"There is no God but Me, the Peerless, the Informed." - Baha'u'llah

The: "I am God", statement only makes sense and doesn't cross the line into idolatry if stated in the sense: "I am naught but God", meaning I have no existence apart from God.

Mirza Husayn Ali (alias Baha'u'llah) did make it clear though that he believed his station to be: "beyond" that of a Manifestation:

The purpose of God in creating man hath been, and will ever be, to enable him to know his Creator and to attain His Presence. To this most excellent aim, this supreme objective, all the heavenly Books and the divinely-revealed and weighty Scriptures unequivocally bear witness. Whoso hath recognized the Day Spring of Divine guidance and entered His holy court hath drawn nigh unto God and attained His Presence, a Presence which is the real Paradise, and of which the loftiest mansions of heaven are but a symbol. Such a man hath attained the knowledge of the station of Him Who is "at the distance of two bows," Who standeth beyond the Sadratu'l-Muntaha. Whoso hath failed to recognize Him will have condemned himself to the misery of remoteness, a remoteness which is naught but utter nothingness and the essence of the nethermost fire. Such will be his fate, though to outward seeming he may occupy the earth's loftiest seats and be established upon its most exalted throne.

(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 70)

To claim to the station of one who: "standeth beyond the Sadratu'l-Muntaha", is to claim a station greater than the Sadratul'-Muntaha, greater than a Manifestation of God.

It is such statements of Mirza Husayn Ali/Baha'u'llah's which led that 'major' school of Baha'i thought to mistakenly equate Baha'u'llah with God Himself. I do wonder why Baha'u'llah did not correct this error or perhaps if he truly believed that his station was greater than Manifestationhood, as he put it: "beyond the Sadratu'l-Muntaha", ?

Cheers

Larry Rowe

[1 The Sadratu'l-Muntaha, translated inter alia as the Sidrah Tree which marks the boundary, and the Lote-Tree of the extremity. Cf. Qur'án 53:14. It is said to stand at the loftiest point in Paradise, and to mark the place beyond which neither men nor angels can pass. In Bahá'í terminology it refers to the Manifestation of God.]

(Abdu'l-Baha, Memorials of the Faithful, p. 175)

328. By my life! This is a day wherein the Sadrat doth not desire but to utter to the world, "There is no God but Me, the Peerless, the Informed." Had it not been for My love unto thee, I would not have mentioned what is herein. Know, therefore, this station! Then keep it as thou keepest thine own eyes and be grateful.

(Compilations, Baha'i Scriptures, p. 197)