We’ll have to agree to disagree about which of our respective beliefs are “dogma,” and "which are “divine revelation” or simply “inherited beliefs.”
On the other hand, a God that can create and end a universe would not find it difficult to create a giant creature that could contain a man. It’s not a linchpin of my faith either way. I’ll know for sure after I die.
I’d have to say that your description of how the Scriptures were recorded and transmitted by the Jews and the early Christians as simply “oral traditions” is an inaccurate description, based on what we know of the people of their time and the standards of oral transmissions in those cultures.
I would note the problem of using proof-texts from the Bible to support a particular claim of Bahá’u’lláh, while ignoring statements that contradict his other claims is problematic. My understanding (again, limited) is that your religion believes the universe has no beginning and extends into the past infinitely. This clearly conflicts with Genesis (not to mention the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and our current scientific understanding of the origins of the universe). To deny the numerous conflicts between scripture and Bahá’u’lláh’s personal interpretations require some exegetical contortions - one must claim that the Bible is unreliable, and it doesn’t seem reasonable to me that only a 19th century Persian man held the Master Key to realizing what was accurate and what wasn’t.
Mike,
. Again, thank you for your courtesy and the concision of your response. I think (hope) you understand that there is no intention to diminish any of the revelation which has come from the past. The words of Jesus are the words of God. Would that He Himself had written volumes. What relatively little we have is no doubt but a fraction of that which He gave, and we know He was crucified for His words.
. To my thinking, He was seen as a threat to the establishment and the power of the Jewish priests and Pharisees. Note how they, with all their learning, were unable to recognize the Lord of men, while a simple fisherman, Peter, beheld what only a pure soul could see. Whenever a Prophet appears, He is first rejected by the divines, who “have eyes, but see not”.
. So what is this spiritual sight that is required of us to be able to recognize One such as Christ? Why, with all their pomp and pride, were the very keepers of Jewish Law unable to behold their awaited Messiah? There is more than an intellectual criteria involved. As Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.”
. Whether Baha’u’llah is or is not the Promised One of this age is not determined solely through rational proofs, although they can be helpful. Rather, it is ultimately in the heart of the “seeker” whether the Words He has uttered ring true, as the capacity to receive God’s word rests there.
. As to taking literal every story told in the Bible, this would reduce, in my opinion, the capacity and reach of metaphorical truths employed in the telling of spiritual truths. God gave me a rational mind which rejects a literal 6 day creation in the evidence of modern science, and the Jonah story, for example, yet that same mind accepts the profound spiritual message conveyed metaphorically.
. God is the Author of reality, and I don’t think He then toys with it in order to prove Himself. What is consistent in the “progressive revelation” of the Prophets is the elevation of humanity above the animal brute forces and impulses which are inherent in that lower nature.
. "As regards thine assertions about the beginning of creation, this is a matter on which conceptions vary by reason of the divergences in men’s thoughts and opinions. Wert thou to assert that it hath ever existed and shall continue to exist, it would be true; or wert thou to affirm the same concept as is mentioned in the sacred Scriptures, no doubt would there be about it, for it hath been revealed by God, the Lord of the worlds…
That which hath been in existence had existed before, but not in the form thou seest today. The world of existence came into being through the heat generated from the interaction between the active force and that which is its recipient. These two are the same, yet they are different. Thus doth the Great Announcement inform thee about this glorious structure. Such as communicate the generating influence and such as receive its impact are indeed created through the irresistible Word of God which is the Cause of the entire creation, while all else besides His Word are but the creatures and the effects thereof. Verily thy Lord is the Expounder, the All-Wise."
reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/TB/tb-10.html Tablet of Hikmat (Wisdom)
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