The Baha’i Faith
I was born and raised in the religion called the Baha’i Faith.
To understand any religion, I think it helps to try to understand how it justifies its own existence. For example, Christianity, it is typically thought, exists because:
- We are all sinners, and …
- God loves us too much to let us languish in our sinfulness.
Islam might be said to exist because man is not so much sinful as blind, or perhaps near-sighted:
- Man can know Truth, but …
- Man cannot know Truth without help from a special key to Truth, and …
- The key was damaged.
Though God had previously sent Messengers to men, the men corrupted the message, so God sent Muhammad to straighten things out once and for all.
Alice’s Magic Keyhole
The Baha’i Faith is based upon a similar foundation. The difference is that the Baha’i Faith adds a fourth premise:
Even if the key is not damaged, it expires, and it must be replaced with an updated key.
It is not enough for God to appear once and reveal the key; rather, God must occasionally return and update the key.
Baha’is call this doctrine “progressive revelation”. The reason why the key keeps changing, thus justifying new revelations like the Baha’i Faith, is that humanity is progressing.
Finding the Right Key
As I myself came to maturity as a young, aspiring Baha’i, my religion of birth just kept looking messier and messier. I began to wonder whether I was using the right key. I looked at my keychain, and began to finger through the many keys. Did I even have the right key? Was there even such thing as a right key? Did I even need a key?
Who was I to say? How could I possibly know? What would be the sign that the key that I had selected was the right key? Happiness? Would I just know? What if I were to “just know”, but tomorrow I woke up without the same certainty? Well, I guess I would cross that bridge when I’d get to it, but the simple fact was I never did just know. Far from it.
There may be people that just know. God continue to bless them if they do, but from where I’m standing I have to hold that possibility in doubt.
