Question:
What is the greatest lesson your faith has taught you?
Answer: Lessons could be
various: moral, theological, scientific, historical, practical,
personal. Today I will choose a “lesson” from the Bahá’í teachings that
greatly favours a global understanding of the close relationship of
unity that exists among the world’s great religions. This teaching is
called “progressive revelation.”
Humanity’s spiritual education began with Adam, the initiator of a
great religious cycle, approximately 6000 years ago. According to
Bahá’í belief, God established a Great Covenant with humanity by which
divine guidance would always be provided periodically by a
series of prophets or messengers of God who would appear at intervals
varying between 500 and 1000 years.
Each prophet is entrusted with a specific mission. He covenants with
his followers about the coming of the next messenger. Each prophet
renews the spiritual truths of the previous messenger, but has the
authority to abrogate some of laws of the previous faith,
according to the circumstantial needs of time and place. All the
prophets have gradually prepared humanity for the unification of the
human race, which is synonymous with world peace and the establishment
of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Since God is eternal and unlimited, no end can be imagined to this
process of progressive revelation. Prophets are almost never
acknowledged in their lifetime. Because the Major Prophets abrogate
some of the laws of the previous faith, or lay claim to divine
revelation, they are martyred, imprisoned or persecuted, along with
their followers.
The corollary of progressive revelation is the unity of the prophets.
While the light of some revelations is greater than others in this
world, Bahá’ís view all the prophets as a university of
preeminent teachers. Their missions are complementary; they are not in
competition with one another. Bahá’ís never teach that one prophet is
superior to another because we view their spiritual unity as absolute,
even though some prophetic missions are greater than others in
historical time.
Bahá’ís affirm the startling belief that Bahá’u’lláh is the promised
messenger of our global era. His mission is to underscore the unity of
all faiths and to establish the oneness of humanity through a common
faith. His superlative teachings have been revealed for this
purpose. -
Jack
McLean
