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A prophet receives guidance from God and proclaims a message of indictment, judgment, instruction, and deliverance. Secondarily, people have seen them as foretellers of future events or conditions. Scriptural tales of liberation turned into blueprints for specific predictions and a Christian interpretive method called historicism. Bahá’ís adopted this method in reaching Christians to look back to biblical fulfillments at specific dates. Bahá’u’lláh offers an understanding of prophecy that minimizes specific dates and events accomplished by divine fiat, embraces metaphorical and symbolic fulfillment, and charges humanity with bringing envisioned conditions into being through His teachings. Specific fulfillment is understood after fulfillment; envisioning or prophecy of future conditions is in the hands of believers and humanity to bring into existence.
William P. Collins was Catalog Librarian and then Head Catalog Librarian at the Middlebury College Library, 1973-1976; Catalog Librarian at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1976-1977; Director of the Bahá’í International Library, 1977–90, Chief of the Cataloging Division, United States Copyright Office, 1991–2000, and Planning Officer with the United States Copyright Office 2000-2016. He served for slightly over two decades as faculty for the Wilmette Institute, and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Corinne True Center for Bahá’í History and a faculty member. He is “retired”—meaning he is serving the Bahá’í Faith and the wider community.
He has a B.A. from Middlebury College, two masters degrees from Syracuse University, and additional education at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Bogotá, Colombia), Leningrad State University (now Saint-Petersburg, Russia), and the College of Librarianship (Aberystwyth, Wales).
He is author of Bibliography of English Language Works on the Bábí and Bahá’í Faiths, 1844–1985 (1990), and numerous articles on Bahá’í history and beliefs. He has served in the past in various professional capacities on boards for the Bahá’í Faith, including the United States National Bahá’í Archives Committee, the Bahá’í Publishing Trust advisory board, the Editorial Committee of the Journal of Bahá’í Studies, and the Editorial Board of the Bahá’í Studies Review. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Corinne True Center for Bahá’í History. Routledge published his book on Millennialism, Millerites, and Prophecy in Bahá’í Discourse in September 2025.
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