Likewise, ask those people who feel offended because the coming epoch is being called the epoch of Maitreya and not the epoch of Christ whether they … - Helena Roerich

Wisely We will turn everything for the good. (448)

Said the Blessed One, “Distinguish between those who understand and those who agree. He who understands the Teaching will not tarry in applying it to life, he who agrees will nod and extol the Teaching as remarkable wisdom, but will not apply this wisdom to life. There are many who have agreed, but they are like a withered forest, fruitless and without shade. Only decay awaits them. Those who understand are few, but like a sponge they absorb the precious knowledge and are ready to cleanse the horrors of the world with the precious liquid. He who has understood cannot help applying the Teaching, because realizing goal-fitness he accepts it as a solution of life. Do not waste much time with the agreeing ones. Let them first demonstrate the application of the first call.”
Thus is attributed to the Blessed One the goal-fitting attitude to newcomers.

The Great Gotama gave to the world a complete Teaching of the perfect construction of life. Each attempt to make a god of the great revolutionist, leads to absurdity. Previous to Gotama there was, of course, a whole succession of those who bore the common welfare, but their teachings crumbled to dust in the course of millenniums. Therefore the Teaching of Gotama should be accepted as the first teaching of the laws of matter and the evolution of the world. Contemporary understanding of the community permits a wondrous bridge from Gotama Buddha up to the present time. We pronounce this formula neither for extolling nor for demeaning, but as an evident and immutable fact.