THE WORLD SAVIOR

All of the dominant world religions, - Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
Buddhism, Hinduism, to name a few - have an expectation of a world
savior who is to appear in the future. This world savior is expected to
bring peace on earth.

This "world savior" would be better considered a "world peace maker"
because this is the primary mandate of the world savior: to manifest peace
on earth.

However, when we question the members of the major religious
institutions, we find that their expectation is that this world savior will
come from their particular faith: Christians expect a Christian world savior,
Buddhist a Buddhist world savior, Islam an Islamic world savior.
Unfortunately, with this mindset, no religion will embrace a world savior
not of their particular faith. For example, as soon as a world savior
identifies with Buddhism, then he or she will automatically be rejected by
Christians, Muslim, Jews and Hindus.

Therefore, we have to realize that the concept of a world savior has to be
modified to a concept of a world savior for Christians world wide as
opposed to a true world savior. The mindset is such among world religious
institutions that a truly all inclusive world savior will not manifest. The
mindset is that the Islamic world savior will appear and those who do not
embrace Islam will be sent to hell, removed from the planet, or possibly
enslaved.

When a world savior appears he or she - all major religions essentially
reject the idea of a female world savior because they were all founded by
men and have tenaciously held onto a masculine orientation - will have to
refuse to embrace any religious institution. He or she will have to
understand the teachings of all religions but not have a preference for one
over the other. He or she will have to relate to the common thread that
runs through all religions and essentially speak only to these common
beliefs. If he or she tried to deviate toward a mindset that was unique to
one religion, he or she would alienate those who did not embrace that
mindset.

Religious institutions are by their nature elitist and exclusive. They feel
they have the one "true" path to salvation, or what I call peace, and they
feel no need to embrace other religionists as their equal. A true world
savior will have to be inclusive of all religionists otherwise he or she cannot
possibly be a true world savior.

When we look at the history of religious thought world wide over time, we
find that occasionally men and women with deeply rooted spiritual
orientations bring their spiritual truth to a particular area of the earth and
influence millions of human beings. This is an ongoing process that will
never cease. What is unique in this day and time is that the world has
become one and so situations of the past where a deeply rooted Western
religion for the Middle East can flourish without coming into contact with
an Eastern religion in India no longer exist. Buddha and Jesus were able to
significantly impact their worlds without clashing with each other due to
physical separation of the parts of the world they traveled.

Now we have one world and so the next Buddha or Jesus will have to
embrace the entire world. This will be tricky because to integrate the
Eastern and Western religious mindsets into one mindset will not be easy.
What it will require will be the letting go of the uniqueness of East and
West and holding fast to the common denominators.

There are in reality only two common denominators in religious thought:

First, a belief in One God and this One God is infinite, immortal, without
beginning or end; all-inclusive.

Second, a commitment to treating others as you expect to be treated.
On these two pillars rests all religious thought.

Lastly, the greatest negative manifestation of expecting a world savior to
appear in the future and bring peace is the apathy this mindset fosters.
People are starving and murdering each other for various reasons even as
you read these words. To believe that only a world savior can stop this
suffering is to allow yourself to ignore the cries of pain that go out at every
moment.

If belief in a world savior allows you to turn a deaf ear to these cries of
pain, it would be better to discard your belief in a coming world savior and
begin to immediately focus on extending a loving and helping hand to the
billions of suffering human beings that presently inhabit the entire planet.