Bahaism and Its Claims Part 8

[190] Mal. iii. 1; iv. 5-6. See Dealy, "The Dawn of Knowledge," pp.

13-15.

[191] _Ibid._, pp. 25, 30.

[192] Dealy says: "To quote all the pa.s.sages of Scripture referring to Acca would necessitate reading a great portion of the Bible. They identify Accho with Acca (Acre). Even if this were so, Accho was not in the land of Naphtali and Zebulun, but in Asher. Napoleon's siege of Acre is called 'the abomination of desolation, standing in the holy place'"

(p. 40).

[193] Isa. xi. 1-10.

[194] "Answered Questions," pp. 72-75.

[195] Kheiralla, p. 419.

[196] Dealy, pp. 31-32, 44.

[197] "Answered Questions," pp. 50-52.

[198] Kheiralla (pp. 412, 480-483) also skips from lunar to solar year and back, to make the dates tally.

[199] "Answered Questions," pp. 54-55. See Milman's "Gibbon," Vol. II, p. 433. "The Emperor Hadrian's plowshare levelled the temple area."

[200] "Answered Questions," pp. 54-55.

[201] "Bahai Proofs," p. 140. "All in their graves arose spiritually at his call, for service in his cause."

[202] Pages 17-67.

[203] Doctor Potter of Teheran says ("Missions and Modern Hist.," by R.

E. Speer, p. 162): "Their fanciful interpretations of plain Scripture declarations renders it difficult to make any impression on them with proof texts from the Bible. They reply, 'Yes, but we must break open the word and extract its meaning.'" This, says Doctor Holmes, "is often directly at variance with its apparent meaning, but this only displays more clearly the divine insight of their teacher, that he is able to recognize words no one else can understand."

[204] _The Outlook_ (New York), 1901, June, p. 451.

[205] In one particular, no doubt, Baha has fulfilled prophecy. At least the Azalis say that he came "as a thief" and stole the succession from Azal.

[206] "New Hist.," p. 321.

[207] "Bahai Proofs," pp. 190, 204-207.

[208] Mrs. Grundy, p. 13.

[209] "Answered Questions," pp. 115-118.

[210] "Bahai Proofs," p. 232.

[211] M. L. Lucas, "My Visit to Acca," p. 20.

[212] "Answered Questions," p. 45.

[213] _S. W._, April 9, 1913, p. 40.

[214] Ibn Abhar. Thornton Chase says: "Christianity stands condemned because it refuses to reject miracles and the blood atonement and will not confine itself to the precepts of Jesus" ("Bahai Revelation," p.

158).

[215] "Bahai Proofs," p. 155.

[216] "Tablets of Abdul Baha," Vol. I, p. 192; "Answered Questions," pp.

120-121.

[217] Yet Baha informs us that "copper in seventy years becomes gold in its mine if it be protected from a superabundance of moisture" ("Ikan,"

p. 111).

[218] "New Hist."

[219] "Winterburn's Table Talks," pp. 19-20.

[220] "Bahai Proofs," p. 231.

[221] "Answered Questions," p. 42.

[222] "Bahai Proofs," p. 265.

V

Bahaism and Christianity (_Continued_)

Mrs. Goodall:--"Is it necessary to arise to say the midnight prayers and to make ablution before them?"

Abdul Baha:--"Ablution is only for obligatory prayers three times a day."--"_Daily Lessons_," p. 74.

Abdul Baha restores man to his state a little lower than the angels.... On this occasion we newcomers were presented with a Bahai stone marked with Baha Ullah's name. Such objects contain a spiritual influence ... actually retain and set free something of the holy man's personality.... At my request, Abdul Baha graciously took back the stone I had received and returned it with a blessing for my baby girl, who thus, as it were, accompanied us on our pilgrimage and received its benefit.--_Horace Holley at Thonon. His "The Modern Social Religion," p. 216._

VII. Bahaism teaches another way of salvation. Man's origin and destiny were formerly points of doubt in Bahai teaching, but the muddy mixture has settled enough to give us a clearer view, at least as regards Western Bahaism, though pantheistic notions still prevail. Abdul Baha teaches that matter is eternal, self-existent, and fills all s.p.a.ce.[223]

"G.o.d always had a creation; the universe has neither beginning nor end."[224] "Creation out of nothing is unthinkable. Separate ent.i.ties come into being through the operation of G.o.d--are the perceptible manifestations of Him." "There are four degrees of spirit concerned with evolutionary growth: The mineral spirit, the vegetable, the animal, and the human. The mineral spirit contains the latent principle of life."[225] Yet man's origin is not from the animals.[226] "Species is fixed; man was developed gradually as a distinct species."[227] The spirit of man emanates from G.o.d as an action from an actor, a writing from a writer--a manifestation of the Divine but not a division from it.

Sin arises from the physical qualities, from the physical nature which we derive from Adam. Evil is really non-existent; it is simply lack of good qualities. There is no Satan.[228] The "Genii" (jins) of the Koran are evil pa.s.sions in man; demons are the spirits of bad men.

As to the doctrine of personal immortality, there has been much confusion of thought. Some have understood the doctrine of "rijat" or "Return" as teaching transmigration of souls. Others have understood their allegorizing about heaven as a rejection of the future life.

Others, as Phelps,[229] affirm the absorption of the soul in the Infinite. My language teacher in Persia, a fervent Behai, said: "We believe in a future state so unthinkably ecstatic that if its joys were now revealed to men, they would commit suicide to hasten their entrance into it." Baha Ullah wrote a "Tablet of the Spiritual World," of which it is said:[230] "All who read it are filled with an anxious desire to leave this world and enter the next condition, so wonderful are the glories of the spiritual kingdom. In Persia one man who read the tablet killed himself. He could not wait for the happiness it promised him.

Another, a youth of Ispahan, could not stand it and lost his reason."

Mrs. Grundy[231] and Mr. Phelps[232] understood Abdul Baha to teach the annihilation of the wicked, but he denied this[233] and affirms their conscious existence.[234] Heaven and h.e.l.l are affirmed in some places, denied in others.

Sin is little dwelt upon in Bahai literature, and the word repentance is seldom used. In the "New History" and "Traveller's Narrative" sin, transgression, forgiveness, expiation and such words find no place in the indexes. The Moslem appeal for mercy is rarely made. In the chapter on prayer, in the "Sacred Mysteries," there are no directions for the confession of sins, no pet.i.tion like, "forgive us our trespa.s.ses," no cry of the prodigal--"Father, I have sinned." There is no atonement. The daily sacrifice of the Book of Numbers is explained to mean "Divine bounty." "The blood of Christ cleanses us" is interpreted "His spiritual teaching and love which saved His disciples from the ruin of ignorance and heedlessness." The stages of travel to G.o.d, the "Seven Valleys," are (1) research, (2) love, (3) knowledge, (4) union, (5) content, (6) perplexity or astonishment, (7) poverty and annihilation. There is no mention of hatred of sin, turning from it and apprehending the mercy of G.o.d. The plan of salvation has neither the Christian idea of atonement by a mediator, nor the Mohammedan one of expiation by works of merit or an equivalent. Its plan of salvation is simple, viz., to believe in and follow Mirza Husain Ali, Baha Ullah, as the supreme and final manifestation in this universal cycle which began in Adam and culminated in Baha Ullah, who was G.o.d the Father in the flesh. Later Bahais put Abdul Baha in the place of Christ as Son of G.o.d and Divine Mediator. Remey's chapter on Eternal Life[235] is orthodoxy with Baha as "Word of G.o.d." The doctrines of faith, regeneration, and sanctification are Christian with the historic Christ eliminated. Error has clothed itself as in garments of light. Antichrist would steal the livery of Heaven and lead Christians to forget that there is no other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts iv. 12), and that if Abdul Baha or an angel from Heaven pervert the Gospel of Christ or preach any other Gospel, he is to be rejected (Gal. i. 7-9).

VIII. Bahaism abrogates the New Testament.