Neville Goddard (March 15, 1963)
Tonight’s subject is “Christ Unveiled.” That is quite a tall order, for we are told in Mark 13:21: “If anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it.” And I will endorse that one hundred percent. Listen to it carefully and see the pronoun used in that sentence. “Here he is, believe him not.” So, here, who is Christ? What is Christ? Where is Christ? Paul found him and, having found him, he said: “From now on we regard no one from a human point of view even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer.” (1 Cor. 5:16) He regards him not, from now on, as man. He thought he was man and went out to destroy those who believed in Christ as a man.
Then we are told in I Peter 1:10,11: “The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired about this salvation; they inquired what person or time was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them when predicting the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory.” They thought they were looking for a person, or time, and they wondered whether he would come. There was no reply to that, save “It was revealed to them they were serving not themselves but you” (v. 12) What is Christ? I tell you Christ is “The Way” of salvation. Christ is “The Way” to the Father.
Now we will turn back to the Gospels where we have these events together, for Scripture, as we understand it, says the New Testament is based on the affirmation that a certain series of events happened in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of man. Did they happen? I tell you from experience, they happened. Not only they happened, but are happening. They are taking place every moment of time in our world. If you have not experienced these events may I tell you: you are going to. Not a thing in this world that you will ever do will stop it. God will not fail – not in one being in this world. Here we are told the events were assembled and Luke, in his first four verses, makes the statement: “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things which have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.” So, here we have the oral tradition. They all talked about it. These things happened and they are telling it, but come the moment in time that many undertook to put it into written form and he thought it wise to do the same thing. And so he said: “Having observed all things closely for sometime past.” He thought he, too, would put it in written form for one he called Theophilus – meaning “one who loves God.” He is speaking to you. You love God, I love God. He is the source of everything – the source of our life and the end of all things. And, so, he is addressing his remarks to you – O dear Theophilus – that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.
And so, we heard it orally. I did as a child, but when I began to read and write I could read it for myself, but did not understand it. Before I could read it, mother taught it to me and I was sent to school and it was taught to me in school. Then I was sent to Sunday school and I heard the story told by the teacher. And, so, we heard it orally. Then came the moment in time we could read it for ourselves. Then came this closed book.
Now, let us see if we can unveil Christ tonight. In Matthew 16:13, one called Christ Jesus turns to his disciples and asked this question: “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” And they replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Then he said to them: “But who do you say that I am?” Right away that second question identifies it with the son of man. The first question is: “But who do you say that I am?” So he is asking the question about the Son of Man. Then he is asking about himself. “But who do you say that I am?” He identifies himself with the Son of Man. And Peter replied: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And to this he answered: “Blessed are you, Simon bar Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” He confesses that no flesh and blood could have told it, it has to come by revelation. Where do we find this flesh and blood revelation? In Galatians 1:16, 17. “When it pleased God to reveal His son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood.” That, mortal mind could not reveal, no matter how it rationalized or tried to unravel this mystery. It cannot, it has to be revealed – it has to be completely unfolded, in the individual. So, he said: “I am the Son of man.”
Now, we go back in the Old Testament to find this cue. Where did God promise this? We turn to 2 Samuel, 7th Chapter. This is a vision. We are told between the 8th and 17th verses, that Nathan received a vision, and “according to all these words and according to all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. This is what he told David: “And the Lord said unto me – the Lord of Hosts O go to my servant David and say to David, ‘When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your son after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will be his father, and he shall be my son.’ Here, we have to now spiritualize the vision of David. Here is David, a man. If “I will raise up your son after you,” then he is David’s son. I cannot deny it. “I will raise up your son after you who will come forth from your body.” “I will (now the Lord is speaking) be his father and he shall be my son.” If he is the son of David then he is the Son of man. If, on the other hand, the Lord adopts him, “He shall be my son,” then he is the Son of God. So, in this case, who do men say the Son of man is? And they all thought of all kinds of things. He said then: “Who do you say I am?” “You are Christ, the Son of God.” Now right away you think in terms “You are Christ, the Son of God” and yet – the Son of man, you think of a man. And it is not so at all.
Here is a man as you are – male or female – walking the earth. You have heard the story orally, but when you began to read you could read it for yourself, but you did not understand it. You are playing your normal part in this world and one day when you least expect it – in fact, you never expect it – you thought it happened 2,000 years ago to one person and that was it – well, you are that person. It is happening to you. You go through the entire series of events as recorded in Scripture, and then you know [who] Christ is. Christ is “The Way” to the Father – and there is no other Way. “I am the Way.” To what? To everything in this world! But especially to the Father. “I am the Way. No one comes unto the Father but by me,” as told in the 14th [chapter] of John. But no one comes unto the Father but by me.” So, here is the Way. What is the Way? Then you search the Scripture and find the Way, and the Way you do not determine – it was in the beginning. Listen to the statement carefully, in Paul’s Letter to the Colossians (1:15-17): “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities – all things were created through him for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
“He is the image of the invisible God – the first born of all creation.” Now where is this said in the Old Testament? Because the New is only the fulfillment. The whole is in the Old and the New is fulfillment. You will find it in Proverbs 8:22, 23: “The Lord created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth . . . when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then I was beside him like a little child.” (v. 29) Here is God’s way of salvation. But God’s way in Scripture is always personified. Every attribute of man’s mind, which is God’s mind, is always personified. If it is wealth, you see wealth as a man. If it is power, you see power as a man. When you meet Infinite Might – it is a man. All the attributes of mind are always personified, for God is man and man is God. So He personifies this Way – the Way that was in the beginning. This is not improvised. Before God brought the whole vast world into being, he plotted and planned a way of redemption for all of us. This is not an afterthought of God. It came first. “I am the first of his acts of old,” before he brought forth the world – the universe, anything – he planned a Way, and the Way was to God, personified as a little child. “And I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of man.” (Proverbs 8:30, 31)
Now listen carefully: “He who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord; but he who misses me injures himself; all who hate me love death.” (Prov. 8:35, 36) Where is it in the New Testament – the second part of what we just quoted? The very first words uttered by Jesus recorded in Scripture you will find in the last few verses in Luke 2. It takes place in the synagogue – the temple – and his parents said to him: “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” And he replied: “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them.” But, the mother kept these things in her heart, and then Jesus grew in years, in wisdom, and in the favor of the Lord. The first recorded utterance of Jesus in Scripture when he was only a lad, a child: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” He said heaven is the throne of God and heaven is within you. Where would you find him? You are asking me? Where would you seek me? They sought him elsewhere, but they could not find him until they found him in the father’s house – for you are the temple of the living God. It is called synagogue, outwardly. You are the synagogue, but you are the temple of the living God. I will not find the way until I find him myself. And find him without searching for him. One day when it pleases God – for it comes with the fullness of time and he sees in me the ripeness he is looking for – then he unfolds me by this series of events, in his home.
First the birth, then the discovery of his son, and then the splitting of the temple. And I am taken into his home – and his home is within. Just as described in the 13th Chapter of Mark, there is the most frightening earthquake when you are taken into his home, and you are the cause of it. When you move up and move into that heavenly state within you, there is a vibration you have never experienced before. The whole vast world within you begins to shake because you have been redeemed. You are brought in and there is joy beyond the wildest dream you could ever conceive, because one more has been brought into the temple, into the house of God.
It is true as I have told you. So Christ is the Way, the Way of redemption, and the Way is man. “The Lord created me at the beginning of His Way, the first of his acts of old.” Before he brought forth the stars or anything, he created a way of return to himself, and that way is called Christ in the Bible. And the people sought him and the prophets inquired as to what person, and to this day, in 1963, they are still looking for a person. You will see it in the papers – they are always looking for some person coming into the world that will be Christ and they are so eager to find a Christ on the outside. They thought they found one in Hitler, or in Stalin, or someone else – always a savior of the world. But, as quoted earlier from Mark 13:21: “And then if anyone says to you, ‘Look here is the Christ!’ or ‘Look, there he is!’ do not believe it.” You will never find him in another. In no being in this world will you find him. You either find him in yourself as the Way that leads you to God, or you will not find him. But you will find him – everyone will find him. And when they find him, they find him as a “Way.” He said: “I am the Way, I am the Truth, I am the Life; I am the Resurrection; I am the Door.” There is no other door. You cannot get through it in any other way, and this is the Way of the Father. The Way is inwoven in every child in this world and that child will find the way when God is ready for him, for only God knows that moment in eternity when he will awaken that child.
Now, why are we called in 2 Samuel 7: “Those who sleep with the Fathers?” Here we are three billion in the world today, and “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your son after you, who shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.” And you think those were the fathers. May I tell you: you are the fathers. You have already fulfilled your day in preparation, and now you are sleeping with the fathers. You are sound asleep, but you don’t know it. You came here tonight as a conscious being and you will go home tonight – drive your cars or get off the bus at the right points, you will go to bed fully conscious of the fact that this is when you are going to sleep and that prior to that you were awake. You did all these things conscious.
I have observed my brother Bruce; from the time he was born he was a sleep walker. Bruce would come down stairs and go to the larder, unlock the larder for some milk and bread and jam. He would walk around naturally. We would do everything to make him fall on his neck, but he never did. He walked around the chairs or anything else in the room and then came back upstairs and went back to bed, totally unaware he had done anything unnatural, and the only person in the world who could convince him he did it was my mother. He would oppose us, but not mother. Not that she would have done anything violent, but he could not mistrust my mother. She was to us the ideal. She would not lie to us. So our brother Bruce trusted her, but he would rack his brain to find out why he did it. We put obstacles in his way but he would walk around them.
That taught me a lesson in my mature years when I was awakened to find that I had been asleep all through the ages and I did not know it. All through the ages I have been sleeping – and how long are these ages? Paul tells us in his letter to the Colossians, “The mystery hidden for ages and generations . . . which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:26, 27) He tells us a mystery – the mystery – the mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory. I did not understand it anymore than the world understands it, and one day it happened. And God, in his infinite mercy, looked upon me and found me ripe, and he woke me. I awoke for the first time in eternity, and I was sealed in a tomb, and the tomb was my skull. And God rolled away the stone and I came out. But until that moment I never thought for one moment I was asleep. Not only asleep, but the sleep was so deep, so profound, I was dead. For when I awoke I was in a tomb, and you do not put anyone in a tomb unless they are dead. So when you enter that tomb you are dead, and you are one with Christ, who died for you. He is the Way. Together you are completely sealed in a tomb. But you don’t know it. I did not know it. But I have never been more awake in eternity. When I saw things around about me and saw them all objectively, and they could not see me, I understood the words: “He is the image of the Invisible God.” How could you be the image of something invisible? But those are the words: “The image of the invisible God” – the first of all that was created. How could I actually reflect something invisible? It was true, you are the image of the invisible God and nothing that is mortal that looks at you can see you. You are more real than anything in the world. And the whole thing began to come back and I began to see the experiences I have come through and I wondered, for it puzzled me. Looking at you – looking at myself, bathing, shaving, taking care of the body, and it seemed so alive and so independent of any man’s perception of it. I could leave the room when I wanted to and do the things I wanted to do but at this moment in time I realized this is not so at all.
When I awoke, I then realized an experience I had many years before. God was bringing me to that point of awakening. In one moment in time he took me into a world just like this and showed me a power that would be myself tomorrow. He allowed me to exercise it just for a moment and I saw people just like you. As I saw them, I arrested within myself a rhythm – an action. As I did it, the people I observed stood still – everything stood still. I wondered how it could be, but they could not move. But when I released the activity within me that I arrested, they all moved on and completed their intention. Then it broke. Then I understood what he meant: “As the Father has life within himself, so he has granted to the son to have life in himself.”
So everyone is destined to have life within himself. Then you wonder about these garments and all these things round about us – this thing called Neville. What are all these things? Are these really costumes? Is something being formed in us that is the image of the Invisible God and we have to play these parts and wear these costumes for the moment? I have concluded that it is true – that, as Shakespeare says, the whole vast world is really a stage and all men are merely the players. And one man plays many parts in his time, and the being playing it all is God – individualizing himself and begetting himself, as told in 2 Samuel 7: “I will raise up your son after you, who shall come forth from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son.” Out of this human body something is coming forward that is going to be called the Son of man, because it comes out of man. But it will be the Son of God, and it is the image of the Invisible God – something born in man and he brings him forward. And may I tell you: it is your own sense of I-ness. No loss of identity when you are awakened. None whatsoever. You will know me in eternity and I will know you.
But for all the sameness of identity, we will know each other. But there is going to be a radical discontinuity of form – a radical discontinuity. You have no idea how beautiful you really are. Human face, yes. Human hands, yes. Human feet, yes. The human body – no. Not this body, not for one moment, but I cannot describe it to you. Not that I wouldn’t, if I could, but I can’t. If I made an attempt, it could only be radiant light, like a rainbow. Yet I would know you and you will know me, for there is a sameness of identity and human enough we can recognize each other. But the form – a radical discontinuity. You can display it and you know who you are, then you return to this – this garment, that you will one day put down forever, and this is essential.
Before this came into being, God mapped out a way, and The Way was called Christ. No one understood who Christ was. They thought it was a man who would come and save the world. (People are always looking for a man that will come and save the world.) That man is you. You are David. He brings forward your son, but that is his son. Then you will understand the great opening statement of Matthew: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Then he brings up the question, “What think ye of the Christ; whose son is he?” The question is not complete until you listen to the past part – “son of David.” “Then why did David, in Spirit, call him father?” And you will see the Son of man is also the Son of God. But the Son of God and God are one. “I and my Father are one.” You get it? I and my Father are one, and yet I am the Son of man.
This is man, and out of man comes a being that is God’s son. And then David – who played this fantastic part, which is now universal humanity – becomes the Son of man. You follow it? The Son of man is one with the Son of God. But that out of which the Son of man comes (who is the Son of God) in turn becomes the Son of man. You follow it? Son of man – Son of God – God. The Son of God and God are one, if the Son of God cannot deny the product of man.
The question is asked in the 16th [chapter] of Matthew: “Who do men say the Son of man is?” Naturally, because He is the Son of man they have to think in terms of man, and they say: “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” So they mention man. He does not quarrel with that. He changes it, now: “But who do you say that I am?” He is asking: “Who is I?” He tells you: “I am the son of man – but who am I?” They mention “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Then he tells them; “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in Heaven.” Then he comes down to the foundation – who is the Son of man? The Son of God? God? It comes out David. That is the promise given to us.
David is collective humanity, and out of David comes the Son of man and that Son of Man is the Son of God. When the Son of God awakes, he has to have a son, and it is David. Jesus never got beyond that age of 12 where he appears in the temple, and they ask: “Where were you? We have been looking all over for you. Why did you do this unto us? And He says: “Why did you seek me? You found me in my Father’s house. Why did you seek me elsewhere. You can’t find me, but if you find me you find life and receive the favor of the Lord.”
When you find life, you will do to everyone in this world what it has been my privilege to do. In these moments I was taken, in the Spirit, and put into sections of humanity and stopped them. Then I released it, and they completed their action. And I stopped them again and they could go no further. A bird. A leaf. And then you ask fantastic questions in the depths of your soul. And you come to the conclusion that this whole vast world – everything in it – is a resultant state of God’s first creative act, and this was brought into being as a resultant state, and you are not these garments of flesh at all. Something is being formed in this garment of flesh. What is being formed? It is called the Son of man, but God calls it his Son, and his Son and himself are one. So God is begetting himself in man – his very own Self – and the day will come the individual will be able to say to himself; “He is not only begetting his Son, he begot his son in me, and I and my Father are one.” When you are awakened there is no other being but you and you, yourself, awake in yourself to discover you have been sound asleep and really dead for these unnumbered ages.
So when he tells you in his Letter to the Colossians: “The mystery hidden for ages and generations . . . which is Christ in you, the hope of glory,” there is a way in man that leads him to glory. But man does not know it. He thinks he is completely awake and independent. I can go back 30 years ago and I would walk on Broadway, and it happened often. I was young and strong. Not a thing was wrong with me, and yet I would walk up Broadway and all of a sudden I knew someone was arresting me and I could not walk. And I would stop in the street and I could not put one foot in front of the other, but I did not understand it, and I would be released and walk on. Then it would happen again – on the sidewalk. I could not move, and I was fully alert and conscious, but I was still. And I know, now, someone was doing to me then what I, years later, was taken in Spirit to do to others. I was being trained and prepared to do the same thing to another that was done to me. I could not move. And yet, I was playing on Broadway. I had my vaudeville shows and played everything east of the Mississippi. I was a professional dancer and nothing was wrong with me and, yet, I could not move. I could feel something holding me – not embracing me – but something binding me. I stood paralyzed. And after a minute or so, whatever it was released me. I was used as the guinea pig by someone using this power within himself as I, years later, used it on others.
So, “As the Father has life in Himself, so he grants the Son also to have life in himself,” and he is about to awaken that son and he knows it. We are being ripened – we must all conform to the image of the invisible God. When the image is coming into view, he introduces that being to the power that he will exercise tomorrow, so he takes him in spirit and shows him this fabulous world and he has control over it.
What is the world? It is a stage, but you are not the garment you are wearing. But I will recognize you. There is a sameness of identity and we will know everyone in eternity. But there is a radical discontinuity of form. So, this body of ours – face, hands, feet – yes. But not the body. You are beautiful beyond your wildest dream!
Now let us go into the silence.
Questions & Answers
Question: The Bible speaks of perfect love casting out all fear.
Answer: If you came into a world, and you could multiply this to encompass the entire world – but should you come into a place, say, as large as this room, with an audience like this, and suddenly you knew in the depths of your soul that you, by stilling – not them, but stilling an activity in yourself, everyone would be stilled; and you did it and proved the truth of your intuition – who then could disturb you? If you were faced now with the most horrible thing in the world and you by stilling an activity in yourself made it still, and it is so still it could outlast marble; if you didn’t release that activity in yourself you wouldn’t have to embalm it, it wouldn’t decay, it would stand just as it is.
Suppose you were faced with an army of millions, armed to the teeth, but they were earthly minded, and then you stilled the activity in you that gave them motion. And suppose in you, you could change their intention or direction. You could by changing their direction march them into the ocean and when they got beyond sight, you released the activity within you, then what would happen to them? They would be once more flesh and blood and they would drown. Do you know that? But you wouldn’t do that, because you would not be afraid of man and they are only men.
So all this is processing that God is extracting his sons from man. It is from man, therefore it is man’s son. “I will raise up your son after you who shall come forth from your body, but I will be his father and he shall be my son.” So God is begetting his son in man, bringing him out of man; but he can’t deny he is a man therefore he is man’s son. It is man’s offspring but it is God’s son now, for this is going to be done differently. This that comes from the world, my son, comes from the womb of my wife; but when my son in this world came from the womb of his mother, he is brought forth from that body. He will also be brought forth from his skull. That is the second birth. There are two births; one is from the womb of woman and one is from the skull of man. That is the second reaching forth from the skull, – that is God’s son.
Now the question is asked in the Book of Timothy: “And how will woman be saved?” Because man does not quite understand generic man. The answer is wrongly translated. “Woman will be saved by the bearing of the child.” Unfortunately they put that in the foot-note and they gave as the answer: “Woman will be saved by bearing children.” It hasn’t a thing to do with any bearing of children. “Woman will be saved by the bearing of the child,” just as man is saved. But they can’t believe that man could bear a child. He can sire one but he can’t bear one. Yet the question is asked in the Book of Jeremiah: “Can man have a child, can he bear a child?” The question is not answered but God answers it by stating that he is seeing, having asked the question. “Can a man bear a child? Why then do I see every man with his hands delivering himself, pulling himself out of himself just like a woman in labor.” (Jeremiah 30) And in the 2nd Chapter of Timothy: “How then will woman be saved?” and I tell you the true translation of that phrase is “By the bearing of the child.” The foot note uses it and they tell you the literal Greek is “Bearing of the child.” But they cannot understand it anymore than they could understand Jeremiah, so they say: “Woman will be saved by bearing children.” It hasn’t a thing to do with bearing children. Salvation does it entirely differently – out of the skull of generic man, male or female. The symbolism is the first step in the great Way called Christ. Christ is the way, and the first [step] is the birth of the individual by being resurrected, symbolized in the birth of a child.
They find the sign they were told they would find when this event takes place in eternity. They will find the sign and the sign is the child, and they will tell you it is your child. They will give it to you and you will hold it, as told in the Book of Luke, and you will have a joy in the Way of salvation.
There is a definite way and there is no other way. People say: “Well, there must be another way.” I swear there is no other way. Foundation is the only salvation. Don’t try to get away from it. It is the only foundation. It is all in the Hebraic world as a promise. So, it is said: “He opened unto thee the Scriptures and they said within themselves: “‘Did not our hearts burn when he opened to us the Scripture,’ and beginning with Moses and all through the prophets and the Psalms he interprets to them all concerning himself.” The whole thing is about himself ─ that is, you. Moses rejoiced. He rejoiced for what? “He endured all the fires of Egypt; he gave up all the treasures of Egypt, because he considered the wealth of Christ far greater, and he endured as seeing him who is invisible.” He endured. Read the story of Moses. How would you say that Moses, who preceded him by thousands of years, endured as seeing him? That is told in the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews: “Moses endured as seeing him who is invisible.”
Now we are told that “Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day. He saw it and was glad.” How could Abraham rejoice? Everything was in preparation and then came that moment in time when the first could be brought forward, but from that moment on all are being brought forward. How many in the world? I don’t know, but all are being brought forward and not one will fail. So what is doing it? “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” So the day is coming when that moment in time you are the image of that invisible God, God is bringing forth. He can’t bring you forth until you conform to the image of the invisible God, for you must be one with your Father. That you are one with him in the true essence of the word: “I and my Father are one.”