My Spiritual Journey from Mormon to Baha'i to Daheshist...
Darrick
Yes, I was a Mormon for about 15 years; not all of that active. I
joined at 18, served a mission, wrote a book in defense of the Church
("The Gainsayers"), but resigned in 1996 and became a Baha'i.
I resigned from the Mormon Church because of the hundreds of
contradictions I saw:
*Mormon "prophets/seers/revelators" who don't prophesy/see/revelate.
*Mark Hofmann episode/no spirit of discernment in Church leaders
*Mormonism contradicts what the Book of Mormon actually teaches
*Brigham Young's doctrines contradict current LDS doctrines
*LDS Church denying it ever taught that Negroes were cursed or the
children of Cain.
*Private behavior and business behavior of so many Mormons I knew
contradicted their public persona as "Latter-day Saints"
*etc.
You asked why I left the Baha'i faith to become a Daheshist. To
understand that reason, you first must know why I became a Baha'i.
I became a Baha'i for the main reason....I was trying to hold-on to
my
belief that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God.
Joseph smith prophesied twice that the "Son of Man" would come in the
year 1891, in red garments. Anti-Mormons used these "1891 prophecies"
to prove that Joseph Smith was a false prophet. Well, Baha'u'llah
announced he was the "Son of Man" in an epistle that he wrote, and
sung on the top of Mount Carmel, in 1891; while he was wearing red
garments.
Joseph Smith had plans to leave the Church with Hyrum and go to the
Holy Land with the members of the Anointed Quorum, but of course this
did not happen.
You see, in 1863, Baha''ullah was in Baghdad, but an anti-Baha'i mob
burned his house down, along with all the clothes he had save those
he
was wearing. So, the Baha'i women made him a new wardrope from
Persian
drapes called "Tarmih". These drapes are always "red". So, his entire
new wardrobe became red. Tarmih is very strong material, so he kept
these robes until his death in 1892.
In 1868 he was exiled to Akka, Palestine, and in 1891, in red robes,
he climbed Mount Carmel and sung a poem that he was the "Son of Man"
who had finally come. The city of Haifa, at that time, consisted of
Arabs and Germans who belonged to the "Templer" sect; which, by 1891,
15% of the Templers had converted to the Mormon Church (I kid you
not). Mormon missionaries had been to Haifa, Palestine, by the year
1888, and converted 15% of the German Templer colony there in Haifa;
which is right next to Mount Carmel. In fact, the Templer Colony
leads
to the spot where Baha'u'llah announced he was the "Son of
Man" (Christ returned), and 15% of the Templers living in Haifa at
that time belonged to the Haifa Branch of the Turkish Mission of the
Church.
So, thinking this was not just "a random coincidence", I concluded
the
following:
1) Joseph Smith was a prophet, but a "fallen" prophet (i.e. for doing
very un-christian things such as screwing other men's wives and
'marrying' his own foster daughters, etc.)
2) Baha'u'llah was the fulfillment of Joseph's 1891 prophecies.
Now, of course, Mormons care NOTHING about the 1891prophecies!!! If
Joseph Smith uttered 10,000 prophecies, and each one of them failed,
the average TBM (True Believing Mormon) would say "Who cares? I know
the Church is true!" and the average MA (Mormon apologist) would
think
of 10,000 excuses to show that it didn't matter one rat's fury
little
teet if all his prophecies failed....Joseph Smith was "still a true
Prophet of God". They would use all manner of mental gymnastics to
once again (in their own minds) "save" Joseph Smith.
Joseph Smith was planning to leave his brother Hyrum to be the new
"Prophet" of the Church, and take his Anointed Quorum with him to the
Holy Land, so they would welcome the Son of Man when he came there,
in
1891, in red apparel. Well, of course, it didn't turn out that way.
One of the Anointed Quorum later went to the Holy Land with a small
colony of Mormons who did not follow Brigham Young, but the colony
soon collapsed and they all came home.
Well, why I left the Baha'i Faith. Again...contradiction. For
example,
Baha'u'llah forbade his followers from practicing fornication, or
homosexuality. Baha'is ignore this. The grandson of Baha'u'llah, a
man
Baha'is consider to be "infallible" forbade Baha'is from abortion or
any kind, and homosexuality. Do Baha'is follow that? NO! Not in the
least. Why? Because Baha'is are Liberals, and anthing Baha'u'llah
wrote, as Law, or his grand-son directed, as infallible, the Baha'is
simply "IGNORE". That simple.
Also, what the Baha'is would do is to get together once every 19
days,
gather into a circle, and talk about "World Peace" or "Race Unity" or
"the Equality of Men and Women" and they would do this over and over
again...ad infinitum, ad nauseum! They would offer prayers, but other
than that....nothing about God, nothing about the Afterlife, nothing
about leading a moral life...! It was like if the Democratic Party
became a religion!
When Baha'is found out that I had been a Mormon they would say, "OH
MY
GOD! THE MORMONS ARE RACIST!" and some of them would shun me. I would
say, "Well, Baha'u'llah owned black slaves...." and they would shout
"OH...YOU ARE A LIAR! YOU ARE A LIAR!! OH MY GOD!" Now, it is true
that Baha'u'llah owned black slaves, but, like Mormons, Baha'is will
call you a "LIAR" if you tell them any FACT they don't wish to
accept.
So, in other words:
1) Baha'is ignored anything Baha'u'llah and his successors wrote or
decreed if it went against their own Liberal beliefs.
2) Baha'i meetings were horribly "boring"....like eternal Liberal
discussion groups. The Baha'i Faith is much closer to the Democratic
Party than to a "religion". I'm sure Baha'u'llah did not want it that
way, but that is the way it is...at least in North America. I hear in
Iran, it's more of a religion.
Also, I came to the conclusion, after much self-reflection and
research, that The Book of Mormon was NOT historical. The evidence
against it being historical is MASSIVE. I came to see that most of
the
claims of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery can be PROVED to be
invented
after the fact. Joseph's own family knew nothing of the 1820 first
vision, and David Whitmer later claimed that he was with Joseph Smith
and Oliver Cowdery when they claimed Jesus appeared to them in the
Kirkland Temple, and he said "I was there. Never happened."
I did not WANT this to be true. But I had to ADMIT TO MYSELF these
things were true, because the evidence was absolutely OVERWHELMING.
Well, of course, what do True Believing Mormons care about "evidence"
or "facts". Nothing. The Church for them is about relationships;
about
"truly" being accepted into a society in which their needs, physical
and emotional, are met. All other FACTS be damned!
But, being a Seeker of Truth, I finally had to accept THE FACTS; no
matter where those facts let me. Well, I concluded that Joseph Smith
was a FRAUD from DAY ONE! The evidence was too overwhelming. And, a
fraud and charlatan cannot prophesy of anything!
So, in the end, I had to agree with my detractors, and say, "Yes, I
agree! The fact that Joseph Smith prophecied that the Son of Man
would
come in 1891 in red apparel, and Baha'u'llah claimed to be "the Son
of
Man" and came to the Holy Land in 1891 in red apparel....is nothing
more than a completely random coincidence."
In 1983 I was preparing for my mission, and I took it seriously. I
fasted and prayed, and prayed again. I asked God to tell me "When is
Jesus Christ returning to this Earth?" That night I had a dream in
which I had an out-of-body experience and flew toward the Moon, but
fell into the Sun, and there an "angel of light" told me that Jesus
had returned and was living in New York City. After I woke up I
concluded it was indeed a very strange dream. At no time did I
believe
that Jesus was in New York City in 1983!
I resigned from the Baha'i Faith in 1998, for the reasons given
above.
After that I considered myself to be a "Seeker of Truth" and studied
all the religions of the world I could find.
In 2005, while reading a book titled Encyclopedia of American
Religions at a local library, I came upon Daheshism; which said that
Dr. Dahesh was Jesus reincarnated, and he lived in New York City from
1975 until his death in 1984, and that he performed many astonishing
supernatural miracles. I contacted the Apostle of Dr. Dahesh, who
sent
me a book titled "Lights upon Dr. Dahesh and Daheshism" and I read
about all the supernatural miracles of this man, and I said to
myself:
"He was alive, and living in New York City in 1983!" This was the
religion I was looking for all of my life.
Hope that answers your question.
Darrick Evenson
http://daheshist.angelfire.com