CYNTHIA RICKARD Uncertainty, danger mark renewal of world, humankind

Two days before Christmas, the governing body of the Bah & aacute;' & iacute;s of the United States ran a full-page ad in The New York Times.
It said, in part: "More than a hundred years ago, Bah & aacute;'u'll & aacute;h, the founder of the Bah & aacute;' & iacute; faith, addressing heads of state, proclaimed that the age of maturity for the entire human race had come. The unity of humankind was now to be established as the foundation of the great peace that would mark the highest stage in humanity's spiritual and social evolution. Revolutionary and world-shaking changes were therefore inevitable."
It was a message of hope, an offer of an answer at a time the world was still searching for some in the wake of America's worst terrorist attacks.
It continued: "The world is moving on. Its events are unfolding ominously and with bewildering rapidity. The whirlwind of its passions is swift and alarmingly violent. The New World is insensibly drawn into its vortex ... Dangers, undreamt of and unpredictable, threaten it both from within and from without ...."
"The world is contracting into a neighborhood. America, willingly or unwillingly, must face and grapple with this new situation ... The American nation, Bah & aacute;' & iacute;s believe, will evolve, through tests and trials to become a land of spiritual distinction and leadership, a champion of justice and unity among all peoples and nations, and a powerful servant of the cause of everlasting peace. This is the peace promised by God in the sacred texts of the world's religions."
World's rebirth: The ad was an announcement to the world of what Bah & aacute;' & iacute;s recognize as the rebirthing of the world, with all its accompanying growth pangs; the end of the world as we've known it, and the start of a new one, guided by the return of the spirit of God on this earth.
Our scriptures tell us this has been a repetitive cycle that has occurred through the ages, and for good reason: to regenerate and remotivate humankind to do the work needed, Bah & aacute;'u'll & aacute;h said, "to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization."
Such renewal is a part of nature itself, the writings remind us: Each year, the rains of spring wash away the hard ground of winter and soften the earth for a new season of growth.
Bah & aacute;' & iacute;s mark the start of that annual renewal with Naw-R & uacute;z or New Year's, on the first day of spring. The celebration follows a period of fasting during which Bah & aacute;' & iacute;s are to ponder their spiritual lives and strive to bring their actions closer to what God has told us will make us content, allow us joy, bring us peace, both here and in the next life.
Acceptance of God and his teachings for the age brings a rebirth to believers. The moment of death, Bah & aacute;' & iacute; scriptures say, brings another rebirth -- into the world of the spirit. "The world beyond is as different from this world as this world is different from that of the child while still in the womb of its mother," Bah & aacute;'u'll & aacute;h wrote.
Thus, life goes from birth to maturity to rebirth through death. Likewise goes the world, our writings say, as God continues to educate and assist us to progress: The religion of the age is born, matures, then declines as the next stage in our development is revealed and explained by God's next messenger. These unending cycles of being reborn through God's successive messengers continues to brings humanity closer and closer to that day when paradise will be established on earth.
New age: The latest messenger, Bah & aacute;'u'll & aacute;h, ushered in a new age for mankind, our scriptures say. Bah & aacute;'u'll & aacute;h's writings, penned in the 1860s, contain an outline for a new world order, a federation of sovereign nations guided by the principles of justice and collective security.
Letters detailing the requirements for the new world order, including equality of men and women, recognition of the harmony of science and religion and elimination of the extremes of wealth and poverty, were sent to various leaders of the world, including the Pope, the presidents of the American republics, Queen Victoria, Napoleon III and the Shah of Iran.
Bah & aacute;'u'll & aacute;h's effort to breathe new life into mankind resulted in lengthy imprisonments and a series of banishments that landed him in Akk & aacute; in the Holy Land. Today, the craggy slopes of Mount Carmel have been reborn with beautifully landscaped gardens and shrines erected in honor and memory of his teachings.
"We desire but for the good of the world and the happiness of the nations ...," Bah & aacute;'u'll & aacute;h wrote. "That all nations should become one faith and all men as brothers ... that diversity of religions should cease and the differences of race be annulled. These fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the Most Great Peace shall come ... These strifes, and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one family ... let a man glory not in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind."
XCynthia Rickard is city editor at The Vindicator. She became a member of the Bah & aacute;' & iacute; faith, which has no clergy, in 1975 in Kent.