TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION

2. QUICK FACTS ON THE BAHA’I FAITH

3. A BRIEF HISTORY

4. BASIC BAHA’I BELIEFS

5. TEACHINGS

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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1. INTRODUCTION

The Baha’i Faith is a global religion that emerged in the mid-19th century in Persia (modern-

day Iran) and has grown into a diverse community of followers dedicated to the principles of

unity, peace, and the oneness of humanity. Grounded in the teachings of Baha’u’llah, the

founder of the faith, Baha’is believe in the fundamental harmony of science and religion, the

importance of social justice, and the need for collective global action to address pressing issues

such as inequality, war, and environmental degradation. As an independent religion, the Baha’i

Faith emphasizes the importance of personal spiritual development alongside efforts to foster

a cohesive society that honors diversity while working towards common goals. This document

will explore key aspects of the Baha'i Faith, including its quick facts, history, basic beliefs, and

teachings, culminating in a reflection on its contributions to contemporary society.

2. QUICK FACTS ON THE BAHA’I FAITH

• The Bible is only one of the many sacred texts in the world, but the final authority was the writings

of Baha’u’llah.

• Baha’u’llah fulfilled a worldwide messianic calling, which equated him with other world religion

leaders (i.e., Christ, Buddha, Mohammed).

• God is one person. The doctrine of the Trinity is denied.

• Jesus Christ was only one of nine manifestations of the Messiah: he was not virgin born, not God

incarnate, and did not rise bodily from the grave.

• Salvation is based upon man’s good works coupled with God’s mercy. The blood of Jesus Christ is

not efficacious to cleanse anyone of sin.

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3. A BRIEF HISTORY

The Baha’i Faith is a non-Christian cult of distinctly foreign origin that began in Iran

in the nineteenth century with a young religious Iranian businessman known as Mirza Ali

Muhammad, who came to believe himself to be a divine manifestation projected into the world

of time and space as a “Bab” (Gate) leading to a new era for mankind. As Christianity, almost

since its inception, has had heretics and heresies within its fold, so Islam was destined to

experience the same fragmenting forces. Mirza’ Ali Muhammad, alias the “Bab,” thus became

one of the sorest thorns in the flesh of Islamic orthodoxy, so much so that he was murdered by

Islamic fanatics in 1850 at the age of thirty-one. He had derived much of his early

encouragement and support from a small Islamic sect in Iran, and he was a prominent teacher

among them for six years prior to his death.1 Though Christians have not been known

historically for putting to death those who disagreed with them notable exceptions are the

Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the Inquisition, and certain phases of the Crusades,

violence may generally be said to follow in the wake of “new” revelations in most other

religions, and unfortunately, in the case of Mirza’ the pattern held true. The history of the

Bahá’í Faith began with the stupendous claims of Mirza Husayn’ Ali, a young Iranian who

“was not a scholar. He received little formal education while growing up.”2

Yet he took the name Baha’u’llah, “asserting that He is the Messenger of God for all

humanity in this day. The cornerstone of His teaching is the establishment of spiritual unity of

all humankind, which will be achieved by personal transformation and the application of

clearly identified spiritual principles.” Apparently, all the other world religious leaders had

1
Kenneth E. Bowers, God Speaks Again: An Introduction to the Baha’i Faith (Wilmette, IL: Baha’i
Publishing, 2004), 89.
2
Kenneth E. Bowers, God Speaks Again: An Introduction to the Baha’i Faith (Wilmette, IL: Baha’i
Publishing, 2004), 89.

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“forgotten their common origin. Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed were equal prophets, mirroring

God’s glory, messengers bearing the imprint of the Great Creator.”3

Today, this still remains the basic tenet of the Baha’i Faith, albeit with the addition of

Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna, an eighth unnamed prophet,

and Baha’u’llah the last great manifestation of the Divine Being, whose name literally means,

“the glory of God.” The focus of Baha’ism is often popularized as “The Oneness of God, The

Oneness of Religion, and the Oneness of Humanity.” As Baha’i history records it, the Bab was

sentenced to death and was executed July 8, 1850, at Tabriz. In the view of thousands, as the

Baha’i tell it, 750 Armenian soldiers raised their rifles and fired at the figure of the prophet.

When the smoke cleared, the Bab had not only emerged unscathed from the fusillade of bullets,

but the bullets had burned through the ropes that held him, and he stood unfettered. The story

goes on to relate that he then disappeared from their vision, but upon returning to his cell, the

guards found him lecturing his disciples. After he had finished speaking with them, he is

reported to have said, “I have finished my conversation. Now you may fulfil your intention.”

He was then led out before the same firing squad and this time they did not miss. All of

these events were accompanied by the cries of “Miracle” from the assembled populace, who,

though they outnumbered the luckless Armenian soldiers, failed to rescue the Bab from his

appointment with the Dark Angel. The Baha’i history of the event also records that a fierce

black whirlwind swept the city immediately after the execution of the Bab, “blotting out the

light of the sun until nightfall.” This is somewhat reminiscent of the earthquake and darkness

that fell over the earth upon the death of Jesus Christ on Golgotha, eighteen centuries before.

The death of the Bab, however, did not dim the rising star of the new faith. Instead, he had,

3
Marcus Bach, They Have Found a Faith (Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1946), 193.

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according to his followers, prophesied that the oneness of all mankind was an inevitability, and

that in time there would come a Promised One.4

Who would unify all the followers and would himself be a manifestation of the only

true and living God. Modern Baha’ism considers that the Bab’s great prophecy has been

fulfilled by Mirza Husayn’ Ali, better known to the initiated as “Baha’u’llah,” who succeeded

the messianic throne of Baha’ism upon the death of his unfortunate predecessor, the Bab. In

the year 1863, this same Baha’u’llah declared himself as that one prophesied by the Bab

thirteen years previously, the One who was “chosen of God, and the promised one of all the

prophets.”5

However, his brother, Mirza Yahya, did not receive the message clearly, for he

forthwith renounced Baha’u’llah, allied himself with the enemies of the newfound religion and

was allegedly a co-conspirator in murder plots and the attempted poisoning of his brother,

Baha’u’llah. At the end of his life, he was exiled to Cyprus. Yahya’s nefarious plot had failed.

The Baha’i movement gradually evolved into what is known today as the Baha’i Faith, a

worldwide religious organization that continues to teach in the tradition of Baha’u’llah who,

despite his claims to immortality, was rather unceremoniously deprived of his earthly existence

by the Angel of Death, who overtook him in 1892 at the Mansion of Bhaji, now located in

Acre, Israel. He was seventy-five at the time. The Baha’i’s have had their share of persecution,

and more than nine thousand were killed between 1850 and 1860. But in their emigration to

America in the person of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, son of Baha’u’llah, who arrived in the United States

in 1912 after long persecution and imprisonment, Baha’ism truly received a new birth of

freedom. Today they carry on their work in more than 100,000 local communities that meet

4
Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults (Machigan: Bethany House, 2019), 400-401.
5
J. E. Esslemont, Baha’u’llah and the New Era (Wilmette, IL: Baha’i Publishing Committee, 1951),
38.

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mostly in homes and Baha’i centres worldwide. Their literature is printed in 800 languages,

representing more than 2,100 ethnic, racial, and tribal groups, and they claim more than 5

million practitioners. They have spectacular edifices built as “Baha’i Houses of Worship” in

ten countries and national houses of worship in an additional ten. The Baha’i have gained some

notable converts in the past no less a figure than Count Leo Tolstoy who spoke warmly of their

teachings on “brotherhood and equality and sacrifice.” Woodrow Wilson, the twenty-eighth

president of the United States, was also influenced by Baha’ism, evidently introduced Baha’i

books by his two daughters, Margaret and Eleanor, Margaret was known to attend meetings,

although she also dabbled in additional Eastern thought. A letter located at the Library of

Congress quotes Eleanor stating that Bahá’í books influenced her father in drafting his 14

Points to end World War I, establish peace, and form the League of Nations.6 Interestingly, the

world headquarters of the Baha’i Faith is in Haifa, Israel. The Baha’i Faith utilizes the calendar

for observances designed by the Bab, which consists of nineteen months, each having nineteen

days. New Year’s Day falls on March 21. There are no ministers, and no ecclesiastical

machinery or organization. The Baha’i’s employ only teachers, who conduct discussion groups

in homes or Baha’i Centres, and who are willing to discuss with anyone the unity of all religion

under Baha’u’llah. The worship service consists of readings from Baha’u’llah, ‘Abdu’l-Baha,

and whatever sources from the major religions are thought to be meaningful for the worshipers

that day. The Baha’i Faith today is not directed by an individual representative of God, such as

the Bab or The Guardian Shoghi Effendi, but by a council, called The Universal House of

Justice, which is explained in the following article: The Universal House of Justice is the

supreme governing institution of the Baha’i Faith. Its nine members are elected every five years

by an electoral college consisting of all the members of each National Spiritual Assembly.

6
Marcus Bach, They Have Found a Faith, 206-206, and Marcus Bach, “Baha’i: A Second Look,”
Christian Century, April 10, 1957, 449.

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Baha’ism seeks to bring together all faiths in a common world brotherhood, in effect giving

men a right to agree to disagree on what the Baha’i’s consider peripheral issues the main goal

being unity on all the great central truths of the world religions, with Baha’u’llah as the messiah

for our age. ‘Abdu’l-Baha did his work well, and when he died in 1921 at the age of seventy-

seven in what is now Haifa, Israel, he bequeathed a budding missionary arm of his father’s

faith to Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Faith, whose influence continues in and through the

teaching hierarchy of the contemporary Bahá’í movement in America.7

4. BASIC BAHA’I BELIEFS

The Baha’i holy books are the collected writings of the Bab, Baha’u’llah, ‘Abdu’l-

Baha, and the Universal House of Justice, particularly the Kitab-I Aqdas (Most Holy Book)

and the Kitab-i-Iqan (Book of Certitude). In the last era, Baha’u’llah is “the living Book who

proclaimed the Truth” and his infallibility in Truth shall “not be overtaken by error.”8

5. TEACHINGS

The writings of Baha’u’llah have been translated into over eight hundred languages.

Religious activities centre around the calendar, and the rising and setting of the sun begins and

ends each day in The Baha’i Faith. Many of the teachings and beliefs are contained in the more

than one hundred literary contributions of Baha’u’llah, including such titles as Al kitab al

Aqdas (The Most Holy Book), which contains the laws governing Baha’i; ketab-e Iqan (The

Book of Certitude); The Hidden Words; and The Seven Valleys. All of the writings of

Baha’u’llah are believed to be inspired sacred text by Baha’i devotees. The main principle of

The Baha’i Faith is the belief in a fundamental harmony to truth. The world’s religions have

all contained such truth, but to embrace The Baha’i Faith is to understand ultimate truth. “Ye

7
Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults (Machigan: Bethany House, 2019), 402-403.
8
Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah Revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas (Haifa: Baha’i World Centre,
1978), 8,17.

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are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one Branch,” stated Baha’i’s founder. “The earth is

but one country and mankind its citizens,” is another oft-quoted slogan of the movement,

capturing the essence of its basic thrust toward understanding The Baha’i Faith’s goal of being

the one, true unifying faith. This ideal is contrary to traditional Christianity and, predictably,

to The Baha’i Faith’s parent religion, Islam. Traditional Christianity teaches that the sole means

for unity and peace in the world lies in faith in Jesus Christ as “the way and the truth and the

life” (John 14:6). In keeping with these words, the creeds of Christendom have always

maintained that the one true faith to the exclusion of all others is Christianity: “Whoever will

be saved shall, above all else, hold the catholic faith”. For Christianity, Jesus is confessed as

the incarnation of God. This “fleshing” of God in the person of Jesus is rejected by the

proponents of The Baha’i Faith, who claim that God simply cannot be identified in the flesh of

Jesus or exclusively in any other great religious leader. Members of The Baha’i Faith observe

and practice the Ten Commandments. Members are forbidden to use alcohol and drugs.

Gambling and gossip are also not allowed.9

9
Larry A. Nichols, George A. Mather, Alvin J. Schmidt, Encyclopaedia Dictionary of Cults, Sects, and
World Religions (Zondervan: Authortracker, 2006), 63-64.

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 CONCLUSION

Its mission into the twenty-first century continues to be the holding forth of a vision for

a global community and an attainment of peace and harmony throughout the world through

efforts to present The Baha’i Faith as the new religious paradigm, to replace all others, in the

modern world. Looking back over our survey of Baha’ism, we can learn several things about

this strange cult. The cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, including the absolute authority

of the Bible, the doctrines of the Trinity, the deity of Jesus Christ, His Virgin Birth, vicarious

atonement, bodily resurrection, and the Second Coming are all categorically rejected by

Baha’ism. They maintain that Christ was a manifestation of God, but not the only manifestation

of the Divine Being. We must never be ashamed to tell others that Jesus is the exclusive Savior

who cannot be replaced. Baha’ism must come from a sound knowledge of doctrinal theology

as it appears in the Scriptures. No Christian can refute the perversions of the Baha’i Faith unless

he is first aware of their existence and of their conflict with the doctrines of the Bible. We must

therefore be prepared to understand the scope of the teachings of the Baha’i, their basic conflict

with the Gospel, and how we may refute them as we witness for Christ.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books-Sources

Browers, E. Kenneth. God Speaks Again: An Introduction to the Baha’i Faith. Wilmette, IL:
Baha’i Publishing, 2004.

Bach, Marcus. They Have Found a Faith. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill Company.

Martin, Walter. The Kingdom of the Cults. Michigan: Bethany House, 2019.

Esslemont, J. E. Baha’u’llah and the New Era. Wilmette, IL: Baha’i Publishing Committee,
1951.

Baha’u’llah. Tablets of Baha’u’llah Revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas. Haifa: Baha’i World
Centre, 1978, 8,17.

Nicholas, A. Larry. George A. Mather, Alvin J. Schmidt, Encyclopaedia Dictionary of Cults,

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