I married outside of my Faith--actually I became a Baha'i in 1965, and married in 1966, and it was outside of my Faith, my race, and my nationality. Baha'is, because of great emphasis on family unity, are required to obtain their parents consent to marry, as long as they have parents living, and...
There are many different symbolisms associated with the raven in various cultures, so you need to find out what a raven means to you. To do that, take a sheet of paper and write the word raven in the middle, draw a circle around it. Then around the outside of the circle, write down every...
I believe all religious writings contain stories in which people receive guidance in the form of dreams; for example, Joseph was warned in a dream to flee with the baby Jesus to Egypt. And the earlier Joseph (coat of many colors) interpreted the Pharoah's dream, in which (if I remember right)...
Consider an analogy: God is like the sun; that is, too bright for the human eye to behold. God in His Divine and Invisible Essence does not descend to the earth. In our analogy, if the sun came down to earth, everything would be burned up. However, Christ is "the image of the invisible God"...
I believe that because we are finite, created beings, and God is infinite, we can know nothing about His Divine Essence; we can only know His attributes because they are reflected in His Messengers as in a mirror. It is interesting that some of you have suggested that our creation in God's image...
Consider this: When Christ appeared in the world, those who accepted Him and became His first disciples were not the priests and Pharisees, the learned men of the day or those having the highest religious or material "status." Instead, they were humble fishermen. Because they were pure in heart...
Well, as a Baha'i my understanding is that "heaven" is not a literal place, but a condition of closeness to God, and "hell" is not a literal place either, but a condition of remoteness from God. It is possible to be in either condition in this world as well as in the world to come. As far as...
Baha'u'llah said that religion should be the cause of love and unity. His son, 'Abdu'l-Baha had this to say on the subject:
Think about this though: none of the divisions and differences in religion that exist today were created by the original Founders of those religions: Jesus told His...
Hi, I think I just figured out that this is how you post an introduction? If not, I'm in the wrong place, and maybe somebody can tell me how to post to the New Members' Forum. Anyway, I'm a 62-year-old grandma, raised Christian but Baha'i since 1965. Good grief, is that really 41 years? One of...
Here's what I think, based on my understanding of the Baha'i teachings. To begin with, the Writings say "Noble have I [God] created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created." We are all created with the capacity to acquire those fruits of the spirit...
I see the question of free will like this. The physical world exists as a school in which we are placed in order to learn certain things. Much as you would teach a child arithmetic through use of manipulatives--one button and two buttons = three buttons, we are here to develop certain spiritual...
I am 62 now and became a Baha'i at the age of 21. My family was Christian but no particular denomination; there was a lot of discussion about the Bible, which passages were symbolic, what they might mean, etc. My mother found the Baha'i Faith first; she had dragged me to everything for years...