Exactly. Hence my position that a vague prophecy is no prophecy at all.
Then there is dead on, no question about it prophecies.... allegedly. Until we look more closely at them. Christians and Baha'is believe Jesus was born of a virgin. My complaint is that the writer of Mattthew took Isaiah 7:14 out of context. He completely disregards the context of what the "sign" in Isaiah was supposed to be about. And disregards the rest of the verses that tell us about this child. Both Baha'is and Christians are okay with taking this one verse and making it a prophecy about Jesus.
Another thing I'm taking a look at is the prediction of "entry by troops". Baha'is expect masses of people to join up. When I was around Baha'is in the 70's, I went with them on "mass teaching" trips to Indian Reservations. I don't know of any that were very successful, maybe a couple of new people. Here's
what I've found so far...
Shoghi Effendi used the term in a letter written in July 1953. Referring to the influx of new Bahá’ís through the efforts of the community in the opening months of the
Ten Year Crusade he wrote:
"This flow, moreover, will presage and hasten the advent of the day which, as prophesied by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, will witness the entry by troops of peoples of divers nations and races into the Bahá’í world—a day which, viewed in its proper perspective, will be the prelude to that long-awaited hour when a mass conversion on the part of these same nations and races, and as a direct result of a chain of events, momentous and possibly catastrophic in nature, and which cannot as yet be even dimly visualized, will suddenly revolutionize the fortunes of the Faith, derange the equilibrium of the world, and reinforce a thousandfold the numerical strength as well as the material power and the spiritual authority of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh."
In an October 1963 letter the Universal House of Justice noted that entry by troops had begun to take place:
"We stand now upon the threshold of the second epoch of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá’s Divine Plan, with the outposts of the Cause established in the remotest corners of the earth, and having already witnessed the beginnings of that entry into the Faith by troops promised by the Master Himself."
The Universal House of Justice also stated that entry by troops had begun to take place during the Ten Year Crusade in letters released in 1964, 1965, and 1966, and later specified that Africa was where entry by troops had taken place during the Ministry of the Guardian.
In 1971 the Universal House of Justice reported that entry by troops was occurring in many parts of the world, and in 1974 it noted that the development of Local Spiritual Assemblies was required to give the Faith to capacity to cope with entry by troops.
[9] In 1976 the Universal House of Justice advised the Bahá’ís of Africa that the process of entry by troops needed to be accelerated on the continent.
[10]
In 1981 the Universal House of Justice specified that Africa had experienced entry by troops, and in 1987 it stated that entry by troops had occurred in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific. In 1989 the Universal House of Justice named Bolivia, Bangladesh, Haiti, India, Liberia, Peru, the Philippines, and Taiwan as countries where entry by troops was taking place.
The Universal House of Justice also called for the international Bahá’í to systematically approach advancing the process:
"At Riḍván 1996, the Bahá’ís of the world will embark on a global enterprise aimed at one major accomplishment: a significant advance in the process of entry by troops. This is to be achieved through marked progress in the activity and development of the individual believer, of the institutions, and of the local community. That an advance in this process depends on the progress of all three of these intimately connected participants is abundantly clear. The next four years must witness a dramatic upsurge in effective teaching activities undertaken at the initiative of the individual. Thousands upon thousands of believers will need to be aided to express the vitality of their faith through constancy in teaching the Cause and by supporting the plans of their institutions and the endeavors of their communities."
I wonder how that's going for them? Hmmm? Sounds like things are going great!
Mass teaching began in the rural area of Madhya Pradesh among the Hindu population. In 1961 there were 850 Bahá’ís; in 1963 87,000; by 1973 nearly 400,000; and by 1987 about two million. In 1983 45 per cent of all local spiritual assemblies were in India.
1970 - early 1971 Over 20,000 Afro-Americans from the rural areas of the south-eastern United States became Bahá’ís.
1988 Jun Over 100,000 people, including large numbers of women, youth and families, became Bahá’ís in Uttar Pradesh, India.
1988 26 Nov - 4 Dec Over a thousand people became Bahá’ís in Bolivia during a teaching project. A later report indicated that over 2,000 people had become Bahá’ís.
1995 Aug More than 7,000 people became Bahá'ís in Haiti in two weeks.
Of course, these
numbers are questionable... Here's the discrepancy in the numbers in the U.S.
Bahais claim that there are 1,75,000 Baha’is in US. But the official census says something else. The official census of United States says that “there were 28,000 Baha’is in US in 1990, then in 2001 it went up to 84,000 (entry by troops?) then again in 2008 it dropped down to 49000 (exodus by troops!)”.
The Baha'is say...
India became the
largest Bahá’í community in the world in 2000 after less than a century of mass teaching, with an official Bahá’í population of between 1.7 million to over 2 million.
What it sounds like is that they are out to convert as many people as possible. Yet, some Baha'is say they aren't. And that's another problem, which Baha'i is telling the truth?
