Neville Goddard Lecture, The Battle of Armageddon

The Battle of Armageddon

Complete Neville Goddard Lecture Audio Available in Members Area

THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON

Your true environment is in your imagination! All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your imagination – of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. No matter what is taking place on the outside, it is but a symbol telling you what is taking place within; for the world is nothing more than yourself pushed out. Its image, alive in your imagination, overwhelms you. Tonight let us turn to the greatest of all books, the Bible. In it we are told that at the end of the world there would be a great war whose final battle is called ‘Armageddon’. You may have been taught that this battle will take place on the outside, as races battle races, and nations battle nations. It doesn’t mean communism against democracy or socialism against capitalism. There will always be wars and conflicts; but the battle of Armageddon is the battle of ideology. This battle does not take place on the outside, but within each and every individual. If you really understood what was taking place and knew your scripture, you would rejoice at the unrest on the outside. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have come not to bring peace but a sword; to set a man against his father; a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, for a man’s foes are those of his own household.” This certainly does not mean our children will be pitted against us, but that the true understanding of the Word of God is pitted against the traditions of men. Living by structures built by tradition, we have believed that by them we could earn the kingdom of heaven and acquire merit. But when one who has experienced the story of God tells you that the life of Jesus Christ is everyone’s spiritual autobiography, this truth causes a conflict within the individual – and that is the battle of Armageddon. Neutrality is impossible. You cannot attach the new cloth to the old; it is all or nothing. You cannot put the new wine you are receiving into the old bottle, by being willing to go along with this new idea to a certain point, but not being willing to give up your belief in an external God, to whom you bend your knee and cross your body when you stand before what represents him on the wall.

So the battle rages until the story of Jesus Christ unfolds within you; and then the war is over, for from that moment on you will have no other god, only he whose name is I AM. I tell you: the story of Jesus Christ is your spiritual autobiography. One day his story will unfold within you and you will know there is no other, only God. Today when you see the disturbance the young people are causing – not only in our country but all over the world – see it as a symbol of the tremendous eruption of truth taking place in the hearts of men. It is not just confined to this platform, for the picture is worldwide. There is an enormous eruption of truth against the entrenched traditions of men going on right now, even in atheistic Russia and in lands which are not considered Christian; but truth is not confined to space or time. Truth is only confined to God.Religion, in the true sense of the word, is devotion, and at times an exalted reality for the one experiencing it. When you have experienced scripture, you will never again return to your little bottle. Our world is filled with men who are supposed to speak the word of God, yet are deeply involved in the shadow world. They are telling our government what to do and how to do it, not telling the individual about God’s promise to give himself to the individual in a literal sense. I tell you: God is going to give his son to you; and because he and his son are one, he gives you himself. Believe me and hope for your eruption now, for when it comes, you will realize that everything which appears to be taking place on the outside, is nothing more than a shadow, cast by God. So when you see the young pitted against the old, rejoice, for they are fulfilling scripture. We may resent being taxed to rebuild the buildings the young burn down, but the eruption is taking place in us as the new idea replaces the old. No more will I be bound to an external God. I no longer believe in an external Jesus Christ, for the Christ in me who is my hope of glory, awoke and unfolded his story – not as another for me to observe, but as myself. He redeemed me by becoming me, to the point where everything said of him I have experienced. That is the new idea which has replaced my old concept that I learned from my mother, Sunday school, and church. I lived by that structure until one day I knew it was not truth.

Then the battle between truth and error began. It may seem to be on the outside, but it is all taking place within. He comes, not to bring peace but a sword, and he is followed by the armies of heaven. From his mouth a sharp sword is issued. It is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. He does not bring a sword to chop people’s heads off with. The sword is only a symbol. When John the Baptist was beheaded, John – wearing everything that is external to man – died, and the Lord Jesus Christ rose in his place. When your head is symbolically removed, you have received the sign that you no longer give power to external things. Then the inner you will rise and supplant your outer self. The rising of this inner you has a disturbing influence, for everything you believed in and bowed to on the outside must die. Formerly I worshiped a man because he was known, rich, or intelligent; then I discovered that the one who is the Being of beings, the God of gods, was my very self. Then He began to awaken in me, as I learned to overcome everything external to myself. And as I did, I realized that I was the cause of the phenomena of my life. I accepted this fact one-hundred percent and he fulfilled his promise: “To him who conquers I will give the Morning Star.” Then he identified himself as the morning star, saying: “I am the root and the offspring of David. I am the bright morning star,” the symbol of the new day and immortality. When God reveals himself to you, as you, your world changes; and when your little garment which has housed the old beliefs, is taken off, it will be for the last time. Then you will be clothed in the new man, as the man who rose from within and repeated the entire story of the Lord Jesus Christ, in detail.

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