THE END OF THE WORLD HAS ALREADY HAPPENED PART TWO

THE BAHAIS

Let’s play with the idea that all the end bits of the Bible have already happened. The last battle, the last judgment, the return of Christ (called the perousia). All over. This is the new world, the lamb is lying down with the lion, and so on. The Cosmic War is over.

Possibly this happened in 70 CE.

Possibly it happened, but it wasn’t a temporal event, in the material world, in history. It was a spiritual event of fulfilment of the word of God, and we missed it. It would be easy to miss, if you weren’t spiritually attuned.

This is not the denial of prophecy. All the prophecies were true; they have just already happened. There is a type of Christian theology called pretorism, which claims exactly this. It has had its moments, over time, especially for Roman Catholics. So if we are pretorists, how do we remain good and faithful Christians, if we are not expecting the end of days? We are just building God’s kingdom, here on earth, for ever.

Another whole religion has a pretoristic bent. Its followers believe the prophecies of all the previous religions were true, but all of them had their fulfilment in the coming of their founder. The world has ended; Christ has returned. There is no more Cosmic War. This is a new world. These are the Baha’is.

Kia ora tatou and welcome to Ending the Cosmic War, with me, Karen Effie.

I will begin with a quote from Baha’u’llah, the founder and prophet of the Baha’i Faith. It is long, but it gives you an idea of how Baha’is feel about this topic. It also gives you the language of the Baha’i writings and hints at the roots of the faith in Shi’ite Islam.

`Have the verses been sent down?' Say: `Yea, by Him Who is the Lord of the heavens!' `Hath the Hour come?' `Nay, more; it hath passed, by Him Who is the Revealer of clear tokens! Verily, the Inevitable is come, and He, the True One, hath appeared with proof and testimony. The Plain is disclosed, and mankind is sore vexed and fearful. Earthquakes have broken loose, and the tribes have lamented, for fear of God, the Lord of Strength, the All-Compelling.' Say: `The stunning trumpet blast hath been loudly raised, and the Day is God's, the One, the Unconstrained.' `Hath the Catastrophe come to pass?' Say: `Yea, by the Lord of Lords!' `Is the Resurrection come?' `Nay, more; He Who is the Self-Subsisting hath appeared with the Kingdom of His signs.' `Seest thou men laid low?' `Yea, by my Lord, the Exalted, the Most High!' `Have the tree-stumps been uprooted?' `Yea, more; the mountains have been scattered in dust; by Him the Lord of attributes!' They say: `Where is Paradise, and where is Hell?' Say: `The one is reunion with Me; the other thine own self, O thou who dost associate a partner with God and doubtest.' They say: `We see not the Balance.' Say: `Surely, by my Lord, the God of Mercy! None can see it except such as are endued with insight.' `Have the stars fallen?' Say: `Yea, when He Who is the Self-Subsisting dwelt in the Land of Mystery (Adrianople). Take heed, ye who are endued with discernment!' All the signs appeared when We drew forth the Hand of Power from the bosom of majesty and might. Verily, the Crier hath cried out, when the promised time came, and they that have recognized the splendors of Sinai have swooned away in the wilderness of hesitation, before the awful majesty of thy Lord, the Lord of creation. The trumpet asketh: `Hath the Bugle been sounded?' Say: `Yea, by the King of Revelation!, when He mounted the throne of His Name, the All-Merciful.' Darkness hath been chased away by the dawning-light of the mercy of thy Lord, the Source of all light. The breeze of the All-Merciful hath wafted, and the souls have been quickened in the tombs of their bodies. Thus hath the decree been fulfilled by God, the Mighty, the Beneficent. They that have gone astray have said: `When were the heavens cleft asunder?' Say: `While ye lay in the graves of waywardness and error.' Among the heedless is he who rubbeth his eyes, and looketh to the right and to the left. Say: `Blinded art thou. No refuge hast thou to flee to.' And among them is he who saith: `Have men been gathered together?' Say: `Yea, by my Lord!, whilst thou didst lie in the cradle of idle fancies.' And among them is he who saith: `Hath the Book been sent down through the power of the true Faith?' Say: `The true Faith itself is astounded. Fear ye, O ye men of understanding heart!' And among them is he who saith: `Have I been assembled with others, blind?' Say: `Yea, by Him that rideth upon the clouds!' Paradise is decked with mystic roses, and hell hath been made to blaze with the fire of the impious. Say: `The light hath shone forth from the horizon of Revelation, and the whole earth hath been illumined at the coming of Him Who is the Lord of the Day of the Covenant!' The doubters have perished, whilst he that turned, guided by the light of assurance, unto the Dayspring of Certitude hath prospered. Blessed art thou, who hast fixed thy gaze upon Me, for this Tablet which hath been sent down for thee--a Tablet which causeth the souls of men to soar. Commit it to memory, and recite it. By My life! It is a door to the mercy of thy Lord. Well is it with him that reciteth it at eventide and at dawn. We, verily, hear thy praise of this Cause, through which the mountain of knowledge was crushed, and men's feet have slipped. My glory be upon thee and upon whomsoever hath turned unto the Almighty, the All-Bounteous. The Tablet is ended, but the theme is unexhausted. Be patient, for thy Lord is patient."

I hope you indulged me there. I know that was way too long, and you probably skipped much of it, but it is gorgeous stuff and so rich in imagery. Full disclosure: I was very involved with the Baha’i Faith for about fifteen years, in much younger days, and I still have some affection for it. So this was the sort of language I was steeped in, and it still resonates with me today. Now, here is the important bit, Baha’is don’t do the Cosmic War. Here is a whole world religion that does not have the Cosmic War.

They sort of did at the start, at least they began as a dynamic movement steeped in millennialism. Firstly, it helps to know about the Shi’ite branch of Islam, which has tended to be more mystical, more passionate, more spiritually experimental, and more millennialist than the majority Sunni branch. Shi’itism developed out of a succession crisis. Shi’ites supported ‘Ali, the nephew of the Prophet Muhammad, to be the leader of the spiritual community, and the lineage of ‘Ali and his wife Fatimih. These leaders were called Imams. They were political leaders, but they were also considered to be spiritual and esoteric leaders. For most Shi’ites, called Twelvers, there were twelve Imams. The last Imam, the Imam Mahdi, was occulted, alive but hidden, and would appear shortly before the last judgment, to fight the Muslim version of Antichrist and usher in a new age. By the nineteenth century, Persian mystical thinkers were awaiting the Mahdi as they sought relief from the corrupt Qajar regime.

Relief came in the form of the Bab, which means gate. In 1844 young ‘Ali Muhammad declared himself to be the Gate to the Twelfth Imam, and he began to develop a rapidly evolving theology, emphasising the single unknowable essence of God, who sends manifestations of God to humanity in an evolving universal faith. The Bab eventually declared himself to be one of these manifestations of God, and also the Mahdi, but he also prophesied a greater one who would come soon. At that point, the old world would end. The new manifestation of God would usher in a whole new world. The Bab went further than other heterodox Shi’ite schools; he promulgated new teachings and broke away from Islam altogether in the end. His teachings were mystical, millennialist, and socially liberal. Many Persians became followers of the Bab, and persecution followed. The massacres of Babis caught the attention of European orientalists. It was a captivating story, but it was also bloody and divisive. The Bab was killed by firing squad in 1850. That story is worth reading about. It certainly did not stop there.

Mirza Husayn ‘Ali, one of the Bab’s most outspoken disciples, declared himself to be the one the Bab foretold. He took the name Baha’u’llah, the glory of God. This was it, the old world had ended, and the new world had begun, like an old carpet being rolled up and a new one spread out in its stead. No Armageddon, no final battle, no apocalypse. The Cosmic War had ended. There was no Satan, no spiritual battle between absolute good and absolute evil, and no hell. All that was for a previous era, when humanity was less developed. Now, humanity was ready for a leap in spiritual understanding.

The authorities disagreed, and Baha’is were persecuted all over again. Baha’u’llah himself was imprisoned, banished, and ended up in Haifa in Israel. It is hard to express how spiritually charged this period of time was, for a small, persecuted community. But the Baha’is spread throughout the world, and the community grew, and now it is a proper world religion, although relatively small in number.

Here is what Baha’is believe, with regard to the ideas behind the Cosmic War. Firstly, we are not looking for the end of the world, because it has already happened. We are here to worship God and carry forward an ever-advancing civilization, guided by Baha’u’llah’s teachings and the rich spiritual history we have inherited through all the previous religions. All religions are from God, in an endless line of Manifestations, great prophet-founders who have revealed to humankind teachings progressively over time. Islamophobia and antisemitism just make no sense to Baha’is, as both Islam and Judaism are divinely revealed religions. The Baha’i teaching emphasise the oneness of humanity, that we are all one people and we need to unite to solve our problems. Baha’is have a fairly weak concept of evil, believing Satan is the evil whisperer who whispers in our breasts – our bad thoughts, personified, not a real being at all. Evil is what human people think and do; Baha’is have a negative perception of evil along the lines of Augustine: evil is what you do when you are lazy or ignorant or uncaring and goodness is a positive thing, taking effort and understanding. There is no heaven or hell, except that heaven is being close to God and hell is being far away from God. When we die, we all go to a wonderful place, so wonderful we cannot perceive it in this life. If we have done a lot of wrong, and failed to acquire virtues, we will perceive it only dimly when we get there, while if we have lived a good and virtuous life, we will perceive it more fully and rejoice more in being closer to God. We all get there in the end. Being a Baha’i does not automatically make a person close to God; Baha’is are not “saved” as such. Baha’is have a peaceful reputation; they are not interested in holy wars or any wars for that matter.

The Baha’i Faith is monotheistic, owing much to the Islam it arose from. There is only one God, who is both immanent and transcendent. There is no divine council, or other deities as there are in the Hebrew Bible. Humans, as created beings, are contingent on God’s will and cannot approach God directly. They require the Manifestations of God, prophets such as Muhammad or Gautama Buddha, to impart teachings directly revealed to them. But there is also a mystical streak in the Baha’i writings: Baha’u’llah’s revelation in the depths of Qajar Persia’s worst prison echoes the Merkhabah mysticism of the Hebrew prophets, and he uses Sufi language and ideas to speak of spiritual mysteries.

In my second entry here, I talked about Zoroastrianism and the deep history of the Cosmic War. https://www.kareneffie.com/p/ending-the-cosmic-war?r=7g32w Zarathustra edged his way towards monotheism, with the good God Ahura Mazda in a Cosmic War with the bad God Angra Mainyu. It has seemed like the more monotheistic a religion became, the more the Cosmic War was emphasised. Christianity is the apotheosis of this. The Cosmic War is baked into Christianity, even in the Gospels, much as I would like to avoid it. But here we have a properly monotheistic religion with no Cosmic War. Why? Because the Cosmic War was a thing of an earlier dispensation. It was spiritually useful then, but it is over now. Now that the old world has ended, we know better.

If you got through that long read, thank you. You can see hopefully how my ideas about the Cosmic War are interwoven. Ma te wa!

Further: The best introductory book about the Baha’i Faith is still Peter Smith: Smith, Peter (1987). The Bábí and Baháʼí Religions: From Messianic Shiʻism to a World Religion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-30128-9. I have read several introductory works, and they are all a bit bland by comparison. Smith has some ideas and sets them out clearly, and he does not shy away from the Babi millennial impulse.

Many of the Baha’i writings are in the public domain and available on the official website. Some of the more mystical writings are translated only unofficially, and are available here: https://alisonelizabethmarshall.com/windflower-translations-library/

The photo is of the prison at Akka in Israel, where Baha’u’llah was imprisoned. Courtesy of the Baha’i Media Bank where I can download photos provided they are not for commercial use.