Greetings!

My story is a rather unique one, but I am glad I went through it, as God has
used it to strengthen my understanding of Him and His Truth.

I was raised as a Christian. However, my Christian experience growing up was
more of an "emotional" type of faith, rather than one routed in the Truth of
Scripture. By the time I reached adulthood, this gave me a very shaky faith
at best.

At age 23, I discovered the Baha'i Faith, and fully accepted it, as it
seemed to answer all of my questions that I had about God, and could not
find them in the Christian Church (or, so I thought).

Actually, the group I became involved with would be one that the mainline
Baha'i Faith would consider "Covenant Breakers", as we rejected the
Universal House of Justice, and the entire Administration, as being outside
of the specific direction given in the Will and Testament of Abdul-Baha.

In the Will and Testament, it was specically stated that there was to be a
continuation of the Guardianship, after the passing of Shoghi Effendi. The
Guardian was to be the Head of the UHJ, and together they would be govern
the Faith. This was in order to protect the faith from falling into any type
of apostacy. The Gaurdian AND the UHJ were to be "BOTH under the care and
protection of the Abha Beauty...Whatever THEY decide is of God...whoso
rebelleth against him AND against them hath rebelled against God...It is
incumbent upon the UHJ...to show their obedience, submissiveness, and
subordination unto the Guardian of the Cause of God...It is incumbent upon
the Guardian of the Cause of God to appoint in his own life-time him that
shall become his successor, THAT DIFFERENCES MAY NOT ARISE AFTER HIS
PASSING."

I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, that it is quite evident that
without a functioning Guardian AND UHJ, there IS no Baha'i Faith!

The group I was following made all this quite clear, and were trying to palm
off a particular individual as the true Guardian of the Baha'i Faith.
However, this individual would not accept that role for himself, so even
THEY had no Guardian! In addition, they were predicting a thermo-nuclear war
in 1980, which would somehow help the whole world turn to THEM for the truth
(ya. I know it's whacko!!! But, hey! I was only 23, and searching.)

Anyway, when that didn't happen, that sorta told me there was something
wrong with the group! I turned to the mainline Baha'i Faith to find answers,
but they could NEVER explain the whole Guarsian thing to me in a
satisfactory way! That's because it is IMPOSSIBLE to explain it, because the
fact remains that ever since Shoghi Effendi's passing, ALL Baha'is are
really covenant-breakers, because history bears out that the Will and
Testament of Abdul-Baha was broken, in that there was no continuation of the
Guardianship!

I had recently married a Christian woman, who kept pointing out to me that
the BIGGEST thing that the Baha'i Faith was missing, was any hope to
overcome my sin! I KNEW I was a sinner, and I KNEW that God cannot accept
sin in His Kingdom, and yet Baha'u'llah offered no rememdy for that, of ANY
kind!

I finally came to realize that the ONLY hope for eternal life was through
Jesus Christ, who offered the ONLY hope for my sinful heart!

That was in 1981. It is now twenty years later, and I see how God used that
whole experience to show me how vital it is to thoroughly understand the
REASON WHY we believe what we believe, and NOT rely on someone else telling
us. One of the Baha'i Principles I have been able to keep in my own practice
(but because it is a BIBLICAL principle, MOT because it's a Baha'i
principle) is "Independant Investigation of the Truth". Because of the
experience God allowed me to go through with the Baha'i Faith, I was able to
Independantly examine the claims of Jesus Christ, to bee my ONLY hope for
eternal life, and found those claims to be true.

Phillippians 2: 9-11 says of Jesus Christ that "God also has highly exalted
Him and given Him the name which is ABOVE EVERY NAME, that at the name of
Jesus EVERY knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and
of those under the earth, and that EVERY tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." That would include
Baha'ullah! He MUST bow his knee to Jesus, and confess Him as Lord!

Feel free to e-mail me, anyone who would like to discuss more.

Art