Local Baha'is Share Covenant Celebration

November 23, 2002

By VICTOR WOODS for the Missoulian

The word "covenant" means "promise." Abdu'l-Baha, the son and successor of Baha'u'llah, designated Nov. 26 as the "Day of the Covenant." Abdu'l-Baha came to America in 1912, teaching his Father's message of the promise of a world civilization centered on the covenant, and that this promise would emanate from the West, in America. The greatest covenant that God gives is that the world of humanity will be made in the image of God. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,' " (Genesis 1:26) where man takes on the spiritual qualities and attributes of God.

The Greater Covenant of God that humankind be made "in our image after our likeness," is that God would send a series of educators, like teachers in the grades of school, to educate and spiritualize humanity. These are the founders of the world's religions. Humankind has reached the end of the Days of Creation and has entered into the Graduation of the Everlasting Covenant of a spiritual, world civilization reflecting the qualities and attributes of God.

In the Baha'i dispensation, Baha'u'llah brought a Lesser Covenant providing for the continuation of the Davidic Kingship descended from the lineage of Baha'u'llah, through the executive branch or guardian of Baha'u'llah's House of Justice. Baha'u'llah was a direct descendant of King David. He sat upon the throne of David in an unbroken chain of father-to-son descendants all the way back to King David himself. This dates directly back to the everlasting covenant that God gave to King David in the book of Psalms: "I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to David my servant: 'I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations' " (Psalms 89:3-4).

When Abdu'l-Baha arrived in New York City, he designated it the "City of the Covenant." It was there, in New York, that the newly translated Covenant of Baha'u'llah, the "Tablet of the BRANCH," was revealed for the first time. Through this covenant, the world of humanity will be renewed and these destructive wars that have been waged will cease.

"They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more" (Isaiah 2:4).

America is at the threshold of this True World Order. But, just as any child is born into this world through the great sufferings of its mother, so also is our world about to experience the pains of labor bearing this child of the Kingdom of God. For more than a decade the guardian of the Baha'i Faith and great grandson of Abdu'l-Baha, Neal Chase ben Joseph Aghsan, has warned of these oncoming destructions from the first bombing of the World Trade Towers in 1993, to their complete destruction in 2001.

The continued warning is of retaliation by the Muslim world upon New York City with a nuclear weapon as a result of the U.S. killing Saddam Hussein in his bunker with a nuclear weapon. The world is about to enter into the worst war we have ever experienced, preparing humanity as never before, to embrace the solution for everlasting peace: the covenant of God.

Victor Woods may be reached at the Baha'i Center.

Read it online at the Missoulian:
Local Baha'is Share Covenant Celebration