Besides World Tribunal, Guardian Writings refer to World Parliament too. Dear Firouz,
This is the explanation which the House gives in its letter of April 27, 1995: "The Administrative Order is certainly the nucleus and pattern of the World Order of Bah�'u'll�h, but it is in embryonic form, and must undergo major evolutionary developments in the course of time. Certain passages in the writings on this subject establish matters of principle, certain ones describe the ultimate goal of the Most Great Peace, and certain of them relate to stages of development on the way to the attainment of that goal. For example, in this familiar passage in His Will and Testament, `Abdu'l-Bah� states: "This House of Justice enacteth the laws and the government enforceth them. The legislative body must reinforce the executive, the executive must aid and assist the legislative body so that through the close union and harmony of these two forces, the foundation of fairness and justice may become firm and strong, that all the regions of the world may become even as Paradise itself." In response to a question about the "government" in the above passage, Shoghi Effendi's secretary wrote on his behalf, on 18 April 1941, the following clarification: "By "Government" ... is meant the executive body which will enforce the laws when the Bah�'� Faith has reached the point when it is recognized and accepted entirely by any particular nation." The same relationship between legislature and executive is expressed in the well-known passage in "the Unfoldment of World civilization", showing how one principle is applied over successive periods. "A world executive, backed by an international force, will carry out the decisions arrived at, and apply the laws enacted by, this world legislature, and will safeguard the organic unity of the whole commonwealth." http://bahai-library.com/?file=uhj_theocracy.html Here is from the World Order of Baha'u'llah: "Such a state will have to include within its orbit an international executive adequate to enforce supreme and unchallengeable authority on every recalcitrant member of the commonwealth; a world parliament whose members shall be elected by the people in their respective countries and whose election shall be 41 confirmed by their respective governments; and a supreme tribunal whose judgment will have a binding effect even in such cases where the parties concerned did not voluntarily agree to submit their case to its consideration." "Does Abdu'l-Baha or Guardian have prophecy power? Are they prophets? For example, the Lesser Peace happening in 20th century did not come true. Now I hear that Lesser Peace is a process and it started in last century, but I don't think so." I don't honestly know whether the Guardian and Abdu'l-Baha had prophetic powers or not. I think the station of Abdu'l-Baha was likely greater than that of the Lesser Prophets of the Old Testament and the Guardian's station may well have been the equivalent. However, I don't think of prophecy as fortune-telling whether it relates to a Manifestation or a holy being of a lesser station. The purpose of prophecy is to state where we are headed in the present. I don't think it means that accidents can't happen to change what is foretold. For instance, one of the reasons we know prophecies containd in the second part of the book of Isaiah were made prior to Cyrus' invasion of Babylon and not after the fact, is because the writer or Deutero-Isaiah predicted that Cyrus would destroy the Temple of the Babylonian gods and rob it of its treasures as had been done to the Jewish Temple. It turned out that Cyrus conquered Babylon with the coperation of the Babylonian priesthood and claimed to be acting at the behest of their own gods. The temple was left untouched. "Don't you think that some of the Guardian's prophecies about the future and about the future world order might not occur as expected." Yes, I think that is quite possible. I think it is even probable that we won't see the Most Great Peace in this dispensation. But I don't think that changes the vision that the Writings have of what ought to be. "What I am trying to say here we really don't know the nature of the future world government. So better for us not to advocate something that we don't know about." You are talking about two different things here. Yes, we cannot know ultimately what will be. But I think the Writings do indicate what we should be advocating, in other words, what ought to be. "Already many foes are accusing Baha'is of taking over the world government which to my opinion is not true." Not in the sense they mean, no. warmest, Susan __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
