2/19/68

[…] “The Word of God.” In the last book, the Book of Revelation, it is said that “And his name shall be called The Word of God” (19:13)…and that is Jesus Christ. So here we have a book which is the story of Jesus Christ. It is said that his word is truth, everything said is true, and time will prove it. He said, “I am the truth.”

Now here, truth can never be told so as to be understood and not be believed. But truth which is scripture has been so encrusted with strange interpretations that it is the most difficult task in the world to separate these interpretations from the truth of scripture. Now, it doesn’t mean that you don’t understand it because you don’t have the intellect to grasp it. Oh no. You could be one shining one’s shoes and understand far better than those who think they are the great intellects of the world.

I few years ago, my friend, who is now gone from this world, Aldous Huxley, said, “Neville, you said that the Bible is not a secular work; that is, it is not history as you and I understand history.” I said, “Yes, it is not history; it’s supernatural history, it belongs to an entirely different age.” Well, he said, “In the book will you not admit they mention Caesar and Herod, and they mention areas of the world, like Jerusalem and all the other areas which we know do exist in this world?” Well, how to explain to my friend Aldous that these are simply incorporated into a drama as I would take the name of Lincoln. I could take Lincoln, I could take anything in the world that is historically true in the world of man and incorporate it into a picture, and yet I am not telling a story of earth. So here, this brilliant mind, whose works are in all the libraries of the English speaking world, could not understand my interpretation of scripture. He liked me, I loved him. We were close intimate friends. But he could not grasp this, with all of his understanding. Here is a man who can read Greek as he would read English, read Latin, read French, read all these tongues. But he could not actually understand it. So truth if it is ever told so as to be understood it must be believed; but how to unravel it from these misinterpretations of truth? Well now, the embodiment of truth and the personification of truth is Jesus Christ…so man’s misconception of Jesus Christ.

Now, Christianity rests upon the affirmation that a series of events happened in which God revealed himself in action for the salvation of man. Did these events happen? Well now, that mind would say, “Did they happen here?” Oh, yes, they happened here, but not in the way you would want me to say they happened here. Oh, yes, they happened here—eternity actually invades time; it comes down into time vertically. Here we are moving moment after moment after moment in this strange, peculiar world, repeating and repeating and repeating, a play that goes on night after night and year after year on the boards. But eternity comes down into time and redeems man from this monstrous state, and yet a necessary state—which is this repetitive state of repeating it over and over and over.

So here, let me tell you tonight what I know not from theory but from experience. I have experienced this series of events recorded in scripture, and this series is the series of redemption. Now here we start with this…this is the final act…we start with the final one first. In the 24th chapter of the Book of Matthew, and here is truth now personified as one called Jesus Christ, and truth, you may say, is on the Mt. of Olives and his disciples come to him privately, and they said to him, “Tell us, what are the signs of your coming?” (Verse 3). Well now, here is a man…how can you say you’re coming…he’s already there, isn’t he? This drama is “above”…when will you enter into time? For here, really, is the sign. And what are the signs of your coming? Well, if I say to you right now, what are the signs of your coming to change the entire picture, then you aren’t here—because I am speaking now of two entirely different ages, you, and an age that you’re going to redeem. What are the signs of your coming, and he answered them, “As the lightning comes out of the east and shines as far as the west, so shall be the coming of Son of man” (Mat. 24:27). Well now, you read that and you wonder what is it all about? Now listen to these words, “I have come only to fulfill scripture.” Well, what part of scripture does this answer give? Where in scripture is this found? In 14th chapter of Zechariah: “And the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley”; and northward shall move and southward shall move, this wide, wide valley that is now split from east to west. He answers in different words, but he is only interpreting scripture.

From my own experience let me tell you, it comes suddenly. When eternity invades time, there is no casting of a shadow before it no matter what the world will tell you. All of your diets and your celibacies and your non-smoking and your non-drinking and all the things that people talk about is a bunch of nonsense. I’m not saying to go out and smoke and drink, eat meat, and do all the things that others tell you not to do. But whether you do it or do not do it, it has not a thing to do with the invasion of eternity into time; because it’s your redemption and it’s not something that you earned. It isn’t a thing in this world that you earn. It’s grace, grace, grace and still more grace. You have gone through the mill, a horrible mill, and the mill is here. When he who watches all sees the end known only to him, he invades time, you, and possesses you. It unfolds in a period of three and a half years as told in scripture (Dan. 7:25).

The final act as far as the actual act goes is this cleavage, the sudden cleavage from top to bottom. But the whole drama is man; it is not any Mount of Olives in the Near East. Everything mentioned in scripture is man himself: It’s Jerusalem, it is the Mount of Olives, it’s Jesus Christ, it’s God. There is nothing but man, individual man, and the whole drama is written in man. And so, when this takes place in man it splits him from his head to the base of his spine, and he actually is divided by a wide valley…there are two parts of his body. Read it in the 14th chapter, the 4th verse of Zechariah—split from the top to the bottom, from east to west, and then it moves northward and southward. And here is the entire drama. Then the individual so split this is now the coming of the Son of man. Well, the coming of the Son of man and this act coincide. The act takes place and then he sees at the base of his spine this golden, liquid, living light, and he is one with it. He beholds his own being—he knows it is himself, he fuses with it, and up he goes like a serpent into his skull and they come together.

It’s an entirely different age that he has entered. That is the beginning of the new age, yet he remains here to tell what has happened to him whether they understand it or not…as my friend Aldous made his departure from this world and he did not understand it. Yet in our libraries are all of his books because he writes beautifully. His command of English is flawless. To spend an evening with Aldous was like spending an evening in the most wonderful cultured atmosphere. You learned so much in the use and how to use English…everything was flawless. And he was a gentle, tender, wonderful person as far as I was concerned, and I loved him dearly. But he could not when he made his exit from this world understand what I am trying to tell the world. So let me repeat it. Truth, if it is ever told so as to be understood, it must be believed. Why? Because truth is buried in man, and God awakens truth in man in this series of events, in spite of the intellectual concept of the world or of the individual. When it awakens in man, well then, it puts all arguments to an end. Makes no difference what he formerly believed, it all comes to an end when this thing happens.

Well, this is the third great event. It’s not the first and it’s not the last. There are four major events in this final drama. But it doesn’t come until after the tribulations of human experience in this world, and everyone must experience the horrors of the world. No one will avoid it even though they know this law backwards and can steer their ship carefully and miss all the little, I would say, the shoals and the rough edges of life. Oh, they’ll do it if they use this law wisely, but they will still come upon them suddenly out of the nowhere…blows that they would give everything in their world to have avoided.

Last Saturday morning the phone rang from a friend of ours in New York City. When I was in the hospital with my gallbladder out, he visited me. He came in and said, “Why, Neville? Why should this happen to you?” I said, “Well, Joseph, it just happened. I can’t tell you.” I had a dinner date scheduled and I couldn’t attend the dinner. My wife had to play the part of host, and our guests came, but I was simply in such pain I couldn’t. After my guests left, then she took me to the hospital. They diagnosed a gallbladder condition and there I remained until they took it out. He came in and said, “But why? Why did it happen to you?” He was apart from it all…he had made millions, but I mean millions, and he has millions. Well, his wife through my teaching met him on a blind date in Paris…she came from the city…then came after marriage these two perfectly lovely boys, and he worshipped them, and has made all preparation for them to inherit his millions.

Saturday morning comes the telephone call from Louise—he couldn’t speak—“We’re on our way to London, to England” where his first son was killed that morning in an automobile accident. I would never say to Joseph, “Why did it happen to you?” because I know no one avoids these blows. So Larry who had all these trust funds set up for him, running into millions so that he would never have to raise a finger, at the age of seventeen and a half, first year in college, so he is snuffed out. You don’t avoid these. Oh, I can take my world and move it from job to job, better money, more money, but these things that money can’t buy take place in your world.

After the tribulations then the series of events will take place, but not until the very end…you’ve drunk the cup, you’ve drained it, every last drop you’ve drained. After you’ve drained every drop, then eternity invades time (you are in time) and then it unfolds the eternal drama in you. That drama first begins with resurrection. You are resurrected within your own skull; and then you come out, and here are the signs of your birth through resurrection. For, we are born from above through his resurrection from the dead. And he happens now to reveal himself as my very self. So through my resurrection I am born from above.

Then comes that glorious discovery of the eternal Son who calls you Father and his name is David. That is the most difficult point for me to get over to anyone with his misinterpretation. I go back through the years since it happened to me in 1959 and I speak to rabbis, to priests, to ministers, and they stand bewildered because they cannot understand me. Yet they are intelligent people, continuing to mislead the people, may I tell you, misleading the world concerning who Jesus Christ is. They do not know that Jesus Christ is the pattern man buried in man, and that whole pattern is there. When he awakens after the tribulations, he unfolds the series of events. When the series unfolds, it is so in conflict with what the wise men teach in this world. Hasn’t a thing to do with what all these so-called wise men and the leaders of religious groups teach. You can’t avoid fulfilling the drama on this side of the world. But the promise is made that when you have completed the tribulations, eternity which is a plan, a pattern, it’s the pattern man, will invade you. Then he who has been sleeping in you dreaming—and he had to dream this monstrous, horrible dream—he will awaken. When he awakens, you are he.

So the first awakening is in your skull. Then comes the birth, with all the symbolism of scripture—the child wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then comes the discovery of David, who stands before you and calls you Father, in fulfillment of scripture: “For I will tell of the decree of the Lord, he said unto me, “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee” (Ps. 2:7). Who said that?—David. To whom is he speaking?—to us. Of whom is he speaking?—God. “The Lord said unto me, ‘Thou art my son’” So if the Lord said unto me, “Thou art my son,” and he calls me Father, then who am I? He said unto me, “Thou art my son.” Who said it?—the Lord. Then the 89th Psalm, “I have found David. He has cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation” (verse 26).

So you find him. So when I speak to rabbis, priests and ministers and I say David is the only Son of God, they say, “No, Jesus Christ.” I said, no, he is God the Father, and I am he because David who called him Father has called me Father. And then they turn as though I’m speaking…I’m the most blasphemous being in the world. But, I tell you before it comes to pass that after it does take place in your world you may believe it. I tell you exactly what happened to me and it’s going to happen to you. So you may now question it, as Aldous did—and he was a brilliant, wonderful mind, a loving person, I loved him dearly—but he did not understand.

So, may I tell you, do not be disturbed by the so-called intellects of the world. They call them “eggheads” and they love it. They love to be called eggheads, they love to be called brilliant minds, and they are brilliant leaders leading the blind, and they are blind, into nothingness. The blind leading the blind…all fall into the ditch. It hasn’t a thing to do with truth as revealed in scripture. It is the only thing that is being fulfilled and not a thing else will be fulfilled. Let them talk about getting this world together and having peace. Peace what! When two men want the same woman, where is peace? Or two women want the same man, where is peace? Or two want the same business, what peace? This is part of the confusion, this is part of the eternal play called the horrors of the world. But after the afflictions, then comes the series of events, and the series of events imposes itself upon man. It comes out of eternity, it comes suddenly.

So when they asked what are the signs? No signs. This is a sign and they will come suddenly like a thief in the night. Don’t expect any signs, any suggestion as to the hour, as to the day, for no one knows the hour or the day, only the Father. Where is the Father?—in you. So it is he being revealed. You are seeking the Father, and so only he in the depths of your own soul knows what hour he is going to unveil himself. He unveils himself and when he does, you and the Father are one. So he sent himself into the world to experience the horrors that he himself had conceived. Then at the end, after the afflictions, he unveils himself which draws his creative power…you…into himself, and you and he are one.

Now let them come with all their concepts in the world and I don’t care how they stand before me…I have experienced it. And so when we make our little exit from this temporary state, this closed circuit, they will find themselves, who have found this, they’ll find themselves restored to life in a section of time best suited for the work yet to be done in them. They must still go through the afflictions no matter what name they left behind them here. They’ll find themselves in the year 3,000, 8,000, 1,000, in a closed circuit. Makes no difference whether they go forward or backwards; it isn’t backwards if they go backwards in time, it’s simply experience. And there they are in a world just like this, a body same as before, restored, but not born from above. They have not been re-born; they’re simply restored to life a young person, not a child, a youth, always a youth, and then they start all over again. There they marry and there they die, just like this, to find themselves restored as a youth to continue again, until this series of events unfolds in them. This is the eternal series, may I tell you, and it starts with resurrection, where man awakes within his own skull to find that that was the tomb in which he was buried. And here he is completely sealed, he’s alone. Unaided he comes out of this tomb. He pushes that little thing at the base of the skull and he comes out, and the symbolism of the birth of Christ is all his and he experienced it. The witnesses come to take the child, which is only a sign (Luke 2:12, and they take that little infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, he sees it and puts it into his arms.

Now listen to these words, you’re told in scripture this is a sign. Everyone has read it, but they don’t see it. They don’t stop to even think that it said it’s a sign. Let me give you another sign, “And Simeon came into the temple…and Simeon took up the child” (Luke 2:27-32). Well, how did he come into the temple? Read it carefully, “And Simeon came in Spirit into the temple.” If he came in Spirit into the temple, what temple? Are we not told, “Ye are the temple of the living God and the Spirit of God dwells in you” (1Cor.3:16). So is it not in man? So he comes and finds the child; he finds the child in Spirit. They come in Spirit. The whole drama unfolds in man; man is the temple of God. And the whole story of Christianity and Judaism woven together is the eternally true story. Christianity interprets the Old; it’s not the other way around.

Now let me read you these words of Peter. He’s speaking of the prophets, “And the prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours inquired and they searched concerning this salvation that was to be yours; they inquired what person or what time was indicated by the Spirit of Christ within them when predicting the sufferings of Christ and his subsequent glory. And they were told that it was not for ‘your’ time but for yours” (1Pet.1:10-12). The prophets were told it was not for theirs and not for their time, but for yours who now read it or hear it…something so glorious even the very angels looked in and peeked in to see! The very angels were envious of that which is destined for man in this world. It’s not destined for angels. They’re automatic witnesses and messengers of the power of God. You are not destined to be simply an automatic witness and messenger of God; you are destined to be God! God became man that man may become God. An angel is a messenger of God. You are not destined…the angels peeked in…they were envious of that which God gave man. What did he give man?—he gave man himself. Grace is God’s gift of himself to man. He gives man himself. It’s his final expression of love to man to give himself to man.

So let the world say, “Alright, he’s talking about it and he’s arrogant about it.” I don’t care what the world this night will say, because I have experienced it. I have experienced everything recorded in scripture concerning Jesus Christ. And they will say, “But I know you.” Certainly you know me, a weak man, certainly a weak man. If you struck me and I looked at you and you’re bigger, I’m not going to hit you back. I don’t think I would if you were smaller…I’m not given that way. So you think that is the measure of a man’s strength, well, then hit me. If you think you can take me to your class and set me up some problem and if I can’t solve it then it means this is not it, well, do it. I still tell you I have experienced scripture and it makes no difference what the world will say because I know those who will now criticize me and those who will now oppose it, they’re not too far removed from the inevitable exit from this world…and then they will know. So let them brag while they’re still here. Let them put on all their little airs. But I tell you, God became man that man may become God.

And there’s a series of events all set up in scripture beginning with the resurrection; the birth; the discovery of David; then comes that third one. And the third is resurrection: “On the third day the earth rose up.” So the third event has to be resurrection in that sense when the Son of man rises. The whole body is split from top to bottom and then you ascend like a serpent in the third event, and that completes the nine-months-spell. Then two years and nine months later the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descends upon you and smothers you with love, and remains upon you while the whole vast heavens open. There is no limit to the translucency of what you are seeing while the dove is upon you, and the voice is saying to you, “He loves you, he loves you.” And then the whole thing vanishes, but the dove was still upon you when the whole thing comes to an end.

Then all the other passages of scripture begin to unfold within you, and will continue to unfold one after the other until you depart from this world. In the meanwhile, you are telling it all through the night, telling it in all the regions of the souls of men to those who can hear it. Not everyone can hear it, because they are cluttered up. They have the most misinformed concept of Christ imaginable. They do not realize that Jesus Christ is the creative power and the wisdom of God. They think he’s some little tiny thing born 2,000 years ago in some unnatural way, and raised, and played this part, and that he was crucified on a wooden cross. That is what millions of people have been taught to believe…and it isn’t so at all! The crucifixion took place in the beginning of this age…that’s how this age started. The cross on which Christ is crucified is humanity, he’s crucified on man. Without that crucifixion of God man couldn’t even breathe. My breath is his breath. As Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is not I who live but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” These are the words of Paul, the 2nd chapter, the 20th verse of Galatians. So here, he is crucified with Christ. Were it not that he is crucified, this universal Christ which is the creative power of God, crucified upon us, we couldn’t even breathe.

So there are those who have their own little isms. Let them have it. The Bible speaks about it and tells you it is the inevitable. They must come into the world, because it is part of all the little things which, undoubtedly, everyone present has already played. I hope you have already played them, because if you haven’t played these little isms, ballooning yourself as some important person in the eyes of vanishing humanity, you’re going to play them. So all I can say is that I hope you have played them. You play all the parts because only God, the protean being, plays the parts. He plays all the parts of the world. There’s nothing but God; there is no other being but God.

So here, I’ve given you the last, which is eschatology, the doctrine of the end. And this is eschatology…the last. I am not concerned with all the little things—that you can become rich, I’m not denying that; that you can become known, I’m not denying that. Well, rich or not my friend tonight cannot bring back his little son Larry. He can change the trust fund and give it to my namesake, Neville; for the second one was named after me. So he can give all the millions he gave to Larry and add them to the millions he now has for Neville but he can’t bring his Larry back. And so when he asked me, “Why did it happen to you?” I did not say, “Why did it happen to you?” These things happen. No one avoids the furnaces of this world, but no one! Anyone tells you that you can sail a ship and sail it so you never are shipwrecked and you will never have a storm and never be becalmed where all things go stale…

In the little Caribbean in the year 1916, I was becalmed for eight days and we threw all the cattle over…had no food for them, no water, they died…and the bilge. We were off Martinique and not one breath came to drive our schooner, and there we sat, just becalmed, no motion, outside of the vision of Martinique. They couldn’t see us to send for help. Well, 1916 the war was on and my parents despaired that we were sunk by some German submarine, which were going through the Caribbean sinking all the ships. Well, didn’t sink our ship. I simply was becalmed and we came in nine days late. Mother…the joy of seeing me after giving up, thinking, well, we all went down. So I know what it is to be becalmed, what it is to go into a storm and think you are going to go down. But that is life…all these are visions of life. But these things actually happened in my life.

Now I tell you, everyone regardless of who he is will experience Christ. Christ is the pattern man buried in man, and when he starts to awake it is suddenly. There is no foreshadowing of his coming…he doesn’t cast a shadow. He suddenly comes upon you and you are born from above, and then in a matter of three and a half years the whole drama of Christ unfolds within you. And then the two ages have been completely severed—this age which continues, and that age which is eternal. When you make your exit after this experience, you do not find yourself restored to life here, but you are in the age of eternity, known in scripture as “that age,” called “the kingdom of God,” “that kingdom of heaven.” You are then one with God, the power of God. But you are not unmindful of all you left here. It’s not forgetfulness; you become one with the watchers in eternity. And I will say with Blake, “Those in great eternity who contemplate on death”—for this is the world of death—“said thus, What seems to be, is, to those to whom it seems to be, and is productive of the most dreadful consequences to those to whom it seems to be, even of torments, despair and eternal death; but divine mercy steps beyond and redeems man in the body of Jesus” (Jerusalem, Plt.36). So in the end, there’s only one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all. All redeemed to fulfill the 27th chapter of Isaiah: “One by one I will redeem you, O sons of Israel” (verse 12). Yes, all will be redeemed one by one. You are so unique you cannot be called collectively. No two, one by one you are brought into one body and that one body is the body of the risen Lord. There is only one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all.

So you dwell upon it. It’s far, far greater than to tell you anything else in this world. Oh yes, how to become rich…may I tell you, anyone could be if you would dare to assume that you are and walk as though you were in spite of appearances, in spite of lack around about you. Just walk as though you were and in a way that no one could devise you would become it. But you would be no nearer that moment in time when eternity invades and possesses you. It could be on the heels of it or in years to come or ages to come. Meanwhile, believe what I’ve told you. I have told you before it takes place that after it does take place you may believe that I am he. I am the very being who is recorded there, for I’ve played his part. And there’s only one Lord, there’s only one Spirit, there’s only one body, only one God and Father of all. So when you enter, you’re the same being…you don’t know…and you and I are equal. Everyone who enters, we’re all equal. So anyone who wants to be better-than, let them remain better-than…join the right club and go and get more money and go from one little bank to a bigger bank so when you come in they recognize you. If that is your ambition, do that…perfectly all right.

But if you really want the truth and not this cumbersome concept of what truth ought to be, I tell you truth is eternal and it is fixed. It only invades time, possesses the individual, lifts the individual by a series of events into and entirely different age. That’s how God becomes man so that man may become God. He’s already buried in man and that which is buried in man is the pattern man. Then he comes down, invades time, and lifts man who is buried in time into eternity by a series of events. And these are the events that I personally have experienced…so I’m not theorizing, I am not speculating.

Now let us go into the Silence.

* * *

Someone called me today and asked me why I do not, when I go into the Silence, lead people in prayer, just lead them in prayer with the words? I was reminded of a true story that was told me years ago. William Lyon Phelps, one of the great educators of our country, he and Mrs. Phelps entertained Edna Ferber, the great writer or the popular writer, and Mrs. Phelps said to him, “William, would you say grace, please.” So he bowed his head and he was silent for about twenty seconds. At the end of his silence he said, “Amen.” She said to him, “William, I did not hear one word that you said.” He said to her, “I was not talking to you, my dear.” Good night.

Main photo: Bloomsbury Group members (July 1915). Left to right: Lady Ottoline Morrell (age 42); Maria Nys (age 15), who would become Mrs Huxley; Lytton Strachey (age 35); Duncan Grant (age 30); and Vanessa Bell (age 36)