The Baha’i Temple in Chicago focuses on unity – the oneness of God, the oneness of religion, and the oneness of the human race. Baha’is believe there is only one God, the Creator of the universe. Although God may be called by different names in different languages – Yahweh, Allah, Brahmin, God – all these names refer to the same singular force and being.

Baha’is believe that all religions are actually one “ever-folding religion from a single source.” They refer to this concept of “oneness of religion” as “Progressive Revelation.” Do Baha’is have something? Are they on to something? It seems that whether they have tried hard or not, they have been very successful in their evangelism efforts.

If you were to ask Noah if there is only one way to God, what would Noah have answered? Should Noah’s Aunt Bertha have been asked if there is only one way to God, what would she have answered?

How has God defined His nature? “forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation” (Exodus 34:6-7).

Following the creation of the golden calf, Moses tried to intercede for the people. The day following the implementation of justice on those 3,000, Moses told the people –Exodus 32:30: “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” Then Moses went to God and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. But now, if you will forgive their sin–but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”

Moses tried to be the mediator between God and man. He offered Himself as the sacrifice for Israel’s sin but God refused – verse 33. Moses was a sinner. Moses could not be the Mediator because he himself needed reconciliation with God.

Man needs a Mediator. Man needs help to stay away from golden calves. “The way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). Man needs God’s holiness to make us holy. As Moses says, so we plead, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” (33:15-16).

We need God’s presence. We need God to dwell among us so that we can dwell with God.

Is there only one way to God – Yes or No? If you answer “No” – as the Baha’is have done, you not only obliterate truth, which should be objective and unchanging, but you also must redefine every major religion on earth. The Qur’an with its permission to exterminate infidels versus the NT with its teaching on blessing and praying for your enemies (in the words of the Baha’i faith – which is the progressive religion?); the OT with its teaching on physical circumcision versus the NT and its teaching on spiritual circumcision. The God of the Bible tells us there is only one way to come into His presence. There is only one way by which sins can be atoned.

Is there only one way to God? The resurrection of Christ answers with a resounding, “YES!”

–Paul Holland