Baha'u'llah

by Baha'i International Community

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0909991510
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Ontario, Canada : Baha'i Canada Publications
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

BAHÁ'U'LLÁH PASSES THE LEWIS-MCDOWELL TEST

To criticize this book is to consider the merits of whom BAHÁ'U'LLÁH claimed to be, namely a Messenger of God, "a perfect reflection of his attributes." All manifestations of God - Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ, Mohammed, plus some others -- have the same spirit, but they reflect different aspects of God according to the needs and circumstances of the time and place in which they appear. BAHÁ'U'LLÁH is not merely the return of Christ, he is the "universal Messenger of God . . . awaited by the followers of all religions." Since he was an intelligent, eloquently influential, self-sacrificing and peace-loving man, he passes the Lewis-McDowell Divinity Test with flying colors. He had no miraculous birth, but was a man like others, "when, lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been." He said, "Not of Mine own volition," had he entered on this course. Nietzsche, when describing the power with which ideas arose within him, said essentially the same thing. BAHÁ'U'LLÁH deplored the religious dogmas that create discord between different peoples. Who doesn't? "Those whom God will hold responsible for this tragedy are humanity's religious leaders, who have presumed to speak for Him throughout history." Well, what about the "perfect reflections of God" who presumed to speak for Him and founded the world's religions? Do they really not bear any of the responsibility? For just one of many examples: Did God really tell Moses to have prostitutes stoned to death, brutally sterilize cities of all forms of life, and that beating your slaves to death was just fine as long as they survived for a few days? Am I to believe - as I emphatically do not -- that this was really the Message mankind needed at that time to aid its spiritual evolution? How could Moses' Message have resulted in anything but dogma and discord? Even Christ tended to gloat over the horrible fates that awaited all people who did not accept him as the Savior. Yet Mohammed insisted no Savior was necessary. Am I then to believe that the actual Messages of these Messengers have been distorted? What I actually think most likely to be true is that the Messengers themselves are slaves to the age in which they are born, and maybe even God himself must spiritually evolve as mankind evolves. (For what it's worth, I, too, briefly experienced "the breath of God" wafting over me -- as I describe in my book,CAPTAIN CALIFORNIA -- and this was the knowledge that I felt I received). Although reason is the perfect gift of God, since BAHÁ'U'LLÁH is a manifestation of God, I am not permitted to doubt whatever he tells me, no matter how much my reason tells me I should. As religions go, I honor the Bahá'í above all others; but I can only believe that which my reason and experience determine.