Posted by Rob (165.121.37.250) on May 27, 2002 at 14:05:00:

In Reply to: Juan Cole has no friends? posted by Vincent on May 26, 2002 at 05:48:37:

Vincent,

Baha'is, as you well know, consider Baha'u'llah to be the Return of Christ, so your statement suggesting they are trying to add Baha'u'llah to "Christ" makes no sense from the Baha'i perspective. Baha'is believe Christ and Baha'u'llah as one and the same Spirit. Jews could argue that Christians are trying to add Christ to Moses and therefore Christ is a false Messenger, and yet this would be, from the Baha'i point of view, an innacurate understanding of Christ who came to fulfill the Mosiac Law and not usurp it.

The concept of shunning those who are trying to destroy a sacred Covenant by forming another following usurping the Covenant is not new to religion. In former ages, for example, Christians of the prevailing order would do far more than merely shun those who protested and formed an unorthodox cult or sect. Protestants, as we now them, were killed or imprisoned by the orthodoxy and the orthodoxy were killed in return. Of course, since Jesus Christ never formed the orthodox Church-State through a set of instructions, the Churches were pretty much man-made, though based on some religious teachings of Christ. It is understandable how such orthodox institutions could have gone so wayward from the teachings of Christ, more so as time went on. Protestants were not given any more set of instructions or mandate by Christ in His teachings than the orthodox churches in forming a religious governance, though their understanding of how far the orthodoxy had gone from some essential Christ teachings was inspiring to many. However, that protestant inspiration lead to wars and continues to this day in the form of vicious attacks by the the more fundementalist protestants upon any who do not agree with their particular interpretation of Christianity. Indeed, the such attacks are a greater sin than if they were to merely shun those they disagree with. The Christian organizations have added man-made doctrines and dogma to Christ's teachings.

Now that Christ has Returned in Baha'u'llah, and provided for the first time in religious history the actual form and method of religious government (the Kingdom of God on earth as foretold by Christ aforetime), this issue of what to do about those who have formed man-made religious organizations in the past or currently has been answered straight from the Christ Himself through Baha'u'llah. To suggest that man-made ideas of how to relate to other religious groups is better than those set of instructions from the Lord of Hosts Himself is, to the Baha'is, not even within possiblity.

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