Message 6 BY: Vin – Reminded Way

Dear Reminded,

Hope you are in good health and everything is going well! I just finished responding to your letter, after each point that you made (see below) and as I said in my last email I think we are having a problem with semantics. I think we believe in exactly the same things about religion and mankind, now and the future, but disagree as to the approach, either communicating with God directly, or directly God with the help of Baha’u’llah, Gods most recent Manifestation. You have three questions at the end of your letter. I tried to answer the last two, but the first one requires you to do some reading and answer my big question.

I have attached a document called ” The Baha’is “. It is the best (I Think) comprehensive, condensed writing on the Baha’i Faith that I could find, that parallels or compares with “The Reminded Way”. Although it was compiled in 1994, it is based on actual writings from Bah‡’u’ll‡h, as far back as 160 years ago. (A unique feature of the Revelation of Bah‡’u’ll‡h is the authenticity of its revealed Word. Unlike the teachings of Christ, for example, which were written down decades after they were uttered, the words of Bah‡’u’ll‡h were recorded and authenticated at the time they were r evealed.)

OK, here is the big question.Ê After reading “The Baha’is” document, can you truthfully say that ” The Reminded Way” is a better, newer perspective to the world of religions, and if so, how ?

Although the “The Baha’is” compilation should help with any questions you may have, I have attached something additional called ” PRAYER “

In His Service — Vin

Wednesday, April 7, 2004 2:21 PM

Dear Vin

Thanks for the font size.

I hope you have had a great time in your life and everything goes well with you.

As for your message, I think I have explained them well during my former messages. Today, I am going to have some further talks on parts of your writings:

Therefore, in order to fill the requirements of each new age the guidance from each Manifestation have two aspects: (1) the eternal (or essentially unchanging) and (2) the social (or temporary) which change according to the times.

Once more, I would like to remind you of the fact that the second part is not the main reason for which the Manifestations came.

I agree. In my last letter I referred to to the two aspects by saying: ” To repeat once again, when each Manifestation is sent by God he puts forth two kinds of ordinances . First there are those that consist of the spiritual teachings of the Word of God, the Divine truths and essential principles (morals and ethics), that bring us closer to God. In the words of Baha’u’llah: ” The purpose of God in creating man hath been, and will ever be, to enable him to know his Creator and to attain His Presence. To this most excellent aim, this supreme objective, all the heavenly Books and the divinely-revealed and weighty Scriptures unequivocally bear witness. Whoso hath recognized the Day Spring of Divine guidance and entered His holy court hath drawn nigh unto God and attained His Presence, a Presence which is the real Paradise, and of which the loftiest mansions of heaven are but a symbol. Such a man hath attained the knowledge of the station of Him Who is “at the distance of two bows,” Who standeth beyond the Sadratu’l-Muntah‡. Whoso hath failed to recognize Him will have condemned himself to the misery of remoteness, a remoteness which is naught but utter nothingness and the essence of the nethermost fire. Such will be his fate, though to outward seeming he may occupy the earth’s loftiest seats and be established upon its most exalted throne .”

Second, there are laws and ordinances which are temporary. These concern human transactions and relations. They are subject to change according to the needs of the time and place. These laws regulate the transactions of the social body and everyday affairs of life are changeable and subject to repeal.” I’m sorry I didn’tÊ mean to imply that the second was the main reason. It is the first aspect that is the main reason for which the Manifestations came.

Moses did not come to establish rules, nor did any other Messengers. This was not their mission. The rules we see in Moses or Mohammad or in any other Messengers are just the then time tools to make and keep the Containers pure and to let people receive a pure Source (God) in their life. This is a misleading discussion which has turned into a main branch of religions in history.

If we focus on this social aspect of the Messengers as one of their main missions, we should expect more tensions among the religions until the very last moments of our stay in this world. Do you know why? Because we will not have the right to stand against the Taliban or against any other religious ruler across the world since all of them are right. The Baha’i Faith is trying to change this. This social aspect of the Messengers should not be focusedÊ on (true) as the main part of their mission. We also can’t ignore it, can we ?

You are right, the social aspect is part of their mission but not the main part

The Taliban consider themselves as the most loyal followers of the prophet Mohammad since they have done their best to keep all angles of Mohammad’s social activities safe, with even more emphasis on it.

Mohammad once allowed his people to marry four times (as an example). This is a social system and those who are against Mohammad’s words are against the prophet. This is what the Taliban say, which should be true as far as loyalty to the prophets words is concerned. They believe there is no guarantee for people not to break other rules if we let them break only one, since major catastrophes start with a small disobedience (in this case). Isn’t it true? If we allow and impose changes on our former Manifestations words in different times, all we will have of them in 20000 years later is just their name in history.

True, that is why we have the “Lessor Covenant “, where Bah‡’u’ll‡h’s writings and their meanings were keep intact. Through the Covenant doctrine the unity of the Bah‡” faith was assured and schism prevented.

That is all. Knowingly or unknowingly, we are just using their name as tools to further our own ideas. The truth about the Prophet Mohammad’s words is that he allowed those people to marry four times, who loved to spend each single night with a different woman in a different bed. To those people, even four times marriage was a big restriction or even a big punishment. Mohammad had to use such rule to keep his society as sound as possible. He did that to build sound families by avoiding adulteration. This is true, but times have changedHe did that to make the Containers ready to accept the Source. But, to keep the Container clean was one step towards his main mission, which was filling the gap between man and God.

This is true – see the above quote “the purpose of God” Ê fromÊ Baha’u’llah.

His main mission was not to introduce such rules and these rules should not be overemphasized. These rules are just the side effects of the main mission.

I agree

As long as we focus on this social aspect, all kinds of religious movements can be recognized as reliable. And as long as this is the case, there will be tension and war among the people of different beliefs and religions since all of them are true to some extent and are not wishing to withdraw from their positions.

True. That’s why the Baha’is believe there should only be one religion.

What The Reminded Way is telling the world is let the social system of your society decide on the social affairs now that the time is quite different from thousands of years ago and now that we know sound people build sound societies. The Reminded Way is telling you to take the final fruit and do not argue on the methods of gardening. That is what the Baha’i Faith is also trying to do. These social rules are parts of those methods of gardening. As long as we argue on the ways the social advices of our former Manifestations should be applied, there will be major disagreements, vital tensions, and ceaseless wars in the life of human being.

Again, that is why Baha’u’llah gave us new laws for today. If we were all united

It is true that the social rules you establish today will be obsolete tomorrow. This is also true that from among the people of tomorrow, there will always appear some who will like and support the social rules of yesterday. We should expect to see Taliban in history again and again (although I doubt if the foundation of his movement was not politically motivated rather than a pure religious movement). If we do not tell the people of the world that those social systems were just the branches or the ways the former Manifestations chose to accomplish their main mission, (I can not believe that Muhammed would sanctify the Taliban today) we will face turmoil and ‘Religionism’ in this world on and on. The bad news I have for each single person of our society today is that each and every single person of today is responsible for every single drop of blood that will be shed under the name of religion on different lands of tomorrow. You and I are responsible for those who lost the closest members of their families, parts of their bodies, or their home in either Afghanistan or any other parts of the world if we hide the truth. Ê I am that Trumpeter who blew into his trumpet and announced the upcoming war and you are those who heard my voice and remained silent.

The prophetic voice of Bah‡’u’ll‡h warning, in the concluding passages of the Hidden Words, “the peoples of the world” that “an unforeseen calamity is following them and that grievous retribution awaiteth them” throws indeed a lurid light upon the immediate fortunes of sorrowing humanity. Nothing but a fiery ordeal, out of which humanity will emerge, chastened and prepared, can succeed in implanting that sense of responsibility which the leaders of a new-born age must arise to shoulder.

The war will come, cities will be destroyed, people will die, but I will not be summoned as responsible for that. I have done my duty but those who heard my voice and remained silent will be questioned to face the consequences on the Day of Judgment. Each person is making his/her own layer of the eternal path now based on what they are doing here.

You are saying that God (the physician) does not need to send anymore remedies (the Manifestations)

Please read my previous words again on this part first. As a complementary statement, both of us believe in Unity. If you refer to the people of different religions, you will see that they are waiting for different persons as their Final Savior to come and destroy this world forever. It happens when each group is just supporting their own Savior and do not want to give credit to the Savior of others. Will we be able to reach a Unity in its full sense as long as the people are drowned in such selfish ideas that support their own people and Savior only? The Reminded Way is rejecting such multi-savior attitudes to build a direct fellowship between man and God. So, also is the Bah’i Faith. This is a big step towards Unity.

Again, both of us believe in the Unity of Mankind. That is why God sent Baha’u’llah to unite mankind. In my last letter I said ” God has sent the Manifestations 1) to teach us the true principles that govern our spiritual nature. In order to grow successfully, we must turn to revealed religion and accept the teachings of the Manifestations. The result of this growth process is that the individual is able to reflect more completely the attributes of God and draw close to him.Ê 2) At the same time, the social teachings taught by the Manifestations, if truly applied, help create a social surrounding favorable to the spiritual growth process.”

Actually we are both saying the same thing.ÊÊ For you it is through The Reminded Way, for Baha’is it is through Baha’u’llah.Ê Is what I quoted above trying to “prune the personal man-God fellowship”?Ê Please check out this website:

http://www.us.bahai.org/prayers/default.htm “Conversation with God”

This is different from the attitude of denying the rise of any kind of future Messengers. As I have told you before, the future Manifestations will try to prune the personal man-God fellowship and will not face nor focus on different religions since the story of so-called my religion, your religion and their religion will be over. You will come to believe me when my words come true. But all I am afraid of is that you maybe late.

The Muslim may be equally shocked when asked to admit that Baha’u’llah had authority to alter the commands of Muhammad.

I am not surprised if they are so. Are the Bahais not shocked that a new command has arrived

I not sure that I understand you correctly (semantics). When you say “command”, do you mean “revelation” and when you say “remedy” do you mean “Manifestation”.Ê Baha’is would not be shocked if a new Manifestation arrives in about 900 years.

and that it has a newer remedy for our age? (With taking this fact into consideration that the Bahais are even told that another remedy will come, who has the Latest Command)

The following are the social teachings of Baha’u’llah: 1) The oneness of mankind, 2) Independent investigation of the truth,

Here, the second point is very touching ( Independent investigation of the truth) . Does it mean that each person has the right to investigate and explore the truth by herself/himself without depending on others? (Yes, without depending on the interpretation of Priests, Ministers or Mullahs) If this is the case, it refers to the direct personal fellowship with God as I explained in my previous message. Isn’t it amazing? Feel God in your hearts without filtering Him with different filters, as The Reminded Way is saying. (and as Baha’u’allh has said, again we agree) Quite humbly, I advise you to go through this part more deeply to see if Bahaullah is taking God from the physical temples and putting them into people’s heart or not? (He is) I can see clearly through his message that he has tried to free man from what the religious teachers are injecting into man’s mind, and wants to build a direct relation between man and God.

Baha’u’llah explained that the Divine will of God does sometimes choose ordinary people as prophets, reformers, etc.. Ê and inspires them to play roles in human affairs. The prophets are still ordinary men and women whose powers of inspiration have been developed and used by God.Ê Revelation , however, is the ability ofÊ the Manifestation alone, and it is the generating force of all human progress.

We know that the main part of the Manifestations come from the ordinary people (we can see it in the life of Mohammad, Jesus, Moses and others).

If I understand your message correctly, it is said that Inspiration is next to Revelation. (actually I said, inspiration depends on revelation) Or, there are two categories of prophets: 1- Those who have their Messages directly from God (Example: Jesus). 2- Those who were not the main Messengers but followed them in such a close way that appeared as Prophets (Example: Paul or Peter who came after Jesus and followed Jesus’ career while sticking to Jesus’ policy without changing it). Am I right?

I would like to ask you three questions on your above statement.

1- Could you bring forward statements and prove it that The Reminded Way is merely and exclusively the follower of a former Manifestation and is not standing on a new perspective to the world of religions?Ê After reading “The Baha’is” document can you truthfully say thatÊ ” The Reminded Way” is a better, newer perspective to the world of religions, and if so, how?

2- Could you explain if it (the difference between Inspiration and Revelation) does really make any major difference in facing and accepting the Latest Command (what do you mean when you say “the Latest Command” ?) the Bahais are told to accept? I can only repeat what I believe and have said above that “Revelation, however, is the ability of the Manifestation alone, and it is the generating force of all human progress.”

3- Basically, are the Baha’is merely waiting for a person whom they can call by name as the new Manifestation or they are followers of the Words of Truth?Ê Since the next Manifestation will be not here for quite awhile, we are still working with the word of truth revealed to us by Baha’u’llah, the most recent Manifestation of our time.

At the end, I would like to thank you once more for getting involved in such deep and historical discussions.

May the One bless you. Amen.

Love,

Reminded.

To download this message in PDF, Right-click and choose ‘Save Target As’