Neville Goddard Lecture, Paul’s Autobiography

Paul’s Autobiography

Complete Neville Goddard Lecture Audio Available in Members Area

PAUL‘S AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Paul is the greatest and most influential figure in the history of Christianity. After you hear his story you may judge just who he is. After his credentials have gained him public confidence, Paul begins. Paul wrote 13 letters, if you take the double letters as two: like 1st and 2nd Corinthians, 1st and 2nd Timothy, and 1st and 2nd Thessalonians. He first appears in scripture in the Book of Acts – and bear in mind the Book of Acts was once part of the Book of Luke. The same author who wrote the Book of Luke wrote the Book of Acts. They were once one volume, or one book in two volumes. Our early fathers divided the two and placed the Gospel of John between them. He first appears in the book that we will call the Gospel of Luke, only we now call it the Book of Acts. He was present when the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was stoned to death – and Paul consented unto Stephen‘s death. Those who stoned Stephen placed their coats at the feet of Saul. (His name was then Saul. Acts 7:2) In the 9th chapter, he starts the great journey to Damascus, and he carries with him letters to the high priest in Damascus. He pledges himself if he finds anyone belonging to ―the Way,‖ be he man or woman, he will bring them bound to Jerusalem. All who believed it were called ―followers of the Way,‖ not Christians. On the way to bind those who belonged to the Way, he was blinded by the light, and then the whole thing was revealed to him, and his name was transformed from Saul to Paul. The remaining portion of the Book of Acts is devoted almost exclusively to Paul, at least the last 16 chapters, which would begin with the first verse of the 13th chapter to the 28th, where he ends his days still propounding this mystery and trying to persuade everyone of the truth of Jesus. Beginning with the law of Moses and all of the prophets, he explained to them in all the scripture the truth concerning Jesus. Some were convinced by what he said, while others disbelieved him. That‘s the story. If I would read Paul and take one of his letters that will really explain Paul to me, I would go to the letter of Galatians for in Galatians (which scholars claim to be the first book of the New Testament – it came before the Gospels, it came before any book, so they say) in this letter, he makes the claim: ―I Paul, an apostle not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.‖ Here is a declaration of complete religious independence from all men, and dependent on God, repudiating in this letter all authority, institutions, customs, and laws that interfered with the direct acceptance of the individual to his God. No intermediary between the individual and his God, none, called by any name.

Then he said: ―The Gospel which I preach is not the Gospel of man, for I did not receive it from a man, neither was I taught it, it was given to me by revelation of Jesus Christ.‖ (Galatians 1:11) ―For when it pleased God to reveal his son in me, then I conferred not with flesh and blood.‖ (Galatians 1:16-17) You ask the question of Paul: ―Was he or Christ once really a man?‖ If you asked that of Paul, he would say: ―Was?‖ ―He is the heavenly man.‖ Well, does that answer you? You are asking the question: ―Was he really ever a man?‖ and you‘ll reply: ―Not was – he is the heavenly man.‖ ―As we have borne the image of the man of dust, so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly man.‖ That still doesn‘t satisfy. ―Was he really a man as we understand a man?‖ He doesn‘t respond, in time. Then you read his words: ―From now on we will regard no one from a human point of view, even though we formerly regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer.‖ (2 Corinthians 5:16) Then he makes the statement in the same chapter: ―God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting any trespasses against them, and entrusting us with the message of reconciliation.‖ (v. 19) You will see later on what Paul is trying to tell us, if I would substitute the word ―imagination‖ for ―God,‖ and ―imagining‖ for ―Christ.‖ Imagining means the activity of imagination – that imagination was imagining, reconciling the world to himself and not counting any trespasses against them, and then entrusting to us this message of imagining.

Now we will go to this great Book of Galatians, 2:20: ―I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer 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.‖ Bear in mind imagining being that son, imagination being God the Father. Now let us go to the first two verses of the 3rd chapter: ―O foolish Galatians! 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?‖ Listen to the words carefully: ―Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.‖ Do you know what ―portray‖ means? I think we all know, but let me refresh your memory: ―To depict in a drawing or painting; or in some verbal description; or as an action on a stage,‖ a play on the stage. ―O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?‖ Answer me only this: ―Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?‖ ―Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you ending with the flesh?‖ Do you get it? The whole vast world has fallen victim to believing in the flesh of Jesus.

Have you, having begun with the spirit – are you falling now, actually blind, and a victim of the flesh? You were shown the whole thing like a play going on a stage tonight, and someone moved across the stage and they played the perfect play of God‘s only salvation, the only way that man could be saved. And he walks across the stage and he plays it, and every scene he enacts is a mystical scene to be experienced by the individual. That was all done. Now are you going to confuse it? Can‘t you now have that little spirit of observance and separate the action of walking across the stage from what he is trying to portray? For he is portraying it. If you go to a play and someone is shot, you know he will go home after being shot and have the most wonderful time – for their day begins at night. But you will weep, sitting in the audience, as you see him being shot, being abused. But he wasn‘t shot and he wasn‘t abused, save as an actor – but not the being who put on the mask, who played the part. So, let me repeat it: ―Whose eye beheld Jesus Christ publicly portrayed as crucified.‖

End of Sample, for Complete Audio of this lecture click on the links above to access Members Area or Join Us Today!