One Country, One Family
“The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens” (Gleanings CXVII). Anyone who has watched race, nation, or religion tear a family apart can feel the pull of that sentence.
Baháʼu'lláh (ba-ha-ul-LAH) wrote those words, and more than 5 million Baháʼís (ba-HIGHS) now follow him, in virtually every country. The Faith began in Persia in the 1840s. It calls itself an independent world religion, and it makes a sweeping claim: every great faith came from one God, and Baháʼu'lláh is God's Messenger for this age. This study sets out what Baháʼís believe from their own writings, tells what they have suffered, answers from Scripture, and helps you share Christ.
One question stands over all of it. Is Christ one Manifestation of God in a long line, or is He God's final word?
“God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;”HEBREWS 1:1–2 · KJV
Hebrews agrees that God spoke at sundry times and in divers manners. Then it says what no line of prophets can absorb: the last word came by his Son (Hebrews 1:1–2).
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For Deeper Study
- Neighboring Faiths: A Christian Introduction to World ReligionsAmazon Winfried CorduanFair, careful descriptions of the world religions as their adherents practice them, with a Christian assessment. Includes a chapter on the Baháʼí Faith.
- The Baha'i Faith: Its History and TeachingsAmazon William McElwee MillerA critical history by an American missionary who served for decades in Iran. Baháʼís dispute it, and it was not written to win a friend. Use it as background, not as a script.
- An Introduction to the Baha'i FaithAmazon Peter SmithA standard academic survey from Cambridge University Press, not written from a Christian point of view.
- The Kitáb-i-Íqán: The Book of CertitudeAmazon Baháʼu'lláh, trans. Shoghi EffendiThe primary source quoted in this study, free in the library at bahai.org. Read what your friend treasures.
- Some Answered QuestionsAmazon ʻAbdu'l-BaháThe Baháʼí reading of Christian doctrine, including the chapters quoted here on the Trinity and the resurrection. Free in the library at bahai.org.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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Engaging Other Religions
Sincerity is not the same as truth: every religion makes exclusive claims, and Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father.
Open Doctrine