carried out.

However central the ideal of the oneness of religion unquestionably is,
therefore, the task of sharing Baha'u'llah's message is obviously not an
interfaith project. While the mind seeks intellectual certainty, what the
soul longs for is the attainment of _certitude_. Such inner conviction is
the ultimate goal of all spiritual seeking, regardless of how rapid or
gradual the process may be. For the soul, the experience of conversion is
not an extraneous or incidental feature of the exploration of religious
truth, but the pivotal issue that must eventually be addressed. There is
no ambiguity about Baha'u'llah's words on the subject and there can be
none in the minds of those who seek to serve Him: "Verily I say, this is
the Day in which mankind can behold the Face, and hear the Voice, of the
Promised One. The Call of God hath been raised, and the light of His
countenance hath been lifted up upon men. It behoveth every man to blot
out the trace of every idle word from the tablet of his heart, and to
gaze, with an open and unbiased mind, on the signs of His Revelation, the
proofs of His Mission, and the tokens of His glory."(64)

"One of the distinguishing features of modernity has been the
universal..."

One of the distinguishing features of modernity has been the universal
awakening of historical consciousness. An outcome of this revolutionary
change in perspective that greatly enhances the teaching of Baha'u'llah's
message is the ability of people, given the chance, to recognize that the
whole body of humanity's sacred texts places the drama of salvation itself
squarely in the context of history. Beneath the surface language of symbol
and metaphor, religion, as the scriptures reveal it, operates not through
the arbitrary dictates of magic but as a process of fulfilment unfolding
in a physical world created by God for that purpose.

In this respect, the texts speak with one voice: religion's goal is
humanity's attainment of the age of "in-gathering",(65) of "one fold, and
one shepherd";(66) the great age to come when "the Earth will shine with
the glory of its Lord"(67) and the will of God is carried out "in earth,
as it is in heaven";(68) "the promised Day"(69) when the "holy city"(70)
will descend "out of heaven, from ... God",(71) when "the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall
be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it",(72)