The Bahai Faith teaches that all the divine religions together form one single unit, one progressive religion having developed all since time immemorial . It has evolved in steps about every thousand year, when new laws and prescriptions has been given according to the exigencies of time. Old and outdated prescriptions have been abolished and a fresh spiritual impetus has been gushed forth into the hearts and souls of men.Thus new civilizations have been built upon this new fundament and this way it will continue for ever.

As time goes by mankind has grown successively and matured, spiritually and materially  similar to one's maturing by degrees at school.
New spiritual and social lessons are revealed when those of the old religion don't serve its aims any more. The underlying aim and purpose of the developement of religion has always been the bringing  forth of an ever advancing civilization, and the progression and development of the soul.
At the present  stage in the history of mankind we stand on the threshold of the "Age of Fulfillment", or the age of the maturing of mankind, having passed the prophetic ages, which encompassed the childhood and adolescence of mankind.

During the early stages humanity lived in smaller units, like the family, the clan, the city states, the nations and the religions that appeared were suited to fit  the various circumstances in which mankind was living.

Mankind is now living in a global society, therefore religion also has to be global.

Bahaullah has proclaimed that He is that long awaited Spiritual Teacher of the World Who will lead all mankind into its promised Peace on earth. An everlasting Peace such as mankind has never before experienced and which has been promised in all the Holy Scripts of the world.
Bahaullah is  the Bearer of the Holy Spirit and as such also the Return of the Former Messengers. He is the Return of Christs Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit and also the Return of the Spirit of all  other Founders of religions, The Immaculate Incarnation of Krishna, of Moses, of Zoroaster,of Muhammad, the fifth Buddha, Abraham, Noah and others still.

At the Holy Return, The Messengers of God are met with resistance,

"In every age", Bahaullah declares," leaders of religion have hindered their
 people from attaining the shores of eternal salvation, inasmuch as they held the reins of authority in their mighty grasp. Some for the lust of leadership, others through want of knowledge and understanding, have been the cause of deprivation of the people. By their sanction and authority, every Prophet of God hath drunk from the chalice of sacrifice, and winged His flight unto the heights of glory. What unspeakable cruelties they that have occupied the seats of authority and learning have unflicted upon the true Monarchs of the world, those Gems of divine virtue! Content with transitory dominion, they have deprived themselves of an everlasting sovereignty."..." Those words uttered by the Revealers of the beauty of the one true God,setting forth the signs that should herald the advent of the Manifestation to come, they never understood  nor fathomed. Hence they raised the standard of revolt, and stirred up mischief and sedition."
"...when the days of Moses were ended, and the light of Jesus, shining forth from the Dayspring of the Spirit, encompassed the world, all the people of Israel arose in protest against Him. They clamoured that He Whose advent the Bible had foretold must needs promulgate and fulfill the Laws of Moses, whereas this youthful Nazarene, who laid claim to the station of the divine Messiah, had annulled the law of divorce and of the sabbath day."
"...In like manner, have such false imaginings caused other communities to stray from the...infinite mercy of Providence, "..."He(Jesus )saith:"Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away." (Luke 21:33) Thus it is that the adherents of Jesus maintained that the law of the Gospel shall never be annulled, and that whensoever the Promised Beauty is made manifest and all the signs  are revealed He must needs re-affirm and establish the law proclaimed in the Gospel, so that there may remain in the world no faith but His faith."

The purpose of each of the Messengers or Manifestations of God is threefold:

To quicken mankind spiritually through a new outpour of the Holy Spirit. This is always the same, this is the essence of all religions.
To establish new social and economic laws and prescriptions covering the new needs of a progressed and enlarged society
To annull outdated laws and prescriptions of the former religion

To see the new global laws and prescriptions given by Bahaullah go to my article, " World Unity is the Goal". Also see  my About Me page.

Via this link one can see how Bahaullah was received by the generation of His time. We see the return of the ageold resistance and what befell Bahaullah.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bahaullah+and+the+bahai+faith&search=Search

To learn more about the Bahai Faith see also www.Bahai.org and www.Bahai.us.

Bye for now
Laila

    Hi Nick

Thank you for all your lovely postcards. I enjoyed them and I am very glad you have read my posts. I have read your poems at the She loves God site.It shows you are a very caring person, and I appcreciate them. I hope your physical problems after the accident will be over bit by bit with time.
I am very glad that my "articles" are pleasing to you and that although you cannot write at the moment, still have showed such appreciation with the lovely cards.
Others may have reacted just like I did, when I first came to know this Faith by Bahaullah. I read and read and read and asked for more books about the Bahai Faith without being able to say anything. I didn't know what to ask about it either. How can one ask anything when one knows nothing about religion or spirituality. I mean that I myself didn't know anything.I remember  just one question from those early exiting days of 37-8 years ago:, "do all the Bahais believe the same things. Aren't there any differences  among them  regarding the oneness of the Founders?" I found that all the Bahais really do believe that all of them are "equally divine", being sent at intervals to mankind by one and the same God. I accepted this, and came to love Jesus Christ too .I also learned that various teachings in the social and economic fields are the only difference between the religions. The essence is the same. This is nothing new, remember Jesus saying to the Pharisees: If you had believed in Moses, you would have believed in Me!.
 
I started to write poems with my newfound treasure, BELIEF in a loving, all-powerful Creator, and my heart was so full of new wonderful feelings, sublime and sweet and of course undescribable. It was a deep, deep  Illumination, it gave me an insight into what is really the axis of the world of being. . The best description is already in the Bible: this is the Resurrection into eternal life , out of the grave of unbelief. UNBELIEF is that much referred to  grave, not soil and mud or stone.  To believe that is sheer superstition I think. It is  precisely because of such superstition that religion has become the object of ridicule. How unnecessary and how pitiful, when truth is that true religion doesn't contradict science and reason.

Since you are a poet you would understand symbolical language.                                                                                                                                              Later I  turned back to the fine arts. Nowadays I sculpt. If you cannot write with your fingers, you can perhaps look into this: www.Newartforgardens.com. My sculptures are meant to keep you in good mood while out in your garden or anywhere. I construct faces  which smile or meditate out of memory or what they call phantasy.. They are my poems nowadays. I find motives in the garden, there is winter and summer, sunshine and shadow. The  sunshine on a beautiful garden IS the smile of nature and make me smile when I make the pots faces.

I hope to have contact with you now and then
Many kind regards from Laila in Sweden