William Sears (Bahá'í)

William Sears ( born March 28, 1911 in Duluth ( Minnesota), † 25 March 1992 in Tucson, Arizona), which was sometimes called Bill, was an American author and Bahai in 1957 by Shoghi Effendi to one of the hands the cause of God was appointed.

Personal and professional life

Sears grew up in a Catholic family, reading, on the advice of his grandfather intensively the Bible. The grandfather sat Sears in his posthumously published book " In Grandfather's Barn" a monument. William Sears was a personality of U.S. radio and television stations. Later he became well known in South Africa by a popular radio program. He was married twice. His first wife Kathleen Sears died and left behind him two sons, who brought his second wife Marguerite Reimer Sears. Marguerite had made him well with the Bahai faith known and written a book about his life.

As a Bahai and author

Sears heard of the Bahai faith by his second wife before they got married. He studied religion while they were married and was a few years later Bahai. 1953 Sears moved with his family to the Union of South Africa, to spread the faith. They settled there on a farm 25 kilometers outside of Johannesburg. In April 1954 Sears undertook his Baha'i pilgrimage. 1956 Sears was elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa and served as chairman. Shoghi Effendi appointed Sears in October 1957 to a Hand of the Cause and as a Hand of the Cause, he traveled extensively, the distance corresponding to a 20-fold circumnavigation of the globe. In November 1957 Shoghi Effendi died, and a panel of nine hands of the matter in the Holy Land led temporarily the Baha'i world community. In that forum, which worked until the election of the first Universal House of Justice in 1963, Sears was in 1958 and worked from 1961 to 1963. Between 1959 and 1961 he visited all National Spiritual Assemblies in North, Central and South America. After the election of the first Universal House of Justice, the Sears family moved back to the United States, where he devoted himself to the spread of the Bahai faith. Sears has published numerous books for which he put his own knowledge of the Bahai faith in anyone's understandable terms. These books have been partially translated into German and other languages ​​. In the book " thief in the night ", whose title was borrowed from the first letter of Paul to the Thessalonians ( 5:2), he showed how the biblical prophecies were fulfilled by the Bahai faith. The prophecy of Micah 7,12 interpreted Sears in his book " The Half - Inch Prophecy" and the book " Wine of Astonishment " also dealt with Christian themes. He also wrote " action of the heart", which deals with the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran, " The Flame " a biography of the Bahai Lua Getsinger, his autobiography " God loves Laughter " and much more. After a heart attack, he died in 1992.

Works

• William Sears: Proceedings of the heart: The Baha'is in Iran. Bahá'í -Verlag, Hofheim- Long Grove 1983, ISBN 3-87037-147-1.
• William Sears: the gateway to the light: The story of the Báb and His companion. Bahá'í -Verlag, Hofheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-87037-473-0.
• William Sears: Thief in the Night or The Strange Case of not appearing Millennium. Bahá'í -Verlag, Hofheim 2004, ISBN 3-87037-326-1 ( Online).
• William Sears: Prince of Peace. Bahá'í Publishing Trust India, New Delhi, 1986, ISBN 978-81-85091-10-5.
• William Sears: God Loves Laughter. George Ronald, Oxford, UK, ISBN 978-0-85398-019-3.
• William Sears: Thief in the Night or The Strange Case of the Missing Millennium. George Ronald, Oxford, UK, ISBN 978-0-85398-008-7.
• William Sears: A Cry From the Heart: The Bahá'ís in Iran. George Ronald, Oxford, UK, ISBN 978-0-85398-134-3.
• William Sears: Release the Sun. Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, USA, ISBN 978-1-931847-09-4.
• William Sears: All Flags Flying. National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of South and West Africa, Goodwood, South Africa, 1985, ISBN 0-908420-62-5.
• William Sears: In Grandfather 's Barn. Bahá'í Publishing Trust of the United States, Wilmette, Illinois, USA, ISBN 978-0-87743-257-9.
• William Sears and Robert Quigley: The Flame: The Story of Lua. George Ronald, Oxford, UK, ISBN 978-0-85398-030-8.
• William Sears: The Wine of Astonishment. George Ronald, Oxford, UK, ISBN 978-0-85398-521-1.
• William Sears: Run to Glory! . Nature graph Publishers Inc., 1991, ISBN 0-87961-195-2.
• William Sears: The Prisoner and the Kings. How One Man Changed the Course of History. Bahai Publishing Co. Ltd., Toronto, ISBN 978-1-931847-41-4.
• William Sears: The Half - Inch Prophecy. Baha'i Publishing Trust, South Africa 2000.