.
. . .enshrined within the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar [the Baha'i House of Worship], will gather within its chastened walls, in a serenely spiritual atmosphere, only those who, discarding forever the trappings of elaborate and ostentatious ceremony, are willing worshipers of the one true God. . . . To them will the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar symbolize the fundamental verity underlying the Baha'i Faith, that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is not final but progressive."
. . . It should also be borne in mind that, great as is the power manifested by this Revelation and however vast the range of the Dispensation its Author has inaugurated, it emphatically repudiates the claim to be regarded as the final revelation of God's will and purpose for mankind. To hold such a conception of its character and functions would be tantamount to a betrayal of its cause and a denial of its truth. It must necessarily conflict with the fundamental principle which constitutes the bedrock of Baha'i belief, the principle that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is orderly, continuous and progressive and not spasmodic or final. Indeed, the categorical rejection by the followers of the Faith of Baha'u'llah of the claim to finality which any religious system inaugurated by the Prophets of the past may advance is as clear and emphatic as their own refusal to claim that same finality for the Revelation with which they stand identified. "To believe that all revelation is ended, that the portals of Divine mercy are closed, that from the daysprings of eternal holiness no sun shall rise again, that the ocean of everlasting bounty is forever stilled, and that out of the tabernacle of ancient glory the Messengers of God have ceased to be made manifest" must constitute in the eyes of every follower of the Faith a grave, an inexcusable departure from one of its most cherished and fundamental principles.
"All the Prophets of God," asserts Baha'u'llah in the Kitab-i-Iqan, "abide in the same tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech, and proclaim the same Faith." From the "beginning that hath no beginning," these Exponents of the Unity of God and Channels of His incessant utterance have shed the light of the invisible Beauty upon mankind, and will continue, to the "end that hath no end," to vouchsafe fresh revelations of His might and additional experiences of His inconceivable glory. To contend that any particular religion is final, that "all Revelation is ended, that the portals of Divine mercy are closed, that from the daysprings of eternal holiness no sun shall rise again, that the ocean of everlasting bounty is forever stilled, and that out of the Tabernacle of ancient glory the Messengers of God have ceased to be made manifest" would indeed be nothing less than sheer blasphemy.
"They differ," explains Baha'u'llah in that same epistle, "only in the intensity of their revelation and the comparative potency of their light." And this, not by reason of any inherent incapacity of any one of them to reveal in a fuller measure the glory of the Message with which He has been entrusted, but rather because of the immaturity and unpreparedness of the age He lived in to apprehend and absorb the full potentialities latent in that Faith.
"Know of a certainty," explains Baha'u'llah, "that in every Dispensation the light of Divine Revelation has been vouchsafed to men in direct proportion to their spiritual capacity. Consider the sun. How feeble its rays the moment it appears above the horizon. How gradually its warmth and potency increase as it approaches its zenith, enabling meanwhile all created things to adapt themselves to the growing intensity of its light. How steadily it declines until it reaches its setting point. Were it, all of a sudden, to manifest the energies latent within it, it would, no doubt, cause injury to all created things.... In like manner, if the Sun of Truth were suddenly to reveal, at the earliest stages of its manifestation, the full measure of the potencies which the providence of the Almighty has bestowed upon it, the earth of human understanding would waste away and be consumed; for men's hearts would neither sustain the intensity of its revelation, nor be able to mirror forth the radiance of its light. Dismayed and overpowered, they would cease to exist."
It is for this reason, and this reason only, that those who have recognized the Light of God in this age, claim no finality for the Revelation with which they stand identified, nor arrogate to the Faith they have embraced powers and attributes intrinsically superior to, or essentially different from, those which have characterized any of the religious systems that preceded it. (Shoghi Effendi: World Order of Baha'u'llah, Pages: 57-59)
The fundamental principle enunciated by
Bahá'u'lláh ... is that religious truth is not absolute
but relative, that Divine Revelation is a continuous and progressive
process, that all the great religions of the world are divine in
origin, that their basic principles are in complete harmony, that their
aims and purposes are one and the same, that their teachings are but
facets of one truth, that their functions are complementary, that they
differ only in the nonessential aspects of their doctrines, and that
their missions represent successive stages in the spiritual evolution
of human society....
...His mission is to proclaim that the ages of the
infancy and of the childhood of the human race are past, that the
convulsions associated with the present stage of its adolescence are
slowly and painfully preparing it to attain the stage of manhood, and
are heralding the approach of that Age of Ages when swords will be
beaten into plowshares, when the Kingdom promised by Jesus Christ will
have been established, and the peace of the planet definitely and
permanently ensured. Nor does Bahá'u'lláh claim finality
for His own Revelation, but rather stipulates that a fuller measure of
the truth He has been commissioned by the Almighty to vouchsafe to
humanity, at so critical a juncture in its fortunes, must needs be
disclosed at future stages in the constant and limitless evolution of
mankind.
The Bahá'í Faith upholds the unity of
God, recognizes the unity of His Prophets, and inculcates the principle
of the oneness and wholeness of the entire human race. It proclaims the
necessity and the inevitability of the unification of mankind, asserts
that it is gradually approaching, and claims that nothing short of the
transmuting spirit of God, working through His chosen Mouthpiece in
this day, can ultimately succeed in bringing it about. It, moreover,
enjoins upon its followers the primary duty of an unfettered search
after truth, condemns all manner of prejudice and superstition,
declares the purpose of religion to be the promotion of amity and
concord, proclaims its essential harmony with science, and recognizes
it as the foremost agency for the pacification and the orderly progress
of human
society....
(Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come,
Preface.)
Click here for more information on the Baha'i Houses of Worship
And here >> http://www.infonet.st-johns.nf.ca/bahai/temples.html (to see all the Baha'i Temples around the world)
and here >> http://www.bahai-biblio.org/photo-temple.htm#tlange
Also: Baha'i World Center — called the "Eighth Wonder of the World" by the Israeli government
Don't miss this >> "TEMPLE OF LIGHT" in Chile (streaming animated videos)