Interview

WIE: How did you come to believe that you are the return of Jesus Christ? Was it a revelation, an experience, a spiritual awakening? Could you describe what happened?

VISSARION CHRIST: The description "spiritual awakening" fits best. To describe the process in words is not a simple task. There was no mysterious voice; there were no revelations coming from outside. There is nothing to compare it to. The moment of awakening itself did not convey immediate knowledge of who I am and what my name is in truth. Some time was needed for that self-awareness.

The closer the time came to the awakening, the more there were signs and circumstances that caused me to begin to feel an anxiety about the events taking place in the life of man on earth. And finally, the clear realization dawned—everything that relates to the salvation and development of the human is exactly what I have to figure out, as I contain within me everything that is needed for this to happen. Who is the human being? For what purpose is the human being born? How does the human being develop? I do not need a revelation of any sort to answer these questions, as I am the knowledge itself and I am always ready to answer all questions on this matter always, in any volume and at any level of human understanding.

Once, several months after the beginning of my open meetings with people, there emerged inside me something that could be called a recollection. In this experience, I remembered sitting on a stone bed in some very dark location and being blinded by the light coming from the entrance. The light was bright daylight. And in my head, there was an unpleasant feeling, almost as if there had been the recent passing of a very heavy illness. And I realized that this event was the moment of resurrection.

But this event itself is not the final word on the question of self-awareness. The key to that is only what I do. I know what I have to do. I have the capacity to give everything that is necessary for humans to reach salvation and to develop in their lives everything for which they were born.

WIE: You have said that you are here to "finish what you started." What do you mean by that? What is the mission you are here on earth to fulfill?

VC: In the first appearance, what was left was the Good News about the existence of Truth, of which there had been no knowledge earlier, and about the existence of laws that had not been present in the Old Testament. But the New Testament is not a doctrine. That is why it failed to bring people into a union. That is why Christians, studying one and the same Testament, ended up divided. They created a kingdom that is split within itself. Now the time has come to unfold the Doctrine of Truth, on the basis of which people will succeed in building the right relations with one another, and in putting together a truthful system of life for their own single community on the whole earth.

Furthermore, in order to accomplish the Doctrine, the presence of a living teacher is necessary because seemingly simple truths will inevitably need to be explained many times from different angles. What's needed is the presence of a living teacher who will, through his spirit, help facilitate this coming together, provide the solutions for all of the emerging life issues, and provide extra strength for those who need it. This is very important.

We may talk about the salvation of humankind. But saving humankind does not mean saving all of today's civilization, all several billion people. Salvation should not be forced upon people unless they aspire to it. To imagine some wonderful phenomenon that will make all people believe in the Holy Truth at once is not realistic, to put it mildly. The psychological settings and attachments inherent to living on earth under the life conditions both of the past and of the present will not allow a huge part of the population to make the right choice. Many do not even have the capacity to make the necessary choice. In this fateful period, the salvation of all humankind can only be guaranteed if, parallel to the existing civilization, a new micro-community is formed that will be able to become the foundation of a bigger society, a new civilization of the future. The salvation of humankind must first be defined through the planting of this new world on earth that will exist in parallel, as an example to all the rest—a world that people can enter only of their own will, without violating the basic human law of freedom of choice. Whatever happens to the remaining majority, the human is sure to be preserved in the universe through such a micro-community.

WIE: In the Bible, the end times are often described as times of great tribulation, with plagues, the coming of the Antichrist, and all kinds of difficulties for humanity. Are those tribulations and trials yet to come? Or are we about to enter the new age of peace and love that was also promised in the scriptures? What do the coming years hold for humanity?

VC: There will be tribulations, of course. They can easily be observed already, and they will keep manifesting themselves. The new age of peace and love will come after people go through an inevitable ordeal that is meant to bring the human to the necessary change. As for what to expect in the future—this we don't talk about. People ought to be concerned about how to live today, trying to realize the truth today, recognizing that the better they accomplish this, the better the future will be. They create the future themselves. The teacher has come so that the future will change. And the manner in which they will accomplish his laws will determine how much the future will change. People who do not have the truth have a certain future that can be predicted. But the teacher comes to change this future altogether. And this change depends precisely on what the believers do. The question is: Will they create this new future or not? And to what extent will they make the effort to do so?

WIE: Do you think the old religious traditions can keep up with our fast-changing times, or do we need a completely new tradition of spirituality for today's global society?

VC: A completely new tradition is needed, of course. The old religious traditions played a positive role in their own period of time but now they will not be able to lead us further. With the existing religious teachings people rose to a certain level, and now they can only be led further by one doctrine that can provide full answers to all the problems of life facing humankind, and not just a separate group of people in this or that society. If we speak about further development, then we need to think in terms of one family of people of a single faith on this earth, a society in which individuals will have no contradictions and disagreements with one another in their hearts. Such a situation will create the favorable conditions for the emergence of a single field of conscience in the whole human society on earth. This is an important condition for full-scale development. The task now is to immediately articulate a new doctrine for all people.

The choice facing all of humankind today can be characterized as Judgment Day or as a moment of transition or the end times. Indeed, this is the time when the destiny of humankind needs to be decided upon. Because with the qualities people now possess and the level of technology they have achieved, humankind is now actively losing the right to further existence. Humankind's further existence is a threat to the universe.

The qualities that so-called civilized man now possesses have left us, in this world, with a crisis of utmost intensity. The present human thinking is not able to solve this problem. This helplessness can now be observed by anyone. Islam has existed for ages, Christianity has existed for ages, Buddhism has existed for ages, and other teachings have existed for ages, talking about the good and about love. And yet there is now a crisis that is threatening all of humankind. A simple logical deduction leads to only one conclusion: To live further in the same way people have lived up until now, even on the basis of an attitude toward the surrounding reality formed by the respectable religious teachings, is not acceptable. And this means that any attempt to maintain what has already had a place in history is unsound. For further development, we need another approach. It is precisely this problem that the new teaching has to solve.

WIE: Today, there are many people claiming to be the new manifestation of Christ in this world. For example, Benjamin Creme has spoken about the Christ Maitreya, who is now living in London; there is a Chinese woman who is claiming to be the second coming of Jesus and has reportedly written a new addition to the Bible; and many others are announcing themselves as the prophesied savior of humanity. Are these individuals deluded? Can there be more than one son of God?

VC: One has to look at the results of what these people do. The wise understand that one recognizes the tree by its fruits. And indeed, in these cases, in the wake of these people who identify themselves as teachers, who claim to be Jesus or claim something similar, for the most part, there is almost nothing to show for their claims.

One of the important aspects of the emergence of the teacher is that he brings a teaching for everyone. Therefore he should be ready to meet with all those willing and make use of any opportunity to appear wherever there are people willing to listen to him, and to answer all the questions people worry about. After all, it is he who has to comfort! It is he who has to show the way of truth! This, above all, is what has to be characteristic of the teacher of truth. Only one can be a teacher. In this there also lies a certain truth concerning human psychology. All need to be gathered in a single lap, and this needs to be done by just one voice of the living word of God. This is why it is said in the New Testament:

I have other sheep as well that are not of this yard and those I am required to bring: and they will hear my voice, and there will be one herd and one Shepherd. (John, 10:16)