Q: The Baha’i faith and inter-religion harmony?

 

By: Pastor HM

 

 

 

 

 

In essence, the Baha’i faith claims cosmic embrace of all religions. At first, this kind of all-embracing stance seems rather appealing, but if you think about it carefully, there are several major problems:

(1) There is no such thing as an all-embracing faith because you end up excluding exclusivists! Skeptics believe than any exclusive claim to a superior knowledge of spiritual reality is narrow-minded and untrue. But this objection is itself is an exclusive truth claim. It assumes that God is unknowable but this is an unprovable faith assumption! Therefore, if it is not narrow to hold onto a view like this (including the Baha’i faith) then there is nothing wrong about holding to traditional religious beliefs.

(2) While the Baha’i faith claims that it focuses on similarities, it is like every other faith system. It has distinct beliefs and these often contradict the teachings of other religions. Take the Person of Jesus Christ for example. The Baha’i faith teaches:

1. Jesus Christ is Divine and that He also pre-existed before His human form.  At the same time Baha’is believe that there are three levels of being: humankind, Manifestations or Prophets of God, and God.

2. The various prophets that formed the various religions of the world are equal.  There is no superiority or inferiority among them.  So Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Moses, and Abraham are all equal.

3. All of the various prophets of God are seen as pre-existent.  So this means that Abraham, Moses and Buddha were not born as normal humans, but were pre-existent in the spiritual realm.

These views are completely distinct from historical Christianity, so how can people focus from the Baha’ faith and the Christian faith “come together and appreciate our differences”? Remember, Jesus himself never claimed to be only a prophet; he claimed to be God!

I believe there should be mutual respect and we can dialogue with each other about spiritual matters (i.e. inter-religion harmony), but let us be clear: The two religions are completely different and therefore, if you hold to the teachings & beliefs of one, you cannot embrace the teachings & beliefs of the other. In other words, we can have good conversation and show kindness and love to our Baha’i neighbors, but we should not compromise our beliefs in order to do so. Take another example: Salvation.

Baha’is do not believe that salvation is a free gift of God.  Salvation is seen as a collaboration between God and man.  This collaboration is seen as being initiated by God, but it is one that man must participate in.  Salvation is not seen as a one-time event, but it is seen as a process that involves both the actions of God and the individual.

Again, this is completely antithetical to the Christian faith which says that salvation is found in Christ alone and it is a free gift that cannot be earned by man (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Consider this: We all believe in the law of non-contradiction, which says something cannot be A and non-A at the same time and in the same sense. So if we apply this law to the claims of the Baha’i faith and Christianity, it means one is right and one is wrong. The Baha’i faith claim that Jesus is not God, whereas Christianity claims He is. So you can’t say something like “it’s true for you but not true for me”: Jesus is either God or he’s not. Period.

As you can see, there are more differences than similarities. Even abstract concepts that appear to be similar such as “love for your neighbor” are rooted in different beliefs. Baha’i faith says that love for one’s neighbor is natural and is connected with one’s eternal destiny, while Christianity teaches us that we love because God loved us first (1 John 4:19), which means we don’t love people so that we can earn our salvation; we love because we have already experienced God’s love on the cross.

Summarily, Christians should always support harmony and peace (Matthew 5:9), but not when in a manner that calls us to abandon our Christian beliefs. In fact, we ought to evangelize our Baha’i friends in truth and in love.

Source: www.splat.rhccc.ca