90 years ago: Meher Baba enters into silence

Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. Matthew 24:23-24 (also Mark 13:21-22)

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Isaiah 45:22-23

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:10-11

On July 10, 1925, Indian mystic, guru, and self-proclaimed avatar Meher Baba (born Merwan Sheriar Irani), 31, who had been in contact with those he regarded as the five "Perfect Masters" since 1913 and had begun attracting his own following in 1921, began a practice of silence, communicating at first by writing, after 1927 only by means of an alphabet board, and from 1954 on, only by hand gestures.

Meher Baba claimed that he had entered into silence because man had been deaf to God. On a number of occasions, Meher Baba predicted that he would break his silence, and that that event would lay the foundation for that which would take place over the next 700 years. He became popular in Hollywood in the 1930s (Scientology not having been invented yet), and promised in 1934 that he would break his silence at the Hollywood Bowl, but suddenly changed his plans and sailed to England, ostensibly postponing the breaking of his silence because "conditions are not yet ripe." A similar thing had happened in 1926 when theosophist Annie Besant had brought Jiddu Krishnamurti to the United States: when his ship arrived in New York, the "chosen vessel" suddenly seemed to lose all his spiritual power, cancelled his American tour, and went into seclusion.1 Could it be that these things happened because Christians were praying to the true God that He would confound the enemy's plans and words and that the true God delivered immediate results?

Meher Baba never did break his silence, to the moment of his death on January 31, 1969 at the age of 74. His last hand gestures reportedly conveyed the words, "Do not forget that I am God"--he was deceived to the end. During his lifetime, Meher Baba asked his devotees to observe July 10 as Silence Day, and that practice continues today. The Avatar Meher Baba Trust continues his work. Meher Baba never broke his silence during this life, but he will when, with everyone else, he bows his knees and confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord.

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1. McCandlish Phillips, The Spirit World (1970), pp. 21-24, cited in Dave Hunt, Peace, Prosperity and the Coming Holocaust (1983), pp. 125-127.