This post continues our series on the Gospels and the Revelation of Baha’u’llah, this time addressing a famous passage with varying theological interpretations. Today is part 1, tomorrow we will post part 2. 

When Baha’is tell their Christian friends that Baha’u’llah is the return of Christ, or even when Baha’is present the idea that all the great religions are from the same God, Christians frequently point to a specific Gospel passage that they feel contradicts such a claim. The passage is very familiar to many people- John 14:6-where Jesus says- “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life and nobody gets to the Father except through Me”.  This passage has historically been referenced as the source of the belief that it is only through Christ that human beings can be “saved”, and therefore Christianity is the exclusive path to God. For many Christians, this is a foundational belief, and they won’t even take seriously another claim to divine authority in the world.

So, let’s look closely at this passage and then review how Baha’is believe that Baha’u’llah upholds the truth of this passage, but with a less exclusive interpretation, and also significantly supplements its meaning. 

The passage is most frequently quoted from the Gospel of John but appears in other Gospels as well.   The words were spoken by Christ in the setting of a discussion about his imminent martyrdom and crucifixion.  He was comforting the disciples, telling them that He would die but would go to heaven, that his “Father’s mansion has many rooms” and that He would go “and prepare a place for them”, so that they could find Him. He tells them that they know the “way”, but they are confused and question Him saying- “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”.  Jesus then responds that He Himself is the way- “I am the way, the truth and the life and no-one comes to the Father except through Me.” Jesus goes on to explain that His relationship with the Father is such that if they know Him, they know the Father as well.  The implication is also that, should they truly believe in Him, they would also find their way to Heaven just as He will when He is crucified.  He further states-

Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me

For reference- here is the entire passage.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.”

 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.  Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.  Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

It’s worth parsing out the specifics of the passage above.  First, clearly Jesus is telling us that it is through His teachings and belief in His person that people can find God, that He Himself is the path to God. He further states that His relationship with God is such that it is through Him that God is manifested to the world- that He speaks with the authority of God and not on His own authority.  It is also clearly true that Christ expresses that nobody can get to the Father “except through Him”.  So how would Baha’is respond to these clear statements from Jesus Himself?

The first element of a response is to state that Baha’u’llah fully confirms the interpretation above, but that He is the return of Christ, and therefore carries the same authority that Christ did when He came the first time.  It’s not that Baha’is believe that every path to God is the same or equally valid- that is a misinterpretation of the concept of progressive revelation.  What Baha’u’llah taught is that the process of revelation has an historical dimension, that the Manifestations of God are the path to God in every age, but when they return in a new Revelation, they become the path to God for that new time in history. It is humanity’s responsibility to accept Them whenever They come, otherwise we remain deprived of the bounties of their Truth.  Indeed, Baha’u’llah tells us that true recognition of God- the belief that conforms most to what God wants from us- His “good pleasure”— is to recognize the revelations whenever they come to humanity, as only then are we recognizing the Truth of God in purest form. Otherwise, we are just worshipping “forms”- the religious trappings that we have become accustomed to in our society- and not the pure Truth of God.

When Christ spoke these words, people of that time believed in all sorts of things- some were Jews and committed to the Jewish leaders and law, some were pagans and  worshipped like their ancestors, some were supporters of the various cults that were coming into the Roman Empire from Greece, India and other places.  Against that background, Christ is telling the world that it is through Him that people can get to God. He is the Manifestation of God for that time in history.  It was an exclusive claim, but did not mean that we should remain blinded to Him when He returns. Indeed, in the next section, Christ also promises His return:

“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.”

Christ is stating the principle of progressive revelation- that the Manifestations of God teach us according to our capacity, and that in every age, when our capacity has grown, a new Revelation comes to teach us more.  He explicitly says that there were teachings He could give but that the people did not yet have the capacity to “bear”. It wasn’t that He didn’t know them, it was that the population wasn’t ready for them. He then promises that One would come to “guide you into all the truth” and that the One after Him would “glorify Me” and that the truth He reveals will be “from Me, that he will receive what He will make known to you”. 

When we read the claims of Baha’u’llah, we see the exact same language.  First, He claims that He represents God on earth-

“Naught is seen in my temple but the Temple of God, and in my beauty but His Beauty, and in my being but His Being, and in myself but Himself, and in my movement but His Movement, and in my acquiescence but His Acquiescence, and in my pen but His Pen, the Precious, the Extolled…There hath not been in my soul but the Truth, and in myself naught can be seen but God.”

In Baha’u’llah’s Tablet to the Christians, known as the “Most Holy Tablet”, He invites Christians to enter the new Kingdom that has been outspread by His Revelation-

Open the doors of your hearts. He Who is the Spirit (Jesus) verily standeth before them. Wherefore keep ye afar from Him Who hath purposed to draw you nigh unto a Resplendent Spot? Say: We, in truth, have opened unto you the gates of the Kingdom. Will ye bar the doors of your houses in My face? This indeed is naught but a grievous error. He, verily, hath again come down from heaven, even as He came down from it the first time. Beware lest ye dispute that which He proclaimeth, even as the people before you disputed His utterances. Thus instructeth you the True One, could ye but perceive it.

He then extols the blessings that come from His Revelation-

Blessed is the man who hath detached himself from all else but Me, hath soared in the atmosphere of My love, hath gained admittance into My Kingdom, gazed upon My realms of glory, quaffed the living waters of My bounty, hath drunk his fill from the heavenly river of My loving providence, acquainted himself with My Cause, apprehended that which I concealed within the treasury of My Words, and hath shone forth from the horizon of divine knowledge engaged in My praise and glorification. Verily, he is of Me. Upon him rest My mercy, My loving-kindness, My bounty and My glory.

These passages are proclamatory statements of Baha’u’llah’s claim, spoken with an authority and power that causes you to take notice.  But one of the wonderful things about Baha’u’llah’s Revelation is that He not only makes this claim, but both He and the Bab patiently explained the nature of the Manifestations of God throughout their Writings, creating a philosophical and theological framework through which we can understand, not only Baha’u’llah’s claim, but also that of Jesus.  In part two of this post, we will explore some of those significant passages in more detail. 

Next post in this series- The Way, the Truth and the Life, Part 2