BruceDLimber
Well-Known Member
Precisely what the Baha'i Faith teaches!
(Though His Manifestations <aka Divine Messengers> are each distinct individuals, not "incarnations" of God Himself.)
Peace,
Bruce
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Manifestations of God
- Thread starter metis
- Start date
Precisely what the Baha'i Faith teaches!
(Though His Manifestations <aka Divine Messengers> are each distinct individuals, not "incarnations" of God Himself.)
Peace,
Bruce
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
Actually a very significant number of Christian theologians disagree with you as they tend to think he likely grew up as a relatively normal child, which may explain why so little is said about his childhood in the gospels. OTOH, some of the pseudepigrapha have Jesus performing miracles as a child and even uprooting trees by hand as a child just for the fun of it.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
Precisely what the Baha'i Faith teaches!
(Though His Manifestations <aka Divine Messengers> are each distinct individuals, not "incarnations" of God Himself.)
Peace,
Bruce
Yes, and thanks for this. BTW, have you ever visited the Baha'i Temple in Haifa? I saw it when traveling up Mt. Carmel but I didn't have time to actually tour the grounds or the temple.
Yes, this is all true. There is also the missing 18 years between that incident at 12 years old and the beginning of his teaching during which time we really don't know what he did. For the record, I don't believe he was/is an avatar, because I don't believe he was/is God. Rather, perhaps a prophet and enlightened person. I'm just pointing out that if he was indeed enlightened from an early age, that blows the contention that he was not an avatar, based on the definition above. Personally I don't care what he was or wasn't, I just like his teachings.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
Yes, this is all true. There is also the missing 18 years between that incident at 12 years old and the beginning of his teaching during which time we really don't know what he did. For the record, I don't believe he was/is an avatar, because I don't believe he was/is God. Rather, perhaps a prophet and enlightened person. I'm just pointing out that if he was indeed enlightened from an early age, that blows the contention that he was not an avatar, based on the definition above. Personally I don't care what he was or wasn't, I just like his teachings.
Yes, I understand and agree. BTW, the vast majority of his teachings is basic Judaism, such as what we read in his Sermon on the Mount.
Yes, he did not set out to "create" a religion. He simply set out to bring real Judaism and God (and comfort) to the common people, something they lost sight of. And something that was held back from them by the religious elite. At least that's how I see it.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
Actually, we didn't lose sight of it, although some did, no doubt. Where the difference seems to be is his approach to Torah whereas he equates all of the Law to just two of the Commandments: love of God and love of man. Even though Judaism teaches that these indeed are extremely important Commandments, they are not the only ones.
BTW, here's where you can find all of the Commandments and where they're found in Torah: Judaism 101: A List of the 613 Mitzvot (Commandments)
My camp is more the masters of eastern thought and teachings; Satya Sai Baba, Prahmahansa Yogananda, Vivekananda, etc.. I think you are comfortable with them too, I hope. Einstein, I think, had a more impersonal view of God and not the God that is the spark of our consciousness also.
I take that story as showing His precociousness, not His omniscience.
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
Einstein tended to believe that God may well be the energy of creation itself, sometimes equating the "laws of physics" to actually being God.
Right, I just don't see how that view could mean much to anyone personally.
Yes I don't see why anyone couldn't be a manifestation of god. That is what is taught by all the major religions in one way or another that such thing is attainable. Different parts of the world, certainly because each culture ends up with their own hang ups to get passed and thus need to be shown a little differently but all amounts to the same thing.
Yes, this is all true. There is also the missing 18 years between that incident at 12 years old and the beginning of his teaching during which time we really don't know what he did. For the record, I don't believe he was/is an avatar, because I don't believe he was/is God. Rather, perhaps a prophet and enlightened person. I'm just pointing out that if he was indeed enlightened from an early age, that blows the contention that he was not an avatar, based on the definition above. Personally I don't care what he was or wasn't, I just like his teachings.
This certainly would be an enlightened individual that ended up making huge impacts on the world at large even if it was aimed at a specific culture at the time. His enlightenment proved to transcend even Judaism, certainly transcended the culture of his time and even his own followers had trouble keeping up with his train of thought which proved to be beyond inspirational.
Right, I mean the people of that time.
True, but he didn't say they were the only ones. He said they were the most important because all the rest of the Law rests on them. And in a way that's true... if you love God with everything you have, you'll keep all his other commandments.
Yeah, and out of those 613, there is one that right wing Christians love to bash people over the head with, yet they forget the other 612. As an add-on, it irritates the snot out of me that some Christians pretend to know more about the Torah and its interpretations than Jews do. Take about appropriation!
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
But the new church didn't. In Acts we see them walking away from the kosher Laws, for example (Peter's vision), and most of the rest of the Laws soon got ignored.
Unfortunately, so many of them pick-and-choose. For example, many churches demand their congregants tithe, but if they require that, then why not the other 612?
BTW, we as Jews who live here in the States generally don't have to tithe since tithing in biblical times included taxes to help the poor and widows whom today are aided through taxes.
Yes indeed, which always leads me to the next point:
Often to negative and damaging effects.
BruceDLimber
Well-Known Member
It's not in fact a "temple": the primary building there is the Shrine of the Bab (which is His tomb). There are four major administrative buildings nearby.
There is a temple site on top of Mount Carmel about a mile away, but that one's not built yet, and currently has only an obelisk marking it.
We have seven temples in the world, one per continent--soon to be eight when the South American one is completed. The Asian temple is in New Delhi, India. It's commonly called the "lotus temple" because of its shape, and it's the single most-visited building in the world, getting five million visitors per year (about 13,000 every day)! If you check the Web, you can see pictures of it: just look for "Baha'i lotus temple," for example.
And yes, I've been there--several times, in fact! Once on pilgrimage, and twice on choir tours.
The area--as well as the Shrine of Baha'u'llah and a garden frequented by Him, both in nearby Akka--is open to the public every day, so I hope you get a chance to visit there again!
Regards,
Bruce
metis
aged ecumenical anthropologist
It's not in fact a "temple": the primary building there is the Shrine of the Bab (which is His tomb). There are four major administrative buildings nearby.
There is a temple site on top of Mount Carmel about a mile away, but that one's not built yet, and currently has only an obelisk marking it.
We have seven temples in the world, one per continent--soon to be eight when the South American one is completed. The Asian temple is in New Delhi, India. It's commonly called the "lotus temple" because of its shape, and it's the single most-visited building in the world, getting five million visitors per year (about 13,000 every day)! If you check the Web, you can see pictures of it: just look for "Baha'i lotus temple," for example.
And yes, I've been there--several times, in fact! Once on pilgrimage, and twice on choir tours.
The area--as well as the Shrine of Baha'u'llah and a garden frequented by Him, both in nearby Akka--is open to the public every day, so I hope you get a chance to visit there again!
Regards,
Bruce
I would love to but age is catching up to my wife and I so I'm quite positive we'll not make it back. Thanks for the explanation.
I think that God has revealed Himself, in some way or measure, to every people and society on earth , usually through the medium of inspired men and women who have sought after him and founded religious rites which they have then passed on to others.
This has been the position, historically, of prominent Catholic theologians such as the cardinals Nicholas of Cusa (in the 15th century) and John Henry Newman (in the 19th century), ie
This became the official position of the Catholic Church in the 20th century after being taken up by the Second Vatican Council and emphasised very much by Pope Saint John Paul II: