Was Baha’u’llah the last or will there be more. In which case will Baha'i then be replaced when a new age comes again?
This is the new age so there will not be another new age, until the end of the present Universal Cycle of religion (see Table below).
Baha'is believe that Messengers if God have been sent since the dawn of human history and that Messengers will continue to be sent by God for all of eternity.
There will be more Messengers in the future, but not before the year 2863 AD, because Baha'u'llah wrote that no new Messengers would be sent for at least 1000 years (from the time of His declaration in 1863).
When a new Messenger comes, there will be a new religion with a message and new social teachings and laws, but all Messengers within this religious cycle will be under the shadow of Baha'u'llah.
There have been various Universal Cycles of religion since mankind was created. Within each Cycle there were many different Prophets and religions. The Universal Cycles that preceded Adam are too remote in history to know anything about. The Cycle of religion that began with Adam and culminated with Muhammad is called the Adamic Cycle, or the Prophetic Cycle, named as such because it was the Age of Prophecy.
Muhammad was called the Seal of the Prophets because He was the last prophet in the Adamic Cycle and thus He
sealed off the Adamic Cycle. In 1844 the Bab ushered in a new Cycle of religion called the Age of Fulfillment. All the “new age” movements and all the scientific discoveries we have seen since the last century are the result of the inception of this new Cycle. We are living in a new age of mankind.
As you can see on the outline below, the present Universal Cycle of religion includes the Adamic Cycle (Prophetic Cycle) and the Baha’i Cycle (Cycle of Fulfillment). The Baha’i Cycle will last no less than 500,000 years and all the Messengers of God (Manifestations of God) that appear during the cycle will be under the shadow of Baha'u'llah.
TABLE: BAHA'I SACRED HISTORY
I. PREVIOUS UNIVERSAL CYCLES - of which no trace remains
II. PRESENT UNIVERSAL CYCLE
· A. ADAMIC CYCLE, CYCLE OF PROPHECY - lasted approximately 6,000 years
1. Adam 1. Indian religious figures
2. Noah - Krishna
3. Abraham
4. Moses 2. Zoroaster
5. Jesus 3. Buddha
6. Muhammad
+ Other unknown or unspecified prophets
· B. BAHA'I CYCLE, CYCLE OF FULFILLMENT - to last 500,000 years
1. The Bab
2. Bahá'u'lláh - Universal Manifestation for this Universal Cycle
a. Heroic, Primitive, or Apostolic Age - 1844-1921 (or 1932 - the death of Bahiyyih Khanum)
i. Ministry of the Bab (1844-53)
ii. Ministry of Bahá'u'lláh (1853-92)
iii. Ministry of `Abdu'l-Bahá (1892-1921)
b. Formative, Transitional, or Iron Age - 1921 -
i. First Epoch (1921-44/46) - Erection of the Administrative Order
ii. Second Epoch (1946-63) - spread of the Faith beyond the confines of the Western Hemisphere
iii. Third Epoch (1963-86) - emergence of the Faith from obscurity and initiation of social and economic development plans
iv. Fourth Epoch (1986- ) - national communities taking on the responsibility for their own development
v. Successive further Epochs
c. Golden Age
Successive Epochs leading to the Most Great Peace
3. Further Manifestations - under the shadow of Bahá'u'lláh
· END OF PRESENT UNIVERSAL CYCLE
III. FURTHER UNIVERSAL CYCLES
Ages and Cycles
