1984: Questions from the Universal House of Justice for each NSA before formulating a new Plan

The House of Justice therefore invites your participation in the process of formulating a new Plan, and we are asked to request each of your Assemblies to send it your comments on the following points in view of the prevailing situation in the area under your jurisdiction.

• Current status and specific needs of the Baha'i community. What distinctive strengths and weaknesses do you see in your community? Are there any unusual features of the condition of the Faith in your community which must be taken into account in the formulation of the next Plan?

• Condition of the nation. Do the social, political and economic trends indicate any unusual opportunities or difficulties for the development of the Baha'i community in the immediate years ahead?

The House of Justice would appreciate concise but adequate comments, which it would like to receive at your earliest convenience, but no later than 31 March 1985.  Kindly send a copy of your comments to the Continental Board of Counsellors.

- The Universal House of Justice  (From a message dated 25 November 1984 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies; ‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’)

1934: The growth of the “mighty administrative structure” of the Faith and “evidences of a power which a disillusioned and sadly shaken society can ill afford to ignore”

• The vitality which the organic institutions of this great, this ever-expanding Order so strongly exhibit; 
• the obstacles which the high courage, the undaunted resolution of its administrators have already surmounted; 
• the fire of an unquenchable enthusiasm that glows with undiminished fervor in the hearts of its itinerant teachers; 
• the heights of self-sacrifice which its champion-builders are now attaining; 
• the breadth of vision, the confident hope, the creative joy, the inward peace, the uncompromising integrity, the exemplary discipline, the unyielding unity and solidarity which its stalwart defenders manifest; 
• the degree to which its moving Spirit has shown itself capable of assimilating the diversified elements within its pale, of cleansing them of all forms of prejudice and of fusing them with its own structure—

these are evidences of a power which a disillusioned and sadly shaken society can ill afford to ignore. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (‘The Dispensation of Baha’u’llah; included in ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)

References to Bahá’u’lláh from Isaiah, “the greatest of Jewish prophets”

To Him [ Bahá’u’lláh] Isaiah, the greatest of the Jewish prophets, had alluded as 

• the “Glory of the Lord,” 
• the “Everlasting Father,” 
• the “Prince of Peace,” 
• the “Wonderful,” 
• the “Counsellor,” 
• the “Rod come forth out of the stem of Jesse” and 
• the “Branch grown out of His roots,” 
• Who “shall be established upon the throne of David,” 
• Who “will come with strong hand,” 
• Who “shall judge among the nations,” 
• Who “shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips slay the wicked,” and 
• Who “shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” 

- Shoghi Effendi  ('God Passes By')