Bahai And Christianity

Baha'i Center Celebrates Faith's Origins

The Baha’i faith is 168 years old—a young whippersnapper compared with  Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism.

Baha’is, by the way, consider all those religions to be valid.

“We believe in the oneness of God, the oneness of religion, the oneness of humanity,” said Habib Hosseiny of the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of San Clemente. “Therefore, we don’t have any prejudice.”

Hosseiny said the Baha’i faith does teach, however, that God sends a prophet for every age to show people the principles by which they should abide in that age.

The first person to espouse this idea was a Persian man to whom the Baha’is refer simply as the Bab—it’s his mid-1800s proclamation that San Clemente Baha’is are celebrating Sunday at 7 p.m.

Hosseiny said the Bab proclaimed “he was here for a new age and from God.” Persian authorities arrested him almost immediately. Six years later, they executed him by firing squad.

But, Hosseiny said, the Bab had gathered enough followers that when the prophet of whom he spoke came nine years later, he had a large group to receive his message.

This prophet came in the form of the son of a Persian nobleman, Hosseiny said, referred to as Baha’u’allah.

“He was not interested in politics; instead, he helped the poor,” Hosseiny said. “He was a universalist. He started teaching the new faith.”

Perhaps predictably, Baha’u’allah was thrown in jail, then exiled. He spent the rest of his life being shuffled around the Middle East by different sultans and rulers, all of whom considered him a dangerous heretic, until he died in prison.

Baha’u’allah was buried in what is now Israel, where there is a shrine and the world headquarters of the Baha’i faith.

The celebration of  the Declaration of the Bab will be at 7 p.m. Sunday at the Baha’is’ San Clemente center, 3316 Avenida del Presidente.

For more information, call 949-369-9278. Hosseiny stressed that everyone is welcome, regardless of faith.

Christianity, Islam, and Baha'i Faith - Baha'i Forums

The verse to which the author refers is 4:156 and reads as follows: "And for their saying, 'Verily we have slain the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, an Apostle of God'. Yet they slew him not, and they crucified him not, but they had only his likeness... No sure knowledge had they about him, but followed only an opinion, and they did not really slay him, but God took him up to Himself." "In regard to the verse, which is revealed in the Koran, that His Highness, Christ, was not killed and was not crucified, by this is meant the Reality of Christ. Although they crucified this elemental body, yet the merciful reality and the heavenly existence remain eternal and undying, and it was protected from the oppression and persecution of the enemies, for Christ is eternal and Everlasting. How can He die? This death and crucifixion was imposed on the physical body of Christ, and not upon the Spirit of Christ" "...Though we cannot imagine exactly what the Manifestations of the remote past were like, we can be sure of two things: They must have been able to reach their fellow-men in a normal manner--as Bahá'u'lláh reached His generation, and They were sent from God and thus Divine Beings. The crucifixion as recounted in the New Testament is correct. The meaning of the Qur'anic version is that the spirit of Christ was not crucified. There is no conflict between the two.

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