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Leland Jensen
File:DLJ.jpg
Born22 August 1914
Died6 August 1996
Known forestablisher of the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant

Leland Jensen (22 August 1914–6 August 1996) was the founder of a Bahá'í division called the Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant (BUPC). Jensen gained national attention in 1980 for predictions he was making about the apocalypse. He claimed to fulfill the prophecies of the "Seventh Angel" of the Book of Revelation, the "establisher of the Bahá'í Faith", Joshua the high priest from Zechariah chapter 3, and the return of Jesus the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.[1]

As a group which accepts Mason Remey's claim to the Guardianship in 1960, their followers and members of the mainstream Bahá'í Faith have mutually excommunicated each other. The disagreement between the two groups stems from a dispute over the succession of leadership after the passing of the Bahá'í Faith's first Guardian, Shoghi Effendi.

Background

Jensen was a third generation Bahá'í on his mother's side. After he got married, he and his wife, Opal, finished college and received doctorates in natural medicine, becoming chiropractic doctors. They attended the School of Drugless Physicians and graduated in 1944. Opal was the valedictorian and Jensen graduated with distinction (cum laude).

After they graduated, and after practicing for a while, they moved to St. Louis, into a mansion, and they moved the Bahá'í Center into their home because it was very large. In 1953 Shoghi Effendi launched the Ten Year Crusade, which aimed at bringing the message of Bahá'u'lláh to the entire world. Jensen and his wife gave up their practice and went to two tiny islands in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Madagascar. The first island was called Reunion, it was a French-owned island, which practiced Catholicism as the State Religion.

Jensen and his wife were the first Bahá'ís to visit the island, and therefore received the title of "Knights of Bahá'u'lláh". 150 people were so honored by Shoghi Effendi during the Ten Year Crusade.

The Guardianship Dispute

Main article: Bahá'í divisions

In 1960 Mason Remey claimed that he was the next Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, resulting in his expulsion from the Bahá'í community. Jensen was one of the people that followed Remey, and in 1963 was elected to Remey's National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States Under the Hereditary Guardianship. While serving on this Assembly he began disputing over issues with Rex King, the Secretary of the Assembly. Jensen had accused King of having "gained control" of the United States group, and King had thereupon proposed to set up a "Bahá'í court" to have Jensen "thrown out of the Bahá'í Faith".[2] The assembly was eventually dissolved by Remey.

Based on Remey's correspondence and writings, his followers split into three major divisions due to their support of either Joel Marangella, Donald Harvey or Leland Jensen.

Leadership

Leland and Opal took up residence in Missoula, Montana in 1964, continuing their chiropractic practice and teaching their understanding of the Bahá'i Faith. In 1969 he was convicted of "a lewd and lascivious act" upon a 15-year-old female patient [3], and served four years of a 20 year sentence in the Montana State Prison.

While in prison, Jensen converted several inmates to his claim that an angelic visitor had told him he was the promised "Joshua" of Zechariah 3 in the Bible. Jensen also claimed to fulfill the prophecy for the "Seventh Angel" of Revelation 11. He also claimed to be the "embryonic" Universal House of Justice. It was his belief that by fulfilling these various prophecies, he was the one charged by God to re-establish the Bahá'i Faith after a perceived fallout of the administration.

Jensen developed a series of Fireside Classes that attempted to show students the proofs of his beliefs. The main tenet of these Proofs were that Jesus, Bahá'u'lláh, and Jensen himself were prophesied in the Bible by their names, their missions, and the time and place of their appearance. He also taught on the "Purpose of Life", "The Covenant", and the "Prophecies in the Great Pyramid". Jensen also claimed to have decoded prophecies hidden in the inner passageways of the Great Pyramid of Giza. He noted that if one equates each inch along its inner passageways to a solar year that there was a correspondence to historical events marked off along these passageways. He taught that the Flood of Noah, Exodus of Moses, Birth of Jesus, appearance of the Báb, proclamation of Bahá'u'lláh, and the Establishment of the Kingdom (2001) could all be found in the prophecies of the Great Pyramid.[4]

These activities suffered setbacks starting in May 1980 when Jensen's widely predicted "Apocalypse" failed to materialize. A number of Jensen's followers abandoned him at that time. He continued to teach his beliefs, raise up followers, and write books and essays about the Faith until his death on Aug. 6th, 1996, with more than one hundred of his followers in attendance.[citation needed]

Second International Bahá'í Council

Jensen announced that he held a station higher than that of the Guardian, and taught that Remey's adopted son Joseph Pepe was the next Guardian after Remey, a point that Pepe publicly denied, and requested to be left alone by several competing factions of Mason Remey's followers.[2] Jensen continued a correspondence of debates with Pepe, but never achieved his goal of seating him as the President of his Second International Bahá'í Council (sIBC).

The council that Jensen set up in 1991 was registered in the state of Montana. It functioned without the involvement of Pepe, who died in 1994.

After Jensen's own death in 1996, the council remained the head of the BUPC, but without a clear candidate for Guardian, and without Jensen, no new members could be appointed to the council.

Predictions

Jensen made several predictions of apocalypse based on his interpretations of Biblical prophecies, and gained national notoriety when on April 29, 1980, he led a group of followers into fallout shelters in Missoula, Montana, expecting a nuclear attack to be launched.[5][6] According to Robert Balch, professor of Sociology at the University of Montana, Jensen made "a prophecy that a nuclear attack would be launched on 29 April 1980 that would annihilate one-third of humankind."[5] Jensen further expected that after the fallout, the remaining two-thirds of mankind would be ravaged by war, famine, and pestilence.[6]

The various researchers who decided to study Jensen during and after this prediction noted that among the followers of Jensen, the disaster's failure to materialize, paradoxically, did not result in a loss of faith, but instead an increase in commitment. Jensen increased the intensity of future predictions, and before his death made at least 20 more.[6] When asked by a UPI reporter Jensen did not express concern that the prediction might not come true, remarking "There will be a nuclear holocaust some day."[7] He went on to promote the need for fallout shelters among the general public.

On the day after Jensen's seemingly failed prediction, the local newspaper of Missoula, Montana, the Missoulian, published this on April 30th, 1980:

"Based on his interpretations of the Bible and on measurements of the Great Pyramid of Kuhfu in Giza, Egypt, Jensen said, ‘either a provocative act that will escalate into World War III, or World War III itself,’ was to occur at 5:55 p.m. MDT Tuesday [4/29/80]." (Missoulian, Vol. 107 No. 311 April 30, 1980)

Jensen's followers continue to claim that a "provocative act" occurred April 29 1980 when the Soviets launched a nuclear-powered satellite[8] (Cosmos 1176)[9] designed to monitor US naval activity by radar.[10]

Works

Having worked in a print shop while in college, Jensen became a self-publisher. The Bahá'í Publishers Under the Provisions of the Covenant published several of his and other books on the Bahá'í Faith. A few of his more notable books are:

  • Jeanne Dixon Was Right! (1994)
  • The Seventh Angel Sounded (1994)

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Entry By Troops chpt. 4[1].
  2. ^ a b From "Mason Remey and those Who Followed Him" [2]
  3. ^ State v. Jensen, 153 Mont. 233, 455 P.2d 631 (Montana, 1969). [3]
  4. ^ See his findings here, maintained by BUPC members
  5. ^ a b Balch, Robert (1983). When the Bombs drop: Reactions to Disconfirmed Prophecy in a Millennial Sect. Sociological Perspectives No. 26. pp. 137–58. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ a b c Shermer, Michael (1999). How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science. W.H. Freeman & Company. ISBN 0-7167-3561-X. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  7. ^ Florida Union Times, 1980-04-29 {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ^ In July 1997, Neal Chase, one of Jensen's followers, issued a press release where he states: "On April 29, 1980 at 5:55 pm the Soviet Union launched Cosmos mission 1176, the nuclear powered U-23 spy satellite. This satellite was the same as the Cosmos 954 satellite launched by them in 1978 and which crashed down in Canada. At that time the US Government said that if they launched another such satellite it would be considered an act of war. So on April 29, 1980 at 5:55 pm the Soviets committed an act defined beforehand as an act of war by our government." (full text) According to the New York Times, Carter's response to the Cosmos 954 disaster was to call for "an agreement with the Soviets to prohibit earth-orbiting satellites with atomic radiation material in them." [4]. Cosmos 954 and 1176 were two of thirty-six Soviet RORSAT missions from 1965 through 1988.[5]
  9. ^ "RORSAT". Encyclopedia Astronautica (Astronautica.com). Retrieved 2007-09-11.
  10. ^ "Washington- Soviet Union last week launched a radar ocean surveillance spacecraft of a type normally powered by a nuclear fission reactor. The spacecraft, launched APR. 29..." (Aviation Week & Space Technology, May 5, 1980)

References

  • Abdu'l-Bahá (1944). The Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois 60091.
  • Abdu'l-Bahá (1987). Some Answered Questions. Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois 60091.
  • Balch, Robert; Farnsworth, Gwen and Wilkins, Sue. (1983). "When the Bombs Drop: Reactions to Disconfirmed Prophecy in a Millennial Sect". Sociological Perspectives No. 26. pp. 137-58.
  • Effendi, Shoghi (1974). The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois 60091
  • Esselmont, J.E. (1970). Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois 60091
  • Jensen, Leland, (1996). The Most Mighty Document. Retrieved February 4, 2006
  • Lamb, J.T., (2004). Over The Wall. Retrieved on February 4 2006
  • Proofs for the Establsiher. Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant Website. Retrieved February 6, 2006
  • Shermer, Michael. (1999). How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science. W.H. Freeman & Company. ISBN 0-7167-3561-X.

Newspapers

  • "Millennial Fever" (July 17, 1997). Missoula Independent. Front page.
  • “Local Bahá'í Leader dead at 81”. August 8, 1996. Missoulian p. B2.
  • “Ezekiel’s Temple in Montana!” (Feb. 9, 1991). The Montana Standard. Front Page.
  • "Bahá'í: Deer Lodge Sanctuary" (January 29, 1991). The Missoulian. Front page.
  • BUPC.org - Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant, official site
  • UHJ.net - BUPC's Universal House of Justice official site
  • bupc.montana.com - Other BUPC site
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