A brief timeline of Truth before Jesus:
 CREATION -- THE BEGINNING -- GENESIS
 ENOCH
 ABRAHAM
 MOSES

(others)
- - - - - - - - - - - -

In The Beginning ... God ...

Beginning Thoughts:

That which has always been continues to Be.
It is the Essence of all.
It seems to be a relationship rather than a thing.
It flows and is not possessed.
Love comes to mind.
Truth hard to ignore.
Life valued.

So many claim to possess knowledge of the ultimate Truth;
so many lie and/or are deceived.
Wisdom comes when we learn from what life teaches us.
It comes when we allow it to lead us.
It comes when we realise we are not separate from each other.

There is that of God within us all.
That which is sincere and alive
It is this part of us which knows the ultimate.
It is our task to be in touch with this part of us
and let it succeed in becoming our guiding light.
Joy and ultimate happiness are dependant on the amount of success we have
in this quest.^a
 
 

 In the beginning, there was a focus, an Essence, that
from which all things came.  You, me, we all came from this
same Entity.  All that has happenned has been
made possible by this Source, though not necessarily chosen
by Him/Her (perhaps the ultimate is beyond gender).

Many ask, "If there were a God, how could He or She
allow such horrible things to happen, as those we've
witnessed?"  Ask Job.  Job, too, thought God was unfair.
After reading his book we may tend to agree with him.  The
main difference between Job's attitude and that of many of
us is that Job grew up.

"God" may not be as much like us as we have imagined.
Though we may be in God's image
Our limitations are not necessarily God's
God is likely to have chosen a higher Way.

Man's ways are not God's ways.  God's ways, I feel, are
very basic, very simple, and yet affect every aspect of
life, and they endure.  Heaven cannot be entered by thieves,
nor does moth nor rust destroy there.  And heaven is right
here ... at hand, and some of us are already spending a fair
amount of time in it.  Whether creation happened in six
days, six thousand years, or millions of years, to me it
matters not. The point is, that there is a purpose to things
... there is hope.
---
 

What makes people "sin"?

 One of the great questions of all time.
There seems to be two schools of thought.  Some people feel that we are
born in sin and therefore need a saviour.  Others feel that
all roads eventually lead to God; so in the long run it
doesn't really matter what we do here and now.
 I think a third way.  I believe that the possibility of
sin is a fact of life for free beings.  God could have wound
us all up like clocks or little robots, and allowed no
possibility of evil in Creation ... but then there would be
no possibility of free living ... no possibility of
creatures freely loving.  The possibility of true Love would
be nil...zip...void.  Creation would be of little value.
Give it a thought.

 I neither focus on Adam's original sin as the main reason
for evil, nor see the end for we humans as necessarily
being good.  I see the arena of free beings as being just
that ... free.  The Bhagavad-Gita says that all roads lead
eventually to Brahman (God), and yet it is also stated (in
the commentary¹) that once a person has fallen into a
beastial state, there is no guarantee that he or she will
ever again rise to (even) the human level (much less the
divine).
 So I'd be careful!  It is possible to go places from
which there is no return.
There is no return for those who don't turn around.
There is no return for an unrepentant heart.
There is no forgiveness for the
unforgiving.
---
 
 

The Devil
 Today it is not fashionable to think in terms of a
devil.  It is a part of our positive thinking.  If we were
still in the Garden, trusting God, this would be
appropriate.  However, we are not and it is not.
I believe that to refrain from fearing devils
which threaten us from the outside is wise.
Not to fear those that come from the inside
(from the evil we do) is folly.

When questions arise, the answers to which I am unsure,
I often turn to Jesus to see what He might have said, or done.
When Jesus has nothing to say or intimate on a subject,
Buddha or Gandhi often do.
They speak the same language; they point the same direction.
 Jesus did have something to say about the existence of a devil.
Of all the people in the Bible, no one spoke more
about the devil or hell than did Jesus, himself.
And we have the gall to think we know more on this subject than he.
Where has this great "wisdom" that fills modern man come from?
From what discipline or experiment in truth?
There is a very powerful force for evil in the world of man
... one that takes advantage of our slacknesses.
It is so cunning, it acts as if it might even have a personality.
In all our "wisdom" we no longer look
to disciplined people for spiritual leadership,
but rely more on "what makes us feel good".
What force is encouraging us to do this?

Gandhi said:
"It is because we have at the present moment everybody
claiming the right of conscience without going through any
discipline whatsoever that there is so much untruth being
delivered to a bewildered world."

This is our state.
We modern humans have very little discipline in our lives and
yet we claim we have enlightenment because we've read the
latest guru's philosophy, or perhaps we're trying the latest diet.
But most of us are still just as selfish as we've
always been, and still just as uncaring.
We spend our "religious" time trying to be in a club
which will make us feel spiritually safe ...
one which convinces us that our enemies are not.

 As long as we insist on "knowing" evil as well as good,
there will be a major source of evil, a major Essence of it.
Therefore, the Devil will exist in our psyche, invited or
not, and will thus have control of at least part of our
world, until and unless we reliquish his ways.

Another thing that Mahatma Gandhi said that may help in this area
is that he had become convinced that there were no
devils in this world except the ones running around inside
ourselves; and that this is where we should be fighting our
battles.  I don't feel this to be a contradiction.

Jesus, also, felt that our battles should be
within.  Neither felt we should be fighting one another.
Both felt we should be fixing our own motives and ways first.
Our relations with others will then become more obvious.
The devil exists
(mainly within)
and is very real, threatenning and destructive
whenever we're not orienting our lives toward what's good
for one another.

If there is a God, why is there pain
and suffering, and death?!

From this point on (since our fall from God into
            ourselves ... since we began to decide for ourselves what is
good and what is evil, and experimenting in both)
it has become hard work to get the
 "good" things out of the earth ... and it has become labour and
   pain to bring forth children.  Things have become not so
good anymore.  Why?  Is God punishing us?  Perhaps.  I am more
inclined to believe that, again, these are natural
consequences of our choices.  If we make our beds, we tend
     to sleep in them.  If we try to make a better world by combining
good and evil,
are we to do this without sufferring any
natural consequences?

In general, then, the existence of pain, sufferring and death
is a consequence of we humans
centering on ourselves, apart from the Essence.
We define "good and evil" for ourselves,
experiment with both and reap the natrual consequences.

Man and woman have been "thrown" out of the Garden, but
I think it was we who did the throwing.  We left God and
took up residence in ourselves.

Thor Hayerdahl said,
     early last century, that mankind is continually
protecting himself from nature and at war with it.  How
 right he was!  We have been at war with nature (God's creation)
nearly since the beginning.  The result is that the "nature" we do have
left today hardly resembles the same Garden it once was.
Likewise, the mental, emotional, and spiritual worlds
we have changed, ignored, and corrupted are worlds we now
   have to live in.  Things are not so good anymore, with our selves at
the helm.
 

 God said the only way out now was for us to die
(before we make a non-sense out of Creation?)
(Gen. 3:19-24).
There are at least three levels of death.
Physical death may be the least important.  It
depends on whether or not there is life after death.  A
stronger death may be the death of ourselves as the boss,
allowing truth to rule our selves instead.  This is a beautiful death.
There is a death that I wouldn't wish on anybody, though it logically
exists.  It is the ongoing death of those who will not
relinquish their right to live without truth, without
repentance, without forgiveness (of others and/or
themselves).  The result of this is obviously eternal hell.

Freedom is an invaluable gift.  It is also a severe
one when used wrongly.  Without freedom we cannot be
individuals.  Without two distinct individuals I doubt that
love can truly exist.  True love is something which, by its
very nature passes between two or more beings.  While people
speak of the love of one's self as being the highest form of
love, I question how true love can exist between one person
or being?  It will surely die.  I doubt seriously whether
even God could exist without a free Creation to relate to in love.
 Free individuals are necessary for true Love, and thus
true Life.
Freedom, unfortunately, opens up the possibility of
pain, sufferring and death.
Is it worth it?  When all is said and done? ...
there's no doubt about it.
 

What to Eat?
 The story about Cain and Able is strange in that it was
the animal sacrifice which was accepted by God, and not the
vegetarian.  It was stated in Gen. 1:29 that "...all the
plants...and every tree that bears seed: they shall be yours
for food."  And yet it seems God favoured the meat in this
instance.  Perhaps Abel's sacrifice was more readily
accepted because he gave the choicest of his flock while
Cain may have given God not of his best.  A greater law than
"what to eat" was operating here.
 Jesus gave us no specifics except the one I have tried
to follow since a child, "It is not what goes into your
mouth that defiles you; it is what comes out of your
mouth -- that is what defiles you." (Matt. 15:11).
 It is my opinion that it is better to be a vegetarian
than a meat eater, but it is better yet to love one another
regardless of what the other eats.  We need to keep first
things first.  If we cannot love one another how can we love
God ... or animals ... or plants, who we know even less?

ENOCH
 It's interesting to me as to many that in the list of
descendants of Adam, Enoch is not reported as having died
but "walked with God, and then was seen no more, because God
had taken him away."²  Enoch was obviously a special
individual, and because he apparently did not die, he is
considered as a person who might possibly re-appear in Earth
during the last days, perhaps as one of the two end time
witnesses.
 Enoch, to many, has connotations of New Age ideas.
Often the obscure is picked out to explain new ways of
thinking.  It is my belief that the only reason that the
Truth of the Bible is mysterious to most of us is that we
are not looking for it with a pure heart.  Our motives tend
to be toward seeking knowledge and therefore power over life
situations and over others who might threaten us and our
goals.  When we are ready to give ourselves to the Truth, it
will be easily visible to us in the main events in the
Bible, as well as the obscure ones.
 Enoch does have a message for us ... his life a
meaning.  Enoch is pure spirituality.  He is a great example
of one who didn't make his mark on the world, but instead
"walked with God".
If Enoch had been in the garden of Eden instead of Adam,
mankind might have been closer to God than he is today.

In this way of being purely with God,
of not being connected to the world, Enoch may
have been more spiritual than Jesus, himself.  Jesus trod
the middle way between detachment and compassion.
He lived the "Buddhist"  "Right Aspirations" of
"loving-kindness, compassion and equanimity", without attachment.
Perhaps this is the better way.
Both ways are very good
and very foreign to today's indulgent
consumer society.
 
 

The Flood
 A well documented event in cultures all over the world,
the flood is a warning of the limits of God's (or Nature's)
patience.  Justice will not always give way to mercy.
Little children try to find their parents' limits;  even
more do we bigger children.  We'll find them.
 Jesus said that, as it was in the time before the
flood, so will it be at the end of time.  No one knew what
was happening until the flood carried them away.  It was a
time of corruption.  The lesson is to be as wary as serpents
and as innocent as doves.
 It's interesting that after the flood, God made it
alright for people to eat meat (Gen. 9:3).  Perhaps He found the issue
a stumbling block for too many of us.  At any rate, it (meat
eating) was not so in the beginning, obviously not a part of
perfection.

Ham and prejudice
 The account of Ham and his father, Noah, has been used
by many to defend prejudicial treatment of the black people
on earth.  The rest of the Bible doesn't support this.  The
Bible is full of stories defending and applauding people
from despised races and groups (i.e. the good samaritan; the
spared Caananite woman; the adulteress that Jesus saved,
etc.)  To consider certain groups of people as spiritually
inferior to us is to leave the road that Jesus, Buddha, and
Gandhi tread.

THE TOWER OF BABEL
        (the beginning of Babylon)
 It seems to me that there are two main religions in the
world.  The one says, "Thank you God, for all you have given
us.  What can we do for you ... with God answering `Be good to
one another'".  The other says, "What can we do to enhance
our state in the universe?  How can we get the gods to help
us, to serve us.  With the gods saying, `Just do this and
that and we'll see what happens'".
 The one is God (or Truth) centered; the other is self
(or speculation) oriented.  One seeks the betterment of
Creation; the other seeks the betterment of the limited
self.
 The Whore of Babylon got her start back at the tower of
Babel, and in a sense she is a he.  She is the pride and insatiability
of Man.  She is false religion, and most of the "religious"
world follows her.

She is also materialistic, and manipulation oriented.
She would build a tower to heaven so that she would merely
have to walk up it to get in.  She wouldn't have to go
through any of that character building, or repentance, or
seeking to live a goodly life.  She would merely use her
machine and enter heaven thereby.  She knows nothing about
Heaven, but left on her own she would prevent even the elect
("if it were possible") from entering.

An interpretation of a line from a commentary in the
Bhagavad-Gita As it Is reminds me of the tower of Babel and
sheds a similar light on its meaning.  "... Ravanna ... offered
a program to the people by which he would build a staircase
so that anyone could reach the heavenly planets without
performing sacrifices...."  The result is not so good and
reminds me of another popular idea, "networking".
The result of Ravana's efforts is stated in the following:
"...without their knowledge, they are gliding toward
hell ... like fishes caught in a net, they have no way to come out."
The line interpreted is interesting too:
"Thus perplexed by various anxieties
and bound by a network of illusions, [my italics]
they become too strongly attached to sense enjoyment
and fall down into hell."³
We cannot fool Creation into letting us into heavenly states.
Merely making outward structures can not do it.
We only fool and make traps for ourselves when we do this
and we are sure to fall.

ABRAHAM
 It was to Abraham that God gave His covenant.
Abraham was the pinnacle of Faith of his time.
He was willing to do what God ended up doing later,
to  give even the joy of his life
for the sake of that which he valued more.
Abraham loved God ...
more than anything.
God loves us ...
plenty.
Abraham was willing to give even his own son,
if it be God's will.

God gave His.
(It has not been in vain.)

 Another thing that amazes me about Abraham's Faith is
the way he kept faith with God, though there was little
evidence of God's keeping His promise.  God promised Abraham
that He would make him a great nation, yet Abraham had no
children at all by his wife, Sarai, until he was ninety-nine
years old and she beyond child bearing age.  Their son,
Isaac, likewise, had only one child through which God would
fulfill His promise.  Jacob, Abraham's grandson was to be the
father of fathers in Israel's history ... the father of the twelve
patriarchs.  Abraham was willing to give all he had in
obedience to his God.  And he had "faith in things unseen
concerning things not yet appearing" ... a true leader ... a
worthy spiritual ancestor.
 
 

Joseph (one of the first twelve)

The long story of Joseph is a typical example of how
God uses people least likely to succeed.  He was sold to
traders by his jealous brothers, sent to prison by the wife
of an official, saved by his
relationship to God (a relationship which showed him what no
one else knew), became powerful and subjected the
very brothers who assumed him gone and out of their lives
(He also saved their lives).  The Bible has many such
stories.  Esther comes to mind.  So does Jesus.
 Spirituality does not come with social standing, nor
can it be bought, or restricted to kings' mansions.  Even
the holy people came to realize that it is not restricted to
a race of people.  And I dare to say that no nation, no
religious organisation can claim to be exclusively God's
ordained.  Sorry folks.  Often, God's people seem to be the
outcasts of the world ... the exceptions rather than the
rule ... a holy remnant left over after God has put the
pride of man in its place.  Spiritual inheritance is passed
down from holy vessel to holy vessel.  Each of us is
potentially one of these holy vessels.
 For those who look with pure hearts this story along
with much of the Bible shows some of the workings of God's
kingdom ... how it works, how it prevails.  For most of us,
though, it is enough to know that it does work.

MOSES
 The story of Moses is another long story of a man who
was "lucky" to survive long enough to be of help.
Like Joseph, and like Jesus, his beginnings were more than
just a little shaky.
 Moses is associated with the Law: The Ten Commandments.
This Law is the subject of much of Paul's teachings in the
New Testament ... teachings which I believe were unlike
Jesus'.  Paul preached that we now have a new way, a way of
faith, and that the Law only condemns.  Jesus taught that
not one tiny bit of the Law will be done away with until all
is accomplished (While it is possible that things changed,
starting when Jesus uttered "It is fininshed!" on the cross,
it is my belief that they will continue until God's way is
accepted on earth; and I don't think that there are any
indications that this has happened yet.

I could be wrong about this but Jesus
was not one to divide people from each
other, nor was He one to create elitist clubs.  He had a
strong relationship with God, "His Father", and with the
past.  Jesus strenghtened the commandments by saying that it
was not good enough to follow them simply through our
actions, but that we must follow them in our hearts, in our
desires, in every way.  What he did change/add
was a commitment to non-violence, to pure thoughts
and consistently good actions asking us ... commanding us
to be radicals -- radicals in being the way God wants us to be:
to give our lives for the good and to be at peace with one another.
 Moses was used by God to set his people free.  He was
used to show the people how to keep faith in God ... to live
by faith.  And when the people failed the test, he implored
God to give them another chance.
 Moses is strong in the Bible, and many feel he will
have a part to play in the days before Jesus' return.

A HOLY Remnant
 Joshua and Caleb are perfect illustrations of the holy remnant.
I believe that God's people have always been in the minority
in the world's view of things.
The more "successful" people become, in a worldly sense,
the more popular and powerful they become ...
and, all too often, the further from God they become.
Organisation also tends to have an adverse relationship with our
closeness to God.  This doesn't mean that chaos is the
ultimate, but it does mean, I feel, that there is a low
amount of organizing that can take place before it takes
over as the main focus of those involved in it.

Joshua and Caleb alone, out of ten scouts came
back with faith that their God could win the day against the
strong looking peoples of Caanan.  As a result, they alone,
entered the promised land.
The other ten scouts, all the other people living at that time
and even Moses were disallowed.

 Likewise, in the flood, only a handful of people were saved.
Israel, was almost always in the minority among nations in
the fertile crescent.  Moses and Jesus were pretty much the
sole survivors of attempts to kill Jewish babies.  The way
God fulfilled his promise to Abraham ... all these suggest a
holy remnant to me.  But more than anything else are Jesus'
words.  "Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide
and the way is easy that leads to destruction and many are
they that travel it, but the gate is narrow and the way is
hard that leads to Life, and few there be that find it."⁴

Joshua
  On the outside, Joshua is a book of violence (like the
setting of the Hindu Bhagavad-Gita), but, like the
Bhagavad-Gita, it is mainly a book of Faith.  To all
appearances the peoples of Canaan, were fearsome and built
strong fortresses.  To believe that one could conquer them
was a large step in faith.  There was more of a moral
concern in the Hindu book as Arjuna became weak when he saw
his family and friends among the enemy, and couldn't get
himself to fight them.
 Both settings are unpopular today.  Not many people are up to
to confronting Goliath-like enemies; few are likely to consider
family and friends as possible enemies.
One's true devotions are eventually tested.
And the answer is always to see things God's way
(or if you're a Buddhist, to see things as they actually are).

Both books deal with our true devotions thru violent settings
and have a great value therein.
But Jesus and Buddha have shown us a better way.
Our battle is not basically physical.
In our fight we aim to hurt no one.

Still, there is pain and difficult choices.
And if we've found something better than this physical life
we need to be willing to experience this pain when necessary
to further that Life.

Gandhi said that all our battles
should be fought inside ourselves.
Our battles are to be exercises in patience and spiritual strength.
They are meant to vanquish our own fear and anger
and to replace them with faith, hope, and love.
May we be strong in battle
and seek harm to none therein.
 
 

Judges
 The judges of the Bible remind me of the Hindu
manifestations of Vishnu.  Each time the people needed
special help, this help came thru a great leader.

In the Bible it was in the form of judges
Israel was originally different than the surrounding nations
in that it had no kings.
Judges were leaders that came to deal with a specific situation,
rather than to continue a line of rule.

In Hindu belief, Brahman (God) manifests himself in many
different ways.  The two main ways are that of Vishnu and
Shiva.  These two have likewise had manifestations of
themselves.  I think Vishnu has had nine such
manifestations, of which Rama, Krishna, and Buddha are the
latest.  They, like the Judges, came when the people needed
them most.

Samuel was a great judge,
       and the last.

It wasn't long before Israel lost faith in their superior way of life
and came to desire life under a human king.
 Samuel had the sad job of granting Isreal this dream.
 Before this was granted, however, Samuel gave them God's displeasure ... His warning.
Here is a clear case of God not punishing his wayward child,
but warning it of the natural consequences of it's dreams fulfilled,
and then allowing it to create its own destiny.
 To claim that it is God's desire to  have his people ruled by kings, prime ministers or presidents
is clearly unbiblical.
Ad hoc spirit filled leader's seems to be more God's style.
 
 

David
the little shepherd boy
God's Great Warrior

 The secret to David's success was
the extent of his faith in God and in God's ways.
While all the Israeli army feared,
he trusted, and overcame Goliath.
While Saul fitted,
David sang calmingly.
While Saul sought David's death,
David sought Saul's benefit.
David made Israel into a strong nation,
as strong as it has ever been.

David was very strong in faith but he did have some weaknesses.
Two are dealt with below:

First was an overly strong desire for a married woman
which lead him to engineer her husband's death in order for him to take her.
In doing so he forgot that we are all important.
And so David's latter years were troublesome indeed.

Having the partner we desire is nice and can be very helpful (even spiritually)
but how we obtain and live with this partner is even more important.
 How is it that we, thousands of years later, allow our sexual desires
to blind us to how we are affecting others by our actions.
How little we have advanced since then.

Second, because David was a warrior
God disallowed him from building his temple
Skills invovled in warfare
are generally at odds with
skills involved in creating an atmosphere of worship.

Being able to overcome our enemies can certainly be helpful
but it is even more important to remember that our main enemies are within.
How is it that, thousands of years later, we still primarily trust in military might?
We continue to seek more efficient ways to destroy our enemies without
instead of seeking ways to change ourselves ...
to defeat the enemies within
a work which makes our world better for us all.
How little we have advanced since then.
 

These, along with much of the Bible, point to guidelines for those who seek to live good lives.
While there are exceptions to all guidelines.
we need to be very sure of what we're doing
when we claim these exceptions.
It is important to see ourselves as no more important than others
and to keep the means as well as the final ends of all we do (and are) in mind.
 

The Wisdom of Solomon

 There is much wisdom in Solomon's writings, though some
of it is very worldly.  People came from all over the known
world to hear him speak, and yet there is another who was
less known in his own day, whose wisdom leaves Solomon's for
dead.  This man is Jesus.  So why do we continue to seek the
wisdom of Solomon, of Paul, and of Wall Street, when their
light is like darkness in comparison.
How little we have advanced.
 
 

The Kings

 The kings of Israel as well as those of Judah were
mostly evil, as, I believe, were the majority of kings in
the other nations.  They resembled all that Samuel
predicted, and still do today.  Today we don't call them
kings.  They're presidents, prime ministers etc., but
they're still the same.  Nowdays we have multinational
organisations that have more power than nations.  The
leaders of these, whether they be one person or a group of
people, tend to be the same.
 Organisations tend to support themselves at the expense
of all who get in the way.
Following the Spirit ... serving all of creation
is the better way to go.
 

In Babylon

 In some ways the Jews were better off in captivity than
when they were in control.  At least in captivity they knew
their need.  They knew they needed to get closer to God.

 God used other nations to "punish" His people, but
never rewarded these nations, in the end, for doing so.
They were messing with something of God, and were certain
for a fall.  What they meant for evil was used by God for
good.  It reminds me of the fellow who pretended his wife
was his sister, in order to save his life.  A pharoah took
her but found nothing but trouble as the result.  Wisely
realising the reason for his woes the Pharoah gave her back.
The nations who ruled over Israel were doing a similar
thing.  They saw the temporary distance between Israel and
her God, and took advantage.  They have done so to their own
detriment, in the end.  Babylon will appear in the end days
(perhaps not as a specific nation so much as a world
philosophy), and will reap her full desserts.⁵ Babylon will
have no love for God nor people, but will be used without her knowledge, I
believe, for ultimate good.
 
 

Job

 If only more people would understand the messages of
the book of Job.  Job adds a new dimension to the idea that
a person's troubles are always of their own making.  He did
nothing to deserve his fate.  He was caught in a divine
struggle.  The same was true with a man born blind that
Jesus healed.  His fate was a part of a bigger picture.
 God answers all of his critics at the end of the book
of Job.  He answers his critics of old and those of today.
Where were we, if we know so much, when the foundations of
creation were laid ... when limits were made ... when that
which has become us (peoplekind) was established?  How can
we even begin to understand why God does things and why He
does not.  I've got guesses.  I've also got a bit of
humility and don't pretend to have it all worked out.
 
 

Prophets

 When I think of prophets, I usually think of them in
contrast with priests.  While priests were the recognised
religious authorities and were supposed to do things to keep
people on the right track, prophets tended to arise, like
the judges, when the people were in trouble.  Prophets
usually disagreed with the norm.  When people were
over-confident they would warn them;  when overly
discouraged they would encourage.  Prophets were seldom
popular, but were relied upon when folks were in trouble and
God seemed far away.  There were good prophets and bad ones.
Bad ones usually backed up evil rulers.  Good ones usually
got stoned, thrown into wells, even crucified.
There are often very high costs for promoting good to an evil world,
but in the end these efforts are very helpful to God's creation
and His prophets are well rewarded.

 I feel Jesus was much more a prophet than a priest.
There were also Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and many others.
 One of the strongest, Elijah, is expected to come back
in the last days before Jesus comes back, himself.
 
 

BUDDHA

 Buddha sought lasting spiritual peace, and found it in his renunciation
of craving and attachment.  This renunciation is strongly associated with
compassion for all sentient beings.
Though he claimed no "god", his concern for sentient beings
demonstrates his great love and devotion for their Essence
(which some of  us call God).
He remains closely associated with the Truth ... a great Teacher.
 

He realised and taught/teaches FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS

For more on Buddha see http://www.fwbo.org/buddha.html

and further recommended reading:  Living Buddha, Living Christ
 

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Jesus
After Jesus
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