If this is the evidence upon which your faith has been built, then I would look again at the evidence!
No, this is not the evidence upon which my faith is built, as I never read one page of the Bible before I became a Baha’i, and not for 42 years after that. I only started reading the Bible after I came to forums and began conversing with Christians because I wanted to know what they believed.
Below is what Baha’u’llah wrote about evidence that establishes the truth of His claims.
“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. This is, verily, an evidence of His tender mercy unto men.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 105
No. 1. The Gospel is still being preached around the world today. According to Bible translation agencies, there are around 1800 languages that still do not have access to translated scriptures, neither do they have churches planted in their midst.
That’s not the point that it is STILL being preached.. The point is when the gospel would have been preached to all nations of the world.
“Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3)
“But he that shall endure until the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness … then shall the end come.” (Matthew 24:13-14)
This was clear enough. The end would come, and Christ would return, when His Gospel was preached throughout the world.
A study of the spread of Christianity made by scholars of the 1840’s, convinced them that the message of Christ had, by their day, already encircled the globe. The Gospel was being taught in all the continents. By 1844 it was being taught even in the interior of Africa, not by solitary missionaries, but on an organized scale. A commercial history of East Africa states: “Christian missions began their activities amongst the African people in 1844. (Year Book and Guide to East Africa, Ed. by Robert Hale Ltd., London, 1953, p. 44)
There were many additional references which made it clear that the Gospel of Christ, and its teachers, had entered every continent by the year 1844, spreading the Word of Jesus the Christ throughout the world.
This was considered by the students of Scripture to be in exact fulfilment of the words of Christ given in
Mark:
“And the gospel must first be published among all nations.” (Mark 13:10)
The millennial scholars of the 1840s felt that Christ’s first promise had been fulfilled. They felt it had been clearly demonstrated that the Gospel of Christ had been ‘preached in all the world for a witness’ and, therefore, the hour for His coming must now be at hand.”
William Sears, Thief in the Night
No. 2. The 'times of the Gentiles' is connected to the time that Jerusalem will be trodden down by Gentiles, rather than occupied by Jews [see the words of Jesus,
Luke 21:24] Since Jerusalem was trodden down by Gentiles in 1844, this date for the fulfilment of prophecy is clearly wrong.
The prophecy for the Jews returning to their homeland was fulfilled in 1844.
Luke 21:24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
21 March 1844 –
Edict of Toleration, seen as beginning the process of allowing
Jews to settle in the
Holy Land. It reduces punishments for apostasy from death.
[3]
Edict of toleration
This happened in 1844:
Edict of Toleration 1844
An
edict of toleration is a declaration, made by a government or ruler and states, that members of a given
religion will not be persecuted for engaging in their religious practices and traditions. The edict implies tacit acceptance of the religion rather than its endorsement by the ruling power.
Edict of toleration
Simply put, Christ promised that He would return to earth
when the Jews came back to their homeland following their period of banishment, not when a Jewish state was established in 1948. Thus at the hour of their return the “times of the Gentiles” was fulfilled in 1844 since the Jews started returning to their homeland in 1844, not in 1948.
No. 3. In
Matthew 24:14,15 Jesus says 'And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand).
So, not only has the preaching of the Gospel not reached its end, but the 'abomination of desolation' has not occurred, for at this time 'will the end come'. The end did not come in 1844.
Jesus never said anything about the preaching of the Gospel
reaching its end.
Jesus said:
Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
As noted above, all Bible scholars agreed that the gospel had been preached in all the nations of the world by the 1840s.
The end that Jesus was referring to was the end of an age, not the end of the world. The time of the end that Daniel referred to was the end of an age
Daniel 12:9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Daniel 12:11-12 prophesied that two thousand three hundred days (2,300) would pass before the sanctuary would be cleansed. Following this time, all things would be made pure again. Before this time, the people would have fallen into a state of ‘abomination’ without love for God or man; then the Messiah would appear and restore their Faith and the purity of their belief. This was the general conclusion.
The 2,300 years came in 1844 and the book was unsealed by the Bab and Baha’u’llah. That math is explained in Some Answered Questions,
10: TRADITIONAL PROOFS EXEMPLIFIED FROM THE BOOK OF DANIEL
Baha'ullah and Bab, and also Muhammad, are not to be found in the Bible. There is good reason for this. God chooses a particular people, Israel, to be the people through whom his purposes and will are fulfilled. The Messiah, the only Messiah, is a descendant of the tribe of Judah, prophesied to be born in Bethlehem, the city of David.
Baha'ullah and Bab, and also Muhammad,are not in the Bible, because they had not yet come at the time the Bible was written. but they were all prophesied to come in the Bible.
Jesus was the Messiah through which the purposes
of past ages were fulfilled but He is not and never will be the Messiah through which God’s purposes
for this age will be fulfilled because Jesus is not coming back ton this world because His work was finished here. (John 14:19, John 17:11, John 17:4, John 19:30, John 18:36)
Furthermore, the Comforter is not another Messiah, but the HOLY SPIRIT. The Holy Spirit is said to 'abide with you forever' [
John 14:16]..something Baha'ullah cannot do, since he is flesh and blood.
Jesus was a
Comforter because He brought the Holy Spirit from God. That is why Jesus associated Himself with comfort in the following verse.
John 14:18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Jesus promised to send
another Comforter who would bring the Holy Spirit, which was Baha'u'llah.
John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
John 16:7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.
Jesus promised to send the Comforter/Spirit of Truth, which was Baha'u'llah.
John 15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
John 16:12-14 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
One of the various proofs of Baha’u’llah is that He did exactly what Jesus said the Comforter and Spirit of Truth would do. Referring to Jesus, Baha’u’llah
testified of Jesus and
glorified Jesus.
Referring to Jesus, Baha'u'llah wrote:
“We testify that when He came into the world, He shed the splendor of His glory upon all created things. Through Him the leper recovered from the leprosy of perversity and ignorance. Through Him, the unchaste and wayward were healed. Through His power, born of Almighty God, the eyes of the blind were opened, and the soul of the sinner sanctified.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 86
). You think the Muslims are going to give up the oldest mosque in existence without every Muslim in Jerusalem tearing the city apart? Even the Jews know they couldn't pull off tearing down the Dome. And frankly, they couldn't care less about building another temple. Most of them are atheist.
