Dedication
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1 ¿ Moving to Fever Pitch
Chapter 2 ¿ The Prophet Daniel: 2,300 Days
Chapter 3 ¿ A Frenzy of Preparation
Chapter 4 ¿ The Great Disappointment
Chapter 5 ¿ Expectancy in the East
Chapter 6 ¿ The Search in the East
Chapter 7 - 1844 Fulfilled
Chapter 8 ¿ Daniel: 70 Weeks and 1,260, 1,290, and 1,335 Days
Chapter 9 ¿ Muhammad: The Seal of the Prophets
Chapter 10 ¿ The Divine Springtime
Chapter 11 ¿ The Sectarian Survivors of Millerism
Chapter 12 ¿ Understanding Matthew 24
Chapter 13 ¿ Bahá'u'lláh: The Glory of God
Epilogue
Appendix A - A Pen Portrait of Bahá'u'lláh
Appendix B - "Important Truths"
Appendix C ¿ A Remarkable Parallel: Jesus and the Báb
Appendix D - "What Is an Advent Christian?"
Appendix E - Basic Principles of the Baha'i Faith
Notes
Bibliography
Introduction The religious movement called Adventism swept North America and Europe in the early decades of the nineteenth century, bringing fervor and urgency to the expectation of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. At the time, the movement came to be known in the United States and Europe as Millerism, named after William Miller, a Baptist farmer in upstate New York who assiduously studied biblical timelines and prophecies for clues about when Jesus would return-an event called the Second Coming. Miller, though, was just one of many Christian clergy and lay people who had been independently studying the Bible for details about that very topic since the turn of the century. The Second Coming had always been a part of Christian theology, but interest in it ebbed and flowed through the centuries. Adventism caught fire as students of the Bible calculated that the prophet Daniel had pointed to the years 1843 or 1844 for this blessed event. They collaborated to investigate the prophecies and generally agreed with one another's findings. So, when nothing happened in 1843, the scholars decided that they had made an error by assuming the presence of a "zero year" between BCE and CE. New calculations eliminated this extra year and identified the early days in 1844 up to March 21 as the time of the Advent. Again, nothing happened. The scholars went back to the biblical prophecies once more and concluded that the date of the Second Coming would be October 22, 1844. However, that day also came and went with no signs of the event. The ensuing widespread emotional and religious distress was deemed the Great Disappointment. Nevertheless, the biblical prophecies about the return of Christ upon which Millerism was largely based, especially those in the book of Daniel, Chapter 8, Verses 1-14, turned out to be surprisingly accurate. Millerite scholars had calculated the right year-on the wrong continent! In any case, Miller and his fellow biblical scholars could not have understood the meanings of Daniel's prophecies because the prophet himself had been told that they could not be interpreted before their appointed time: "Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end." (Daniel 12:9) The time did, indeed, turn out to be 1844, but only in retrospect are the meanings of Daniel's predictions apparent. Christian expectations for the imminent return of Jesus in the Western world formed just one part of the picture. Unknown in the West, a similar quest was underway in the Shia Islamic Middle East. Therefore, a basic understanding of two religions that emerged in Persia in the mid-1800s is a necessary foundation for the concepts explored in this book. While Christians in the West expected the return of Jesus, Shia Muslims in Persia and Iraq expected the imminent return of the twelfth Imam, who was called the Qa'im (the Risen One), or Mahdi [Imám-Mihdí]. According to Shia tradition, the twelfth Imam was the last of the legitimate spiritual successors to Muhammad who possessed divine knowledge and authority and were responsible for interpreting the Qur'an and giving spiritual guidance. The twelfth Imam was believed to have disappeared in the year 874 CE under mysterious and disputed circumstances. Shia tradition maintains that he remained alive throughout the centuries in a state of occultation, hidden from the world, and that he would return when the time was right to establish the kingdom of God on earth. In Persia, a group of Shia Muslims led by two Islamic scholars and teachers believed that a new and independent Revelation, as attested and foreshadowed by the sacred scriptures of Islam, would soon be given. These religious scholars were searching for the Prophet who would bring that Revelation. In some ways, the two expectations in the East and the West were parallel. Perhaps the foremost Islamic searcher was Mulla1 Husayn (1813-1849), who arrived in Shiraz, Persia, to a warm welcome from a stranger on the evening of May 22, 1844. After conversation and hospitality, his host, a young merchant named Mírzá 'Ali Muhammad-i-Shírází (1819-1850) proclaimed to Mulla Husayn that He was the Prophet of his search. He called Himself the Báb, which in English means the Gate of God. The word "gate" is an English translation of the Arabic word báb. The Báb later wrote: It is clear and evident that the object of all preceding Dispensations hath been to pave the way for the advent of Muhammad, the Apostle of God. These, including the Muhammadan Dispensation, have had, in their turn, as their objective the Revelation proclaimed by the Qá'im. The purpose underlying this Revelation, as well as those that preceded it, has, in like manner, been to announce the advent of the Faith of Him Whom God will make manifest. And this Faith-the Faith of Him Whom God will make manifest-in its turn, together with all the Revelations gone before it, have as their object the Manifestation destined to succeed it. And the latter, no less than all the Revelations preceding it, prepare the way for the Revelation which is yet to follow. The process of the rise and setting of the Sun of Truth will thus indefinitely continue-a process that hath had no beginning and will have no end.2 The mission of the Báb was twofold-to make a complete break with Islam, thus setting the stage for a new spiritual era, and to proclaim the coming of "Him Whom God will make manifest." In that way, He both brought an entirely new Revelation from God and served as the Herald for the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh to follow. The Báb had complete love and respect for the Qur'an, as well as an intimate knowledge of that book. In no way did His declaration denigrate the Qur'an or the true essence of Islam. On the contrary, the Báb initiated a fulfillment of many references in the Qur'an to the coming of a new era and it validated the Qur'an's divine truths. A new religion thus emerged from the milieu of Shia Islam, just as Christianity had arisen from that of Judaism. The Báb announced that humanity stood at the threshold of a new era of spiritual and moral reformation and on the cusp of a soon-to-be-revealed second Divine Revelation. Fanatical Islamic clergy fiercely opposed the Báb, just as the Jewish priesthood had opposed Jesus and the idolatrous Meccans had opposed Muhammad. Under the direction of the clergy and their allies in power, the Báb was imprisoned for about half of his six-year ministry while His disciples and followers were being persecuted, with many imprisoned or murdered throughout Persia for accepting the Bábí Faith or teaching it. The Báb was executed by a firing squad in Tabriz, Persia, in 1850. The ministry of the Báb lasted six years from 1844 to 1850. His Dispensation lasted nine years, from May 1844 to late in 1852, the shortest span in history for a divinely revealed religion. Throughout that time, the Báb repeatedly foretold that "Him Whom God will make manifest" would appear at the end of those nine years. He urged his followers to watch and recognize that individual when He appeared and to follow His guidance and teachings. Among the early followers of the Báb was a young nobleman of high social standing, Mírzá Husayn-'Alí Núrí (1817-1892). He taught the new Bábí Faith, earning wide recognition for His wisdom and respect for His role as one of the Bábí movement's most influential believers. He was tortured and imprisoned in 1852 for four months in the infamous underground prison, the Siyah-Chal. While chained there in perpetual darkness, He was visited by the Holy Spirit and was told that He was the one whom the Báb had prophesied, "Him Whom God will make manifest," the next Messenger of God. However, Mírzá Husayn-'Alí, known as Bahá'u'lláh, which is Arabic for the Glory of God, did not openly divulge this information at that time. After four months of incarceration in the appalling pit, the Persian government persuaded Ottoman authorities to accept Him in exile in Ottoman-controlled Baghdad. As the son of a vizier, or minister, in the court of the Shah, He could not be executed. The year 1852 was the first of forty years of exile and imprisonment for Bahá'u'lláh. To the consternation of the Shah, Persian authorities, and their Ottoman allies, Bahá'u'lláh continued to attract attention in Baghdad as a spiritual leader. The Persian government persuaded the Ottoman authorities to exile Him in 1863 further away to Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey, and a few months later to Adrianople (now Edirne). Bahá'u'lláh lived in Baghdad for ten years. Just days before His departure from the city He openly announced that He was the Messenger of God foretold by the Báb. Th e year was 1863, nineteen years after the Báb's own proclamation in 1844. During His time in Adrianople,...
