Editors Note: The following are exerts from "The Reappearance of the Christ" written by Philosopher/Mystic Alice Bailey and published by Lucis Press in 1948. Procuring copies of the book is quite difficult and for that reason I am sharing some of it with you. This rendering has been edited for clarity.
The Avatar
What is an Avatar?
An Avatar comes to us to bring about great changes or major restorations, to inaugurate a new civilization or to restore the "ancient landmarks" and lead man nearer to the Divine. They have been defined as "Extraordinary Men" Who from time to time appear to change the face of the world and inaugurate a new era in the destinies of humanity." They come in times of crisis. They come when evil is rampant. For this reason an Avatar may be looked for today. The stage is set for the Reappearance of the Christ.
All the world Avatars or Saviors express two basic incentives: the need of God to contact humanity and to have relationship with men and the need of humanity for Divine Contact, help and understanding. All true Avatars are Divine Intermediaries.
The Avatar/Christ embodies in Himself the Divine Principle of Love. He was the first to reveal to men the true nature of the Universe.
The Avatars most easily known and recognized are the Buddha in the East and the Christ in the West. Their messages are familiar to all, and the fruits of Their lives and words have conditioned the thinking and civilizations of both hemispheres. Humanity can easily understand them because they are of like nature to us. They are known, trusted and loved by countless millions. The nucleus of spiritual energy which each of Them set up is beyond our measuring; the establishing of a nucleus of persistent energy, spiritually positive, is the constant task of an Avatar; He focuses or anchors a dynamic truth, a potent thought form or vortex of magnetic energy in the world of human living.
The Christ transmitted to humanity the Love Principle of the Universe. There had been very little emphasis upon the Universe as Love in any of the world scriptures until Christ came, lived a life of love and service, and gave men the new command to love one another. Christ revealed and emphasized this Divine Quality and thus altered all human living, goals, and values. 
There has been a useful and wholesome swing away from Churchianity and from orthodox religion during the past century, and this will present a unique opportunity for the restoration of Truth and the return to the Ways of Spiritual living. It is highly improbable that the reactionary churchmen will be the ones to recognize Him today.
The Avatar/Christ may reappear in a totally unexpected guise; who is to say whether He will come as a politician, an economist, a leader of the people (arising from the midst or them), a scientist or an artist? No one knows in what nation He will come; He may appear as an Englishman, a Russian, a Negro, a Latin, a Turk, a Hindu, or any other nationality. Who can say which? He may be a Christian or a Hindu by faith, a Buddhist or of no particular faith at all. He will come to restore man's faith in the Father's Love and the unbreakable relationship of all men everywhere.
The Will of Christ is to draw all men through the heart, out of the world of material values into the World of Spiritual recognition.
When the lure of substance is overcome and desire dies, then the attractive power of the Soul becomes dominant, and the emphasis turns to group form and group purpose.
Christ came to bring an end to the Jewish dispensation which should have climaxed and passed away as a religion with the movement of the sun out of Aries into Pisces. In the rejection of the Christ as the Messiah, the Jewish race has remained symbolically and practically in the sign of Aries, the Scapegoat. They rejected that which was new and spiritual in the desert; they did it again in Palestine two thousand years ago. Will they do so again, when the opportunity is offered to them? 
The work of Christ will be to relate to the centre where the Father is contacted, where recognition of Sonship of All Men is accorded and where the divine purpose can be known. The three Divine aspects of Intelligence, Love, and Will, will be consciously developed in mankind; humanity and the 'centre where the Will of God is known' will be brought into a more open and general relationship.
(The Avatar)
by Alice A. Bailey
