Baha'i, Hell, and Judgement

[I, Brian]

We touched upon a subject in another post that I'd like to explore more properly here:

In simple terms, what is the Baha'i approach to Hell and Judgement?

I ask because Baha'is seem to see themselves as primarily a continuation of the Abramic line of prophecy, but in both the Christian and Islamic branches there seem to be reasonably clear ideas of Hell and moral Judgement of the dead.

How do Baha'i ideas of such compare?

[arthra]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

We touched upon a subject in another post that I'd like to explore more properly here:

In simple terms, what is the Baha'i approach to Hell and Judgement?

I ask because Baha'is seem to see themselves as primarily a continuation of the Abramic line of prophecy, but in both the Christian and Islamic branches there seem to be reasonably clear ideas of Hell and moral Judgement of the dead.

How do Baha'i ideas of such compare?

Well Brian thanks for the questions and a deep thanks also for this new Baha'i section!

I'll let some of my friends know about it and invite them to participate!

I'll be happy to respond to these questions that you've also been kind enough to ask, but be aware these are my own reflections and are not official Baha'i views. Our Writings are the last authority for us so if questions ever arise we all resort to the Writings and resolve our issues there. But here are my own responses:

Most Baha'is would feel that heaven and hell are not specific places or locations. We tend to look on them as allegorical spiritual states rather than being interpreted as literal places ....

So heaven is nearness to God and hell is being away from God....

The Judgement Day is for us not an absolute time in the future so much as the current time when people are weighed by their response to the new Manifestation of God and His teachings....so those who reject Him are automatically judged by that.... but that's not to say that people cannot later change their response and accept it.... or be forgiven for persecuting the Cause and be accepted if they repent of what they've done...

We feel all the religions have offered salvation and peace to those who have accepted them and that no one who has in the past supported them are in any way in a hell .....

We see the Baha'i Faith as being in the same tradition of past religions so we accept the Qur'an and the Bible and past dispensations such as Zoroastrianism, Buddhism and Hinduism.... So there as only been inour view one religion over time only revealed through different Manifestations of God as appropriate for the times and conditions necessary.

- Art

[BruceDLimber]

Greetings, greetings! :-)

This will in part overlap some of what Art said, but I hope it will provide a reasonably complete picture of the Baha'i views of these topics.

First, the Baha'i Faith teaches that, for the individual, this life is a time of acquiring spiritual qualities in preparation for the next life. Just as a child in its mother's womb is acquiring the physical tools it will need here (and will be handicapped here if it fails to do so), we are acquiring the spiritual tools needed after death; and failure to do this now will hurt us then. Existence--here and after death--is a gradual process of spiritual growth, of drawing closer to God. (We never attain the station of God or "become Gods.") And while we have no specific details about the next life, our scriptures tell us that it will be inexpressibly wonderful! Our circumstances after death are thus a direct consequence of the choices we make or don't make in this life about our spiritual development.

Heaven and hell are conditions (spiritual nearness to God/separation from God), not places.

As such, they exist here and now as well as after death; and we are each in one or the other right now as a function of where our heads are at!

And as Art mentioned, "Judgement Day," like "the Day of Resurrection," refers to the time when a new Divine Messenger appears on earth and every individual has the choice of recognizing and following Him or not.

Best! :-)

Bruce