The Teachings of Baha’u’llah, like unto Spirit, shall penetrate the dead body of the World, and like unto an artery shall beat through the heart of the five continents. –Abdul Baha
Reform Bahai Faith http://reformbahai.org
The Teachings of Baha’u’llah
All These Renovations Originate…
All these renovations originate in the renewal of the splendid graces of the Lord of the Kingdom through which the universe was inspired. Therefore the essential matter is to release people entirely from traditional thoughts, so that their minds may be entirely concentrated in the new teachings. The teachings of Baha’u’llah constitute the spirit of the age and the light of this century. –Abdul Baha
Reform Bahai Faith http://reformbahai.org
Troy Interfaith Group – March 5, 2012 Intro to Reform Bahai Faith
Troy Interfaith Group – March 5, 2012 Intro to Reform Bahai Faith
Friends,
Many of you know that members of the Reform Bahai Faith in Michigan have been participating in the monthly meetings of the local Troy Interfaith Group, at Christian Protestant and Catholic Churches, Mosques, Gurdwara, Hindu Temple, and Unitarian Universalist Churches, among others.
Frederick Glaysher, a member of the Reform Bahai Faith in Rochester, Michigan, will be the featured speaker on the Reform Bahai Faith at the Troy Interfaith Group on March 5, 2012, 7:00 to 8:30 PM, held at
Northminster Presbyterian Church
3633 W. Big Beaver Road (2nd church east of Adams Road, south side)
Troy Michigan 48084
http://www.troyinterfaithgroup.org/
Mr. Glaysher has been a member of the Reform Bahai Faith since 1976 and is the editor of The Universal Principles of the Reform Bahai Faith, available through the Reform Bahai Press http://reformbahai.org/Reform_Bahai_Press.html and other online book sellers. He holds two degrees from the University of Michigan, with course work in religious studies and has taught world religions at the college level. His personal website and info may be found at http://fglaysher.com/about.html
Mark your calendar! Hope you can make it!
In This Intense Darkness the Light of…
In this intense darkness the light of the Teachings of Baha’u’llah appeared and adorned the body of the world with a new robe. This new robe is the Divine Principles. A new cycle dawned with Baha’u’llah; creation was renewed; the world of humanity received a new spirit; the season of autumn passed away and the life-giving springtime was come. Everything was renewed. Sciences were reborn, thoughts remodeled, manners and habits changed, industry revolutionized, inventions multiplied. –Abdul Baha
Reform Bahai Faith http://reformbahai.org
But As to the Most Characteristic…
But as to the most characteristic and specific Teaching which belongs to the Revelation of Baha’u’llah, which is new and not given by any of the Prophets of the past: it is the Teaching regarding the Center of the Covenant. To guard against all manner of differences, Baha’u’llah entered into a Covenant with all the people of the world, indicating the Person of the Interpreter of His Teachings. Be ye cognizant of this!
The world had, through rotten, outdated and blind imitations of truth, become like unto a dark night. The foundations of the Teachings of God had been totally forgotten. People had adhered to the shell and neglected the kernel. The nations, like wornout garments, had fallen into pitiful decay. –Abdul Baha
Reform Bahai Faith http://reformbahai.org
An *organized religion* is hard, dour, rigid
“An organized religion is hard, dour, rigid, iron-handed and iron-hearted; it is stern, arrogant, coercive and merciless. An *administered religion* has been, is and ever shall remain an *arrested religion*; for the premise that a few individuals or a network of individuals are able to organize or administer the spiritual realities of God, is an assumption as false as it is impertinent, and as outlandish as it is sacrilegious. Here is the test of the true religion: Does it unite the minds and hearts of the people in the task of developing a stable society and a humane civilization? Does it make us more tolerant, more sympathetic, more compassionate, more joyous, more sincere, more loving? If it accomplishes these things, then it is religion, indeed, and it comes straight from the Creator of the Universe” (519).
Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, Broken Silence. The Story of Today’s Struggle for Religious Freedom. New York: Universal Publishing, 1942.
The eleventh is the…
The eleventh is the organization called the House of Justice, which is endowed with a political as well as spiritual function, and embodies both functions, and is protected by the preserving Power of Baha’u’llah Himself. A Universal or World House of Justice shall be established. That which it orders shall be the truth in explaining the commands of Baha’u’llah, and that which the House of Justice ordains concerning the commands of Baha’u’llah shall be observed by all. –Abdul Baha
Reform Bahai Faith http://reformbahai.org
The Tenth Teaching
The tenth Teaching concerns the solution of the economic question; for no religious books of the past Prophets speak of the economic question, while this problem has been thoroughly solved in the Teachings of Baha’u’llah. –Abdul Baha
Reform Bahai Faith http://reformbahai.org
The ninth of these special Teachings
The ninth of these special Teachings is that all mankind—men and women everywhere—should acquire secular and spiritual knowledge, and that this education is one of the necessities of Religion. –Abdul Baha
Reform Bahai Faith http://reformbahai.org
The Eighth of His Teachings
The eighth of His Teachings is Universal Peace: that all men and nations should make peace; that there shall be a Universal Peace amongst governments, Universal Peace amongst Religions, Universal Peace amongst races. –Abdul Baha
Reform Bahai Faith http://reformbahai.org