It is refreshing but not unprecedented. Many mystics throughout the ages have said likewise. Also, the Baha'is are hypocrites in that though they say tolerant things, they actually believe that the only true religion "for this time" (the modern world) is Baha'i. They believe that the Baha'i faith has superseded all previous ones.
Because most other religions care more about money than salvation, so they teach theirs is the only true path. More adherents=more money,
You and I, and the Baha'i religion, believe in Indifferentism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indifferentism
Which my Church, the Catholic Church, believes is a heresy because of the reason I just gave you. Oh well, i refuse to give up my values because a guy in ruby slippers tells me to.
Jesus said if there was any other way let this cup of Crucifixion pass from Me... there was no other way than the cross... If Bahai was another way the Father would have spared Jesus a terrible death.
"Every plant which My Father did not plant will be pulled up by the roots" Jesus speaking of religious ideas not from God
The other religions recognize the very real situation that each has competing, mutually exclusive claims.
How, for example, can someone logically square the Hindu teaching that the universe is God with the Muslim belief that Allah, the God of Islam, is distinct from the universe?
Mormonism teaches that there are many gods in existence and that you can become a god. Christianity teaches that there is only one God and you cannot become a god.
Islam teaches that Jesus is not God in flesh where Christianity does. Jesus cannot be both God and not God at the same time.
Some religions teach that we reincarnate while others do not.
Some teach there is a hell and others do not.
Judaism says that the Messiah is coming, Christianity says that He has already come, and Islam says that Mohammad provided all the information necessary for religious life.
Obviously, these truth claims cannot be simultaneously true, since they contradict each other.
Logically we must reject the idea that all religions are valid paths to God since many religious claims contradict one another and If they cannot all be true, it cannot be true that all religions lead to God.
There are even problems with what some people claim is the same religion. For example both the LDS (Mormon) Church and traditional Christianity claim to be "Christian" , but there is nothing in the words of Jesus about wearing magical underwear 24/7, the Apostles and the early Christian leaders never denied the deity of Christ or taught that he was the spirit brother of Lucifer. They never expected to die and become the god of their own planets with many women waiting to have sex with them to create an endless supply of spirit babies.
You can't even go back to the Jewish Torah (The Christian Old Testament) and see a foreshadowing of any of those Mormon ideas.
Thus, even religions claiming to be the same can harbor irreconcilable differences, demonstrating that they cannot all possibly lead to the same God. Logically speaking, they can all be wrong, but they cannot all be right.
It is radically different because just about all other religions teach that they are the only correct ones, others are wrong. Christianity and Islam are particularly the strongest ones in this aspect.
There are many "religions" on this Earth. But the many "religions" of this Earth are rules influenced and made by man; which proclaims man as God. We know that as humans, we are bound to fail and make mistakes. That is why the man-made "religions" are bound to fail us. But Jesus came to this Earth, and he died for us. His purpose? Because of God's love for us. God sent Jesus to this Earth to give us a second chance. We are bound to hell not because we dint believe in a religion, but because of our sins. The outrageous price for sin is death. Jesus sacrificed his whole life, following God's every command and living pure and perfect for us, just so that one day he may die for us on the cross! Which paid for our sins, and gave us a second chance to be with God. If you ask me, THIS is something I had never heard before, and sister, this is the Truth that I share with you. This is why we live, this is not a religion, but a new life, the way God has provided for us.
It's not really different to what other religions teach. Jesus said, "I have other sheep that are not of this fold, them also must I bring ..." ; and the Quran says "To each among you we have prescribed a religious Law and an open way. If God so willed, he would have made you a single religious community, but his plan is to test each of you separately, in what He has given to each of you: so strive in all virtues as if you are in a race." (Qur'an 5:51)
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One of the previous answers said "they [the Bahais] actually believe that the only true religion "for this time" (the modern world) is Baha'i. They believe that the Baha'i faith has superseded all previous ones."
Whereas Abdu'l-Baha said:
"? the breezes of Christ are still blowing; His light is still shining; His melody is still resounding; ? and it is the same with those souls who are under His protection and are shining with His light."
(Some Answered Questions, 152)
So Abdu'l-Baha (the son of the founder of the Bahai Faith) did NOT think that God pulls the plug on the old religions when a new one begins. He thinks that Christ is still at work in the world, and that Christians are blessed by the Spirit.
The relationship between old and new religions is complex, and I have my own take on it, as a Bahai, which may not be the same as what another Bahai may say. But it is clear at least that the new religion does not simply supersede the former ones. I think it is a mutually beneficial relationship (see my bog on
http://tinyurl.com/BahaiEcumenics
http://tinyurl.com/futureofreligions )
All religions are valid paths to God in baha'i faith?
