We cherish the hope that everyone may be adorned with the vesture of true wisdom, the basis of the government of the world. – Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 166.

If the time has come for a government of the world, a global parliament, a true commonwealth of all nations, how could humanity make it happen? What would need to happen to make that incredibly important and revolutionary process a reality?

Well, it might surprise you to know that the world has already taken several of the first steps necessary for global governance.

First, humanity has established, all in the last sixty-five years or so, a broad spectrum of regional and international governmental organizations—starting with the United Nations, but only beginning there. Countries have recognized their interdependence and created the European Union, NATO, the African Union, The Arab League, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Association of South East Asian Nations, and many, many other similar organizations.

Second, we have a growing, recognized and increasingly important system and practice of international law, which includes the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.

Third, the global financial market in goods and services has rapidly developed and become increasingly important. Efforts to regulate that supranational market, with institutions like the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, still tend to unjustly privilege the developed nations of the world over others, but change has started to occur.

Fourth, we now have a global media, with digital and satellite communications that allow most of the world’s people to receive information they never had access to before.

Flag of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly

Fifth, growing grassroots groups like the World Federalist Movement, Citizens for Global Solutions and One World Trust all encourage people in every part of the world to become engaged global citizens.

Sixth, the national governments of the world have begun to recognize that our global environmental problems—climate change, air and water pollution, etc.—have no national boundaries, and require unified planetary solutions.

Seventh, the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (CEUNPA) began in 2007, brought about by the Committee for a Democratic United Nations. This important development would add a democratic Parliamentary Assembly to the United Nations, allowing member nations’ elected representatives to have decision-making power in the U.N.’s deliberations. Eventually, the Campaign proposes direct election of U.N. Parliament members on a worldwide basis. So far the CEUNPA has the support of more than 350 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and 850 parliamentarians from 140 countries.

These developments all echo the call of Baha’u’llah:

The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world’s Great Peace amongst men. Such a peace demandeth that the Great Powers should resolve, for the sake of the tranquillity of the peoples of the earth, to be fully reconciled among themselves. Should any king take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him. If this be done, the nations of the world will no longer require any armaments, except for the purpose of preserving the security of their realms and of maintaining internal order within their territories. This will ensure the peace and composure of every people, government and nation. – Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 164.

…the national assemblies of each country and nation — that is to say parliaments — should elect two or three persons who are the choicest men of that nation, and are well informed concerning international laws and the relations between governments and aware of the essential needs of the world of humanity in this day. The number of these representatives should be in proportion to the number of inhabitants of that country. The election of these souls who are chosen by the national assembly, that is, the parliament, must be confirmed by the upper house, the congress and the cabinet and also by the president or monarch so these persons may be the elected ones of all the nation and the government. From among these people the members of the Supreme Tribunal will be elected, and all mankind will thus have a share therein, for every one of these delegates is fully representative of his nation. – Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 291

The Purpose of the one true God, exalted be His glory, in revealing Himself unto men is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the mine of their true and inmost selves. That the divers communions of the earth, and the manifold systems of religious belief, should never be allowed to foster the feelings of animosity among men, is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God and His Religion. These principles and laws, these firmly established and mighty systems, have proceeded from one Source, and are the rays of one Light. That they differ one from another is to be attributed to the varying requirements of the ages in which they were promulgated. — Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, pp. 287-288.

Recently a reader of my essays brought me a couple of questions from a Christian friend that speak to the heart of Baha’i belief. Specifically, the questions focused on Baha’u’llah’s teaching that the Faith of God is revealed progressively and according to our capacity, in contrast to the prevalent Christian belief that Jesus is, for all time, the only source of God’s guidance.

The first question: If Baha’is believe in all these prior religions, how do you explain inconsistencies between them? They can’t all be true, can they?

The second question: Jesus told his followers several times that he was the only way to know God, so how can there be any other way?

I’m very familiar with these questions—because they’re the same ones I asked when I first heard of the Baha’i Faith. I was surprised as much by the answers as I was by where I found them: the Bible.

As a Christian I understood that what I called the Old Testament was the Tanakh of the Jewish faith. This scripture is composed of the Law (the Torah), the Prophets (Neviim) and the Writings (Ketuvim). The major Prophet of the Jewish faith is Moses. I also understood this: that though the Jewish theologians understood Jesus’ message to be in conflict with the faith taught by Moses, Jesus did not understand his faith in that way. Neither did I nor any other Christian that I knew. Rather, we believed that Jesus fulfilled Moses’ faith.

Jesus makes this claim, in fact: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.”— Matthew 5:17.

So, this raises a further question: Are Judaism and Christianity different faiths or are they different stages of the same faith?

At the very least, Christians agree that they are not in conflict—Moses is not false because Jesus is true and vice versa. But this raises another question: Why do they have different teachings? Why did Jesus uphold some things—the primary commandments to love God and our fellow human beings—and change others—the laws of divorce and the Sabbath?

This question doesn’t require interpretation; Jesus explains it in Matthew 19:7-9 when the Pharisees ask why Moses gave them a different law of divorce. He says: “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.“

This is what Baha’u’llah means when he talks about progressive revelation. Moses taught one thing because of the hardness of the human heart (that is, its lack of spiritual capacity at the time); Jesus taught something different, not because God had changed, but because we had changed. Moreover, Jesus tells His own disciples that he has not given them complete knowledge, because they could not bear it. John 16:12-13 reads: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth…”

Hence the Bible illustrates one faith, progressively revealed by Moses and Jesus—the anointed spokesmen of the same God. There is continuity: Moses taught certain things, some of which Christ continued to teach and some of which he changed. Christ withholds things that even his own disciples couldn’t understand, and promises another “Advocate” (the Spirit of Truth) would come to teach later.

This, in part, explains the differences between the faith as taught by Moses and the faith as taught by Jesus. They focus on different capacities and needs. In the same way that a human teacher would not teach a first grader and high school student the same things in the same way, so Moses and Christ taught their students differently. Baha’u’llah describes it this way:

The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements. —Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 213.

Next: Understanding the Commandments of Men