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Dr. Leland Jensen (, 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 Melchezedek. {Link without Title} 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 At an early age, Jensen began teaching the Bahá'í Faith to his friends. When he got older, he became more proficient, and was able to bring several of these young people into the Faith. Later on, after he got married, he and his wife, Opal, finished college and got their 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 their livelihood 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 knighted by Shoghi Effendi during the Ten Year Crusade. Leland and Opal received this honor for their successful teaching {Link without Title} . THE GUARDIANSHIP DISPUTE See Also: Bahá'í divisions In 1960, three years after the passing of the first Guardian Shoghi Effendi , Mason Remey made a Claim To The Guardianship of the Bahá'í Faith ( proclamation ). This caused the believers from both sides to be mutually excommunicated from each other. Shoghi Effendi was to appoint a successor from the male members of Bahá'u'lláh's family, and on his passing the male line of Bahá'u'lláh was extinct. Remey maintained having a Guardian is an essential feature of the administration, and referred to Shoghi Effendi's writings emphasizing its importance: "Divorced from the institution of the Guardianship the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh would be mutilated and permanently deprived of that hereditary principle which, as `Abdu'l-Bahá has written, has been invariably upheld by the Law of God." After his Proclamation in 1960, Remey attracted a following of several thousand people under his "Hereditary Guardianship". Leland Jensen was one of the people that followed Remey, and in 1963 was elected to the National Assembly of United States Bahá'ís 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". Mason Remey became dissuaded with Rex King's activities on the National Assembly, and in a letter to Jensen in Sept. 1969 he (Remey) wrote: :"I told Rex that no one of my acquaintance has a better knowledge of the Bahá'í Faith than he but as Lucifer in Old Testament Days chose to put truth aside and espouse the cause of Satan, so had he done in these modern times....therefore obliging me to cast him out from all association in this world with the people of God that included the life to come as well as his life here upon earth – his station to be ever and eternally that of Satan for evermore." {Link without Title} During Remey's life he appointed three apparent successors, causing three major divisions among his followers. Jensen supported his adopted son Pepe Remey as the only legitimate successor. LEADERSHIP Leland and Opal took up residence in Missoula, Montana in 1964, continuing their chiropractic practice and teaching the Faith. Jensen was convicted in 1969 of a "lewd and lascivious act" against a 14 year old female patient he was treating, and served 4 years of a 20 year sentence in the Montana State Prison. There, Jensen converted over two dozen fellow inmates to his claim that an angelic visitor had told him he was the promised "Joshua" of Zechariah Chapter 3 in the Bible. Jensen claimed not only to be "Joshua", and the "return of Jesus the High Priest", but also the "Seventh Angel" of the Book Of Revelation Chapter 11 on which `Abdu'l-Bahá elaborates: :"The seventh angel is a man qualified with heavenly attributes, who will arise with heavenly qualities and character. Voices will be raised, so that the appearance of the Divine Manifestation will be proclaimed and diffused... in that day of God, the Spiritual and Divine Kingdom will be established, and the world will be renewed; a new spirit will be breathed into the body of creation;... union, love and brotherhood will surround the world; and God will rule for evermore -- meaning that the Spiritual and Everlasting Kingdom will be established." ::(`Abdu'l-Bahá, ''Some Answered Questions'', pp. 56-58) In his book ''Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era'', Esselmont explains more about how `Abdu'l-Bahá had explained the date of 1963 as being the fulfillment of a prophecy of Daniel: :"In the last two verses of the Book of Daniel occur the cryptic words—"Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. But go thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of Days. :"Many have been the attempts of learned students to solve the problem of the significance of these words. In a tabletalk at which the writer was present, `Abdu'l-Bahá reckoned the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy from the date of the beginning of the Muhammadan era [the victory of Muhammad over Mecca in 628 AD—628 + 1335 = 1963 . :"`Abdu'l-Bahá's Tablets make it clear that this prophecy refers to the one hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, or the year 1963:— :"Now concerning the verse in Daniel, the interpretation whereof thou didst ask, namely, "Blessed is he who cometh unto the thousand, three hundred and thirty-five days." These days must be reckoned as solar and not lunar years. For according to this calculation a century will have elapsed from the dawn of the Sun of Truth, then will the teachings of God be firmly established upon the earth, and the Divine Light shall flood the world from the East even unto the West. Then, on this day, will the faithful rejoice! ::(Esslemont pp. 249-250) Jensen claimed he was this "Blessed is he" when he began his mission in 1963 at the commencement of the National Spirtual Assembly during Ridvan in 1963. He claimed this, and many other titles as his own, while he also claimed to be the "embryonic" Universal House Of Justice (UHJ). It was his belief that he was the one charged by God to re-establish it according to the provisions of the Covenant, as he believed the procedures used to set up the UHJ where not in accord with the provisions of its charter {Link without Title} . While imprisoned, Jensen taught his fellow inmates that like Jesus and Bahá'u'lláh , he fulfilled Biblical and Bahá'í prophecies, and that these "proofs", as he called them, could be examined by anyone to verify that they were true. Throughout his many years of teaching the Faith he developed a series of ''Fireside Classes'' which served to show the student the "Proofs" for certain beliefs. The main tenet of these Proofs were that Jesus, Bahá'u'lláh, and Jensen himself were prophesied in the Bible by their names, the dates they'd appear, the missions they'd accomplish, and where they would appear. He taught a total of 7 Fireside classes to students which also included a class on the "Purpose of Life", "The Covenant", and the "Prophecies in the Great Pyramid". It was in Jensen's own "Proof for the Establisher" fireside that one would be shown where in the Bible his "mission" was outlined, the exact date he'd begin his mission (Daniel 12:12), and why he believed he was chosen by God to "Establish the Kingdom on Earth as it is in Heaven". ("Proofs for the Establisher Fireside" PDF ). While in prison he 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. View his research 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. RE-ESTABLISHING THE INTERNATIONAL BAHá'í COUNCIL Under his leadership he established the Second International Bahá'í Council (sIBC) on Jan. 9th, 1991. Believing that the rest of the Bahá'ís were deceived after the passing of Shoghi Effendi by the Hands Of The Cause , he claimed that he had been "chosen" by God to re-establish the administrative order that Shoghi Effendi had outlined. His appeal, to those who would listen, was that as the Hands had disbanded the First International Bahá'í Council and "siezed the helm of their Faith", they had invariably established the UHJ with no divine authority, and outside the provisions of its charter. He claimed that it was therefore necessary for an "Establisher" to re-establish the Administration of the Faith according to the provisions of the Covenant {Link without Title} . He believed that Mason Remey's adopted son Joseph Pepe Remey was the Guardian of the Faith when sIBC was formed, so thereby invited him, as Guardian, to be the President of the Second International Bahá'í Council. Pepe declined the position which began a long series of debates between the two {Link without Title} . After his passing in 1996 the leadership of Jensen's group of Bahá'ís Under the Provisions of the Covenant passed on to the Second International Bahá'í Council with its membership composed of Jensen's twelve apostles. Jensen created the Council in accordance to the Four Stage Plan of Shoghi Effendi, and the provisions of The Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá. Most notable of these provisions was a place for the Guardian of the Faith in the position of President, as the Will and Testament states: :"the guardian of the Cause of God is Council's sacred head and distinguished member for life." (p.14) With Pepe Remey refusing the role as president of the sIBC, it conducted itself absent of a sitting president well beyond his passing. One of Jensen's followers, Neal Chase , claims to have been adopted and appointed privately by Pepe, and that he is now the fourth Guardian and president of the BUPC's Second International Bahá'í Council . PREDICTIONS Jensen made several predictions of apocalypse based on his interpretations of Biblical prophecies. Robert Balch, a professor of Sociology at the University of Montana, became closely acquainted with Jensen and the BUPC after his first prediction, and published his findings: :"He is well known for a prophecy that a nuclear attack would be launched on 29 April 1980 that would annihilate one-third of humankind. Before and after that date, three researchers conducted interviews with Jensen's followers in order to gauge their reactions to failed prophecy." (Balch et. al. 1983.) Here is one of numerous published accounts of this event: :"...on a brisk April 29 morning in 1980, Leland Jensen, a chiropractor and leader of a small religious sect called the Bahá'ís {Link without Title} Under the Provisions of the Covenant, led his devoted followers into fallout shelters in Missoula, Montana, to await the end of the world. Within the first hour, Jensen believed, a full third of the Earth's population would be annihilated in a nuclear holocaust of fire and fallout. Over the course of the next twenty years most of the remaining population would be ravaged by conquest, war, famine, and pestilence." :Psychologists who studied Leland Jensen and his Bahá'í sect ... discovered that when the end of the world came and went, they did not quietly disband and go home. Psychologist Leon Festinger applied his theory of cognitive dissonance to failed prophecy, and argued that the stronger one's commitment to a failing cause, the greater the rationalizations to reduce the dissonance produced by the disappointment." :Thus, paradoxically, after the 1980 debacle in the bomb shelters, not only did Jensen and his followers not abandon the cause, they ratcheted up the intensity of furture predictions, making no less than 20 between 1979 and 1995!" ::(Shermer (1999) p. 192.) The story was picked up by UPI and published in the ''Florida Union Times'' in Jacksonville Fla, Tues. April 29th, 1980. It reads: :"He sees the current World Order as the Beast of the Apocalypse, which he says will begin to die in the holocaust...Then the Kingdom of God will establish itself in 2001. :Jensen won't be concerned if his prophecy doesn't come true. "There will be a nuclear holocaust some day," he said "and by having a definite date established we've accomplished tremendous things. :After providing for themselves they began a public relations campaign on the inadequacy of public shelters in an effort to better prepare the general public for the holocaust." In Jensen's hometown of Missoula, Montana, the local newspaper, 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 {Link without Title} ." (''Missoulian'', Vol. 107 No. 311 April 30, 1980) Jensen claimed this prediction was fulfilled although it was not known exactly how when April 29th came and went. He said that on the very day that he gave for a "provocative act", April 29th 1980, the Soviets launched a nuclear powered U-23 spy satellite (Cosmos mission 1,176), the type of satellite that was a sophisticated surveillance satellite designed to track deep-running American nuclear submarines. :"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) From the Press Release ''World Civil War'' by Neal Chase , July 9th, 1997 giving a BUPC perspective of the prediction: :"On April 29, 1980 at 5:55 pm the Soviet Union launched Cosmos mission 1,176, 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. In direct response, then President Jimmy Carter signed in Presidential Directive 59 (PD 59) on July 25th of 1980 thereby undoing McNamara's Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD) policy in favor of PD 59's FIRST STRIKE LIMITED WINNABLE THERMONUCLEAR WAR. As McNamara did away with all the fallout shelter's for "MAD" and these were never reactivated, the American people are held hostage as a HUMAN SHIELD." full text So, Jensen claimed he got it right, that a "provocative act" occurred on the date he predicted, but that the media failed to understand why the world hadn’t come to an end. Dr. Jensen claimed he never said the world would "come to an end", but that "either a provocative act that will escalate into World War III, or World War III itself "would occur, and pointed to these international incidents as validating his widely publicized prediction. PUBLICATIONS Jensen was a prolific writer, and, having worked in a print shop while in college, became a prolific Publisher . The Bahá'í Publishers Under the Provisions of the Covenant published several of his and other believers books on the Bahá'í Faith. A few of his more notable books are:
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