Religious cycles

The Bahá'í teaching is that progressive revelation moves in cycles. In addition to the idea of religion being progressively revealed from the same God through different Prophets/Messengers, there also exists the idea of a universal cycle, which represents a series of dispensations, and is used to categorise human history and social evolution in a number of ways. It is viewed as a sequence of revelations, and during the period of history known to present humanity, comprises two cycles.

The Adamic cycle, also known as the Prophetic cycle, is stated to have begun approximately 6,000 years ago with a Manifestation of God referred to in various sacred scriptures as Adam, and ended with the dispensation of Muhammad. In this cycle, according to Bahá’í teaching, sequential Manifestations of God continued to advance human civilisation at regular intervals through progressive revelation. The Abrahamic religions and Dharmic religions are partial recognitions of this cycle, from a Bahá’í point of view.

In Bahá’í belief, the Bahá’í cycle, or Cycle of Fulfillment, began with The Báb and includes Bahá’u’lláh, and will last at least five hundred thousand years with numerous Manifestations of God appearing throughout that time. It is stated in Bahá’í literature that the Manifestations of God in the Adamic cycle, in addition to bringing their own teachings, foretold of the Cycle of Fulfillment.

The idea that there was a significant change in human life approximately six thousand years ago is not confined to Bahá'í prophetology. It is shared by a number of historians and archaeologists, and manifests itself in changes to social order and power structures, in food production and in religious ideas, which tended to switch from a general mother goddess worship to a more masculine idea of divinity.