“What is the Baha’i faith?”……The Baha’i faith is one of the newer world religions stemming originally from Shi’ite Islam in Persia (modern day Iran). However, it has come to achieve a unique status of its own. The Baha’i faith has distinguished itself as a unique world religion because of its size (5 million members), its global scale (236 countries), its practical autonomy from its parent religion of Islam (there is little blurriness between the two), and for its doctrinal uniqueness being monotheistic yet inclusive.……The Baha’I Faith’s earliest forerunner was Sayid Ali Muhammad who on May 23, 1844 declared himself the Bab (“Gate”), the 8th manifestation of God and first since Muhammad. Implicit to that statement was the denial of Muhammad as the last and greatest prophet and a denial together of the unique authority of the Koran. Islam did not take kindly to such thoughts. The Bab and his followers, called Babis, saw heavy persecution and were part of great bloodshed before the Bab was executed as a political prisoner just six years later in TabrÔö£┬íz, Ôö£├╝dhirbÔö£├¡yjÔö£├¡n, July 9th 1850. But before he died, the Bab spoke of a coming prophet, referred to as “He whom God will Manifest.” On April 22, 1863 Mirza Husayn Ali, one of his followers, declared himself the fulfillment of that prophecy and the latest manifestation of God. He donned the title Baha’u’llah (“glory of God”). The Bab was therefore viewed as a “John the Baptist” type of forerunner leading up to Baha’u’llah who is the more significant manifestation for this age. His followers are called Baha'is. The uniqueness of this budding Baha’i faith, as it has come to be called, becomes clear in the Baha’u’llah’s declarations. Not only did he claim to be the latest prophet foreseen in Shi’ite Islam, and not only did he claim to be a manifestation of God, but he claimed to be the 2nd coming of Christ, the promised Holy Spirit, the Day of God, the Maiytrea (Buddhism), and the Krishna (Hinduism). A kind of inclusivism is apparent from the early stages of the Baha’i faith.……No other manifestation is said to have come since Baha’u’llah, but his leadership was passed on by appointment. He designated a successor in his son Abbas Effendi (later, Abdu’l-Baha “slave of Baha”) to be his successor. While the successors could not speak inspired scripture from God, they could interpret scripture infallibly and were viewed as the maintenance of God’s true word on earth. Abdu’l-Baha would appoint his grandson Shoghi Effendi as successor. Shoghi Effendi, however, died before appointing a successor. The gap remaining was filled by an ingeniously organized governing institution called the Universal House of Justice which remains in power today as the governing body for the Baha’i World Faith. Today the Baha’i faith exists as a world religion with yearly international conferences convening at the Universal House of Justice in Haifa, Israel.……The core doctrines of the Baha’i faith can be attractive in their simplicity:…1) Adoration of one God and the reconciliation of all major religions.…2) Appreciation of the diversity and morality of the human family and the elimination of all prejudice.…3) The establishment of world peace, equality of women and men, and universal education.…4) Cooperation between Science and Religion in the individual’s search for truth.…To these may be added certain implicit beliefs and practices:…5) A Universal Auxillary Language.…6) Universal Weights and Measures.…7) God who is Himself unknowable nevertheless reveals himself through manifestations.…8) These manifestations are a kind of progressive revelation.…9) No proselytizing (aggressive witnessing).…10) The study of different Scriptures besides simply Baha’i books.…11) Prayer and worship is obligatory and much of that according to specific instructions.……The Baha’i faith is quite sophisticated, and many of its followers today are educated, eloquent, eclectic, politically liberal, yet socially conservative (i.e., anti-abortion, pro-traditional family, etc.). Moreover, Bahais are not only expected to understand their own uniquely Baha’i scriptures, but are also expected to study the scriptures of other world religions. Therefore it is quite possible to encounter a Baha’i who is more educated on Christianity than is the average Christian. Furthermore, the Baha’i faith has a strong emphasis on education combined with certain liberal values such as gender egalitarianism, universal education, and harmony between science and religion.……Nonetheless, the Baha’i faith has many theological gaps and doctrinal inconsistencies. Compared to Christianity its core teachings are only superficial in their commonality. The differences are deep and fundamental. The Baha’i faith is ornate and a full critique would be encyclopedic. So only a few observations are made below.……The Baha’i faith teaches that God is unknowable in His essence. Baha'is have the difficulty of explaining how they can have an elaborate theology about God yet assert that God is “unknowable.” And it does not help to say that prophets and manifestations inform mankind about God because if God is “unknowable,” then humanity has no reference point whereby to tell which teacher is telling the truth. Christianity rightly teaches that God can be known, as is naturally known even by non-believers, though they may not have a relational knowledge of God. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead├ö├ç┬¬” God is knowable, not only through the creation, but through His Word and the presence of the Holy Spirit, who leads and guides us and bears witness that we are His children (Romans 8:14-16). Not only can we know Him, but we can know Him intimately as our “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6). True, God may not fit His infinity into our finite minds, but man can still have partial knowledge of God which is entirely true and relationally meaningful.……About Jesus, the Baha’i Faith teaches that He was a manifestation of God but not an incarnation. The difference sounds slight but is actually enormous. Baha'is believe God is unknowable, therefore God cannot incarnate Himself to be present among men. If Jesus is God in the most literal sense, and Jesus is knowable then God is knowable and that Baha’i doctrine is exploded. So Baha'is teach that Jesus was a reflection of God. Just as a person can look at a reflection of the sun in a mirror and say, “There is the sun,” so one can look at Jesus and say, “There is God” meaning “There is a reflection of God.” Here again the problem of teaching that God is “unknowable” surfaces since there would be no way to distinguish between true and false manifestations or prophets. The Christian, however, can argue that Christ has set himself apart from all other manifestations and has confirmed his self-attested divinity by physically rising from the dead (1 Corinthians 15), a point which Baha'is also deny. While the Resurrection would be a miracle, it is nonetheless a historically defensible fact given the body of evidence. Dr. Gary Habermas, Dr. William Lane Craig, and N.T. Wright have done well in defending the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.……The Baha’i Faith also denies the sole sufficiency of Christ and of Scripture. Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, the Bab, and Baha’u’llah were all manifestations of God and the latest of these would have the highest authority since he’d have the most complete revelation of God according to the idea of progressive revelation. Here Christian apologetics can be employed to demonstrate the uniqueness of Christianity’s claims and its doctrinal and practical truthfulness exclusive of contrary religious systems. The Baha’I, however, is concerned for showing that all the world’s major religions are ultimately reconcilable. Any differences would be explained away as:……1) Social Laws-Instead of supra-cultural Spiritual Laws.…2) Early revelation├ö├ç├┤As opposed to the more "complete" later revelation.…3) Corrupted Teaching or Misinterpretation.……But even granting these qualifications, the world’s religions are too varied and too fundamentally different to be reconciled. Given that the world’s religions obviously teach and practice contrary things, the burden is on the Baha’i to salvage the world’s major religions while dismantling almost everything foundational to those religions. Ironically, the religions which are most inclusive-Buddhism and Hinduism-are classically atheistic and pantheistic (respectively) neither of which is allowed within the strictly monotheistic Baha’i faith. Meanwhile, the religions that are least theologically inclusive of the Baha’i faith-Islam, Christianity, Orthodox Judaism-are monotheistic, as Baha’i is.……Also, the Baha’i faith teaches a sort of works-based salvation. The Baha’i Faith is not much different from Islam in its core teachings about how to be saved except that, for the Baha’i, little is said about the afterlife. This earthly life is to be filled with good works counterbalancing one’s evil deeds and showing one’s self deserving of ultimate deliverance. Sin is not paid for or dissolved; rather it is excused by a presumably benevolent God. Man does not have a significant relationship with God. In fact Baha'is teach that there is no personality in God’s essence, but only in His manifestations. Thus God does not submit easily to a relationship with man. Accordingly, the Christian doctrine of grace is reinterpreted so that “grace” means “God’s kind allowance for man to have the opportunity to earn deliverance.” Built into this doctrine is a denial of Christ’s sacrificial atonement and a minimization of sin.……Needless to say, the Christian view of salvation is very different. Sin is understood as being of eternal and infinite consequence since it is a universal crime against an infinitely perfect God (Rom. 3:10, 23). Likewise, sin is so great that it deserves a life (blood) sacrifice and incurs eternal punishment in the afterlife. But Christ pays the price that all deserve, dying as an innocent sacrifice for a guilty humanity. Because man cannot do anything to unblemish himself or to deserve eternal reward, he either must die for His own sins or believe that Christ graciously died in his place (Isa. 53; Rom. 5:8). Thus salvation is either by God’s grace through man’s faith or there is no eternal salvation.……It is no surprise then that Baha’i faith proclaims Baha’u’llah to be the second coming of Christ. Jesus Himself warned us in the gospel of Matthew concerning the end times: “Then if any one says to you, ‘Lo, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christ’s and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:23-24). Interestingly, Baha'is typically deny or minimize any miracles of Baha’u’llah. His unique spiritual claims are based on self-attested authority, uncanny and uneducated wisdom, prolific writing, pure living, majority consensus, and other subjective tests. The more objective tests such as prophetic fulfillment employ heavily allegorical interpretations of Scripture (see Thief in the Night by William Sears). The belief in Baha’u’llah largely reduces to a point of faith-is one willing to accept him as the manifestation of God, in the absence of objective evidence. Of course, Christianity also calls for faith, but the Christian has strong and demonstrable evidence along with that faith.……The Baha’i faith therefore does not accord with classical Christianity, and it has much to answer for in its own right. How an unknowable God could elicit such an elaborate theology and justify a new world religion is a mystery. The Bahai faith is weak in addressing sin, treating it as if it were not a big problem and is surmountable by human effort. Christ’s divinity is denied, as is the evidential value and literal nature of Christ’s resurrection. And for the Baha’i faith, one of its biggest problems is its pluralism. That is, how can one reconcile such divergent religious without leaving them theologically gutted. It is easy to argue that the world’s religions have commonalities in their ethical teachings and have some concept of ultimate reality. But it is another beast entirely to try to argue unity in their fundamental teachings about what the ultimate reality is and about how those ethics are grounded.

Baha’i

Historicalintroduction

In 1844, an Islamic Iranian by the name of Mirza Ali Muhammad (1819-1850) would officially launch the Baha’i religion.

Later renamed Bab, which is Persian for Gate.

Bab believed himself to be a forerunner – much like John the Baptist – who would prepare the way and subsequently, usher in a new worldwide era of peace, under this new World Leader/Messiah figure.

However on 8 July 1850 Bab, after six turbulent years, had made many enemies between local Muslims and government groups.

He would later be arrested, tried and executed by an Iranian firing squad.

Baha’i tradition believes that after his death, a fierce black whirlwind immediately swept the city.

To the observant and faithful student of the Holy Scriptures, this will no doubt, seem rather familiar to what we read of in the Gospel’s concerning the Lord Jesus’ death (Matt. 27:51,52.)

Following his death, thousands of his faithful followers would too follow him to the grave, with many more being imprisoned.

In 1863, Mirza Husayn Ali, a faithful follower of Bab, announced he was the promised World Leader.

Much like his founder Bab, he too took upon himself a new name, Baha u llah.

However, being a political prisoner, detained in a Baghdad prison, he would never leave his cell and in 1892 died.

Upon his death, Abbas Effendi his son, succeeded his father to lead the Baha’is.

In 1912 he would travel to America as a missionary, where he remained for eight months. Effendi, who changed his name to Abdull Baha, built their first ever temple in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1921, Abdull Baha died and his grandson, Shogi Effendi, took over the reigns of the Baha’is.

Shogi, unlike his grandfather or great-grandfather before him, chose not to take a new name for himself and would remain in charge of the Baha’is until his death in 1957.

Since then, an elected committee runs the Baha’is.

Current facts

Their headquarters are based in Haifa, Israel. They are active in over two hundred countries worldwide, and have five million members.Their library consists some two hundred books and tablets mainly written by Baha’is Abdul Baha (Baha’i website.)

Beliefs

Red = Bahai

Black = Traditional Christianity

In Edmond Gruss’ book, Cults and Occults, pg. 95 he gives the following breakdown of what the Baha’is believe:

The independent search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition.

On three occasions in the Gospel of John, Jesus affirmed for all generations to come, that He is the total and absolute truth (John 8:32; 14:6 & 18:37.)

The oneness of the entire human race, the pivotal principle and fundamental doctrine of the Faith.

Today’s ecumenical and apostate churches are strong advocates of this doctrine. However, the word of God is not.

In Genesis 11:1-8, we read the following concerning this early one world order and disastrous it turned out to be:

“And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

This ancient Scripture clearly states that God was not going to tolerate this oneness of man.

The basic unity of all religions.

The Apostle Paul would disagree with this: “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5.)

“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” (Eph. 4:5-7.)

The equality of men and women, the two wings on which the bird of human kind is able to soar.

While Galatians 3:28 states that men and women are equal is the eyes of God, there are clear distinctions between priestly roles when the Church assembles (1 Cor. 11:9 & 14:34 & 1 Tim. 2:11,12.)

The institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations.

The Lord Jesus Christ taught His Church to be in the world but not of the world (John 17:16; 1 John 2:15-17.)

The establishment of a permanent and universal peace as the supreme goal of all mankind.

This can only occur when the Prince of Peace returns (Is. 9:6.)

These articles of faith, far from being comprehensive, seem much like an early form of socialism and communism all rolled into one. Interestingly, the UN would later fulfil Baha’i hopes and dreams by initiating a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations.

As with all well organised religions, members are strongly encouraged to be mobilised and sent out to proselytise new converts. Such pioneers, as they are called, are sent out to find and build new temples as and where possible.

Personal observation

Like many people in 2003, I watched the news daily to see what would happen in the build up to war in Iraq. Christians, like myself, prayed regularly for peace, if possible, but were resigned to the fact that war was almost inevitable. During this period of great anxiety for the secular world, one unknown and yet very distinguished man, a Dr. David Kelly, a biological weapons expert, was exposed to the world as the source that had caused the British Government such great embracement. He would suggest, via a BBC journalist, that the UK government falsified the genuine threat that Saddam Husseinreally posed to the world.

To shorten a long story, Dr Kelly, buckled under the mental pressure of his much-unwanted fame, and on the 18 July 2003 took his own life (although this is now seriously doubted by many sources.) Now the reason I have wished to venture into the war in Iraq and David Kelly’s involvement is because he was a member of the Baha’i religion. Yet, for many years he had been a practising Anglican. Not only would David Kelly be a fully pledged member of this cult, but also would rise in prominence to the position of treasurer, to his local group. However his wife, I believe has always remained a practising Anglican. Interestingly enough, her late husband is buried in the local Anglican churchyard, of the church where he and his wife had been regular Christian worshippers over many years.

Clearly David Kelly believed he could be a Christian and a Baha’i member at the same time?

However in William Miller’s book Incite, pg. 28 he deals with the issue of whether or not a Christian can also be a Bahai:

“It has been supposed by some that a Christian is able to retain his faith and his membership in his church while he joins the Bahai movement and works for peace and brotherhood for all. Some Christians have attempted to do this. However, Shogi Effendi and other Baha’i leaders have made it clear that this is not possible. It should be clearly understood that when a Christian becomes a Bahai he by doing so rejects the basic doctrines of the Bible, denies his Christian faith, and starts off in a different direction.”

It should also be pointed out that the Baha’i religion deny all the cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, i.e., the Trinity, Deity of Christ, Virgin Birth, Bodily Resurrection of Christ, Substitutionary Atonement, Salvation by Faith Alone, Second Coming and Scriptures inerrancy, infallibility, and finality.

For a very frank and comprehensive discussion between the late Walter Martin and a Baha’i elder, of some fifty years experience, please refer to

The Kingdom of the Cults, pgs. 325-327.

Famous members

Count Leo Tolstoy, President Woodrow Wilson’s daughter, and the pop group Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Neil Young.

Conclusion

In summing up this cult, it is clear to me, that the Baha’is promote Jesus to be no more than a glorified prophet! They, like all cults, only give Him lip service. Interestingly, however, I was surprised that the Bahai’s haven’t yet ventured or been invited into the so called full communion of the World Council of Churches, the super apostate ecumenical movement, based in Switzerland. For the Baha’is are very much an ecumenically based religious movement incorporating bizarre teachings from Islamic, Judaism and Christianity. They also, it seems, allow new converts to continue in their former religious practises, while simultaneously being fully tithed to them, the Bahai’s.

This dual spiritual relationship is I believe impossible to maintain or uphold.

How are they able to do it? Because they incorporate three of the world’s largest religions, this enables them to appear to be an attractive, broad, inclusive and obviously successful sect; which continues to grow. But in reality, there is no substance whatsoever to their religion.

On 22 October 1971, the Los Angeles Times printed this quote from a Bahai official:

“If you are of the Christian faith which had its origin approximately the year 1, your prophecy concerning the return of Christ in the glory of the Father has been fulfilled. His new name in this day is Bahaullah which means the Glory of God.”

There can be no doubt that not only is this cult unbiblical, but Christians should be aware of its antichrist message which the world will hear about in end times. We should, avoid all contact with this cult and have nothing to with it.

“And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” (1 John 4:3.)

Our role is simple: evangelise the world (Matt. 28:19,20.)