Do many Christians believe... That God created Adam and Eve... That He created everything in 6 days... That He was in the Garden and spoke with Adam... Tons of things that Baha'is deny really happened. They wiggle out of it by saying those things were symbolic. Was Noah 500 years old when the Flood came? Was there a worldwide flood? Did Moses' walking cane turn into a snake? Did Jonah get swallowed by a big fish? What do Baha'is really believe about any of these?
I have not done a count amongst Christians. To me the Bible is fundamental to my faith. I believe that the days of creation were not necessarily 6 24hour days. I believe that the world wide flood was probably many large local floods. (A large local flood can be read in the Genesis account since some words translated one way can be translated in other ways, eg earth can be translated as land and mountains can be translated as high hills.etc) But I guess that is not really what we are talking about.
Many Baha'is I imagine do not worry themselves about much of the Bible. They are concerned with those parts of the Bible which affect their beliefs and which Baha'u'llah mentioned.
The usual ones that I ask them about are that Baha'u'llah says that Ishmael, not Isaac, was taken to be sacrificed. If that is true, then the Bible is wrong and has been for hundreds of years. The other one is all the verses that talk about the resurrection. Baha'is say it didn't happen... that Jesus' body died and stayed dead. So all those verses are wrong? No, they can wiggle out of it by saying they "interpret" it differently. And so do Atheists. They can say that the whole Bible is made up fiction.... nothing but myth... and that's their "interpretation". They are not denying that the stories exist in a Book. Those stories are real. They just interpret them as being fictional. Not much different than what Baha'is do to the Bible.
I did not know that about Ishmael,,,,,,,,,,maybe that came from juggling Islam also in the mix and what they may say about Ishmael. I do find it amazing that Baha'is do not seem to realise that what they call interpretation is not really interpretation, but is straight out denial and replacing with the teachings of Baha'u'llah. But that sort of thing happens when we believe stuff,,,,,,,,,,,,our eyes can be closed to things that go against our beliefs.
But, who knows, maybe they are right. Like really a 6 day Creation less than 10,000 years ago? Really, the seas parted and then closed back up and drowned the Egyptian army? And really, Jesus and many other dead people came back to life. And really, Jesus floated off into space? Tough stuff to believe. And I would be surprised if those stories are literal true. And I don't know of one Baha'i that would deny that they don't take many of the things in the Bible as literally true. So what's the debate about? Baha'is deny things that Christians believe are true.
I think that Baha'i is a diverse faith and that there are many opinions amongst them about various things in the Bible. But yes they do deny things that Christians believe to be true, just as they deny things that Buddhists believe and that Hindus believe and Muslims believe etc. That is the nature of a religion that wants to say most religions are from God. They also have to say that most have been corrupted. Otherwise God IS a serial liar who makes stuff up for some people and makes other stuff up for others.
BUT at least they know what Baha'u'llah taught even if it is hard to read and understand.
Personally I prefer someone whom others write about and what he has said and done,,, it is less like someone claiming stuff for themselves and being their own authority.
