About the Bahá'í Faith
Founded in 1844, the Bahá'í Faith has spread to some 232 nations and territories and is now accepted by more than five million people. The word "Bahá'í" means ''follower of Bahá’u’lláh". Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of The Bahá'í Faith, is the Messenger of God for this day and the most recent in the succession of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and that includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Christ, and Muhammad. His name in Arabic means "The Glory of God", The Bahá'ís believe Bahá’u’lláh was inspired by the Holy Spirit to reveal the Word of God in many volumes of sacred writings.
For more information about the Bahá'í Faith, we invite you to visit:
Official site of the Bahá'ís of the United States
Official site of the Bahá'í Faith (international)
We Bahá'ís believe that there is only one Supreme Being, known by different names in many languages; however, there is only one God. Similarly, we Bahá'ís believe that the core values of all religions emanate from one God; therefore, religions are one. We believe God has revealed moral, social, and spiritual laws to us throughout the ages by sending us divinely-inspired Messengers. We believe that Bahá’u’lláh is the Promised One of this age. However, a significant point is that we Bahá'ís, as followers of Bahá’u’lláh, also embrace and revere Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus Christ, and Muhammad as divine Messengers of God and feel a sense of unity with their followers.
The central theme of Bahá’u’lláh's writings is that all people belong to one human family. In addition to our strong commitment to principles of unity, we Bahá'ís also believe in the equality of men and women, universal education, religious tolerance, the harmony of science and religion, a universal auxiliary language, universal peace upheld by federated nations, and the independent investigation of truth. These beliefs are applied as we create a strong community that is racially unified and culturally diverse.
As this new millennium unfolds, the crucial need facing the human race is to find a unifying vision of the nature of man and society. Such a vision unfolds in the writings of Bahá’u’lláh. We encourage you to investigate the Faith for yourself.
A World Religion
Ceasing to designate to itself a movement, a fellowship and the like . . . or even as a new religion, the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh is now visibly succeeding in demonstrating its claim and title to be regarded as a World Religion, . . "It is like a wide embrace,. . It accepts all great Prophets gone before it, destroys no other creeds, and leaves all doors open",...
The Faith of Bahá'u'lláh has assimilated . . . the varied races, nationalities, creeds and classes that have sought its shadow,. . . While preserving their patriotism and safeguarding their lesser loyalties, it has made them lovers of mankind . . .
Small wonder if by the Pen of Bahá'u'lláh these pregnant words, written in anticipation of the present state of mankind, should have been revealed: "It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens",
World Unity the Goal
Unification of the whole of mankind is the hall-mark of the stage which human society is now approaching. Unity of family, of tribe, of city-state, and nation have been successively attempted and fully established. . . .
Bahá'u'lláh proclaims, ". . . the fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race...
"The well-being of mankind, its peace and security are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established", "So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth",
Who can doubt that such a consummation -- the coming of age of the human race -- must signalize, in its turn, the inauguration of a world civilization such as no mortal eye hath ever beheld or human mind conceived? Who is it that can imagine the lofty standard which such a civilization, as it unfolds itself, is destined to attain? Who can measure the heights to which human intelligence, liberated from its shackles, will soar? Who can visualize the realms which the human spirit, vitalized by the outpouring light of Bahá'u'lláh, shining in the plenitude of its glory, will discover?
What more fitting conclusion to this theme than these words of Bahá'u'lláh, . . .
"This is the Day whereon naught can be seen except the splendors of the Light that shineth from the face of thy Lord, the Gracious, the Most Bountiful. . . . We have then called into being a new creation . . .This is the Day whereon the unseen world crieth out: 'Great is thy blessedness, O earth, for thou hast been made the foot-stool of thy God, and been chosen as the seat of His mighty throne!"
Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 196-206
Jesus Christ Has Returned
Jesus told His followers that He would return. He provided His followers with prophesies concerning His return. The following four verses are noteworthy;
- 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.
- John 14:16: And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
- II Peter 3:10, But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night…
- Revelation 3:12: Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
Consider the following meaning of these verses:
- By these words Jesus told His followers that there were many things that He had to say but at that time they could not bear to hear them.
- Jesus said that God would send them another Comforter(the Comforter would be know under a different name).
- And this Comforter would return and leave before we knew that He was here; i.e. like a thief that comes in the night and leaves before morning when we awake.
Baha’u’llah fulfilled these prophesies. He came to the world with solutions to solve the ills of the world; He came, revealed God’s teaching for this age and died in 1892 before the vast population of the world found how that He was here.
But these four prophesies portray only part of his message. Jesus also gave His followers the following verses concerning His return:
- John16:7, Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
- Revelation 3:3, Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
- 2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
- Matthew 24:29-31 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
- Matthew 24:36-39 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
The interpretation of these and many other prophesies about the return of Jesus have challenged Christian Clergy for almost two thousand years. Shortly after Baha’u’llah’s first revelation from God and well into His forty year exile He was asked four questions concerning the interpretation of prophesies from both the Christian and Islamic Faiths. In two short days He wrote a 250 page book entitled The Book of Certitude which explained these and other prophesies that have puzzled both Christians and Muslims down through the ages.
Jesus admonished His followers to look for His second coming. He provided guidance on how to discern the truth of anyone’s claim to fulfill His prophesies.
- Luke 21:36 Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
- 1 John 4:1-3 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God
- 1Thessolonians 5:19-21 Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
Consider these two gleanings from the writing of Baha’u’llah:
The time foreordained unto the peoples and kindreds of the earth is now come. The promises of God, as recorded in the holy Scriptures, have all been fulfilled. Out of Zion hath gone forth the Law of God, and Jerusalem, and the hills and land thereof, are filled with the glory of His Revelation. Happy is the man that pondereth in his heart that which hath been revealed in the Books of God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. Meditate upon this, O ye beloved of God, and let your ears be attentive unto His Word, so that ye may, by His grace and mercy, drink your fill from the crystal waters of constancy, and become as steadfast and immovable as the mountain in His Cause.
"Call out to Zion, O Carmel, and announce the joyful tidings: He that was hidden from mortal eyes is come! His all-conquering sovereignty is manifest; His all-encompassing splendor is revealed. Beware lest thou hesitate or halt. Hasten forth and circumambulate the City of God that hath descended from heaven, the celestial Kaaba round which have circled in adoration the favored of God, the pure in heart, and the company of the most exalted angels. Oh, how I long to announce unto every spot on the surface of the earth, and to carry to each one of its cities, the glad-tidings of this Revelation -- a Revelation to which the heart of Sinai hath been attracted, and in whose name the Burning Bush is calling: 'Unto God, the Lord of Lords, belong the kingdoms of earth and heaven.' Verily this is the Day in which both land and sea rejoice at this announcement, the Day for which have been laid up those things which God, through a bounty beyond the ken of mortal mind or heart, hath destined for revelation. Ere long will God sail His Ark upon thee, and will manifest the people of Baha who have been mentioned in the Book of Names."
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