The Baha’i Faith doesn’t promote having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Though Baha’is will say their religion “honors” Jesus … it really doesn’t. Baha’i minimizes and marginalizes much of what Jesus taught and demonstrated with His life, such as His healing miracles, and the resurrection.
The Baha’i lack of respect for the true teachings and life of Jesus Christ concerns me because it places a wall of misperceptions between Baha’is and God.
This is seen in the the Baha’i perspective that God is an unknowable being, whereas Christians perceive of God as their “Abba” (Father, Daddy) and have direct conversations with Him. Baha’is instead use a prayerbook with prayers written by the founders of their religion, and do not learn to directly communicate with God by fervently pouring their hearts out to Him in their own words.
I believe the Baha’i prayerbook makes it harder to relate to God on a personal basis. I used it for prayers for thirty years – and rarely said a prayer independent of the words of the Baha’i prayerbook. It was as if, as a Baha’i, I believed the prayers written by Baha’u’llah, The Bab, and ‘Abdu’l-Baha were more holy and important than actually speaking directly from my heart to my Heavenly Father. Much later in life, when I became a Christian, it was very hard to learn how to pray directly and fervently from my heart. My initial Christian prayer life was stilted and hesitant as I struggled to learn to pray in a new way.
We Christians have (or should have) a personal relationship with Jesus. I can have a personal relationship with Jesus because He was resurrected from the dead and is still alive.
I cannot say I ever had a personal relationship with God when I was a Baha’i. I prayed to Him but He didn’t respond to me.
Recently someone told me her Baha’i friend claimed to have a personal relationship with Baha’u’llah. My reaction was, “How can that be?” I especially wonder how that can be when we all know that Baha’u’llah died and his body is known to be at Bahji, a site many Baha’is go to on pilgrimage. If they have a personal relationship with Baha’u’llah, they are communicating with the dead.
From my email back to her:
I wonder what kind of relationship she has with God. Baha’is believe God is an “unknowable essence.” Baha’u’llah even wrote that he didn’t have a direct relationship with God: “Nay, forbid it, O my God, that I should have uttered such words as must of necessity imply the existence of any direct relationship between the Pen of Thy Revelation and the essence of all created things.” (Baha’u’llah was the “Pen of Thy Revelation” according to him.)
That quote is in the first section of Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah – so if he didn’t have a relationship with God, surely the Baha’is do not either.
It appears that Baha’u’llah did not want people to feel close to God. How satanic that seems to me now. Also, the Baha’i prayerbook interferes with a personal relationship with God as Baha’is think those prayers are better than prayers that could come from their own hearts. They aren’t really conversing with God – but instead, they read prayers that may not even accurately reflect their needs or the needs of those they pray for.
I'm a former Baha'i; now a Christian.
Christian Ex-Baha'i 
Thank you, for this blog. I relate so much to this. It was also difficult for me to pray in my own words when I first became a Christian. I was so use to reciting words from a Bahai prayer book. As a Christian I do feel so much closer to God and see God hears my prayers.
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Hi Lauren, I appreciate your comment on the Christian Ex-Baha’i blog. If only Baha’is knew what we know about how Jesus heals our lives, comforts us, provides for us, and forgives our sins. How I wish Baha’is could be blessed in this way!
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“All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” Mathew 11. To know God we need an intermediary, in the age of Jesus, He was the intermediary.
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But then why did Jesus say this,
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Baha’is are not prohibited from saying their own prayers. I have seen prayers from Shoghi Effendi for example.
I do believe, however, that the Word of God as spoken by Jesus or Baha’u’llah has a greater power than my words which why Jesus said,
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away”
Jesus’ words will never pass away, mine will.
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Donald Schellberg,
You are correct that Jesus’s Words will never pass away but if you as a Baha’i believe this then why do you not follow all of what Jesus has said? Also, the prayer you have written above, known as the Lord’s Prayer, is an example of how we as believers, followers of Jesus Christ, can pray. It is not a prayer simply for recitation, although memorizing it memorizes the example, which is why we do. Christianity is about a relationship with God and we are able to speak our heart directly to Him. In your testimony in another post, when you were driving from visiting your sister in Maryland, I think you said you prayed to God. I would have to go back and read, forgive me for not remembering the details as it was certainly a heartfelt testimony. Were you praying directly to God in your own words? As a Christian I speak to God daily, all the time, in my own words. I also pray His Words by praying scripture. I also pray for wisdom and truth. Even before becoming a Christian I cried out to God asking Him to show me His truth. He did. As a Baha’i, if you are indeed also a seeker of truth, can you not also pray to God that your eyes be opened to His truth? If it is truly God you seek I would think you would be able to do this. As a Christian, I am still always seeking truth as satan is the author of lies and seeks to deceive and lead astray whomever he can.
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Thanks for your clear understanding of why we pray to God. I cannot understand why someone would want to say they are better than others when the Lord Jesus and the Bab and Baha’u’llah would never want to argue like that. Each person is different and has a different connection to God. Personally I like being a Baha’i so I would never deny others their life’s blood. Prayer helps our spirit develop, because in that state we connect to a higher purpose. (Abdu’l-Baha.)
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Thank you so much for your insight and your heart for the Baha’i people whom are truly and heartbreakingly deceived. Your blog is greatly appreciated and needed. We have prayed daily for a young man whom was part of our family for almost four years through college and a friendship with our daughter, and who we ministered to as best we prayerfully could during those years. He has fled back to the Baha’i darkness that he was born into and had chosen to flee truth. We know some solid seeds were planted and he was beginning to question and hear but struggled with the ‘weight’ of guilt and fear and the ‘commitment card’ he had signed at age 15. We will never stop praying for him, the darkness to be pushed back and for his eyes and heart to be opened to the love of Jesus Christ so that he may be set free.
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Hi,
Yes thank you for your blog. It is really good and I’m so encouraged by it. 🙂
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That’s good to hear. Thanks! I will be posting more soon… mainly – trying to get back to the basics of writing about misinterpreted Bible prophecies, and the life and teachings of Jesus.
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