The central purpose of this book is to help the reader acquire this sense of continuity when reading and studying the messages of the Universal House of Justice. It is also hoped that the reader will acquire a specific understanding of the significance of the past decade in the evolution of the Faith and of the major challenges that the Faith is facing today in order to be able to more effectively serve its needs. For it is clear in the messages that follow that the Cause of God, pursuing its inherent nature of organic growth and development, is quite a different entity than it was in 1983. It has radically changed in its stature in the eyes of the world; it has grown dramatically; it has brought to a close tasks of expansion pursued since 1954; and it has had to grapple with new demands for maturity in the operation of its institutions, in its involvement in the life of society, and in its fundamental processes of expansion and consolidation.