Saturday, September 15, 2007

The Guardian was not a prophet

Several of the American pilgrims during the 1950s reported conversations with Shoghi Effendi in which he predicted the vaporization of certain major cities in the USA. Have Baha'is considered that perhaps the Guardian believed that this was a distinct possibility, and wanted to warn the believers ahead of time to leave these big cities and pioneer? During this same time, wasn't he urging for the decentralization of the community? If he believed that this was a real possibility, then he was in good company. Alot of people, including top advisers to several US Presidents believed that nuclear war was very likely to occur. Long after the Guardian had passed on, US Presidents brought into existence the ICBMs and President Reagan tried to get his Star Wars program enacted and funded and built to protect US cities from the very kind of disaster that the Guardian predicted. Well, if that was their expectation, then they were all wrong. Why would this cause a crisis of faith for a Baha'i? Shoghi Effendi was not a prophet of God, was not endowed with the prophetic powers of the Manifestation of God. If he warned us about something that failed to happen we should be happy rather than sad! Imagine if his prediction had come true, and millions of people had been vaporized...I thank God the predictions did not come true! I am not disappointed, I am heartened that the worse case scenario did not come to pass.

4 comments:

Husayn Villar said...

Dear Peter,
Aun cuando hay varias fuentes para esta Pilgrim's Note, pienso que es posible que los sentimientos apocalípticos (tan comunes en esa época, en especial entre personas religiosas) pueden quizás haber alterado ligeramente su percepción de lo que el Guardián dijo.
Es posible que Shoghi Effendi haya hablado de la "vaporization" como una posibilidad, y no como un hecho profético.
Igual que tú, agradezco a Dios que el mundo no haya experimentado un cataclismo nuclear.
P.D. excuse me por escribir en español, tú sabes que mi inglés es un poco pobre.

Peter Terry said...

Dear Husayn,
You say that the Guardian might have been influenced in expressing such views by the apocalyptic intuitions of people in the 1950s. And that he might have suggested that the cities might be vaporized rather than predicted that they would disappear. Let us consider both possibilities dispassionately. Was the Guardian influenced by what other people thought in other regards? My impression is that he was a very independent soul, and that he was very unlikely to have been influenced by the fear of nuclear war which undoubtedly gripped many people during those years. If the Guardian had suggested vaporization as an option, a possibility and not an inevitability, wouldn't at least one of the pilgrims who heard him speak of the topic have reported this?
There is another possibility, which has come to mind today as fires rage in southern California, consuming many hundreds of homes, that the vaporization of cities foreseen by the Guardian may not have occurred when he thought it would occur, but that it will occur at some time in the future. Excuse me for not replying in Spanish...
Best wishes, Peter

Husayn Villar said...

Dear Peter,
Hace algunos años oí (probablemente una Pilgrim's Note) que 'Abdu'l Bahá dijo, en New York: "Aquí no quedará piedra sobre piedra" (es una expresión bíblica).
Pienso que esto (si es que fue realmente dicho por 'Abdu'l Bahá) podría tener un significado espiritual, i.e., podría referirse a la corrupción y decadencia espiritual, y no a la destrucción material de la ciudad.
Si aplico esta interpretación personal a las palabras del Guardián, podría concluir de la misma manera.
¿Es posible que el Guardián estuviese insinuando la degradación moral de los grandes centros urbanos de USA?
warmest, Husa

Anonymous said...

Dear Peter,
Despues que Bahá'u'lláh se fue de este mundo, para dirigirlo desde el reino de Abha, nadie sabe lo que va a pasar. Es posible que almas muy puras tengan contacto con él y por esta manera se den cuenta de cosas que van a pasar. Independiente de todo, hay que ver que Shoghi Effendi murio despues de114 años (114 son los Sura del Coran), de la declaracion del Bab y que la Fé estuvo en constante progreso por las cuatros figuras principales: El Báb, Bahá'u'lláh, Abdul'-bahá y Shoghi Effendi. Despues de Shoghi Effendi, la direccion de la Fé es colectiva. Y esto lo considero es un misterio.
Si Shoghi Effendi hablo de la desaparicion de ciudades en USA, no me sorprende. Porque en la actualidad las catastrofes naturales, como tyfones, tornados.. y otros, han hecho desaparecer ciudades cosa que no ha pasado en otros pueblos del mundo con la magnitud de lo que ocurre en USA. Y esto no ocurrio cuando Shoghi Effendi vivia. Tambien esto lo considero es un misterio y una señal de que tenemos que aumentar nuestros esfuerzos en la enseñanza y estar preparado por cualquier eventualidad que ocurra, como medio de purificacion divina de una humanidad descarriada.
"Un Bahá´í latinoamericano"