The following section was copied and pasted from the Book of Certitude linked in post 1 from the Baha’i website; and if you are following along in the hardback copy (I am using both), then this section begins with verse or section 12 and includes all of 13; it is about Moses.
[9-13-23: today, I added a 14-minute video podcast by Pastor Patrick Hines that explains verses 1-4 of Romans chapter 1, see the end of this post. Therein Hines connects Abraham and God’s covenant with him to the New Testament gospel message. Romans is one of the books I recommended that Baha’is read to gain an understanding of the progressive nature of God’s covenants of redemption as they occur in the Bible. Hines makes that easier with his teaching. At this link you may hear the next two video podcasts on chapter one of Romans by pastor Hines: https://www.youtube.com/@ChristisLord/videos ]
Underscored sections are followed by a number in red and in brackets.
Critiques of those sections, using the same numbers, are below the text of the Book of Certitude, and identified by the statement, Words being critiqued.
Begin Book of Certitude:
And when His day was ended [Abraham, see part 3], there came the turn of Moses. Armed with the rod of celestial dominion, adorned with the white hand of divine knowledge, and proceeding from the Párán of the love of God, and wielding the serpent of power and everlasting majesty, He shone forth from the
Sinai of light upon the world.[1] He summoned all the peoples and kindreds of the earth to the
kingdom of eternity, and invited them to partake of the fruit of the tree of faithfulness.[2] Surely you
are aware of the fierce opposition of Pharaoh and his people, and of the stones of idle fancy which
the hands of infidels cast upon that blessed Tree.[3] So much so that Pharaoh and his people finally
arose and exerted their utmost endeavor to extinguish with the waters of falsehood and denial the
fire of that sacred Tree, oblivious of the truth that no earthly water can quench the flame of divine
wisdom, nor mortal blasts extinguish the lamp of everlasting dominion.[4] Nay, rather, such water
cannot but intensify the burning of the flame, and such blasts cannot but ensure the preservation
of the lamp, were ye to observe with the eye of discernment, and walk in the way of God’s holy
will and pleasure. How well hath a believer of the kindred of Pharaoh, whose story is recounted by
the All-Glorious in His Book revealed unto His beloved One, observed: “And a man of the family of
Pharaoh who was a believer and concealed his faith said: ‘Will ye slay a man because he saith my
Lord is God, when He hath already come to you with signs from your Lord? If he be a liar, on him
will be his lie, but if he be a man of truth, part of what he threateneth will fall upon you. In truth
God guideth not him who is a transgressor, a liar.’”
9 Finally, so great was their iniquity that this
selfsame believer was put to a shameful death. “The curse of God be upon the people of
tyranny.”[Effendi refers to an account that is not in the Bible and I cannot respond to.]10
And now, ponder upon these things. What could have caused such contention and conflict?
Why is it that the advent of every true Manifestation of God hath been accompanied by such
strife and tumult, by such tyranny and upheaval?[5] This notwithstanding the fact that all the
Prophets of God, whenever made manifest unto the peoples of the world, have invariably foretold
the coming of yet another Prophet after them, and have established such signs as would herald
the advent of the future Dispensation.[6] To this the records of all sacred books bear witness.[7] Why
then is it that despite the expectation of men in their quest of the Manifestations of Holiness,[8]and
in spite of the signs recorded in the sacred books, such acts of violence, of oppression and cruelty,
should have been perpetrated in every age and cycle against all the Prophets and chosen Ones of
God?[9] Even as He hath revealed: “As oft as an Apostle cometh unto you with that which your souls
desire not, ye swell with pride, accusing some of being impostors and slaying others.”11
MY RESPONSES PER BRACKETED NUMBERS:
[1] Words being critiqued: “Moses. Armed with the rod of celestial dominion… rod… white hand….”
[This is the longest point because I pasted in several passages of scripture to make crucial points]
God gave the power of a sign to Moses to help him be able to persuade his fellow Hebrews that God wanted them to go 3 days into the wilderness to worship Him as the following scriptures indicate. Those scriptures will also indicate that God did not sent Moses to call out to the world that he was a Manifestation sent from God with a message for the world as Shoghi Effendi stated. Moses was sent to the Hebrew nation alone. God dealt with Egypt with the plagues because of Pharaoh’s unwillingness to let Israel go to worship their God in the wilderness.
Their God is the real God of the Bible who is ‘the living God.’ He spoke for Himself to Moses, to every prophet He called; He later incarnated to earth and spoke in the first person with the apostles. At Jesus baptism in Matthew, the reader hears words from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, see text below:
Matthew 3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
[Jesus had to fulfill all righteousness was required because His being ‘born of a woman,’ and ‘living under the law’ were required because His righteousness is imputed to those who believe by faith – see Galatians, and Romans; also, his atoning work on the cross is imputed to cancel a believer’s sin debt.]
Mat 3:16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;
Mat 3:17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” [That voice was God the Father speaking. In this brief passage, all three members of the trinity are present.]
So, Moses rod was NOT one of ‘celestial dominion;’ nor was his leprous hand. Moses had no such power. He was not divine, as Shoghi Effendi’s metaphors suggest.
He was a messenger sent from God to deliver Israel from Egypt. Israel, in the scripture below is called the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the patriarchs. God had made a covenant with Abraham and his offspring in Genesis 15….
Exodus 3:7 Then the LORD said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Exodus 3:12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
Exodus 3:18 [God Speaking to Moses] And they will listen to your voice, and you [Moses] and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. [reference to the 10 plagues]
Exodus 4:1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’” 2 The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand—
Exo 4:5 “that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” [God gave Moses two different signs to give credibility to him that he was sent from God – that is characteristic of God when He sends prophets to give a message to His people Israel. Those signs were miracles in the days of Elijah and in the New Testament via Jesus and the apostles.]
Exo 4:6 Again, the LORD said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh.
Exo 4:8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign.
Exo 4:9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
[2] Words being critiqued: “He summoned all the peoples and kindreds of the earth to the kingdom of eternity, and invited them to partake of the fruit of the tree of faithfulness”
Moses, per scripture, only went to the Hebrew elders to get their help in calling the people to follow Moses leadership so they could be delivered from Egypt. The scripture quoted above indicates that, but you could also read all the verses I omitted to get a fuller picture of those events.
God’s purpose in calling Abraham from the Pagan land of Ur, was to call out a people for Himself from the world. The blessings of God upon this people would be a sign, for anyone looking, that there actually is a God. To the nation Israel, God says often in the Bible, “you shall be my people and I will be your God.” See Exodus 3:8 above for an example of God giving His people the land of other nations.
From this nation, God would do what He hinted at in Genesis 3:15, and in hundreds of other more specific prophecies in the pages of scripture, reveal the Messiah, the Son of God through whom the world would offered salvation. See Acts 17 for a New Testament statement of that purpose of God.
That is, Moses was not divine; he was not calling all the people of the earth to eternity, says the Bible, not my opinions.
The following passage from Genesis 15, where God made His covenant with Abraham, is about the judgment God is going to bring upon the people who oppressed Abraham’s people, the Hebrew nation that later became Israel, when Jacob’s name was changed to Israel by God in Genesis 32:28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
Gen 15:13 Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. [that is a reference to Egypt] 14 But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve, and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. [The Egyptian people were tired of the plagues and threatened by the Hebrew God, such that they willingly gave the Hebrew people goods that they wanted when they left their servitude.]
Gen 15:15 As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried in a good old age.
Gen 15:16 And they shall come back here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” [God will be judging many other nations, Amorites… and giving their land to His people Israel; note: God is near His people. He met with them in the tabernacle, after it was built in Exodus….]
[3] Words being critiqued: “Surely you are aware of the fierce opposition of Pharaoh and his people, and of the stones of idle fancy which the hands of infidels cast upon that blessed Tree”
Blessed tree, is apparently a metaphor to refer to a ‘manifestation’ of God. The section above asserts that scripture describes Moses as a messenger / prophet; not a divine personage, as Christ, the Son of God.
Yes, pharaoh did oppose Moses and God, and God brought 10 plagues against pharaoh through the mediation of Moses and described in Exodus 4-15. But, again, Moses was not a divine manifestation of God as Shoghi Effendi stated; his words contradict the Bible.
[4] Words being critiqued: “So much so that Pharaoh and his people finally arose and exerted their utmost endeavor to extinguish….”
Shoghi Effendi’s words in this section indicate that Moses is a divine manifestation. That is not true according to the scriptures cited above.
Pharaoh did oppose and harass Moses and the Hebrew people, but the God who sent Moses to deliver the people, crushed Pharaoh with 10 plagues until he relented.
[5] Words being critiqued: “Why is it that the advent of every true Manifestation of God hath been accompanied by such strife and tumult, by such tyranny and upheaval?”
Again, scripture above indicates that Moses is merely delivering a message for God and will mediate the deliverance of the Hebrew nation by the power of God via His mighty plagues, as described in Exodus 3-15.
Moses did experience strife and opposition. Effendi’s use of scripture above was erroneous because he calls Moses someone that Moses is not per the Bible. So his statement about ‘every manifestation of God…’ has no foundation.
Effendi’s words are in line with Baha’i beliefs which I am undermining by facts from the Bible. If you read the 22-page PDF attached to this post, you will find that Abraham, Moses and Christ all belong to the plan of redemption that progressively unfolds on the pages of scripture; therefore, Baha’i progressive revelation is not true. Why so? Because these men were not founders of three separate world religions; they all belonged to one that has been revealed by the God of the Bible.
The God of heaven is acting mightily in the passages under consideration. It is not difficult to see what role Moses has been given by God. Please read the entire passage, Exodus 3-15 to get that for yourself.
[6] Words being critiqued: “This notwithstanding the fact that all the Prophets of God, whenever made manifest unto the peoples of the world, have invariably foretold the coming of yet another Prophet after them, and have established such signs as would herald the advent of the future Dispensation”
He makes that statement with no supporting evidence in his body of work. He presumes it as a given fact, or something like that. [Much like believers in the theory of evolution uphold their big-bang origins that no one witnessed or could ever scientifically investigate.]
In Scripture, Christ is foretold from Genesis 3, and there are 500 or more prophecies concerning His coming.
Additionally, John the Baptist was foretold by the angel Gabriel in Luke 1; in that passage Gabriel also told Mary she would be the mother of the Messiah.
Abraham, Moses… Isaiah, the apostle Paul… were not foretold. One read through the Bible would make that abundantly clear.
That is, one read through the Bible would teach you those facts and you would know that Shoghi Effendi was fabricating his words above.
Abraham and Moses were old men when God revealed Himself to them and called them into His service. They nor anyone else knew they would be God’s servants until the God of the Bible revealed Himself to them and gave them a mission.
Check Genesis 12, to read the account of God calling Abraham; and Exodus 3, for Moses; Acts 9 for the apostle Paul; read the book of Matthew to see how the apostles were called by Jesus. No one predicted their calling. All of these men are foundational to the Christian religion and were called by God at the time they were used by Him for His purpose of forwarding His revelation regarding His church.
[7] Words being critiqued: “To this the records of all sacred books bear witness”
[see point 6 to see what he was referring to]
Here he goes again making a general statement with no support. Your high school writing teacher would not let you get away with such a basic error.
Point 6 critique above answers this point, just wanted to confront it again because it is a blatant and elementary error
[8] Words being critiqued: “Why then is it that despite the expectation of men in their quest of the Manifestations of Holiness,”
In the Bible, no man ever went on a quest for God and found Him. Not Abraham, Moses, any prophet, any apostle ever went seeking God and found Him. In ALL cases, per the Bible, God REVEALED Himself to them when He chose to do so.
For the most dramatic accounts of God revealing Himself to a human, see Acts 9, whereat the risen Christ revealed Himself to the apostle Paul to call him into service; and Exodus 3, re the call of Moses.
Contemplate on it for a moment, if none of the people of the Bible found God by seeking, how could you expect to do so? That didn’t occur to me until I had read through the Bible several times, so I’m not mocking you. Just stating a fact that modern culture doesn’t grasp, in their vain talk about finding God….
[9] Words being critiqued: “To this the records of all sacred books bear witness.[7] Why then is it that despite the expectation of men in their quest of the Manifestations of Holiness,[8]and in spite of the signs recorded in the sacred books, such acts of violence, of oppression and cruelty,should have been perpetrated in every age and cycle against all the Prophets and chosen Ones of God?”[9]
[I joined points 7-9 so you could get the flow of the paragraph. Points 7 and 8 have already been critiqued.]
Concerning the prophets of the Bible, they were all persecuted, opposed…. Hebrews 11 talks about that, including Moses. A read of that chapter will give you a sense of the connectedness of the Old and New Testaments and of God’s plan of redemption that is laid out in the linked 22-page PDF. The author of Hebrews is connecting the Old and New Testaments for the Jews in the early church, to help them understand that God’s revelation of Christ and the church is the fulfillment of all that came before via the nation Israel. And the book of Revelation closes all that revelation by finalizing things that were revealed throughout the Bible. Reading through the Bible gives a clear sense of these things.
Shoghi Effendi keeps repeating this point in his writing, emphasizing it as though he wants the reader to be totally focused on that so they will miss all his errors in citing scripture.
If you read parts 2, 3, and 4 (this post), you will see that in every instance of his citing scripture to support his thesis or argument, he has twisted scripture completely out of context and much more, he had interpreted it from the Baha’i perspective. He is not free to do that, even though the Baha’i Faith claims that Christianity [which would include the Bible] is part of the progressive unfolding of revelations from God to mankind. If that were true, then Christianity, in its revealed form, would have to fit into the ‘progressive revelation’ without being modified…. In every case wherein he has cited scripture, he has modified it dramatically.
I’m not asking you to believe my opinion. I am presenting you with the scripture itself so you can see how he has mangled it to make it support this point under consideration.
To use a secular example to make my point: during the 2020 riots in the USA, a CNN reporter was describing a riot scene with a building on fire just behind him and he did not describe it as a riot scene, he said it was a ‘mostly peaceful’ protest.
In that case, he expected viewers to believe his words, his opinion, his assessment of that war zone, instead of what they were seeing. His words were false, but I would wager that some faithful CNN viewers believed his assessment over what their God-given senses reported to them.
What are you going to do with the scripture references above that scream out that Shoghi Effendi twisted the truth of scripture to fit his purposes?
22-PAGE PDF THAT SHOWS THE PROGRESSIVE BIBLICAL PLAN OF REDEMPTION: Covenant with Bible refs.pdf 4.2.20
At this link you may hear the next two video podcasts on chapter one of Romans by pastor Hines: https://www.youtube.com/@ChristisLord/videos