In the previous posting, I had provided a most interesting quotation from the second Guardian, Charles Mason Remey, taken from his Daily Observations while he was among the Custodians. In that posting, Mr. Remey traced the spiritual life and power of the Faith from Bahá'u'lláh to the Center of the Covenant, `Abdu'l-Bahá, and through the Guardianship He created in His Will and Testament.
The second Guardian explained that the divine teachings of `Abdu'l-Bahá state that the Guardianship was an institution that was the only source of divine guidance, the only channel for the Holy Spirit, after the death of `Abdu'l-Bahá:
In `Abdu'l-Bahás teachings including, of course, those divine teachings
contained in his last Will and
Spiritual Testament to the Bahá'ís, He demonstrates to us that in this
day and the time of this divine Bahá'í
Dispensation upon earth that the unique source of the Holy Spirit is Bahá'u'lláh that from Bahá'u'lláh (the Manifestation) this spirit of divine life descends
through the Center of His Covenant upon the Guardian of
the Cause [who] after Abdu'l-Bahá is the Center of the divine
confirmations of the kingdom. Therefore, after Abdu'l-Bahá, the Guardian of the Faith is the only and the unique
source of divine guidance for the believers --- the
Guardianship being this institution and not the personality of the
human Guardian. The Will and Testament provides for a continued line of
many
succeeding Guardians on through the ages to come, this divine guidance
coming through the Institution of the Guardianship and this is the only
continued source of confirmation of the Holy Spirit to the world in
this Dispensation of Bahá'u'lláh!
from http://www.bahai-guardian.com/daily.observe.html
The truth of the matter is that the Guardianship is the spiritual heart of the Faith and without it the Faith cannot be. With all the talk about their Administration, the sans-Guardian organization cannot be the channel through which the Holy Spirit appears because the channel for this is the Guardianship itself, an Institution that exists in that organization only as an historical artifact. To believe otherwise is to disregard the teachings of the Center of the Covenant.
The living faith is the Orthodox Bahá'í Faith, with the Holy Spirit's divine guidance flowing directly through the Guardianship, a divine office presently occupied by Joel B. Marangella, to that small band of faithful believers around the world still loyal to the Guardian.
By Hand of the Cause Jeffrey Goldberg
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