Re: MISSING PARAGRAPHS FROM NEW ERA

"Robert Arvay" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> The paper trail left by the Baha'is of yore is damning.
> The response by the Baha'is of today is a deafening silence.

Not necessarily.  The original passage read as follows:

"Baha'u'llah further arranged that after the death of Abdu'l-Baha an
international spiritual assembly (Baytu'l-'Adl), representative of all
Baha'is throughout the world, should be appointed to take charge of the
affairs of the Cause, to control and co-ordinate all its activities, prevent
divisions and schisms, and preserve the teachings from corruption and
misrepresentation.

"Moreover, Baha'u'llah expressly forbade interpretation of the teachings by
anyone but Abdu'l-Baha, and after him the International Baytu'l-Adl.  In the
Book of Aqdas he declared that all explanations or interpretations of the
sacred texts contrary to the obvious sense thereof are forbidden.  In a
'thousand or thousands of years' another Manifestation will appear, under
the shadow of Baha'u'llah, with clear proofs of His Mission, but until then
the words of Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha and the decisions of the
International Baytu'l-Adl constitute the authorities to which all believers
must turn for guidance.  No Baha'i may found a school or sect based on any
particular interpretation of the teachings or any supposed divine
revelation.  Anyone contravening these injunctions is considered a
'Covenant-breaker' or 'Naqiz.'

This passage above is from the original Baha'u'llah and the New Era by
Esselmont, the first US edition of 1927, mostly reviewed by Abdu'l-Baha and
Shoghi Effendi, before the passages about the Guardian that Barbara quoted
were inserted. In other words the passages that Barbara quoted were
themselves interpolations.

Cheers, Randy


>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Barbara) wrote in message
news:<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>...
>
> > "The spiritual or Providential character of the Faith...is further
> > exemplified in the continuance, after  'Abdu'l-Baha, of the office of
> > interpreter of the Sacred Writings in the person of the successive
> > Guardians provided in 'Abdu'l-Baha's Testament.  The Faith, therefore,
> > throughout  its era will never suffer the disintegrating influence of
> > schisms resulting from differences of interpretation, nor the
> > deterioration which follows when generally prevalent materialism
> > substitutes  lower values for those revealed by the Founder.  In
>