There are only two possibilities. Either through Baha'u'llah an incursion of transcendence has taken place, a revelation of God to mankind, in which case his word is God's word, and the teaching he proclaims is not from him but from "Him Who sent him"; or else his claim to be the promised one of all religions is false, in which case his work is of human construction, and the Baha'i Faith an eclectic compound, the result of a synthesis, a "new composite religion which replaces the old religions." Although on dogmatic grounds only the second alternative is conceivable to Christian theologians, this "Either--Or" has come up with every religion, including Christianity. Judaism could not accept the truth that the expected redemption had already appeared with Jesus, and saw Jesus as a mischief-maker. The Jews of all ages have regarded Christianity as.. (others) regard the Baha'i Faith: as a human anticipation of the divine promise, a human creation which wrongly assumes divine origin, a compound of revelation and pagan philosophy, a ragbag of elements of truth collected up from various religions. There have been plenty of attempts from the earliest days of Christianity till the present age, whether from the Jews or from old or new paganism, to disprove the originality of Jesus or even declare him a synthesist, not the originator of a religious community. I can take these attempts as well enough known, and mention here only Celsius, who saw Christianity as a mixture of Stoic, Platonic, Jewish, Persian and Egyptian elements, and Porphyry, who declared the Gospels a collection of myths and the Evangelists liars and falsifiers. Many theologians today call belief in the uniqueness of Jesus's teaching a naive idea. According to Rudolf Bultmann, Jesus's message is "not new in its thinking." (59:1)

With the method inherent in (some people's) attitude-- to call it "borrowing" if there are observable common features in thought and doctrine-- the originality of any religion can be disputed. If common features in teaching, philosophy and terminology are proofs of a religion's lack of originality and synthetic character, why.. (are they) not disturbed by the many references made by Jesus to Moses and the prophets and by the immense number of features common to Christianity and its "mother religion"-- which are so many and various that Christianity without Judaism is completely inconceivable? (60:1)

Is Jesus Unique?
It is often difficult to have a discussion with Christians: not only because they are split up into many schools of thought and belief, and because everything to do with Christianity is a matter for multiple dispute within the Churches; but above all because their eye for the parallels in religious history is blurred by their sense of uniqueness and exclusiveness and their belief that the Christians are a "chosen people." This prevents any real insight into the facts (60:2)

The originality of a religion.. lies less in the proclamation of new ideas never thought of before than in the impulses transforming men and women, in the creative, formative power of the word of God and in the judgment on the superseded religions.. Early Christianity and Islam in particular are testimonies to these impulses, which are behind religious concepts and imperatives both new and old. The ideas alone could not have produced the victorious campaign through which these religions conquered the world (61:1)

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