V
Bahaism and Christianity
(Continued)
Mrs. Goodall:—"Is it necessary to arise to say the midnight prayers and to make ablution before them?"
Abdul Baha:—"Ablution is only for obligatory prayers three times a day."—"Daily Lessons," p. 74.
Abdul Baha restores man to his state a little lower than the angels.... On this occasion we newcomers were presented with a Bahai stone marked with Baha Ullah's name. Such objects contain a spiritual influence ... actually retain and set free something of the holy man's personality.... At my request, Abdul Baha graciously took back the stone I had received and returned it with a blessing for my baby girl, who thus, as it were, accompanied us on our pilgrimage and received its benefit.—Horace Holley at Thonon. His "The Modern Social Religion," p. 216.
VII. BAHAISM teaches another way of salvation. Man's origin and destiny were formerly points of doubt in Bahai teaching, but the muddy mixture has settled enough to give us a clearer view, at least as regards Western Bahaism, though pantheistic notions still prevail. Abdul Baha teaches that matter is eternal, self-existent, and fills all space.[223] "God always had a creation; the universe has neither beginning nor end."[224] "Creation out of nothing is unthinkable. Separate entities come into being through the operation of God—are the perceptible manifestations of Him." "There are four degrees of spirit concerned with evolutionary growth: The mineral spirit, the vegetable, the animal, and the human. The mineral spirit contains the latent principle of life."[225] Yet man's origin is not from the animals.[226] "Species is fixed; man was developed gradually as a distinct species."[227] The spirit of man emanates from God as an action from an actor, a writing from a writer—a manifestation of the Divine but not a division from it. Sin arises from the physical qualities, from the physical nature which we derive from Adam. Evil is really non-existent; it is simply lack of good qualities. There is no Satan.[228] The "Genii" (jins) of the Koran are evil passions in man; demons are the spirits of bad men.
As to the doctrine of personal immortality, there has been much confusion of thought. Some have understood the doctrine of "rijat" or "Return" as teaching transmigration of souls. Others have understood their allegorizing about heaven as a rejection of the future life. Others, as Phelps,[229] affirm the absorption of the soul in the Infinite. My language teacher in Persia, a fervent Behai, said: "We believe in a future state so unthinkably ecstatic that if its joys were now revealed to men, they would commit suicide to hasten their entrance into it." Baha Ullah wrote a "Tablet of the Spiritual World," of which it is said:[230] "All who read it are filled with an anxious desire to leave this world and enter the next condition, so wonderful are the glories of the spiritual kingdom. In Persia one man who read the tablet killed himself. He could not wait for the happiness it promised him. Another, a youth of Ispahan, could not stand it and lost his reason."
Mrs. Grundy[231] and Mr. Phelps[232] understood Abdul Baha to teach the annihilation of the wicked, but he denied this[233] and affirms their conscious existence.[234] Heaven and hell are affirmed in some places, denied in others.
Sin is little dwelt upon in Bahai literature, and the word repentance is seldom used. In the "New History" and "Traveller's Narrative" sin, transgression, forgiveness, expiation and such words find no place in the indexes. The Moslem appeal for mercy is rarely made. In the chapter on prayer, in the "Sacred Mysteries," there are no directions for the confession of sins, no petition like, "forgive us our trespasses," no cry of the prodigal—"Father, I have sinned." There is no atonement. The daily sacrifice of the Book of Numbers is explained to mean "Divine bounty." "The blood of Christ cleanses us" is interpreted "His spiritual teaching and love which saved His disciples from the ruin of ignorance and heedlessness." The stages of travel to God, the "Seven Valleys," are (1) research, (2) love, (3) knowledge, (4) union, (5) content, (6) perplexity or astonishment, (7) poverty and annihilation. There is no mention of hatred of sin, turning from it and apprehending the mercy of God. The plan of salvation has neither the Christian idea of atonement by a mediator, nor the Mohammedan one of expiation by works of merit or an equivalent. Its plan of salvation is simple, viz., to believe in and follow Mirza Husain Ali, Baha Ullah, as the supreme and final manifestation in this universal cycle which began in Adam and culminated in Baha Ullah, who was God the Father in the flesh. Later Bahais put Abdul Baha in the place of Christ as Son of God and Divine Mediator. Remey's chapter on Eternal Life[235] is orthodoxy with Baha as "Word of God." The doctrines of faith, regeneration, and sanctification are Christian with the historic Christ eliminated. Error has clothed itself as in garments of light. Antichrist would steal the livery of Heaven and lead Christians to forget that there is no other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved (Acts iv. 12), and that if Abdul Baha or an angel from Heaven pervert the Gospel of Christ or preach any other Gospel, he is to be rejected (Gal. i. 7-9).
VIII. Bahaism abrogates the New Testament.
It is indeed honoured, but as the Revelation of a past dispensation. Abdul Baha wrote in the Bible in the City Temple, London: "This book is the Holy Book of God, of celestial inspiration. It is the Bible of salvation, the noble Gospel. It is the mystery of the Kingdom of God and its light. It is the Divine bounty, sign of the guidance of God." But Harold Johnson, a friend of Bahaism, wrote, with true discernment:[236] "In the same spirit he would have written the same words upon the Koran or the Vedas." Baha certifies the Koran times without number in the "Ikan." He wrote:[237] "Whoso hath not acknowledged the Koran hath not in reality accepted the books which preceded it." By the same reasoning, whoso does not acknowledge Baha's writings as "revealed" rejects the former books also.