Unveiling Bahai

A dramatic new development occurred in Northbridge last week, with the first Religious Instruction class for the Bahai faith. I understand that one family requested this, and someone was available to take it, so the school was bound by law to provide facilities. Subsequently, a number of other families have elected for their child to attend the Bahai class.

Some have seen this as a threat to our traditional Christian beliefs. I am inclined to see it as a challenge to people to examine just what it is they believe, and why.

Most people know little of the Bahai faith apart from the Temple on the Mona Vale hill. A web site on major world religions has the following information:

The Bahá'í Faith arose from Islam in the 1800s and is now a distinct worldwide faith. The faith's followers believe that God has sent nine great prophets to mankind through whom the Holy Spirit has revealed the "Word of God". This has given rise to the major world religions. Although these religions arose from the teachings of the prophets of one God, Bahá'ís do not believe they are all the same. The differences in the teachings of each prophet are due to the needs of the society they came to help and what mankind was ready to have revealed to it.

Bahá'í beliefs promote gender and race equality, freedom of expression and assembly, world peace and world government. They believe that a single world government led by Bahá'ís will be established at some point in the future. The faith does not attempt to preserve the past but does embrace the findings of science. Bahá'í s believe that every person has an immortal soul which can not die but is freed to travel through the spirit world after death.

Although it is a comparatively new religion, the popularity of the teachings of the Bahá'u'lláh (the name by which the founder is known) is due in no small part to the fact that they sit comfortably with the spirit of the age. As their own web site says:Bahá'u'lláh's revelation, and the spiritual impulse accompanying it, is especially significant because it coincides with the maturation of humanity.

The idea that all religions are simply variations of belief in one true God is very popular among the majority of ordinary people today, who generally know very little about any of them. However, it is a very superficial assessment that is not born out in fact. For example, there are almost no points of similarity between Allah, the god of the Muslim fath and any of the 33,000 different gods of Hinduism. And, as we were reminded last week, strict Buddhists do not believe in the existence of god.

Certainly, the teaching of the Christian faith is very clear: the true God has revealed Himself by Name and is distinct from all other gods worshipped by men. Furthermore, He has revealed Himself in the person of His Son, Jesus, who is the only answer for our sin and the only way for us to get to God.

The Bahais make a further claim that fits the post-modern world view; that human nature is fundamentally spiritual. Their web site says: Coupled with these ideas is an understanding that human nature is fundamentally spiritual. Although human beings exist on earth in physical bodies, the essential identity of each pesron is defined by an invisible, rational, and everlasting soul.

However, they do not seem to have any recognition of the sinfulness of the human soul, or of its need for redemption. Thus they have a very optimistic view of humanity's future. To quote further from their web site: Bahá'u'lláh teaches that humanity, as a whole has today entered a new stage in its collective existence. Like an adolescent entering adulthood, new levels of accomplishment are now possible. Global undertakings, once considered impossible, can now be achieved. Such undertakings include the realization of world peace, the attainment of universal social justice, and the furtherance of a harmonious balance between tachnology, development, human values and protection of the natural environment.

All this sounds so enticing to people of the 21st Century. The dream of world peace, universal social justice and harmony between man and nature is deeply embedded in the psyche of most of us. It is one of the reasons for the phenomenal success of the 'Green' Party in recent times. But, in the end we have to ask the question: "Is it real? Can we really save ourselves?"

The teachings of Bahai may seem very attractive, but, in the end, they offer no real hope, because they have no answer to our fundamental problem of sin. The only answer, and still the only hope for the future is Jesus.

John Davies

16 February 2003