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The fact that biblical prophecy suggests the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth to a degree unparalleled in human history can be attributed to the circumstances, maturity and capacity of the human race in this age. Whatever the accomplishments of the followers of former religions, no previous age possessed the necessary maturity or level of technological advance to permit the uniting of the whole human race or the establishment of peace throughout the entire globe. However, the followers of Baha'u'llah believe that, in this age, not only have the necessary divine teachings been provided, but the conditions exist which make it possible to bring about such dramatic and all-pervasive changes. This is the goal towards which Baha'is are working. It is within the context of this great transformation of human life that biblical prophecy suggests that no former age can be compared to this age. As Shoghi Effendi explains: (194:1) If the Light that is now streaming forth upon an increasingly responsive humanity with a radiance that bids fair to eclipse the splendour of such triumphs as the forces of religion have achieved in days past; if the signs and tokens which proclaimed its advent have been, in many respects, unique in the annals of past Revelations; if its votaries have evinced traits and qualities unexampled in the spiritual history of mankind; these should be attributed not to a superior merit which the Faith of Baha'u'llah, as a Revelation isolated and alien from any previous Dispensation, might possess, but rather should be viewed and explained as the inevitable outcome of the forces that have made of this present age an age infinitely more advanced, more receptive, and more insistent to receive an ampler measure of Divine Guidance than has hitherto been vouchsafed to mankind.(World Order 60, emphasis added)
(194:2)
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