No, but neither does it mean they are wrong.
from the point of view of judaism, it is inconceivable that jews, even as individuals, can be released from their religious obligations. a jew remains a jew regardless of whether s/he becomes a heretic or even an apostate. the only way out is "feet first" - that is the nature of the covenantal relationship. to purposefully renege on your covenanted obligations is basically welshing on a done deal and essentially denying its binding nature, which is of course an insult to the Holy Blessed One Who set it up in the first place. therefore a jew who attempts to stop being jewish and follow another system is by definition wrong.
That the Baha`i Faith is related to Judaism is obvious, whether the observer thinks it is true or not.
by the same logic, these guys here:
Azurite Press Melchizedek Cloister Emerald Order talk seventeen kinds of bollocks about how the ark of the covenant is some kind of space computer or something. is it therefore obvious that they are "related to judaism" simply because they are attempting to co-opt our symbols and texts?
The Baha`i writings honor, Abraham, Moses, Noah, Daniel, etc. and DOES point to Judaic prophecy in terms of Baha`u'llah's revelation.
well, if i write a poem honouring how baha'ullah inspired my own 'revelation', does that make me part of the great chain of tradition? you must see how this argument does appear to be a bit "because we say so".
As another note altogether, what is the essence of proselytizing, anyway? I look at it like this; it is an active and agressive thing. It states "This is the truth, like it or not." and insists and persists in the face of rejection.
absolutely not. the essence of proselytising is to say "you must change what you believe, because what i believe is better/more up to date/more humane/efficient". it requires change. simply talking about what is true for oneself is not proselytising. talking about what other people ought to believe which they don't at the moment is proselytising. to proselytising is to require change in others.
Apologia is a philosophical method of explaining and defending religious or ethical belief systems. Every faith practices apologia whether it proselytizes or not.
i agree. however, apologia which attempt to explain another's belief system in a way different from that which the belief system explains and understands itself has crossed the line into proselytisation. it's a subtle but important distinction.
One cannot deny that ethically and culturally Christianity grew out of Judaism. Jesus was a Jew, He spoke and taught Jews, and was accepted or denied by Jews. He spoke Aramaic and perhaps some Greek, just like the people of His times, His values were the same, His behavior the same. This is true for the Baha`i Islam link as well.
i agree with this too. nonetheless, there was a point at which jesus' followers denied fundamental tenets of judaism broke the link, thus causing it to be a different religion. you have to understand, popeyesays, that we don't consider revelation to be a universal continuum. it is of course not only possible but probable that G!D has chosen other ways to convey Divine messages to the nations of the world, but the mechanism of covenantal relationship that judaism has with G!D is fundamentally different. that is part of what the "chosenness" means. we were chosen for the abrahamic and sinaitic covenants and others were not. that imposed obligations upon us that others do not have. the covenantal relationship that is universally binding upon humankind is that represented by the noachide laws. we do of course, as it were, give extra credit for being monotheistic, but i would imagine (not being an authority on this subject) the self-imposed obligations of christians, muslims and, i dare say, baha'is are only considered as binding insofar as they constitute an actionable system of law.
Now the question becomes is Christ foretold and awaited by Judaism and the world at large? That's arguable, have at it.
it is inconceivable for us that this is even arguable. that's what i mean by denying fundamental tenets of judaism. if the messiah had come it would be inconceivable that the messianic prophecies should not be fulfilled. are we all living in israel? is every jew religious? is there universal peace (and probably vegetarianism)? the problem with this should really be self-evident.
as for baha'ullah's relationship with islam, i really couldn't say, but from the reactions of muslims i've seen in the past, i should think it's about as popular a viewpoint as the previous paragraph.
b'shalom
bananabrain
