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The Changeless Faith of God?

Maya Bohnhoff | Jul 14, 2013

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Maya Bohnhoff | Jul 14, 2013

The views expressed in our content reflect individual perspectives and do not represent the official views of the Baha'i Faith.

Art Mosaic[Editor’s Note: This is the second installment of a multi-part essay called “Questions from a Clergyman”. Click here to read from the beginning.]

Here’s the context for this article and this series — a “Cult Night” at one local Christian church where an evangelical pastor (aka “Daniel”) presented his view of the Baha’i Faith, and gave the Baha’i’s present an opportunity to clarify the issues he raised. I was the chosen speaker for the “cult” because I had come into the Baha’i Faith from a Christian background — and many of the questions Daniel asked I had asked as well.

Pastor Daniel’s first question: “The Bible tells us Christ — and therefore God — is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Doesn’t the concept of progressive revelation mean God changes?”

A Christian professes that Christ is the author, object, and completion of her faith. A Baha’i also professes this — because, to a Baha’i, there is no point at which Christ ends and Baha’u’llah begins. Though Jesus of Nazareth and Baha’u’llah were different physical Lamps, the Light that shone in and through Them is the same Light.

How am I so sure? I have the testimony of Christ and the prophets, and the spiritual fruits of the life and teachings of Baha’u’llah as assurance.

Tabgha Mosaic Loaves FishesSo, no, God does not change. But we do. God reaches out to us through His Word, knowing we have the capacity to change. Faith implies transformation and rebirth, after all.

As a mother, I sometimes joke about freezing my children at a particular age, but I know that’s neither possible nor desirable. They must grow to adulthood, find their own beliefs and develop the maturity to become complete human beings. They must change. As they change, I must change the way I relate to them and teach them. I must speak to them more clearly, explain things more directly, and let them search for the meaning in their own lives.

Likewise, in our relationship with God both as individuals and as a species, God alters the way He speaks to humanity. We can see this in scripture. Moses spoke of the appearance of another Prophet like Him who would be raised up among the Jewish people, the one the Torah refers to as “The Prince, the Messiah.” His name is not Moses, His station is different. But He is a Prophet like Moses nonetheless — a Prophet who sees God face to Face. Christ confirms that this refers to Him in John 5:46 when He says: “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me.”

When Christ appeared, He changed Mosaic laws, which outraged the Jews. Christ says of Moses’ law of divorce:

Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. – Matthew 19:8.

He then proceeds to give a new teaching. Baha’is understand this as progressive revelation – God’s continuing education of humanity.

Did God’s feelings about marriage change? No, but our hearts (and our capacity) did.

Jesus Christ MosaicJesus claims He is authorized to teach what Moses could not, then tells His disciples there is much He cannot reveal because it goes beyond even their capacity to understand. In John 16:12 Christ says:

I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth…

He also speaks of going away so that God will send “another Counselor,” reminding us of Moses’ statement that God will send “another Prophet.” The book of Hebrews supports this reading:

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son… – Hebrews 1:1.

Baha’u’llah, the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, speaks to this directly:

Jesus, Himself, declared: ‘I go away and come again unto you.’ Consider the sun. Were it to say now, ‘I am the sun of yesterday,’ it would speak the truth. …In like manner, if it be said that all the days are but one and the same, it is correct and true. And if it be said, with respect to their particular names and designations, that they differ, that again is true. …Conceive accordingly the distinction, variation, and unity characteristic of the various Manifestations of holiness … and discover the answer to thy question as to why that everlasting Beauty should have, at sundry times, called Himself by different names and titles… – Gleanings XIII.

Given the pattern God revealed in the Old and New Testaments alone, the prophecy in the Revelation of Saint John that speaks of Christ having “a New Name” should come as no surprise. As a Baha’i, I believe that Christ has returned, in this “renewal of all things,” seated upon His “glorious throne,” with the New Name of Baha’u’llah — the Glory of God.

He has a new name – Baha’u’llah — and a new physical vessel, but that Vessel doesn’t contend or compete with Jesus of Nazareth – just as Jesus didn’t compete with Moses.

Read the next article in the series: End of the World?

Read the previous article in the series: Cult Night and the Baha’i Faith

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Comments

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  • Hans Dirk Nagtegaal
    Jan 6, 2014
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    To the changeless Faith of God I gave the following short answer on Facebook. I am a philosopher and I intend to fetch a bridge between the Divine Philosophy (the Perennial Philosophy) and contemporary philosophy.
    Are you familiar with the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead from Harvard University? In his famous book Process and Reality, An Essay in Cosmology, 1929, he makes a distinction between God's primordial Nature and God's consequent Nature. In an essay I wrote about process-philosophy and the Bahá'í Faith I tried to demonstrate that God's consequent Nature is the same as the Will of God. ...In the Manifestation of God we see the expression of the Will of God or the Logos. You made it perfectly clear when you gave the example of educating children and our changing attitude during the process of growth. Aldous Huxley writes in his book The Perennial Philosophy that 'knowledge is a function of being'.
    Hans Dirk Nagtegaal This is a difficult question. There are two perspectives on God from the process philosophy of Whitehead: God's consequent Nature and God's primordial Nature. The consequent Nature of God changes with each New Revelation. You can say God suffers when humanity suffers. The primordial Nature of God is absolute, unchangeable. This philosophical view has some similarity in the Baha'í view on God's Nature. In april 2013 I made a presentation on this subject in The Dierense Toren (Dieren is a place in the province of Gelderland in Holland).
    Read more...
    • Reggie Newkirk
      Jan 7, 2014
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      Mr. Nagtegall, your comments are informative and useful. As well, I studied the texts you mention. Huxley's observation "knowledge is a function of being" raises for me this question: What "type" of "being" would Huley's view apply? Manifestations of God have a twofold nature: a) I believe Shoghi Effendi indicates from the perspective "soul" They are creationally different from us humans; b) the other is their human condition --They experience hunger, cold, etc.
      Reggie
  • Shahram Moosavi
    Jul 14, 2013
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    In just the Bible God has hundreds and hundreds of different names. Each name reveals a different attribute. Also he made a covenant with Noah which changed with the coming of Abraham which changed with the coming of Moses which changed again with Christ and Christ said the wine is the covenant with his followers which he said he would drink it ANEW when he return. In revelation 3:12 he also said even his NAME will not be the same but a different and a NEW. There are 1800 references at minimum in the bible regarding the Bahá'í Faith ...And Bahá'u'lláh who was promised by all the holy books to come and recreate society and human consciousnesses. But this, the bible says is not instantaneous. The kingdom of God, promised to come, Jesus said is like a mustard seed which means there is a process of growth and is not something that is packaged and would fall on our laps from the sky.
    Read more...
    • Reggie Newkirk
      Jan 7, 2014
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      Very interesting and formative contributions. Just one question: I believe in that same or near verus it says He will come with a "new name" and a "new face". The question I have is in your study of the New Testament is there a reference to Prophet Muhammad?
      • Hans Dirk Nagtegaal
        Jan 11, 2014
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        About your first question: Huxley's observation "knowledge is a function of being" raises for me this question: What "type" of "being" would Huxley's view apply? I think it is clear from the quote, I will give shortly, that Huxley means just 'human being' in all its facets and stages of development: "Knowledge is a function of being. When there is a change in the being of the knower, there is a corresponding change in the nature and amount of knowing. For example,the being of a child is transformed by growth and education into that of a man; among the results ...of this transformation is a revolutionary change in the way of knowing and the amount and character of the things known. As the individual grows up, his knowledge becomes more conceptual and systematic in form, and its factual, utilitarian content is enormously increased. But these gains are offset by a certain deterioration in the quality of immediate apprehension, a blunting and a loss of intuitive power.' (Aldous Huxley, THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY, p. 2).
        Now concerning your second question. You are right that a Manifestation of God has a twofold nature, but certainly many things more can be said about a Manifestation of God. In Gleanings of the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh chapters XX, XXII, XXIII en XC and in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Some Answered Questions part III, chapters 36 to 40 many aspects of the Manifestations are explained. It is to much to go into details here. Therefore I limit myself to just a few comments. In chapter 16 of SAQ 'Abdu'l-Bahá makes clear that the Holy Writings use outward forms and symbols to convey intellectual conceptions. It is important to realise that these forms and symbols are part of - what we call in modern theology and in the philosophy of religion - an imagery-language or a metaphor-language. 'Abdu'l-Bahá gives three examples: "Then it is evident that the dove which descended upon Christ was not a material dove, but it was a spiritual state, which, that it might be comprehensible, was expressed by a sensible figure. Thus in the Old Testament it is said that God appeared as a pillar of fire: this does not signify the material form; it is an intellectual reality which is expressed by a sensible image." Then 'Abdu'l-Bahá "comes to the explanation of the words of Bahá u lláh when He says: O king! I was but a man like others, asleep upon My couch, when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. This thing is not from Me, but from One Who is Almighty and All-Knowing. This is the state of manifestation: it is not sensible; it is an intellectual reality, exempt and freed from time, from past, present and future; it is an explanation, a simile, metaphor and is not to be accepted literally; it is not a state that can be comprehended by man."
        Read more...
    • Maya Bohnhoff
      Jul 23, 2013
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      Shahram, you make a wonderful point that I didn't catch until I was reading the Bible with an eye to disproving the claims of Baha'u'llah. When Jesus talks about the Kingdom of God, He likens it's coming to a woman kneading leaven through bread, and a seed growing to a huge tree (in which all the birds of the air may find a nest). These are slow, deliberate sometimes difficult processes. Not something sudden. Not an event. I had missed that in all my years as a Christian.
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