The Bab prepared humanity for Baha'u'llah?

[Seeker_of_truth]

It is common knowledge amoung Baha'is that The Bab prepared humanity for "He whom God shall make manifest".
But something doesn't make sense to me.
The Bab was supposed to prepare humanity for Baha'u'llah. Let's estimate that the world population in 1844 was 3 billion people. So he did not prepare humanity for the new message. He prepared his group of Bab'is. 7 years simply wasn't enough to envelop 3 billion people.
Am i missing something here?

 

[Popeyesays]

It is common knowledge amoung Baha'is that The Bab prepared humanity for "He whom God shall make manifest".
But something doesn't make sense to me.
The Bab was supposed to prepare humanity for Baha'u'llah. Let's estimate that the world population in 1844 was 3 billion people. So he did not prepare humanity for the new message. He prepared his group of Bab'is. 7 years simply wasn't enough to envelop 3 billion people.
Am i missing something here?

John the Baptist also came to prepare the 'world' for Jesus Christ and he had less time. The reason that the Bab can be said to be preparing humanity for the coming of He Whom God Would Make Manifest is because for the very first time in the history of civilization technology made it possible for the world to communicate quickly--the invention of the telegraph. The first public demonstration took place the afternoon before the Bab made His declaration in Shiraz on May 23rd, 1844.

Wire communications was the breakthrough for instantaneous world communication, by the time Abdu'l Baha set sail for New York from London, the world knew from the RMS Carnatic that the Titanic had been lost, by undersea cable and wireless transmission the morning after it happened.

Now we have telegraph and radio, sattelite and television, microwave transmission and radio telescopes exploring the universe. Before Morse none of that was evident, before Morse the Bab could not have claimed to prepare humanity.

Think symbology not literalism.

Regards,
Scott

P.S. by the way the Bab declared in 1844, was executed in 1850, He had less than seven years, but Jesus Christ only had three years.

 

[Seeker_of_truth]

John the Baptist also came to prepare the 'world' for Jesus Christ and he had less time. The reason that the Bab can be said to be preparing humanity for the coming of He Whom God Would Make Manifest is because for the very first time in the history of civilization technology made it possible for the world to communicate quickly--the invention of the telegraph. The first public demonstration took place the afternoon before the Bab made His declaration in Shiraz on May 23rd, 1844.

Wire communications was the breakthrough for instantaneous world communication, by the time Abdu'l Baha set sail for New York from London, the world knew from the RMS Carnatic that the Titanic had been lost, by undersea cable and wireless transmission the morning after it happened.

Now we have telegraph and radio, sattelite and television, microwave transmission and radio telescopes exploring the universe. Before Morse none of that was evident, before Morse the Bab could not have claimed to prepare humanity.

Think symbology not literalism.

Regards,
Scott

P.S. by the way the Bab declared in 1844, was executed in 1850, He had less than seven years, but Jesus Christ only had three years.

thanks for taking time to explan.

Question:

I thought the Bab said that 7 years after his "reign" that He Whom God shall Make Manifest should arise.
Or am i completely off?

 

[Popeyesays]

thanks for taking time to explan.

Question:

I thought the Bab said that 7 years after his "reign" that He Whom God shall Make Manifest should arise.
Or am i completely off?

The Bab declared in 1844, died in 1850, Baha`u'llah declared nineteen years after the declaration of the Bab, in 1863.

In the first month of the Bab's declaration He wrote a series of Tablets to eighteen "Letters of the Living" (His first eighteen followers). He also wrote His first Tablet to He Whom God Shall Make Manifest, I'll quote the relevant section of that last Tablet here:
"This is a letter from God, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting, unto God, the Almighty, the Best Beloved, to 7 affirm that the Bayan and such as bear allegiance to it are but a present from me unto Thee and to express my undoubting faith that there is no God but Thee, that the kingdoms of Creation and Revelation are Thine, that no one can attain anything save by Thy power and that He Whom Thou hast raised up is but Thy servant and Thy Testimony. I, indeed, beg to address Him Whom God shall make manifest, by Thy leave in these words: 'Shouldst Thou dismiss the entire company of the followers of the Bayan in the Day of the Latter Resurrection by a mere sign of Thy finger even while still a suckling babe, Thou wouldst indeed be praised in Thy indication. And though no doubt is there about it, do Thou grant a respite of nineteen years as a token of Thy favour so that those who have embraced this Cause may be graciously rewarded by Thee. Thou art verily the Lord of grace abounding. Thou dost indeed suffice every created thing and causest it to be 8 independent of all things, while nothing in the heavens or on the earth or that which lieth between them can ever suffice Thee.'
Verily Thou art the Self-Sufficient, the All-Knowing; Thou art indeed potent over all things."
(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab)

The italics and color are mine. 1863-1844 are 19 years.

Baha`u'llah had His first experience of the Divine Presence in 1853, when He was imprisoned in the Siyah Chal, but He made no declaration until April of 1863.

Regards,
Scott

 

[Popeyesays]

I neglected to make the standard caveat. My opinions and interpretations are my own, I have studied to understand these issues, but my opinion is by no means an authoritative statement. There is no living interpreter of the writings today. No individual's opinion is anything more than his opinion. Even the individual Hands of the Cause, or Continental COunselors, and the individual members of the Universal House of Justice have no authoritative opinion.

This is a religion without clergy and the only responsibility one has is for one's self.

"Mileage may vary"

Regards,
Scott