He Comes . . .
In The Clouds
"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Matthew 24:30)
"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." (Revelation 1:7)
In many translations it reads, "Behold, He is coming in the clouds of heaven . . ." The word 'cloud' also means that He comes from heaven. So He comes from the clouds of heaven, and so from the heaven. What does the Bible mean when it says He comes from heaven?
In the third chapter of the gospel of John, Esa (Jesus) clearly proclaims that, He is in heaven, saying, "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven" (John 3:13). Likewise, Esa (Jesus) also expressed that He has come down from heaven, "For I came down from heaven . . . 'I am the living bread that came down from heaven'" John 6:38, 51). When the Pharisees heard such a statement they were shocked and asked Christ the same question I ask you . . . "how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?" (John 6:42). Did Esa come out of the sky and land on the earth or was He born of Mary?
In a like manner, Christs ascension and return are thought to be from heaven. Christ ascended to heaven according to the Gospels (Mark 16:19) and upon His return He will descend from heaven (Matthew 24:30). In both cases the symbolism Christ used about his own descent two thousand years ago (John 3:13 & 6:38-51) and the symbolism used in the Bible for His return have the same meaning. Maitreya explains what heaven means in the Bible. In THOTH we find:
"When it is said that he will come from the sky, the sky means the same as heaven, and heaven means Pure Consciousness. So he comes from Pure Consciousness, or he comes as an Avatar (god-man)" (THOTH, Revelation Of The Revelation, T1, V23-24).
Finally, the word cloud has significant meaning, as explained by Maitreya in THOTH:
"'Cloud' means confusion. He comes whenever confusion comes to humanity . . ."(THOTH, Revelation Of The Revelation, T1, V21).
Maitreya discusses the confusion that has surrounded His coming:
"The world is still enflamed with old rivalries, beliefs, superstitions, intellectual pride, self interest, and fragmentations. A growing number of people see, however, a unity lies behind all these apparent separations. These are the ones who are the pioneers of the coming events. They are the forerunners for the future of a united world." (Golden Keys 6, 1)
The first part of the above quote discusses the confusion humanity faces, while the second part discusses those peoples who will lead the way for a new world. These are the same people who are spoken of to be 'raptured' to heaven in the writings of St. Paul:
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ will rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air:..." (1Thessalonians 4:16-17).
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:52).
Clearly the above verses discuss the coming of Christ in the 'clouds,' and that His true followers will meet Him in heaven (Pure Consciousness). This is the same event that Maitreya spoke of in Golden Keys 6. It is also important to note that these events will only occur after the Seventh Angel sounds the last trumpet in the Bible. As we will see in Prophecy pages, Maitreya is this Seventh Angel and will establish the Kingdom Of Heaven On Earth.
And Every Eye Will See Him
"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." (Revelation 1:7)
A question we often receive is, how could Christ have returned if every eye did not literally witness it? Well, if we look to the Bible, we shall see that even in the time of Christ two thousand years ago this language was being used for spiritual and not literal purposes. In the gospel of Luke, the author cites the Prophet Isaiah, as a prophecy that was fulfilled by the birth of Christ. Isaiah wrote: "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together..." (Isaiah 40:5; Luke 3:4-6). How did Christ fulfill this? Was Christ seen and heard by all men at once when He was born? Of course not.
In a similar manner, St. Paul expressed this same phenomena in 1 Colossians 1:23: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister." And once more St. Paul quoted the Psalmist writing, "Their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world" (Romans 10:18; Psalms 19:4). How could such prophecies have been fulfilled? There was a whole continent and a bunch of Islands that Paul did not even know existed, which the words of Christ would not have reached for nearly a thousand four-hundred years!
In a like manner many today are expecting Christ to appear and every eye will witness His return. They accept this belief as literal, but as it has been previously shown by St. Luke and St. Paul that these themes are not literal but figurative (spiritual). Maitreya explains the meaning of everyone seeing the Christ in THOTH:
"'Every eye shall see him,' means that those who have their eyes opened (third eyes) will see him"(THOTH, Revelation Of The Revelation T1, V22).
". . . For You Again . . ."
When we speak about the return of any Prophet, or for that matter Christ, in interpreting his return, we must do so by using the Scriptures that give us a clear precedent for the return of a Prophet. The most famous return of a Prophet spoken of in the Bible is the return of Elijah as John the Baptist. The return of Elijah sets the precedent for how Christ would return.
In the opening of the book of Mark, its author explains that John came to, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" (Mark 1:2-3). Later, when John was questioned about being the promised Elijah to prepare the way for the Messiah, John concurred that: He was Elijah (Matthew 11:7-19; Mark 9:11-13; Luke 7:24-35).
How could John the Baptist be Elijah returned? Elijah was taken up to heaven (2 Kings 2:11-12), and John was born of his mothers womb (Luke 1:36). How did Elijah go up to heaven, and return from heaven as John in Elizabeths womb? Another interesting thing to point out is that though John was executed (Mark 6:14-29) and did not ascend to heaven, yet he still has to return one more time to prepare the way for the return of the Messiah (Malachi 4:5-6) on the Day of Judgment! How could John die by the sword without being rapture, and yet still come back one last time? Heaven is clearly a spiritual state and not a literal place. Also, in THOTH, Maitreya explains what is meant by the return of the Prophets:
"'In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea,' (Matthew 3:1)John the Baptist (Elijah) was expected to come before Christ to prepare the way. Esa himself declared this when he revealed to his disciples that Elias (Elijah) had already come but no one realized who he was, 'but have done unto him whatsoever they liked.' Then his disciples perceived that he meant John the Baptist (Matthew 17:11-13). So John the Baptist was the reincarnation of Elijah who came before Esa to clear the way for him." (THOTH, Commentaries On St. Matthew T3,V1-2).
The Bible tells us that the return of a Prophet is not the literal return in the same form as they left, but instead it is a spiritual return: "And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias,..."(Luke 1:17). This is just what Maitreya explains! So the mystery is thus concluded, the return of Christ, like the return of Elijah, will be both from heaven (Pure Consciousness), and yet from the womb of a mother, because it is a spiritual return from a spiritual state!
As A 'Thief In The Night'
"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." (Revelation 3:3)
"Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." (Revelation 16:15)
"for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not." (Luke 12:40) "What is meant by 'as a thief'? Many expect Christ to come from the sky and suddenly change all things and bring His Kingdom on earth. But He will first come quietly and prepare the Saints, and when all is prepared, then all will see Him. In this period of preparation He is hidden like a thief of the night. (Golden Keys I, question #9)
Also this is why it says that when the Seventh Angel comes, He will come in silence. That is the same meaning as a thief in the night.
"And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour." (Revelation 8:1)
No wonder the Mission of Maitreya is so silent! The Seventh Seal is the teaching of the Mission, which teaching came in 1977. Though we have reached many out there, it is still pretty quiet. A quiet period was prophesied to start after the Seventh Seal was revealed, and as we can see in these Prophesies, Maitreya is indeed the Seventh Angel.
" . . . [With] A . . . New Name."
"and I will also write on him My new name." (Revelation 3:12)
"I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off." (Isaiah 56:5)
"and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name." (Isaiah 62:2)
In one level of interpretation, Christ promised His followers that when He returns, He will bring with Him a different name than the one He left them with (but for the most pure interpretation of this verse, the one which will unify humanity, I suggest reading THOTH, Revelation Of The Revelation, T9). So Maitreya coming with a different name should not surprise anyone, inasmuch as God promised He would send Christ with a New Name!
What else has God prophesied about Maitreya and His name(s)?
To The West
Many of the prophecies discuss the coming of Maitreya. Initially the prophecies say He will come from the East, and then go to the West. As we have already seen in the section His Birth, When, Where, He was born in the East, in Persia, and as we shall see in this section that Maitreya has fulfilled many of the expectations to come to the West, specifically America.
"They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD, they shall cry aloud from the sea. Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires, even the name of the LORD God of Israel in the isles of the sea. (Isaiah 24:14-15) (KJV)
Maitreya's Spiritual Mission would begin in America, which is west of Jerusalem. So it will be the Westerners, who take the message to the East.
"Unveil thy face, O beauty of the Lord, that the sun May arise in the West..." (Hafia notes by Max Maxwell).
Maitreya has unveiled the mystery of God in the West, fulfilling this Bahai prophecy.
"Issue forth from your cities, O peoples of the West and aid your God ere the Day when the Lord of mercy shall come down unto you in the shadow of the clouds" (Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 56).
Maitreya came to the West where His Mission began in 1982.
"If the sun arises in the West, it would still be the same sun; one must not withdraw from it on account of its rising place nor consider the West to be always the place of sunset" (Some Answered Questions, chapter 14).
Maitreya fulfills this prophecy, since all the other prophets of the Seven Seals had started their Missions in the East; only Maitreya has fulfilled this prophecy.
"The hour will not comeuntil the sun rises in the West, and all men seeing it will believe" (Shorter Encyclopedia of Islam, p. 256).
Again we see that Maitreya is expected to begin His Mission in the West, and will bring all humanity under Gods plan (seeing it will believe).
"At the third resurrection the sun will arise from the West" (The Heavenly Tablet, p. 25).
Again, we see the same prophecy of which Maitreya is the only fulfiller.
To America
"Your mission is unspeakably glorious should success crown your enterprise, America will assuredly evolve into a center from which waves of spiritual power will emanate, and the throne of the kingdom of God will in the plenitude of its majesty and glory be firmly established." (God Passes By, p. 254).
In this prophecy, we have stopped using the ambiguous word 'West', and have narrowed the place to which Christ will come and bring God's Kingdom to America. Maitreya came to America and began His Mission here in 1982.
"May the inhabitants of this country . . . rise from their present material attainment to such heights that heavenly illumination may stream from this center to all the peoples of the world." (God Passes By, p. 254)
"Likewise, is His remarkable disclosure, to the continent of America, is, in the eyes of the One true God, the land wherein the splendors of His light shall be revealed, where the Mysteries of His faith shall be unveiled" (Challenging Requirements of the Present Hour, p. 28).
Here we see that Maitreyas Mission will begin in America, and this also shows that all the other prophecies concerning the West were really directing our attention to America.
To a City in America
Although it seems that Joseph Smith made many mistakes in his prophecies and predictions, some of his Prophecies are correct. Some of them also will come to pass in the future. Of interest to us are the Prophecies below:
Christ comes in Rocky Mountains (West of the US): In the spring of 1844 Joseph Smith received a vision called "The White Horse Prophecy." He saw that Christ would return in the Rockies.
Later Smith saw that the return of Christ would be in America in the Temple described by Ezekiel in the Bible which would be located in the Rocky Mountains. [Mission started in Denver that is in Rocky Mountains Rocky Mountain also goes through New Mexico, and is close to Rio Rancho (Albuquerque)].
Kingdom will start in a city west of a large river: Joseph Smith saw in a vision that the Kingdom of God would be west of a large river. [Rio Rancho (the City Of Vision) is in the West of Rio Grande Large River!]
Also,
At this time he [Joseph Smith] saw a vision of a great river and Christ was on the west side of the river.
He traveled on the Mississippi River until he saw a mountain and a town in a valley west of the river. He told his followers that this town would now be called Navoo. He said it was a Greek word meaning plateau[Sandia mountain is in east ofAlbuquerque (Rio Rancho is a suburban of Albuquerque), Rio Rancho is in the valley, west of the Sandia mountain,Rio Rancho isin the west of Rio Grande (large river) and is on a Plateau- he could not find the city in his vision because it did not exist at that time.Rio Rancho was founded and built not long ago (probably around thirty years ago 1970s or 80s)].