…the fundamental reason why the unity of the Church of
Christ was irretrievably shattered, and its influence was in the course of time
undermined, was that the Edifice which the Fathers of the Church reared after
the passing of His First Apostle was an Edifice that rested in nowise upon the
explicit directions of Christ Himself. The authority and features of their
administration were wholly inferred, and indirectly derived, with more or less
justification, from certain vague and fragmentary references which they found
scattered amongst His utterances as recorded in the Gospel. Not one of the
sacraments of the Church; not one of the rites and ceremonies which the
Christian Fathers have elaborately devised and ostentatiously observed; not one
of the elements of the severe discipline they rigorously imposed upon the
primitive Christians; none of these reposed on the direct authority of Christ,
or emanated from His specific utterances. Not one of these did Christ conceive,
none did He specifically invest with sufficient authority to either interpret
His Word, or to add to what He had not specifically enjoined.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 21 March, 1930, printed in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah)
