God has granted me a great website:

[John Bauer]

worldreligionbible.com which is designed to prove the Oneness of Religion and to give any Baha'is who want it, the tool to understand and teach that Third Basic Principle of Baha'u'llah. It is also designed to encourage spiritual discussion on the discussion board.

 

The Home Page gives hundreds of short quote, often almost word for word similar from Religion to Religion, that really prove all the Teachings come from God. I've done surveys among Jews, Christians, Muslims and none of them can even list three most important teaching in their religion as demonstrated by these commonalities. These quotes fill me with awe to realize the DEPTH of the Oneness of Religion. But, to understand the depth, one must really read the whole text provided.

 

Those are the key elements but i, as an Autistic Baha'i am equally impressed by the commonalities between Near Death Experiences, Death Bed Visions and other communication with the dead and the teachings of God's Religion.

 

In addition to that i am trying to give linguistic information to help us to help Christians understand words like logos, magi, etc. And i try to give some historical information and prehistoric information on Lucia Zenteno, Quetzlcoatl, Viracocha Who were very ancient Manifestations. It intriques me that there appear to have been female Manifestations.

 

But, i really need input from the "Big Baha'is" who know far more than i do to help me get word of what "God hath wrought."

 

Warmest Baha'i Love and Gratitude,

 

john

[Suzanne]

Dear John,

I don't think I've seen you posting here before, so welcome. I can
see you've done a lot of work on your website, and there's a lot
that's really good in it. The two main points that you make are the
two main points which drew me to the Baha'i Faith: That all the
religions teach the same basic truths and command us to lead goodly
lives; and I read a book on near-death experiences and then read what
the Baha'i Faith had to say on life after death and I was astounded by
the similarities. As, speaking as the Mouthpiece of God, said:

"I have made death a messenger of joy to thee. Wherefore dost thou
grieve? I made the light to shed on thee its splendor. Why dost thou
veil thyself therefrom?"
(Baha'u'llah: Arabic Hidden Words, Page: 32)

You ask for imput from other Baha'is. I do think there are a few
tweaks which would make your website much stronger. For instance, in
the website you speak of "long forgotten Viracocha, Quetzalcoatl,
Lucia Zenteno and White Buffalo Woman". Where do you get your
information that they were Manifestations of God? The Manifestations
of God spoken of in our Writings are the Founder of the Sabean
religion, Krishna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Abraham, Moses, Christ,
Muhammad, the Bab and Baha'u'llah. Baha'u'llah mentionsothers in the
Kitab-i-Iqan who would have been known to Muslims: Hud and Salih, and
He seems to say that Noah was also a Manifestation of God. We know
there were other ones whose names have been "lost in the mists of
ancient history", but we don't know who they were.

Personally, I think the fact that Krishna, Buddha and Muhammad (all
extremely well-known Figures in religion) say much the say things as
Christ is already challenging enough for Christians. It's unnecessary
to bring in names which are unknown to them, and who you really don't
know for a fact from the Baha'i Writings were Manifestations of God
anyway. I think it confuses the issue and could keep them from taking
you seriously or from reading on.

And the last point I'd like to make is about the pictures of statues
of Krishna and Buddha. We aren't supposed to create any sort of
material images of Manifestations of God, according to our Writings:

"The prohibition on representing the Manifestation of God in paintings
and drawings or in dramatic presentations applies to all the
Manifestations of God. There are, of course, great and wonderful works
of art of past Dispensations,  many of which portrayed the
Manifestations of God in a spirit of reverence and love. In this
Dispensation however the greater maturity of mankind and the greater
awareness of the relationship between the Supreme Manifestation and
His servants enable us to realize the impossibility of representing,
in any human form, whether pictorially, in sculpture or in dramatic
representation, the Person of God's Manifestations. In stating the
Bahá'í prohibition, the beloved Guardian pointed out this
impossibility."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to
an individual believer, March 9, 197; Lights of Guidance, p. 99)

But these are just minor changes. I think the concept is very good
and you show a lot of love, devotion and enthusiasm in your work. I'm
happy to look further and give more suggestions if you want me to.

Loving Baha'i greetings,

Suzanne

[tsuki190]

Hi John,
From a technical standpoint, your website is missing a list of key
words. This is critical for SEO (search engine optimization) - the
search bots use these to catalogue web sites.

Here is the meta keywords from the yahoo weather site.

<meta content="Yahoo! weather: Beaverton - Oregon Weather Forecast,
Statistics, High and Low temperatures, Satellite maps, News, Video and
more." name="description"/>

I do not know if you used a web design app to create your site but if
you did, then there should be a place to input key words. If you
wrote the site by hand coding html then you should insert a key words
section. You can do a google search on html and meta content to find
some pages with the syntax for various types of key word content.

Once you have keywords the search engines should start to find your
site. SEO is a big business now with lots of complexities beyond the
simple points I have tried to make.

Tom

--
http://livedesigning.books.officelive.com/default.aspx
Flexible document design and publishing for print, web, and video.

[Carl Brehmer]

> But, i really need input from the "Big Baha'is" who know far more than i
do to help me get word of what "God hath wrought."

Hi John,

I think your effort is laudable and am only making these comments
because you asked for input.

1) The collection of quotes that demonstrate the unity of the worlds
religions would be more powerful if you would cite the source of these
quotes, i.e., from the Qur'an, from the Bible, from the Bhagavad Gita,
etc. As it is it is not clear where these quotes came from and a
skeptic might think that you are just making them up.

2) The subject of proofs of Messiahship is a tricky subject since
“proof” for one man is not “proof” for another. Here are some thin
gs
to think about.

“Believe Me for the very works sake."

One could point out that good works do not prove that one is a
Manifestation of God, since even regular human beings do good works.

"There are more than 30,000 sects of Christianity but no sects of the
Bahá’í Faith.”

Some people view the various Covenant Breaker groups as sects of
the Bahá’í Faith and would challenge the claim that there are "no
sects of the Bahá’í Faith."

"'I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the
sheep.' Baha'u'llah laid down His life for His sheep. There are two
ways of doing this. One is as Jesus and the Blessed Bab did,
instantaneous martyrdom. The other was is to suffer for 40 years as
Moses, Buddha and Baha'u'llah did. Either way the sheep are redeemed."

Bahá’u’lláh did indeed say, “He, verily, hath come again tha
t ye
might be redeemed,” but Christians only recognize one redeemer--Jesus
Christ. They do not even recognize Moses as a Redeemer even though
they believe that He was a Prophet. Beyond that, they view Moses’ 40-
year wandering stint in the desert, not as a redemptive act, but
rather as punishment for His lack of faith at the rock of Meribah (see
http://www.biblestudy.org/question/why-did-moses-not-enter-the-promised-lan
d.html.)

Bahá’u’lláh offered up two things as proof--His own self and H
is
Revelation. "Say: The first and foremost testimony establishing His
truth is His own Self. Next to this testimony is His Revelation. For
whoso faileth to recognize either the one or the other He hath
established the words He hath revealed as proof of His reality and
truth." Gleanings p.106
Since He is no longer in the flesh the proof of "His own self" is
inaccessible, therefore what we are left with is His Revelation, which
is more than enough to prove His Station.

Carl Brehmer

[mike]

""There are more than 30,000 sects of Christianity but no sects of the
Bahá’í Faith.”

Some people view the various Covenant Breaker groups as sects of
the Bahá’í Faith and would challenge the claim that there are "no
sects of the Bahá’í Faith." "

I think the point is that anyone person with the ability to make a
web page can form a sect of the Baha'i Faith or any other religion.
But there's a simple yet unique problem facing attempted sects of the
Baha'i Faith.

Baha'u'llah's central message is that all the religions that exist
today are really the same religion and that it is man that has divided
God's singular religion over the ages. Hence unity of religion. So to
put a qualifyer in front of the name Baha'i is in essence an oxymoron.
It's like saying tall-short man, or skinny-fat man. It's an act of
illogic. Baha'is don't put qualifiers to their Faith because it is
counter to their central theology.

Beware, O believers in the Unity of God, lest ye be tempted to make
any distinction between any of the Manifestations of His Cause, or to
discriminate against the signs that have accompanied and proclaimed
their Revelation. This indeed is the true meaning of Divine Unity, if
ye be of them that apprehend and believe this truth. Be ye assured,
moreover, that the works and acts of each and every one of these
Manifestations of God, nay whatever pertaineth unto them, and
whatsoever they may manifest in the future, are all ordained by God,
and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose. Whoso maketh the
slightest possible difference between their persons, their words,
their messages, their acts and manners, hath indeed disbelieved in
God, hath repudiated His signs, and betrayed the Cause of His
Messengers.

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 59)

Hence any attempt to form a sect in the Baha'i faith results in only
subsequent factionalization. Take away the unity and you have nothing.
The person who says I'm a reform Baha'i is taking a step to separate
themselves from other Baha'is in an overt act of disunity. By doing
so, he is denying Baha'u'llahs central message, so why be a Baha'i?

Worried about changing the Faith to suit the times? Baha'u'llah gave
us an administration that allows for consultative mechanisms for
change. But the key is that consultation doesn't always mean that your
idea will fly with everyone. And everyone has a right to decide what
the Faith is or isn't. The second you decide you will impose your idea
on the group, you've done exactly what Baha'u'llah has counseled
against.

Unlike Christianity or Islam, no attempted sect in the Baha'i Faith
has stood the test of time. History has shown that all of them shrink,
fragment, rename theirselves and seemingly evaporate into a myriad of
groups that themselves further fragment until one day you are left
with a handful die hards. The reason for this is that most people
realize that forming a sect in a religion which preaches unity is in
and of itself an act of illogic. There's little to say to a person who
is incapable of understanding this point.