You asked why I left the Baha'i faith to become a Daheshist.
I became a Baha'i for the main reason....I was trying to hold-on to my belief that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God.
Joseph smith prophesied twice that the "Son of Man" would come in the year 1891, in red garments. Anti-Mormons used these "1891 prophecies" to prove that Joseph Smith was a false prophet. Well, Baha'u'llah announced he was the "Son of Man" in an epistle that he wrote, and sung on the top of Mount Carmel, in 1891; while he was wearing red garments.
You see, in 1863, Baha''ullah was in Baghdad, but an anti-Baha'i mob burned his house down, along with all the clothes he had save those he was wearing. So, the Baha'i women made him a new wardrope from Persian drapes called "Tarmih". These drapes are always "red". So, his entire new wardrobe became red. Tarmih is very strong material, so he kept these robes until his death in 1892.
In 1868 he was exiled to Akka, Palestine, and in 1891, in red robes, he climbed Mount Carmel and sung a poem that he was the "Son of Man" who had finally come. The city of Haifa, at that time, consisted of Arabs and Germans who belonged to the "Templer" sect; which, by 1891, 15% of the Templers had converted to the Mormon Church (I kid you not). Mormon missionaries had been to Haifa, Palestine, by the year 1888, and converted 15% of the German Templer colony there in Haifa; which is right next to Mount Carmel. In fact, the Templer Colony leads to the spot where Baha'u'llah announced he was the "Son of Man" (Christ returned), and 15% of the Templers living in Haifa at that time belonged to the Haifa Branch of the Turkish Mission of the Church.
So, thinking this was not just "a random coincidence", I concluded the following:
1) Joseph Smith was a prophet, but a "fallen" prophet (i.e. for doing very un-christian things such as screwing other men's wives and 'marrying' his own foster daughters, etc.)
2) Baha'u'llah was the fulfillment of Joseph's 1891 prophecies.
Now, of course,
Mormons care NOTHING about the prophecies!
If Joseph Smith uttered 10,000 prophecies, and each one of them failed, the average TBM (True Believing Mormon) would say "Who cares? I know the Church is true!" and the average MA (Mormon apologist) would think of 10,000 excuses to show that it didn't matter one rat's fury little teet if all his prophecies failed....Joseph Smith was "still a true Prophet of God". They would use all manner of mental gymnastics to once again (in their own minds) "save" Joseph Smith.
Well, why I left the Baha'i Faith. Again...contradiction. For example, Baha'u'llah forbade his followers from practicing fornication, or homosexuality. Baha'is ignore this. The grandson of Baha'u'llah, a man Baha'is consider to be "infallible" forbade Baha'is from abortion or any kind, and homosexuality. Do Baha'is follow that? NO! Not in the least. Why? Because Baha'is are Liberals, and anthing Baha'u'llah wrote, as Law, or his grand-son directed, as infallible, the Baha'is simply "IGNORE". That simple.
Also, what the Baha'is would do is to get together once every 19 days, gather into a circle, and talk about "World Peace" or "Race Unity" or "the Equality of Men and Women" and they would do this over and over again...ad infinitum, ad nauseum! They would offer prayers, but other than that....nothing about God, nothing about the Afterlife, nothing about leading a moral life...! It was like if the Democratic Party became a religion!
When Baha'is found out that I had been a Mormon they would say, "OH MY GOD! THE Mormons ARE RACIST!" and some of them would shun me. I would say, "Well, Baha'u'llah owned black slaves...." and they would shout "OH...YOU ARE A LIAR! YOU ARE A LIAR!! OH MY GOD!" Now, it is true that Baha'u'llah owned black slaves, but, like Mormons, Baha'is will call you a "LIAR" if you tell them any FACT they don't wish to accept.
So, in other words:
1) Baha'is ignored anything Baha'u'llah and his successors wrote or decreed if it went against their own Liberal beliefs.
2) Baha'i meetings were horribly "boring"....like eternal Liberal discussion groups. The Baha'i Faith is much closer to the Democratic Party than to a "religion". I'm sure Baha'u'llah did not want it that way, but that is the way it is...at least in North America. I hear in Iran, it's more of a religion.
Also, I came to the conclusion, after much self-reflection and research, that The Book of Mormon was NOT historical. The evidence against it being historical is MASSIVE. I came to see that most of the claims of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery can be PROVED to be invented after the fact. I did not WANT this to be true. But I had to ADMIT TO MYSELF these things were true, because the evidence was absolutely OVERWHELMING.
Well, of course, what do True Believing Mormons care about "evidence" or "facts". Nothing. The Church for them is about relationships; about "truly" being accepted into a society in which their needs, physical and emotional, are met. All other FACTS be damned!
But, being a Seeker of Truth, I finally had to accept THE FACTS; no matter where those facts let me. Well, I concluded that Joseph Smith was a FRAUD from DAY ONE! The evidence was too overwhelming. And, a fraud and charlatan cannot prophesy of anything!
So, in the end, I had to agree with my detractors, and say,
"Yes, I agree! The fact that Joseph Smith prophecied that the Son of Man would come in 1891 in red apparel, and Baha'u'llah claimed to be "the Son of Man" and came to the Holy Land in 1891 in red apparel....is nothing more than a random coincidence."In 1983 I was preparing for my mission, and I took it seriously. I fasted and prayed, and prayed again. I asked God to tell me "When is Jesus Christ returning to this Earth?" That night I had a dream in which I had an out-of-body experience and flew toward the Moon, but fell into the Sun, and there an "angel of light" told me that Jesus had returned and was living in New York City. After I woke up I concluded it was indeed a very strange dream. At no time did I believe that Jesus was in New York City in 1983!
I resigned from the Baha'i Faith in 1998, for the reasons given above. After that I considered myself to be a "Seeker of Truth" and studied all the religions of the world I could find.
In 2005, while reading a book titled
Encyclopedia of American Religions at a local library, I came upon Daheshism; which said that Dr. Dahesh was Jesus reincarnated, and he lived in New York City from 1975 until his death in 1984, and that he performed many astonishing supernatural miracles. I contacted the Apostle of Dr. Dahesh, who sent me a book titled "Lights upon Dr. Dahesh and Daheshism" and I read about all the supernatural miracles of this man, and I said to myself: "He was alive, and living in New York City in 1983!" This was the religion I was looking for all of my life.
Hope that answers your question.
Dr. Shades wrote:
Didn't you used to be Ba'Hai? And weren't you quite active in promoting it?
What made you leave?