In this lecture Neville Goddard explores Christianity as the fulfillment of Judaism and the Old Testament prophecies, centering on Christ’s declaration that He came to bear witness to the truth. He argues that truth cannot be known through belief or speculation but must be experienced directly through the inner Word unfolding within each individual. Using biblical events like the crucifixion and resurrection as metaphors for spiritual processes, Goddard emphasizes the importance of imagination and personal experience in interpreting scripture. He introduces the concept of the ancestral self or ‘son of God’ within every person, which dreams us into being and eventually awakens to reveal our divine identity. Goddard concludes that true scriptural interpretation and eternal life arise from this inward birth from above, not from external rituals or learned theology.
Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism, the fulfillment of all that was prophesied in the Old Testament. This week the Christian world celebrates Passover, the triumphal march into Jerusalem – the trial, the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Let me share these events with you as they are seen through the eyes of one who has experienced them.
In the 18th chapter of the Book of John, Pilate said: “So you are a king?” and Jesus replied: “You say that I am, but my kingdom is not of this world. For this I was born. For this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” Then Pilate asked: “What is truth?” and when there was no response, Pilate left, saying: “I find nothing in this man worth condemnation.” Having already claimed: I am the truth, and my word is truth, here we find Jesus making the claim: I came to bear witness to the truth.
Peter tells us that “The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired concerning this salvation. They inquired what person or time was indicated by the spirit of Christ in them, when predicting the suffering of Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you.”
The prophets were doing a work, the full import of which was in the promise. They were conditioned to hear – and quite often to see – the word of God. Although they recorded what they heard, they did not understand the writing. Daniel declared: “I heard but did not understand.” Then he was told to “Shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end.” The time when the word, embodied in flesh, unfolds in a man who – having broken the seal – interprets the written word from experience. He came into the world and the world knew him not. Even today the word is still misunderstood.
Hundreds of millions of Christians will go to church this coming Friday and the following Sunday, to proclaim Christ has risen; yet they do not know the Word. But when he who is sent by love enters the world, he finds a small group who will accept his words. From that group, an even smaller group will understand him to the point of complete acceptance.
Scripture is completely misunderstood and can be interpreted only by one who is called, incorporated into the body of love, and sent back into this world of death to await that moment in time when the word unfolds from within. And when he tells his experiences, the multitude cannot believe him, for it is not what they were taught; yet, having become an eyewitness, he can no longer say “I think”, or “I believe,” as our theologians do. His is an assured “I know!” To believe in something is marvelous, but it cannot be known until it is experienced.
Many years ago I was a dancer in New York City. One day I took a taxi from rehearsal to my hotel. When we arrived, the driver claimed I had broken the glass when I slammed the door, and asked me to pay for it. I knew I had not broken any glass and suspected he had been collecting $8 from every fare all through the day, so I did not pay him other than what the meter read, plus a generous tip. A short time after I had retired to my room, the phone rang, and the operator said that there was a policeman in the lobby who wanted to see me. When we met, he asked me about the broken glass, and I told him I had not done it. It was the dinner hour, so I was asked to go with him to the night court. This I did, and when the driver was asked if he knew I had broken the glass and he said: I think he did – the case was dismissed. He thought I did it and maybe he believed it, but he did not know! One must have an assured I know, which can only be obtained from experience.
I stand before you knowing the truth, and it is not as it will be re-enacted this coming week in all of the Christian churches of the world. Christ in you is your hope of glory. One day – like a tree – that living word will bloom in you and bear its visionary fruit, all related to the Old Testament.
The only Bible that the early Christians had was the Old Testament. Those who wrote the New Testament were called “the people of the way”. Do you know who they were? Jews! Although the unknown authors of the books Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were Jews, they did not confess that they were, like Paul did. Paul’s 13 letters, which form the bulk of the New Testament, came first. It was he who said; “I am a Jew, a child of Abraham of the tribe of Jacob.” Paul never denied his Jewish ancestry, yet he laid the foundation of the Christian faith. Man forgets this, and thinks the Old and New Testaments represent two religions; but there is only one religion, whose foundation is Judaism and fulfillment (like the fruit appearing on a tree) is Christianity.
This is the greatest story that has ever been told. The crucifixion is over. I know, for I remember when I – a whirling vortex – crucified myself upon this body called Neville at six points: the hands, the feet, the head, and the right side. The Word of God, who is God, is nailed to your body by whirling vortices. This is the same Word who was in the beginning with God and was God. There was meaning in that Word, a plan, and a purpose, which was revealed to you before the world began. This is not some emergency thinking on the part of God; he chose us in him before that the world was!
Christ is in us, crucified on our body. He became a slave that your body may be alive, and he will wear that body until he awakens. The body you now wear can be cremated and therefore gone from the mortal eye; yet you, its wearer, are still very much alive, continuing your act of slavery in a body just like the one you now wear. In my own case, however, I will not wear a body of death any longer; for the Word has erupted within me. I know scripture is true from beginning to end, for I have experienced it. I also know that those in whom it has not erupted will find themselves restored to life.
If our late president Eisenhower has not had the Word unfold within him, even though he was the president of our great country, he has been restored to life as a young man, about 20 years of age. He will be in a terrestrial world like this one, in an environment best suited to his needs, to continue the work that was started in him by the son of God, who is his ancestral self.
When I speak of the son of God, I am referring to man’s true being. No child enters this world unless a son of God – who is his ancestral self – supports him by dreaming him into being. And everyone who leaves this section of time moves into another section of time automatically, until his ancestral self awakens.
The only purpose of life is to bear witness to the truth of the Old Testament, which is the word of God. God’s word has erupted in me. Having fulfilled the prophecy of the Old Testament, I bear witness to its truth. The Old Testament is the prophecy, but dead until it erupts. Then the individual within whom it erupts becomes Jesus, the Spirit of prophecy. Men have speculated on the meaning of the Old Testament, and will believe their speculations from now until the ends of time; but they will not know the truth until it erupts within them. You may trust one in whom it has happened. You may believe he is telling the truth and adjust your thinking to conform to his words; but you cannot know their truth until you individually experience it. To believe the words of another are true is not good enough. The judge will throw out the case unless the witness can say, I know! For it happened in me!
This week the trial, the crucifixion, burial, and death of God’s creative power will be celebrated – but not the other side of the coin of resurrection, which is the birth. Christianity is an Easter religion. Without resurrection, Christianity would just be another little ism. The world is full of little isms and they are all helpful. Being psychological, they encourage positive thinking, telling you how to assume a certain attitude of mind and live a freer, healthier, more wonderful life. But when it comes to truth, Christianity is the religion of Easter, the religion of rising from the world of death and entering the world of life, called the kingdom of heaven. It is the story of the salvation of the gods who came down.
In the Book of Deuteronomy we are told that bounds have been set to the peoples of the earth according to the number of the sons of God. A child could not know life here, were it not for his ancestral self, who is one of the Sons of God who fell as one Man. Containing all men within the one, all will return to that one Man – but each in his own good time. No one can tell when that hour will come. You may long for it, but you cannot force its coming.
While on the cross, Jesus said: “I thirst.” You may think he is thirsting for water, but his thirst was caused by the famine which is sent upon the land. It is not a hunger for bread or a thirst for water, but for the hearing of the word of God. Thirsting, they gave him vinegar, in the fulfillment of the 69th Psalm, “…for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Having come into the world only to bear witness to the truth, I know God’s word is truth! When his word becomes alive in you, the Old Testament will erupt like a seed, and you will know the truth of scripture from experience. Then you will tell the world, who will receive you not, because they will know your physical background and not the Word of God who unfolded within you. Only one who has fulfilled the Word can interpret scripture. The prophets wrote it, but they could not understand their writing. The scribes – not understanding – lived by the external word; but experience brings the internal Word to match the external one.
It is said that two different persons must agree in testimony for the testimony to be conclusive. The two can be the external word of scripture, and the internal Word unfolding within the individual. If they agree, their testimony is conclusive.
When he said: “For this I was born,” he was not speaking of a physical birth, but of a spiritual one; for unless you are born from above, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Man, born into the world of Caesar, lives with reason and logic. To him one must be born as an offspring from the womb of a woman; yet Jesus is speaking of an entirely different birth – the birth of Spirit, which comes from above, and not the birth of flesh, which comes from below.
His statement continues, “For this I came into the world.” This is true, for the Word became flesh, as you and I, and now dwells within us. “He is clothed in a robe drenched in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.” Is not the body you now wear drenched in blood? Our Cardinals wear red robes and call themselves princes of the church, but that is not the robe spoken of here. Every child born of woman wears the red robe as his body of flesh and blood. Incarnating himself, the Word is made flesh and dwells in us all.
You are the incarnated Word of God, who at one moment in time will be called. Your name, already written in the Book of Life, will be checked off; and you will be incorporated into the living body of love, which is God’s most radiant form. In that instant you become one with that same body, that same Spirit, that same Lord, that one God and Father of all.
As Love, yet wearing a body of power, you will be sent back into the world to wait your time of thirty years. While here, you will do all of the normal things you did before. You will make mistakes, you will laugh and cry, and then suddenly scripture will erupt from within, and you will find yourself compelled to tell your experiences to all who will listen. But because it is not what tradition teaches, many will turn their back and walk away, unable to believe what they cannot comprehend.
This Friday, many will spend three hours celebrating an event which took place in me in the matter of moments; for I remember the night memory returned, and I reenacted the 42nd Psalm. I remember when I walked in procession to the house of God, when a voice rang out saying: “And God walks with them.” A woman questioned the voice, saying: “If God walks with us, where is he?” and the voice replied: “At yours side.” Turning to her right, she looked into my eyes and laughed, because she saw a man she knew was weak and frail, a man who could succumb to temptation. Her question: “What? Neville is God?” was answered: “Yes, in the act of waking.” Then the voice spoke to me from the depth of my soul, and said: “I laid myself down within you to sleep, and as I slept I dreamed a dream… Suddenly I knew exactly what he was dreaming, for in a split second I felt myself become vortices, as I penetrated my hands, my feet, my head, and the right side of my body. I felt the six points of the Mogen David, the Star of David, experiencing an ecstasy greater than my wildest dreams. Now I know the crucifixion happened on the night of the triumphal journey into Jerusalem. Tradition is correct in keeping it in the same time slot, but they do not tell the story correctly.
In the Book of Acts, we find this quote from Deuteronomy: “Cursed be anyone who hangs upon a tree.” The crucifixion took place upon the tree of life, in Man, and not on any wooden tree. Blake tells us so beautifully:
” The gods of the earth and seaSought through nature to find this tree.But their search was all in vain;There grows one in the human brain.”
Look at a picture of the human body with the skin removed, and you will see all of the veins and arteries rooted in the brain and turned down into generation. That is the tree spoken of in the Book of Daniel. It was felled, stripped of its leaves, and its fruit was scattered. The root, however, was not to be interfered with. After seven times pass over, and the one who was felled knows that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will, the tree is reversed; and its energy will move from generation to regeneration, as it bursts into bloom and bears its glorious fruit.
In that crucified state we fell and crucified ourselves on the living tree, which was felled. Its root is the human imagination, which will awaken in the holy sepulcher, where the drama began. You see, it is there that God entered death’s door and lay down in the grave of man to dream the dream of life. It is there that He will awaken. It is there that He will come out and look back upon that which contained him that body of a slave.
Then all of the imagery of his birth from above will appear, so that He can make the statement: “For this I was born; for this I came into the world: to bear witness to the truth. Thy Word is truth.” The written word is a sealed book of which I, the living Word, interpret through experience.
True scriptural interpretation can never be gained through learning. Knowledge must be obtained from experience. Learning may cause you to think it is true; but you can only know scriptural truth through experience. When the story of Christianity has fulfilled itself in you, you do not have to believe in the Christian faith – you know it is true! And Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism. It is man’s departure from this world of death and his entrance into the world of life! After the Word has erupted in you, you will wear a garment of death no more.
No one ever really dies, because the immortal Word is in him. A friend may appear to die, but he does not. He is instantly restored as a living being without change of identity, where he will continue his journey until God’s word becomes activated and lives in him. And when it does, he becomes a witness to the written word of scripture. The Word doesn’t come to change Caesar’s world. It is the Risen Word who says: Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s. If Caesar wants taxes, give them to him. If you desire things in Caesar’s world, assume you have them and Caesar will be satisfied, for you will have them. You can always meet Caesar’s demands. If he wants something else; don’t quarrel with him, simply assume he has it. You don’t change Caesar, for he is just as much a slave as you are. Whether he be a king or a Pope, man is still a slave to the body he wears, and cannot compel anyone to digest, assimilate, or eliminate, for him. He has to do it all by himself. And when he dies to this world, he is restored to find himself in a body that is just as much a slave as this one.
Those who have gone beyond are now performing the normal, natural functions of the body. There is sex there, hate, and love – just as here. It’s the same world, for your life does not terminate at the point where your senses cease to register it. Like a play on Broadway, you may leave the stage, but you remain the actor. Having left the stage, you are no longer seen by the actors who remain there; but your identity does not change. It goes on forever.
The drama is concentrated this week; but the truth is not being told, as man finds it easier to see thought in picture form. But in the story of salvation – Jesus Christ – is publicly portrayed as crucified. The portrayal began in the spirit! It never existed in the flesh. Haven’t you gone to the theater and become so carried away with the acting that you forgot the message the actor was trying to portray? Many a play is not just for amusement, but to educate. Such is the story of salvation. It is the greatest play that was ever conceived, but man has fallen in love with the husk, because he does not know the kernel. That is why Paul made the statement:” Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish that you have turned from the spirit to the flesh? From now on regard no one after the flesh, even though I once regarded Christ from the human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.
This week Christians will celebrate a physical death, and Christ is not and never was a physical being. They will celebrate the ascension of an individual, yet Christ is universal. The Cosmic Christ is buried in every child born of woman. And that Cosmic Christ is represented by the sons of God, who altogether form the Lord God Jehovah. Every child possesses an ancestral self, who is an individualised son of God, who will awaken to reveal the true identity of that child. Right now your ancestral self is individualised as you. And one day you, too, will know who you are. No one on earth knows your true identify; but you will know it, for you will return to your ancestral self that was – and still is – one of the sons of God. The word elohim is a compound unity of one made up of others. We are the elohiym [pron. e-lo-HEEM] which form YAD HE VAU HE [pron. “YOD HEY VAV HEY”], the lord. Not one of us can be absent, for it takes all of us to make the whole.
Remember: Jesus Christ is not a little man, but the Cosmic Christ who dwells in you and will erupt in you, causing you to return to the one body, the one Spirit, the one Lord, the one God and Father of all. I am telling you what I know is truth. Our theologians recite creeds. They share their knowledge as to what they have learned and thereby believe; but they cannot tell you what they know until they have the experience. I tell you that you are God the Father; but you will never know it until you meet your one and only begotten son, whose name is David. You cannot come into the knowledge that you are God the Father except by him. “No one knows who the Father is except the son, and no one knows who the son is except the Father.” When the living word begins to unfold, the Son you have been searching for throughout eternity will appear. Then you will know the truth and these words will become yours, “For this I was born. For this I came into the world: to bear witness to the truth!”
When the personification of reason asked: What is truth? the personification of truth did not answer. How can truth make reason understand the true knowledge of God? In his 17th chapter John said: “This is eternal life, to know thee the only true God.” The world has as many gods as there are stars in the sky. They have brought truth down into many isms; but to have eternal life, you must know the only true God. The evangelist, John, then added the words: “and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”
There is only one pattern, only one path, which will lead you to sacred history -which is the same forever and ever. There is nothing accurate, however, about secular history. Two accounts of a little section of the last world war differ from each other. Eisenhower’s son wrote a book about his father’s experience, and Mr. Montgomery – General Eisenhower’s right-hand man – wrote about the same experience, yet they are entirely different.
There is never any need to add to or take away from the Word of God. If, at the present time you do not understand it, just leave it as it is, for the day will come when you will. On that day the Living Word will unfold in you and interpret the written word, and you won’t have to add to it or change it in any way. Scholars without vision have tried to change the word to make it conform to what they think, but do not know! As Paul said to the Galatians: “I notice you observe weeks, months, seasons, and years. I’m afraid I have laboured over you in vain.” There are not special weeks, months, seasons, or years; for you awakening can happen at any moment in time. The crucifixion began before that the world was, while Easter comes when the age of Caesar has reached its end. Resurrection is one side of the coin of Easter, with your birth from above as the other.
God sent his Word into your mind. That Word cannot return to him void, but must accomplish that which God purposed, and prosper in the thing for which it was sent. You will return claiming: “I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.” God gave you only one thing to do, and that is to testify to the truth of his Word. You did not come here to make a lot of money, leave your name in granite, or your face carved on a mountainside. You did not come to change, judge, or condemn anything. Leave the world just as it is, for God planned everything as it has come out and as it will be consummated. Simply set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you, for you have come to bear witness to the truth. Nothing else! God’s Word is truth, so you have come to fulfill scripture.
Now let us go into the silence.
Paragraph 1: Neville Goddard begins by situating Christianity as the fulfillment of Judaism’s prophetic promise. He reads the trial and crucifixion of Christ in John 18 and the prophetic writings of Peter and Daniel as symbolic accounts of an internal drama, where the Word of God is conditioned to speak through dream and imagination long before it is embodied in flesh.
Paragraph 2: Goddard’s epistemology of truth contrasts belief with knowing. Through his taxi anecdote, he illustrates that ‘I think’ and ‘I believe’ differ fundamentally from ‘I know,’ which can only arise from lived experience. This sets the foundation for his claim that scriptural truth must be personally enacted, not merely intellectually assented to.
Paragraph 3: The lecture develops a cosmology of self rooted in the concept of an ancestral self, the individualized ‘son of God’ that precedes and outlives mortal birth. Goddard expands this into a collective body—YOD HEY VAV HEY—suggesting a universal and indivisible divine unity manifested in each person when the inner Word erupts and dissolves the illusion of death.
Paragraph 4: Finally, Goddard reframes Easter and resurrection not as historical events confined to two millennia ago but as recurrent spiritual realities within the individual. He underscores that Christianity’s kernel is the internal resurrection—the birth from above—while external traditions remain useful husks until the living Word interprets the sealed written word. True transformation, he insists, comes from experience, not from adding or altering scripture through scholarship alone.
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