only one correct religion with the truth?

[daler]

Excellent, excellent question. …

They aren’t adventurous enough, they want life to be easy and comfortable, or they make up excuses to put everyday tasks ahead of their spiritual life, etc.

Due to Christ’s Resurrection, no one will be rotting in the end, but many people who choose the sickness of sin instead of the fullness of life will not spend eternity living the life they were made for, a life that is ever more spectacular than they could ever imagine!
…

Mel,
. I sense the spirit behind what you are saying, and wish to comment. What I observe (always easier to identify in others… is the absorption in entertainment, distractions, obsessions, sometimes work, or even prayer! On the last part, sometimes people can be so busy going through the motions of praying to God that they have no time for His answers. They’re too busy!

. Also, we all tend to be “authorities” of some sort or other, self-certain sure of ourselves, stating all kinds of reasons why this is so and that is not, etc. It has always been the challenge of the age to step away from one’s own self and mental chatter to “meet the Lord in the air”, as it were.

. For if we do not meet Him where He is at, and on His terms, then what hope have we? This is evidenced by “One shall be taken and one shall be left.” So who is “taken” and who is “left”. How certain are we that our opinion, our knowledge, our evidence is greater than God’s? We tend to measure Him by our standards and learning.

. In every age in which God has sent a Messenger to mankind, He has been rejected, ridiculed, scorned, persecuted, and often killed. Similarly, His followers are given the cold shoulder - as in dead cold, far too often. It is one of the signs of His coming, that there are bodies lying around, and the nearer we are to Him, the greater the rejection we experience from those who cling to the traditional way of looking at things, praising the Institutions and their hierarchy, and dedicating themselves to the extermination of something new.

. There is always a class of people who are “threatened” by the new Message. In Abraham’s time it was Nimrod’s forces. In Moses time, Pharaoh and company. In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees. And who will it likely be in the Day of His Return?

. How many expect Him to “at least wait until half-time”, or until after I’ve had my oatmeal and morning coffee. Can’t He just wait until I’m ready for Him?

. And why does He have to dress like that, and speak with a foreign accent? Doesn’t He speak English for Chr… sake?!? Who does He think He is, anyway?!? Doesn’t He “know who I am!!!”…

. I hope you take no offense, my friend. Sometimes a little humor helps, yes?

.

 

[Servant19]

Excellent, excellent question. The road to acquiring the spirit of peace is like setting off on a journey, halfway around the world, through dense forests, fighting against wild animals, over high mountain ranges on trails barely big enough to walk along with deathly falls immediately at your side, crossing glaciers and arctic ice full of crevasses, and getting lost and turned around many times in swampy marshlands, before “arriving home” and entering a place of love, goodness, and peace.

You have to die. You must die to your own selfish desires, to your destructive passions, and to live virtuously putting everyone else ahead of yourself.

This is wonderful dear friend. I can totally relate to this.

The way that Baha’is “die in their own self and are born ‘in God’” is to accompany as many souls as possible from a very young age (walking arm-in-arm through thick and thin) to learn about God and with the Spirit of Faith working within them work to advance the devotional character of the neighborhoods in which they live in, according to Baha’i principles of equality, collaboration, independent search for Truth ad the acquisition and application of spiritual, intellectual and material knowledge.

Once they have been accompanied by me to live by these principles (amongst others) then they are accompanied to be the “accompanier”, and by this I mean they will then go out and find as many souls as possible to accompany into this culture of life and learn how they too can die in their own selves and live in God by being selfless servants to all whom they accompany.

Within 2-3 generations the world will have spiritually advanced dramatically…

.

 

[Melchizedek89]

Mel,
. I sense the spirit behind what you are saying, and wish to comment. What I observe (always easier to identify in others… is the absorption in entertainment, distractions, obsessions, sometimes work, or even prayer! On the last part, sometimes people can be so busy going through the motions of praying to God that they have no time for His answers. They’re too busy!

. Also, we all tend to be “authorities” of some sort or other, self-certain sure of ourselves, stating all kinds of reasons why this is so and that is not, etc. It has always been the challenge of the age to step away from one’s own self and mental chatter to “meet the Lord in the air”, as it were.

. For if we do not meet Him where He is at, and on His terms, then what hope have we? This is evidenced by “One shall be taken and one shall be left.” So who is “taken” and who is “left”. How certain are we that our opinion, our knowledge, our evidence is greater than God’s? We tend to measure Him by our standards and learning.

. In every age in which God has sent a Messenger to mankind, He has been rejected, ridiculed, scorned, persecuted, and often killed. Similarly, His followers are given the cold shoulder - as in dead cold, far too often. It is one of the signs of His coming, that there are bodies lying around, and the nearer we are to Him, the greater the rejection we experience from those who cling to the traditional way of looking at things, praising the Institutions and their hierarchy, and dedicating themselves to the extermination of something new.

. There is always a class of people who are “threatened” by the new Message. In Abraham’s time it was Nimrod’s forces. In Moses time, Pharaoh and company. In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees. And who will it likely be in the Day of His Return?

. How many expect Him to “at least wait until half-time”, or until after I’ve had my oatmeal and morning coffee. Can’t He just wait until I’m ready for Him?

. And why does He have to dress like that, and speak with a foreign accent? Doesn’t He speak English for Chr… sake?!? Who does He think He is, anyway?!? Doesn’t He “know who I am!!!”…

. I hope you take no offense, my friend. Sometimes a little humor helps, yes?

.

Thank you for the reply! While some of what you say is true (all religions have at least some kind of a partial handle on what’s true), there are also some things you have said that are gravely false.

For your first point, I agree with almost everything, and I accuse myself first of being distracted at work, prayer, or anything else God sets before me to do! But, a person can never be “too absorbed” in prayer, since (at least Orthodox) Christians are asked to pray always.

Secondly, no one meets the Lord “in the air”. When our mind and soul is formed by the Tradition of Faith in the True God (there is only one such Tradition that is continuous from Adam until us, and this is Orthodox Christianity. Both Islam and the Bahai religions do not illuminate the True God.), it is possible to give proper glory to God for all of His creation and actions in our lives!

Thirdly, no, this is false. You do not seek out God, but God seeks you out! In His love, He is always near you, ready to forgive and help you to walk in the ways of righteousness! You have no hope if you rely on yourself, or on other people.

Fourthly, what you say is both true and false, but mostly false. The age of revelation is over, since prophets (Messengers?) are not needed anymore! God Himself is present in the flesh every time at the Divine Liturgy! Also, the Prophets of the Old Testament never came to illuminate God in new ways or provide new messages, but came only to the Jewish people to bring them back to repentance and to the fullness of Faith in the True God! New messages (such as those given to Muhammad, who lied about the Divinity of Christ and Christ’s Resurrection) are only be demonic deceptions, since they do not illuminate the same God.

Here is where you teach grave, soul-destroying, damnable, demonic, and evil falsehood. Your religion teaches that all religions are paths to the True God, and that God sends new messengers regularly “to keep up with the times”. But, many religions worship idols (mental, physical, and spiritual) constructed by insane and demonized men! They do not illuminate the True God, since they are not of a consistent Tradition of prayer, worship and belief connecting people back to the God of Adam, Noah, Abraham, through the Jewish people, illuminated by the Holy Prophets, and fulfilled in Christ, Who claimed to be God and resurrected from the dead!

The only true unity in God is at what we call the Eucharist, where people consume the Body and Blood of Christ, the True God. Without the Eucharist, all the ascetic spiritual journey would be pointless, since it would not lead us to God!

For both of you who follow the Bahai religion, you must renounce your religious beliefs and repent of your relativistic error. Then, you must return to spiritual and intellectual sanity, and unite yourself to God’s True Church, where the True God reveals Himself. Without doing so, you cannot know God, either now or in eternity.

 

[Servant19]

Here is where you teach grave, soul-destroying, damnable, demonic, and evil falsehood. Your religion teaches that all religions are paths to the True God, and that God sends new messengers regularly “to keep up with the times”. But, many religions worship idols (mental, physical, and spiritual) constructed by insane and demonized men! They do not illuminate the True God, since they are not of a consistent Tradition of prayer, worship and belief connecting people back to the God of Adam, Noah, Abraham, through the Jewish people, illuminated by the Holy Prophets, and fulfilled in Christ, Who claimed to be God and resurrected from the dead!

This is a total misrepresentation of Baha’i Teaching. The Baha’i Faith does NOT teach that ALL religions are paths to the True God, it teaches that all major global religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Baha’i Faith, and none other) were paths to the one True God during the Age of their influence. There are small prints around this main principle but that is the crux of it…

So do you think any of the religions I mention here are constructed by demonized men? If so why?



.

 

[tonyfish58]

Thank you for the reply! While some of what you say is true (all religions have at least some kind of a partial handle on what’s true), there are also some things you have said that are gravely false.

For your first point, I agree with almost everything, and I accuse myself first of being distracted at work, prayer, or anything else God sets before me to do! But, a person can never be “too absorbed” in prayer, since (at least Orthodox) Christians are asked to pray always.

Secondly, no one meets the Lord “in the air”. When our mind and soul is formed by the Tradition of Faith in the True God (there is only one such Tradition that is continuous from Adam until us, and this is Orthodox Christianity. Both Islam and the Bahai religions do not illuminate the True God.), it is possible to give proper glory to God for all of His creation and actions in our lives!

Thirdly, no, this is false. You do not seek out God, but God seeks you out! In His love, He is always near you, ready to forgive and help you to walk in the ways of righteousness! You have no hope if you rely on yourself, or on other people.

Fourthly, what you say is both true and false, but mostly false. The age of revelation is over, since prophets (Messengers?) are not needed anymore! God Himself is present in the flesh every time at the Divine Liturgy! Also, the Prophets of the Old Testament never came to illuminate God in new ways or provide new messages, but came only to the Jewish people to bring them back to repentance and to the fullness of Faith in the True God! New messages (such as those given to Muhammad, who lied about the Divinity of Christ and Christ’s Resurrection) are only be demonic deceptions, since they do not illuminate the same God.

Here is where you teach grave, soul-destroying, damnable, demonic, and evil falsehood. Your religion teaches that all religions are paths to the True God, and that God sends new messengers regularly “to keep up with the times”. But, many religions worship idols (mental, physical, and spiritual) constructed by insane and demonized men! They do not illuminate the True God, since they are not of a consistent Tradition of prayer, worship and belief connecting people back to the God of Adam, Noah, Abraham, through the Jewish people, illuminated by the Holy Prophets, and fulfilled in Christ, Who claimed to be God and resurrected from the dead!

The only true unity in God is at what we call the Eucharist, where people consume the Body and Blood of Christ, the True God. Without the Eucharist, all the ascetic spiritual journey would be pointless, since it would not lead us to God!

For both of you who follow the Bahai religion, you must renounce your religious beliefs and repent of your relativistic error. Then, you must return to spiritual and intellectual sanity, and unite yourself to God’s True Church, where the True God reveals Himself. Without doing so, you cannot know God, either now or in eternity.

A lot of comments you have made here are quite unfortunate and in no need of reply.

I can only wish you well in your Love of God, you are correct it is God That gives Faith and Bounty to Love Him.

May God bless us all - Regards Tony

 

[Stylteralmaldo]

1. Yes and no. Philosophy (used greatly in the East during ecumenical councils) differs from Scholasticism… en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholasticism
2. Yes, heresies were sometimes rampant in the Greek world. This is because, with the fall of the Roman Empire and the sack of Rome, the Greek East was the “happening place” where all the thinking and theologizing was done. The Latin West was just a backwater of not much for hundreds of years, using poor translations of Greek works. The remedies for these heresies also came out from the Greek East! However, since the Roman Pope was considered the First Bishop (the “Chairman” of the ecumenical councils), his role was to state the consensus. Actually, the Pope didn’t even show up, but his representatives usually did. And when they stated or wrote anything, it was considered for days on end to make sure it wasn’t heretical…
3. No, there isn’t a communal approach to Faith, as we’d understand it in Orthodoxy. If a Bishop(s) says something stupid in Orthodoxy, the people and priests correct him, sometimes in very forceful ways. If a priest screws up, then the people and the bishop correct him. And, if the lay people go crazy, then the bishop and priests sort things out. Bishops are approved by the people and priests (not like the secretive Roman Catholic appointment process). Furthermore, there’s a greater emphasis on Faith as something lived, with daily prayer rules, fasting/feasting days, your church as an extension of your family, etc. In the West, both fasting/feasting and community have died out for most people.

There are certainly different approaches to the understanding of the true faith. The key is understanding that not all approaches are wrong while other approaches can be wrong. Discernment is key. Thank you for your insights regarding your approach.

 

[PRmerger]

Hi PR,

There are many sources for this. Here is one of them:

ocf.org/OrthodoxPage/reading/ortho_cath.html

.

Could you please highlight the Biblical verses that we interpret as “A” that the Orthodox say “not A. It means B”, please?

Thanks.

 

[PRmerger]

Yes here:

"Christian faith cannot accept “revelations” that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfillment"
vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a1.htm

This does not answer the question, Servant.

Show us a Catholic teaching which states that Catholics cannot investigate “advancement”.

The above document only affirms and confirms that which I have been maintaining: Christ is The Way, and all public revelation has ceased.

When a Revelation is given which is purely intended to bring about the unification of the human race with God, it can be said to fulfill the Revelation of Jesus Christ which was intended to bring about the unification of the human “being” with God. The Catholic Church without hesitation or investigation “cannot accept” such Revelations. There is no test, no analysis, just a blanket “cannot accept”…

Well, that’s like saying: “Here is a perfect, pure form of a simple metal. Let’s add something to it to make it more pure!”

That’s nonsensical.

 

[PRmerger]

The Truths that you are judging are beyond our reasonable human capabilities to discern. So lets focus on what is empirically available for human discernment, maybe?

Why would we do that?

Can you provide empirical evidence for the existence of the soul? What about the mind?



Yet I assume you believe both of those exist, yes?

No , public revelation has ended until the Return of Jesus Christ
Public Revelation has not ended eternally.

Jesus’ revelation is complete, Servant.

It is only when we receive the Beatific Vision that we will come to Know Fully.

There is nothing more than we need as far as public revelation,

Are you saying that when Jesus returns He will have nothing to say? Nothing to reveal?

Nothing that hasn’t already been proclaimed.

Beautiful, so how does the Catholic Church teach about institutional development?

Institutional development? Why would the Church have a teaching on that?

The dichotomy you are creating is a segregation between church and state.

Yes. In my country there is a dichotomy. As it should be.

In reality if this is truly God’s Kingdom, and is to be as such as prophecied in religious history and Sacred Texts, then it should ALL be under Divine Law…

In reality, unfortunately, the state has divorced itself from Divine Law.

Surely you see that in your own country, Servant.

What “should” be and what is in “actuality” is not the same thing.

 

[Servant19]

This does not answer the question, Servant.

Show us a Catholic teaching which states that Catholics cannot investigate “advancement”.

Come in PR. Can you show me where in the Bible that the word “Catholic” and “Church” are used to indicate Truth?

Please, let’s understand the spirit behind what is trying to be conveyed. Your quest to win arguments sometimes borders on others almost wanting to wish God to strike us with lightening to remove us from the headache!!

The above document only affirms and confirms that which I have been maintaining: Christ is The Way, and all public revelation has ceased.

I don’t read it like that at all. It is human beings writing things to demonstrate their power, even in the face of God Himself

Public Revelation may well have ended, (which begs the question why the words of Paul, Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John etc. are considered the Word of God, but that’s beside the point) but it was ended until the Return of Jesus Christ. I have some news for you dear sister

Well, that’s like saying: “Here is a perfect, pure form of a simple metal. Let’s add something to it to make it more pure!”

That’s nonsensical.

Actually, this analogy has already been given by God in His Revelation through Jesus upon His Return. The analogy is of the Sun, it dawns upon the horizon, it reaches mid morning, late morning and it reaches it’s zenith. Baha’u’llah as supplied us with the manifestation of the Sun at its zenith, and the associated Revelation.

Man made analogies, like metals etc are indeed nonsensical. God gave us the analogy of the sun, and with it the tears of joy of understanding of millions across the globe. Suddenly we are all one

.

 

[Servant19]

Why would we do that?

Can you provide empirical evidence for the existence of the soul? What about the mind?

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7hniiUF771rz8kqeo1_250.gif

Yet I assume you believe both of those exist, yes?

Yes that is exactly my point. These matters may be critical for you but in reality, you have no idea about the NATURE OF THESE REALITIES (like the soul, God, the Holy Spirit etc)

My point is that we should focus on the things that we know, and I KNOW that the world is crying for justice and unity and the Catholic Church will never even look at a Revelation that addresses these things…it says so in the Catechism.

Jesus’ revelation is complete, Servant.

It is only when we receive the Beatific Vision that we will come to Know Fully.

There is nothing more than we need as far as public revelation,

You use the word “we” here as if there is a we in this situation. The reality is that if the Revelation of Jesus was complete, His Words relating to the equality of men and women would have been recorded, He would have laid out the necessary institutions needed to ensure and safeguard the peace, security and justice of all minority populations accross the globe who are, even today, crying from the oppressions and tyrannies they have suffered from people who profess to represent Him.

How could one struggle to empathise with their plight?

Today, in Australia, we have a devout Catholic prime minister. I can provide university papers that show you institutional racism happening within indigenous communities by the Australian government today. Why ? Because no one really KNOWS what to do for minorities who are suffering social problems.

Institutional development? Why would the Church have a teaching on that?

Because the world NEEDS institutions to administer social cohesion. We have tried so many things throughout history, including a Papal authority, monarchy, democracy etc etc.

None have succeeded in promoting the welfare of ALL human beings for one of two main reasons. Either they were inspired by man, or if there was a religious jnspiration, there was not sufficient revelation guidance.

Yes. In my country there is a dichotomy. As it should be.

Why?

In reality, unfortunately, the state has divorced itself from Divine Law.

Surely you see that in your own country, Servant.

What “should” be and what is in “actuality” is not the same thing.

So it has divorced itself from Divine Law and the Catholic Church is happy to sit back and watch. Isn’t it time for the state to be administered by Divine Institutions? What is found in Jesus’ Revelation that the Church can draw on in order to restore this mess that man has created? This godless mess we term free-market capitalism?

.

 

[meltzerboy]

Thankyou melzter

I acknowledge and appreciate your comments here, and I fully admit that there are religious institutions within all Abrahamic religions that claim they can herald an era of global salvation. One must however consider the foundations by which these institutions operate by. The Buddha never talked about the specifics of what institutions should be set up for global justice for all. Anything developed to herald global prosperity will therefore be man-made, not Buddha made.

Moses never talked about the need for a global currency, an auxiliary world language and how these should be installed and established. Anything developed to hearld global prosperity will be man made, not Moses made.

How closely society aligns itself to the WORDS of these Holy Prophets is what enables aligning with the Will of God. God guided according to the specific NEEDS of His loved ones at that specific time.

The same applies to Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna and Zoroaster. Up until Baha’u’llah’s Revelation, no revelation acknowledeged the full and unabashed equality of men and women, or abolished slavery even…

Today God has given full and authoritative, elaborate and complete guidance on the establishment of the unification of humanity. Why are we all resisting this so much?

The world is embroiled in ego-driven man-made solutions and it is our “personal” salvation at stake (in my humble opinion) when we refuse to implement the principles founded in the Divine Revelation offered. As with all of God’s Prophets, some accept and fulfill their duties and some decline and oppose…

Thankyou for reading dear friend

.

However, do you agree that some of G-d’s prophets may be false prophets, so that their so-called revelation is not necessarily divine? I ask this question because the little I know about the Baha’i faith, mainly from your own and other posts from members of the Baha’i community, leads me to believe there is an acceptance of all the words of the prophets in all major religions, including Judaism, Christianity (Catholicism and others), Mormonism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and of course your own.

Moreover, do you think that any global agenda by a prophet must be accompanied or perhaps preceded by a change in people’s hearts and minds? I think that may be what some of the prophets in religions other than Baha’i were speaking of in their prophecies.

 

[Tom_Baum]

Is there something in Catholic teaching that makes you believe this, Tom? Where does the Church teach that salvation comes ONLY from the Jews? Please cite the document–with, of course, any emphasis on the word ONLY or ALONE.

Thanks.

Sure. We only have one God, do we not?

Something in reality makes me say that, “And “our salvation”, humanity’s, comes ONLY thru the Jews” and it is also what the Church teaches and that is that Jesus Is OUR Saviour.

Jesus was born a Jew, lived as a Jew and died a Jew so it was a Jew Who Is the Saviour of the world therefore Salvation came thru the Jews, who do you say is the Saviour of the world?

By the way, the “Church” is Jesus’s Church, not the Pope’s, and the boundaries of the Church Is God’s domain, not man’s.

 

[Tom_Baum]

There is a notion in Judaism that the Jews were NOT the first people chosen by G-d, and perhaps they were even the last. However, the fact they, unlike other peoples, accepted G-d made them the Chosen People. But be careful about that phrase: it does NOT mean G-d loves the Jews more than others; rather, it means the Jews bear a challenging, but sweet, responsibility to keep G-d’s commandments and thus serve as an example, without arrogance of course, for all of humanity to do G-d’s Will.

I don’t for an instant believe that being the “Chosen People” means being better or anything of the kind, just that they were chosen.

Also, “they” were not a people at all when they were chosen, they became a people and it was Abram who became the first of what would later be called the Jews and Abram’s name was changed to Abraham along the way as a “sign” of the Covenant initiated by God with Abram.

Some people do think that being chosen, either as a people or as an individual, means that someones or someone is better or something such as that but that is not the case, either on a people or person chosenness, all it simply means is that a people or a person is chosen.

I don’t know about the “notion in Judaism” thing you are talking about but if not the first, they would have been the last since what they were chosen for didn’t need two groups doing the one thing.

Of course, along the way there have been many individuals chosen for this or that and even to this day God chooses who God chooses for whatever reason God chooses someone.

Also, even in what some refer to as the OT, not all of those individuals chosen by God were Jewish.

Some people seem to get upset when God does something, or for that matter doesn’t do something, that upsets their preconceived notions of God.

 

[Tom_Baum]

There are Catholics all over the world who offer lots of peculiar and odd beliefs.

One ought not mistake what “Catholics on this site” profess with what the Catholic Church teaches.

See for yourself what she teaches, Tom. Read and learn your faith!

From our Catechism:

Those "who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church.

When he or she is perfectly joined to us, rather than imperfectly joined, then he/she may partake of the Eucharist.

From our Catechism:

The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter.

Personally, I am more interested in God than I am in the Catholic Church.

God Is God, the Catholic Church is an instrument of God and is part of God’s Plan that God has had since before creation itself.

Actually, all of creation is part of God’s Plan.

Some people seem much more interested in religion and dogma and doctrine and many other things about God than in God.

I would say that one of the paradoxes, concerning God, is that some who do not even believe in God are much closer to God than some who believe in God.

One of the things that is said at either all or at least some of the Masses and I think should be taken to heart is: Lord, have MERCY on us ALL.

It is written that we are ALL made in the “Image of God”, and it seems to me that ALL of us fall short of what those words mean, I “know” that I do, I can’t speak for anyone else but reality has a way of being reality.

 

[Sochi]

Personally, I am more interested in God than I am in the Catholic Church.

God Is God, the Catholic Church is an instrument of God and is part of God’s Plan that God has had since before creation itself.

Actually, all of creation is part of God’s Plan.

Some people seem much more interested in religion and dogma and doctrine and many other things about God than in God.

I would say that one of the paradoxes, concerning God, is that some who do not even believe in God are much closer to God than some who believe in God.

One of the things that is said at either all or at least some of the Masses and I think should be taken to heart is: Lord, have MERCY on us ALL.

It is written that we are ALL made in the “Image of God”, and it seems to me that ALL of us fall short of what those words mean, I “know” that I do, I can’t speak for anyone else but reality has a way of being reality.

Mr. Baum, please allow me to express the great admiration I have for your lucid statement and my emphatic agreement with it, especially the last sentence.

That some are “closer” to God than others may seem to be the case, but as the Sun lights all, so does God light each one of us. What might differ, if I may suggest, is the transparency of “person” to that light, such transparency being achieved by alignment of the Heart and Mind to Reality.

I truly admire your post, and the primacy of your interest. Thank you.

 

[marywarfield]

I don’t for an instant believe that being the “Chosen People” means being better or anything of the kind, just that they were chosen.

Also, “they” were not a people at all when they were chosen, they became a people and it was Abram who became the first of what would later be called the Jews and Abram’s name was changed to Abraham along the way as a “sign” of the Covenant initiated by God with Abram.

Some people do think that being chosen, either as a people or as an individual, means that someones or someone is better or something such as that but that is not the case, either on a people or person chosenness, all it simply means is that a people or a person is chosen.

I don’t know about the “notion in Judaism” thing you are talking about but if not the first, they would have been the last since what they were chosen for didn’t need two groups doing the one thing.

Of course, along the way there have been many individuals chosen for this or that and even to this day God chooses who God chooses for whatever reason God chooses someone.

Also, even in what some refer to as the OT, not all of those individuals chosen by God were Jewish.

Some people seem to get upset when God does something, or for that matter doesn’t do something, that upsets their preconceived notions of God.

Wow. A post I actually agree with.

But…
could we say people are “fortunate” to be chosen instead?

 

[Sochi]

Is this us?:

fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/1939933_10152438523854402_7395377772645126034_n.jpg

 

[daler]

However, do you agree that some of G-d’s prophets may be false prophets, so that their so-called revelation is not necessarily divine? I ask this question because the little I know about the Baha’i faith, mainly from your own and other posts from members of the Baha’i community, leads me to believe there is an acceptance of all the words of the prophets in all major religions, including Judaism, Christianity (Catholicism and others), Mormonism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and of course your own.

Moreover, do you think that any global agenda by a prophet must be accompanied or perhaps preceded by a change in people’s hearts and minds? I think that may be what some of the prophets in religions other than Baha’i were speaking of in their prophecies.

Meltzer,
. Very succinct post. I would think that a clarification might help. If a “Prophet” is truly “God’s Prophet”, He speaks the truth, and I suppose the word divine would follow.
. Yes, there are and have been many false prophets, and the Baha’ Faith does not accept any of them as prophets, including Joseph Smith, EG White, Sun Myung Moon, etc.
. I think the effort must be made by all to discern the difference. For me, there is something about the words of the real Prophets which rings true and rises far above the words of ordinary men.
. As far as a global agenda, this goes back at least to Isaiah 2:4

. “And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

. If we, in considering only the true Prophets that are sent to us by God, view them all as Instruments of God’s will, and that Their purpose is one, or, as Baha’u’llah puts it:

. “All the Prophets proclaim the same Faith.”

. then we can see them all as part of a single unfolding process of “progressive revelation” adapted at each stage to the needs and capacity of humanity. Each is a “Pen” fashioned by God to express His guidance which unfolds over time, and a distinct and definite pattern emerges.

. All of the major religions speak of a time when there will be “One Fold and One Shepherd”, or a gathering of together of humanity, such as under “The Buddha of Universal Peace”, or the Shah Bahram of Zoroastrianism, the Lord of Hosts of the Old Testament, the Sacred Hoop of all tribes envisioned by Black Elk, and so on…

. Baha’is contend that Baha’u’llah is the Promised One of all religions, that they all point to a single fulfillment, that the prophecies of all the sacred traditions regarding this have been fulfilled, including various time and place prophecies.

. As you speak of the “change in the hearts” of men, most definitely, that is what is required, even as the sun creates a change in the chemistry of a plant, ripening it in stages until it reaches maturity.

. I hope I have not gone on to long
.

 

[daler]

Is this us?:

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Ha Ha Ha…

Bingo!