This lecture explores the biblical trial between Barabbas and Jesus as a symbolic choice between sensory reality and the power of divine self-awareness, I AM. Goddard emphasizes that the true trial is one of belief: whether we choose the fleeting evidence of our senses (Barabbas) or the eternal power of our imagination and divine identity (Jesus). He illustrates how the world inevitably selects Barabbas—our limited beliefs—unless we consciously affirm the “I AM” door into our desired reality. Through scriptural references (Gospels of John, Isaiah, Galatians, Acts), he demonstrates that true creation comes from assuming the state of the “shepherd” whose voice the invisible realities (the sheep) respond to. Real-life anecdotes underscore the practical effectiveness of sleeping in the assumption of the fulfilled state. Ultimately, the audience is instructed to cast their vote in the ongoing eternal drama: release Jesus (I AM) and deny Barabbas (sense evidence).
Tonight’s subject is “Barabbas or Jesus.” This is the greatest trial that ever took place in eternity. You and I have read of trials where countries and countries where billions are involved, it meansnothingcompared to this trial. This is the greatest of all trials.
When we read the scriptures, we find the thing says the raising of Lazarus, which is the most fantastic thing you can imagine. A man who is dead for four days and his sister said, “By this time there’s an odor.” And so he raises Lazarus. And yet only one evangelist recorded it; only John tells the story. Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not mention the story of Lazarus. How could you tell the story of a man in this world who could raise someone who has decayed and bringing him back to life, as we understand life, and not tell it as part of his biography? Yet it is only mentioned in the gospel of John.
So I could take you through the many stories and show that one story is told by two, sometimes three, and only by one. But here, inthisstory of the trial, all mention it. It has tremendous significance, this story of the greatest trial that ever took place in eternity. And may I tell you, it’s taking place here tonight, and you are the witnesses. You are the ones who will either cry out for the release of one or the other. It’s entirely up to you, for this is the story; it must always take place in this manner. The supreme effort of God to reveal himself in the present tense was the coming of Jesus. Jesus came to reveal God as the eternal contemporary. That’s the trial. One believes it or they disbelieve it. But here is this supreme effort to reveal himself in the present tense, for the present tense is “I AM. That’s my name forever. I have no other name” (Exodus 3:14). Man either believes it or he disbelieves it, and this is the trial.
Let us turn to the gospels, the 18thchapter of the gospel of John. Here, a man is on trial. He knows who he is, for he’s had all the experiences to reveal the being that he is; sent into the world to tell the world whoheis; and tell them whotheyare, for they’re one. So he comes to tell the world who he is. He’s brought in to trial and Pilate, the arm of Caesar, is trying him. Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” but he doesn’t reply; he doesn’t answer. Pilate said to the crowd, “I find no crime in him. But you have a custom that I should release a man to you at this season of the year, at Passover; will you have me release the King of the Jews?” They cried out, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” And then it simply states, “Barabbas was a robber.” That’s all that it states, “Barabbas was a robber.” Not this man, release Barabbas.
Well, here is the trial. Who is Barabbas? Because Barabbas was a robber, he’s only mentioned in one little statement but in four gospels. It’sverysignificant. To find out who Barabbas was let us find out who the thief and the robber is in scripture. We go back to the 10thchapter of the gospel of John, that anyone who enters in any other way than through thedooris a thief and a robber. They did not understand it. So he said to them, “Iamthe door.” There is no other way into the sheepfold: “I am the door.” Anyone who attempts to come in any other way is a thief and a robber (verses 1 and 9).
Now, you present the case to the world. Will you believe it? Will you believe, as you are seated here tonight, regardless of your present limitations, the only door into your success, into your future that is as you would conceive it or desire it to be, there’s onlyonedoor, and that door is I AM? There is no other door into that sheepfold? And if you go through thatonlydoor, the sheep will hear your voice, they will recognize your voice as the shepherd, and they will respond and come out? So I decide that I would like to be, and I name it. I would like to be healthy if I am unwell at the moment. I would like to be gainfully employed if I am unemployed. I would like to be and I name it—to be happily married. And I name all the things that I would think would constitute a lovely life in my world. Do I really believe there’s only one door into that sheepfold, where I could bring all these unseen things out into my world? And these things can only respond to the voice of the shepherd, and the shepherd is I AM?
So he asked the crowd and the crowd shouted out, “Release Barabbas!” They would not have Jesus released; they’d have none of it. So they chose the robber, and the robber rules over them to this very day—that’s the world—I chose the robber. My senses rob me of all that I could be. So I see my bank balance. I know the world, as my senses allow it, I know what reason dictates in my world, and yet I want to be other than what they dictate. Yet I can’t bring myself to believe the only way into that sheepfold is by the only door in the world, and the world’s door is I AM.
So here, Jesus comes to reveal God in the present tense and man refuses it. So they speak of God in the past, he was or he will be, but few people in world can believe in the reality of I AM. And that’s the great trial. You are on trial tonight because you’re asked the question: Will you believe that your own wonderful I-am-ness is the one and only God? Or do you believe because of your present social position, intellectual position, financial position that you are less than someone else, and you allow your reason to dictate this as something that is final? Can you believe tonight in this trial and really believe that I am… you name it… and dare to believe it?
I could tell you unnumbered stories where it has worked. I could tell you unnumbered stories if people would believe me. In this audience tonight, there sits a man who, only a few weeks ago, was let out of a job. I told him it would make no difference to me if he was let out of a job and they told him it was forever and permanent and that I would hear good news for him, good news. And so I heard exactly what he would tell me were it true. Tonight, just before I took the platform, he could tell me that he’s been transferred to a new job, completely new job, where his income is in excess of what it was before. All things being relative, when you make $13,500 on a job, that’s not hay, yet it could be a hundred thousand. And I’m telling you right now, I don’t care what he’s ever done in the world that exceeded $13,000, it could easily be, if that’s what he wants. There’s only one door into the sheepfold and that door is I AM.
The supreme effort that God has ever made to reveal himself to us in the present tense came through Jesus. So Jesus comes affirming God as theeternalcontemporary, forever and forever. If tomorrow you have a child, or a grandchild, they are going to say “I am”—it’s contemporary, it’s forever contemporary,eternallycontemporary. And there wasn’t a “hewas”; it’s always “I am.” And so for one to declare “I am” and just simply name it and sleep just as though it were true, there’s no power in the world that can stop it.
Now, this is one level of this fantastic trial. There are numberless levels to this trial. First of all, the wordBarabbasmeans “son of a father.”Jesusmeans “savior.”Barabbasmeans “son of a father.” For every child born of a woman is the child of a father.Barusually means “daughter”; andBen, son, but they’re interchangeable depending upon the context. And so, Barabbas is now known as “son of a father.” And they chose the son and denied—it doesn’t say “the father”—but I will show you how they denied the father. For Jesus said, in the same gospel of John, “When you see me you see the Father, how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? He who has seen me has seen the Father,” so he declares, “I am the Father” (14:9). I go back just one verse before it, the 6thverse of the 14thof John: “I am the way, the truth, the life; no one comes unto me (my Father), save by me. But no one comes unto the Father, but by me. Then they said, ‘Show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.’ He said, ‘I have been so long with you, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father.’”
Now they deny the Father to fulfill prophecy: they will kill you, excommunicate you, and this they will do because they believe that they are pleasing God; and they do it because they know not the Father (John 16:2). For there’s a prophecy that when a son destroys the enemy of Israel the Lord will set his father free. But they didn’t choose the father to set him free; they set the son free. The one that robs them morning, noon, and night, they set him free. They wouldn’t set the father free. This I am quoting from the 17thchapter, the 25thverse of 1stSamuel, “He who destroys the enemy of Israel I will set his father free in Israel.” Thefatherof the one who destroyed the enemy, his name was I AM, called Jesse, but the wordJesse, the wordJehovah, and the wordJesusare identical in meaning: they mean simply I AM. I will set that being free, and his name is I AM.
Now, if tonight you could do what dozens of you or hundreds of you have done and believe that this is not a little trick, it always works and really believe in it, you’d believe in God. When a lady sits in this audience and she’s in her seventies she has no money and she dares to sleep in a home in need of repair—and she has no money—and then she looks at the unrepaired, unpainted house, and she could smell the paint, and she could see the whole thing as it would be seen were it true that things are exactly as she wants them to be, and she sleeps in that assumption, what is she actually saying? If I said to her, “Who is smelling anything?” She would say, “I amsmelling paint.” She said I am. And “What do you see?” “I amseeing a repaired house.” “What else?” “I am seeing that the whole thing has been paid for.” So she falls asleep in the assumption of seeing from her own wonderful center. “I am seeing it. I am smelling the paint,” all of these things she’s doing; and in one month, it’s all repaired and painted and paid for, with a surplus of $7,000, a gift from one she had never seen in this world, only communicated with her two or three times in the course of a year.
And here, she saw it. Whether she’s here tonight or she’s been coming recently, I do not know—her story I’ve told in my latest book. She may even have forgotten the name of God. Who did it? Well, she might point across the water to a lady in England, 8,000 miles away, who died and left a certain will where she received $7,500 in US currency, which allowed her to do all these things, with something left over. A considerable amount left over. She might think the cause of it all was one who died. I tell you the cause of it all: she called upon the only name of God in this world. She went into the sheepfold through the only door in the world, and that door is I AM. So she fell asleep in her bed. But before she fell asleep, she saw and could smell the paint; she saw the repaired areas all painted over, and she felt herself giving a check in full payment for all work done. And then she slept. Because it was so much fun she did it for, maybe, nine or ten days. Then came this wonderful draft from England and a letter from the bank, Lloyd’s Bank it was, telling her of the story.
She entered the sheepfold; and they all heard her voice, and they all came out. The sheep happened to be the money. Everything in the world responded to her voice. She was calling them out, calling out paint, calling out the repair job, and calling out everything. They only respond to the voice of the shepherd. Well, who is the shepherd? “I amthe shepherd.” There is no other shepherd. If you think he will shepherd you and put your trust in our president or our mayor or our governor or your father or mother or some uncle who’s about to die, and so you are now giving him the most marvelous meal in the world because he’s going to leave you in his will, so he is your shepherd; and all these you think are the shepherds, you are simply looking in vain. There is no other shepherd, and no other door into eternity save the one door and that door is I AM.
So here is the greatest trial that ever took place in eternity, and you are called upon to scream out the one you want released. And the world invariably screams out—but not all; there’s always that minority who will scream out, “Release Jesus!”—but the majority invariably will scream out “Release Barabbas! Release the robber!” And so they chose the robber, and throughout the centuries, the robber has ruled over them, right down to this day. So you and I will go to bed tonight and our senses will dictate what we ought to believe to be true in this world.Read this morning’s paper and ninety-nine percent of the morning’s paper, including the ads, all paid for. You read an ad—that’s obvious it’s been paid for—and there may be something you would like to buy. It’s perfectly all right; it has been paid for and you know it.
But you don’t know all thenewsitems were paid for. That has been concealed. They’reallpaid for. All the press agents all over the world; there is not one person in this world who is in the public eye who does not maintain some press relationship. They call them—these, not “press agents”—they’ve been glamorized into some other name. But it’s still—they take your money month after month, and they put these little items into the story, and you read it morning, noon, and night. So you go to bed tonight, and youknowall these things because you read it. That’s what you know. And you are fed morning, noon, and night on all this, and you believe that to be true.
I tell you: forget the entire vast world, and ask yourself a simple, simple question, “What would I like to be?” Just look at the world, “What would I like to be?” Forget Cuba, forget Russia, forget China, and forget all this stuff that is going on in the world. What would I like to be? A decent, wonderful being that contributes to the good of the world? To be happily married? Yes, to be in this world and contribute to thegoodof the world but really contribute, so that when I am gone and my children’s children are gone that they will say, “He gave a thought to the world that has fed the world.” The unborn tomorrow could be fed by what I have left behind me.
Would I like to do that, at the same time not neglecting my obligations tonight? For I am married—there is a husband, a wife, a child, a father, a mother, and all these things in this world—and they must all, if I love them as I think I do, take care of them. And so I wantenoughto leave them cushioned. Regardless of all things, but maybe they didn’t hear me. But they don’t need my cushion, but maybe they didn’t hear me. I’m selfish enough that if they didn’t hear me—that there’s only one door in the world into the great kingdom—that I could still leave them a cushion so that they’ll be cushioned against tomorrow’s blows. All right, I want that. Well, then, regardless of what the world will tell me, I will assume tonight that I am what I desire to be and dare to fall asleep in the assumption that it’s true, just as though it were true. Regardless of what the whole vast world will tell me, I will actually believe in it. So I will cast my vote: “Release Jesus and you hold on to Barabbas,” or else I will say, “Release Barabbas and hold on to Jesus.” And so it is entirely up to us. I either believe it, or I don’t believe it. The one called Jesus, his name is I AM.
Now let me quote you from the 4thchapter of Galatians. Whoever added one little phrase in it, all right, maybe they had reasons for it: And he had a physical handicap. It is Paul speaking. “When I came to you, I was a trial to you.” He said, “I was a trial, yet you accepted me.” And then one little phrase divides the thought—we will omit the phrase; it’s the tenth verse. You read the tenth and eleventh verses of the 4thof Galatians. Omit the phrase. “And yet you accepted me and received me asChristJesus.” He’s telling you who he is. You accepted me, now are you going to turn back like those in the desert who disbelieved?
And then he said, “I see that you are observing days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I have labored over you in vain” (Galatians 4:10). Here we are in what is called a season, the Lenten season, and then we have another season and another month. We had a few years ago the Marian year, and all this goes all the way back. I see that “you observe days, and months and seasons and years! I’m afraid I have labored over you in vain.” That man could turn outside of himself when the whole thing has been revealed to him—who he really is—and believe in the sacredness of a certain day or a certain month or a certain season or a certain year! He is trying to tell the whole vast world who he is: and they received him as Jesus Christ.
There’s only Christ. There’s only Jesus. Jesus Christ is God, and so are you and so am I, if Ibelieveit. I am it even if Idon’tbelieve it. But if I don’t believe it, then I go through all the fires of hell in this world. If I believe it, there’s no being in this world that can stop me from sleeping this night in the assumption that I am the man that I would be, just as though it were true. Falling asleep in that assumption, just as though it were true, I will bring it to pass in my world because I call all my sheep out, and my sheep are theinvisiblerealities. No one sees them. They come right out and follow the voice of the shepherd whose voice they hear. They will not obey the voice of a stranger, only the voice of the shepherd. And the shepherd is “I AM.”
So here is the greatest trial in the world, and you are the one to judge. You sit as though you sat in a jury, and you bring in your verdict. And so he rises and asks those who hear the testimony. “And it is customary,” and may I tell you, there is no evidence as far back as man can go, there is no evidence to support this claim, whatsoever. There is nothing that we know of save in scripture. There is no custom to support this amnesty, where you forgive someone at this season of the year, none whatsoever. As far back as man can go, no scholar, and no historian can find any such custom, where there was an amnesty at Passover. It’s only attested to in scripture. So you can see it’s aplay. It is a fantastic play and here is the play and every moment of time the play is taking place. “It is your custom that I release to you one man. Would you have me release the King of the Jews?” For heisthe king of the Jews, and who is he? Jesus. Who is Jesus? I am and so are you and so is every being in the world. That’s Jesus. And his name is “I AM,” so the name is one with Jehovah: “I and my Father are one” as told us in John 10: “I and the Father are one.” His name is what? I AM. If I’m one with him, well then, what’s my name? I AM. And there is no other way in no other door, just one.
And so who will you have me release, the King of the Jews, whose name is I AM or release Barabbas, who’s a robber, a man based purely on the senses of the body? “Release Barabbas!” So they released the robber, and he to this day rules them. For man cannot believe, or is unwilling to believe, that something is real that his senses cannot confirm. He must have it confirmed by the senses. If reason allows it or my senses allow it, then I will accept it. But to sleep this night… I’m unemployed. They tell me there are six million unemployed and I’m not as qualified as I think they’re looking for certain qualifications, and I’m to believe that Iamgainfully employed and put it up beyond what I made before, more than I ever made before? And go to sleep just as though it were true, in the conviction that itistrue? And then I am employed, and it is beyond what I make.”
So when he told me I can’t tell you my thrill. He will not be here because this takes him away a hundred-odd miles. I say to him “Good!” Go and tell it. Tell it to those in your sphere. Tell it to everyone that you meet. If we never meet physically again, it really doesn’t matter. I like him personally, he likes me personally; but the physical contact, that’s not important. We are forever one in eternity, and so he can’t get away from me and I can’t get away from him, not in eternity. He heard the story, and he knows it works. Now go and tell it, tell it to every being in this world, whether they believe it or not, tell it. That’s the story.
So here we are, at every moment in time, we’re called upon to pass judgment upon the eternal drama—the greatest trial that ever took place. God is on trial, and he is presented to the world, and yet the sense-man that he wears is presented. Because the sense-man is what he wears, and so he presents it. Would you believe in me that you cannot see? Well, you can’t see I AM. You can see I am a man, that you can see, that’s the sense-man, a being of sense. But man cannot believe in the reality of I AM, something entirely different.
So here, this great trial will be presented this coming Sunday, called Palm Sunday. But they all will tell the story of how they placed the palms before him. If you have theApocryphalGospels, may I recommend that you read, if you have it, theGospel of Nicodemus; it’s called alsoThe Acts of Pilate. In fact, it’s a combination: the title isThe Gospel of Nicodemusandthe Acts of Pilate. What a fantastic story! It is all about this trial. It’s in the Apocryphal New Testament. I think many of you have the James’ combination of all the Apocryphal books. Why they deleted them I will never know, because they add so much to the thought. But here in this story of the great trial, where they placed the little piece of cloth before him as he came in to trial, and all the standards and all the images bowed before him. And they couldn’t believe that such things could happen, so they did it over and over and over again. Every time he was brought in, they all bowed before him. Every inanimate object bowed before him as he came into the building on trial.
How true that is! May I tell you, you are going to have the thrill of your life one day, when suddenly the whole vast world’s going to stand still before you. And it will be dead but really dead. You’ll look at it and then you’ll release it and it will move on; and you stop it, right in its motion, you’ll stop it, to prove that you truly are life and life itself. So when you read these words, “I am the way, the truth and the life” you’ll know how true that statement is. When he said, “I am the truth,” can’t you see what marvelous thing he’s telling you: a true judgment need not conform to the external fact to which it relates. Today I will say what is true concerning my world. Well, I pay so much rent and I have an average income of so much and I have certain obligations to life and these seem to be the facts, that’s true. I tell you, thatisn’ttrue, for a true judgment need not conform to the external fact to which it relates. Truth depends on theintensityof imagining and not upon fact. So I will imagine that I am and I’ll name it that which I want to be. Believing that I am that which I’m assuming that I am and remaining loyal to that assumption, I become it.
I have done it or I wouldn’t be here tonight. I have actually done it, time and time again. But man will always slip back into Barabbas, the man of sense. We must ever remember the trial and always move out. In spite of all of the facts that would deny it, live in the dream just as though it were true, and no power in the world can stop you from becoming the fulfillment of your dream. But no power! You don’t need any other being because God’s name is not “he is” or “she is” or “they are”; his name is “I AM.” Before you say anything in this world, you have to say, “I am.” You don’t pronounce it. If I ask, “Who are you?” you’ll say, “John.” But before you say John, you say, actually in the depths of yourself, “I am John.” Before you said anything you actually were aware of being, and that awareness of being was actually declaring in the depths “I am.” And that is God. There is no other God.
So God stands on trial, and he will be tried in all the churches of Christendom this coming week. They will all weep and carry on, how God was tried, and the crowd shouted out release a thief and a robber, one who was an insurrectionist, and they do not know who he is. They’ll make some mental picture of a horrible beast, who was an awful, awful man. And that’s not the man at all.Theyare the man, for they are calling to release themselves of sense and make that therealbeing in the world and hold on and deny Jesus.
So listen to these words in the 16thchapter of Acts, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved, you and your household (verse 31).” Well, the only Jesus that you could ever believe in that could save you would be I AM. Well, that’s his name (Exodus 3:14). Believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved, you and your household. He has only one name in this world, for the wordJesussimply means I AM. It is spelled Yod He Vau Shin Ayin. The root of the name of Jehovah is Yod He Vau. The Shin Ayin put into the name of Jesus, which is Jeshua, is for a definite purpose. Shin is made in three little prongs like that, and it’s called “a consuming fire; a tooth that devours, that consumes.” An Ayin is an eye. Were it not for that in the name of Jesus, I would have to accept as final everything that I see. But in the name of Jesus, which is called Savior, what I don’t want I can consume. So it’s Yod He Vau Shin Ayin. So the Yod He Vau is the root; that’s Jehovah, that is God, and that is I AM. But a Shin is put into my name, so is an Ayin, but a Shin. I can just see the world. I don’t like the way you look. “Don’t you feel well?” No. Well, then I will consume it. I will see you as you ought to be seen by me and the world, seen by yourself; therefore, if I actually see you differently, I am consuming what formerly youappearedto be.
How would I do it? The Ayin is an eye. So what is his name when he comes into the world, and how does he operate? Listen to it carefully, the 11thchapter of the Book of Isaiah: “When he comes into the world, he will not judge by what his eye sees or decide by what his ears hear (verse 3).” So I see… go to the hospital; you’re going to die. Go to anyone else, and you see it’s fatal. Regardless of the nature, it’s all—they can’t get a job, there are too many unemployed, this, that, and the other. There it is, the fact. I will not judge by what my eye sees, neither will I decide by what my ears hear. So what would I do then? I will see what I want to see. But now a Shin is present—it consumes the former state, completely consumes the fact as it seemed to me to be real—and I will put in its place what I want to see and what I want to hear.
So then they tried to quench the voice of Peter and John, and they said what they would do to them if they continued to teach this story. This is the 4thof Acts, and they said to the Sanhedrin, the great wise men of the day, “Whether it is right in the eyes of God to believe in you and not in God, you must judge; but we cannot speak other than what we have seen and heard.” So whether you think I should do what you tell me I should do, all right, you judge it. The wise men of the world, who were called the leaders in politics or in religion, they will tell you, without vision, what you should see and what you should preach. They had no vision, none whatsoever and never had one in eternity, but they’re going to tell you how you should tell the story. But “whether it is right in the eyes of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge; for we cannot preach other than what we have seen and heard” (verse 19). So I cannot preach other than what I’ve seen and heard.
And may I tell you: I haveseenthis story. When you see it from afar, it’s one man, just one man; and as you approach it, it becomes unnumbered races and nations of people. I saw it so clearly one night when Blake asked me to fall backward and I did exactly what he told me to do to produce the vision. And here was one man, a glorious man, a radiant man, and his heart was all like living ruby. I approached him. I moved forward. I fell through space like a meteor, and when I came to a standstill, here I saw one man. Then at Blake’s suggestion, I moved forward. Well, this was one man, a radiant being. As I came closer, I noticed the heart was like a ruby; and there were unnumbered, innumerable beings, making up the heart. The whole body was made up of nations and races—the whole body. When I came close enough, I recognized myself. I was he, containing within myself the whole of humanity. So I know from experience that when you see God, you’ll see yourself. At a distance, it’s one man; and as you approach, it becomes unnumbered men composed of races and nations—all one.
So this whole vast thing is the most wonderful play, and the final drama leading up to that very exit from this sphere is this trial. So I hope that you will bring in your verdict tonight and your verdict will be “Release Jesus!” But if your verdict is no, I must accept my senses more than I will accept the invisible reality; well, then, it’s your choice. You’re free to bring in your verdict. But your verdict will be brought by you. I can recommend the spirit if you dare to believe in the reality of your own wonderful I-am-ness, believing thatit isGod and there is no other God. Listen to the words, “I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior… and besides me there is no savior” (Isaiah 43:3, 11). There is no other savior. “I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior… and besides me there is no savior.” Believe that and ratherdiethan turn back, and you are moving toward being born from above.
Now let us go into the Silence.
Q: (inaudible)
A: Is there a fixed guide? Well, some believe that all of us present here have a certain code of decency, and I would go along with it, but I would put into practice what I told you tonight. I would guide myself with my code of ethics. I couldn’t, if you asked me tonight—although all things are possible to God—if you asked me to join with you in knowing that someone was dead for your good fortune, I could not. I would not deny you the right to want it, but I would say go elsewhere. I could not actually dream with you that someone died because you were left in his will. But I would not deny you the right to want such a thing. I would leave it alone up to your judgment. So we all have a certain code. And I think that anyone who would come to a meeting of this nature would have a code of decency—what I would call a code of decency. And so I’m always right if whenever I use my Imagination I use it lovingly on behalf of another. If I ever use my Imagination lovingly on behalf of another, I am on the right track. So that to me would be the guide: Is it a loving thing to do?
We have that wonderful statement in the Bible, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” So would you have someone, because you have wealth and you’ve named them, see that you make your exit tonight because it would be easier for them tomorrow? Would you want that? No, well then, ___(??) the state today. So do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It is the simplest code in the world. It is done in the positive manner: do—not do not do. But it is written in the positive in the New Testament. In all other religions, it is written in the negative: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” So what would I like in this world? Something lovely? Something wonderful? Well, do the same thing to anyone in the world; and every time you use your Imagination lovingly on behalf of another, you have done the right thing.
Q: (inaudible)
A: Read Galatians, the 4thchapter, the 14thverse. That one little thought that is “as an angel” is superfluous because the next phrase is “as Christ Jesus.” But “as an angel,” it might stop right away. That is all inserted to cushion him because they actually saw him as the central being himself: they “looked upon me asChrist Jesus.” But if you put the little phrase before it, “as an angel,” that arrests the mind and you don’t associate Paul with Christ Jesus. I tell you, he was the one in whom the whole thing awoke. It was Paul. Everything has to come right out of the Jew. The world will not believe it. It is the most fantastic story in the world.
Now, Bishop Pike, who was born a Catholic and became a priest, gave it up and became an agnostic. Then he became a most brilliant lawyer in New York City, practicing corporate law. He then rejoined the church as a Protestant priest. He then rejoined the church as a Protestant, and rose in no time—he was only in his forties—to Bishop Pike of California. If you have ever heard him, he is an able speaker. He has a wonderful brilliant mind. Bishop Pike made the statement “I am a Jew.” Remember, he was born and raised a Catholic, became a Catholic priest, gave it up, became an agnostic, became a lawyer, and went back into the priesthood, this time as a Protestant priest. Now he is the highest in the Protestant world. You can’t go beyond that. You may move from one section to the other, but he is tops in Northern California. And he said, “I am aJewbecauseI am aChristian. Icouldbe a Jew and not be a Christian, but I can’t be a Christian and not be a Jew.”
You think about it. Meditate upon that thought. It’s true! The whole thing comes out of Israel. It’s a mystery, the most fantastic mystery in the world. So I am proud to say I am a Jew because I am a Christian. I have been born from above. I couldn’t possibly be unless I were the Jew. And I know when the veil is lifted and the whole thing is revealed, well, it’s fantasy beyond the wildest dream.
Good night!
In this lecture, Neville Goddard reinterprets the trial of Jesus and Barabbas as an internal spiritual drama, where each individual is called to choose between two modes of consciousness: the empirical, sense-based world (Barabbas) and the visionary realm of divine identity (Jesus). By framing the story as the greatest trial in eternity, he elevates it from a historical event to an ongoing psychological test that plays out in every moment of our lives.
Goddard weaves a tapestry of scriptural citations, drawing on multiple gospels and epistles to show how the singular story of Jesus was selectively recorded, while Barabbas’s brief mention in all four gospels highlights the universal temptation of the senses. He argues that the only genuine doorway to manifestation is the present-tense awareness of “I AM,” which he equates with the divine name and the shepherd’s voice that summons the invisible realities into form.
Through vivid anecdotes—such as the unemployed man who reclaimed a higher-paying position and the elderly woman who visualized and received funds for home repairs—Goddard demonstrates the practical mechanics of the Law of Assumption. He emphasizes the necessity of falling asleep in the conviction that one’s wishes are already fulfilled, using imagination as the creative engine that consumes and replaces adverse facts with desired realities.
Psychologically, Goddard’s teaching confronts the listener with a radical redefinition of faith: it is not belief in external authorities or traditions, but unwavering trust in one’s own imagined state. By casting our mental vote for Jesus (I AM) over Barabbas (the senses), we transcend collective opinion and step into sovereign mastery of our world. This inner verdict reshapes the unconscious mind and aligns circumstances with the aspirational self.
Finally, Goddard positions this choice as the climax of a cosmic play—Palm Sunday’s drama foreshadows every individual’s moment of decision. He calls on his audience to uphold a code of loving imagination, treating others as they wish to be treated, and to meditate nightly on their desired outcome. In doing so, they continually affirm the living presence of God within and demonstrate that no external power can thwart the creative potency of a steadfast “I AM.”
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