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A discussion of prayer and meditation along with some special Baha'i prayers and a rare translation of a Chant by Abdu'l-baha.

Stars: Prophecies in the Stars

Astrological predictions, as regards individual day to day events, are a superstition. Nevertheless, many people feel that there have been notable signs in the heavens, such as that regarding the Bethlehem Star and the birth of Jesus. Here we examine a more recent and even more astounding phenomena, the fulfillment of an ancient tradition in the Millenium Star.

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In times of great stress some people turn naturally to God. Others question how He could exist and permit the tests, trauma, terror, that they are witnessing or experiencing. The Problem of Pain and evil has always been a challenge to every theological thinker. Some see it as the central question of religion and the human experience.

The questioners ask, "How could an Infinite, All Powerful God, that is Good, permit something like a nuclear holocaust?" "Never mind that Armageddon was predicted in centuries old religious prophecy. That is just another problem", they would say, "because if it was foretold and unavoidable, then what does that do for human free will?"

Man's search for Reality and his relationship to God, is the purpose of human life. These then are not just troubling questions, but central questions, in a sense the ultimate questions with which the seeker must wrestle.

It is unlikely that the present writer will answer, satisfactorily for all, that which centuries of religious volumes have failed to communicate unto the majority of mankind. Namely, that God is Good and that His Purpose is being worked out. Still, I will share with you my own thoughts about why the world wide nuclear war was both inevitable and necessary. Because of its inevitableness, some readers will note that at the time of this writing I speak of it as having been a thing that has already occurred.

First one must wrestle with the nature of God and Man. The Creator and the Creature. The Uncreated and the created. The One Being Infinite the other being finite. The One Being beyond time, space, matter, the other involved in the appearance of time, space, matter. However one views it, maya, illusion, duality, it still seems to be a relationship of opposites.

Because of infinite difference in station between the Creator and the created the only way that the latter can come to know The Former is in the manner and to the degree That Former chooses to reveal Itself to the latter. All the Great Divinely Revealed Religions have said that this has been through a Messenger, Prophet, a Chosen One. It is to Them that every reasonable thinker turns for the answers. No reasonable man would think that he could figure out the great ideas of literature, art, mathematics, or science all on his own - and how much less religion, that is to say the proper practice of his relationship to the Nature and Purpose of God and His Creation.

Thus it is that we turn unto Those Infinite Source of Light. Single in Purpose multiple in appearance, Who have come unto man to reveal God's Divine Purpose. Without exception we are told that God loves man and wishes him well. We are told further that God has bestowed many great bounties upon man, to a degree not shared by any other creature. Particularly the bounty of intellect and abstract thought and the bounty of free will. It is this latter that permits man to choose to recognize and serve God - or not.

The two capacities, intellect and will, the ability to know God and to worship (that is serve) Him, are the two defining characteristics of the human soul. They are what make a man a man. If a person loses the ability to think, reason, imagine, believe, then they are no longer in the human state but have entered a vegetative state. Likewise if they no longer have the capacity to desire, wish, feel, love or hate, then they have no more motivation than a rock. But the two capacities together - that which we think and that which we wish - that which we know and that which we will - are what defines each of us individually. That is who we are. Our very existence. When those capacities depart from the body - the body is dead and then decomposes. The Prophets have all told us that the essence - the ability to know and will - continues on separate from the body and that is why the soul is said to be eternal.

If either of these two faculties, either the ability to think / know / reason, or the ability to will are removed or subverted in man - then he ceases to exist as man. For this reason all men have the freedom and choice to believe in God - or not. If the idea, thought, knowledge of God was simply imprinted upon them as the recognition of its mother is imprinted upon a baby chick - then man too would be a mere creature of instinct having no more free will to accept or reject God than an automaton or computer programmed with certain facts in its data base and memory.

Likewise, should man not have the freedom to sin, that is to say - to not do the Will of God, then again he would be but an automaton, a robot, a creature completely controlled by instinct and patterning. It is this freedom of being able to recognize and know God combined with the degree of choosing whether or not to be obedient to His Will - that defines and separates the saints, sinners, and satans.

Individually, and collectively, man exhibits and implements these two abilities. We are all individually a product of our genes, culture, and free will. The innate capacities between individuals differs greatly. Those innate capacities are then greatly affected by the education which they receive, which is something that is often largely culturally determined. Nurture versus nature is not a choice because it is nurture, nature AND free will that determines the individual accomplishment. The least of men, have the capacity to recognize God and to be obedient to Him, otherwise they are deprived of that which is truly human. The degree that they do recognize and obey God under adverse circumstances such as genetic or social deprivation may well be indicative of hidden spiritual strengths and qualities. God alone can be the Judge of that.

Nations and cultures to a large degree form individuals - but individuals also change and form cultures. Those who most positively affect the direction of a cultural should be duly honored. Unfortunately, cultures can likewise be affected negatively by other individuals. The collective conscience and consciousness is a mighty force to be dealt with. The overall direction and pattern of development, however, has a Divine Destiny. The Creation remains the purview of the Creator.

To return to the question of why evil and disaster occur. In part it is because there is an interplay between humanity and the rest of creation. Spiritual forces do interact and effect the actions of nature. This is a natural interaction, indeed designed by the Creator, and so to say that some of these natural events are "acts of God" is not far wrong - but the degree to which they are precipitated by human action is hidden from most of mankind.

Other events, such as war, depression, conflict, are more obviously the result of the actions of men. Still, we may ask, as to why God permits them to occur. The answer is that to prevent them would be to violate the principle of the Permissive Will of God which is to allow man to have his own free will. To subvert the free will of man would do more harm than good, because it would mean that man was no longer free and no longer man - but simply again as an automaton or rock.

The human race has long endured, and its destiny has long been seen. To say this does not subvert the free will of man. To give an example, most any elementary school teacher can see in her pupils the overall nature of the child, dullness to brilliance, willingness to rebelliousness, and although the teachers are sometimes surprised or disappointed, in later life, seeing the pupil's development - most often they are not. How many an insightful person can look at the habits and behavior of a teenager and predict for the disobedient sluggard a life of failure and for the industrious performer a life of accomplishment. These are hardly matters of prophecy. The seeds of the future are evident. So has it been with the human race as a whole. The Prophets of old were able to see the rebellious and warlike nature of man and to see that as he gained more scientific knowledge that his wars would increase in intensity and ferocity. Indeed the Infinite Divine Omniscience would see these things far beyond the ken of man.

To foresee something is not to will something. While God Wills the good of man just as parents will the good of their children whom they can see that they must allow to make their own mistakes. One must be careful in attributing to God some anthropomorphic "motivation" but nevertheless it is the nature that has been created in us that gives us what perception we have of the Divine attributes because we do see these in ourselves and in the creation about us.

Mankind collectively followed such a path of rebellion that a major magazine headlined on its cover years ago that God was dead. Materialism and immorality increased after that date, to such a degree, that it would probably have astounded even those editors. Man's greed and lack of concern for his fellowman grew by immense proportions as evidenced through those years of repeated billion dollar scandals in the business community and the ever increasing proportion of all production and wealth that went into weapons and the means of destruction.

Still, all of this was reflective of the free will of man to choose the Path of God or to choose his own unwisdom and ills. While the chosen path led to destruction, to prevent mankind from choosing it would have been to truly destroy mankind because it would have meant subverting the free will of man and man would therefore no longer have been man. But evil contains its own punishment. The results are as sure as the law of gravity. The headache and hangover follow the drunkenness and while the it is fair to characterize the results as Divine Chastisement and Retribution it still remains of man's own doing.

If it were not for the pain which is the punishment for sin and evil, then man would simply always continue in the path of his own destruction which is the turning away from the Purpose of God. Man's collective ills continued to mount until the Day of Destruction, the Day of Holocaust, the Day of the Great Catastrophe, the Day of Armageddon - all as long predicted and prophesized. If it had not been for That Day then nothing would have turned man back around and once again toward God and His Purpose which is the true happiness of mankind. Consequently, the worse thing that could have occurred was for That Day to not have come - for there to have been no nuclear war.

Some will observe that in addition to the shortcomings of man that I have cataloged, that religion itself has been a major cause of suffering and contention. This is quite true. Dogmatic religions of every stripe have increased man's hatred against man. Also the same can be said of rampant nationalism and racism. Those very things that many men have seen as the highest ideals - their love for their religion, country and culture have in their perverted form been the basis for hate. God loves all mankind and in every part of the world provided for his religious guidance but men perverted that love for man to hatred of those who do not share their religion, country or culture.

The ills of religionism, racism, and nationalism became deeply embedded in mankind as a whole and when these were topped with rampant materialism and immorality mankind was already in hell. The direction that mankind was taking was obvious for many centuries, indeed millennium, and the end results were therefore predictable. The solution was also seen and God has always provided mankind with guidance through His Prophets. The Prophet for this Day and Age has revealed to mankind God's Program for the solution of their ills and the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth - but it is up to mankind to implement the Plan. For God to do it for man would once again deprive man of his free will and thus destroy him as man.

The message for mankind's darkest hour is that God has created for mankind a Destiny that is very Great, if mankind will choose to accept it. For those who would like to discuss with me further this view of the future and this view of religion I welcome their contacting me. I would ask that you first examine my premises of religion and let me know of any points in which we differ so that we may have a mutual understanding of what we are discussing.

Peace and love,
Bruce
DawnSayer@webpal.org

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