Tuesday, January 13, 2009

What good is entry by troops, and what comes after it?

I've been thinking about possible reasons for the activities of the Baha'i community to revolve around entry by troops. I see that Shoghi Effendi looked forward to it, and he says that Abdu'l-Baha did too, although I haven't found any examples.

According to Shoghi Effendi, entry by troops will be a prelude to mass conversion, which will "revolutionize the fortunes of the Faith, derange the equilibrium of the world, and reinforce a thousandfold the numerical strength as well as the material power and the spiritual authority of the Faith of Baha'u'llah."

(Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 117)

According to the House of Justice, entry by troops has already started (See note below). That might be a reason for putting it at the center of some worldwide community activities. I can see some possible value for Baha'u'llah's purposes, in promoting some common activities for all Baha'i communities, with a common goal of accelerating that process. As I see it, the problems that I see my critical writers associating with the framework for action, arise from administration/celebrity worship and abusive bandwagons. That includes members and representatives of Baha'i institutions disapproving of Baha'is doing anything besides what they see as part of the framework, and other people falling in line.

Accelerating the process of entry by troops might continue to be a central goal for worldwide community activities until mass conversion begins. One central goal used to be the establishment of functioning Baha'i communities and institutions in every corner of the world and every corner of society. Maybe the next center of activity will be accelerating the process of mass conversion. After that, maybe it will shift to building the world commonwealth.
Some form of a world super-state must needs be evolved, in whose favor all the nations of the world will have willingly ceded every claim to make war, certain rights to impose taxation and all rights to maintain armaments, except for purposes of maintaining internal order within their respective dominions. Such a state will have to include within its orbit an international executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a world parliament whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be confirmed by their respective governments; and a supreme tribunal whose judgment will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration. A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished and the interdependence of Capital and Labor definitely recognized; in which the clamor of religious fanaticism and strife will have been forever stilled; in which the flame of racial animosity will have been finally extinguished; in which a single code of international law -- the product of the considered judgment of the world's federated representatives -- shall have as its sanction the instant and coercive intervention of the combined forces of the federated units; and finally a world community in which the fury of a capricious and militant nationalism will have been transmuted into an abiding consciousness of world citizenship -- such indeed, appears, in its broadest outline, the Order anticipated by Baha'u'llah, an Order that shall come to be regarded as the fairest fruit of a slowly maturing age.

(Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha'u'llah, p. 40)

Note (added 15 January 2009):

Announcement of the Nine Year Plan

October 1963, To the Followers of Baha'u'llah throughout the world

"We stand now upon the threshold of the second epoch of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Divine Plan, with the outposts of the Cause established in the remotest corners of the earth, and having already witnessed the beginnings of that entry into the Faith by troops promised by the Master Himself."

http://bahai-library.com/file.php?file=uhj_wellspring_guidance#14

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Jim,

You write:

"According to the House of Justice, entry by troops has already started."

Do you have a source for that?

thanks
Steve

Jim Habegger said...

Announcement of the Nine Year Plan

October 1963, To the Followers of Baha'u'llah throughout the world

"We stand now upon the threshold of the second epoch of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Divine Plan, with the outposts of the Cause established in the remotest corners of the earth, and having already witnessed the beginnings of that entry into the Faith by troops promised by the Master Himself."

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