Hi Pamelajean,
I think it's a good idea to place Jesus' appearance in historical perspective. The following comes from an internal and external study during my life. Also while reading this try and forget the relative comfort of your computer chair and the relative peace outside and your satisfied tummy and the roof over your head. Think about the rest of the world and the multitudes who have nothing and who live in shanties looking for their next meal. And think about history and the constant wars and destruction of civilisations as they rise and fall and sink and burn. That thoughtform, if you can entertain it for a moment in non- attachment and without fear, can make the rest of this post at least...... if not believable then an understandable or hopefull scenario.
Long before Lemuria and Atlantis was destroyed, a large number of Spiritual beings [Jesus was one of them] came to earth from off planet to participate in the raising of the consciousness of humanity. Sirius and Venus are two of those places of origin. [ie. from the etheric planes of Venus not the physical surface]. These spiritual beings did NOT use space flight technologies to get here. On this point there is a great deal of confusion today. It is a confusion that is fostered by the imposters of the light because these "space brothers" [who seem to be very fond of the NWO] do like to masquerade as the spiritual teachers of humanity. And they too would like our attention.
But many of those original spiritual beings who came with Jesus [whatever his name was then] incarnated onto the earth and over time, many became ensnared in the karma of the human race. So then, the 'rescue' turned to the original souls who had first accompanied the spiritual beings from Sirius and Venus and that rescue continues today.
Jesus belonged to that ancient brotherhood, some of whom have re- incarnated down the ages from ancient Lumuria to the present. They have worked as the spiritual teachers of the human race in the physical, etheric and spiritual planes. At any given time they reveal truth according to a long term plan and they give what can be given to each culture. In each dispensation there is a harvest as some souls become the essence of the teaching first by accepting it, then by internalising it, by practicing it and then by ascending. The Spirit takes their souls to the immortal realms of spiritual reality forever. Many of these ascended ones, having joined the work in the physical plane while in embodiment, then join it in the etheric and spiritual planes. As ascended beings they then have much more power and influence to assist humanity than before and many continue their work from inner levels. Some leave planet earth forever.
Anyway Pamelajean, there can't really be a spiritual teaching "for all time" because the spiritual teachers work to raise the consciousness of the people over time. It is a slow process. The consciousness of the people changes over time. Different levels of teaching have been given over time to different cultures. For example now that physics and other sciences are again advancing to prior levels, a spiritual teaching can again refer to related scientific concepts to further our spiritual understanding... and vice versa. The sciences can refer to spiritual concepts.
The spiritual Adepts never put all their eggs in one basket because they operate in a world "at war" between the forces of control and the forces of freedom. They battle the black brotherhood on many fronts [not just on spiritual teachings] in a war for the minds of humanity. The spiritual teachers can never reveal everything at one time either. Almost everything they have ever revealed over hundreds of thousands of years has been destroyed or twisted beyond recognition. For that reason progressive revelation is the way of truth and it has not always appeared in plain sight. For safety reasons truth is often wrapped in allegory and parables and sensitive individuals [sponsored at inner levels] unwrap the truth over time to those who are ready. When the student is ready the teacher appears.
So progressive revelation is always tailored to the culture and the times in which it appears. The revelation always finds the mass of people labouring under gross illusions regarding almost everything including how truth might appear, through whom it might appear and what it should say. Those preconceptions must be met and overcome. They are not always overcome and so we grind on through time as our spiritual teachers attempt to appeal to souls who are re- incarnating into one mental trap after another set by the forces of control. Freewill is always respected and so most people go their merry way.
Throughout history to the present, the messengers of truth [including Jesus] have generally been rejected and scorned and mocked and murdered [and eventually grossly misrepresented] while the controllers and imposters in church and state are feted as enlightened heroes. The spiritual teachers of the human race have always been restricted by the state of consciousness of the race, the culture in which they are trying to teach, the societal control mechanisms in place, the beliefs and expectations of the people, the fate of prior dispensations of truth teachings etc. Human societies are usually always a cesspool of ignorance, deliberate distortions and control. In a freewill arena like earth, the odds of success are desperately opposed.
In a world "at war" no single book could have contained the necessary revelations in complete openess and survived. But you will find the timeless truths barely hidden in plain sight in the myths and scriptures of east and west and in several other places. Problem is that over time the mistranslations and deliberate distortions of the texts have been accompanied by deliberate [and sometimes accidental] misinterpretations to present a nonsense masquerading as the truth. But someone always appears among us to clarify the inner meanings and to bring light to a mystery. [It's almost impossible that any one representation of spiritual truth can appeal to everyone anyway. Different angles of the same truths are creatively presented for different times and different people].
These people, sponsored by the Adepts, initiate organisations to disseminate the teachings but they don't always succeed in changing everyone's mind. There is huge resistance to any change in this world especially when it concerns spiritual truth. But the Adepts work to gather students who are ready to find these outposts and some of the students spiritually profit by it. A much fewer number even ascend as they have always done. That is the harvest that comes cyclically.
All this happens at the same time as the black brotherhoods oppose these organisations [in physical and astral planes] and while they also sponsor their own messengers to counteract the revelations of truth.
We are all going to have a different idea about just which organisations and individuals are bearers of truth. If we were drawing up a list each of us would probably draw up a different one. I also think it should be acknowledged that not all individuals who've been sponsored by spiritual Adepts to present spiritual teachings to the world have done a perfect job. Some have failed to keep the sponsorship of the brotherhood past an initial period of probation or early into their work. Alice Bailey was one such person [who formed the 'lucis trust'] and wove false teachings into her work. And so did J. Krishnamurti. Both of them delivered an intellectual teaching and failed to deliver the planned release from the spiritual Adepts. Even Helena Blavatsky went a bit overboard on the 'lucifer' stuff in the latter stages of her work due to a misunderstanding of a mistranslation of 'Lucifer'... so called 'son of the morning'. Also no messenger represents the release of the Adepts 100%. Some distortions of the teaching always result from the imperfections of the messengers mental concepts and subconscious mind. So those human foibles make the job of delivery a more or less imperfect exercise. It also makes our own discernment even more challenging and it makes the proverbial list harder to compile.
We live in a time, over the past 130 years or so, when many such people have been sponsored by embodied and ascended Adepts to 'open' what was formerly 'closed' to our spiritual understanding. Some of these people have already made clear the true meaning of the teachings of Buddha, Christ, Krishna etc and presented new perspectives on the timeless spiritual truths. Some of these people who have participated in a major way in presenting progressive revelation include Mary Baker Eddy, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and various theosophists [including Steiner?], Nicholas and Helena Roerich, Paramahansa Yogananda, Guy and Edna Ballard, Geraldine Innocente, Mark and Elizabeth Prophet and Kim Michaels. There are many others who have had dispensations to present some new and appealing angle on the timeless truths. See the work of Florence Scovel Shinn or Ernest and Fenwicke Holmes or Helen's ACIM and several others. None of these teachings are without flaw and each were directed at a specific mindset. I think Athenais is on the money about ACIM being directed at people who have been mauled by christian fundamentalism.
But the whole offering of spiritual teachings [and many cultural, political and artistic influences] shows just how active and creative our spiritual teachers must be in order to advance our material and spiritual interests in a world where truth in every field is under constant attack. God Blessem.