One of the wonderful aspects of the Baha’i Faith is that, not only has Baha’u’llah given humanity wonderful and amazing new spiritual insights about the nature of the world and of ourselves, He also did that in the context of teaching the fundamental oneness of the great Revelations of the past. People tend to not stray very far when exploring religion and often will study seriously only the religion of their culture and their parents, and not familiarize themselves with another faith before making decisions about spiritual truth.  This is of course a generalization and there are certainly exceptions.  But Baha’u’llah has taught us that all the great Revelations of the past are true and are essentially for all humanity, even though they appeared within the framework of one particular culture or another.  

In one passage, Baha’u’llah revealed- “Peerless is this Day, for it is an eye to past ages and centuries“.  Today, we can look back from where humanity has come, and see the great Revelations of the past as stepping stones to the point we are at today.  And we can also explore them.  The spiritual insights of other faiths, faiths which had a profound effect on millions of people but may not have been part of our particular culture, will be new and incredibly enriching to us.  People of Christian background can now read the Quran from the perspective of faith, a much different perspective than if you read it with a critical eye.  Muslims, who did not traditionally read the Bible, though they accepted it as true, can now read it from the same perspective of faith and mine its spiritual gems.  And both of them can read the Bhagavad Gita- the spiritual masterpiece of Hinduism- and draw on its insights as they course through life.  

The oneness of religion is an incredibly enriching idea, one that we can use to enlighten ourselves as we strive to bring humanity closer together.  Baha’u’llah told the world’s peoples to “cleave to that which uniteth you” and specifically made the point that “the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from One heavenly source and are the subjects of One God‘ and that most of their religions were “ordained by God and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose“.

God is a really big idea, and maintaining a perspective that doesn’t limit our conceptions of God in any way is usually the path that captures the truth of God most completely. This doesn’t make the Baha’i Faith a potpourri religion. Everything is ultimately judged by the standard of the latest Revelation- as religions of the past were revealed for an earlier stage of humanity’s history. But spiritual truths, as opposed to social laws and customs, are timeless and other religions may have emphasized a spiritual truth in a way that illuminates our understanding beyond what would be attained if we only read about the religion from our culture.