The fourth period (1921–1944) is motivated by the forces
radiating from the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá,
that Charter of Bahá’u’lláh’s New World Order, the offspring
resulting from the mystic intercourse between Him Who is the Source of the Law
of God and the mind of the One Who is the vehicle and interpreter of that Law.
The inception of this fourth, this last period of the first Bahá’í century
synchronizes with the birth of the Formative Age of the Bahá’í Era, with the
founding of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh—a system which
is at once the harbinger, the nucleus and pattern of His World Order. This
period, covering the first twenty-three years of this Formative Age, has
already been distinguished by an outburst of further hostility, of a different
character, accelerating on the one hand the diffusion of the Faith over a still
wider area in each of the five continents of the globe, and resulting on the
other in the emancipation and the recognition of the independent status of
several communities within its pale.
- Shoghi Effendi (‘Preface to God Passes
By’)