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

4. Terror in the sky

“Know ye that the world and its vanities and its embellishments shall pass away. Nothing will endure except God’s Kingdom … The days of your life shall roll away, and all the things with which ye are occupied and of which ye boast yourselves shall perish, and ye shall, most certainly, be summoned … to appear at the spot where the limbs of the entire creation shall be made to tremble, and the flesh of every oppressor to creep. … Ye shall be … repaid for your doings. This is the day that shall inevitably come upon you, the hour that none can put back.”²

The world must unite or perish, Bahá’u’lláh declares. It is already one in spirit, although it is blind to this truth. It must become united both inwardly and outwardly. It must have a world conscience and live according to that conscience. The discoveries in medicine and other sciences, made by men and women of all races, are for all members of the human race. From the moment we are born until the hour we die, we are surrounded by the fruit of the spirits of men who never thought in terms of flags or boundaries or special prayer books or pigmentation of skin. These men never served a lesser loyalty than the welfare of mankind.

The Bahá’í Teachings state:

“We belong to an organic unit and when one part of the organism suffers all the rest of the body will feel its consequence. This is in fact the reason why Bahá’u’lláh calls our attention to the unity of

mankind.”¹

Nearly one hundred years ago, Bahá’u’lláh wrote:

“This handful of dust, the world, is one home; let it be in unity.”²

“Address yourselves to the promotion of the well-being and tranquillity of the children of men. Bend your minds and wills to the education of the peoples and kindreds of the earth, that haply the dissensions that divide it may … be blotted out from its face … Ye dwell in one world, and have been created through the operation of one Will. Blessed is he who mingleth with all men in a spirit of utmost kindliness and love.”³

Any plan that ignores Almighty God has no future, however powerful its immediate present may appear. Any plan that does not include all nations, colours, classes and faiths has failed before it begins. The same night darkens and cools all men, and the same sun lights and heats their lives. Even this devastating power of destruction imprisoned so long in the atom and now released, this power which the world holds so much in awe, did not come about through the efforts of any one group. It was not the fruit of the labours of any one nation, race, religion or class. For example, among some of its perfectors are the following:

1. Dimitri Mendelief, a Russian, discovered the periodic law of elements.

2. Sir George Thomson, an Englishman, developed the electron theory.

3. The theory of relativity came from a German, Albert Einstein.

4. The radio-activity of radium was discovered by Mme. Marie Curie, a Pole.

6. Enrico Fermi, an Italian, accomplished the first transmutation of uranium.

7. The mesotron theory was first developed by Hideki Yukawa, a Japanese.

8. Barium was first derived from uranium by Otto Hahn, a German.

9. The atomic structure was analysed by Niels Bohr, a Dane.

10. Carl Anderson of the United States discovered the positron.

11. Sir James Chadwick of Great Britain discovered the neutron.

12. Miss Lise Meitner of Austria predicted that bombarding uranium with neutrons would result in nuclear fission and the possibility of a nuclear chain-reaction.

And so on, and on, and on: right down to Los Alamos, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Bikini, Siberia, Sputnik, Vanguard, Jupiter, rockets to the moon, rockets circling the sun—and ad infinitum. No one mind, no individual man, no single nation, nor particular people brought this power into a reality. But it now exists!

Science has become a warm putty that we can shape with our fingers into any form we choose: an article of beauty or an instrument of death.

Where can we flee to safety? Either we turn back to God and become spiritual and moral in our motives, either our hearts catch up with our heads, or we shall all be engulfed in a disaster. It is not sufficient for a few individuals to recognize this truth, the mass of humanity must respond. Otherwise: total eclipse.

It was not a clergyman, nor a statesman, nor an educator, but the victorious general, Douglas MacArthur, who warned the world in a broadcast from the deck of the battleship Missouri, following the last war: “We have had our last chance. The only thing that can save humanity now is a spiritual resurgence.”

Wherever there are television sets, cinema screens, or radios, humanity has looked upon and heard the dreadful sight and sound of that ‘mushroom’ cloud, which a picturesque press has labelled: The Toadstool of Terror. There is no place on earth where you can rest at ease, without knowing that suddenly, even now as you read this, a guided missile may be on the way to turn all your hopes to ashes in one fiery blast.

As far back as the spring of 1954, an H-bomb was dropped in Namu, Bikini Atoll. It is already totally obsolete. Yet, is it possible to imagine man, a creation of God, not being satisfied with the following statistics of destruction:

1. That one bomb represented the equivalent of 12 to 14 million tons of TNT.

2. One such bomb is equal to all the bombs dropped by all the nations in the last Great War.

3. The resultant explosion rose to a height of 100,000 ft—nearly 20 miles.

4. Its cloud of poison spread over 100 miles in radius.

5. Strategically dropped, it could destroy immediately 35 million people, or twice the number of people slain in both of the last great world wars.

That bomb is now outdated. Something more lethal may soon be speeding on its way by jet-propelled long-range bombers, or on the wings of inter-continental missiles and rockets. Like ‘fingers of death’ they sit silent on their launching pads. Who knows what city-labels they carry, or toward whose homeland they are pointed, or whose mistake or fear may trigger their firing? No one will have the time to ask himself later: Are these not the days promised in the Bible when ‘He shall come like a thief in the night’ and the ‘fire will rain down from heaven’?

Even before the year 1844, a poet wrote:

‘The time will come when thou shalt lift thine eyes

The ‘birds’ have come before, striking with terror, darkening the cities, loosing the shriek of the sirens, driving the people like ants into the bowels of the earth. This time there is no hiding place. Never before have the flying birds come to pour out that destruction foretold by Christ and Zechariah when two would be taken and one would remain.

Nearly a century ago the famous Hebrew scholar, Albert Barnes, maintained that the most exact and proper translation of the prophecy in Daniel IX:27 about the dreadful ‘last days’ is this:

“Something resembling the wings of a bird spread out, pouring down desolation upon the people in the manner of a storm.”

Are these metal-eggs the ‘hailstones’ promised in yet another Book of the Scriptures?

Are the radar instruments in your home town already seeking out the coming of the shadow of the bird upon its screens? Are the sonar instruments listening for the sound of the rustle of its wings?

The late Albert Einstein, in a television interview in 1950, warned the world in these words: “The hysterical race between the United States and Russia to unfold the secret of the H-bomb could bring about the destruction of the world as we know it. It could result in the poisoning of the atmosphere of the earth.”

These words were but an echo of those spoken by Bahá’u’lláh Himself nearly a century before:

“A strange and wonderful instrument [force] exists in the

earth. It … has the power to change the atmosphere … and its infection causes destruction.”¹

In 1912 when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of Bahá’u’lláh, was in Paris on His journey to the West to awaken the world to His Father’s message, to try and bring mankind to its senses, he spoke of this statement of Bahá’u’lláh’s. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá later made it clear that this power would not be exercised in the Great War of 1914–1918. He prophesied that this First World War would not be the last war, but that unhappily a greater and more terrible conflict would break out. Mankind, He said, was still motivated by hate and not by love. It still had refused to heed the counsels of Bahá’u’lláh, counsels that were its only safeguard.

In 1912 He repeated the words of Bahá’u’lláh:

“There is in existence a stupendous force, as yet, happily, undiscovered by man. Let us supplicate God, the Beloved, that this force be not discovered by science until spiritual civilization shall dominate the human mind. In the hands of men of lower material nature, this power would be able to destroy the whole earth.”²

These last words were also a quotation from Bahá’u’lláh, Himself, Who had warned humanity in His Writings:

“If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation. … The day is approaching when its flame will devour the cities …”³

Was it an ironic coincidence, or was it a warning from God, that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke these words concerning the ‘force that could poison the atmosphere’ to Viscount Arawaka, an Ambassador from Japan, a man from the very country where the first atomic bomb was to be exploded, in that ‘greater and mote terrible war to come!’

The Second War is past. Will mankind en masse turn to God and avert a third? The summit conferences proceed slowly while the missile parts roll rapidly off assembly lines. For every rocket that goes into space for research, a dozen fall with temporarily empty nose cones on predetermined targets. Can the meaning of the words ‘He [Christ] shall come like a thief in the night’ be misunderstood any longer? Can the words of John the Baptist, in their social sense, ‘Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand’ be any longer neglected? Are there no ‘eyes to see’ and ‘ears to hear’?

Isaiah prophesies that:

“… it shall come to pass in that [last] day, that the Lord shall punish the hosts of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.”¹

“… therefore shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt.”²

It is no longer for a far distant time. It is upon us. Isaiah says:

“Therefore, I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place … and the foundations of the earth do shake … the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left … the earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard …”³

It is not an attractive alternative. Atomic power can illuminate a city or evaporate it. It depends upon the moral conscience that motivates its use.

5. The hour hath come

For over one hundred years mankind has ignored the message of Bahá’u’lláh. Man has made no effort to investigate

His Teachings, in spite of the promises in all the Holy Books from the beginning of time concerning the day of His coming; in spite of Jesus Christ’s explicit warning: “Watch! For ye know not what hour your Lord doth come!”

Bahá’u’lláh wrote these words to the entire company of the monarchs of East and West:

“Examine Our Cause, inquire into the things that have befallen Us, and decide justly between Us and Our enemies, …”¹

“Your people are your treasures. Beware lest your rule violate the commandments of God, and ye deliver your wards to the hands of the robber. By them ye rule, by their means ye subsist, by their aid ye conquer. Yet, how disdainfully ye look upon them! How strange, how very strange!”²

When Bahá’u’lláh was cast into the Most Great Prison at ‘Akká, He warned the king who had thus sentenced Him that such persecutions could never silence Him. He was merely uttering the words that Almighty God had instructed Him to speak, in the hope that perhaps one sovereign, one ruler, one nation, one people might arise to defend and spread the Word of God amongst men, so that the sufferings of man might come to an end.

Bahá’u’lláh’s letters to the rulers of the world were emphatic and clear. He told them that unless the bonds of affection and unity among all men were increased, unless the nations united in loving co-operation to bring peace to the world, unless the rights of all men and especially the poor and lowly were secured and safeguarded, unless all men and especially the leaders lived their lives according to what would be pleasing to God rather than what would be pleasing to themselves and other men, their kingdoms, their possessions, their privileges, their pleasures would all be taken from them by the

Lord of the Vineyard (the Messiah) who would then give the vineyard (earth) out to those worthy souls among the elect who would be left after the great affliction which mankind would have brought upon itself.

“It is not Our wish to lay hands on your kingdoms. Our mission is to seize and possess the hearts of men.”¹

“How great the blessedness that awaiteth the king who will arise to aid My Cause …”²

Bahá’u’lláh waited patiently for some sign that the world had heard His voice. At last, He broke His silence:

“Twenty years have passed, O kings, during which We have, each day, tasted the agony of a fresh tribulation. … ye, nevertheless, have failed to stay the hand of the aggressor. For is it not your clear duty to restrain the tyranny of the oppressor, and to deal equitably with your subjects, that your high sense of justice may be fully demonstrated to all mankind?”³

In yet another place, He warned them:

“Withdraw your hands from tyranny, for I have pledged Myself not to forgive any man’s injustice.”⁴

Again recognizing the shortness of the time, He entreated the rulers:

“Arise thou amongst men … and summon, then, the nations unto God …”⁵

The dominion of the earth belongs to God, Bahá’u’lláh told them, and the kings are but the custodians thereof. The hearts of the people, He said, are jewels. Be faithful to the trust of God and do not permit the thieves and the ungodly to steal away the treasures from their rightful owner, God.

In His great love for the underprivileged, Bahá’u’lláh had tried to impress upon their leaders the need to become the example and to show the way. Now that the rulers had refused

to heed His summons, Bahá’u’lláh turned with that same great compassion to the simple and lowly. He told them that unless they turned their hearts to God, they too would find themselves involved in increasing difficulties and problems. The material civilization that they so highly prized would be turned against them. Instead of a blessing, it would become a scourge. It would fashion instruments of warfare that would batter humanity to its knees. This, in turn, would purify them so that their hearts might become more receptive to the message of God.

It was a God of love and not a God of fear that bade Him speak out this way, Bahá’u’lláh informed them. It was not Almighty God Who would inflict this disaster upon mankind, but man himself. Man would make it inevitable by his neglect of the laws of God. Humanity could choose the easy way or the hard way. The choice was man’s. God’s Kingdom on earth could be hastened or delayed depending upon man’s response, but it could not be prevented. It would be established sooner or later. If not by the present people of earth, then by those who survived another man-imposed disaster.

Bahá’u’lláh was greatly saddened when the kings and rulers of the earth failed to respond to His message. He knew only too well the sorrow it would bring upon the world.

“Witness how the world is being afflicted with a fresh calamity every day. Its tribulation is continually deepening. From the moment the Suriy-i-Ra’ís (Tablet to the Chieftain) was revealed until the present day, neither hath the world been tranquillized, nor have the hearts of its peoples been at rest. At one time it hath been agitated by contentions and disputes, at another it hath been convulsed by wars, and fallen a victim to inveterate diseases. Its sickness is approaching the stage of utter hopelessness, inasmuch as the true Physician is debarred from administering the remedy,

whilst unskilled practitioners are regarded with favour, and are accorded full freedom to act. … Erelong, they will perceive the consequences of what their hands have wrought in the Day of God. Thus warneth you He Who is the All-Informed, as bidden by … the Almighty.”¹

Until the present day mankind has not heeded the warning.

Directory: docs
docs -> Application for acem
docs -> Observational Assessment of Teaching Practices Teaching Assessment Initiative Proposal Submitted to The Teachers for a New Era project
docs -> Traditional British values
docs -> From Warfighters to Crimefighters: The Origins of Domestic Police Militarization
docs -> Borzoi Club of America Register of Merit Program I. What is a Register Of Merit
docs -> Protecting the rights of the child in the context of migration
docs -> United Nations E/C. 12/Esp/5
docs -> 9th May 1950 the schuman declaration
docs -> Getting To Outcomes® in Services for Homeless Veterans 10 Steps for Achieving Accountability

Download 1.25 Mb.

Share with your friends: