Progressive revelation is a core teaching in the Baháʼí Faith that suggests that religious truth is revealed by God progressively and cyclically over time through a series of divine Messengers, and that the teachings are tailored to suit the needs of the time and place of their appearance. Thus, the Baháʼí teachings recognize the divine origin of several world religions as different stages in the history of one religion, while believing that the revelation of Baháʼu'lláh is the most recent (though not the last—that there will never be a last), and therefore the most relevant to modern society.
Progressive cycles
Dispensations
Baháʼís believe God to be generally regular and periodic in revealing His will to mankind through messengers/prophets, which are named Manifestations of God. Each messenger in turn establishes a covenant and founds a religion. This process of revelation, according to the Baháʼí writings, is also never ceasing, The differences in the revelation brought by the Manifestations of God is stated to be not inherent in the characteristics of the Manifestation of God, but instead attributed to the various worldly, societal and human factors;</blockquote>
Baháʼu'lláh mentioned in the Kitáb-i-Íqán that God will renew the "City of God" about every thousand years, and specifically mentioned that a new Manifestation of God would not appear within 1000 years of Baháʼu'lláh's message.
Muhammad, Jesus, Moses, and Zoroaster were all named by Baháʼu'lláh as being among the establishers of religion, termed Manifestations of God, as well as himself, and his forerunner the Báb. Baháʼu'lláh also expressly or implicitly referred to Adam, Noah, Saleh, Húd, and an unnamed prophet of the Sabians as messengers of God. Bahà'u'llàh's works that exist today never mentioned Buddha or Krishna as manifestations, but his son 'Abdu'l-Bahà mentioned in his own works that Buddha and Krishna were indeed manifestations of God.
Universal cycles
In addition to the idea of religion being progressively revealed from the same God through different prophets/messengers, there also exists in Baháʼí literature, the idea of a universal cycle, which represents a series of dispensations, and is used to categorize human history and social evolution in a number of ways. It is viewed as a superset of the sequence of progressive revelations, and currently comprises two cycles.
The Adamic cycle, also known as the Prophetic cycle is stated to have begun approximately 6,000 years ago with a Manifestation of God referred to in various sacred scriptures as Adam, and ended with the dispensation of Muhammad. In this cycle, Baháʼí belief is that Manifestations of God continued to advance human civilization at regular intervals through progressive revelation. The Abrahamic religions and Dharmic religions are partial recognitions of this cycle, from a Baháʼí point of view.
In Baháʼí belief, the Baháʼí cycle, or Cycle of Fulfillment, began with the Báb and includes Baháʼu'lláh, and will last at least five hundred thousand years with numerous Manifestations of God appearing throughout that time. It is stated in Baháʼí literature that the Manifestations of God in the Adamic cycle, in addition to bringing their own teachings, foretold of the Cycle of Fulfillment.
Metaphors
The concept of progressive revelation is further explained in the Baháʼí writings in numerous metaphors. These metaphors include the daily and seasonal cycle and the progression through a school.
Daily and seasonal cycles
The coming of each new messenger and the teachings they bring is compared to the coming of Spring, as the teachings bring new life to the world made spiritually dead and cold because the teachings of the previous messenger have been neglected.
Religion as a school
The earliest forms of religion are seen, in many of the Baháʼí Writings, to be like early school. In this view humanity, like a child, has been maturing while gaining a greater ability to grasp complex ideas as it grows in years and progresses in school. Each time a divine messenger appears, the message given is suited to humanity's degree of maturation.</blockquote>
Religious truth is of two kinds
Baháʼís believe that religious teachings are of two varieties: essential spiritual truth, and ephemeral social constructs. In addition to the Manifestations of God, the Baháʼí writings include a category of lesser prophets who reflect the light of the Manifestations, but are not independent divine intermediaries; there is no definitive list of lesser prophets.
The Baháʼí writings also refer to some other figures who are not well known, or whose religions have all but disappeared. Furthermore, the existence of unnumbered previous religions of which we have no modern knowledge is confirmed by Shoghi Effendi:
:"These religions are not the only true religions that have appeared in the world, but are the only ones still existing. There have always been divine Prophets and Messengers, to many of whom the Qur'án refers. But the only ones existing are those mentioned above."
Establishing texts
In the Kitáb-i-Íqán (in English, The Book of Certitude), Baháʼu'lláh describes the relationships between several Abrahamic prophets and how each accepted the previous, but was rejected by the previous prophet's followers. He uses these examples to highlight the legitimacy of the Báb to the reader, since the book was written in answer to some questions from the Báb's uncle.