The Covenants of the Bible
The documents in this section will familiarize you with the covenants God made with His people in the Bible. In essence, these covenants are agreements between God and His people, that God would be their God, and they would be His people. The word God means the One, True, Invisible God, Whose Essence is Unknowable. The covenants of the Bible are relevant to the Baha’i faith because the Baha’i Covenant fulfills the covenants spoken of in the Bible. The prophet of the Baha’i faith is called Baha’u’llah.
In the Old Testament, two pivotal covenants were made with Abraham and his descendants: 1. Multitudes of nations of God’s people would come from Abraham’s descendants; and 2. God’s Kings on earth would come from Abraham’s descendants.
Over time, more details about these promises were revealed through other prophets, and it came to be known that God intended for the entire earth to be filled with His people, or with people who worship Him. This civilization is referred to as the Kingdom of God on earth.
Whereas initially, God’s people were the direct descendants of Abraham, after the coming of Jesus, all people who believed in Jesus were given the opportunity to be grafted into Abraham’s family. By believing in Jesus’ teachings, people were grafted into God’s family on earth, and they were called “sons of God.” Paul explains in his letters to the Galatians in the New Testament that believers in Jesus were “Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal. 3:29). Paul also explained in his letter to the Romans that those descendants of Abraham who did not believe in Jesus’ teachings were grafted off of the olive tree, and those who did believe in Jesus were “grafted in their place” (Rom. 11:17). The olive tree is a symbol representing enlightenment, because olive oil was used to light lamps.
Jesus did not bring the teachings of the Kingdom of God on earth. He did herald its coming and tell his believers to pray for its coming, however. “Our Father Who art in heaven… Thy Kingdom come… on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10 & Luke 11:2). Many Old and New Testament prophets foretold the coming of a time when the Kingdom of God would be established on earth, but Jesus did not fulfill all these prophecies. The Jews rejected Him because He did not fulfill their idea of what the prophecies meant. Jesus did fulfill a lot of the prophecies, however, and then He promised, “He Who is the Spirit of Truth would come,” and fulfill the rest of the prophecies.
Part of the covenant with Abraham was that his direct lineal descendants would be the kings in this Kingdom of God on earth. Later in the Bible, it became apparent that God’s kings on earth would be the direct lineal descendants of King David, who was one of Abraham’s descendants. These kings are referred to as the Davidic Kings. God made a strong covenant with David, saying, “I will make him… the highest of the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:27), and, “his line shall endure for ever, his throne as long as the sun before me” (Psalm 89:36). Also, “of the increase of his government… there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it… from this time forth and for evermore” (Isaiah 9:7).
The articles on this site explain the stories of the Bible so you understand these covenants more thoroughly, and then go on to present the proofs that: 1. The Prophet of the Baha’i faith was a direct lineal descendant of the kings seated on the throne of David; and 2. The Prophet of the Baha’i faith fulfills the prophecies for the Return of Christ, and He brought all the laws, ordinances and teachings for the Kingdom of God on earth.
God sent many Prophets to Educate Mankind
According to Baha’i teachings, all the Prophets that founded major religions came from the same God. They are called Independent Prophets, or Manifestations. Some of these are Adam, Moses, Krisna, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus, Muhammad and Baha’u’llah. Each distinct religion foretold of the coming of a Golden Age, an Age of Enlightenment, or the coming of a peaceful civilization on earth that would unite all people. These teachings are all referring to the same Kingdom of God on earth that the Bible foretells.
In addition to the Independent Prophets, there are many other prophets and apostles, for example those who wrote the books of the Old and New Testaments. None of these brought an entirely new religion, but rather they were followers of an Independent Prophet. Those who wrote the Old Testament followed the teachings of Adam, Moses, and so on, and those who wrote the New Testament followed the teachings of Jesus. Therefore, the knowledge of these other prophets and apostles is said to be dependent, as opposed to independent. Their knowledge is contingent on the teachings of an Independent Prophet. According to Abdu’l-Baha, who is the son of Baha’u’llah:
“The Manifestations of universal Prophethood Who appeared independently are, for example, Abraham, Moses, Christ, Muhammad, the Bab and Baha’u’llah. But the others who are followers and promoters are like Solomon, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. For the independent Prophets are founders. They establish a new religion and make new creatures of men. They change the general morals, promote new customs and rules, and renew the cycle and the Law. Their appearance is like the season of spring, which arrays all earthly beings in a new garment, and gives them a new life.
“With regard to the second sort of Prophets who are followers, these also promote the Law of God, make known the Religion of God, and proclaim His word. Of themselves they have no power and might, except what they receive from the independent Prophets” (`Abdu’l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, pp. 164-165).
It is important to understand that every Independent Prophet had the Holy Spirit. This means every Independent Prophet that brought a distinct religion was absolutely equal to all the other Independent Prophets. What differed was the capacity of the people they taught, and the message they brought. Each Prophet’s revelation was tailored to the capacity of His audience, and each Prophet’s message differed in its potency and importance in the greater scheme of preparing mankind for the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth, wherein all people would be God’s people, and the One, True, Invisible God, Whose Essence in Unknowable, would be their God.
God’s Prophets are not to be deified
A number of Independent Prophets were born of a virgin. Men would like to think that God came down and put Himself in the womb of a woman, and the result was a god-man that is to be worshipped as a god. This concept originated in ancient paganism, and it is simple fabrication borne of ignorance. These types of teachings are perpetuated formally by various organized (but corrupt) religions. This is not to say the women were not virgins, but only that God did not get out of the sky and have some sort of mystical intercourse with them, causing them to conceive a child in the absence of sperm cells.
The first thing Paul explains in his letter to the Romans was that Jesus was “of the seed of David according to the flesh,” and “declared to be Son of God” (Rom. 1:1-3). The book of Romans was originally written in Greek, and according to Strong’s Greek Dictionary, the word “seed” used in Romans 1:3 means “something sown, i.e., seed (including the male “sperm”). Many women throughout the ages have gotten pregnant without ever having had intercourse, and not all these women had babies who were Independent Prophets sent by God. In the past it was considered to be a miracle for a woman to get pregnant without intercourse.
It is now known that sperm cells can swim, and that virgins can easily get pregnant without intercourse, as long as sperm cells are close enough to the vaginal opening to be able to swim up into the uterus and fertilize the egg or ovum. All God’s Prophets had a physical lineage from a man, regardless of whether the women were virgins at the time of conception or not. Because mankind has a tendency to believe in god-men, or in men who are gods, they would like to think that God’s Prophets have no physical genealogy, and therefore they are gods, or god-men. This is incorrect, and a figment of the imagination of peoples in the past and present.
The reason people would like to think this is because they want to believe that God is a man. They want their Prophet to be superior to any other people’s Prophets. They suffer from ethnocentrism, which is where people think their culture and heritage are superior to any other people, culture and heritage.
Jesus blew this myth apart when He allowed anyone from any race, heritage or culture to become a Christian, based on their spiritual love for His teachings. People want God to be a man so they can have an image to worship. The Bible says “God created man in His own image” (Gen. 1:27). Man was made with a spiritual capacity to worship God, and it is this spiritual capacity that is in the image of God, not the physical body of man. Man is capable of having the attributes of God, such as love, mercy, generosity, fidelity, concord, and so on. To be created in the image of God does not mean God has two arms and two legs, etc. God is invisible, omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient, and His essence is unknowable. Man’s finite mind is not capable of comprehending the essence of God. Therefore, man has a tendency to dream up imaginary concepts, rather than accept his impotency and poverty before God, and his lack of ability to truly understand the essence of God.
Man’s body is in the image of the animal. It is man’s spirit and soul that are created in the image of God. God wants to be worshipped in His essence. Worshipping an invisible God involves developing one’s ability to think in the abstract. Thinking in the abstract is not one of mankind’s strong points. He would rather have something concrete to turn to and adore and worship. That is why man dreamed up the idea of having saints and idols and every other symbol of the unknowable God. This is unacceptable before God. In the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses, He made it very clear that man should not create and bow down before any graven images of God, not an image from the heaven above, the earth below, or from under the sea (Ex. 20:4). There are no exceptions to this rule, including creating images of, deifying, or worshipping the Prophets sent by God.
What is the Holy Spirit?
Men do not have the Holy Spirit innate within them, whereas each Independent Prophet did have the Holy Spirit innate within them from the time of conception in the womb of their mother. This is why they are usually known as being extremely erudite, even as children. Then, sometime in the adult life of each Independent Prophet, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him, and His mission began. This is referred to as being “anointed” by the Holy Spirit similar to the way a king is anointed with oil when he becomes king. This is when the Prophet becomes cognizant of why He had the Holy Spirit innate within Him since birth.
Having the Holy Spirit innate within them means they have the capacity to pick up on the thoughts of God. When the Independent Prophet is anointed with the Holy Spirit, He becomes cognizant of the message that God wants Him to deliver to the people who have ears to hear it. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus at the river Jordan when John the Baptist was baptizing him. According to Paul’s letter to the Romans, Jesus was “designated” (RSV) or “declared” (KJV) to be the son of God according to the spirit. This means the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, and He then had the obligation to teach men how to become sons of God. Thus His message was called the “Son of God.” See the other article on this website titled, “Who is the Son of God?” for more on this subject.
From the time of their anointing by the Holy Spirit, the Prophets have two very divergent experiences. First, they are able to commune with God and pick up on the thoughts of God, and on the messages God would like to convey to His people. This is most inspiring for them.
But as well, they are obliged to tell mankind about what God has taught them while communing with God. This invariably leads to their persecution. Pretty much inevitably, the Prophets of God are incarcerated or killed by the very people they are attempting to educate.
The way the Prophets are able to pick up on the Holy Spirit from God can be likened to the way an antenna enables a television to receive signals sent out by a television station. Mankind in general does not have the capacity to receive the rays of the Holy Spirit directly from God, but we are capable of receiving the messages taught by the Prophets. The Independent Prophets are like pure and perfect mirrors, reflecting God’s thoughts so man can understand them. Therefore, it is said that man receives a secondary ray, or a reflection of the rays of the Holy Spirit.
In the following analogies, God is like the sun, the Holy Spirit is like the rays of the sun, and the Independent Prophets are like mirrors reflecting the rays to mankind. According to Abdu’l-Baha:
“The Holy Spirit is the mediator between God and His creatures. It is like a mirror facing the sun. As the pure mirror receives light from the sun and transmits this bounty to others, so the Holy Spirit is the mediator of the Holy Light from the Sun of Reality [God], which it gives to the sanctified realities [Independent Prophets]. It is adorned with all the divine perfections. Every time it appears, the world is renewed, and a new cycle is founded. The body of the world of humanity puts on a new garment. It can be compared to the spring; whenever it comes, the world passes from one condition to another. Through the advent of the season of spring the black earth and the fields and wildernesses will become verdant and blooming, and all sorts of flowers and sweet-scented herbs will grow; the trees will have new life, and new fruits will appear, and a new cycle is founded. The appearance of the Holy Spirit is like this. Whenever it appears, it renews the world of humanity and gives a new spirit to the human realities: it arrays the world of existence in a praiseworthy garment, dispels the darkness of ignorance, and causes the radiation of the light of perfections” (Some Answered Questions, p. 145).
Not all of God’s Prophets have Messages for All Mankind
The messages that God sends through His Prophets have varying degrees of importance, intensity, significance or potency. Some Prophets have a Universal Revelation that is meant for all mankind, and other Prophets have messages for specific peoples. Often the messages meant only for specific peoples are for the purpose of preparing these people for an important role they must play in supporting or preparing the way for the coming of a Prophet with a Universal message for all mankind.
For example, Moses, Krisna, Buddha, Zoroaster and Muhammad all brought teachings for specific peoples. Moses came to the Israelites. Krisna, Buddha and Zoroaster came to peoples in southern and middle Asia. Muhammad came to the tribes in the Arabian Peninsula.
On the other hand, Adam, Jesus and Baha’u’llah brought messages for all mankind, or Universal revelations, and their teachings were universal, or meant to educate all people.
Each Independent Prophet Promised the Coming of the Next Prophet
Each Prophet made a promise or a covenant, giving people the hope that yet another Prophet would be sent by God. In general, God sends an Independent Prophet about every 1000 years or less. Adam came around 4000 B.C., and during the past 6000 years, nine independent Prophets have founded major religions. According the Baha’u’llah’s son Abdu’l-Baha: “His Holiness Abraham, on Him be peace, made a covenant concerning His Holiness Moses and gave the glad-tidings of His coming. His Holiness Moses made a covenant concerning the Promised One, i.e. His Holiness Christ, and announced the good news of His Manifestation to the world. His Holiness Christ made a covenant concerning the Paraclete [Muhammad] and gave the tidings of His coming. His Holiness the Prophet Muhammad made a covenant concerning His Holiness the Bab and the Bab was the One promised by Muhammad, for Muhammad gave the tidings of His coming. The Bab made a Covenant concerning the Blessed Beauty of Baha’u’llah and gave the glad-tidings of His coming for the Blessed Beauty was the One promised by His Holiness the Bab. Baha’u’llah made a covenant concerning a promised One who will become manifest after one thousand or thousands of years. He likewise, with His Supreme Pen, entered into a great Covenant and Testament with all the Baha’is whereby they were all commanded to follow the Center of the Covenant after His departure, and turn not away even to a hair’s breadth from obeying Him [The Center of the Covenant is a title for Baha’u’llah’s son Abdu’l-Baha] (Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith, p. 358).