Thief in the Night or The Strange Case of the Missing Millennium

3. Begotten in Babylon

The prophecies of Islám, among which were references to the return of the Spirit of Jesus the Christ, made mention of Baghdád (ancient Babylon). The Qur’án alluded to that city as the ‘Abode of Peace’ to which God Himself ‘calleth’.¹ To that city, in that same Book, further allusion had been made in the verse:

“For them is a Dwelling of Peace with their Lord … on the Day whereon God shall gather them all together.”²

Isaiah also spoke of Babylon and the last days when the people would be ‘gathered’ together. In successive chapters leading up to his promise for Babylon, Isaiah declares:

1. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.”³

2. “Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel … even I will carry, and will deliver you.”⁴

3. “As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.”⁵

Then Isaiah calls upon them all to hear the words of the one he (God) hath chosen among them in Babylon:

4. “All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The Lord hath loved him:

he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.”¹

5. “I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.”²

6. “Come ye near unto me … the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.”³

7. “Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer … which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldst go.”⁴

Isaiah concludes with the words:

8. “Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob.”⁵

Thus Isaiah, like Micah, prophesied that Israel would be redeemed in Babylon.

Bahá’u’lláh came to Baghdád (Babylon) and there proclaimed his mission to the world. Unwanted, and unwelcome, he did ‘go forth of Babylon’ and did ‘flee from the Chaldeans’ until he reached the Holy Land that became the world centre of his Faith. This, too, had been foretold by Isaiah in these same chapters.

“I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it…and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place my salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.”⁶

However, it was in the Book of Zechariah that I found the most striking evidence of all that the great Redeemer of the last days would come from Babylon.

When Zechariah saw the vision of the one who would say: ‘I am returned to Jerusalem’, he also beheld two olive trees. He asked God to tell him the meaning of the appearance of these two olive trees which appeared in his vision.

“Knowest thou not what these be?’ the Lord asked.

“No, my Lord,’ Zechariah answered.

Then God explained the meaning. Zechariah records it thus:

“Then he answered me and spoke unto me saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel …”¹

In addition to being the name of a rule, this title ‘Zerubbabel’ has a special symbolic significance when we examine its true meaning as given in these verses of Zechariah.

The word Zerubbabel, according to the Oxford University Press red-letter edition of the King James version of the Bible, means ‘Begotten in Babylon’. Other references say that it means ‘Scattered in Babylon’. Cruden, in his Unabridged Concordance, declares it to mean ‘Banished in Babylon’ or ‘Stranger in Babylon’. (‘Born’ in other editions.)

All these descriptions fit Bahá’u’lláh. He was ‘banished’ to Babylon from Persia. He was a ‘stranger’ in that land. There in Babylon, his Faith was ‘begotten’. He was in the end ‘scattered’ with his followers, until he, himself, reached the ancient land of Canaan promised by God to Abraham as an inheritance in the last days.

The Faith of Abraham and the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh were both ‘begotten’ in Babylon. The Holy Spirit descended upon each of them in Babylon, and they poured forth the light from their houses of truth in that ancient land. This, too, was foreseen and foretold by Zechariah in his vision:

“Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel (Begotten in Babylon) have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also finish it; and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you.”²

The Word of God, Abraham, laid the foundation of the house

of Israel in Babylon. The Word of God, Bahá’u’lláh finished it, and brought it to fulfilment. Both were ‘begotten in Babylon’. Thus, it was to them, Zerubbabel, that Zechariah directed the message of God:

“This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel (Begotten in Babylon) saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”¹

Lest there be any mistake, Zechariah asked God once more concerning the meaning of the two olive trees. The Lord answered him saying:

“These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”²

These two olive trees were Abraham who began the concept of the oneness of God in Babylon, and Bahá’u’lláh who brought the concept of the oneness of God and religion to its fulfilment in Babylon. In yet another way, these two olive trees were the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, who in the last days ‘stand by the Lord of the whole earth’.

I also discovered that the meaning of the word Baghdád, the city in which Bahá’u’lláh declared his Mission, is: ‘The City of God’.

Again, Bahá’u’lláh had fulfilled the promises of the sacred Scripture. He had kept the prophecies of Micah, Isaiah, Zechariah, and those of Islám and India, which foretold that the Messiah would come to the land of Babylon, withdraw into the wilderness, then, from that land of ancient mystery, proclaim his mission to the whole world.

I marked the second proof: Fulfilled.