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Baha'i religion has within its theological framework two mutually contradictory defining principles for human spiritual behavior. One doctrine teaches that man is a basically "progressive" creature in terms of spiritual behavior and innately "evolves" over time as a species and thus is periodically needy of "upgraded" revelation to meet new and greater spiritual capacity (progressive revelation). The other doctrine says that mankind is basically degenerative in spiritual behavior and always degrades spiritual truth, thus presumably explaining away what is said to be the "seeming" differences across the world religions. In other words, this doctrine says that Buddha and Christ, for example, would have been in perfect agreement with one another, only people have corrupted their intentions, as people, on principle, always do.

Related to one side of this irrational clash, (in terms of man as a "regressive" creature), Scripture (Christianity) simply teaches that man is basically sinful. This is the basis upon which is built the universal need for a Messiah Redeemer and the rationale behind which that Messiah could only be true if He were God incarnate. Mere mankind is universally unworthy. It is the clear intention of Jesus to exhaustively demonstrate this as a fundamental spiritual principle of mankind. Jesus constantly preached that no one could get to heaven because they were "good" enough to earn justification before God by their own "holiness". Jesus says it when he equates "mind lust" with adultery and angry hatred with murder. (things we all have been guilty of at one time or another). He says it when he tells us that no person has ever been holier than John the Baptist and yet that even he, in his carnal state, without the redemption of the Cross and Resurrection, is less than the least in God's kingdom. Scripture says it in a thousand places summed up in the famous verse so often cited, "All have fallen short of the glory of God". This is not to say that mankind's universal sinfulness is the reason for "seeming" differences across the world's religions as Baha'i doctrine asserts. On the contrary, it is the reason why the genuine and objective falsehoods that diverge from Scriptural teaching definitively exist across the world religions.

But one particularly good expression of the Scriptural concept of man's sinful nature was expressed by Glenn Tinder in an article in the Atlantic Magazine, December 1989, entitled, Can We Be Good Without God? . It really gives a well balanced outlook on the paradoxical reality of man's sanctity in the face of his sinfulness. The following is an excerpt from that article.

"The principle that a human being is sacred yet morally degraded is hard for common sense to grasp. It is apparent to most of us that some people are morally degraded. It is ordinarily assumed, however, that other people are morally upright and that these alone possess dignity. From this point of view all is simple and logical. The human race is divided roughly between good people, who possess the infinite worth we attribute to individuals, and bad people, who do not. The basic problem of life is for the good people to gain supremacy over, and perhaps eradicate, the bad people. ...

This common model of life's meaning is drastically irreligious, because it places reliance on good human beings and not on God. It has no room for the double insight that the evil are not beyond the reach of divine mercy nor the good beyond the need for it. It is thus antithetical to Christianity, which maintains that human beings are justified by God alone, and that all are sacred and none are good.

The proposition that none are good does not mean merely that none are perfect. It means that all are persistently and deeply inclined toward evil. All are sinful. In a few sin is so effectively suppressed that it seems to have been destroyed. But this is owing to God's grace, Christian principles imply, not to human goodness, and those in whom it has happened testify emphatically that this is so. Saints claim little credit for themselves."

Thus we can see how it is that Mankind's nature would never allow the Baha'i vision of mankind's future to keep from becoming eventually and inevitably corrupted. A one world government is a concept that, if realized, awaits a final Hitler. For then, such corruption will be on a global scale unparalleled in human history.

Baha'i religion will most likely be a successfully influential component in this present world toward an eventual move to a one world government. But it will not be Christ's Kingdom and such a direction will set mankind up for the rudest awakening ever imagined and precipitate the end prophesied in Scripture. If that sounds too extreme in the "fire and brimstone" department, hear me out and agree to disagree if you so desire. It seems that the more time goes by, and New Age/ Baha'i thinking "seems" to be helping mankind "progress", the less likely it will become for those involved in it to see what lies ahead because of a deep rooted insistence on ignoring the consequences of human nature as a destructive and basic principle to be considered in ideas about a global society, religion or government.

Marilyn Ferguson's Aquarian Conspiracy, and James Redfield's The Celestine Prophecy are both contemporary books of great popularity and influence in voicing the spirit of the "New Age". They also describe in their outlooks common beliefs about human society that are much the same as Baha'i concepts in their ends. This is not to say that proponents of the New Age would embrace Baha'i religion as the "truth", and certainly not the sole and final Revelation Baha'u'llah claims. It is also not to say that the Baha'i would embrace the shamanism or otherwise overtly occult means that the New Age excitedly embraces with which to tap spiritual "power". But the parallels reveal a common influence nonetheless and leave the Christian, who stands in the middle observing, on a vantage point of greater spiritual discernment.

The "New Age" spiritual movement (Ferguson calls it a conspiracy) is, according to her, impossible to point a finger at and say, "There it is." Or, "There they are." Ms. Ferguson describes this grass roots movement in the introduction to her book;

"Something remarkable is underway. It is moving with almost dizzying speed, but it has no name and eludes description. ...

... Within recent history "it" has infected medicine, education, social science, hard science, even government with its implications. ... It seems to speak to something very old. And perhaps, by integrating magic and science, art and technology, it will succeed where all the kings horses and all the king's men failed."

In Chapter one of her book she tells us more of what the movement is like,

"A leaderless but powerful network is working to bring about radical change in the United States. It's members have broken with certain key elements of Western thought, and they may even have broken continuity with history.

This network is the Aquarian Conspiracy. It is a conspiracy without a political doctrine. Without a manifesto. With conspirators who seek power only to disperse it, and whose strategies are pragmatic, even scientific, but whose perspective sounds so mystical that they hesitate to discuss it. ...

... The great shuddering, irrevocable shift overtaking us is not a new political, religious, or philosophical system. It is a new mind- the ascendance of a startling world view that gathers into it's framework breakthrough science and insights from earliest recorded thought. ...

... You will look in vain for affiliations in traditional forms: political parties, ideological groups, clubs or fraternal organizations. You find instead little clusters and loose networks. There are tens of thousands of entry points to this conspiracy"

This unorganized organization seems to be a conscious and alive entity only as a spiritual resonance that is ringing across humanity in the souls of those who are in tune with it. The question is, what spirit?

But if it is itself illusive, its tenets are not. If it is difficult to define, it is nonetheless easy to describe. The New Age movement is characterized by certain common themes. One striking aspect is the wedding of contemporary science with very ancient spiritual mysticism. It depends on cutting edge science to support and further its tenets but also embraces a strong appeal for a return to ancient Eastern mysticism, magic, the occult, Shamanism, etc. Both are to be the means of gaining spiritual power (presumably with benevolent intention).

From a scientific standpoint, for example, Ms. Ferguson points out that the networks of people that characterize the movement have only recently become possible. Telecommunications technology has developed exponentially to the point where diverse groups of people spanning incredible distances can exchange ideas and information and generally work together in ways no one would have dreamed possible only a few years ago. She tells us that science is "proving" that the New Age call for a return to ancient long condemned occult practices is justified. On page 25 of her book she tells us;

"However bold and romantic this movement may seem ... it expresses deep principles of nature that are only now being described and confirmed by science."

The "principles" of which she speaks are the return to magic, occult, witchcraft, as legitimate means of spiritual growth.

The New Age believes that human nature is neither bad nor good and that the human spirit, like the physical body, is subject to the inexorable process of evolutionary progress. This kind of thinking leads down a spiritual path that carries a certain inevitable, or at least very predictable, progression of ideas. It tells us that utopia, paradise, lies in man's future in a world that will be characterized by the benign unity of an enlightened, even godlike, Mankind. It tells us that this is inevitable because Mankind has "God" potential and spiritual evolution must eventually lead us to realize that potential. It tells us that we are Gods whose potential can only be realized by casting away the baggage of our old, primitive ways of believing. Ms Ferguson tells us that Humankind is on the verge of a "paradigm" shift as a species, a quantum leap in our spiritual evolution toward godhood. She tells us (pg 385) of,

"...the awakening of increasing numbers of human beings to their godlike potential. 'The seed of God is in us', Meister Ekhart said. 'Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God seed into God.'"

James Redfield says much the same thing about the concept of our spiritual evolution toward some startling ascendance in the Author's Note at the beginning of his Celestine Prophecy.

"For half a century now a new consciousness has been entering the human world, a new awareness that can only be called transcendent, spiritual. ...

... we know that once we understand what is happening, how to engage this illusive process and maximize its occurrence in our lives, human society will take a quantum leap into a whole new way of life-one that realizes the best of our tradition-and creates a culture that has been the goal of history all along."

The Christian, who knows how our fallen human nature would abuse godlike spiritual power, must shudder as they read page 159 of Ms. Ferguson's Aquarian Conspiracy . Here we can see the frightening model she presents wherein the brave spiritual New Age mystic forges ahead into the spiritual evolutionary future, leaving behind the spiritual Neanderthals (ie. those who cling to their faith in Christ according to traditional beliefs). For the Christian knows all too well what religio-spiritual persecution would play out against the "inferiors". Hitler too would have helped us "ascend" to such an evolutionary godhood.

This then seems to be the New Age. An abandoning of the spiritual traditions and taboos of the past so that a return to the spiritual techniques of the truly ancient past can once again be dabbled with so as to gain spiritual power. Modern technology and science in a symbiotic relationship with such thinking make a dynamic witch's brew indeed.

Perhaps the Baha'i believer would say, "The New Age points you describe show that Baha'u'llah was right. But these New Age mystics have not ascended to the fullness of Baha'u'llah's teachings and are still in the shadows of partial knowledge."

The New Age mystic might conversely say, "Ah! Baha'u'llah was on to something. Much of what he said was true. But he did not realize that he was as much a part of the generic melting pot of spirituality as the rest of the "organized", "structured" religions he wished to embrace. Man is ready to go beyond all that."

The Christian might respond; "Neither of you seem to see the common spiritual warning signs that bind you together and transcend your differences. They are aspects in the spirit of antichrist that have for thousands of years been clearly prophesied in Scripture. How terrifying and awesome to see prophecy unfold. How confirming to our faith."

On the other hand, there is the opportunity to observe a definitive recognition amongst Baha'is of the strong spiritual bond between New Age mysticism and Baha'i theology. A quote from pg 204 of William S. Hatcher and J. Douglas Martin's book, The Baha'i Faith, The emerging Global Religion , is very revealing. The book is one commissioned by the Association for Baha'i studies in Ottawa Canada. The following excerpt is dramatically relevant in demonstrating the definitve connection between New Age belief anf Baha'i theology that I am speaking of.

"No observer of the Baha'i struggle will fail to note that their faith enjoys one enormous advantage unknown to any previous period of its history. The world appears at last ready to listen. The rising rate at which people in many parts of the world are becoming Baha'i tells only part of the story. Equally important is the growing acceptance outside the community of the diagnosis of the human condition found in Baha'u'llah's writings. ...there is a deepening conviction in many quarters that fundamental social change depends upon some form of spiritual and moral transformation. ...

...By 1980 the influential study produced by the Brandt Commission was warning that the restructuring of our system of values had become a matter of survival itself. A flood of literature by social commentators like Alvin Toffler, Marilyn Ferguson, Frijof Capra, and John Naisbitt has made certain that the message and its metaphysical implications have been communicated to a popular readership...

If such views represent the direction humankind's search for security is taking, and if the Baha'i faith continues on the course it has so far unwaveringly followed, then one can readily believe that somewhere ahead lies that point of eventual convergence spoken of by Baha'u'llah over a century ago:

"This is the day in which God's most excellent favors have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace hath been infused into all created things.... Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead."

Baha'i religion definitely recognizes its spiritual common ground with the New Age mysticism. I would like to reveal more of these common threads with a few quotes and observations from both Ferguson's Aquarian Conspiracy and Redfield's Celestine Prophecy.

The first very striking observation in Ferguson's book is not even made by her but by John Naisbitt who wrote the forward to the book. He is the author of the best selling book Megatrends which he described as a "soft core" version of Ms. Ferguson's book. In speaking about times of great social change in history and "shifts" in social thinking, he made the following comment.

"During times of great change, people seek some kind of structure. Such a search for parameters accounts in part for the current religious revival. ...A similar proliferation of new religious groups occurred 150 years ago, when we were in the midst of another basic shift, from an agricultural to an industrial economic base."

In keeping with New Age thinking we can see here the notion of social and spiritual evolution, pictured as "shifts" in humanity's outlook caused by upheaval and stress, undauntingly, if painfully, moving us along the progressive path of our spiritual evolution as a species. It is interesting to note how neatly Baha'i religion fits into Naisbit's observation, almost exactly pointing back to the founding of the Baha'i religion. More importantly, this kind of thinking is like that of Baha'u'llah, who claims that Mankind has become more spiritually "advanced" with the ages, more progressively enlightened until, only now, Mankind is evolved to the point of being ready for his final and supreme revelation. Christianity wisely disagrees with both the New Age and Baha'i versions of this idea, recognizing human nature for what it is and that man has not become spiritually evolved but deals with the same vices and temptations as have always been common to all men. Nevertheless, we see a common spiritual thread that connects both New Age and Baha'i thinking, transcending their differences. The idea that Mankind somehow progressively evolves spiritually into an ever more enlightened creature. It is a dangerous and wrong doctrine that comes from the same spiritual source.

The idea that human nature is a neutral factor, neither good nor bad, is another necessary prerequisite common to both New Age thinking and Baha'i. It is easy to see that from either perspective the idea that human nature exists in a fallen state, needy of grace external to its own independent abilities, is an incompatible belief. We cannot build either the Baha'i paradise of pan- world peaceful unity or the New Age one unless we sweep the concept of sin, and especially our sinful condition, under the spiritual carpet. It leaves us too dependent. It concedes limitations that neither viewpoint can afford to admit. It keeps us "mortal" while the New Age would have us become Gods. Baha'u'llah, on the other hand, would have us build God's paradise on our own and justify ourselves by our deeds as worthy before God to enter into it. The truth of our basic sinful human nature shoots down the possibility of either. Marilyn Ferguson tells us on page 381,

"In these spiritual traditions there is neither good nor evil. There is only light and the absence of light... wholeness and brokenness...flow and struggle."

On page 29 she tells us,

"Human nature is neither good nor bad but open to continuous transformation and transcendence."

Here there is no sin, and thus no responsibility for it. Ferguson even uses the exact same analogy of sin as merely an "absence of light" as Baha'i theology does with which to rationalize away the objective reality of sin and portray human nature as neutral, not really "sinful" or "fallen". Here there is no fundamental impetus for humbleness before a holy God. Here no recognition of an ungodly nature from which we need God's Salvation if we are to dwell with Him in His Kingdom. There is no place in this thinking for a "Messiah". For we are all to be our own Messiah and effect our salvation (if such a term even has relevance in this context) by our own "innate powers" (Baha'u'llah, Gleanings).

We see the same kind of thinking in Baha'i theology. From Some Answered Questions we see it expressed by Abdul Baha',

...take a number of children of one family, of one place, of one school, instructed by one teacher, reared on the same food, in the same climate, with the same clothing, and studying the same lessons--it is certain that among these children some will be clever in the sciences, some will be of average ability, and some dull. Hence it is clear that in the original nature there exists a difference of degree and varieties of worthiness and capacity. This difference does not imply good or evil but is simply a difference of degree...

... In creation there is no evil; all is good. Certain qualities and natures innate in some men and apparently blameworthy are not so in reality. ...

...it is evident that in creation and nature evil does not exist at all but when the natural qualities of man are used in an unlawful way, they are blameworthy....

Thus we can see how Baha'u'llah is able to say on pg page 71 Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah;

“His (God’s ) purpose, however, is to enable the pure in spirit and the detached in heart to ascend, by virtue of their own innate powers, unto the shores of the Most Great Ocean (heaven).”

According to both the Baha'i and the New Age adherent the only thing that separates us from limitless spiritual progress is ignorance. Given enough time, the asserted principle just quoted tells us that we can fix all human problems with nothing more than the"education" of the human soul. Here, by way of the logical reasoning inherent within Abdul Baha's clearly stated basic principles, is an outlook where there can be no upper spiritual limits set by a sinful, carnal nature. Despite the fact that Baha'u'llah makes arbitrary assertions elsewhere within the Baha'i theological system that would limit spiritual progress in mankind, there is no reason to suppose such would be the case, given the implications of mankind's alleged neutral spiritual nature which empowers him to ascend "by his own innate powers". Baha'u'llah may say in Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah that, "No man, however acute his perception, can ever hope to reach the heights which the wisdom and understanding of the Divine Physician have attained", yet he offers no reason for such a limitation that would square with what is being said here that more than implies unlimited future progress. Here is the more than implied claim of limitless potential, for here there is no objective reality to evil as a real and basic limiting force within us that might cause us to need seeking beyond ourselves for Salvation. Take into consideration the belief in mankind's alleged neutral spirituality. Add next the Baha'i belief in a fundamentally progressive evolutionary spirituality for human nature. Now move forward in time along the endless continuum of the Baha'i or New Age concepts of the never ending, timeless, and eternal Creation. The inevitable logical and inherent implications of this set of beliefs must ultimately lead us to the conclusion that, given enough time, we must become Gods!

Take the concepts of worldly Science as a verifier, a validator of spiritual truth. This worldly standard is highly regarded, even deified, by both belief systems. Remember the Baha'i claim that,

"What science and the mind of man cannot grasp religion should not accept. Religion and science walk hand in hand. Else is superstition."

Ms. Ferguson appeals to the same standard as validation for spiritual truths,

"However bold and romantic this movement might seem... it expresses deep principles of nature only now being described and confirmed by science... Science... is proving the reality of a "deep cultural vision."

This idea that worldly proofs must somehow be validators of spiritual truths is a false and disturbing common thread. One need only read what Paul tells us in chapter one of 1Corinthians to see why;

"For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength."

The idea of a one world government and culture is another common New Age/ Baha'i concept. But one must also include a "one world religion" as part of this belief. For if we carefully think things through we can see that a new universal religion would necessarily have to replace all religions of the past. The New Age adherent would likely disagree, saying that the concept of "religion" carries too many associations from the old "primitive" paradigm or way of believing. He would prefer to euphemistically call it a "new spirituality" or "new spiritual awakening" not tied to rigid structure. The Baha'i would simply disagree that the one world government and culture they propose would abandon any former religions. They would use their symbolism and relativism to show that Baha'i religion was the culminating goal of them all; their fully intended fulfillment.

We know of the Baha'i concept of a one world religion, government and culture. It is defined for them as the Baha'i religion itself! But what about New Age thinking?

James Redfield describes the New Age utopia in the "Ninth Insight" of his book The Celestine Prophecy. The allegorical novel has its hero searching for the meaning of an ancient South American manuscript that turns out to be rich in spiritual meaning for Humanity's future. More than a hint of Baha'i religion could be drawn from the fact that this "Insight" of a one world paradise is the "ninth" one in the manuscript, the number nine being the Baha'i number of perfection. On page 222 he paints the idyllic scene;

"'According to the Ninth Insight, by the middle of the next millennium', he continued, "humans will typically live among five hundred year old trees and carefully tended gardens, yet within easy travel distance of an urban area of incredible technological wizardry. By then, the means for survival- foodstuffs and clothing and transportation- will be totally automated and at everyone's disposal. Our needs will be completely met without the exchange of any currency, yet also without any overindulgence or laziness."

Later on page 239, he describes another New Age aspect of the Ninth Insight in terms very clear to the Baha'i;

"... the manuscript would clarify many religions. And would help them fulfill their promise. All religion, it says, is about Humankind finding relationship to one higher source."

In the first place, we must recognize the fact that full, complete, and accurate concepts of world religion and world culture cannot be separated. Next we must remember, as we have seen earlier, that neither can the various world religions be homogenized. The only way to honor the "diversity" of world religion is to leave it's diversity intact. Again, it is a dishonest euphemism to suggest that there can be a one world religio-culture that "multiculturally" honors the intentions of the diverse beliefs of the world. There can be a new one that destroys and abandons the old, replacing it with something else. But it will neither honor or uphold the integrity of those it synthesizes. We have already seen how mutually exclusive the beliefs of the world religions are. Reducing them to their legitimate commonalities butchers their intended integrity, for their differences are not trivial. Making their intended differences seem trivial, or nonexistent, with strained and false symbolism does them an evengreater disrespect. The Christian is ever watchful for the spirit that would pack Christian belief in moth balls. Whether with the New Age world unity of a new "Spiritual awakening" caused by Man's supposed evolutionary spiritual ascendance, or the Baha'i revelation, final and greatest, of Baha'u'llah, the spiritual goal is the same. Abandon the old "Gospel", put on the "new gospel", the "other gospel". One could be tempted by the delicious and holy sounding benevolence of such persuasion if the Scriptures and very words of Christ were not so clear in their constant warnings about such spiritual sabotage.

The Christian recognizes that despite technological and intellectual advancement, mankind's sinful nature is as active today as ever. Greed, hatred, envy, and every other vice of man's self centeredness is readily apparent in all the world. It is simply more frighteningly empowered. With human nature, the observant person recognizes that at some point every good thing becomes corrupted. Baha'i religion recognizes this too in it's doctrine that attempts to explain the "apparent" differences amongst the world's religions as being due to the fact that mankind always corrupts the original intentions of any religious founder. The implications of this universal principle in man's nature must always be considered in any goal or action plan one might devise for humanity. A unified world government and society carries within it the seeds of political and spiritual corruption taken to their extreme. Where Alexander the Great, or Napoleon, or Hitler failed, the Antichrist to come, for his season, will succeed. He will succeed globally for the same reason that Hitler succeeded in his day in a lesser, though still globally destructive, way. The climate will be set up for the Antichrist in advance, ripened to full potential for his ruthless ascendance. Only in his case, with the power of modern technology, and a naively established global political unity already in place, he will not fight the hopeless struggle of Hitler. For him it will be far easier and his destructive capacity more far reaching. Indeed, there will be no where to run. And who will be foolish enough to suggest that another Hitler will not inevitably come? As Scripture tells us of Christ's return, it also warns of the coming of a great Antichrist. History too shows us that, given the proper environment, circumstances and opportunity, it is a recurring pattern throughout human history that some terribly wicked, terribly brilliant, terribly charismatic, and terribly ruthless personality will periodically take full advantage of circumstantial opportunity fateful timing affords him to infect humanity with evil far beyond the normal. The goal is always the same, world dominion. When we consider the unifying political goals of Baha'i religion for man's future, it takes little imagination to picture the relish with which corruption will be able to monopolize its influence. How envious Hitler himself would have been to have seen the ripe potential he missed. How exciting to have seen such eager if unwitting helpers, dedicated to setting things up for him in advance. But, how frustrating to have been born too soon to take advantage of that opportunity so much more ripe with potential than his own day could offer. We can see how the spirit of Baha'i religion and the New Age will usher in the climate and season of ripe harvest for the Antichrist who will come as a champion of benevolent world unity, and then, once firmly entrenched and established, be revealed as its most horrific nightmare, precipitating the end.

In his Wine of Astonishment Sears tells us that the "snob appeal" of traditional Christianity has long been used to attract material minded Man. He says of Christians;

"Almost everyone wants to belong to the oldest, the richest, or the most exclusive of whatever it is."

But I contend that it is the "new and different" thing that attracts material minded Man. It is the fad that tempts fickle faithlessness against God's longstanding truths. It is Man's age old problem of trying to come up with a "better" way, presuming to improve upon God's way, that characterizes material minded Man. But the frightening truth about this new, enlightened, "New Age" thinking is that while it proclaims itself as the new enlightenment of a now "advanced" species, the ideas that come out of it, and thus characterize and define it, are ancient and dark. These beliefs hearken back to the primitive roots of shamanism, where mere mortal men may claim the ability to own God's authority and gain God's power by their own means. They are beliefs that slyly circle Man back around again to Adam's fall in the garden, insidiously tempting us to take into our own hands the authority of the knowledge of good and evil, and thus, the responsibility for our own self made justification before the perfect Lord God. They are the notions of men; busy in the pride of their own "holy" inventions; busy with men's doings and men's plans, but never listening to God's voice. These are the beliefs of those who loudly proclaim the "righteousness" of their new found cause while they leave behind a God abandoned upon the cross of their own very hope for Salvation; His having "died for nothing" to them; their having tried to empty His cross of its power.

It has been suggested by Sears that Baha'u'llah, just like Jesus, was only rejected by his contemporaries as a man of radical ideas because men were too naive and primitive to accept the spiritual truths he intended to convey. But this is not a true comparison of sameness between Baha'u'llah and Jesus. Jesus came with a New Covenant that was a clear progression out of Old Testament prophecy. Unlike Baha'u'llah, He was a New Covenant, but not a new Word. His "radical" ideas were only a closer look at and a refined agreement with what the Old Testament had already said about sin, and man, and Salvation. His very life was the fulfillment and completion of God's greatest promises given to Man through Moses and the prophets. The reader of Scripture can connect the sayings and claims of Jesus back into the Old Testament without creating elaborate symbolism that utterly changes the themes and moral messages those Scriptures tell us about our nature, and God's. Jesus was rejected because of men's arrogant pride, hypocrisy and independent stubbornness. The Christian, on the other hand, must reject Baha'u'llah because we dare not enter back into that "righteousness " built with good deeds that, in the same way, stubbornly and pridefully rejects God's gift of Salvation through Christ. We reject Baha'u'llah because we don't wish to be contentious with God, but rather we want to believe God, and honor the wisdom and compassion by which He provided our means of truly approaching Him, even our Lord Jesus Christ.

Our intellectual ability to perceive, along with our spiritual ability to discern, gives us the means by which we can see that God has interwoven the knowledge of His invisible qualities into all creation. All men, for all time, have been able to discover what is good and true. And so, as Paul tells us in Romans 1:20, all men are accountable for sin. We then would expect to find observed truths discovered from within God's creation by any religion that in any way seeks truth. But this does not mean that their overall dogma is a true or complete one. A person who seeks the truth must try to find the whole truth. For men will take aspects of the truth they can accept, and reject the rest; creating false ideas to fill in the gaps, and thus creating false systems of belief decorated with enough truth to make them look good to men. A belief system, like a person, can appear to be clean and white on the surface, while underneath lies the corruption of false doctrines; dogmatic tares among the wheat that choke the fruitfulness of its righteous truths discovered. It is not enough to perceive some of God's truths. It is not a true assumption that because we find common truths across many religions that they are therefore all true and complete as belief systems. Even the pagans find some truth for it is under every stone. We must seek a whole truth; a complete faith. If we must now "see in part" what we will then see "face to face", we must try all the more to see the whole truth in part, and not see in part only bits and pieces wedded with false and worldly thinking that lead to an overall wrong spiritual view. The Christian has found the whole truth in Jesus Christ. In Him is found the perfect expression of all of God's invisible qualities. For in Him is all the fullness of God (Colossians 1:19).

We do not believe that we will die to become reincarnated as an animal. Neither do we believe in oblivion. We do not believe that God compromises His pure standards of morality by allowing for morality, Truth, or justice to be considered as aspects of mutable social laws that change with time and circumstance. For we believe that God's moral righteousness is absolute, constant and universal and not relative to men's sinful worldly circumstances. We believe that God's righteousness stands firm in the face of Man's sinfulness so that, against the backdrop of that unchanging Law of moral purity, we are able to perceive our own sinful tendencies, thereby appreciating our need for Jesus Christ's (God's) personally redeeming Salvation. We thus have the means of orienting ourselves by that solid and dependable moral standard so that we can know how to redirect our lives. We do not believe that Man's carnal nature is morally evolved through our intellectual or technological advancement but that in that flesh nature (the sinful carnal nature) there is no good thing (Romans 7:18), nothing of the Father. We thereby do not believe that Man can be justified as pure before God without the intervening redemption of Jesus Christ alone. For we are told by Peter in Acts 4:10,

"It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is ' the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.' Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

Since we know that God alone can be that Savior, we know that Jesus is God's exclusive Salvation for Man and that His authority is absolute. We can clearly see that Peter speaks the true intention of the Gospel in proclaiming the person of Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, who was raised from the dead and through whom is our only hope for harmony with God. Thus, we do not believe the theories of "other gospels" that try to tell us that His Resurrection was only symbolic of His believers recovery from their doubts after His death. We do not believe that He was only a good man; only a mortal "Messenger". Because there is no one who could, can, or ever will equal the glory of His name, we believe Peter when he tells us that Salvation is found in no one else but Christ Jesus of Nazareth.

And so we do not find that all religions are the true and whole faith that we find in the Bible and in Christ. If they have truths, they are incomplete. If they have wisdom, it is an insufficient patchwork. If they have righteousness, they still stumble in the darkness of an imperfect vision of God's plan and purpose for Mankind. Christ alone represents the perfect, sinless man; the complete and whole model of God's pureness expressed through humanity. All else in the world is corrupted by the world. All else is imperfect. All else is subordinate and to be counted as nothing; as a loss in comparison to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus (Phillipians 3:7).

Other Belief systems that do not acknowledge Man's fallen nature, His accountability before God because of it, and God's compassionate plan of intercession, are fundamentally in error. They miss the very heart of God and the truth about Man. Christ alone demonstrates by righteousness and power that He is that Salvation above and beyond the truths and wisdoms and moralities of other religious founders and their religions. Where they have true wisdom, it points to Christ. Where they have true prophecies, they are of Him. For Jesus Christ is the very Word of God made flesh that will never pass away. In Him is our sure hope, our complete faith. Where the truths of other's incomplete faiths will lead any given individual soul only God Himself really knows. But we know that we now have before us the opportunity to grasp all that God desires for us and to know more clearly what it is that we can do to please and honor Him. Why should we hesitate? Why should we argue the possible merits of other ways of thinking when the living God has come to us in His perfection to reveal that perfection to us in Jesus Christ? What better way than the perfect way? What better plan than God's own plan? And for those who have had the opportunity to choose God's perfect way, but stubbornly reject it, what hope is there of harmony with Him? For if we confess the universal truth that we are indeed sinners, yet reject God's rescue, what hope can we have alone and apart from Him? God forbid we should wander so foolishly from His protecting Love! Yet Baha'i religion has wandered far, and on its own presumes to overcome the world, even with the wisdom of the world. The Holy Scriptures tell us this will ultimately fail. For if we choose a righteousness of our own, built "of our own innate powers" upon the good deeds taught us by mortal "Messengers" of morality, we will carry along with those deeds the sinful ones that surely condemn us, and we will carry them into eternity.

Thanks be to God through Jesus of Nazareth who has delivered us as immortal Messiah, not mortal teacher, and redeemed us that we may live in harmony with God forever in His Kingdom, made pure and acceptable in His sight by His own righteous hand as revealed through our faith in His one and only Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.