history, one we are no longer living in, and Jesus has a completely different mission from Baha'u'llah. This is a new day and a new way. The world's peoples no longer have time to dink around wondering who a Messenger of God is.
This strikes at why I find this self-declarations of being the Messenger of the Age to be at odds with the spirit of Truth itself.
Baha'u'llah was the Spirit of Truth, that was His claim.
The lilies of the field do not promote themselves with a fanfare of blaring trumpets. They just silently speak greater glory than all the idols of our ideas of greatness. This is how I believe.
Those times are in the past. That is what I believe.
Not necessarily. People can read scriptures in a wide variety of ways to support whatever they really want in it.
That applies to ALL people, not just to Baha'is.
Do you note here how Jesus did not going around proclaiming who he was? It was a mystery to everyone, because he never told them! And you ask how would they know if he didn't tell them? Here is the very answer to your question. It was not revealed because Jesus told them, but because it was realized subjectively, in Peter's own inner being, in his heart, through his faith. Not because of the claims of Jesus.
Now are you starting to see my point in this?
Baha'u'llah did not go around proclaiming who he was, except to the kings and rulers and religious leaders of His day, because it was important they they knew and there would have been no other way for them to know who He was had He not written to them proclaiming it.
I see your point, but it is illogical to compare what happened 2000 years ago with what happened in the 19th century, and expect it to be the same way as it was back then. What else is the same in the world today? The needs of the present times are completely different from what they were 2000 years ago.
“The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. “Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 213
Jesus never wrote one single word of scripture. Yet doesn't everyone know who he was?
They know who Jesus was because the gospel authors wrote about Him. What's your point, that Baha'u'llah should not have written anything? Should He have waited for others to write about Him decades later, as happened with Jesus, when He was perfectly capable of writing Himself?
Sorry to tell you, but I've experienced this, and countless others as well. This is not "what I believe". It is what I have experienced. You may not believe this, but then are you saying I am a liar in speaking of my own personal experiences? Or that I did not experience it, but only believe I did?
You do not have to be sorry. I do not know anything about anyone else's personal experiences, I only know about my own personal experiences.
As I said, it is not a matter of belief. It is a matter of experience. The only thing I could say is a belief is that I believe it is possible for everyone to experience what I have, because I have. But it's not a belief that I experienced what I did. It is an experience, not an idea.
It is also not a belief that I experienced being guided by God to recognize Baha'u'llah, and continue to be guided by God daily to remain steadfast in my faith. Are you going to tell me I was not guided? It is an experience, not an idea.
Okay, so then you have had some experience you can draw upon that informs your beliefs? Then you cannot dismiss the experience of others when they tell you of their own experiences. The only difference being is that you have not experienced what they have, and you don't understand what their experience is. Then you are left with trying to explain to yourself how your ideas differ from theirs based upon their experiences. Right?
I do not dismiss your experiences. You have had some experience you can draw upon that informs your beliefs. Do you dismiss the experience of others when they tell you of their own experiences? The only difference being is that you have not experienced what they have, and you don't understand what their experience is. Then you are left with trying to explain to yourself how your ideas differ from theirs based upon their experiences.
But yet, you are still doing so. I don't mind discussing this with you. And clearly you aren't unwilling to discuss it either, as you continue to post your arguments in response. So I'm not sure why you are tacking this on here.
I can only explain my personal experiences just as you can only explain yours, but we cannot understand each other's personal experiences since they are personal to us. I take it on since I normally respond to posts that are posted to me unless someone is really rude and disrespectful.
By the way, you might ask
@Truthseeker about his peronal experiences of God since he desires to connect to God and I think he has had some mystical experiences.