The Real Meaning of Good Friday and Easter

Let us listen to the words as you read them in the 4th chapter of the Book of Mark. He turns to the inner circle, his disciples, and he said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of God, but for those outside everything is in parables” (verse 11). The story to everyone outside of those who heard it from within is a parable. A parable is a story that is told as though it were true leaving the one who heard it to discover its fictitious character and then learn its meaning, its lesson.

Today, millions, possibly hundreds of millions, went to this three-hour service. An equal number and maybe greater will go on Sunday to Easter service, and they do not know it is parable. It’s a story of which they are totally unaware until it is given to them from within. So Paul said, “Great indeed is the mystery of our religion” (1Tim. 3:16). It’s a mystery, it’s a great secret. Now this mystery is not something to be kept forever as a secret, it really is a matter that is mysterious in character. How can man grasp it? And when it is told, not everyone who is told it from within will accept it. For many heard it, as we are told in the 6th chapter of John, and they were considered disciples, followers, but they could not accept it, and many left him, never to walk with him again.

So tonight, I will take these two, for we will not meet until Monday and these two will be behind us. We’ll take them tonight and see if you can accept it. It’s entirely up to you. I’m speaking from my own personal experience. I’m not theorizing, I’m not speculating; this mystery I have experienced. So we’ll take this day and here we call it the day of the crucifixion and people think now this is the day on which he died. Well, that is not what scripture teaches if you read it carefully, but certainly not what one knows from experience. “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 faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

I can hang forever on the cross, but that is not his death. We think this is the death of the Son of God. The death, as told us in the 27th chapter of Matthew, the 23rd of Luke, in the 15th of Mark, and they all give this as the cue of the death. Listen to the words carefully: “And he cried out again with a loud voice and yielded his Spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and the earth shook and all the rocks were split” (Mat. 27:51). So we are told that his death was marked by the tearing of the curtain of the temple, from top to bottom…that is his death. I can hang on the cross indefinitely, but I do not yield the Spirit until this even takes place. When that event takes place then the Lord died. It’s two sides, this day, to the coin. It’s a twin event. I yield completely and then comes the complete severance of the curtain of the temple, which we’re told in scripture is the body of God. At that very moment then he ascends into the Holy of Holies. So the death is marked by the tearing of the curtain.

And so, how long have we all been crucified? “I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in this flesh I live by the faith of the Son of god, who loved me and gave himself for me.” When was that gift given?—when that curtain was torn. At that moment in time, then he released me from this fall into generation, which was diversity, where I saw multiple people and didn’t recognize them as myself. I fell from unity into diversity in a world of generation and death; and then comes the splitting of the temple and at that moment I ascend into unity and regeneration. And that’s the story. I fall from unity into diversity and generation, and then I ascend into unity and regeneration. This is the story of this day. But the world on the outside you are told, if you’re on the outside everything is in a parable. And they believe the parable literally, so hundreds of millions this day saw the parable as factual.

Now, they come into the tomb and they peered in. A young man sitting at the right said, “He is risen. You seek Jesus who was crucified? He’s risen, he’s not here. See the place where they laid him.” So in this statement you will notice the fact and the place of the resurrection; the time and the manner of resurrection he does not disclose. He only discloses the actual fact he is risen and then he discloses the place, “See the place where they laid him.” But he makes no effort to describe anything about how he was risen or what time he was risen. Here, in these two we find this fantastic mystery.

Now I’ll take you with me into my own personal experience and unfold it for you. But first, let me share with you what I mean about calling people into one’s circle and taking them from within and explaining it. You tell it from within. I got two letters this week from two ladies, and they’re here tonight, one written, one experienced, rather, one the 4th of this month and one on the 6th of this month. This is the one on the 4th of the month. She said, “I was summoned by you, and when I came I discovered others were summoned too. I recognized in this group there was Marta and there was Marge. Others were present…that I do know, they were present. I recall Bill, my son-in-law, I recall Natalie, I recall Mignonne. Other members of the group were present, I was aware of them, but they were not vivid. But my son-in-law Bill, Natalie, Marge, Marta and Mignonne, they were present. And you called me, I was summoned. And then you called others from the group and then you addressed us, you said, “I am to die. I must die.” And we were delighted, we were ecstatically happy in the announcement that you were going to die. Then you vanished. And then we returned to the group and related the story, and then we heard that you had died and that you departed.”

Now, two days later one of the ladies mentioned in this group had this dream…it’s in a series of three. She said, “I found myself…and you were teaching us a new language, completely new language, and I recall vividly Marta and Jan (who was the lady who had the last dream) and myself. The others were present too, but I can’t say I can bring them back before my mind’s eye, they were present, but Marta and Jan and myself. You were teaching this language and I made every effort, that is, we did, we made every effort to understand what you’re talking about and to learn it. Then I woke and wrote it down.

“I went back to bed and slept, and then I dreamt this dream. Now we are using the language. You are on the side, off to the side, and you come in when we needed help. Every time we needed help in the use of this language you came in to help us. And then I woke and wrote it down. I went back to bed and slept and this was the dream. The same three…the others were present, they’re all present…but I only know Marta, Jan and myself. Then you called us forward and you said to us: ‘I must die to the flesh in order to live in you. From now on you will find me within.’ Now she said, “In the first dream we were all separate, in the second we were linked together, in the third we were one, we were actually one. We were separate in the first, linked together in the second, and then in the third we were one. And then I woke.”

Both ladies asked, what does it mean? On this level it’s a parable, and you might think that this thing will drop dead, because from what you said you already have me cremated. Well, if I died this night physically, it would make no difference to the story. But it’s not the outer man; I’m speaking of the inner. So you were separate, then you were linked together, and then you were one. I know you ladies and I know that you would not be ecstatically happy if at this very moment I fell here and someone rushed to say, “He’s gone.” You would not be ecstatically happy; yet you were so in the vision. For it is right that you should be ecstatically happy when I die…I have to die…but I have already died.

My birth…my birthday of that death was the 8th day of April, 1960, that’s when I died. I died to all generation, and all of my creative powers were completely turned around in to regeneration. That’s why, night after night, I can do the work that I do, that I can create on the higher level and actually beget as God begets on the higher level. Because on that day, the 8th day of April, 1960 I was split right down, and that’s when God dies. And so, he cried with a loud voice…as he cried and yielded his spirit, then the curtain of the temple was torn from top to bottom, and the rocks were split, and the earth shook. Well, every little vertebra of the spine, that backbone of one, it split right down the middle. And then you, as told in scripture, like a serpent you move up into the Holy of Holies. That’s how the Son of man is lifted up.

Now he tells us in this simple little way, the 12th chapter of John: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto myself” (verse 32). Then, adds the evangelist who is writing the story, “He said this to show by what means he would die.” He did it to show what kind of a death that would be his death when he is lifted up. Before that he is still hanging on the cross. So I can hang on the cross forever, but I do not yield the spirit, and, therefore, am I not actually moving up until I completely yield it? And that is man’s ascension. So every one is hanging on the cross—you’re all manifested in the flesh. So “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 faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” So he gave himself for me—at that moment when he actually cried out, that cry as the split of the curtain. And then all of a sudden I found myself a part, or the whole I would say, of that base, and up I moved into the Holy of Holies.

So Good Friday is simply that moment when the curtain is split. That is the time. But how long you’ve been hanging on the cross? Well, you can say 6,000 years. And what portion of 6,000 years others have been hanging on it, who knows? But we’ve been hanging on it, for all have been crucified with him. One man fell bringing all with him, and it fell into diversity, and each looking out upon multitudes not knowing it is himself, not recognizing that the whole vast world is himself pushed out. So in this dream it started with three. They were separate, then they were linked, and then they were one. Well, multiply that, the three into multitudes, and you see multitudes all separate, and then comes the linking, and then comes the unity.

So, when I teach you at night it is from within. So do not think for one second that the vision in any way had anything to do with the parable. I am not teaching you the parable; I am teaching you the meaning of the mystery of Christ. On this surface yes, you would say, Neville is going to die in the immediate present…and maybe I will this night…that doesn’t matter. I can go tonight, tomorrow; it’s all over as far as I’m concerned, the whole drama is over. But I remain as long as is necessary to tell it from within. My whole story is now from within. Tell you exactly what God planned, his whole purpose. It’s all within you.

So these are perfectly marvelous experiences from within. But we bring them back to this level and, naturally, we start to interpret them on this level, and you go amiss when you start to interpret everything. I am not teaching you on this level at all. When you meet me at night, I am not here on this level. When you conjure me from the depth of your own being, I am not on this level. I died on the 8th day of April of the year 1960, and that death is permanent. From then on I teach from within. So you are told, everything to those without is in parable; those from within, it’s the secret of the kingdom of God. And that is the story.

I do not have to die any more…I died. We’re all on this cross, but we haven’t yet died. Only God dies: “Unless I die thou canst not live; but if I die I shall arise again and thou with me” (Blake, Jerusalem, Plt. 96). Now, “Would you love one who never died for thee, or ever die for one who had not died for thee? And if God dieth not for Man and giveth not himself eternally for Man, Man could not exist” (Plt. 96). So God dies. And everyone who is raised into him becomes one with him. And so you may know him as a person as you do, but it’s still one with God. So in that sense he dies. So I have to die to the flesh in order to live within you. And from now on you’ll find me within, not without.

So the parable belongs only on this level, but its meaning is within. I’m walking on the outside, yes, and I eat and drink and do all the normal things men do, marking time. But when you meet me in the depths of your own being I am not teaching anything about your good fortune here in the world of Caesar. I’ll do that, yes, hear for anyone who asks anything of me, and I will be ecstatic about it and hear good news and lovely things, and see it all come to pass in this world. I took my friend David and I took my daughter just about three weeks ago. David hasn’t confirmed it, and my daughter…not what I really heard of both of them, it’s ecstatically good…but my daughter, just a little bit of news as it were.

As you know—maybe you don’t—she wants to be a writer and I encourage her to be anything she wants to be, I don’t care what it is. So she worked for two years, saved her money and thought now I’ll quit and live for a year and simply not think of a job and just simply write. Well, she hasn’t really sold anything. She’s written some lovely things, but they haven’t sold. But she’s lived and I heard this lovely thing for her. Well, just about, oh, I would say twenty years ago a friend of mine came home one day, “I want to give Vicki a little present.” I said alright. And he gave her ten dollars worth of stock—a hundred shares at ten cents a share. In the meanwhile he has died, he’s gone from this world. And then, through the years she bought ten dollars worth of shares, so she put it in a safe deposit box. Two weeks ago, she got a notice from a bank saying the stock is being redeemed. In the meanwhile, it was absorbed by this company, then that company and it was absorbed by another company, and finally General Dynamics notified her that they were redeeming this particular issue at twenty-two dollars a share. It was ten cents when it was given to her, so in the not distant future, because she signed the certificate and sent it off to the bank, and maybe tomorrow, maybe Monday, Tuesday she’ll get her check for a hundred shares multiplied by twenty-two dollars and odd cents. So that was simply a little fringe benefit. That’s not what really I heard for either my daughter or for David. I heard something far more marvelous than that. But it’s not something to kick through the window. So she doesn’t have to be concerned, as far as she is concerned, she need not be, really, but she still has that little bit of $2,000-odd to run another few months.

So I will do it from the outside, too. While I’m wearing the garment on the outside, I’ll do it on the outside. But when you meet me at night in the depths of your soul, I am not speaking of anything on the outside; all of the visions, all of the dreams in which I am involved I am speaking only from within. Because I already died…I died on the 8th day of April, 1960, and don’t forget it. So when you hear of the obituary of this thing here, it’s like wearing out a suit of clothes; for the whole drama is over as far as I’m concerned.

Now here, we have the two great ones. We have this day, which in the parable comes first, but you’re told in scripture, the first is really last and last is first. This what comes today is really last; and what is going to happen on Sunday, which we think is last, that is first in the mysteries. We begin with the resurrection, the resurrection comes first. That is the first of the great events. And, that is one of a twin event. In fact, there are two on that very moment. First, you awake within your skull. And as you’re told, in a moment, in the twinkle of an eye, at the last trumpet…and the trumpet shall be sounded; and then we’ll be changed, all will be changed into the imperishable bodies at that last trumpet (1Cor.15:52). Well now, this is the eschatological trumpet of the 27th chapter of Isaiah, and the great trumpet is sounded, and then he gathers us one by one, O people of Israel. All the dispersed, those who went into Assyria, in the lands of Egypt, all are called back to worship in Jerusalem. But it takes the trumpet. The trumpet really means “reverberation.” There is a peculiar reverberation that takes place and your head…you feel it as though every bone of the skull is going to part and just explode. Instead of exploding, you awake. It’s an awakening within yourself and then you come out.

All the Bible speaks of, the emptiness of the tomb, it is empty. You’re the only one in it, so when you depart from it, well then, the thing is empty. Then you’re told, as he comes out he is born. His birth from above that comes first in the world, so the first is really last and the last first. So what we are celebrating today as the first great event, it’s really the last; and what on Sunday we’re going to celebrate as the final event is the first. You begin with the resurrection.

So God is buried in man. And so, being buried in man it’s the story of the seed. “Unless a seed falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it brings forth much” (John 12:24), and this sets forth the story of life through death. And so, I will be born into an entirely different world by dying. So God dies, and the death I described just a moment ago is this tearing of the curtain. At that moment he dies…read it carefully. And he cried out a second time in a loud voice…at that moment the curtain was split right down the middle from top to bottom, so it coincides with his death.

So, those of us who have had the splitting of the curtain of the temple from top to bottom that was the moment God died for our salvation. You are redeemed at that moment. He was hanging forever on us, with us, experiencing all the pain that we’ve ever experienced and all the joys that we ever experienced. But at that moment he gave up completely the Spirit and then we were split right down. And then as he…now he tells us: “And I, if I be lifted up, or when I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.” And this is the manner of my death, this is how I die. It coincides with the splitting of the temple…and his body is the temple. So my body is split right down…and that was when he died…and then he ascends. That was the ascension. So, the resurrection is not the ascension. They’re separated by nine months. Not three days; nine months. The resurrection comes first and the same night comes the birth from above. So, you are born from above right on the very heels of resurrecting from within you. Then nine months later comes this day that we are now celebrating.

And to the whole vast Christian world it’s only a parable, but they don’t know it’s a parable. They haven’t for one moment stirred themselves to ask, why, why did it happen? And not everyone who hears it will believe it. In fact, what you are hearing this night if I told it to the whole vast world, they’d turn their backs upon it, because they have not been called to hear it. That goes from the pope down, may I tell you. I’m not omitting the pope or the archbishop of Canterbury, or any of these so-called intelligent, brilliant minds who call themselves leaders of the religious worlds…they’re just sound asleep and they do not know it. It is to them, because they are without and if it is without, it’s a parable. Because they do not know it is a parable, so they do not question the meaning behind the parable. You must first become aware that it is a parable to ask then what is its meaning, and they do not know. So the whole vast world says, “Well, don’t you believe he lived 2,000 years ago?” The minute they ask that they are in the outer world and everything’s on the outside. Then you come to believe, you actually know everything is on the inside—that your whole vast world is yourself pushed out. There’s nothing but you pushed out. So her vision was perfect. It started off separate, then linked, then they were unified, they were one.

So it doesn’t really matter about this little thing called a garment that I wear. Whether it goes tonight, tomorrow night, or the next night that is irrelevant. I am telling you night after night…not everyone brings it back…but when I go to bed, it’s sound, and it’s all from within. For from that moment on I am doing the work I must do from above. And “above” and “within” are one, and “without” and “below” are one. So what is without is below, and what is within is above. So he is made to say, “I am from above and you are from below” and, therefore, you reject me because you’re from below. Because you are from below, you are from without” (John 8:23). Well, they couldn’t understand him. Who can until they have the experience?

So this is the great mystery of this day called the crucifixion. Every child born of woman has been crucified with God. But it doesn’t mean that the crucifixion means that he died. He didn’t die: he is crucified and he is suffering. Then comes that moment when he yields the spirit…that’s when he dies. That’s when he’s split from top to bottom. He’s been hanging on a cross for thousands of years…then comes the end. When you read these wonderful scholarly works, as I read one today, he said, “Wasn’t it merciful that he only had to suffer three hours.” So this is a brilliant scholar, who knows his Greek and his Latin and his Hebrew backwards, but he cannot see it. Wasn’t it merciful, said he, in the exegesis, that he only suffered three hours and, therefore, they did not break his bones. The two who were on the sides, their bones were broken, but his bones were not broken to fulfill scripture: “Not a bone of his body was broken.” They haven’t the slightest concept what it means.

The bones represent the law. You can’t break God’s law:“All things bring forth after their kind.” And so, I assume that I am poor, I’ll be poor. You can’t break that law. He represents everything. He’s the fulfillment of the law and the fulfillment of the promises. But they think it means a bone of his being. So they came to break the bones and finding him already dead they didn’t break the bones that scripture may be fulfilled. And the bone only represents the laws of God that cannot be broken by a man. For this is established in the beginning: everything bears after its kind. If it’s a pear tree, it brings forth pears, if it’s a plum, plums, a berry, berries…whatever the thing is. So, all things bring forth after their kind. It’s simply the law of identical harvest (Gen. 1:11). You assume that you are…and you name it…I am known or I am unknown, I am wanted, I am unwanted, I am wealthy, I am poor. That is your assumption, that’s the seed, that’s the law; and you will bring forth after that kind.

So, when they came to him he was already gone. The curtain had been torn, and he left this sphere, and left this behind him; so they did not break his bones. So when I read that I could hardly believe I am reading correctly. Then you go back to find out who this person is, and he has all the degrees in the world behind his name, every conceivable degree that is considered the mental giant, and he is bringing in this decision on why they didn’t break the bones. But you can’t blame him, he is without, and therefore for those without, everything is in parables. But unto you it was given to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. And “heaven is within you” (Luke 17:21), so the within-ness has been given to you. And so, its offered to many, but of those not everyone to whom it was given could receive it. So, he didn’t really confine it to just a few that could actually get it, he offered it to more than would accept it. Then came a small remnant that would accept it. And that’s how we go up. And everyone remains here, and he returns, and he teaches, and carries on from within.

So, may I tell you, from now on all your visions when I am brought in the play, in the story, although it’s ego-centric and it is Protean where you are playing all, as you know from your story, we were three, then we were linked together, and then we were one. So in the same way I am part of your own conjuring being. But from now on, bear in mind I am speaking to you from within, I am not speaking from without. I am not telling you about when this little thing will depart this world. As the 39th Psalm teaches the number of our days, he doesn’t reply. When anyone tells you they know when you will go, forget it. In my father’s case, yes, I can see that. At the end he heard a vision, and he said to my brothers, “I’m going today,” and he did. That’s alright…that’s different. But to tell you in advance I’m going to go on a certain so and so, forget it…this is not part of this picture at all.

So this wonderful day that millions have celebrated and they do not know it’s the last day, really…this is really eschatology. This is when the curtain is torn from top to bottom. So here, it’s my desire that everyone in the not distant future has the experience. But the first one is going to be the resurrection and it’s only nine months removed from this day, for this comes last, although today comes first and Easter comes next, three days hence, it isn’t! Easter comes first and this comes nine months later, so what is nine months to wait? And so, may everyone have this perfectly wonderful experience in the not distant future that you may wait only nine months to have the splitting of the temple when you move within.

May I tell you, it is an entirely different world and the exercise of a power of which no one on earth knows. You can’t explain because you can’t explain. There’s not a thing on the outside to light, to make it a power, it’s all in your head. And you can move mountains by simply the exercise of a power that is coming from within you, that is your very being. And there is no way that you can describe it to satisfy the reasoning mind here. It is simply something from within, and you hear it in your head and you control it in your head. It’s your eyes, your ears, your every sense synthesized into a power. You can do anything and you do it. It grows and grows and grows. It’s been now since 1960, it’s been eight years, and in that interval I can’t tell you the growth. From then on, you have the favor of infinity with you, and it grows all the time. It’s always growing, always expanding in the bosom of God.

Now let us go into the Silence.

* * *

___(??) more helpful if you dwell just upon what you heard this night of this fantastic mystery. “Great indeed we confess is the mystery of our religion.” The word mystery means “revealed truth,” that’s what it really means; not something that men sat down to figure out as a workable philosophy of life, but revealed. They could not in eternity have come to the conclusions of revealed truth. The whole thing is revealed. And when it’s revealed, it may turn you upside down, all that you were taught to believe. But you cannot let it go, and you must let go of what you were taught if it’s in conflict with what has been revealed. It usually is in conflict with what has been revealed. And so, you let all that you were taught go, and you hold onto what has been revealed. He said, “Great indeed is this strange mystery of our religion” and he uses the word mystery no less than twenty-odd times. I’m speaking of Paul, the one who really promoted the entire idea, for his books came first in the New Testament.

Now are there any questions?

Q: Neville, when you’re speaking of the death of God I understand now it’s the case of the splitting of the temple, so what would you call it then, when in the beginning God died to become us?

A: My religion is infinite power and taking upon himself the form of man. He said that he emptied himself and took upon himself the form of man, becoming obedient unto death, even the death upon the cross (Phil. 2:7). So a complete, I would say, abdication. He just simply completely abdicated his infinite power and assumed the limitations of this concrete state called man, but he had not yet died; the death comes at the splitting of the temple. It’s concealed, but if you read it carefully, “And he yielded up the spirit,” and that was when he died.

Now, Luke reversed it—it yields it up first and then comes the splitting. Matthew and Mark, first of all, “yielded” is a complete opposite, but it gets together, anyway. Luke makes the statement, “Into thy hands, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit” after the splitting (Luke 23:46). Now the splitting comes first and then there’s a reversal between the three of them. Matthew and Mark agree and Luke reverses it, doesn’t really matter. It’s really together. That is when God actually died, and that was man’s eternal life. He died. In the 2nd chapter of Hebrews, “He tasted death for each,” but they use the word “might” meaning—and some use he word “should”—therefore it comes one by one. He tastes death for each one that they may have eternal life. And so, at that moment a complete blackout, and here you behold the blood [golden, liquid light] at the base of the spine, you mold into it, fuse with it, and up you go like the serpent into the Holy of Holies.

“But how long, O Lord?” well, I can’t tell anyone by looking at them on the outside how long it’s going to be. I can only use my own pattern when they tell me something how long it is going to be from then on. I know between fusion with God and my birth was thirty years. I know that union took thirty years. So I can tell anyone who will tell me of an experience that is related to that, it’s going to be thirty years. If you bring now an experience where you are born from above, I can tell you just wait five months and you will find David. Wait another four and you are going to have the experience of the splitting of the temple. Wait another two years and nine months and you’re going to have the dove. I know from the pattern as it unfolded in me, and I made records of it, and it doesn’t alter…oh, what, a moment or so? But when it comes to when the union will take place to give that thirty years, I do not know. It’s all done in the depths, and you come back to the surface and you’ve done your part, and you are not aware so that you may not be concerned. It’s all being done from within. So my work is all from within. Here it seems to be on the outside, but, really, it is from within.

Good night.