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The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh
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Pages 18-22
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Difference Between Bahá'í Faith and Ecclesiastical Organizations
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It behooves us, dear friends, to endeavor not only to familiarize
ourselves with the essential features of this supreme Handiwork of
Bahá'u'lláh, but also to grasp the fundamental difference existing
between this world-embracing, divinely-appointed Order and the
chief ecclesiastical organizations of the world, whether they pertain
to the Church of Christ, or to the ordinances of the Muhammadan
Dispensation.
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For those whose priceless privilege is to guard over, administer
the affairs, and advance the interests of these Bahá'í institutions will
have, sooner or later, to face this searching question: "Where and
how does this Order established by Bahá'u'lláh, which to outward
seeming is but a replica of the institutions established in Christianity
and Islám, differ from them? Are not the twin institutions of the
House of Justice and of the Guardianship, the institution of the
Hands of the Cause of God, the institution of the national and local
Assemblies, the institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, but different
names for the institutions of the Papacy and the Caliphate, with all
their attending ecclesiastical orders which the Christians and Moslems
uphold and advocate? What can possibly be the agency that can
safeguard these Bahá'í institutions, so strikingly resemblant, in some
of their features, to those which have been reared by the Fathers of
the Church and the Apostles of Muhammad, from witnessing the
deterioration in character, the breach of unity, and the extinction of
influence, which have befallen all organized religious hierarchies?
Why should they not eventually suffer the self-same fate that has
overtaken the institutions which the successors of Christ and
Muhammad have reared?"
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Upon the answer given to these challenging questions will, in a
great measure, depend the success of the efforts which believers in
every land are now exerting for the establishment of God's kingdom
upon the earth. Few will fail to recognize that the Spirit breathed by
Bahá'u'lláh upon the world, and which is manifesting itself with
varying degrees of intensity through the efforts consciously displayed
by His avowed supporters and indirectly through certain
humanitarian organizations, can never permeate and exercise an abiding
influence upon mankind unless and until it incarnates itself in a
visible Order, which would bear His name, wholly identify itself
with His principles, and function in conformity with His laws. That
Bahá'u'lláh in His Book of Aqdas, and later `Abdu'l-Bahá in His
Will--a document which confirms, supplements, and correlates the
provisions of the Aqdas--have set forth in their entirety those essential
elements for the constitution of the world Bahá'í Commonwealth,
no one who has read them will deny. According to these
divinely-ordained administrative principles, the Dispensation of
Bahá'u'lláh--the Ark of human salvation--must needs be modeled.
From them, all future blessings must flow, and upon them its inviolable
authority must ultimately rest.
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For Bahá'u'lláh, we should readily recognize, has not only imbued
mankind with a new and regenerating Spirit. He has not merely
enunciated certain universal principles, or propounded a particular
philosophy, however potent, sound and universal these may be. In
addition to these He, as well as `Abdu'l-Bahá after Him, has, unlike
the Dispensations of the past, clearly and specifically laid down a set
of Laws, established definite institutions, and provided for the essentials
of a Divine Economy. These are destined to be a pattern for
future society, a supreme instrument for the establishment of the
Most Great Peace, and the one agency for the unification of the
world, and the proclamation of the reign of righteousness and justice
upon the earth. Not only have they revealed all the directions required
for the practical realization of those ideals which the Prophets
of God have visualized, and which from time immemorial have inflamed
the imagination of seers and poets in every age. They have
also, in unequivocal and emphatic language, appointed those twin
institutions of the House of Justice and of the Guardianship as their
chosen Successors, destined to apply the principles, promulgate the
laws, protect the institutions, adapt loyally and intelligently the Faith
to the requirements of progressive society, and consummate the incorruptible
inheritance which the Founders of the Faith have bequeathed
to the world.
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Should we look back upon the past, were we to search out the
Gospel and the Qur'án, we will readily recognize that neither the
Christian nor the Islamic Dispensations can offer a parallel either to
the system of Divine Economy so thoroughly established by Bahá'u'lláh,
or to the safeguards which He has provided for its preservation
and advancement. Therein, I am profoundly convinced, lies the
answer to those questions to which I have already referred.
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None, I feel, will question the fact that the fundamental reason
why the unity of the Church of Christ was irretrievably shattered,
and its influence was in the course of time undermined, was that
the Edifice which the Fathers of the Church reared after the passing
of His First Apostle was an Edifice that rested in nowise upon the
explicit directions of Christ Himself. The authority and features of
their administration were wholly inferred, and indirectly derived,
with more or less justification, from certain vague and fragmentary
references which they found scattered amongst His utterances as
recorded in the Gospel. Not one of the sacraments of the Church;
not one of the rites and ceremonies which the Christian Fathers
have elaborately devised and ostentatiously observed; not one of
the elements of the severe discipline they rigorously imposed upon
the primitive Christians; none of these reposed on the direct authority
of Christ, or emanated from His specific utterances. Not one of
these did Christ conceive, none did He specifically invest with sufficient
authority to either interpret His Word, or to add to what He
had not specifically enjoined.
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For this reason, in later generations, voices were raised in protest
against the self-appointed Authority which arrogated to itself
privileges and powers which did not emanate from the clear text of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and which constituted a grave departure
from the spirit which that Gospel did inculcate. They argued with
force and justification that the canons promulgated by the Councils
of the Church were not divinely-appointed laws, but were merely human
devices which did not even rest upon the actual utterances of
Jesus. Their contention centered around the fact that the vague and
inconclusive words, addressed by Christ to Peter, "Thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church," could never justify the
extreme measures, the elaborate ceremonials, the fettering creeds and
dogmas, with which His successors have gradually burdened and
obscured His Faith. Had it been possible for the Church Fathers,
whose unwarranted authority was thus fiercely assailed from every
side, to refute the denunciations heaped upon them by quoting specific
utterances of Christ regarding the future administration of His
Church, or the nature of the authority of His Successors, they would
surely have been capable of quenching the flame of controversy, and
preserving the unity of Christendom. The Gospel, however, the only
repository of the utterances of Christ, afforded no such shelter to
these harassed leaders of the Church, who found themselves helpless
in the face of the pitiless onslaught of their enemy, and who eventually
had to submit to the forces of schism which invaded their ranks.
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In the Muhammadan Revelation, however, although His Faith
as compared with that of Christ was, so far as the administration of
His Dispensation is concerned, more complete and more specific in
its provisions, yet in the matter of succession, it gave no written,
no binding and conclusive instructions to those whose mission was
to propagate His Cause. For the text of the Qur'án, the ordinances
of which regarding prayer, fasting, marriage, divorce, inheritance,
pilgrimage, and the like, have after the revolution of thirteen hundred
years remained intact and operative, gives no definite guidance
regarding the Law of Succession, the source of all the dissensions,
the controversies, and schisms which have dismembered and discredited
Islám.
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Not so with the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. Unlike the Dispensation
of Christ, unlike the Dispensation of Muhammad, unlike all the
Dispensations of the past, the apostles of Bahá'u'lláh in every land,
wherever they labor and toil, have before them in clear, in unequivocal
and emphatic language, all the laws, the regulations, the principles,
the institutions, the guidance, they require for the prosecution
and consummation of their task. Both in the administrative provisions
of the Bahá'í Dispensation, and in the matter of succession, as
embodied in the twin institutions of the House of Justice and of the
Guardianship, the followers of Bahá'u'lláh can summon to their aid
such irrefutable evidences of Divine Guidance that none can resist,
that none can belittle or ignore. Therein lies the distinguishing feature
of the Bahá'í Revelation. Therein lies the strength of the unity
of the Faith, of the validity of a Revelation that claims not to destroy
or belittle previous Revelations, but to connect, unify, and
fulfill them. This is the reason why Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá
have both revealed and even insisted upon certain details in connection
with the Divine Economy which they have bequeathed to us,
their followers. This is why such an emphasis has been placed in
their Will and Testament upon the powers and prerogatives of the
ministers of their Faith.
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For nothing short of the explicit directions of their Book, and
the surprisingly emphatic language with which they have clothed
the provisions of their Will, could possibly safeguard the Faith for
which they have both so gloriously labored all their lives. Nothing
short of this could protect it from the heresies and calumnies with
which denominations, peoples, and governments have endeavored,
and will, with increasing vigor, endeavor to assail it in future.
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We should also bear in mind that the distinguishing character of
the Bahá'í Revelation does not solely consist in the completeness and
unquestionable validity of the Dispensation which the teachings of
Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá have established. Its excellence lies
also in the fact that those elements which in past Dispensations have,
without the least authority from their Founders, been a source of
corruption and of incalculable harm to the Faith of God, have been
strictly excluded by the clear text of Bahá'u'lláh's writings. Those
unwarranted practices, in connection with the sacrament of baptism,
of communion, of confession of sins, of asceticism, of priestly domination,
of elaborate ceremonials, of holy war and of polygamy, have
one and all been rigidly suppressed by the Pen of Bahá'u'lláh; whilst
the rigidity and rigor of certain observances, such as fasting,
which are necessary to the devotional life of the individual, have
been considerably abated.
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