Before Abraham Was, I AM

Tonight’s title is “Before Abraham Was.” This you will read in the 8th chapter of the Book of John. For those of you who were not with us on Monday, let me say that when you read the Bible you must always bear in mind that the characters are not persons as you and I are. They are eternal states of consciousness…that goes for every one from Abraham to Christ Jesus. These are eternal states of the soul and these spiritual states are all eternal. We must distinguish between the man who occupies a state and his present state. So when we read it, it is addressed to the Imagination, which is the eternal man, the real man. So as Blake said—and I can vouch for it, for I, too, have seen it as he saw it—he said, “You must understand that the persons, Moses and Abraham, are not here meant, but the states signified by those names, the individuals being representatives or visions of those states as they were seen by mortal man in a series of divine revelations as they are written in the Bible; these states I have seen in my Imagination; when distant they appear as one man, as you approach they appear as multitudes of nations. One man represented by multitudes, and multitudes of men in harmony will appear as a single infant” . I have seen them. The ancients saw them and many believed what they saw to the entire abrogation of reason. Then they prophesied because they saw it; they prophesied of the ultimate state which is personified in scripture as Christ Jesus.476 ¶1

So this drama tonight opens in this 8th of John. When you read it, bear in mind they are states. But the evangelist is writing of a state in which he himself entered, for they are relating their own experiences, that’s what the evangelists are doing. They are anonymous, no one knows the true authors of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We speak of them as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but no one knows who they are. I can tell you, they were simply relating their own experiences. So the words are put now into the mouth of a personification, and Jesus turns to those who are present and said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” And they said to him, ‘Why, you are not yet fifty years of age, and Abraham saw you?’ He replied, ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’ And they took up stones to throw at him. Now, when you read it you see a drama in the secular world, but he’s telling the truth. When in this state, you see before Abraham was that you really are. You are the immortal being passing through all these states and the final state is Christ Jesus. When you arrive there you are the author of the play; you are God himself. That goes for every child born of woman.476 ¶2

Now let us turn to the earliest book of the New Testament. This is the Book of Galatians. The thirteen letters of Paul were written and distributed and practiced and called the gospel—before any gospel that we now know of, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, was written…at least by twenty years. He spoke of “My gospel that came not by man…I did not hear it from a man, I did not read about it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ” . So here, the earliest book in the New Testament is the Book of Galatians and he tells the story of Abraham. He said, “Abraham had two sons, one born according to the flesh, one by promise” . The one that was born according to the flesh bore children into slavery with herself, her name is Hagar. The one that brought children into this world by promise, the name is “Jerusalem from Above,” he’s speaking of the state called Sarah. Then he said, “This is an allegory.” Well, an allegory is a story told as if it were true, leaving the one who hears it or reads it to discover the fictitious character of the story and to learn its lesson. So he states quite openly and boldly, “This is an allegory. These two women are two covenants: One bringing them into slavery and one into freedom” .476 ¶3

My mother was not called Hagar, and chances are your mother was not named Hagar, but every woman who has a child, in the language of scripture, is Hagar. For the child she brings in though it’s in a palace and she is a queen, though she brings it in and she is affluent, multiple millions and cushions everything for this child, he or she still is a slave. For, she clothes him in a garment that is that of a slave: Whoever wears it must take care of it until it’s gone from this world. It is a garment that consumes, assimilates and must expel through some orifice that which it cannot assimilate. Whether it be a queen or whether it be a scrubwoman, it has a garment that enslaves it; and no matter how strong the garment, it waxes and waxes, it reaches a peak and then it declines, and then it wanes and wanes, and no one can stop the inevitable decay and death. So every child born from the womb of woman is born of Hagar and every child born from the womb is a slave.476 ¶4

But there is another birth and it’s essential that this birth take place or man cannot enter the kingdom of God. “You must be born from above, for unless you are born from above, you cannot enter the kingdom of God” . That birth is a literal fact and that womb from which you spring is the skull of man. By man I mean generic man, I mean the human skull. It’s from there that the second birth takes place and when one is born from the skull, he is born into freedom. Blake identifies “Jerusalem from Above” with liberty. This one is now liberated. Here we are put into a world of slavery, a world of death, and the final victory is the victory over death. Everyone will be victorious, every one! We came into this world of death and we have fought the good fight and we continue to fight it. We are running a race, all will finish that race, and in the end, all will be victorious over man’s greatest enemy and the enemy is death. Everyone will be resurrected, everyone will be born from above, and everyone will then enter the kingdom of God. Ask no man to describe it for you, for we are told, “Eyes have not seen nor ears heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of men the things God has already prepared for those who will enter that state.” So don’t take any image of earth to aid you in trying to visualize what that state is like. Not a thing on earth can you use…it doesn’t belong here. It has not yet entered into the minds of men what God has already prepared. So let no one tell you that he knows and then try to describe to you using the images and symbols of earth. It can’t be done!476 ¶5

So, if this is an allegory and the New Testament begins in this manner, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and we go all the way down, and it culminates in Jesus who was called Christ. Well, if the origin is an allegory, then the end is an allegory. All things bring forth after their kind…that was established in the beginning: “Let every thing bring forth after their kind” …the tree bearing seed containing within itself the seed, and then it bears after its kind. So if the origin is an allegory, the end is an allegory. But it’s not to deceive us. Man not knowing how to read scripture has taken it as secular history and it is not. So he worships states and makes mental pictures of them or he even attempts to paint them and to sculpt them…and yet they are only states.476 ¶6

Let me share with you an experience of mine. Here I came upon, in my vision, a man. Looking at him I would say he was in his fifties, a man over six feet. He looked as though he had an infinite capacity of faith. You didn’t have to ask him his name…when you come upon these states the name radiates from him. You don’t see it, you know. This wisdom from above is without uncertainty. So when you come upon any state, the name goes with it. And here, I came upon this man and I didn’t have to ask who are you? I knew I’m looking at the state of Abraham. He was standing erect and yet leaning somewhat against the trunk of what looked like an oak tree. Here, the tree didn’t have one leaf on it, but the curly, knotted branches resembled the human brain. Nothing I’ve ever seen looked more like the human brain than that tree…he against the tree, and over his entire head were the gnarly, knotted branches of the oak tree. Twisted around the trunk of the tree is a serpent, and the serpent is looking not at Abraham, he’s looking at me. He had a human face…that is a serpent. You’ve never seen such wisdom, the personification of wisdom in that face…a human face with the body of the serpent. Abraham is looking off in the distance and you know he is not looking in space, he is looking in time. It’s away in time that he is looking, and you wonder what has this wisest of all God’s creatures whispered into his ear. For we are told it is the symbol of the final state called Jesus Christ: Christ is defined in scripture as “the wisdom of God and the power of God”.476 ¶7

Now, we are told in scripture, and Paul, to make it very, very clear to us, personifies scripture. For we are told in his letter to the Galatians, “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles…preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham”. The scriptures preached it to Abraham, so if the scriptures can preach, well then, it becomes a personification. He takes the scriptures and he personifies them, and has scripture now speak to Abraham and tell Abraham of God’s plan of salvation which is the gospel. So, beforehand Abraham is given a preview of God’s plan of salvation in the form of the gospel 2,000 years before the coming of Christ.476 ¶8

So here, the picture is shown him and he’s looking into the future. He’s not looking in space. You can see it in his face, he is looking in time. So, “Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad” . “You not fifty, and Abraham saw you?” “Before Abraham was, I am” …before the whole play was constructed, I am. I constructed the play. When I say I, I mean we, for in that moment we formed God. We are the gods; collectively we are God. In the great play, it’s fragmented and the one becomes the many. But in that unity we wrote the play for a divine purpose: That we would come into the world of death, and completely forget who we are, and play it to the hilt, play it fully. We will return enhanced by the play, but we will not stop half way and turn back. Everyone will finish the race, everyone will fight the good fight, everyone will go to the end and keep the faith. So we all start in the state called Abraham.476 ¶9

And the tree I saw is the perfect symbol of the tree of life. As Blake said in his Songs of Experience, “The gods of the earth and the sea sought through nature to find this tree, but their search was all in vain, there grows one in the human brain.” That’s where the tree is. And the tree that has been felled is the inverted man, where the roots are in the brain. And take him with his nervous systems, take him with the circulatory system, and see the perfect tree but a tree inverted. The kind of a tree you would see if you went to a lake and it is very, very still and a beautiful tree grew on its banks, and in the stillness of that lake you saw the inverted tree. Well, here man is the inverted one turned down into generation; and one day he’ll be turned up and return from generation into regeneration. In that day, he is resurrected and brings back the fruits of the experience of this play of death. This is the great play of decay and death.476 ¶10

So Abraham is not a person as you are, as I am, any more than Isaac, Jacob, David, and all the others. These are the eternal states of the soul. And so, if the origin, as told in Matthew, is Abraham and the fulfillment is Jesus Christ, and the origin is an allegory, then the fruit, glorious as it is, that too is an allegory. But you have to reach it, and you return the being that you were only more translucent, more wise, more everything that is desirable in that kingdom into which you return. “For you came out from the Father and you came into the world; again you are going to leave the world and return to the Father” .476 ¶11

Not one will be lost, not one. We will play different parts in the kingdom, as we played them here. We will be one, sharing one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one Father of all…and yet there will be ranks, as taught in scripture. They will be just like an army. There will be those who will fill the stars of the crown, not by merit but by election, and that election remains a secret of the Most High.476 ¶12

But the least in the kingdom is greater than the greatest on earth. Bear that in mind. “I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than live in the house of the wicked” . Well, a doorkeeper is one who is in on the threshold, but he’s in the kingdom. “I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord.” So if you’re in, you’re greater than the greatest born of woman, as told us in scripture. “John the Baptist…no one born of woman is greater than John; yet I tell you the least in the kingdom is greater than he” . So no matter how great one is on earth, the wisest, the strongest, the most handsome, the most everything, put it all together into a composite picture and call it the greatest that could ever be conceived on earth, it is not equal to the least in the kingdom of God. So don’t be concerned as to what part you play in the body of the risen Lord. The least part is greater than anything on earth and we all play different parts.476 ¶13

In the third great act, when God awakens, you will know where you stand in the kingdom, for you re-enter it violently and the whole kingdom reverberates. You will know your position for in that one area you enter, and you enter like a bolt of lightning, and the whole reverberates like the whole heavens filled with thunder. You are the cause of it. And you know exactly where you entered and that’s where you are. Some will fill the crown, others will fill other parts, but there’ll be no menial part. All will be part of the body of the risen Lord.476 ¶14

So, before Abraham was…I can say…but I should not say we are because that would not be his name. His name is I AM. So “Before Abraham was, I am.” That is God’s name forever and by this name he must be known throughout all generations . So God preceded his play. And so the evangelist is telling the truth: “Before Abraham was, I am.” You can say it and everyone one day will know it. So when you hear it, don’t just say I heard it, dwell upon it, take it home and chew it, eat it, dwell upon it, to know how really great you are.476 ¶15

And then you will let everyone play his part perfectly. Leave him alone. He wants to feel important? Aid him in feeling important. If he wants to make an impression, aid him…let him make the impression. All this is part of the world of Caesar, and maybe he has to make that impression for certain self satisfaction. But you who have made it, you don’t have to go back to it.476 ¶16

You are passing through states, and looking at a person if you see him spiritually, you can see the state where he is now. By state I mean the spiritual state. Here he is in his state and he’s playing his part perfectly while he’s in that state. He comes out of the state and moves on, but the state remains permanent forever. He moves like a traveler passing through a city; the city remains, but the traveler moves on to another city.476 ¶17

So these states remain and we, the immortal being, we pass through ’til finally we come to the end of the journey…and that state is Christ Jesus.476 ¶18

And may I tell you, you are not embarrassed. When you enter that state and the whole drama unfolds in you and you are the central character, you are not embarrassed. You are awed and you’re thrilled. Prior to that you would have thought it blasphemy for anyone to have claimed it and suddenly it happens to you and you can’t deny it. You can no more deny it than you could the simplest evidence of your senses. Can’t deny it, you’ve experienced it, so you know scripture, and the only purpose of life is to fulfill scripture. There is no other real purpose. So here, the statement is a true statement: All the stories of the Bible are true stories but they are supernatural, they are not secular. They all take place in some remote region of the soul.476 ¶19

Now here, a lady (she’s here tonight) said, “I came in my vision upon a box, a translucent box covered with a translucent skin. The interior seemed like some mechanism; the outer was a translucent skin. I was looking at it when suddenly you appeared and you were peeling from your cheeks a translucent skin.” She saw correctly. At the end of the journey the skin that you’ve worn that was so responsive to the inner man that people thought it to be you, at the end you take it off and your true identity is revealed.476 ¶20

My little namesake in New York City, Neville Burleigh, in the month of September, prior to his birthday, which is in November, I saw him before he was born, and I said to him, “If I am your father, when are you coming on earth?” He said to me quite innocently, “Tenth of November.” This is now the month of September. So the next day I said to my wife, “Well, you’re going to have a baby tenth of November.” I said it kiddingly because she wasn’t pregnant and she said, also in a kidding manner, “You know, I believe you implicitly in so many things, but this is one time I can’t believe you because you know I’m not pregnant.”476 ¶21

Well, a very dear friend of ours was pregnant and she came to the meetings in the month of September and she was ballooned. So I told her the story. Well, she said, “It can’t apply to me because my baby isn’t due until late in December.” I said I don’t know. She said, “The doctor said, and Joseph and I compared notes, and it’s late December.” I said, “Should this little child be born and it’s a boy…” She said right away, “Oh, that’s not true…it has to be a girl.” I said, “I’m not arguing with you, I’m just saying if it is a boy and he’s born on the tenth of November, his name is Neville Mark…that’s what he told me.” Well, she ignored it and she went through the door laughing and said, “You know, Neville, really you’re a funny fellow. I like listening to you, and all these things you say they’re very interesting, but sometimes I think you must be really insane.” I said, “All right, Louise, if he comes on the tenth…” So he came on the tenth and she named him Neville Mark.476 ¶22

Well, about three or four years ago in New York City in their apartment, the four of them—one is now gone from this world; he was killed this summer in an accident in London, he was the older of the two—well, little Neville sat there and he always liked to ask me questions about dreams and visions. He’s eager! So he said to me, “You know…”—his mother sat next to him and his father sat next to him—“You know, Neville, I know I am not what I appear to be.” I said, “You know that Neville?” “Oh yes. I didn’t dream it, no one told me, didn’t read it, but I know it.” And then he said to me, “You know, if I could only stand still, perfectly still, and turn around. No, I don’t mean turn around the whole body. If the body could stand still and I turn around in the body, I would know who I am. I know I would know who I am. I also know I can’t do it until I die and I can’t wait to die!” With that, the mother blanched, turned as white as chalk. He said, “Mother, I didn’t mean it that way…I have no desire to die. I’m going to live fully, live fully in this world, but I can’t wait to find out who I am, and I know I am not what you think I am. If I could only get this body to stand still and turn around in it, I would see who I am. Well, I’ve got to turn right around completely.” Poor Louise is just having a fit, scared to death.476 ¶23

Well, Neville hasn’t lost that interest. He’s now sixteen or will be November 10th. He has everything that the world of Caesar could offer: The sole heir to millions, with international businesses all very well entrenched. It doesn’t interest him. He likes drawing, wants to be a drawer, wants to paint…that is his passion, to paint and draw. Let the father’s business—the father is seventy-six and he is sixteen—let it thrive as far as he is concerned, but his interest is in these things. And I saw it two weeks before he came into the world when he gave me his name.476 ¶24

So here, it parallels what my friend saw, peeling off the translucent skin at the end of the journey. And he, a little lad, he was then about twelve and he knew then that he wasn’t what he appeared to be. That it was only a skin that was tightly woven over him, hiding his true identity.476 ¶25

So, everyone here is wearing a mask. One day you’ll take off the mask and we’ll all meet unmasked and know each other as we knew before the fall; and there will be one grand wonderful joyous moment when all return and all recognize the being we were prior to putting on the mask…for we are wearing the mask. So the evangelist was telling his own experience, that before the state called Abraham was, I am.476 ¶26

So they took up stones, you’re told, to throw at him. Well, a stone in scripture is the symbol of literal fact. So they could say, “We know your parents, your brothers, your sisters…we know your background and we know that you’re only about fifty, and here we have a record of this one that you’ve just named and it is 2,000 years ago; so you couldn’t possibly have been seen by him, neither could you have seen him.” They threw the book at him; they threw the facts, as friends here will throw the facts at me.476 ¶27

I recall here at a dinner party one night with the late Aldus Huxley. I told him that these characters were not persons, not one of them. “Well,” he said, “Neville, Caesar did live and he’s mentioned in scripture, and Herod lived and he’s mentioned in scripture.” I said, I speak of the scripture. The scripture is the Old Testament and he’s not in the scripture. The only book that could have been read—if you want to accept Jesus as a man—that he could have read and called it scripture would have to have been the Old Testament. Well, they passed him a book…it has to be the Old Testament…and he reads from Isaiah. Every one he quotes he has to quote from the Old. He can’t quote the New. There is no New. I’m not denying that these evangelists lived, but they’re all anonymous. I’m not denying that Paul lived, but we do not really know who Paul is. I’m not denying these, but in the Old Testament they are states, the eternal states.476 ¶28

The prophets who recorded it were doing a work the full import of which was hidden from themselves. They did not know, and they inquired as to what time, what person was meant, and it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but us. When the time had fully come and the secret was made real to us, it was uncovered and then we saw the end. The end was the state called Jesus Christ and all enter it, one after the other and all experience everything that is recorded in scripture concerning Jesus Christ. When you experience the identical thing, who are you? And someone comes behind you and he experiences the identical thing, well then, if everyone experiences that, then who is Jesus Christ? Is it not the eternal state, the perfect man, that which reflects the glory of God and wears the very stamp of his person? Well then, when you actually reach that state, the work is done and you return, return to where you were before you fell.476 ¶29

But the fall was deliberate; it wasn’t something that you incurred because you did something wrong. It was a challenge and only God could take that challenge to die and rise from the dead. Only God could die in confidence that he would rise. And so, we were the gods who took the challenge and came down in these masks that decay and die, to find them restored, waxing once more, waning, and dying; restored, waxing, waning and dying. It goes on over and over and over until the end is reached and there is no more being restored. There’s only then resurrection. You are lifted out of the world of death into the kingdom of heaven or the world of life.476 ¶30

So everyone is destined to be in that kingdom. And the part you’re going to play there has already been pre-determined. “Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified” . So everyone, even the least, is glorified in the body of the risen Lord. Now let us go into the Silence. * * * Are there any questions, please?476 ¶31