Christmas: The Birth That Gives Eternal Life

[...] something that we call Christmas, which, as you all know, is the birth of Christ, a birth that gives eternal life to man. And we are about to celebrate it as a day in a certain month of the year. May I tell you, the Bible makes no reference whatsoever to any person that ever walked the face of this earth, no event that ever happened here; it happens in the remote regions of the Imagination of man who walks this earth. Hasn’t a thing to do with any little event that took place in this world. But all with [...] takes place in man, in us, as we are seated here, as I’m standing here. It takes place in us in some remote region of the reality of man, the soul of man, which is all Imagination.399 ¶1

But man has unfortunately mistaken the personifications for persons, and the gross first sense for the ultimate sense intended, and the vehicle that conveys the instruction for the instruction itself. Now let us take just the first four verses of Luke for a moment. Then we’ll go into other parts of scripture tonight. Here we are told in the first four verses that [...], “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us.” Now, the word translated “among” is the Greek preposition “in”…“in us.” Many had it. The time of fulfillment came and many began to experience what we in this small audience are experiencing. So “among” is “within” us. Then he goes on to say, “As it was delivered to us by those who were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word”—they heard it from those who experienced it and they began to tell it. Then he goes further, he said, “It seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus”—he’s writing it for you, for Theophilus means “one who loves God”—“That you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed” .399 ¶2

Now, he makes no claim that what he’s about to write is a greater and more exact chronological exactitude, but he does feel he’s better equipped to use the source material. He heard it all from everyone and he also experienced it. Who Luke is, who knows? These are all anonymous names: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are anonymous. No one knows the true identity of these characters. But here, one is making a statement that all the things that we have heard concerning this fantastic thing that has happened, now he’s about to write a narrative, because “Truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at lowly doors.”399 ¶3

Man knows that if I tell you a story…if I tell it as though it were true on this level…it has a far better chance of getting over to your mind than if I tell it as though it were a dream. If I tell you it’s a vision, oh, well, then you discount it altogether. So I tell it in the form of a tale. So, “Truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at lowly doors.” On this level we hear it as a story, a story that happened in this world, where a woman bore a child; she didn’t know a man, and that child was the Son of God, who was one with God, and therefore God. That’s the story as told on this level. Man accepts and then worships this thing on the outside. This whole drama takes place in man as he walks this earthly level. The entire story is true, but not as it is presented to the world.399 ¶4

Now, we’re told in the Book of Galatians, Paul is writing, because Paul tells you, “I am a child of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin” . Now here he’s giving you the background, that he knows the entire Hebraic law, all of its promises, everything concerning what God promised Israel. When he heard the story, believing it to be on this level he fought it. Then it happened in him: “And when it pleased God to reveal his Son in me, I did not discuss it with any flesh and blood” . Because, what man on this level could explain it to me? It happened to me. I heard it, thinking it to be on this level, then I discovered it was not on this level but in some remote region of my own being, which is all Imagination. Then he went all out to tell it to the entire world.399 ¶5

Then he tells the story: “Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. He explains the difference between the two. The one by a slave was born after the flesh, the one by the free woman was born after promise, the promise.” He said, “Jerusalem below, the present Jerusalem, is the mother of those born after the flesh and her name is Hagar. And the one born from Jerusalem above, she is Sarah; she is our mother.” Then he quotes the 54th chapter of Isaiah. And then he quotes this fantastic thing, which on the surface would make no sense because it doesn’t seem related to what he is talking about. He said, “Rejoice, O barren one, who bears not; whose womb is not in travail! For the desolate one has more children than she who has the husband.”399 ¶6

Well, the one who had the husband was Sarah. She only had one; and the one who had multiple was Hagar, the womb from below, the womb of woman, brings forth everything in this world that is man. But in man there is that which is called “the one from above.” She has the husband. Yet the one from below has the same husband, for the simple reason there is only one cause in this world; but she is not wedded to the Lord. She brings forth from below unnumbered children into this world, more than the sands of the sea or the stars of the heavens. But the one from above only brings forth one, and she brings forth Isaac. She brings forth the child that smiles, that laughs…he laughs.399 ¶7

So here, we’re moving towards a celebration of a day. I am telling you of Christmas in you; not Christmas as celebrated in the outer world, but Christmas in you. Now Blake said that when men and mountains meet something great takes place in this world. “Great things happen when men and mountains meet.” This is not done by jostling in the street. The “mountains” of Blake was the Bible and he had to climb it. It was the personification of truth. He had to climb that mountain and then declare, as he climbed it, in poetry, in paintings, in his engravings all that he saw as he climbed it.399 ¶8

He would not jostle and argue with anyone below, jostling in the streets…it would accomplish nothing. I could argue on a certain level with anyone in this world and we would part and both remain of the same opinion. But if I climb the mountain, and proclaim it and proclaim it, and keep on climbing it, and leave it behind me as a record as he did, well then, you will one morning you’ll start climbing the mountain, too. You stop this nonsense on this level. You will find this mountain and you will climb it. As you climb it you will find the truth of scripture. The whole thing is revealed to us.399 ¶9

So here, we’re moving towards the celebration of a day that takes place in us. It doesn’t take place on the outside at all, it’s all in us. And everyone must start climbing this mountain. So he said, “The combats between truth and error”—and he spoke first of all “between good and evil,” that good and evil is eating of the tree of knowledge—“The combats between truth and error is eating of the tree of life.” Now he tells us, “This is not only universal but particular.” Each is personified. There is not an error but it has a man as its agent; there is not a truth but it has also man. And so in the Bible, Jesus is the personification of the truth of scripture.399 ¶10

Man worships Jesus as a man that is different from himself. He worships all these characters as something different from himself and they are not. I am climbing the mountain of truth. The combats of truth and error are personified. There is not a truth, there is not an error but there is a man as its agent to express it. He first used the word actor and then he crossed it out, and then used the word agent. It would be more all inclusive…so that it takes a man to express anything in this world. “Where man is not, Nature is barren.” It doesn’t exist. It’s dead. So man is the living active power in the world. And so here we find people speaking of Jesus, they speak of the devil, they speak of all these things, and they’re only states, eternal states towards which man is moving. When he moves towards the mountaintop, he is moving towards the Lord Jesus Christ. When he arrives there, he is the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s not some little pygmy and the Lord Jesus Christ, he’s moving towards that state—he is the Lord Jesus Christ. It takes man to express truth and truth is Jesus, and Jesus is Jehovah, and that is the Lord. So everyone is moving towards the fulfillment of this play.399 ¶11

Now, on this level, I would argue and turn my back upon the argument because I would leave the party and they are still as they were before we started talking. Climb the mountain and then leave it behind you to the best of your ability in your talent. Can you write? Can you paint? Can you write a poem? Can you engrave? Leave it that way. You’ll never convince anyone on this level. You go up and proclaim what you know as you climb the mountain, for when men and mountains meet then something fantastic happens. His mountain was the Bible. He climbed that wonderful mountain of truth, and as he climbed it he wrote his poems and he engraved and he painted and left behind him these fantastic visions of his as he rose into the mountain. I hope I have left something behind in at least my last which was Resurrection that one can see what this whole vast wonderful play is all about.399 ¶12

So here we’re moving towards the celebration of it. He tells us the barren one…“Let the barren one rejoice.” Let this one rejoice beyond measure, even though the [...] has more children. You’re only going to bring forth one child, may I tell you, and that child you bring forth only symbolizes your own birth. It’s not a child. When that child pops out of your head and it’s discovered and you find it, it only symbolizes your own birth from above. From then on there is no limit to the unfolding within you as you climb the mountain.399 ¶13

Now listen to these words carefully. “Thus sayeth the Lord…Can a man bear a child?” I’m quoting the 30th chapter of the Book of Jeremiah, “Can a man bear a child?” He doesn’t wait for the response, he answers his own question, and this is the Lord speaking: “Why then do I see every man with his hands drawing himself out of himself like a woman in labor? Why has every face turned pale?” There is no day like it…“This day is so great there is none like it.”399 ¶14

Then he goes on…“At that day I will break the yoke from off your neck.” It is wrongly translated by saying “their” neck, but you see a little footnote in the Revised Standard Version changing the word from “their” to “your.” “I’ll break it from your neck and I’ll burst the bond from you.” Then it goes on to say, “I will raise up their King David and give him to you.” Israel’s king who never lost a battle, who was always victorious, he’ll raise him up and give him to you who drew himself out of himself, just like a woman in labor. You draw yourself out of your own being and then David a few months later, five months later, appears and calls you Father. Why? We’re told in the 7th chapter of 2nd Samuel, “Go to my servant David and you tell David, ‘These are the words of the Lord…When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your son after you, who shall come forth from your body. I will be his father, and he shall be my son’” .399 ¶15

Now scholars will say concerning this passage it cannot mean that he would raise up David from the dead, but that he would raise up the line of David to rule. Hasn’t a thing to do with that. This didn’t take place here at all. There was no David here. This is all a drama in eternity. Every character in scripture is a state of consciousness in eternity, and eternity is in man. The whole vast thing is contained in man. So, at that moment in time I will raise up David. That’s what he said in the 54th chapter, you read it: “I will raise up David, their king, and I will give him to you.” Now they have the pronoun “I will give him to them.” It isn’t that. It means that you can’t change it because all will get it, but it means to you. It’s a very unique gift to the individual. “I will give you David.” Who is David? David is the Lord’s son. “And the Lord said unto me, ‘Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee,’” said David. So David is the Lord’s son. He’s going to raise up that which is dead.399 ¶16

Well, where is he buried? Now we’re told that this whole drama is going to take place in Bethlehem. Where is Bethlehem? Bethlehem is called the city of David, and the city of David was called Zion . He captured Zion, remained in the city of David…and it became Bethlehem. Where is it? May I tell you, the whole drama is unfolding in you. David is buried in the city of David and this is the city of David, it’s right here. When someone asked Blake, “You speak of all these things, where do you see them?” He raised his finger to his forehead and said, “Here.” Then they thought he was insane, a madman. But he left behind him a book which you can’t buy for any price today. He left five copies of Jerusalem. Only one did he color. It’s at Yale University. Go to Yale University and try even to get a look at it. You have to give all the credentials of the world just to look at it. It’s under lock and key, put away. If you came with a check for any price, you couldn’t buy it. And he was buried in a pauper’s grave.399 ¶17

He wasn’t concerned with this level at all. He was telling what he actually saw as he climbed the mountain. “When men and mountains meet”—and his mountain was the Bible, and he would conquer it, and he did. He wasn’t concerned with this level at all. Money meant nothing. Prestige meant nothing. He simply climbed the mountain as he simply unraveled that book within himself. For the book is contained within, it’s all within us. So, Christmas, the 25th of December, so what! It happened on the 20th of October with Benny, the 20th of July with me, and my friend Bob, it happened on a different day with him. And so, what does it matter? It isn’t the 25th of any month, or any other. It is simply that the drama is contained in us, and then we hear it, we believe it, and it unfolds within us. The whole thing unfolds within us. Up we go from level to level to level until we climb the mountain. And if we have talents, we can tell it as we climb the mountain for those behind us. If we don’t have the talent, alright, doesn’t really matter. It would be good if we did have a talent, like a Blake, to tell it in poetry that would last indefinitely. But tell it in some way.399 ¶18

So when the unknown author called Luke began to write his story, he said, “In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as they were delivered to us by those who were eyewitnesses from the very beginning and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely, for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the truth concerning the things of which you have been informed.” Then he starts and he takes all the things that he heard, as you will take tomorrow if you are a writer. You know what I said from this platform time and time again. You know what I have quoted concerning my friend Bob, my friend Benny, all my other friends and the experiences they have had, and you take all these things and you compile it into a narrative. “For truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at lowly doors.” So if you are qualified as a writer to tell it, then you tell it. But, he doesn’t claim that this is the only…he admits that many attempts were made prior to his attempt. He doesn’t condemn them for not bringing it out perfectly. He simply admits they made the effort, but he feels himself better qualified. Not that he is a more accurate chronological picture, but a better use of the source material.399 ¶19

So all present what they experience. Now my friend Bob, it popped out of his head in a different manner; my friend Benny, in a still different manner; in my case in a different manner. So you simply get all the materials together and you tell a story, this fantastic story of God awakening in man. But here, the fundamental is there. And Luke told it beautifully, may I tell you, he told it beautifully. But we’re all awakening, all within ourselves, all fulfilling the promise as made in the Old Testament.399 ¶20

So Blake made this statement, just this one short little verse, he called it The Virginity of the Virgin: “What ere is done to her she cannot know, and if you ask her she’ll swear it so. Whether ‘tis good or evil there’s none to blame. No one can take the pride, no one the shame.” So here I am, as I’m told in Philippians, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” . And then I go through hell, and, therefore, there’s no one to take the pride for what’s going to come out of me, and no one to blame. For my Father did it; and I and my Father are one. So I sent myself through this world of hell, the world of death. And no one can take the pride. If Christ is formed in me, he has to be born. When he is formed, I can’t brag. I’m happy and thrilled beyond measure, but I can’t brag that I did it as a man. It is formed in me and it comes out. And who is it? It’s Christ. Who is Christ? The Lord, the Lord Jehovah. So he brings himself out; therefore, no one can take the pride and no one can take the shame.399 ¶21

But whatever is done to me as I walk this journey of 6,000 years, if you ask me, I do not know. I do not know why it happened to me, but it is all part of the work being done in me. When the work was completed, he brought it forth. And who did he bring forth? He brought me forth. So he raised me out of this garment that did his will. Well, who did his will? David did his will. “I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my own heart, who will do all my will” . Well, I did all his will, so this was David. And it got old and then it was automatically renewed, and it was young again. Then it got old and then it died and it was young again. Then it got old and it died and it was young again. And he did all of God’s will, that youth. He was always a youth when restored to life. So I have found in David the son of Jesse…and Jesse is I AM, my own being, who will do all my will. So every time I depart from this world I am restored to life, not old, always young. Put him through the paces once more and then I come to the end, I get old, sans eyes, sans teeth, sans everything, and then they declare “he’s dead” and then he’s restored and he’s young again.399 ¶22

And in the very end he raises him up, he who played all the parts. And what a youth! What a beauty! He stands before me now, his Father, Jesse, I AM, which is Jehovah. And he calls me, as he should, Father.399 ¶23

This is the story that begins with Christmas. Christmas is simply the rising in oneself and then the coming out of oneself, drawing oneself out of oneself. We speak of finding a little babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. Have you looked up “swaddling” in the Bible? Know what it means? “To draw out”…that is the basis, the root of the word, “to draw out.” And when you do see it actually wrapped in swaddling clothes, no question about it, you do see the child wrapped in swaddling clothes. But “swaddling”…don’t take anything for granted. Like taking the word “among” and here it means “within”: “The things that have been accomplished within us.” Not “among us,” like someone out there, and yet it is, because I tell you my story and my friend Bob tells you, Benny tells you, and these are among us, no question about it. So you can’t deny the use of the word. But basically the word is “within.”399 ¶24

When I tell you it happened to me…I can’t take you, I can’t take you to the place where it happened or that moment in time when it happened. I can only tell you it happened in me. It seemed to happen on something on the outside. Well, then others come and they confirm it in their own lovely way. And so, you gather it altogether. So, “In as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have happened, have been accomplished among us as it was dictated or delivered to us by those who were eyewitnesses from the very beginning, and they were ministers of the word”—they talked about it—“then it seemed good to me also having observed all things closely for some time past to write an orderly account.” And so, the best writer with all the materials at hand could produce the orderly account, that’s all that it means.399 ¶25

So, where is this being called Jesus Christ? He’s buried in you. So don’t think of any individual being called a Jesus Christ, 2,000 years ago. It is the great mystery of the unfolding of God’s plan in us. Now, as we are told, “He made known unto us the purpose of his will which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time” . When the fullness of time came, then it came forward. It erupted in man and he tells what is happening. There’s not a person in this world who can see it or understand it from this level. So he doesn’t jostle in the street; he simply climbs the mountain and proclaims it as he climbs the mountain, just as it happens in him. As he climbs he talks about it and others hear it. Then comes a recorder, who simply writes the narrative, telling it in the form of a story.399 ¶26

Now, Paul tells us the story is an allegory, as you read it in his letter to the Galatians. Well, if it is an allegory, do you know what an allegory is? It is a story told as if it were true, leaving the one who hears it to discover its fictitious character and learn its lesson. So to go back to what I first started in the beginning, the Bible has no reference whatsoever to any person that ever walked the face of this earth or any event that ever happened here. But man has mistakenly taken personifications for persons, and the vehicle that conveyed the instruction for the instruction itself, and the gross first sense for the ultimate sense intended. So I’m telling you, the ultimate sense is that you awaken as God. There is only God playing all these parts. So when he awakens in you, you are he. God himself limited himself to man.399 ¶27

Now when you start searching scripture for these things and searching the traditions, it is said, he was born in Bethlehem—the house of bread, the house of food. “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” It goes back now to the middle of the 2nd Century that all tradition had it he was born in a cave. What is a more perfect representative of the cave than the skull of man? There’s no place in the Near East they can find this cave. But, we are told, in the 3rd Century the fathers erected an octagonal over a certain cave. Couldn’t find the cave, but they did erect a basilica in the octagonal shape. Well, the eight is the number of Jesus Christ. They couldn’t find the cave because the cave is not there: the cave is your own wonderful skull. That’s where he’s buried, and that’s where he rises. That’s where he is born and he comes out of that. That’s where David is buried and that’s where David will be raised. He raises him up. Who?—Israel’s king and then gives him to you, as what?—as your son. And whose son is he? He’s the Lord’s son. And he gives him to you.399 ¶28

Now all this tonight you’ve heard. If you have a good memory you could record it, and to the best of your memory and your ability to tell it, you can tell it, just as I’ve told you. It’s true. Because, I am not really…I’m not trying to be strange about this…there isn’t long for me to be here. You will carry on and I hope you won’t forget it. Keep it in mind: this is the story of Christ. There is no other story.399 ¶29

It hasn’t a thing to do what is taking place this very day in our city, that is, in our State, I should say. A man who is a priest gets married and they excommunicate him. Well, that’s scripture—they will excommunicate you. And there was a time, only a few hundred years ago, where they would have burned him. In the day of the Inquisition they would have burned him for such things. And so, you’re told in the 16th chapter of the Book of John, they will excommunicate you, “They will put you out of the synagogues” . Well, in that day it was only the synagogue, but the synagogue means the “orthodox church.” And so, whether it be Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mohammedan, that is the synagogue. “They’ll put you out of the synagogue, excommunicate you; indeed, they will kill you and think they are doing God a service. And they will do this because they know not the Father, nor me.”399 ¶30

Now, the head of the church who excommunicated the man because he got married, he thinks he is serving God. And he’s as blind as a bat. In fact, a bat is far more alert, because I have seen bats in the West Indies when they come out at dusk and you think you can hit them. I’ve tried to hit them and you can’t hit them. I’ve taken rock after rock to fire at them, as a boy. But, they have a peculiar sonic nose and they can detect anything as their nose comes to it. They can detect it and divert, just like turning at a right angle. You throw a rock right straight at them. It’s a flying mouse if you’re ever seen a bat. We have oodles of bats. At just about dusk they come out. They come out of the nowhere, these fantastic things, that I, as a boy, I’d go to my rocks, a whole pile of them, and try to get one. Never got one, because they had this built in sonic thing and you can’t hit them. So he is far more alert and he sees better than this bishop, who excommunicates this man who married his [...].399 ¶31

And so, may I tell you, let him alone. One day he will awaken. If it’s not tomorrow or a thousand years from now or maybe 5,000 years from now, what does it matter? He will awaken. He thinks today he is serving God, and he thinks when he drops off this little garment that some physical little Jesus will meet him. I have news for him. He’ll find himself restored to life, full of passion, doing all that he now condemns. He’ll find himself a young man, twenty years old, filled with all the passion of the world, falling in love with a beautiful girl, and he’ll be completely oblivious to all the nonsense that he’s now playing. That goes for all of them, from the pope down, may I tell you. Hasn’t a thing to do…you either are born from above or you’re not.399 ¶32

Listen to the words. Nicodemus who was one of the Sanhedrin…this is the 3rd chapter of the Book of John. Nicodemus means “victorious among his people”—Nico and demus—victorious among his people. But he didn’t understand and he came at night, and the conversation starts in the form of a dialogue and trails off into a monologue. He said, “You must be born from above. Unless you are born from above, you cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus answered, “Can a man when he is old be born again? Can he reenter his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “You, a master of Israel, the great teacher, and you do not understand these things?” ; “Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless a man is born from above he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven” . Then he uses the so-called plural majesty, which is never on his lips save in this one chapter. For he said, “We tell you what we know; and you do not accept our testimony.” These are never found on his lips save in this chapter. But regardless of that, he is speaking now. Is he speaking for many or is he using the plural of majesty? Well, regardless of that, this is what the evangelist is using.399 ¶33

Then he goes on to explain to him: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up.” He explains to him that no one ever ascends into heaven but he who descended from heaven. Well, I have ascended, therefore I must have descended. You will ascend, therefore you must have descended. Then who are we? Are we not the gods who descended? Are we not the gods spoken of in the 82nd Psalm? “I say ye are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you will die like men and fall as one man, O ye princes.” Are we not those gods, the same gods spoken of in the 14th chapter of Acts, “Behold, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men”? So we all came down and took upon ourselves the limitations of man; and we will rise and return, enhanced beyond the wildest dream.399 ¶34

May I tell you, not one will be lost, not one. I don’t care what he’s ever done in this world. Not one will be lost. It can’t be lost, for the body of God, the risen Lord, would lack something if one were missing. It can’t be, not one can be lost. Everyone must rise, and we all rise in our own good time.399 ¶35

So the Christmas story, which is about to take place in a matter of weeks…and people speak of going to Bethlehem and spend a fortune to go there to see the little place, and Bethlehem is in them. They will travel thousands of miles to see a little place and to find some little holy place that some cardinal marked out years ago as the holy spot. And it was never there. It never took place on this level. It took place in a remote region of our own wonderful soul, the human Imagination, that’s where it took place. And people try to locate it in the Near East and it isn’t there at all. Hasn’t a thing to do with that or any [...]; it’s all in man. Man contains the whole vast universe and it unfolds within him. He plotted it, became the limit of contraction and opacity, and started a journey that was horror beyond horror. And when he comes to the end of the journey, then it all begins…it bursts within him and it begins to awaken. And he is the very being that he, in his ignorance, he worshipped as another outside of himself. So this is Christmas that you and I will celebrate in just a matter of days…Lent being the first of the month. Now let us go into the Silence.399 ¶36

[...] this month and reopening on the 8th of January, the same schedule…there may be a few days that we cannot get here. There are not really many. But I do not feel like sending out notices.399 ¶37