That the Spiritual Assemblies of today will be replaced in
time by the Houses of Justice, and are to all intents and purposes identical
and not separate bodies, is abundantly confirmed by 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself. He
has in fact in a Tablet addressed to the members of the first Chicago Spiritual
Assembly, the first elected Bahá'í body instituted in the United States,
referred to them as the members of the "House of Justice" for that
city, and has thus with His own pen established beyond any doubt the identity
of the present Bahá'í Spiritual Assemblies with the Houses of Justice referred
to by Bahá'u'lláh. For reasons which are not difficult to discover, it has been
found advisable to bestow upon the elected representatives of Bahá'í
communities throughout the world the temporary appellation of Spiritual
Assemblies, a term which, as the position and aims of the Bahá'í Faith are
better understood and more fully recognized, will gradually be superseded by
the permanent and more appropriate designation of House of Justice....
(Shoghi
Effendi, "The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh”; The Compilation of Compilations
vol II)
