Climate change, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes, and cyclones have all been in the news lately, not to mention the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as civil unrest in many other parts of the world. Many Christian leaders, especially Evangelicals reiterate that these are signs that the “end is near.” It may surprise you that I agree with them. The difference is that my perception of “the end of the world” which is supported by the Baha’i Writings is completely different from most Christian’s perceptions of this topic.

In the Baha’i Writings, there are references to trials and tribulations that the world will face, and these are described as birth pangs of a new era. Our beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi in his book “The Promise Day is Come” extrapolates on this topic:

“We are indeed living in an age which, if we would correctly appraise it, should be regarded as one which is witnessing a dual phenomenon. The first signalizes the death pangs of an order, effete and godless, that has stubbornly refused, despite the signs and portents of a century-old Revelation, to attune its processes to the precepts and ideals which that Heaven-sent Faith proffered it. The second proclaims the birth pangs of an Order, divine and redemptive, that will inevitably supplant the former, and within Whose administrative structure an embryonic civilization, incomparable and world-embracing, is imperceptibly maturing. The one is being rolled up, and is crashing in oppression, bloodshed, and ruin. The other opens up vistas of a justice, a unity, a peace, a culture, such as no age has ever seen. The former has spent its force, demonstrated its falsity and barrenness, lost irretrievably its opportunity, and is hurrying to its doom. The latter, virile and unconquerable, is plucking asunder its chains, and is vindicating its title to be the one refuge within which a sore-tried humanity, purged from its dross, can attain its destiny. “Soon,” Bahá’u’lláh Himself has prophesied, “will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead.” And again: “By Myself! The day is approaching when We will have rolled up the world and all that is therein, and spread out a new Order in its stead.”

Baha’u’llah prophesied that the calamities that the world is facing are nothing more than part of the process of bringing about the Lesser Peace and ultimately, the Most Great Peace. Baha'u'llah stated, "Chaos and confusion are daily increasing in the world. They will attain such intensity as to render the frame of mankind unable to bear them."

Furthermore Baha'u''llah said, “We desire but the good of the world and the happiness of the nations; yet they deem Us a stirrer up of strife and sedition worthy of bondage and banishment…. That all nations should become one in faith and all men as brothers; that the bonds of affection and unity between the sons of men should be strengthened; that diversity of religion should cease, and differences of race be annulled—what harm is there in this?… Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come…. Yet do We see your kings and rulers lavishing their treasures more freely on means for the destruction of the human race than on that which would conducive to the happiness of mankind…. These strifes and this bloodshed and discord must cease, and all men be as one kindred and one family…. Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind….”

To explore this topic more fully, the Baha’i Writings are available online: http://reference.bahai.org/en/