Christ

Christ (/kraɪst/; Ancient Greek: Χριστός, Christós, meaning "anointed") is a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Māšîaḥ) and the Syriac M'shiha, words for a "Messiah", which is used as a title for Jesus of Nazareth in the New Testament; among most Christians the words "Jesus" and "Christ" are often treated as synonyms. It is also used to indicate the presence of a Divine Essence or Holy Spirit of Christ manifest within all human beings, especially so in those of great saintliness. Most Christians believe that in the Second Coming of Christ, Jesus will personally return to Earth. In Judaism Jesus is not accepted as a Messiah, and notions equating him and God are rejected as idolatry. Islam does accept Jesus as the messiah Isa al-Masih and that he will return to Earth in a great and final apocolypse, but both Jews and Muslims reject assertions that he is a deity, should be worshiped as God, or called Son of God.

Alphabetized by author or source

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A

Christ – This term was taken from the pagan dictionary and originally meant "Initiate" or "Hierophant". The Christ is our highest and most purified ego. The word meant the highest divine principle in man. The Krestos, or neophyte, went through the sufferings and passed the tests of initiation and after being anointed, emerged as Christ, "the purified". "His finite personality was fused with his infinite individuality, and he then became an immortal Ego."
- Agni Yoga, A Treasury of Terms and Thoughts from the Agni Yoga Teachings (1992)

Jesus Christ was the supreme example of authentic anarchy — the creative non-violent anarchist par excellence — working not from the top down, but from the bottom up with the poor, and the poorest of the poor, to empower people and enable them to realize their potential, as men and women made in the images of God.
- Dave Andrews, in Christi-Anarchy: Discovering A Radical Spirituality of Compassion (1999), p. 73

The insidious tricks of the enemy may disturb you, but the humility and humanity of Christ should console you. This man emphasizes how high above you Christ has been lifted up; Christ, though, says how low he came down to you.
- Augustine of Hippo, in Sermon 361 : On the Resurrection of the Dead, as translated by Edmund Hill in Works of Saint Augustine, A Translation for the 21st Century, III/10, Sermons 341-400, edited by John E. Rotelle

The Father willed that these two, the God Christ and the Church, should be one man. All men are one man in Christ, and the unity of the Christians constitutes but one man. And this man is all men, all men are this man; for all are one, since Christ is one.
- Augustine of Hippo, On the Mystical Body of Christ, in The Whole Christ: The Historical Development of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Scripture and Tradition (1938, 1962) by Fr. Emile Mersch, S. J., translated by John R. Kelly, S.J, Part 3 : The Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Western Tradition, Ch. 4, Augustine’s Sermons to the People, p. 414

In order to understand the Scriptures, it is absolutely necessary to know the whole, complete Christ, that is, Head and members. For sometimes Christ speaks in the name of the Head alone … sometimes in the name of His body, which is the holy Church spread over the entire earth.
- Augustine of Hippo, On the Mystical Body of Christ, in The Whole Christ: The Historical Development of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Scripture and Tradition (1938, 1962) by Fr. Emile Mersch, S. J., translated by John R. Kelly, S.J, Part 3 : The Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Western Tradition, Ch. 4, Augustine’s Sermons to the People, p. 419

Though absent from our eyes, Christ our Head is bound to us by love. Since the whole Christ is Head and body, let us so listen to the voice of the Head that we may also hear the body speak.
He no more wished to speak alone than He wished to exist alone, since He says: “Behold, I am with you all days, unto the consummation of the world” (Matt. 28:20). If He is with us, then He speaks in us, He speaks of us, and He speaks through us; and we too speak in Him.
- Augustine of Hippo, On the Mystical Body of Christ, in The Whole Christ: The Historical Development of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Scripture and Tradition (1938, 1962) by Fr. Emile Mersch, S. J., translated by John R. Kelly, S.J, Part 3 : The Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Western Tradition, Ch. 4, Augustine’s Sermons to the People, p. 420

Christ’s whole body groans in pain. Until the end of the world, when pain will pass away, this man groans and cries to God. And each one of us has part in the cry of that whole body. Thou didst cry out in thy day, and thy days have passed away; another took thy place and cried out in his day. Thou here, he there, and another there. The body of Christ ceases not to cry out all the day, one member replacing the other whose voice is hushed. Thus there is but one man who reaches unto the end of time, and those that cry are always His members.
- Augustine of Hippo, On the Mystical Body of Christ, in The Whole Christ: The Historical Development of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Scripture and Tradition (1938, 1962) by Fr. Emile Mersch, S. J., translated by John R. Kelly, S.J, Part 3 : The Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Western Tradition, Ch. 4, Augustine’s Sermons to the People, p. 423

What does the Scripture mean when it tells us of the body of one man so extended in space that all can kill him? We must understand these words of ourselves, of our Church, or the body of Christ. For Jesus Christ is one man, having a Head and a body. The Saviour of the body and the members of the body are two in one flesh, and in one voice, and in one passion, and, when iniquity shall have passed away, in one repose.
And so the passion of Christ is not in Christ alone; and yet the passion of Christ is in Christ alone. For if in Christ you consider both the Head and the body, the Christ’s passion is in Christ alone; but if by Christ you mean only the Head, then Christ’s passion is not in Christ alone. Hence if you are in the members of Christ, all you who hear me, and even you who hear me not (though you do hear, if you are united with the members of Christ), whatever you suffer at the hands of those who are no among the members of Christ, was lacking to the sufferings of Christ. It is added precisely because it was lacking. You fill up the measure; you do not cause it to overflow. You will suffer just so much as must be added of your sufferings to the complete passion of Christ, who suffered as our Head and who continues to suffer in His members, that is, in us. Into this common treasury each pays what he owes, and according to each one’s ability we all contribute our share of suffering. The full measure of the Passion will not be attained until the end of the world.
- Augustine of Hippo, On the Mystical Body of Christ, in The Whole Christ: The Historical Development of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Scripture and Tradition (1938, 1962) by Fr. Emile Mersch, S. J., translated by John R. Kelly, S.J, Part 3 : The Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Western Tradition, Ch. 4, Augustine’s Sermons to the People, p. 424

Let every Christian, yea, let the whole body of Christ everywhere cry out, despite the tribulations it endures, despite temptations and countless scandals, saying: "Preserve my soul, for I am holy; save Thy servant, O my God, that trusteth in thee" (Ps. 85:2) No, this holy one is not proud, for he trusts in God.
- Augustine of Hippo, On the Mystical Body of Christ, in The Whole Christ: The Historical Development of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Scripture and Tradition (1938, 1962) by Fr. Emile Mersch, S. J., translated by John R. Kelly, S.J, Part 3 : The Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Western Tradition, Ch. 4, Augustine’s Sermons to the People, p. 429

The members of Christ, many though they be, are bound to one another by the ties of charity and peace under the one Head, who is our Saviour Himself, and form one man. Often their voice is heard in the Psalms as the voice of one man; the cry of one is as the cry of all, for all are one in One.
- Augustine of Hippo, On the Mystical Body of Christ, in The Whole Christ: The Historical Development of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Scripture and Tradition (1938, 1962) by Fr. Emile Mersch, S. J., translated by John R. Kelly, S.J, Part 3 : The Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Western Tradition, Ch. 4, Augustine’s Sermons to the People, p. 430

"Thou dost honor me in vain," He cries from heaven, "thou dost honor Me in vain!" If someone wished to kiss thy cheek, but insisted at the same time on trampling thy feet; if with his hailed boots he were to crush thy feet as he tries to hold thy head and kiss thee, wouldst thou not interrupt his expression of respect and cry out: "What are thou doing, man? Thou art trampling upon me!" … It is for this reason that before He ascended into heaven our Lord Jesus Christ recommended to us His body, by which He was to remain upon earth. For He foresaw that many would pay Him homage because of His glory in heaven, but that their homage would be vain, so long as they despise His members on earth.
- Augustine of Hippo, On the Mystical Body of Christ, in The Whole Christ: The Historical Development of the Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Scripture and Tradition (1938, 1962) by Fr. Emile Mersch, S. J., translated by John R. Kelly, S.J, Part 3 : The Doctrine of the Mystical Body in Western Tradition, Ch. 4, Augustine’s Sermons to the People, p. 436

B

The Avatar is always one and the same, because God is always One and the Same, the Eternal, Indivisible, Infinite One, who manifests Himself in the form of man as the Avatar, as the Messiah, as the Prophet, as the Ancient One — the Highest of the High. This Eternally One and the Same Avatar repeats His manifestation from time to time, in different cycles, adopting different human forms and different names, in different places, to reveal Truth in different garbs and different languages, in order to raise humanity from the pit of ignorance and help free it from the bondage of delusions.
- Meher Baba, in "The Highest of the High" Dhera Dun, India (7 September 1953)

Whether there have been 26 Avatars since Adam, or 124,000 Prophets, as is sometimes claimed, or whether Jesus Christ was the last and only Messiah, or Muhammad the last Prophet, is all immaterial and insignificant when eternity and reality are under consideration.
- Meher Baba, in a statement before 1955, as quoted in God Speaks : The Theme of Creation and Its Purpose (1973), p. 266

A clear distinction should be made between the Christ Principle... which is a high spiritual aspect to which each member of humanity must attain, and the same term applied to a personage of exalted rank representing that Principle, whether in the historical reference to the Man of Nazareth or otherwise. p. 9
- Alice Bailey, in The Light of the Soul... a paraphrase of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, (1927)

Many years of work as an evangelist and as a teacher in the field of Christian principles, and a difficult cycle in which I faced the problem of my own relation to Christ and to Christianity, have brought me to two definitely clear and clean-cut recognitions: first, a recognition of the reality of the Individuality of Christ and of His Mission; and secondly, a recognition that the development of the Christ Consciousness and the Christ Nature in individual man, and in the race as a whole, carries with it the solution of our world problem. (Forward)
- Alice Bailey, in From Bethlehem to Calvary. (1937)

He has been for two thousand years the supreme Head of the Church Invisible, the Spiritual Hierarchy, composed of the disciples of all faiths. He recognises and loves those who are not Christian but who retain their allegiance to their Founders – the Buddha, Mohammed and others. He cares not what the faith is, if the objective is love of God and of humanity. If men look for the Christ Who left His disciples centuries ago, they will fail to recognise the Christ Who is in the process of returning. The Christ has no religious barriers in His consciousness. It matters not to Him of what faith a man may call himself.
The Son of God is on His way, and He cometh not alone. His advance guard is already here, and the Plan which they must follow, is already made clear. Let recognition be the aim.
- Alice Bailey in "The Reappearance of the Christ" (1948) p. 60

He is the World Teacher and not a Christian teacher. He Himself told us that He had other folds, and to them He has meant as much as He has meant to the orthodox Christian. They may not call Him Christ, but they have their own name for Him and follow Him as truly and faithfully as their Western brethren.
- Alice Bailey in "The Reappearance of the Christ" (1948) p. 62

In the future, the eyes of humanity will be fixed upon the Christ, and not upon any such man-made institutions as the Church and its dignitaries; Christ will be seen as He is in reality, working through His disciples, through the Masters of the Wisdom, and through His followers who toil unseen (and usually unrecognised) behind world affairs. The sphere of His activity will be known to be the human heart and also the crowded market places of the world, but not some stone edifice, and not the pomp and ceremony of any ecclesiastical headquarters.
- Alice Bailey in "The Reappearance of the Christ" (1948) p. 66

A myth is capable of becoming a fact in the experience of an individual, for a myth is a fact which can be proven. Upon the myths we take our stand, but we must seek to re-interpret them in the light of the present. Through self-initiated experiment we can prove their validity; through experience we can establish them as governing forces in our lives; and through their expression we can demonstrate their truth to others. This is the theme of this book, dealing as it does with the facts of the Gospel story, that fivefold sequential myth which teaches us the revelation of divinity in the Person of Jesus Christ, and which remains eternally truth, in the cosmic sense, in the historical sense, and in its practical application to the individual. This myth divides itself into five great episodes: 1. The Birth at Bethlehem. 2. The Baptism in Jordan. 3. The Transfiguration on Mount Carmel. 4. The Crucifixion on Mount Golgotha. 5. The Resurrection and Ascension. (Chapter One)
- Alice Bailey, in From Bethlehem to Calvary (1937)

This heavenly event takes place annually at the time of the full moon of Taurus (often called the "May Full Moon"), and at that event there is released upon Earth (according to the measure of man's demand) the blessing of God Himself, transmitted through the Buddha and His Brother, the Christ ... Thus, so the legend runs, the Buddha returns once a year to bless the world, transmitting through the Christ renewed spiritual life.
- Alice Bailey, The Wesak Festival, A Technique of Spiritual Contact

Our Christian conviction is that Christ is also the messiah of Israel. Certainly it is in the hands of God how and when the unification of Jews and Christians into the people of God will take place.
- Pope Benedict XVI, "God and the World", as reported by National Catholic Reporter (October 2000)

And so, looking over the world at the moment, there seems little likelihood that when He comes He will be welcome. A few will recognise Him as they ever have done, and maybe, as the characteristics of the coming race are those of spirituality, there will be more to welcome Him, for the spiritual life is spreading to-day, and those who are of the Spirit will know the law of the Spirit; and I would fain leave you with the thought tonight that that is a truth, that the Supreme Teacher will again ere very long be incarnate upon earth, again made manifest as Teacher, again walking and living amongst us as last He walked in Palestine. Splendid as is the hope, mighty as is the inspiration, there is nothing too glorious to be possible for the ever-unfolding Spirit in man, and the hope of to-day is that that spirit is spreading, despite the characteristics of our time; that men are becoming more liberal, more tolerant, more ready to recognise that which is true and just.
- Annie Besant, in The Changing World and Lectures to Theosophical Students, Lecture VI, The Coming Christ, (May, June, and July 1909)

It may well be that we have reached such a time...that the popular mind of the day will be transcended by large numbers of the more spiritually minded, and that when He comes again He will be able to stay amongst us more than the three brief years that marked His last ministry. That, then, is the word, the thought I leave with you: to develop in yourselves the Spirit of the Christ, and then at His coming you shall recognise His beauty. Learn compassion, learn tenderness, learn good thoughts of others rather than evil, learn to be tender with the weak, learn to be reverent to the great; and if you can develop those qualities in you, then the coming Christ may be able to number you among His disciples, and the welcome that the earth shall give Him shall not again be a cross.
- Annie Besant, in The Changing World and Lectures to Theosophical Students, Lecture VI, The Coming Christ, (May, June, and July 1909)

To that manifested Presence the name of "the Christ" may rightly be given, and it was He who lived and moved in the form of the man Jesus over the hills and plains of Palestine, teaching, healing diseases, and gathering round Him as disciples a few of the more advanced souls. The rare charm of His royal love, outpouring from Him as rays from a sun, drew round Him the suffering, the weary, and the oppressed, and the subtly tender magic of His gentle wisdom purified, ennobled, and sweetened the lives that came into contact with His own... By parable and luminous imagery He taught the uninstructed crowds who pressed around Him, and, using the powers of the free Spirit, He healed many a disease by word or touch, reinforcing the magnetic energies belonging to His pure body with the compelling force of His inner life... The teachers and rulers of His nation soon came to eye Him with jealousy and anger; His spirituality was a constant reproach to their materialism, His power a constant, though silent, exposure of their weakness. p. 136
- Annie Besant in Esoteric Christianity: Or, The Lesser Mysteries (1914)

The historical Christ, then, is a glorious Being belonging to the great spiritual hierarchy that guides the spiritual evolution of humanity, who used for some three years the human body of the disciple Jesus; who spent the last of these three years in public teaching... who was a healer of diseases and performed other remarkable occult works; who gathered round Him a small band of disciples whom He instructed in the deeper truths of the spiritual life; who drew men to Him by the singular love and tenderness and the rich wisdom that breathed from His Person; and who was finally put to death for blasphemy, for teaching the inherent Divinity of Himself and of all men. p.141
- Annie Besant in Esoteric Christianity: Or, The Lesser Mysteries (1914)

But it must not be supposed that the work of the Christ for His followers was over after He had established the Mysteries, or was confined to rare appearances therein. That Mighty One who had used the body of Jesus as His vehicle, and whose guardian care extends over the whole spiritual evolution of the fifth race of humanity, gave into the strong hands of the holy disciple who had surrendered to Him his body the care of the infant Church. Perfecting his human evolution, Jesus became one of the Masters of Wisdom, and took Christianity under His special charge, ever seeking to guide it to the right lines, to protect, to guard and nourish it. He was the Hierophant in the Christian Mysteries, the direct Teacher of the Initiates. His the inspiration that kept alight the Gnosis in the Church, until the superincumbent mass of ignorance became so great that even His breath could not fan the flame sufficiently to prevent its extinguishment. p. 142
- Annie Besant in Esoteric Christianity: Or, The Lesser Mysteries (1914)

The vision of Christ that thou dost see is my vision’s greatest enemy.
Both read the Bible day and night, but thou read’st black where I read white.
- William Blake, The Everlasting Gospel (c.1818)

I believe blindly in those words of Christ that I clearly understand and still more in those that were expressed by Him in the Sermon on the Mount for I find them literally repeated in the Buddhist sermons of Gautama, in the Dhammapada and in the Sastras of Siddhartha Buddha, as well as the Egyptian Book of the Dead.
- H.P. Blavatsky, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky: Volume 1 1861-1879, ISBN-13: 978-0835608367

The religion which the primitive teaching of the early few apostles most resembled — a religion preached by Jesus himself — is the elder of... Buddhism. The latter as taught in its primitive purity, and carried to perfection by the last of the Buddhas, Gautama, based its moral ethics on three fundamental principles. It alleged that 1, every thing existing, exists from natural causes; 2, that virtue brings its own reward, and vice and sin their own punishment; and, 3, that the state of man in this world is probationary... However puzzling the subsequent theological tenets; however seemingly incomprehensible the metaphysical abstractions which have convulsed the theology of every one of the great religions of mankind as soon as it was placed on a sure footing, the above is found to be the essence of every religious philosophy, with the exception of later Christianity. It was that of Zoroaster, of Pythagoras, of Plato, of Jesus, and even of Moses, albeit the teachings of the Jewish law-giver have been so piously tampered with.
- H.P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, Vol. II, Chapter III], (1877)

In following Jesus, people are released from the hard yoke of their own laws to be under the gentle yoke of Jesus Christ. … Jesus' commandment never wishes to destroy life, but rather to preserve, strengthen, and heal life.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Discipleship (1937), "Preface", as translated by Barbara Green and Reihhard Krauss (2001)

C

The living truth is what I long to see : I cannot lean upon what used to be.
So shut the Bible up and show me how
The Christ you talk about
Is living now.
- Sydney Carter, in "Present Tense" in Nothing Fixed or Final (1968), p. 27

I see Christ as the incarnation of the piper who is calling us. He dances that shape and pattern which is at the heart of our reality. By Christ I mean not only Jesus; in other times and places, other planets, there may be other Lords of the Dance. But Jesus is the one I know of first and best. I sing of the dancing pattern in the life and words of Jesus.
- Sydney Carter, in Green Print for Song (1974)

Scriptures and creeds may come to seem incredible, but faith will still go dancing on. Even though (because it rejects a doctrine) it is now described as "doubt". This, I believe, is the kind of faith that Christ commended.
- Sydney Carter, as quoted in his obituary in The Independent (17 March 2001)

D

The Grand Inquisitor by Feodor Dostoevsky (1879–1880)

(Translated by H. P. Blavatsky) Full text online

He comes silently and unannounced; yet all--how strange--yea, all recognize Him, at once! The population rushes towards Him as if propelled by some irresistible force; it surrounds, throngs, and presses around, it follows Him.... Silently, and with a smile of boundless compassion upon His lips, He crosses the dense crowd, and moves softly on. The Sun of Love burns in His heart, and warm rays of Light, Wisdom and Power beam forth from His eyes, and pour down their waves upon the swarming multitudes of the rabble assembled around, making their hearts vibrate with returning love.

He pauses at the portal of the old cathedral, just as a wee white coffin is carried in, with tears and great lamentations. The lid is off, and in the coffin lies the body of a fair-child, seven years old... 'He will raise the child to life!' confidently shouts the crowd to the weeping mother. The officiating priest... looks perplexed, and frowns... The procession halts, and the little coffin is gently lowered at his feet. Divine compassion beams forth from His eyes, and as He looks at the child, His lips are heard to whisper once more, 'Talitha Cumi'--and 'straightway the damsel arose.' The child rises in her coffin...and, looking round with large astonished eyes she smiles sweetly...

A terrible commotion rages among them, the populace shouts and loudly weeps, when suddenly, before the cathedral door, appears the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor himself... He pauses before the crowd and observes. He has seen all. He has witnessed the placing of the little coffin at His feet, the calling back to life. And now, his dark, grim face has grown still darker; his bushy grey eyebrows nearly meet, and his sunken eye flashes with sinister light. Slowly raising his finger, he commands his minions to arrest Him...

The Grand Inquisitor... addresses Him in these words: "'It is Thou! ... Thou!' ... Receiving no reply, he rapidly continues: 'Nay, answer not; be silent! ... And what couldst Thou say? ... I know but too well Thy answer.... Besides, Thou hast no right to add one syllable to that which was already uttered by Thee before.... Why shouldst Thou now return, to impede us in our work?... But art Thou as well aware of what awaits Thee in the morning?...to-morrow I will condemn and burn Thee on the stake, as the most wicked of all the heretics...

...his words mean, in short: 'Everything was given over by Thee to the Pope, and everything now rests with him alone; Thou hast no business to return and thus hinder us in our work.' In this sense the Jesuits not only talk but write likewise.

He [the Grand Inquisitor] seriously regards it as a great service done by himself, his brother monks and Jesuits, to humanity, to have conquered and subjected unto their authority that freedom, and boasts that it was done but for the good of the world... Man is born a rebel, and can rebels be ever happy?...

Having disburdened his heart, the Inquisitor waits for some time to hear his prisoner speak in His turn... The old man longs to hear His voice, to hear Him reply; better words of bitterness and scorn than His silence. Suddenly He rises; slowly and silently approaching the Inquisitor, He bends towards him and softly kisses the bloodless, four-score and-ten-year-old lips. That is all the answer.

E

If one purges the Judaism of the Prophets and Christianity as Jesus Christ taught it of all subsequent additions, especially those of the priests, one is left with a teaching which is capable of curing all the social ills of humanity.
It is the duty of every man of good will to strive steadfastly in his own little world to make this teaching of pure humanity a living force, so far as he can.
- Albert Einstein, in The World As I See It (1949), § Christianity and Judaism

F

The Christian sees the Church as the Body of Christ, as the vessel that guards with absolute integrity the deposit of faith, as the faithful Spouse who communicates without addition or subtraction all that Christ entrusted.
- Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (later Pope Francis), in Catechesis (English translation) given by Bergoglio at the 49th International Eucharistic Congress, in Quebec (18 July 2008)

The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! "Father, the atheists?" Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace.
- Pope Francis, as quoted in "Pope at Mass: Culture of encounter is the foundation of peace" at Vatican Radio (22 May 2013)

I believe in God, not in a Catholic God, there is no Catholic God, there is God and I believe in Jesus Christ, his incarnation. Jesus is my teacher and my pastor, but God, the Father, Abba, is the light and the Creator. This is my Being.
- Pope Francis, interviewed in "How the Church will change" by Eugenio Scalfari in La Repubblica (1 October 2013), as translated from Italian to English by Kathryn Wallace

G

H

The dictionary definition of a Christian is one who follows Christ; kind, kindly, Christ-like. Anarchism is voluntary cooperation for good, with the right of secession. A Christian anarchist is therefore one who turns the other cheek, overturns the tables of the moneychangers, and does not need a cop to tell him how to behave. A Christian anarchist does not depend upon bullets or ballots to achieve his ideal; he achieves that ideal daily by the One-Man Revolution with which he faces a decadent, confused, and dying world.
- Ammon Hennacy, "Christian Anarchism" in The Book of Ammon (1965)

I

J

Take heed lest any man deceive you: For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.
- Jesus, as quoted in Gospel of Mark (KJV) 18:6-7
- Variants:
- Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
  - As quoted in Gospel of Matthew (KJV) 24:4-6

And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
- Jesus, as quoted in Gospel of Mark (KJV) 18:19-22
- Variants:
- 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.
  Behold, I have told you before.
  Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
  - As quoted in Gospel of Matthew (KJV) 24:21-27

Testimonies of Jesus

Anecdotes of the testimony of Jesus, regarding his status as a Messiah, or Christ, as recorded in the Gospels

Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am?
And they answered, John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets.
And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.
And he charged them that they should tell no man of him.
- Gospel of Mark 8:27-30
- Variants:
- When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
  And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
  And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
  And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
  Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
  - Gospel of Matthew 16:13-20

And as soon as it was day, the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council, saying, Art thou the Christ? tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe : And if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. Hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God.
Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am.
And they said, What need we any further witness? for we ourselves have heard of his own mouth.
- Gospel of Luke 22:66-71

K

The problems confronting us should be faced with courage, with truth and understanding; as well as with the willingness to speak factually, with simplicity and with love in the effort to expose the truth and clarify the problems which must be solved. The opposing forces of entrenched evil must be routed before He for Whom all men wait, the Christ, can come.
- Djwhal Khul, in The Reappearance of the Christ, p. 164 (1947)

The knowledge that He is ready and anxious publicly to appear to His loved Humanity only adds to the sense of general frustration, and another very vital question arises: For what period of time must we endure, struggle and fight? The reply comes with clarity: He will come unfailingly when a measure of peace has been restored, when the principle of sharing is at least in process of controlling economic affairs, and when churches and political groups have begun to clean house. Then He can and will come; then the Kingdom of God will be publicly recognized and will no longer be a thing of dreams and of wishful thinking and orthodox hope.
- Djwhal Khul, in The Reappearance of the Christ, p. 164 (1947)

He (the Risen Christ) will not this time demonstrate the perfected life of a Son of God, which was His main mission before; He will appear as the supreme Head of the Spiritual Hierarchy, meeting the need of the thirsty nations of the world – thirsty for truth, for right human relations, and for loving understanding. He will be recognised this time by all, and in His Own Person testify to the fact of the resurrection, and hence demonstrate the paralleling fact of the immortality of the soul, of the spiritual man. The emphasis during the past two thousand years has been on death; it has coloured all the teaching of the orthodox churches; only one day in the year has been dedicated to the thought of the resurrection. (9 – 151).
- Djwhal Khul, in The Destiny of Nations (1949)

When He comes Whom angels and men await, and Whose work it is to inaugurate the New Age and so complete the work He began in Palestine two thousand years ago, He will bring with Him some of the great Angels, as well as certain of the Masters.
- Djwhal Khul, in The Externalization of the Hierarchy'', p. 508, (1957)

It can be expected that the orthodox Christian will at first reject the theories about the Christ which occultism presents; at the same time, this same orthodox Christian will find it increasingly difficult to induce the intelligent masses of people to accept the impossible Deity and the feeble Christ, which historical Christianity has endorsed. A Christ Who is present and living, Who is known to those who follow Him, Who is a strong and able executive, and not a sweet and sentimental sufferer, Who has never left us but Who has worked for two thousand years through the medium of His disciples, the inspired men and women of all faiths, all religions, and all religious persuasions; Who has no use for fanaticism or hysterical devotion, but Who loves all men persistently, intelligently and optimistically, Who sees divinity in them all, and Who comprehends the techniques of the evolutionary development of the human consciousness (mental, emotional and physical, producing civilisations and cultures appropriate to a particular point in evolution) – these ideas the intelligent public can and will accept.
- Djwhal Khul, in The Externalization of the Hierarchy'', p. 589/90, (1957)

For God has other Words for other worlds,
But for this world the Word of God is Christ.
- Harriet King, The Disciples (1873), Ugo Bassi, III ("The Sermon in the Hospital")

L

In those far-off times it was the Lord Gautama who ruled the world of religion and education; but now He has yielded that high office to the Lord Maitreya, whom western people call the Christ—who took the body of the disciple Jesus during the last three years of its life on the physical plane; and those who know tell us that it will not be long before He descends among us once again, to found another faith. Anyone whose mind is broad enough to grasp this magnificent conception of the splendid reality of things will see instantly how worse than futile it is to set up in one’s mind one religion as in opposition to another, to try to convert any person from one to another, or to compare depreciatingly the founder of one with the founder of another.... p. 10
- C.W. Leadbeater in The Inner Life, (1917)

You ask about the Great One whom we call the Christ, the Lord Maitreya, and about His work in the past and in the future... there is what we may call a department of the inner government of the world which is devoted to religious instruction—the founding and inspiring of religions, and so on. It is the Christ who is in charge of that department; sometimes He Himself appears on earth to found a great religion and sometimes He entrusts such work to one of His more advanced assistants. We must regard Him as exercising a kind of steady pressure from behind all the time, so that the power employed will flow as though automatically into every channel anywhere and of any sort which is open to its passage; so that He is working simultaneously through every religion, and utilizing all that is good in the way of devotion and self-sacrifice in each. The fact that these religions may be wasting their strength in abusing one another upon the physical plane is of course lamentable, but it does not make much difference to the fact that whatever is good in each of them is being simultaneously utilized from behind by the same great Power. p. 19
- C.W. Leadbeater in The Inner Life, (1917)

The true founder of anarchy was Jesus Christ and … the first anarchist society was that of the apostles.
- Georges Lechartier, as quoted in Anarchism : A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (1962) by George Woodcock, Part One : The Idea, Ch. 2 : The Family Tree p. 36

Jesus of Nazareth and the Christ are not one and the same person. This is one of the most difficult claims for many Christians to accept in connection with Maitreya, the World Teacher, and it therefore needs some further explanation. In fact, the title Christ does not refer to an individual at all. It is the name of a function in the Hierarchy of Masters of Wisdom, that group of advanced beings who guide the evolution of humanity from behind the scenes. Whoever stands at the head of this Hierarchy automatically becomes the World Teacher, known in the East as the Bodhisattva, during the term of his office.
Maitreya, who embodies the energy we call the Christ Principle, has held that office for over two millennia, and in Palestine he manifested himself as the Christ to inaugurate the Age of Pisces, then beginning. The method he used is called spiritual overshadowing, that is, his consciousness informed and guided the actions and teachings of his disciple Jesus. It was, therefore, the consciousness of the Christ, Maitreya, which was seen and experienced by those around Jesus.

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Beseech Christ. Search for the joy of turning to the Creator. Learn, and unlock the Gates of Knowledge, And affirm yourselves in understanding the Divine Plan.
- Maitreya, Leaves of Morya’s Garden I, Agni Yoga, 24 (1924)

I am not a bridge built of promises, but verily the Light that calls to you. I teach love. My disciples must realize happiness in the love of Christ.
- Maitreya, Leaves of Morya’s Garden I, Agni Yoga, 27 (1924)

Beware of venomous vibrations. Strive for the future and succumb not to the spell of the present. Follow the simplest path as you ascend the mountain. Powerful, exalted visions require pure surroundings, and prana. Christ’s deeds were consummated amidst the beauties of nature. Never did He dwell for long in cities.
- Maitreya, Leaves of Morya’s Garden I, Agni Yoga, 51 (1924)

The Spirit of Christ breathes across the desert of life. Like a spring It wears Its way through the solid rocks. In the milky firmament It radiates in lights beyond counting, and rises upward in the stem of every flower.
- Maitreya, Leaves of Morya’s Garden I, Agni Yoga, 72 (1924)

With this ambiguous earth
His dealings have been told us. These abide:
The signal to a maid, the human birth,
The lesson, and the young Man crucified.[…]
But in the eternities,
Doubtless we shall compare together, hear
A million alien Gospels, in what guise
He trod the Pleiades, the Lyre, the Bear.
- Alice Meynell, "Christ in the Universe", in Poems (London: Burns & Oates, 1913), pp. 114–115

When men began to visualize Christ as an inaccessible idol, there began a period of visions of Christ in most realistic forms. He appeared as very close to men, entering into their daily life. Briefly speaking, every popular error is corrected. In the day of woman’s humiliation one may trace the appearance of the Divine Mother... After St. Augustine the church began its plunge into the darkness of the Middle Ages, and Christ was locked behind a barrier of gold. In order to break it, Christ Himself descended even in lesser Images in order to manifest again the grandeur of communion in unity. The wisdom of antiquity understood well the waves of the needs of the world.
- Morya, Leaves of Morya’s Garden Book Two, Illumination, Agni Yoga, 125, (1925)

Great crimes have been committed in the name of Christ... All the embellishments need to be discarded. We are not just talking about works that one might expect to be embellished; even the works of Origen were subjected to alteration. Therefore, it is time to change conditions in the world.
- Morya, Leaves of Morya’s Garden Book Two, Illumination, 150, (1925)

One may build a city, one may give the best knowledge, but most difficult of all is to reveal the true Image of Christ. Think, how to cleanse the Image of Christ. Gathering the crumbs of the people’s concept of the Savior and replacing the chiton by overalls, one can find illumination. By human hands must the Temple be built.
- Morya,Leaves of Morya’s Garden Book Two, Illumination, 152, (1925)

... Christ spoke those memorable words... He was looking on as the moonlight poured onto the sands. “We have lost the way,” I told Him. “We have to wait and find out the positions of the stars.” “Rasul Morya, why should We bother about the way, when the entire world is waiting for Us?” Then, taking His bamboo staff He traced a square around His footprint and said, “Truly, by human feet.” And having made an impression with His palm, He enclosed it in a square. “Truly, by human hands.” Between the squares He drew what looked like a pillar crowned with an arc. He said: “Oh, how Aum will penetrate the human consciousness! Here I have drawn a pistil with an arc above it, and have laid the foundation in four directions. When the Temple is built by human feet and human hands — the Temple where the pistil placed by Me will blossom — then may the builders walk My path. Why wait for a path, when the path is before Us?... When the Name of the Temple is uttered, this image shall appear. As a reminder of My constellation, a square and nine stars shall shine above the Temple. The sign of the foot and the hand shall be inscribed on the cornerstone.” That is what He Himself said on the eve of the new moon. The heat of the desert was great. (153)
- Morya, Leaves of Morya’s Garden Book Two, Illumination, 153, (1925)

The Star of the Morning is a sign of the Great Epoch, the first ray of which will flash forth from the Teaching of Christ; for who is to glorify the Mother of the World if not Christ, He who was belittled by the world? Give Us the arch of the Vault through which to enter! (153)
- Morya, Leaves of Morya’s Garden Book Two, Illumination, 153, (1925)

Cryptogram about Christ: Night fell. Christ was seated at a threshold. A scribe approached and asked: “Why dost thou sit in the passageway?” Christ answered: “Because I am the threshold of the Spirit. If thou wouldst pass, pass through Me.” Another scribe asked: “Can it be that the Son of David sits at the place for dogs?” Christ answered: “Verily, thou defamest David, My Father.” It became dark, and a third scribe asked: “Why sitteth thou as if fearful of thy house?” Christ answered: “I await the night’s darkness, to free Me from sight of thee. Verily, let darkness depart into darkness.” Then, rising and pointing to Mount Moriah, whereon stood the Temple, He said: “My Grandfather created the Temple of stone, but He sits under the linen of the tent.” Said the scribe: “Madman, he believes that Solomon still lives.” And they departed in ignorance. Afterwards Mary came out of the house and, seeing Christ, said: “Teacher, share our evening meal.” Christ answered: “The gift of the heart glows in the darkness.”
- Morya, Leaves of Morya’s Garden Book Two, Illumination, 192, (1925)

People will ask: “Who is greater, Christ or Buddha?” Answer: “It is impossible to measure the far-off worlds. We can only be enraptured by their radiance.” The Ray of Christ feeds the Earth as much as the Rainbow of Buddha bears the affirmation of the law of life.
- Morya, 'Leaves of Morya’s Garden Book Two, Illumination, 314, (1925)

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Christ founded no church, established no state, gave practically no laws, organized no government and set up no external authority, but he did seek to write on the hearts of men God's law and make them self-legislating.
- Heber Newton, in Free Speech for Radicals (1916) by Theodore Schroeder, p. 7

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Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left
Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
- Saint Patrick, in "The Lorica of Patrick"

Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
- Paul of Tarsus, in Epistle to the Galatians 20:16-21

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Although the law of Reincarnation was a cornerstone of every ancient religion of the East, and of course the religion of the Jews was no exception, already in the days of Jesus this law was badly distorted by the priesthood and maintained its purity only among individual sects. In the New Testament we have plenty of proof regarding this knowledge of the Jews; Christ Himself confirms it. For instance, in the Gospel of St. Matthew (17:10-13), "And his disciples asked him, saying, why then say the scribes that Elias must come first? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist."...St. John (9:1-3): "As Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." Indeed, how could a person blind from birth be responsible for his sins without the law of Reincarnation! There are other very clear hints, but you should find them for yourself.
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich I, (8 February 1934)

The Image of the true Christ—the Teacher—abides in our hearts and minds, and we completely join Vivekananda in his words about Christ. However, we see Man-God in Christ, and not a narrow sectarian who condemns everybody to the ranks of "anti-Christ" if they do not accept the ecclesiastic limitations and distortions of his Teaching. We have plenty of adherents even among the official representatives of the various churches. It is impossible to stop all progress, and it is impossible to share the mentality of the ancient priesthood, the creators of Christian dogmas, who, at their synods for instance, discussed very seriously how many spirits could be placed on the end of a needle, or whether or not woman possessed a soul, and similar gems of profound spiritual revelation... Let us not forget that the law of Reincarnation was rejected by these wise men only in the sixth century, at the Council of Constantinople. No, it is time to look through all the Teachings, discard the later distorted accumulations, and return to the pure original sources. It would be advisable for the fathers of the church to recollect the Covenant of Christ, and of his favorite disciple, "love one another." Then everything would take its right place.
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich I, (2 June 1934)

Just think how many clear indications about reincarnation, about the law of Karma, are given in the New Testament, precisely in the words of Christ Himself! But our "spiritual fathers" thoroughly avoid these questions! May God be their judge! Today, we experience a dreadful spiritual crisis, a terrible, all-corrupting atheism, which results from narrow, lifeless sectarianism and from choking dogmatism, as well as from the fall of morality among the representatives of churches. We have never spoken, nor will we speak against any religion or church, as it is better to have some religion or church than none at all. But we will always protest against lack of tolerance, morality and knowledge. Priests are necessary, but they should be real spiritual leaders and should be progressive and not continue to exist in the chains of the dark ignorance of the Middle Ages. The spirit of the Inquisition is still very strong. Do you think that if Christ came again on earth now He could avoid crucifixion? At best, would He escape lynching, or imprisonment for life, with the title of Antichrist?
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich I, (2 June 1934)

You ask whether it is possible to understand the indication regarding the appearance of Christ in lesser images and in reality. Certainly. Medievalism made an inaccessible idol of Christ and deprived him of any humanity, therefore also of divinity. Thus, all the Teachings of the East proclaim that there is no god (or gods) who was not at one time a man. Such a forced separation of Christ from human essence threatened and still threatens a complete break in the communion of humanity with the Higher World. One can trace how in the Middle Ages there appeared every now and then great saints who tried to re-establish this almost lost communion, and all of them insisted precisely on the human essence of Christ. Especially strong affirmations of this can be found in the pages of the autobiography of St. Theresa, the Spanish saint of the sixteenth century, and still earlier, in the visions and writings of St. Catherine of Siena and St. Gertrude. Thus, the form and the quality of the visions and communications received through such communion always correspond with the level of the consciousness of those who see and receive them, and also with the needs of the time. As it was said, "In is precisely by following the character of the visions that the best history of the intellect may be written."
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich II, (2 April 1936)

I strongly recommend that all read the autobiography of St. Theresa. In spite of the fact that this work went through the "spiritual" censorship of the Church, some amazing pages have been preserved. By propagating the dogma of Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, the Church contradicts the very sense of the prayer given to us by Jesus Christ himself, "Our Father which art in heaven." And also the words of the Scriptures, "So God created man in his own image." (Genesis 1:27) Thus, by claiming the exclusiveness of sonship and divine origin for Jesus Christ, the Church, by that very claim, forever divorced him from mankind. From this came a whole train of grave events; the exclusion of Jesus Christ from the life of humanity, the obliteration of his human Sacrifice and the awful suggestion implying that the death of Christ on the Cross saved humanity from "original" sin (?!) and from all subsequent sins.
- Helena Roerich, in Letters of Helena Roerich II, (2 April 1936)

If the great examples and sacrifice of Christ kindles the fires within our hearts, and if we apply his Covenant, it can be said that he did not suffer in vain, and that precisely the Cup that he accepted, sealed his Covenant. But if we imagine that, regardless of what we do and what crimes we commit, the blood that was shed by Christ will save us forever from the power of the devil, then we ourselves become these very devils! No one can save another. Only by personal efforts can the spirit ascend into the preordained beautiful worlds. "Faith without works is dead."
All the Great Teachers are called Saviors of the World, because again and again they point out to us the Path of Light. However, They are able to help and safeguard us only so far as we ourselves accept Their protection. The whole of Cosmos is based on the law of reciprocity or mutuality, and where there is no response, there is no result. This explains why Christ could not perform miracles where there was no faith in him, and where there was no striving of the spirit toward his healing ray.
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich II, (8 June 1936)

Christ came, and only fishermen accepted him. But when the centuries laid upon Him all the weight of the church dogma and golden vestments, making out of Him an inaccessible idol, multitudes believed in Him.
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich II, (1937)

Besides, why should the apostles be regarded as infallible? It is not only in the Gospel that they are revealed to be far from the high moral level that is to be expected of the closest disciples of Christ, but reading their own writings, one sadly realizes how many discords and all sorts of sinful abominations went on in those first Christian communities out of which came the Fathers of the Church. And even among the apostles themselves there was plenty of disunity. Let us, for instance, recall the perpetual contention between Peter and Paul, which has survived as a symbol of all dissension among so-called Christian zealots, who have split the one Teaching of Christ into sects and churches warring among themselves. I advise you to read Merezhkovski's book Paul and Augustine. You will find interesting material in it. As usual, this writer offers a complete treasury of most valuable information.
- Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich II, (17 May 1937)

Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also: Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
- Romans 3:19-31

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I'm gonna look twice at you
until I see the Christ in you
when I'm lookin through the eyes of love. ~ Mike Scott

At sea on a ship in a thunderstorm
on the very night the Christ was born
a sailor heard from overhead
a mighty voice cry "Pan is Dead!"
So follow Christ as best you can
Pan is dead — Long live Pan!
- Mike Scott, in "The Return Of Pan", on Dream Harder (1993)

I'm gonna look twice at you
until I see the Christ in you
when I'm lookin through the eyes of love.
- Mike Scott, in "The Christ in You" · Video at YouTube (with images from Findhorn)

Must then a Christ perish in torment in every age to save those that have no imagination?
- George Bernard Shaw, In reference to the burning of Joan of Arc, in Saint Joan : A Chronicle Play In Six Scenes And An Epilogue (1923)

At its beginnings there was very powerful meditation on the presence of Christ in the oppressed Indians, which objectively pointed toward a christology of the "body of Christ." Guamán Poma, for example, said, "By faith we know clearly that where there is a poor person there is Jesus Christ himself," and Bartolomé de las Casas declared, "In the Indies I leave Jesus Christ, our God, being whipped and afflicted, and buffeted and crucified, not once but thousands of times, as often as the Spaniards assault and destroy those people." But this original christological insight did not thrive, and what became the tradition was a christology based on the dogmatic formulas, in which—however well they were known and understood—what was stressed was the divinity of Christ rather than his real and lived humanity.
- Jon Sobrino, Jesus the Liberator (1991), p. 11

The sublime title "Christ" is an adjective which only receives its specific value from the specificity of the noun, Jesus of Nazareth. If Jesus is forgotten, then it becomes possible to fill the adjective with whatever suits at the time, without checking whether Jesus was like that or not, or whether this means leaving the world sunk in its wretchedness or not; or worse still, without asking if this image legitimates the tragedy of the world or brings liberation from it.
- Jon Sobrino, Jesus the Liberator (1991), p. 15

Burning the witch Giordano Bruno is one more wound inflicted on Christ’s body.
- Dejan Stojanovic, in The Sun Watches the Sun (1999) “Christ” (Sequence: “Is It Possible to Write a Poem”)

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Always think of yourself as everyone's servant; look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for them all.
- Teresa of Avila, in "Maxims for Her Nuns" in Complete Works St. Teresa of Avila (1963) edited by E. Allison Peers, Vol. 3Maxim 25, p. 257

I had some trepidation about the Christ parallels, but I hoped there would be little outcry if I handled it tastefully, since I was not really making any serious statement on religion... at least not overtly.
- Roy Thomas, on developing Adam Warlock as a messiah figure, inspired by the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, as quoted in "The Life and Death (and Life and Death) of Adam Warlock" by Karen Walker, in Back Issue magazine (June 2009), p. 34

Don't get attached to any one word. You can substitute "Christ" for presence, if that is more meaningful to you. Christ is your God essence or the Self, as it is sometimes called in the East. The only difference between Christ and presence is that Christ refers to your indwelling divinity regardless of whether you are conscious of it or not, whereas presence means your awakened divinity or God-essence. Many misunderstandings and false beliefs about Christ will clear if you realize that there is no past or future in Christ. To say that Christ was or will be is a contradiction in terms. Jesus was. He was a man who lived two thousand years ago and realized divine presence, his true nature.
The "second coming" of Christ is a transformation of human consciousness, a shift from time to presence, from thinking to pure consciousness... Ch. 5
- Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now (1997)

Christ says, "Forgive all. Forgive not once, not seven times, but forgive without end." "Love your enemies." "Do good to those who hate you." Courts of law do not forgive, but they punish; they do not do good, but evil, to those whom they call the enemies of society. So, the true sense of the doctrine is that Christ forbids all courts of law.
- Leo Tolstoy, What I Believe (1885), Ch. III

Christianity in its true sense puts an end to government. So it was understood at its very commencement; it was for that cause that Christ was crucified. So it has always been understood by people who were not under the necessity of justifying a Christian government. Only from the time that the heads of government assumed an external and nominal Christianity, men began to invent all the impossible, cunningly devised theories by means of which Christianity can be reconciled with government. But no honest and serious-minded man of our day can help seeing the incompatibility of true Christianity — the doctrine of meekness, forgiveness of injuries, and love — with government, with its pomp, acts of violence, executions, and wars. The profession of true Christianity not only excludes the possibility of recognizing government, but even destroys its very foundations.
- Leo Tolstoy, in The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894), Ch. X

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if Christ hadn't delivered the Sermon on the Mount, with its message of mercy and pity, I wouldn't want to be a human being.
I'd just as soon be a rattlesnake. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

You have already heard that the Quakers date their epoch from Christ, who, according to them, was the first Quaker. Religion, say they, was corrupted almost immediately after His death, and remained in that state of corruption about sixteen hundred years. But there were always a few of the faithful concealed in the world, who carefully preserved the sacred fire, which was extinguished in all but themselves; till at length this light shone out in England in 1642.
- Voltaire, in "The History of the Quakers" (1762)

The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn't look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought...:
Oh, boy — they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time!
And that thought had a brother: "There are right people to lynch." Who? People not well connected. So it goes.
The visitor from outer space made a gift to Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels.
So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn't possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that too, since the Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was.
And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of the Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this:
From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections!
- Kurt Vonnegut, in Slaughterhouse-Five, Or The Children's Crusade : A Duty-dance with Death (1969), Ch. 5

I say of Jesus, as all humanists do. "If what he said is good, and so much of it is absolutely beautiful, what does it matter if he was God or not?"
But if Christ hadn't delivered the Sermon on the Mount, with its message of mercy and pity, I wouldn't want to be a human being.
I'd just as soon be a rattlesnake.
- Kurt Vonnegut, in A Man Without a Country (2005) p. 80

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Missionary zeal has not Christianized Africa, Asia and Oceania, but has brought these territories under the cold, cruel and destructive domination of the white race, which has trodden down everything. It would be strange, indeed, that the word of Christ should have produced such results if it had been properly understood.
- Simone Weil, in Letter to a Priest (1951), Section 9

Except for one or two passages in St. John's Gospel it is difficult to get any words actually ascribed to Jesus in which be claimed to be the Jewish Messiah (rendered in Greek by "the Christ") and still more difficult is it to find any claim to be a part of the godhead, or any passage in which he explained the doctrine of the Atonement or urged any sacrifices or sacraments (that is to say, priestly offices) upon his followers.
- H. G. Wells, in "The Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth", in The Outline of History : Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind (1920)

Christ had truths to present which the people were unprepared to accept or even to understand. For this reason also He taught them in parables. By connecting His teaching with the scenes of life, experience, or nature, He secured their attention and impressed their hearts. Afterward, as they looked upon the objects that illustrated His lessons, they recalled the words of the divine Teacher. To minds that were open to the Holy Spirit, the significance of the Saviour's teaching unfolded more and more. Mysteries grew clear, and that which had been hard to grasp became evident.
Jesus sought an avenue to every heart. By using a variety of illustrations, He not only presented truth in its different phases, but appealed to the different hearers.
- Ellen G. White, in Christ's Object Lessons (1900), Ch. 1

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Reward for information leading to the apprehension of —
Jesus Christ
Wanted — For Sedition, Criminal Anarchy — Vagrancy, and Conspiring to Overthrow the Established Government.
Dresses poorly, said to be a carpenter by trade, ill-nourished, has visionary ideas, associates with common working people, the unemployed and bums. Alien — believed to be a Jew. Alias: "Prince of Peace. Son of Man." "Light of the world" &c. &c. Professional Agitator, Red beard, marks on hands and feet the result of injuries inflicted by an angry mob led by respectable citizens and legal authorities.
- Art Young, Jesus Christ "wanted-poster" political cartoon in The Masses (1917)

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