ESCHATOLOGY - THE DRAMA OF THE END
In the earliest gospel you will discover that the turning point is repentance. The very first words spoken by the pattern man are: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.”
ESCHATOLOGY – THE DRAMA OF THE END – Neville Goddard Lecture
5th April 1968
The word “disciple” means “learner”, and anyone who hears God’s pattern of salvation from one who has experienced it and believes, hungering to learn more, is a disciple. Tradition tells us Peter, James, and John were disciples.
No, you are a disciple if you believe my words!
Now, when I speak of Jesus, I am speaking of the pattern man, for
“He has made known unto me the purpose of his will which he set forth in Christ as a plan (a pattern) for the fullness of time.”
That pattern has unfolded in me and I can tell you from experience: Jesus Christ is the unfoldment of the Father and the Son. If you believe me, you are my disciples.
Now, I have a few perfectly marvelous eschatological dreams to share with you. Here is an experience of one who heard and believes. This is his dream: He said:
“You were on the platform, teaching. Although you smiled at me there was great intensity in your eyes. Taking a golden arrow from your side, you placed it in your bow and shot it directly at me. As it came toward me, I could read the word, “resurrection” imprinted upon it as it penetrated my forehead.
Then you shot a second arrow, which read “David” and it penetrated my chest.
The third arrow carried the word “ascension” and it penetrated my belly, touching my spine.
The fourth arrow carried no word, only a white dove, and as it hit me, I felt as though every pore of my body had been struck. I have never known such ecstasy of love before. I felt like a spiritual fountain of pure, pure love.”
“The following night in a dream, a man I have never seen approached me. Radiating love he said:
‘I am preparing a great feast and I will come on the seventeenth to take you with me.’”
Now this could literally mean the seventeenth, but in symbolism seventeen is a marvelous number. In Hebrew you do not write the number seventeen as “one-seven,” but “seven-ten,” denoting greater importance. This number first appears in the 37th chapter of Genesis as “Joseph was seventeen years old.” Then in the 47th chapter of Genesis, Joseph and his father are taught by Jacob [sic] for seventeen years. So seventeen, denoting a combination of seven and ten, is broken down to read: seven – as spiritual perfection, and ten – as order perfection.
In this gentleman’s preceding vision the order was perfect, beginning with resurrection – then David – the ascension – and finally the dove who smothered him with love. Here is order perfection and spiritual perfection! I can say to him tonight: the arrows have penetrated you and nothing can stop them from reaching their destiny in the world beyond the world of dreams. You are a complete being now, as the pattern is buried in you; and in the not-distant future, Jesus Christ – the pattern man – will unfold from within.
Now, the earliest gospel begins with these words:
“The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
The world “gospel” means “good news”, not “good advice.” So the gospel is “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ,” the good news of how God actually becomes Man that Man may become God. That’s the good news I share with all.
Here is another dream:
This lady found herself walking with members of the group who attend these lectures. Coming towards them were groups of people moving as though being conveyed by a power not their own.
The first group was dressed in black with shawls covering their heads. They seemed to be a mournful group with many of them crying. They appeared to be Catholic to her.
The next group wore stern, uncompromising faces. Representing religious fundamentalists, they were self-righteous and without compassion.
They were followed by a friendly group of men and women, animated, smiling, and asking questions, as seekers often do. When questioned by this group, the lady said:
“You will find who you really are and who God really is, and when you do you will know it is all here.”
And with that remark she extended her right index finger and pointed to her forehead. Then she ran to join the group as she awoke.
In the earliest gospel you will discover that the turning point is repentance. The very first words spoken by the pattern man are:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.”
Believe the good news that you have heard from me. To repent is to radically change your mind. Regardless of what you believe, when God’s pattern of salvation is presented, can you accept it? Can you completely turn from the belief in a physical Christ on the outside, to the belief in a man of spirit on the inside? Or are you like the foolish Galatians, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? Do you know what the word “portray” means? “To make a picture of; to describe in words; to play a part like a drama on the stage.” Jesus Christ was portrayed as crucified; so, let me ask you only this, did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish having received the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?”
Repentance is turning around from the belief of a fleshly being called Jesus Christ, to the spirit that is Christ, the pattern man who is trying to awaken in you.
Turn around by exercising your right to change your mind. Dare to believe the opposite, in spite of the facts that seem to be screaming at you. This is what I call “revision” and the Bible calls “repentance”.
To revise is to repeal and if you have repealed a thing you have changed it. You can modify your concept of Christ and not completely change it by holding onto a little bit of the physical nature; but eventually you will drop it and turn around to start moving upward with the spiritual Christ, as the pattern which must unfold in all, unfolds in you.
Now here is another dream. This lady writes:
“In my dream I am at a neighbor’s house which is filled with numerous people. Suddenly realizing it is my responsibility to feed them all, as I extend my hands everyone is fed. Feeling detached and no longer a part of the group, I depart to discover a shovel, a pitchfork, and a rake have been placed in front of my house. Entering the house I find a friend there whose husband has been dead for many years. Smiling at me, she says: ‘My husband wants to see you.’ Going to the window and looking out I watch my friend’s husband, wearing a uniform of either a general or a colonel, bring the most beautiful white horse I have ever seen into my house.” (The only one who rides a white horse in scripture is the Word of God called Jesus Christ. The white horse is hers, for she has the implements used to care for one: a shovel, a pitchfork and a rake.)
As her dream continued, someone gave her a very friendly white dog, which weighed exactly sixty pounds. Taking an oval basket about 14” long, she made a little bed and placed the dog in it on its back. Then she covered it with a blanket, and as she tucked the blanket around him, he felt just like a baby. (A dog is the symbol of faith. Called “Caleb” in scripture, he is the only one who crosses over Jordan into the Promised Land with Joshua, the Hebraic name of Jesus.) Faithful to the pattern man, she felt the child that is promised, and it didn’t seem strange at all. Awakening to discover it was 6:00 o’clock in the morning, she said to herself: “I must remember the dream in detail,” then she fell asleep again.
Suddenly a man is standing before her. Bending forward he removed the top of his head and said: “Look into my skull.” As she looked, instead of seeing brains she saw a tiny head the size of a pin. It was perfectly formed and wearing a crown, and as she looked it seemed to grow. Then the man stood up and said: “Feel my head” and when she did, it was soft like a pillow. She then began to tell him how imagining creates reality, when he spoke, saying: “If a surgeon does not come immediately, my head will split open and I will imagine myself out of this world.” Here is a perfect vision which is all scripture: The white horse (that’s revelation – the whole unfolding from within) and the child in the skull.
Another lady writes, saying:
“I was looking at a deep cavern in the earth watching water running into it as though from a long trough. A child, about eight months old, was sitting on its bank looking at his extended hands. You, Neville were standing high above us, looking down at the child and me. Then I heard the words:
‘Can a man bear a child?’ and I awoke repeating that question over and over again.” Those are the very words you will find in the 30th chapter of Jeremiah, and when you begin to express scripture you are at the very end of your journey.
All of the dreams I have shared with you tonight are eschatological. Here is another one.
This lady finds herself in a huge corral with an awareness of being the center of unlimited expanse. The corral gate is open and hanging on the top of the gatepost is half of the carcass of a human being.
It seemed natural for it to be there and as she looked the feeling of infinite freedom possessed her.
In the 26th chapter of the Book of Exodus, the 12th verse refers to the half curtain. The significance of the curtain is given in the 10th chapter of Hebrews, the 20th verse:
“He opened a new and living way through the curtain that is his flesh.”
The flesh she saw represented the curtain of the temple, which is torn from top to bottom in order to free yourself from the world of sin and death and enter the new and living way of life. And with this experience, freedom is yours.
Now another lady wrote saying she dozed off for just a few moments to find herself in a small boat in a turbulent sea. There was no steering gear and no sails, just the mast and a crossbar like a cross on a crown. She was in the nude and climbing the mast she extended her arms on the crossbar to use her body as the sail, that which would give power and direction towards a haven.
This experience has tremendous significance. Let me quote the 7th chapter, the 2nd verse of Daniel:
“I saw in my vision by night and behold the four winds of heaven were stirring up the deep sea.”
The Hebrew word translated “stirring up” is translated “labor” in the 4th chapter, the 10th verse of Micah as “like a woman in labor.” So I say to her: my dear you are in labor. You sat in your chair and nodded for seemingly only a moment, but in that short interval of time, you saw the depth of your own being (who is you) now in labor bringing forth God’s power and wisdom, called Christ.
I can’t tell you my thrill when I receive all of these letters. Every one of them is eschatology, denoting the end of the drama. That’s all that matters, for the purpose of life is to fulfill scripture.
Tonight our whole country is disturbed because of the death of a man by a man; yet I tell you: the man who was killed and the man who killed him are one, and both will be gathered together in the bosom of the Risen Lord as intimate brothers. Having played their parts in this world, they will know themselves to be brothers, with a love transcending anything known to man on earth. They did not know it, nor does the world know it, but one being, played both parts and that being is God. And maybe this death (unless violence erupts and takes away its significance) will foster and further what he stood for, far quicker than anything else. If on the other hand there is a denial of the sacrifice, it will again be delayed.
But he of one race who was killed – and he of another race who killed him – are both one. For in Christ there is no bond, no free, no Greek, no Jew, no male, no female, no black, no white, no yellow, no pink, no red, just one…all are one!
So what I am trying to say is that the culmination of the teaching of Jesus Christ is found in the thought of a mystical union of the one who hears and believes, with the Father and the Son. This is brought about through the Spirit.
When you receive the Spirit by hearing with faith, you will no longer see a physical savior on the outside, for you (the son) will have found your Father (your savior) to be your very self.
I pray this night as John did in his glorious 17th chapter, saying:
“O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee, and these believe that thou hast sent me. I have made known unto them thy name, I will make it known that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them.”
Where can I go if I am going to the Father and the Father is in you? So when I go, I will never be so far off as even to be near, for nearness implies separation. If I go to the Father and I and my Father are one, where can I go? And when I come to you it will be to unfold myself (which is the pattern) in you.
Don’t look for me to come as flesh and blood on the outside, but as the pattern unfolding from within! In the end all will awaken to be the one body, the one Lord, one hope, one faith, the one God and Father of all. Returning one by one, we are that one body, one Spirit, one Love!
Dwell upon my words for, in spite of all the turmoil in the world, we are all one. Thinking on the lowest level, men are trying to solve the problems of the world there, and it cannot be done. It’s all done by repentance, by radical changes in attitudes of mind.
A fact is confronted. All right, isn’t it a fact that everything is possible to God? And if all things are possible to God and his name is “I Am” can a fact not be changed? Can it not be resolved?
At this very moment I can ignore the fact and assume things are as I want them to be, can I not? And when I assume, God is assuming, for his name and I are one.
If all things are possible to God, are not all things possible to me?
So if I have faith in God, I must have faith in my imaginal acts. Faith in your imaginal acts turns you around and you will keep on turning around by practicing repentance, and as you do, you awake.
Then you will find a group and tell them that if they will but turn around, they will find God. That He’s not coming from without but, pointing to your forehead, you will tell them He’s all there. Then you will speak from experience, for as He unfolds himself within you, you will experience the perfect pattern my friend received with the four golden arrows. As I mentioned a few months ago, who knows what the awakened Man is doing when he shoots his arrows beyond the world of dream? You can’t deviate from God’s plan. If you awaken within yourself and it’s the plan that awakens, you are the plan that awoke, so you shoot the plan to those you love.
Take the passages I have quoted tonight and see how they relate to the visions. Each passage dwells with eschatology, the doctrine of the last days, when Man turns from this age of sin and death to that age of Eternal life.
Now this may seem a deep spiritual night to many of you, but may I tell you it is directly practical, for while you were with me this night you left all of your worries and cares of the day on the conveyor belt which is moving automatically.
Your heavenly Father knows your needs and is caring for them while you travel in the spirit world with me. You have left those who are self-complacent, content with their own little circle. Those who know they are right are in hell where there is no forgiveness of sin.
In hell it’s all self-righteousness, all justifying oneself. One of the greatest of all human weaknesses is the necessity of always being right, and that is hell until one becomes loose enough to ask questions. Whether the truth is accepted or not is irrelevant, but when they ask, answer directly:
When you find God you are going to find yourself. And when you find the truth you will discover that you and God the Father are one.”
If you haven’t read the beautiful 17th chapter of John, I urge you to do so. I think it is the most glorious prayer ever written.
“O Father, I have manifested thy name to those thou gavest to me. They were yours and you gave them to me that they may be one even as we are one.”
Here he tells you that God and his pattern are one. In the beginning was the Word (the plan, the meaning of it all) and the Word was with God and the Word was God. So the pattern and he who sent it are one. The pattern is what was sent.
Always claiming that he was sent, he tells you that the sender (the Father) and the sent (the pattern) are one; therefore the Father sends himself as the pattern which unfolds. Then the man in whom it unfolds tells it, and he always has a remnant who hears and believes. He won’t get the world to believe him, for they are busy moving down on the conveyor belt. Although they hear the call to repent, they will not stop to change their beliefs for one little moment.
I have an aunt, now in her nineties. She was born and raised in a group called “The Brothers”, the most bigoted Christian organization there ever was. One day while visiting her, I said: “Don’t you know that the Bible teaches that Jesus had brothers?” Well, she almost slapped me in the face as she denied it. She attends church seven days a week, yet when I opened the Bible to the 6th chapter of Mark and read it to her she would not change her thinking relative to Christ. Unwilling to accept a foreign thought, she chooses to remain on the conveyor belt. Her mind is made up and she is not willing to read the Bible with a different understanding.
She will eventually die, to find herself restored to life in a world just like this, with a body the same as before only young with nothing missing – and she will not even realize what took place. She will still have the same fixed beliefs and she’ll go through another pattern of events to become proximate matter – matter that is made to receive a form, like taking a piece of wax and making it soft enough to receive a seal.
In the 1st chapter of Hebrews, we are told that Jesus is the express image of his Father. He is not someone that looks like his Father, but is identical, like the imprinting of a seal on wax. My friend saw proximate matter in the skull. She saw that which is being molded and shaped and made more pliable to receive the impression.
Now let us go into the silence.
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