End of History

The Great Being's Peace; the End of History

By John Taylor; 2006 October 30

The principle of the Oneness of God has peace as its ultimate goal, for God has called himself the "Giver of Peace" (Q59:23). The highest and ultimate aim then must be to live in a peace confederacy, a constitutional polity of permanent peace. Our Great Being statement from the Lawh-i-Maqsud establishing this principle begins like this:

"The Great Being, wishing to reveal the prerequisites of the peace and tranquillity of the world and the advancement of its peoples, hath written: The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized." (Tablets, 165)

The Great Being stipulates that this peace initiative begin with reconciliation among our leaders, and that it end in a constitutional conference establishing permanent peace. He prophesies that this huge conference of the human race will result from a sea change in public opinion. Surely only a severe crisis could force such unanimity upon the world's contending nations. The assemblage is "all-embracing," meaning a broadening of democracy, a wide degree of participation that would have been impossible before the invention of mass media and the Internet. Everybody would perceive a profound truth: personal happiness is impossible without peace, personal peace comes only of peace in the center of the body politic.

"He hath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me." (Ps 55:18, KJV)

In the sentences following what I cited above, the Great Being continues to draw a succinct outline of each step to peace. He describes how to create an amicable atmosphere among leaders and representatives, and how they then should carry out their moral obligation to formalize their marriage in a world constitution ending all forms of aggression and military adventurism, including terrorism. The mere act of taking up arms, of preparing to aggress against a neighboring country, will ever after provoke an immediate declaration of war by all other countries against that one misguided leader. This is total, absolute disarmament. In such an order a leader who even hints at tyranny will shock his own people, and all responsible world citizens. As a result all of the fellowship among leaders will aim at avoiding estrangement before it can catch root. Baha'u'llah concludes:

"We fain would hope that the kings and rulers of the earth, the mirrors of the gracious and almighty name of God, may attain unto this station, and shield mankind from the onslaught of tyranny." (Tablets, 165)

While such a measure seems merely pragmatic, inwardly it is much more. It is a solid heart, a burning sun from which the vision of God will be witnessed by all. The gathering will constitute nothing less than THE watershed event in the long political evolution of the human race. In religious terminology, it will mark at once the dawn of theocracy and the twilight of theomachy --strife among the gods. God will be visible.

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." (Heb 12:14)

Seeing the Lord of Hosts is a way of saying that the value of faith in a God of Peace will be visible to all. His Oneness will be recognized as the spirit of the age, His will as its law. We will see that it is good. A long age of disbelief will sink below the horizon and the Kingdom of God, the age of faith will dawn.

From the viewpoint of science the ground rules will be altered forever too. This agreement will mark nothing less than the triumph of reason, childhood's end, the termination of a long era when selfishness and brutish desire and passion predominated. Both secret alliances and open power struggles among states will end; petty nationalism will die out and sane patriotism will thrive. There will be no more oneupmanship, arms races, power struggles, espionage, secret cabals and alliances, lobbying and back room connivance, power brokerage, everything that drowns out the common interest in favor of special interests.

The all-embracing, ongoing gathering of humankind for peace that consummates the Great Being teachings marks, in a well known catch phrase, the end of history. It is the end of history and the beginning of History.

With that I would like to end the "Great Being" series of essays begun last January and start up a new series on the end of history, which will recapitulate the Great Being's great principles. I will introduce it next time.