Hi Tom,
Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. The following is a continuation of our discussion on Bahai vs. Mormon evidences:
Fulfillment of prophecy basically comes under two heading in Bahai thought: first, the fulfillment of Fulfilled OT, NT, Quranic and Hadith prophecies concerning the advent of the Bab and Baha’u’llah, and Abdu’l-Baha; and second, the fulfillment of prophecies made by the Bab and Baha’u’llah.
Now, for the first set of prophecies. Various Christian commentators have identified over 300 OT prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus Christ at his advent. Various Bahai authors have identified
over 1,800 Biblical prophecies that were fulfilled by the advents of the Bab and Baha’u’llah (plus numerous Quranic and Hadith prophecies).
The first set of prophecies to be examined are “time” prophecies. In the Bible, specific “time” prophecies are mentioned; examples include the 70 weeks, 1260 days[lit. “a time, times, and half a time”; “forty and two months”; “thousand two hundred and threescore days”], 1290 days, 1335 days, 2,300 days. The principle of applying “a year for day” when interpreting “time” prophecies has been used by dozens of Jewish and Christian commentators. Christian commentators have consistently applied the “a year for day” to the 70 weeks prophecy of Daniel (7x69[7 +62] = 483 days = 490 years) and see a literal fulfillment for the date of Jesus Christ’s advent (457BC + 483 = AD 27AD). Starting in the late 18th century, and early 19th century, literally dozens of Christian commentators began using the “a year for day” principle for the 2,300 days of Daniel and applying them to the second advent of Jesus Christ (between 1798 and 1842 Advent scholar, Leroy Edwin Froom lists 88 such commentators! - see
The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 4:404, 405). Starting with the 457BC date they arrived at 1843/1844 as the date for the second coming (1844 being the more accurate for the transition 1 BC to 1 AD did not originally include a zero). Millions of Christians worldwide were expecting Christ to return in 1844. Bahai’s believe that this was literally fulfilled by the advent of the Bab.
Due to posting limits, I suggest you go to the following site:
[
bahai-education.org/](
http://www.bahai-education.org/)
Once there, under “software” in the upper left hand corner of the page, click on “Ocean – Library Software” and follow the instructions.
Once downloaded, open up the program and click “Bahai”, then “Bahai Studies”, then “William Sears” and finally “
Thief in the Night”. The entire book is a good read, but “Part One” pertains to the topic at hand.
Grace and peace,
Aug
