Advent

Tonight’s talk is “Advent.” Should it seem a bit mystical and therefore you call it spiritual, let me remind you, whatever is profoundly spiritual is, in reality, most directly practical. You need not always think in terms of some earthly objective in order to realize it. You could be far removed mentally from the immediate pressure and dwell on the mystery of God, and that which is now your great need will find itself wrapping itself in some objective fact, and you’ll realize it.242 ¶1

Today, the 30th of November is called in the church tradition Andrew’s Day. The church has taken the twelve apostles, Christ and John the Baptist, and given a day of the year to each. So this day has been given to Andrew. It’s not in scripture. In fact, Paul in his letter to the Galatians warns us against such a practice. He said, “I notice that you observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I have labored over you in vain” (4:10). Because, this day could take place any moment of the day, any day of the year—you don’t have to wait for any 30th of November to experience this day.242 ¶2

It’s all built around the first chapter of the gospel of John. We’re told in that first chapter that John the Baptist was standing with two of his disciples and he looked and he saw Jesus, and he said, “Behold, the Lamb of God” (verse 29). One of the two present was Andrew, so Andrew followed him and came to his home and remained with him because it was the tenth hour. The tenth hour is the creative hour. Every letter in the Hebrew tongue has a numerical value as well as a symbolical value. So the letter Yod which begins the name of God—Yod, He, Vau, He—has the numerical value of ten, but the symbolical value of “the hand of the Creator”; it’s a creative hand. It also has the symbol of a seal, the creative seal. It was the tenth hour. He first found his brother, Simon Peter, and told him he had found the Messiah which means “the Christ.”242 ¶3

Then in the same chapter we’re told how we know he is the one. So we’re told, “I have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets wrote.” For everything is foreshadowed in the Old Testament. The Old Testament, or the story of the Old Testament, is a prefiguration of the Christ. In fact, according to certain rabbinical principle, what is not written in the scripture is non-existent. All of the accomplishments of men are as nothing if it is not in scripture. Well, it will not be in scripture, all of the accomplishments of men, because this of which the scripture speaks takes place in the depths of the soul of man. There is no secular history in the Bible; it’s all sacred history.242 ¶4

So let us turn to the first word that designated him as the Christ: “Behold, the Lamb of God.” So we search the scripture, naturally meaning the Old Testament, to find where it is used. Here we find it in the 22nd of Genesis. Here is a prototype of the real sacrifice. And so Abraham takes his son Isaac up to the mountain to sacrifice him. Isaac said, “Father, I see the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a sacrifice?” The father said, “God will provide himself the lamb for a sacrifice” (verse 7)…and the two went on together.242 ¶5

You know the story—a substitute was found, that the lad was not sacrificed; a goat was sacrificed in his place, a substitute. But there’s no substitute for this sacrifice in the real drama of the soul. God actually becomes man that man may become God: “Unless I die thou canst not live, but if I die, I shall arise again and thou with me” (Blake, Jerusalem, Plt.96). This sacrifice is not vicarious; it’s an actual sacrifice where God empties himself of his creative power and takes upon himself the limitation of a man, man being his sepulcher (Phil. 2:7). This is the great mystery of life through death: Except a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it will bring forth much…thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold.242 ¶6

So here is the mystery of life through death. Today they are looking for the coming of Christ. This has been going on for centuries and they’re looking in the wrong direction. For the word advent is a term used to designate the coming of Christ at the end of this age. The end of this age begins a new creation altogether. But the turning of this age into the new age is not a matter of the future; it is the coming of Jesus Christ. Well, then where is he and where should I look for him?242 ¶7

Jesus Christ is buried in you. Were he not in you, you couldn’t live, you just couldn’t live. You couldn’t breathe were God not actually buried in you. You are his sepulcher. He could not rise in the man in whom he does not exist. He could not emerge from the man in whom he does not exist. And so, his coming cannot be from without; his coming must be from within. You’re going to find him—everyone will find him—from within. But when he finds it, it’s not another. The sacrifice was so complete, he gave himself to you. He first made you alive, a living being, and his goal is to make you a life-giving spirit (1Cor.15:45). For the purpose of the whole vast creation, this infinite universe is to create life. That’s the greatest creation in the world. To create a house, to create a solar system, to create a galaxy, great as they are, they are as nothing to the creation of life. For we are told, “I came that they may have life and it abundantly” (John 10:10). So the only purpose is to add to his creative power of life so that there is life in us—not animated beings but we are life-giving spirits. When he rises in us we will be like him and he will be like us; and there won’t be two of us, just one.242 ¶8

So he comes from within; he cannot come from without. So we are warned, “If any one should say to you, ‘Look, there is Christ!’ or ‘Look, here he is!’ do not believe it” (Mark 13:21). “It does not yet appear what we should be, but we know when he appears we shall be like him, and see him as he is” (1John 3:2). You’re going to see yourself and not another. He actually became man. God became man that man may become God.242 ¶9

So these four Sundays we call the season of Advent. The Sunday nearest to today, the 30th of November, is called The Day of Christ or Christmas. The churches will simply have great rituals, ceremonies, all kinds of external [...], and they are missing the point. They should tell the story of the great mystery. For the gospel is a mystery to be known only by revelation. You can’t speculate, you can’t rationalize it, it unveils itself in man. If you do not let it unfold within man, you’ll never find out the mystery of the gospels.242 ¶10

Let us turn to one of the letters of Paul. He’s so very fond of using the word mystery, and he speaks of the mystery of his will, the mystery of his purpose, the mystery of his plan. And he puts it in this phrase, he said, “The mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time” (Eph. 1:9). There is a plan set forth in Christ for the fullness of time: when the time has fully come then he awakens in man. He awakens in man as that man. And that man stands bewildered, he is awestruck. It never occurred to him until that moment in time that the one he sought, and sometimes even questioned the reality of that one, was really himself. As we are told in Peter’s letter, the 2nd, “Scoffers will come scoffing in the last days, saying ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation?’” (2 Pet. 3:4).242 ¶11

And you hear that word today, “Well, is he supposed to come after 2,000 years?” No, he didn’t come after 2,000 years as the world thinks—this act of creation began before that the world was. You have been united to the Lord, and that union with the Lord took place in the beginning of creation, not 2,000 years ago. Two thousand years ago was the fullness of time when the first was born from the dead; when the first was raised from the dead and called “the first fruits of those who slept.” But in the very beginning of creation, God himself entered death’s door, the human skull, and laid down in the grave with man, and shared with man visions of eternity until man could awake. And when man awoke, he saw the linen clothes lying that the female had woven for him. The female garments of the world wove the linen clothes, these flesh and blood things. And you emerge from it. There it is, it’s flesh and blood, and you always think it was yourself. You come out of it. Then you are invisible to the world, and more real, more alive, well, more of everything; and you are a life-giving spirit, which you seemingly were not when you wore the garment of flesh and blood.242 ¶12

So when he comes, he comes in this manner, and you realize that the resurrection is a fact. It’s true, and everyone will experience the resurrection. It precedes the birth from above. And the birth from above allows the one who is born to enter into an entirely different world, a new creation. But the glory of that inheritance cannot become actual, or at least it’s not fully realized by the individual so long as he is still wearing the garment of flesh and blood. When it happens, it doesn’t mean at that moment he departs from this age. He remains in the age for a little while and tells his story, as the writers of the gospel told the story.242 ¶13

For the writers of the gospel, unknown as they are—for no one knows the identity of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. These are anonymous, no one knows these writers—we’ve been searching for 2,000 years to find something to support the reality of these writers under these names, and they’re all anonymous. They were not recording or describing events of the past as historians. They desired to pass on to us and to other generations the message of salvation as preachers who themselves experienced salvation…experienced it in a way that no one could have foreseen. When it happened to them, they simply recorded it and told it in story form.242 ¶14

We have taken the story which is the vehicle that conveys the message for the message, and we have made of that vehicle an idol. One billion of us in the world call themselves Christians and we have made of this Christ an idol that hides from us the true God. Well, that’s what we have done. We are waiting for him to come in the image of some artist who painted him. There are hundreds and hundreds of different pictures of what the artist believed Christ must look like, and I’m quite sure he hasn’t painted his own face into the picture; he’s painted an ideal as he conceived the ideal to be. If you saw the German artist, or the German picture, it differs so radically from the American Christ. In New York City in the public library on 42nd Street and 5th I one day saw forty-six portraits, all claiming to be the true, authentic picture of Jesus Christ, no two alike. But they do bear the stamp of the nationality of the artist who painted the picture. He painted the ideal Italian as he the Italian saw it. The German did the same. Well, we, a young nation, you wouldn’t think that we would actually paint a Christ, but we did. He’s a young man in his twenties, blond, blue eyes, with an open shirt, and the artist swears that he appeared to her that way. But all these are simply ideals built into the minds of man, and with the ability to put it down you put it down on canvas and record it.242 ¶15

But I’ve got to go back to scripture: “If anyone should say, ‘Look, there is Christ!’ or ‘Here he is!’ believe him not.” For “it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know when he appears, we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). He either has your face or he has no face. He will have your face because you…but your face will be lifted to the nth degree of beauty and strength and character that you couldn’t conceive if you lived forever you could ever obtain that look, and yet there it is…it’s all you.242 ¶16

God became you that you may become God. You say, “What, a man?” Yes, God is man; infinite love and yet man. It seems incredible, but I’m not speculating. I stood in the presence of the risen Christ, and here it’s man. I had but one emotion permeating my whole being and it’s love. But the love isn’t confined to the garment, radiant as it is, without circumference [...], still it is love, infinite love. Then he embraced me and we fused and became one. I wore the human form divine, and that human form divine is love, nothing but love.242 ¶17

So then he sends you. Because to stand in his presence is a prerequisite to apostleship; no one can be sent save he stands in the presence of the one who sends him. As Paul said, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus the Lord?” (1Cor. 9:1). To have seen him was something that was necessary to be sent; for he embraces you, incorporates you into his body, and you are the form divine. So when you are sent, you aren’t left alone. No one sees it, for they have not yet awakened the eye that could see the garment that you wear. They see the mortal form that must one day be put down, and then the age comes to an end as you enter the new age, qualified, wearing the garment that is the human form divine.242 ¶18

This watching for his coming…you will watch in vain if you watch on the outside. He will come and he will come in the most simple, simple manner, like a thief in the night when you least expect him. You retire as you retire night after night, and suddenly the mighty power of the resurrection is upon you. It’s a power alright. Paul prayed that he would experience the power of the resurrection: Not that I have obtained it, but I pray I will obtain the power of the resurrection (Phil. 3:12). And it comes upon you, you can’t stop it. You don’t seek it. Out of the nowhere, suddenly, you are waking, as you feel it in your head a power you’ve never known before. You feel yourself waking alright, but you had no idea that you weren’t completely awake…that you were prior to that moment dead.242 ¶19

What person in this vast world of ours of three and a half billion would now entertain the thought as they walk the earth they are dead? We speak of the dead. We say this one was killed in battle today, this one was an accident, this one died normally…and so they are dead we say. And the dead remain around the so-called dead and mourn. And everyone in this world is dead. I had no idea this was true until it happened. How, how would I have known?242 ¶20

Well, you’ve never had such an awakening in your life. You wake morning after morning and you think, “Well, this…I’m awake,” and so you get up and shave, [...] with the day, and you think, “Now I’m awake.” But this kind of waking is something entirely different. You find yourself sealed in your own skull. There you are, completely sealed. You know in the depth of your soul what to do, you need no external help. But you didn’t know at that moment who you really are until the thing begins to unfold. You only know you have no loss of identity. You simply awake, and you push the base of your skull. You are fully awake and fully standing. All things being relative, relative to your skull, it’s like you were lying there. I am just about equal to my skull as I stood here and you are seated there. That’s the difference. A little tiny skull like mine; and I am in it, and still a fully grown man in a place like this, and it’s a skull. No opening, either in or out.242 ¶21

I do come out, head first, and you’re coming out in a peculiar way like a child being born, but you’re a man. Then you pull yourself out, just as you’re told in the 30th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah (verse 6). He does not answer the question; he asks the question, “Can a man bear a child?”—the obvious answer is no—“Why then do I see every man with his hands on his hips, drawing himself out of himself, just like a woman in labor? Why has every face turned pale?” That’s exactly what you’re going to experience. So you come out, and here is the thing out of which you’ve just emerged.242 ¶22

Well, you emerged from it, because you know exactly how you came out. And then comes the unfolding of the picture to fulfill scripture. For in the Book of Hebrews, he’s asking a thousand questions. In every chapter he supports his argument by either referring to or quoting scripture. He said, “To whom did he say, ‘Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee’?” And again, “I have proclaimed thy name to all my brethren.” He’s not ashamed to call the whole vast world his brothers. Not only will I proclaim thy name to my brethren, I will praise thee in the congregation. And again, “Here I am and the children God gave me.” “Here I am and the children God gave me.” What did he give me? He gave two. Both are signs and portents in Israel from the Lord of Hosts who dwells on Mount Zion. They’re only signs.242 ¶23

So the first one he gives me is an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes; and then I know who I am. For I look and here are the witnesses to the event. They don’t see me…how could they see the risen man? They still belong to this age. They see the sign of something that has happened and they know the meaning of that sign, but they questioned. They cannot believe that it could happen to one they knew so intimately in this world of mortal men. How could it happen to him? We know him backwards, his weaknesses, his limitations, all the things about him. And here, he sees it, and one of them proclaims it, affirms it, and presents the evidence—here is a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. He puts it on the bed. I asked no questions of them. They can’t see me. But I have the power to lift the symbol, the sign of the child he gave, and picked it up. And I pick it up and speak some endearing term to it. Then the whole dissolves.242 ¶24

The second one he gives me. Because he gives me two in fulfillment of the 9th of Isaiah: Upon this day “to us a child is born, a son is given” (verse 6). They are two entirely different children: The child is born, the son is given. Yet they are both signs and portents in Israel from the God of hosts. They’re all signs. The first one is the sign of your own birth into an entirely different world, and the second one is a sign of the risen Father in you.242 ¶25

“For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation” (2Pet.3:4). Well, who are the fathers? You. Regardless of your sex here, you are the fathers who fell asleep. In the very beginning of creation we were the Elohim and we deliberately…this is not emergency thinking…this was a plan in the beginning to create life. And we had to purposely, deliberately die. No one took away my life. As you’re told in the 10th of John, “No one takes my life, or has taken my life, I lay it down myself. I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again…I and my Father are one” (verses 18, 30). We are the fathers. The fathers are the Elohim…it’s a plural word meaning God. But we are the gods who decided in the beginning to create more life. Because without life, what would the dead universe be? They say this planet is dead, the moon is dead, that’s dead; other areas, bright as they are, they’re dead; they could not support life. And the greatest creation in the world is to create life. So we decided to create more life, and to do it we had to die. So we died to our Godhood and took upon ourselves the limit of contraction, the limit of opacity, with a plan wrapped in us that we would one day realize. Realizing the plan, we would unfold and come out of the grave, emerge from it, to find ourselves bringing back what we had created: life in ourselves, abundant. That we just move into an entirely different world where everything then is completely subject to our creative imaginative power.242 ¶26

So here, this wonderful season of Advent…don’t think it happened 2,000 years ago once and for all, and we’re waiting for a second coming. The drama took place in the depths of the soul, not here in this world called the world of man. As you’re told in the 1st verse, the 3rd chapter of Galatians: “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 the works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun with the Spirit, are you ending with the flesh?” And the whole vast world is looking for him to come in flesh and blood. Here is a drama unfolding before you, portraying the crucifixion, and you’re now waiting for his return as a man in flesh and blood. “Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1Cor. 15:50). It is Spirit. So when you saw the play unfold for your edification it was a play, and you were shown the play, and heard the play, and extracted the meaning of that play, now are you going to end seeing the actors who play the parts as realities? What did the play convey? It conveyed to you God’s plan of his self-redemption, for in the end there is only God.242 ¶27

So here, the wonderful story of Advent, which culminates in Christmas, every child born of woman though he lives but a second will experience, and know it is not speaking of another who was born supernaturally from above but speaking of him. That out of nowhere when he least expects it, the drama will unfold. But it cannot unfold before the fullness of time. So the mystery of his will, according to his plan, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, there was his purpose, there was his plan, there was his will. No one’s going to thwart it, no one will stop it.242 ¶28

And in the very end, as you look at the story you see everything was foreshadowed. It reminds me of that lovely poem of Edward Thomas: “At first as I closed the door I was alone in the new house, and the wind began to moan. My ears were teased with the dread of what was foretold: Nights of storm, days of mist without end, sad days when the sun shone in vain; all griefs and griefs not yet begun. But I learned how the wind would sound after these things should be.” All these things man has to go through, all the sufferings of hell, but in the end he comes out, and who is he? He’s God. He brings out his purpose fulfilled which was to create life.242 ¶29

So should you attend service this coming month, any Sunday morning—they call it second Sunday in Lent, third Sunday, fourth Sunday—try to remember what you heard here. This whole story is true from beginning to end. It did not take place here on earth; it took place and will continue to take place in the depths of the soul of man. What we see in these orthodox churches are simply secondary growths superimposed upon the vision of the gospels. But this belongs to an entirely different region, something deeper, more vital, more real than that which the intellect inhabits, and for this it remains indestructible by all the intellectual arguments and criticisms in the world. You could rise before the speaker and be all the giants of the world intellectually, it would make no difference what argument you presented. You are theorizing, you’re speculating, and I am not. I am telling you the story as it unfolded in me.242 ¶30

So they give us four Sundays and there are four outstanding events. The first is a double event, the second a single event, the third a double event, and the fourth a single event. Put them together they form the six-pointed star of David, the Mogen David, the great emblem: he who symbolizes the whole of humanity, all the generations of men and their experiences, fused into a single being and personified as a youth, that youth is David. It is that that was placed in man in the beginning—the sum total of all that men could ever do, all put into one single youth and called eternity. And so, “He put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that man could not find out what God had done from the beginning to the end” (Eccles. 3:11).242 ¶31

Because it was there in the beginning, but man had to sleep and forget. In his sleep, the sleep is so deep it is called in scripture death; so it is “he dies.” He dies because he loses all memory of his heavenly estate and dreams the dream of life. As he dreams the dream of life, time is being filled up; and when the fullness of time comes then out of the blue—though his hands are still unclean and his heart unclean, and he’s still capable of violence in this world—he of all people, with all these potentials, he is chosen because the time was fulfilled and the plan could then unfold. What plan? That plan of salvation that was in the beginning. He prepared a way for himself to return. Because he entered death’s door, the human skull, he has to return from there.242 ¶32

So let no one lead you to the outside and take you to see some holy man…there aren’t any, forget them! While you wear these garments of flesh and blood, you are not really the holy man. These must come off, that you may wear the human form divine, the form of love. But while we still wear these, under certain circumstances we are still capable of horror, of violence…everything that you would simply condemn…yet while you are still and your sins are like scarlet you are being washed white as snow. Because he brings you out and you are the Christ you heard about. You are the Christ that scripture speaks of, and everything written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalms was all about you; but you didn’t believe it and people never told you it was all about you. You thought it was about some wonderful, unique, holy man, 2,000 years ago. No. That’s the first fruit, the first fruit of those who slept, the first to be raised from the dead. But all will be raised from the dead.242 ¶33

So when Blake comes forward with his wonderful poem Jerusalem, he asks the question: “Oh, when shall the morning of the grave appear and when shall our salvation come?” Then he answers, “Repose on me ‘til the morning of the grave. I am thy life.” There is no other. Your own wonderful being…you say “I am”…that’s he. But you don’t know it, not until that morning of the grave when you waken in the grave to find you must have been dead or you never would have been placed here. And there aren’t any two of you, just you.242 ¶34

When you come out, the birth has witnesses; the resurrection has no witness. So in the Bible there is not one word of the witness to the resurrection. It is said “He is risen”; but no one was present to observe it. Early as they came, the stone was rolled away and the tomb was empty…but no witness. So it was spread abroad they hid the body and said “He is risen.” But he never could rise. They simply came earlier before others could, while the soldiers slept, rolled away the stone while they slept, and then said to the public “He is risen”—because there is not one shred of evidence in scripture where anyone witnessed the resurrection (John 20:11; Luke 24:6).242 ¶35

And it’s true. When you awake you are alone; there is no one in the tomb but yourself. You know where you are and you come out, unassisted. You yourself roll the stone away by pushing the base of your skull. But when you come out, you’re being born anew through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Well, you resurrected, and then you know who you are. You come out and now come the witnesses to the birth; but no witness to the resurrection. So you can search the scripture, you’ll find no witness in the gospels.242 ¶36

So these are witnesses, the writers, to the truth of God’s word. Because they are witnessing the truth of God’s word, they were not going to do what so many priests and scribes through the ages have done—they added to it to give it substance; they inserted a witness. There is no witness to the resurrection. So the scribes wisely told of no witness. All they could say is he is risen because he isn’t here…so he must be risen because he’s not here. “They’ve taken away the body of my Lord.” But no one person saw him rise. How could they? Something entirely different is coming out…and no mortal eye could see the human form divine that rose from that dead state.242 ¶37

So when he comes out, then they can see the sign and the portent in the first child, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then, when it comes to the second, they can see that too. Because here comes the true Fatherhood of God, revealed in his Son, David; David calls him Father.242 ¶38

From then on, one after the other, and they all add up to these four mighty events leading up to the fullness of the drama. And he’s still held in his garment, waiting for that moment when he puts it down for the last time, but enhanced because he brought back the fulfillment of his purpose, which was to create life.242 ¶39

What would it matter if I owned the earth and changed the whole face of it? It’s not recorded in scripture, therefore it’s not non-existent. But if I owned nothing on the face of the earth and had these experiences as foreshadowed in scripture, they are eternal and no man can take them from me. They all symbolize and signify certain things. Well, the four signify your entrance into an entirely different age, qualified as the Elohim, to create greater now because you have more life. You’ve added to the life that was yours when you willingly sacrificed it, gave it—not vicariously but really gave it—and completely forgot who you were when you believed yourself man and walked the earth in this dream of life.242 ¶40

Now let us go into the Silence. * * *242 ¶41

As I said when I started, don’t let this disturb you concerning the law, the law came after the promise. The promise came first, the law was added. Four hundred years you’re told—that’s symbolic. It doesn’t mean 400 years as you and I measure time. Again, 400 is the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet; its symbol is a cross, Toph, the twenty-second letter. You’re told, after the 400 years the law was given to man. After he was nailed upon the cross and started his journey then comes the law to cushion the blows that are inevitable. So learn the law, rejoice in it, and realize your dreams on earth. This is not to turn you from the law, but the promise came first. And if at the end of the journey you never owned anything on earth, you will own all when the journey comes to an end, for you return to your Godhead.242 ¶42