The Reappearance of the Christ by Alice Bailey: Selection from “Christ’s Unique Occasion,” Part 1 of 2

Alice Bailey was an extraordinary British American esoteric author of the 20th century. She was one of the first to use the term New Age, referring to a better future for the world that fulfills the Divine plan of love and light. Born in 1880, Alice Bailey in her youth was a devoted Christian who later developed an extensive knowledge and practice of Theosophy. In 1922, Alice Bailey and her husband Foster Bailey founded the Lucis Trust and the Arcane School to offer the teachings and meditation guidance to the public. The nonprofit Lucis Trust is still active today and continues to publish Alice Bailey’s works, including as free e-books, for people to study in this special period of our planet. We will now read an excerpt from Alice Bailey’s prophetic book “The Reappearance of the Christ,” about the unique factors that will mark the way the Christ will carry out His work during His next re-emergence on Earth. “First of all, He will come to a world which is essentially one world. His reappearance and His consequent work cannot be confined to one small locality or domain unheard of by the great majority, as was the case when He was here before. The radio, the press and the dissemination of news will make His coming different to that of any previous Messenger; the swift modes of transportation will make Him available to countless millions, and by boat, rail and plane they can reach Him: THROUGH TELEVISION, HIS FACE CAN BE MADE FAMILIAR TO ALL, and verily ‘every eye shall see Him.’” “It is a fallacy to believe, as some do, that the main trend of Christ’s work will be through the medium of the churches or the world religions. He necessarily will work through them when conditions permit and there is a living nucleus of true spirituality within them, or when their invocative appeal is potent enough to reach Him. He will use all possible channels whereby the consciousness of man may be enlarged and right orientation be brought about. It is, however, truer to say that it is as World Teacher that He will consistently work, and that the churches are but one of the teaching avenues He will employ. All that enlightens the minds of men, all that tends to bring about right human relations, all modes of acquiring real knowledge, all methods of transmuting knowledge into wisdom and understanding, all that expands the consciousness of humanity and of all subhuman states of awareness and sensitivity, all that dispels glamour and illusion and that disrupts crystallization and disturbs static conditions will come under the realistic activities of the Hierarchy which He supervises. He will be limited by the quality and the caliber of the invocative appeal of humanity and that, in its turn, is conditioned by the attained point in evolution.”