“When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”
(Deuteronomy 18:22)
The fruit of a prophet is prophecy. If a prophecy comes true, we know that the prophet is a true prophet. Bahá’u’lláh made a number of prophecies which have come true and are coming true. For example, He foretold that the power of His Revelation would impart a new level of capacity to humanity, and would break the stranglehold that the kings and clergy maintained over the people of His time and today. Consider how these prophecies must have sounded to the people of that time, coming as they did from One held captive and defenseless in the worst prison of the Ottoman Empire. And consider how they have nevertheless come true.
Upsurge in Creativity
“Through the mere revelation of the word “Fashioner,” issuing forth from His lips and proclaiming His attribute to mankind, such power is released as can generate, through successive ages, all the manifold arts which the hands of man can produce. This, verily, is a certain truth. No sooner is this resplendent word uttered, than its animating energies, stirring within all created things, give birth to the means and instruments whereby such arts can be produced and perfected. All the wondrous achievements ye now witness are the direct consequences of the Revelation of this Name. In the days to come, ye will, verily, behold things of which ye have never heard before. Thus hath it been decreed in the Tablets of God, and none can comprehend it except them whose sight is sharp.” (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 141-142)
Since the second half of the ninteenth century when these words were revealed, the number of inventions and new technologies has increased astronomically worldwide. Someone transported in time from that era would certainly behold things they could scarely imagine: household electricity, cars, airplanes, telephones, radio, televison, computers and space travel. Things we take for granted today like cell phones and video conferencing were science fiction for our parents and grandparents. And who can imagine even the near future, as nanotechnologies, the Internet of Things, and the mapping of the human genome promise to open still greater avenues of discovery and invention?
Kings Chastised
“Lay not aside the fear of God, O kings of the earth, and beware that ye transgress not the bounds which the Almighty hath fixed….If ye pay no heed unto the counsels which, in peerless and unequivocal language, We have revealed in this Tablet, Divine chastisement shall assail you from every direction, and the sentence of His justice shall be pronounced against you.” (Bahá’u’lláh, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 188-189)
Beginning in September 1867, Bahá’u’lláh wrote letters to the major world leaders of His time, addressing, among others, Napoleon III of France, Czar Alexander II of Russia, Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria, Sulṭán ‘Abdu’l-Azíz of the Ottoman Empire, and Násiri’d-Dín Sháh of Persia. He told these kings and heads of state to stop conducting wars, to reconcile their differences, and to stop oppressing their people.
Except for Queen Victoria, all of these leaders completely ignored the message, and all of their monarchies were lost. The French Monarchy fell in 1870 after Napoleon III was defeated in battle. Sultán ‘Abdu’l-‘Azíz of Turkey was assassinated in 1876, and by 1922 the Ottoman Empire was dissolved. Násiri’d-Dín Sháh of Persia was assassinated in 1896 and the Qájár Dynasty ended in 1925. Czar Alexander II of Russia was assassinated in 1881, and the Russian Monarchy fell in the revolution of 1917. Although Kaiser Wilhelm I survived two assassination attempts, the German Empire was abolished in 1918, as were the Austrian and Hungarian Monarchies in the same year.
Other monarchies abolished as a result of internal or external forces since 1867 include Portugal in 1910, China in 1916, Spain in 1931, Albania in 1938, Serbia in 1941, Italy and Bulgaria in 1946, Romania in 1947, Egypt in 1953, Vietnam in 1954, Tunisia in 1957, ‘Iráq in 1958, Rwanda in 1960, Yemen in 1962, Libya in 1969, Ethiopia and Greece in 1974, Laos in 1975, and Nepal in 2008.
“Throughout history, monarchies have been abolished, either through revolutions, legislative reforms, coups d’état, or wars. The founding of the Roman Republic is a noteworthy example. The twentieth century saw a major acceleration of this process, with many monarchies violently overthrown by revolution or war, or else abolished as part of the process of de-colonisation. The twenty-first century has already seen several monarchies abolished, usually by peaceful means in a referendum. By contrast, the restoration of monarchies is rare in modern times, with only two major examples, Spain and Cambodia.” – Wikipedia, “Abolition of monarchy”
Clergy Powerless
“O concourse of divines! Ye shall not henceforward behold yourselves possessed of any power, inasmuch as We have seized it from you, and destined it for such as have believed in God, the One, the All-Powerful, the Almighty, the Unconstrained.” (Bahá’u’lláh, The Proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 80)
In the late 1860s Bahá’u’lláh wrote an epistle to Pope Pius IX in which He called upon him to:
“Leave thou the world behind thee, and turn towards thy Lord, through Whom the whole earth hath been illumined. … Beware lest thou appropriate unto thyself the things of the world and the riches thereof. Leave them unto such as desire them, and cleave unto that which hath been enjoined upon thee by Him Who is the Lord of creation.” (Bahá’u’lláh, The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, p. 54, 61)
“In 1870, after Bahá’u’lláh had revealed His Epistle to Pius IX, King Victor Emmanuel II went to war with the Papal states, and his troops entered Rome and seized it. On the eve of its seizure, the Pope repaired to the Lateran and, despite his age and with his face bathed in tears, ascended on bended knees the Scala Santa. The following morning, as the cannonade began, he ordered the white flag to be hoisted above the dome of St. Peter. Despoiled, he refused to recognize this ‘creation of revolution,’ excommunicated the invaders of his states, denounced Victor Emmanuel as the ‘robber King’ and as ‘forgetful of every religious principle, despising every right, trampling upon every law.’ Rome, ‘the Eternal City, on which rest twenty-five centuries of glory,’ and over which the Popes had ruled in unchallengeable right for ten centuries, finally became the seat of the new kingdom (of Italy), and the scene of that humiliation which Bahá’u’lláh had anticipated and which the Prisoner of the Vatican had imposed upon himself.” (Shoghi Effendi, The Promised Day is Come, p. 54)
In addition to the Pope, Bahá’u’lláh also addressed other clergy in the hierarchy:
“O concourse of archbishops! He Who is the Lord of all men hath appeared. In the plain of guidance He calleth mankind, whilst ye are numbered with the dead! Great is the blessedness of him who is stirred by the Breeze of God, and hath arisen from amongst the dead in this perspicuous Name. … O concourse of of bishops! Ye are the stars of the heaven of My knowledge. My mercy desireth not that ye should fall upon the earth. My justice, however, declareth: ‘This is that which the Son (Jesus) hath decreed.’ And whatsoever hath proceeded out of His blameless, His truth-speaking, trustworthy mouth, can never be altered.” (The Proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 92)
In the past century or so, the world has witnessed an unprecedented loss of power among the clergy. At one time a priest was considered the only means of access to the Divine, and clergymen held tight control over the minds, hearts, and in many cases the wallets of the people. Today that type of control is hard to even imagine. An educated, questioning, and independently-thinking populace no longer blindly follows the assertions and dictates of the clergy. Priests and ministers who try to take advantage of their positions are being called to account for various abuses of power. In traditional strongholds of Christianity, more and more young people are questioning outdated dogmas and traditions, making it increasingly difficult to find anyone willing to take on a clerical role.
All of the above trends, the vast expansion of human creativity and technology, the downfall of tyrannical kings and rulers, and the loss of power among the clergy were foretold by Bahá’u’lláh over a century ago. These trends are part of God’s plan to usher in His Kingdom on earth. The transition from a man-made civilization to a divine civilization was also prophesized by Bahá’u’lláh, and we should expect to see it fulfilled.
“Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead. Verily, thy Lord speaketh the truth, and is the Knower of things unseen.” (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 7)