by Verbus M. Counts

In January 1985, Verbus M. Counts — a software engineer at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Short Hills, New Jersey — posted a series of Baha'i teaching articles to net.religion, the earliest major Usenet religious forum. This post presents the three fundamental principles of the Baha'i Faith, with special focus on the doctrine of progressive revelation: the teaching that God sends Messengers in each age, each equally reflecting the divine light, from ancient Sabaean times through to Baha'u'llah in 1853. The quoted passages are drawn from the writings of Baha'u'llah, whose works entered the public domain under international copyright law.

Counts posted from two AT&T Bell Labs addresses — [email protected] (Holmdel, NJ) and [email protected] (Murray Hill, NJ) — and was among the first people to teach the Baha'i Faith on the internet. This post is a companion to "The Oneness of Mankind," posted the same week.

The most fundamental of all Baha'i principles are these:

The Oneness of God

The Oneness of His Messengers

The Oneness of mankind

This article will focus on "God and His Messengers."

From the Baha'i writings:

God is like the sun. Just as the physical sun is the source of all physical light, God is the source of all spiritual light. The sun does not come down to earth to sustain life — it sends its life-giving rays.

The infinite, unknowable God does not come down to earth — He sends His Messengers. As perfect mirrors reflect the light of the sun, so His Messengers perfectly reflect the Word of God. Therefore, one Messenger is not greater than another. They are equal. For this reason, Baha'is have the same love and reverence for Christ that they have for Baha'u'llah — because they are one in spirit.

There is no exclusive salvation for the Baha'i, the Christian or the Jew. God is not in competition with Himself. His revelation is orderly and progressive, and He sends His Messengers whenever mankind is in need of a fresh outpouring of His Word. Thus Moses may be likened to the seed; Christ to the tree; and Baha'u'llah the fruit. From the fruit will come the seed of succeeding cycles in which new Messengers of God will bring an outward or social truth which is fitted to the needs of the age in which He appears.

Divine Revelators

From the Writings of Baha'u'llah

Know thou assuredly that the essence of all the prophets of God is one and the same. Their unity is absolute. God, the Creator, saith: There is no distinction whatsoever among the Bearers of My Message. They all have but one purpose; their secret is the same secret. To prefer one in honor to another, to exalt certain ones above the rest, is in no wise to be permitted. Every true Prophet hath regarded His Message as fundamentally the same as the Revelation of every other Prophet gone before Him. If any man, therefore, should fail to comprehend this truth, and should consequently indulge in vain and unseemly language, no one whose sight is keen and whose understanding is enlightened would ever allow such idle talk to cause him to waver in his belief.

Beware, O believers in the Unity of God, lest ye be tempted to make any distinction between any of the Manifestations of His Cause, or to discriminate against the signs that have accompanied and proclaimed their Revelation. This indeed is the true meaning of Divine Unity, if ye be of them that apprehend and believe this truth. Be ye assured, moreover, that the works and acts of each and every one of these Manifestations of God, nay whatever pertaineth unto them, and whatsoever they may manifest in the future, are all ordained by God, and are a reflection of His Will and Purpose. Whoso maketh the slightest possible difference between their persons, their words, their messages, their acts and manners, hath indeed disbelieved in God, hath repudiated His signs, and betrayed the Cause of His Messengers.

From the foregoing passages and allusions it hath been made indubitably clear that in the kingdoms of earth and heaven there must needs be manifested a Being, an Essence Who shall act as a Manifestation and Vehicle for the transmission of the grace of the Divinity Itself, the Sovereign Lord of all. Through the teachings of this Daystar of Truth every man will advance and develop until he attaineth the station at which he can manifest all the potential forces with which his inmost true self hath been endowed. It is for this very purpose that in every age and dispensation the Prophets of God and His chosen Ones have appeared amongst men, and evince such power as is born of God and such might as only the Eternal can reveal.

Colophon

Posted by Verbus M. Counts ([email protected]) to net.religion on 4 January 1985. Counts was a software engineer at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Room 1l-423, 101 JFK Parkway, Short Hills, New Jersey. He was among the first people to teach the Baha'i Faith on the internet, posting multiple teaching articles to net.religion in January 1985. The quoted scripture passages are drawn from the writings of Baha'u'llah, founder of the Baha'i Faith (1817–1892); his works are in the public domain. The companion post "The Oneness of Mankind" (Message-ID: [email protected]) was posted the same week.

Preserved from the UTZOO Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-ID: [email protected].

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