Muhammad and the Bab were Manifestations of God but they were not Messiahs.
Jesus was 'a Messiah' because He fulfilled some of the Old Testament prophecies but Jesus was not 'the Messiah' that the Jews were waiting for because Jesus did not fulfill the Messianic Age prophecies.
The Messiah of the latter days who Baha'is believe was Baha'u'llah is greater than the other Manifestations in the sense that he was the Promised One of all ages and all religions and He ushered in a whole new religious cycle called the Cycle of Fulfillment, named as such because all the prophecies will be fulfilled during this religious cycle.
“The Book of Isaiah announces that the Messiah will conquer the East and the West, and all nations of the world will come under His shadow, that His Kingdom will be established, that He will come from an unknown place, that the sinners will be judged, and that justice will prevail to such a degree that the wolf and the lamb, the leopard and the kid, the sucking child and the asp, shall all gather at one spring, and in one meadow, and one dwelling. 4 The first coming was also under these conditions, though outwardly none of them came to pass. Therefore, the Jews rejected Christ, and, God forbid! called the Messiah masíkh, 5 considered Him to be the destroyer of the edifice of God, regarded Him as the breaker of the Sabbath and the Law, and sentenced Him to death. Nevertheless, each one of these conditions had a signification that the Jews did not understand; therefore, they were debarred from perceiving the truth of Christ.
The second coming of Christ also will be in like manner: the signs and conditions which have been spoken of all have meanings, and are not to be taken literally.” Some Answered Questions, p. 111
Excerpts from:
26: THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST AND THE DAY OF JUDGMENT
All the prophecies below have been fulfilled. Jesus said the end is still to come and this is the end of the old age and the beginning of the new age. All these signs are indeed the beginning of sorrows which we will see before the new age is established, the beginning of birth pains (Matthew 24 NIV 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.)
Matthew 24
King James Version
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Regarding peace being established, I have already covered this ground with Jewish posters. There are no verses that indicate that the Messiah will establish peace during His lifetime. That is just an assumption Jews have made based upon their interpretation of verses.
The verses below are from the Jewish Bible. Do you see anything that says when peace will be accomplished? It says "the zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall accomplish this" but it does not say HOW or WHEN.
Isaiah 9:5 For a child has been born to us, a son given to us, and the authority is upon his shoulder, and the wondrous adviser, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, called his name, "the prince of peace." 6 To him who increases the authority, and for peace without end, on David's throne and on his kingdom, to establish it and to support it with justice and with righteousness; from now and to eternity, the zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall accomplish this.
Baha'is believe that the prince of peace was Baha'u'llah, but Jews believe He was some other man who lived 4000 years ago. That's what I mean by different interpretations. But how can the wondrous adviser, the mighty God, the everlasting Father who is called "the prince of peace" be some man who lived 4000 years ago? Jews believe that because they believe this man reigned on David's throne, but the verse says the Lord of Hosts shall accomplish this so that is how we know it is the Messiah.
Jews believe that the Messiah is coming just for them, that He will be the redeemer of the Jewish people, just as the Christians believe that the Messiah is Jesus who will come to redeem the Christians.
The
Messiah in Judaism (
Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ,
romanized:
māšîaḥ (Mashiach)) is a savior and liberator figure in
Jewish eschatology, who is believed to be the future redeemer of the
Jewish people. The concept of
messianism originated in
Judaism,
[1][2] and in the
Hebrew Bible a
messiah is a king or
High Priest traditionally anointed with
holy anointing oil.
[3] However, messiahs were not exclusively Jewish, as the Hebrew Bible refers to
Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, as a messiah
[4] for his decree to
rebuild the Jerusalem Temple.
In Jewish eschatology, the Messiah is a future Jewish
king from the
Davidic line, who is expected to be anointed with holy anointing oil and rule the Jewish people during the
Messianic Age and
world to come.
[1][2][5] The Messiah is often referred to as "King Messiah" (
Hebrew: מלך משיח,
romanized:
melekh mashiach) or
malka meshiḥa in Aramaic.
[6]
Messiah in Judaism - Wikipedia
The salient problem is that the scriptures of all the great religions speak of a world redeemer, a Messiah , and the beliefs of the Jews and Christians -- according to their interpretation of prophecies -- do not describe the Messiah those other religious people are waiting for according to their own prophecies.
Prophecy Fulfilled Webpage
Prophecies from World Religion and other sources
Of course, the difference between the Baha’is and the Jews and Christians is that we believe that the Messiah came to redeem the entire world.
