Perhaps `Abdu'l-Baha's best-known prophecy was his oft-repeated prediction world peace would be firmly established in the Twentieth Century.
[The permanent peace] will be established in this century ... It will be universal in the twentieth century. All nations will be forced into it ... the nations will be forced to come to peace and to agree to the abolition of war ... By international agreement they will lay down their arms and the great era of peace will be ushered in.
`Abdu'l-Bahá in Canada, pages 50-51; Peace Compilation
... in this luminous century the greatest bestowal of the world of humanity is Universal Peace, ...
Star of the West, vol. VII, page 136; Peace Compilation
Now the glorious and brilliant twentieth century has dawned, and the divine bounty is radiating universally ... Truly, this can be called the miracle of centuries, ...
Promulgation of Universal Peace, page 153; Peace Compilation
"... the unity of nations - a unity which in this century will be securely established, causing all the peoples of the world to regard themselves as citizens of one common fatherland."
(The Goal of a New World Order, World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, pg. 39)
"Now in the world of being the Hand of divine power hath firmly laid the foundations of this all-highest bounty and this wondrous gift. Whatsoever is latent in the innermost of this holy cycle shall gradually appear and be made manifest, for now is but the beginning of its growth and the dayspring of the revelation of its signs. Ere the close of this century and of this age, it shall be made clear and evident how wondrous was that springtide and how heavenly was that gift!"
`Abdu'l-Bahá, World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, page 111
So we see that peace was promised for the Twentieth Century, but anyboy can see that the world is as far from peace as ever. As recent as the mid-nineties, a million people were murdered in Rwanda. Civil warfare in Sudan has claimed more lives through the years. In Europe, warfare continues to beset the fragments of Yugoslavia. Nothing new, just the same wars that mankind has suffered from throughout history.
Some Bahá'ás, desperate for any kind of explanation, would have you believe that the first election of the Universal House of Justice in 1963 inaugerated the era of peace.
Indeed, that event was a prescheduled election, which, once complete, was hailed by the elect as a fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy, as though the Baha'i leadership had no hand in the matter!
Still, the Universal House of Justice continued to speak of peace as a promise to be fulfilled in the future, and made no claim that the "unity of nations" had begun.
Dear friends, as the world passes through its darkest hour before the dawn, the Cause of God, shining ever more brightly, presses forward to that glorious break of day when the Divine Standard will be unfurled and the Nightingale of Paradise warble its melody.
Universal House of Justice, Seven Year Plan, page 467
Still there are those who believe that the election of the Universal House of Justice planted the seed of peace. This may seem a laughable means of forcing a prophecy into fulfillment, yet some Baha'is believe this, in spite of their own scriptures which make it clear that the seed was already planted:
"One of the great events," affirms `Abdu'l-Bahá, "which is to occur in the Day of the manifestation of that incomparable Branch is the hoisting of the Standard of God among all nations. By this is meant that all nations and kindreds will be gathered together under the shadow of this Divine Banner, which is no other than the Lordly Branch itself, and will become a single nation. Religious and sectarian antagonism, the hostility of races and peoples, and differences among nations, will be eliminated. All men will adhere to one religion, will have one common faith, will be blended into one race and become a single people. All will dwell in one common fatherland, which is the planet itself." "Now, in the world of being," He has moreover explained, "the Hand of Divine power hath firmly laid the foundations of this all-highest bounty, and this wondrous gift. Whatsoever is latent in the innermost of this holy Cycle shall gradually appear and be made manifest, for now is but the beginning of its growth, and the dayspring of the revelation of its signs. Ere the close of this century and of this age, it shall be made clear and evident how wondrous was that spring-tide, and how heavenly was that gift."
The Unfoldment of World Civilization