Fifteen Years of Failed Prophecy:
Coping with cognitive dissonance in a Bahá'í sect

by Robert W. Balch, John Domitrovich, Barbara Lynn Mahnke, and Vanessa Morrison

Note: before choosing to read the following, Bahá'ís should note that it is by a designated Covenant-breaker. However, this particular content does not itself challenge the covenant; it was originally published in Harper's as satire, and is included here for context to the above article.

RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 4, 1993

In our previous releases, we gave you the exact date that New York was to be bombed: November 26, 1992, the Day of the Covenant. That date, plus the prophesied season of three months (Daniel 7:12) brought us to February 26, 1993, the day, the minute, the hour, the second that the World Trade Center was bombed. We stated that this was just an OMEN of the big one yet to come.

Now we are giving the date for the big one. Saddam Hussein has vowed to take revenge on New York and the United Nations for what they did to his country. Ezekiel gives us THE VERY DAY that this will happen. In chapter 4, verse 5, he states that the destruction of the city will last 190 days, which, counting from the date of the bombing of the World Trade Center, brings us exactly to September 4, 1993, the day the UN building and all New York City will be nuked.

We have warned you. The blood of the people is not on our hands.

RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 27, 1993

From the date of the World Trade Center bombing of February 26, 1993 (which we accurately predicted), there were exactly 190 days to September 4, 1993. Ezekiel then gives 40 more days in chapter 4, verse 6, which brings us to October 14, 1993, the day the UN building and all New York City will be destroyed by a thermonuclear bomb!

Noah sent out three releases telling the people the day of the flood to come. With the third and final release, the flood wiped out those who had scoffed at him. This release is the third release pertaining to the big one. This third release is the final blast, the warning trumpet.

The waiting is over.

RELEASE DATE: NOVEMBER 1, 1993

On March 23, 1994, the veils will be rent asunder with the fiery holocaust of New York City's millions of inhabitants! Forty days later, on May 2, 1994, will come the Battle of Armageddon, in which one third of mankind will be killed in one hour of thermonuclear war.

WE DIDN'T MAKE A MISTAKE when we wrote in our previous releases that New York would be destroyed on September 4 and October 14, 1993. We didn't make a mistake, not even a teeny eeny one!

The New Jerusalem Bible and the New English Bible both say, in Ezekiel 4, that the destruction of the city of New York will occur over a period of 190 days. But the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version give 390 days for that same verse of Ezekiel. We gave the earlier date because if we had given the later date of 390 days and all New York had been destroyed after 190 days—on September 4—or even 40 days after that—on October 14—then everyone would be dead and we would be to blame for having misguided the people.

There shall be no more delay! God never makes a promise he doesn't keep.

RELEASE DATE: APRIL 4, 1994

All the dates we have given in our past releases are correct dates given by God as contained in the Holy Scriptures. Not one of these dates was wrong; all of them pertain to the siege of the city of New York and the UN building, which will come to an end on May 2, 1994.

Exactly 390 days after the World Trade Center bombing, on March 23, 1994 came the Edison Gas Explosion. [A gas pipeline exploded in Edison, New Jersey, on March 24, injuring about a hundred residents.] As reported by the New York Times, it was likened by eyewitnesses to a nuclear blast comparable to Nagasaki or Hiroshima. This woke up the people of that area, who are in IMMEDIATE DANGER, so that now they can leave the city by May 2, 1994, when the siege will be complete.

Ezekiel gives a total of 430 days for the siege of the city, one day for each year that the Israelites were in captivity in Egypt before the Exodus of Moses. Four hundred and thirty days added to the World Trade Center bombing of February 26, 1993, brings us exactly to May 2, 1994.

By now, all the people have been forewarned. We have done our job.

RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 9, 1994

Exactly as we have been predicting, Saddam Hussein has now mobilized his forces to take his revenge for the Gulf War: full-scale thermonuclear destruction of the UN building and all New York City, scheduled to take place on November 26, 1994, give or take a week or two.

On May 2, 1994, there was the Lincoln Tunnel Explosion, which completed the days of the siege. [On May 5, a helicopter crashed near the New Jersey entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel and burst into flames, killing two.] In Revelation 8 it says that there will be "silence in heaven for about half an hour." The original Greek shows that in fact this half hour is half a year, or about 180 days. About 180 days from May 2, 1994, brings us to the significant Holy Day of November 26, 1994. The Bible does not say exactly 180 days but about that much time, with a week or two leeway, for the nuclear destruction of the UN building and New York City to take place.

We are the only ones in the entire world guiding the people to their safety, security, and salvation!

We have a 100 percent track record!