A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
A new version of the Bahá’í Reference Library is now available. This ‘old version’ of the Bahá’í Reference Library will be replaced at a later date.
The new version of the Bahá’i Reference Library can be accessed here »
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Progressive Revelation |
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A great stumbling block to many, in the way of religious
unity, is the difference between the Revelations given by the
different Prophets. What is commanded by one is forbidden by
another; how then can both be right, how can both be proclaiming
the Will of God? Surely the truth is One, and cannot
change. Yes, the Absolute Truth is One and cannot change, but
the Absolute Truth is infinitely beyond the present range of human
understanding, and our conceptions of it must constantly
change. Our earlier, imperfect ideas will be by the Grace of
God replaced, as time goes on, by more and more adequate
conceptions. Bahá’u’lláh says, in a Tablet to some Bahá’ís of
Persia:—
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It is milk that strengthens the babe so that it can digest more
solid food later on. To say that because one Prophet is right in
giving a certain teaching at a certain time, therefore another
Prophet must be wrong Who gives a different teaching at a
different time, is like saying that because milk is the best food
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for the newborn babe, therefore, milk and nothing but milk
should be the food of the grown man also, and to give any
other diet would be wrong! ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says:—
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Each divine revelation is divided into two parts. The
first part is essential and belongs to the eternal world. It
is the exposition of Divine truths and essential principles.
It is the expression of the Love of God. This is one in all
the religions, unchangeable and immutable. The second
part is not eternal; it deals with practical life, transactions
and business, and changes according to the evolution of
man and the requirements of the time of each Prophet.
For example. … During the Mosaic period the hand of
a person was cut off in punishment of a small theft; there
was a law of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but
as these laws were not expedient in the time of Christ,
they were abrogated. Likewise divorce had become so
universal that there remained no fixed laws of marriage,
therefore His Holiness Christ forbade divorce. According to the exigencies of the time, His Holiness Moses revealed ten laws for capital punishment. It was impossible at that time to protect the community and to preserve social security without these severe measures, for the children of Israel lived in the wilderness of Tah, where there were no established courts of justice and no penitentiaries. But this code of conduct was not needed in the time of Christ. The history of the second part of religion is unimportant, because it relates to the customs of this life only; but the foundation of the religion of God is one, and His Holiness Bahá’u’lláh has renewed that foundation. |
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The religion of God is the One Religion, and all the Prophets
have taught it, but it is a living and a growing thing, not lifeless
and unchanging. In the teaching of Moses we see the Bud;
in that of Christ the Flower; in that of Bahá’u’lláh the Fruit. The
flower does not destroy the bud, nor does the fruit destroy the
flower. It destroys not, but fulfills. The bud scales must fall in
order that the flower may bloom, and the petals must fall that
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the fruit may grow and ripen. Were the bud scales and the
petals wrong or useless, then, that they had to be discarded?
Nay, both in their time were right and necessary; without them
there could have been no fruit. So it is with the various prophetic
teachings; their externals change from age to age, but
each revelation is the fulfillment of its predecessors; they are
not separate or incongruous, but different stages in the life
history of the One Religion, which has in turn been revealed as
seed, as bud and as flower, and now enters on the stage of
fruition.
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