On Needing a Savior: Father forgive them, for they know not what they do
stuck in my head and they rule my world. JC is their daddy and that should explain it all :) the baha'i faith has come up in conversation lately and i know very little about it all... so i looked it up on wikipedia, the world wide web's guide to everything...
a faith based in solid teachings, where the spiritual unity of humankind is pertinent... there are rules and such, somewhat based in the Shi'a Islam foundations, but a religion of its own... my question for any religion is how does one "reach" God, if possible within those beliefs, or the ultimate goal of those beliefs, if its not God... humans have a soul, therefore can relate to their Creator and it is their duty to acknowledge their Creator through his messengers and conform to their teachings, which include (but not limited to) Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, Moses, and Baha'ullah, who founded the religion... through recognition, obedience, service to humanity, regular prayer and spiritual practice will allow for growth towards God in this world, and when the soul passes on to the spiritual world, that growth is a basis of judgment and advancement in the spiritual world, and eternal life is spent on a scale of closeness or distance from God... blurbing straight from wikipedia...
a tall order... makes me think Christianity is too easy... believe in Jesus and be saved... actions will show that faith, but its not what we do, who we are, what we say, just that we believe... with my understanding, i don't believe that we can ever do enough, be obedient enough, serve or even love enough to be considered just enough to be close to God, i firmly believe we need a Savior for that... so for me, Baha'i wouldn't cut it... but i like the ideals, i like how you have to work, how working these things out in ordinary life is stressed... maybe i need to make my faith less theological and more practical in my life... that's not a maybe...
Susan said...
Hi, I was a Christian who became a Baha'i some thirty seven years ago. I didn't become disillusioned with Christianity or anything, it is just that when I read the life of the Bab and Baha'u'llah and compared it with the life of Christ as contained in the Gospel they seemed so much alike to me. Either both were true or both were false. Having said, that I think there is one key difference between Christianity and the Baha'i Faith and that is that Baha'is don't think so much in terms of individual salvation. If we did, maybe just believing in Jesus would be enough. Baha'is are out to transform the world through action in the world. We can't do that with faith alone, we must follow the *teachings* of our religion.
30 March 2008 23:44:00 PDT
George Wesley Dannells said...
With your permission I would like to excerpt from this post on Baha'i Views and link.
31 March 2008 21:43:00 PDT
i am 6 yrs old in my mind said...
hey, well i must say i'm surprised by the two comments, being i don't know either one of you, so i'm gonna reply just a bit... mr. dannells, you can link that article if you like, after scrolling through your blog, i'd just like to set up a disclaimer that these are solely my views, as briefly informed so mostly uninformed as they are, and simply what i got from personal conversations and wikipedia and how it all came out in my head... and susan, really appreciate your input -- i agree christianity has a strong focus on salvation, which is something i need in my flawed life, and i echo that i like the action of the baha'i faith... and i know that there are many christians who are highly motivated and active in the world because of their faith, i'd be lying if i said that it wasn't part of my inspiration in life... individual salvation through faith, reconciliation with God, global healing through action, and aiming for peace... thank you both again for checking in on the mumbles of my mind! :D
http://lisas-hammer.blogspot.com/2008/03/bird-of-humanity.html
{Both the post by Lisa and the comment by Susan are re-posted with permission}
{Photo: "Kindergarten," uploaded on December 3, 2007 by pinreader on flickr, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic}
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