The quotes the Guardian gathered in the Dispensation state as explicitly as
any subject in the Baha'i Writings that it will be not less than 1000 years
before the next Manifestation. The Covenant, unlike other subjects in the
Faith (like the mystical teachings) are not hidden and waiting to be
discovered. They are express. The Covenant is absolutely crystal-clear, in
explicit verses. Not only Baha'u'llah's written Covenant to turn to the
Master; and the Master's Covenant to turn to the House and the Guardian; but
in addition Baha'u'llah's Covenant regarding the appearance of the next
Manifestation. The thousand years could not be more explicit. (WOB 132)
It should also be noted that the guidance is not that a Manifestation will
come in a thousand years. We do not know the time; only that it will be
"not less" than a thousand years. Maybe it will be five or ten thousand
years.
"Maybe not all will follow it because they know the guidance will be there
"until" the next Revelation, if I'm not wrong after that event, the House
will be fallible. But, as the quote indicates the unity of followers is
assured.">>
"I'm not sure if the Universal House of Justice would maintain its
authority once the next Manifestation appears. When Abdu'l-Baha was
asked about the meaning of "whoso layeth a claim to a revelation
direct from God,' He answered that for the next thousand years no one
should presume to breathe a word against the House of Justice. Might
this open up all kinds of possibilities as to what happens after those
thousand years?">>
The Master promised in His Will that both Manifestations guide the House of
Justice. I don't think the Master is saying that the Manifestations will
stop guiding it in 1000 years. I think this is another way of His saying
that when the new Manifestation comes, He or She will have all power, and
the reference to the thousand years is not to a time, but to an event, the
coming of the new Manifestation, whenever it occurs. The House itself says
in its Constitution that it is the Writings themselves that are guaranteed
authority until the next Manifestation; and by implication, the same is true
of the House.
"The provenance, the authority, the duties, the sphere of action of the
Universal House of Justice all derive from the revealed Word of Bahá'u'lláh
. . . The authority of these Texts is absolute and immutable until such
time as Almighty God shall reveal His new Manifestation to Whom will belong
all authority and power." (The Universal House of Justice, The Constitution
of The Universal House of Justice, p. 4)
The thing is that it is my understanding that the Guardian said that there
will always be a Universal House of Justice. This is not a temporary
measure set up solely during the Dispensation of Baha'u'llah; but rather, a
permanent feature in the world, a permanent part of the "machinery" brought
by Baha'u'llah for the entire future of the world:
"After Bahá'u'lláh many Prophets will, no doubt, appear, but they will be
all under His shadow. Although they may abrogate the laws of the
Dispensation, in accordance with the needs and requirements of the age in
which they appear, they nevertheless draw their spiritual force from this
mighty Revelation. The Faith of Bahá'u'lláh constitutes, indeed, the stage
of maturity in the development of mankind. His appearance has released such
spiritual forces which will continue to animate, for many long years to
come, the world in its development. Whatever progress may be achieved in the
later ages-after the unification of the whole human race is achieved -- will
be but improvements in the machinery of the world. For the machinery itself
has already been created by Bahá'u'lláh. The task of continually improving
and perfecting this machinery is one which later Prophets will be called
upon to achieve. They will move and work within the orbit of Bahá'í cycle."
(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer
dated November 14, 1935; Lights of Guidance, p. 473, #1561; and Directives
from the Guardian, p. 61, #164)
We have seen how the Universal Manifestation treats the laws of former
Dispensations, in the Aqdas. We have not yet seen how manifestations lesser
in rank than a Universal Manifestation, will relate to the laws of a
Universal Manifestation, when They come after Him. Maybe they will treat
Baha'u'llah's laws with a greater degree of deference, than Baha'u'llah
treated the laws of Muhammad and the Bab and the earlier Prophets.
We have also never seen a situation where a Prophet appeared in the world at
a time when an infallibly-guided person or body from the previous
Dispensation was still in the world. So our conjectures that the new
Prophet would appear, and at His or Her appearance the rug is automatically
pulled out from under the House of Justice, which is then blind to the new
Manifestation -- is sheer conjecture based more on doubt than on faith. Is
not the purpose of God to bring all people under the pale of His Faith? Has
God not, for the first time, left the Cause in divinely-guided human hands?
Why do we assume even the possibility that the spirit animating the House
would be cut off?
As I've pointed out before, in the Summons of the Lord of Hosts, Baha'u'llah
states that given ten minutes, He could prove the truth of His Mission to
the Sultan of Turkey:
"There is a matter, which, if thou findest it possible, I request thee to
submit to His Majesty the Sultan, that for ten minutes this Youth be enabled
to meet him, so that he may demand whatsoever he deemeth as a sufficient
testimony and regardeth as proof of the veracity of Him Who is the Truth."
(The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 163)
If the Manifestation can convince so wicked and spiritually blind a man as
the Sultan in ten minutes; surely the next Manifestation will be able to
prove His or Her mission to the House of Justice.
We have no way of knowing the manner in which the next Manifestation will be
announced; how this would be announced to the world, and to the House of
Justice; the length or brevity of the period of Revelation (Ten years? Ten
days?). We are like birds trying to reach for the stars. As I once read,
the Bab, in commenting on the inability of human beings to grasp the ways of
God said that if ants could conceive of God, they would think of Him as
having antennae.
That's what we're doing. Attributing our own spiritual state to the deity
900 years from now.
Brent
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