William Sears (Bahai)

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

Personal and professional life

Sears grew up in a Catholic family and, on the advice of his grandfather, read the Bible intensively . Sears set a monument to his grandfather in his posthumously published book "In Grandfather's Barn". William Sears was a figure on the US radio and television stations. He later became known in South Africa through a popular radio program. He was married twice. His first wife, Kathleen Sears, died, leaving two sons who were raised by his second wife, Marguerite Reimer Sears. Marguerite had also introduced him to the Baha'i Faith and wrote a book about his life.

As a Baha'i and an author

Sears heard of the Baha'i Faith from his second wife before they got married. He studied religion while they were married and became a Baha'i a few years later. In 1953, Sears and his family moved 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 made his Baha'i pilgrimage . In 1956, Sears was elected to the first National Spiritual Council for South and West Africa and served as chairman. Shoghi Effendi named Sears a hand of the cause in October 1957 and as a hand of the cause he traveled extensively, the distance covered being 20 times the world. Between 1959 and 1961 he attended all of the National Spiritual Councils 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 spreading the Baha'i Faith. Sears has published numerous books for which he translates his own knowledge of the Baha'i faith into expressions that are understandable for everyone. Some of these books have also been translated into German and other languages. In November 1957, Shoghi Effendi died and a body of nine hands in the Holy Land temporarily presided over the Baha'i world community. Sears served on this body, which served until the election of the first Universal House of Justice in 1963, from 1958 and from 1961 to 1963. In the book “Thief in the Night”, the title of which was borrowed from Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians (5.2), he showed how the biblical prophecies were fulfilled through the Baha'i faith. Sears interprets the prophecy from the book Micah 7:12 in his book "The Half-Inch Prophecy" and the book "Wine of Astonishment" also deals with Christian topics. He also wrote "Lament of the Heart", which deals with the persecution of the Baha'i in Iran , "The Flame" a biography about the Bahai Lua Getsinger, his autobiography "God loves Laughter" and much more. He died in 1992 after a heart attack.

Works

• William Sears: Lament of the Heart: The Bahá'ís in Iran . Bahá'í-Verlag, Hofheim-Langenhain 1983, ISBN 3-87037-147-1 .
• William Sears: The Gateway to Light: The Story of the Báb and His Companions . Bahá'í-Verlag, Hofheim 2009, ISBN 978-3-87037-473-0 .
• William Sears: Thief in the Night, or The Curious Fall of the Missed Millennium . Bahá'í-Verlag, Hofheim 2004, ISBN 3-87037-326-1 ( online ).
• William Sears: God loves laughter . Bahá'i-Verlag, Hofheim 2014, ISBN 978-3-87037-556-0 .
• 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 Baháís 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! Naturegraph 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 . Bahai Publishing Trust, South Africa 2000.

literature

• Barron Harper: Lights of Fortitude . George Ronald, Oxford, UK 2007, ISBN 978-0-85398-413-9 , pp. 440-450 .
• Marguerite Reimer Sears: Bill, A Biography of Hand of the Cause of God Williams Sears . Desert Rose Publishing, ISBN 978-0-9743979-0-0 .