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In His messages to the chief potentates of the earth, Baha'u'llah offered the opportunity to establish the long awaited reign of world peace, which He described as the "Most Great Peace" - a lasting Peace expressive of all the divine spiritual qualities which God desires for His children. This opportunity they rejected. Incalculable as this loss was, however, it did not thwart the plan of God. The Most Great Peace will, nevertheless, come, but because of man's waywardness, it will come not as an act of intelligent will, but as an outcome of calamity and suffering (167:6) There will appear what Baha'u'llah described as the "Lesser Peace". This will come about as a result of humanity's response to the horrors that war and disunity will inflict upon humanity. It will be a political union among the nations of the world and will signal the end of war. The initial act of the establishment of the Lesser Peace will occur within the twentieth century, a century described in the Baha'i writings as the "century of light"
(167:7)
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