Manner Jesus Birth Sign

Now tonight you’ll find it a combination of the spiritual world and Caesar’s world. You and I who were raised in the Christian faith or the Jewish faith were taught to believe that that whole book was history. The Old Testament was history, secular history, and the New Testament was secular history. May I tell you, the manner of Jesus’ birth is, to those who understand who he is, a sign of the divine initiative in our redemption. The whole story of Jesus, from his conception by the Holy Spirit to his ascension into heaven, is a sign granted by God to those who will receive it. When Paul saw the vision, this eternal story…for the story of the Old and New Testament is eternal; these are the eternal realities, unchangeable. One day you will come upon and you will encounter what appears on paper to be characters, to be persons. And when you encounter them, they, too, will seem to be persons, but they are states personified.813 ¶1

So Paul said, “From now on we regard no one from the human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer” . When you and I heard of Jesus Christ, we thought in terms of a person. After Paul had the revelation he saw that Jesus Christ was “the creative power of God and the wisdom of God” . But God is man, so every attribute of God is personified. And so it is personified whether it be faith, called Abraham, whether it be the power and wisdom of God, called Jesus Christ…every quality of God is personified.813 ¶2

So he said, “From now on we regard no one from the human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from the human point of view, we regard him thus no longer.” Now he’s not speaking of you, a person, he’s not speaking of me. He’s addressing these words to the Corinthians; and he certainly is not speaking to these Corinthians as persons. He is speaking of these characters in scripture. From now on he can’t conceive of Abraham as a person as you are a person. So he tells this story, “It is written”—written where?—in scripture. “It is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. The one born of a slave was born according to the flesh.” Well, you were born according to the flesh. He’s telling you right now you by your physical birth are that one born according to the flesh. “And one born according to the promise.” They have dropped the definite article in translation, but it is the promise. There’s only the promise, not a promise. And so, two children, two sons—one according to the flesh (this is according to the flesh), and one according to the promise.813 ¶3

And then he explains it concerning the two women. One was Hagar, who was a servant of Sarah, who was given over to Abraham and Abraham sired this child, and the child was born Ishmael…his hand is against every man and every man’s hand is against him. That is this world…you and I struggling to make a living, to pay rent, to pay taxes, to keep ourselves above the flood, the flood of illusion. And so, the whole thing is a struggle and that is simply the offspring of the slave Hagar. But there is another birth that you recognize after the vision has taken place in us, and that comes from Sarah, and that is the birth from above, called “the promise.” Now, it hasn’t a thing to do with a little child. All this is symbolism when you, not a child, when you are born. Oh, the child will appear wrapped in its swaddling clothes only to symbolize your birth…that you are born from above. And so, there are two distinct births from two distinct women. One birth is the womb of woman, and the other is the skull of man. By man I mean generic man. These are the two women in scripture.813 ¶4

So when Paul saw the vision, he said, “From now on I will regard no one from the human”…and he’s speaking now only of scripture. He will not see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob or any character of scripture, including Jesus Christ, from the human point of view. Even though I formerly saw them that way and heard the secular scripture, secular history, no longer will I see it from the human point of view. So here, when he said, “When you read”—he’s writing now to the Ephesians and he makes the statement in the 3rd chapter of the 11th of Ephesians, “And when you read”—and they added the word “this”; it is not “this” in the manuscript. “When you read”—he’s referring to the Old Testament—“When you read (the Old Testament), you will perceive my insight into the mystery of Messiah.” We translate the word Christ…but Christ and Messiah are the same. “You will perceive my insight into the mystery of Messiah, which was not made known to men in other generations but is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” The whole thing comes from within. It was not known prior to this, but now the time is fulfilled.813 ¶5

For said he, in the same letter to the Ephesians, that: “He has made known unto us”—speaking now of himself and those with whom he shared the vision—“the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time” . A plan! Now, to him Christ is not a person, he’s a plan. I will not see him ever again as a person…and he defines him as “the power of God and the wisdom of God” . Now he said, “I only preach Christ crucified and raised from the dead.” So within that power crucified on humanity, that power in you is your own wonderful human Imagination…that’s Christ, there is no other Christ. It’s crucified on humanity, the cross of man, and it contains within itself a plan of resurrection, a plan of redemption. So, “He has made known unto me the mystery of his will.” Mystery means a “sacred secret.” He has made known unto me that sacred secret according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ—that is, the power crucified on me as my Imagination—as a plan for the fullness of time. So when the time is fulfilled, it erupts within me. What erupts?—God’s plan that he’s buried within me. And so the whole plan erupts within me. Then and only then do I know God’s purpose.813 ¶6

The revelation of purpose gives meaning to everything in this world. Without purpose, what does it matter? If there is no purpose…so I would make a billion dollars and then tomorrow die like a gnat and those who inherit my estate, give them three generations and then they’ll forget me completely. The unborn, which is a third generation removed from me, what would they care about grandfather? What would they care, it’s theirs and they’re all married into all kinds of things, and they completely forget if I left them a billion. What really would they care? You would have a little lip service, but in one generation, what do they care? They take their wife or their husband and cast it away and marry another, and they’ll still give lip service to a father or a grandfather who gave them money. But that’s only lip service and there’s no feeling there whatsoever—“Why didn’t he die before? I could have had it sooner to spend it and do all the things. He gave it to me when I became fifty; he should have given it to me when I was twenty or sixteen.” So that is the picture of this world.813 ¶7

But there’s a plan revealed to us. And so, when revelation gives us the purpose of God, well then, it gives meaning to everything in the world. I will know why you do what you do. I will know why you dream what you dream. I will know why you have the vision that you have. Because everything contains within itself a symbolic significance, I don’t care what it is… everything in this world. When I walk this earth and I think I’m awake, whatever I see and dream and the most ludicrous dream has tremendous significance when I awake. Because everything is a symbol and everything is telling me…I’ll show you in a very simple way.813 ¶8

You dream tonight that one you love dearly, really dearly, and you see them in the most intimate relationship with another. Maybe you aren’t disturbed in the dream, but you see them, and you wake and wonder, “What on earth is this?” Then you ask, what is the one that you saw in intimate relationship, what does that represent to you? And then you come up with the wonderful answer as it comes from the depth of your soul: well, he or she depending on which one it is you saw in the vision, and you see that they represent the personification of the most glorious thing in the world, on a certain level. They represent to you—and I will take it now in a continental America—[...] said to me, “You know, just as the last war broke”—the 2nd World War, not Korea or the present one in Vietnam—he said, “You know, this world is so altogether crazy. We should have only the English speaking people the world over.” And he meant it. He is an American of many, many generations. Then he went further, he said, “You know, Eastern America (speaking of New England) that is the backbone of this country.” And he meant ever word of it. He’s a brilliant, brilliant man. Graduated at the age of nineteen from Yale and remained in Yale to teach higher mathematics, brilliant person.813 ¶9

So you encounter him in a vision, and here you see this person in a relationship and you know from your own innate intuitive knowledge this is not something that is physical. You see the seeming physical act, but here is an ideal impregnated into someone you love dearly, and she or he will bring it to fruition in the immediate present. What does he represent?—an ideal. Something altogether lovely, but it is of the Eastern seaboard. It’s not of the West, the North, the South or the Midwest. It’s something that he, in your mind’s eye, is altogether sweet and wonderful, and you can’t tarnish it. It’s altogether lovely. Whether one knows it or not, in the not distant future, this one so impregnated will be inspired to paint, to write, to do something creative…for he is creative. But on this level, you will say, “Isn’t that sordid!” because you don’t know God’s symbolism. So you will rise in the morning and you will think, “What a horrible thing that I had as a dream…and it’s a most glorious thing. You saw God being a protean being; he played all the parts. So he wears the garment of this, that or the other, and you see an act. And what was that one…it could have been a horrible thing based upon your concept of that individual. But if it’s a lovely concept, then out of that union will come the most glorious child. The child could be a poem, it could be a novel, it could be the most wonderful thing in this world. It could be a painting, a design for a portrait. That’s all that it means. But man is so rooted in the flesh, right down here, he gives it a Caesar’s concept, and he doesn’t see this glorious thing that takes place in the world.813 ¶10

Now in our world here I have told you what has happened to me, that I have fulfilled scripture. You may or may not believe it as I told you when I first opened up the talk tonight that the whole story of Jesus, but the whole, from his conception by the Holy Spirit to his ascension into heaven, is simply a sign granted by God to those who will receive it. I have told you, some here will not receive it, other will receive it. For those who will receive it, if you ever see me in your vision in such a creative act, I am simply fertilizing the story of the gospel in you. I am the Father of that which has been fertilized. Now, I refer you to the 4th chapter of 1st Corinthians when Paul turns to the Corinthians and he tells them, “You have unnumbered guides in Jesus Christ, unnumbered, but not many fathers. I became your father in Christ” . It’s a mystery…he’s telling you the whole thing is a mystery. You have unnumbered…those who will tell you about Jesus Christ not based upon experience but based upon theory, based upon speculation, and they will carry it on. But he tells you, “You have numberless guides” and he calls them—the King James Version calls it—“instructors, numberless instructors, but not many fathers. I became your father.” He is telling them that he sired them after they accepted what he experienced. He told them what he experienced: “For when it pleased God to reveal his Son in me, I didn’t converse or communicate with flesh and blood” . What person in this world would I turn to after I’ve experienced the vision? How could he tell me anything about it? What could they tell me? It’s all from within me. Then I tell it and I get a certain crowd who will believe me, believe what I’m saying is true. Whether they understand it or not, they will change; they will modify their preconceived concept of the Christian faith to conform to what I have experienced. Then I have union and that concept unfolds within them. That’s what he’s telling them.813 ¶11

Read it in the 4th chapter and you read it from the 14th, 15th, and 16th verses of 1st Corinthians. Yes, on the surface you’ll say “What on earth is he talking about?” But he’s telling you what takes place in the world, for God being a protean being will use Paul, he’ll use Neville, he’ll use anyone who has unfolded the drama within himself; and wearing that mask he has union with one who has accepted the story of salvation. And having fertilized it, that thing unfolds within.813 ¶12

Now, again I must tell you, from my own experience it took thirty years from union with the risen Lord to my birth. But, I will now say, although it was my experience I’m not going to be hard and fast about it, for the simple reason we all are playing different parts in the great body of God. All of us are playing different parts, and my part has been a complete unfoldment of scripture as it’s recorded. It took thirty years…and “He began his ministry when was about thirty years of age.” Doesn’t mean thirty from the womb of the physical, for it hasn’t a thing to do with the physical womb; that’s not the birth, it’s something spiritual. “When he was about thirty”—after the union that was spiritual; and so, in my case, from 1929 to 1959 that’s when I had the birth. But I will not now say to anyone…for I go back to Habakkuk, “Every vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it be long wait; for it is sure, and it will not be late” . And so, if the part you are to play in the body of God differs from the part I am playing and was predestined to play calls forth a shorter interval, well then, it is. For he does, may I tell you, give us eight levels of the body of God. He begins it with the apostles and then the prophets and then the teachers, and the workers of miracles. If you are destined to play another part other than that of the apostle, well then, maybe the length of time between union and birth in such a part is not the same. I tell you this from my own visions since I last saw you. So visions come in a different way…but the maximum, as I understand it, is that of the birth of the apostle, and that in my own case was thirty years.813 ¶13

Now he tells us, these things were not known, not known by any man of other generations, but only now revealed to the holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit. Now I know on this level the feeling between having a vision tonight concerning the world of Caesar where someone is impregnated by an ideal. But the ideal is always man because God is man, and it always wears the human form. And so, here is an impregnation and that whether that one knows it or not…they may even be disgusted if you ever told them what you saw in vision. Alright, so they’re disgusted, but you saw it, and you can’t deny it, any more than you could deny the most simple evidence of the senses. You can’t deny it, but you have to wrestle with the interpretation of what you saw. You come to the conclusion the one you love dearly is an ideal, and it’s altogether wonderful, and it impregnated. So, what that one who is impregnated will do…it’s not a little child…it isn’t a violation of her pledge to a person in this world of Caesar, but it will bring out the most glorious concepts concerning what he in your mind or she in your mind represents. You get it? That’s how the whole thing unfolds within us. But if you’re going to give it an interpretation on this level, then we’re far, far removed from, really, what God intended to convey to us.813 ¶14

And we get to the point that every dream has significance. There is no dream, no vision without meaning. For God speaks to man through the medium of dream, and unveils himself through the medium of vision . So you have it and you know exactly what it means. It’s a fantastic thing! On that level it’s right, completely right; on this level it would be wrong. So man ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and thought this was right and that was wrong, and descended into the level of confusion. And now he sees the tree, and nothing is right or wrong. On a certain level it’s perfectly right; on this level that would be completely wrong. You begin to accept every level, and up you go on the tree of life, higher and higher and higher. Every level on its level is right if you know how to interpret it.813 ¶15

So he said, “He has made known unto me the mystery of his will”…that sacred secret…“according to his purpose and he set it forth as a plan in Christ, for the fullness of time.” But now I know that Christ is not a person: “From now on I regard no one from the human point of view; even though I once regarded Christ from the human point of view, I regard him thus no longer.” I see him now as the creative power of God, as the wisdom of God, and buried in that power is a plan. And that power is crucified on me; I am the cross that he wears. The plan has to unfold in me if I would ever rise. So he resurrects himself in me, because the plan is in me, because he, the power of God, is in me. When he awakens within me, the whole plan as told unfolds within me and the whole story of Jesus Christ unfolds within me, and then I am he. Alright, the world will not believe it, doesn’t really matter. You’ll always find a remnant who will believe, always a remnant. Well, a remnant is considered ten percent. So you’ll find a remnant who will believe it in spite of what they formerly believed. In this audience, there are those who will come and they’ll come for the longest while, but they will come with that barrier and they will not accept it. There are others who are not conditioned to come, but they will come and they will put up all kinds of barriers.813 ¶16

A friend of ours, who is here tonight, he comes here all the time, he graciously brought a lovely lady friend of his last lecture night and she told me that she would take under consideration my theory. I said, “They are not theories, my dear, I speak from experience. I have experienced Christ.” She said to me, “But I am an ordained minister.” I said, “That means nothing to me. Have you had the vision of Christ? The one who ordained you, did he or she or they have the vision of Christ? Well, if they didn’t, then it’s the blind leading the blind. And no matter how old you are in the years of Caesar, or how long you’ve been ordained, it still doesn’t make any difference, none whatsoever. I’m not theorizing. You can’t take under consideration my “theory”; you may take under consideration what I have experienced. If it doesn’t fit your prefabricated misconceptions of scripture, all well and good, you may continue in your prefabricated misconceptions. But don’t take my ‘theories,’ I don’t have theories; I’m giving you vision. I’m giving you what I have experienced. It’s all revelation; I’m not theorizing.” Well, she was very sweet about it and we didn’t go beyond that point. She simply left in the company of my friend who is here tonight. She said, “I came here, this is my first time.” But you don’t come for the first time and hear something so radically different from what you’ve been trained to believe and expect to swallow it hook, line and sinker.813 ¶17

So I would ask him tonight to simply give her or loan her…I’m quite sure you have my book Resurrection. Maybe she won’t even read it now, but loan it to her anyway, and have her read the chapter on resurrection. It’s all documented and I have used as much of the Old Testament to show. Because, all that I can say, when he said, “Read…after you have read” he’s referring to the Old Testament, for there was no New. And keep in mind my interpretation of the Old as you read the Old, that’s what he’s telling you—Ephesians, and the Galatians and the Corinthians, in fact, all of his letters—for there was no other Bible. So he would say to them, “When you read (meaning the Old Testament) remember my exposition, and keep that in mind as you read it, and you will find light coming from what you cannot normally understand, for the thing broke in me.” That’s what Paul is saying. I will say to you, give her the book or loan her the book, and have her read it, because every passage I have spoken as an experience I have pinpointed that passage in the Old Testament where this is its fulfillment. For the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old; it’s not the other way around. The whole thing comes from the Old, but it’s fulfilled in the New. And the whole was completely sealed in the Old until the fullness of time when it erupted in man. Resurrection has taken place and is taking place in all.813 ¶18

So here on this level we can test it. Test one of his great theories which he knew from experience; therefore, to him it was not a theory, but to those who heard it, it was theory. Believe that you are the man or the woman that you want to be, just believe it! What would the feeling be like if you were now what you want to be? Can you catch that feeling? Can you view the world from that assumption as though it were true? Can you do it just as though it were true? May I tell you, if you believe that this vision of yours, this assumption of yours which is a vision has its own appointed hour and it will flower, and in spite of the so-called seeming delay, you persist in it, no power on earth can stop it from hardening into fact. No power! “For an assumption though false”—by false, I mean at the moment of assumption my reason denies it, my senses deny it, and though it’s false to my reason and to my senses—“if persisted in will harden into fact.” This is Christianity.813 ¶19

I do not know if any of you last night heard William F. Buckley and Muggeridge. We came home from a party which our daughter gave because it was Mothers’ Day, and we all went to her home. It was a perfectly lovely evening, and we came home just about ten minutes before ten, and my wife said, “You know, Muggeridge is on tonight.” Well, he was the head of Punch, the editor of Punch magazine in England for eleven years…a brilliant mind. And so, William F. Buckley, who is a brilliant fellow, and there they were on camera for nineteen minutes. Well, I’m telling you it was the most fantastic nineteen minutes and all on Christianity. Muggeridge went all out, he said, “I’m not the kind of Christian undoubtedly that you are Bill,” speaking to Buckley; for one is a Catholic and Muggeridge was raised in the Anglican faith. But he said, “I do not go for the kind of concepts that Anglicans have or any institution in this world. Now they call me the extreme Left.” He said, “If I would define for you what I mean by extreme Left, I want to free the individual from all institutions, all organizations, all of these things in the world, and put them into the true light of a Christian.” “You have an organization,” said he to Buckley, “and you think that is an authority. I refuse to accept any authority other than that which I find in the four gospels and letters in the New Testament, that’s all that I will accept. And I find the greatest freedom in it.”813 ¶20

Well, the young boys challenged him and they thought the whole thing was all sheer fantasy. His answers were simply superb. Of course, his use of English would be like Shakespeare. Muggeridge when he uses English…so is Buckley for that matter…they have the most wonderful command of the English tongue. But Muggeridge took over the entire evening, and what he said about his deep convictions concerning Christianity. One thing that he brought out was this, he said that all these marches, ministers and priests that are all marching, carrying things, for what? They’re trying to bring the kingdom of God on earth, and you’ll never find it. “Haven’t you heard” said he, “my kingdom is not of this world” . You can’t bring it into the world of Caesar. You live by this faith in the hope that you will enter this world of freedom, and you believe the revelation as it’s given to us in the gospels and the letters. But man is trying to bring it here and grant everyone financial security, this, that and the other…all equally hating each other…and you can’t do it. You will only have faith in this vision. And he confessed he didn’t have the vision, he hadn’t had the experience but he is one hundred percent a Christian in the belief of this story.813 ¶21

So, I’m telling you I wish you could have heard it. I’m rarely up that late on lecture night. I’m usually in bed before that unless I’m entertaining. But coming home as late as we did we turned it on and it was the most glorious time. These two men…and they did, they sort of played each other beautifully. When these children—when I say children, well, to me they are children in their twenties, in college in England, Oxford and Cambridge, and they’re asking these questions—Muggeridge made them look just as they are, like children, when they simply brushed the whole thing off as fantasy. Sheer fantasy, they said.813 ¶22

And may I tell you, there is no limit to this power. Tonight, I don’t care what faces you, the most horrible problem in the world. I don’t care what it is. If you can conceive a solution in your mind’s eye—and anyone can, it doesn’t take an Einstein to conceive the solution of a problem. You don’t have to work it out: “I have ways and means ye know not of…my ways are past finding out” . So you don’t work out the ways and means; you only work out the end. Well, if you are in debt, what is the solution, that this one would give you money or that one will do so and so? No, the end is that you aren’t in debt. What would it be like if you were not in debt? And if you had the most horrible problem—you think of it (any problem in the world)—then what is its solution? Then you imagine the solution. Well then, assume that it is true. What would the feeling be like were it true? And then in a way that no one knows, if you are persistent in that assumption, it will come to pass. I’ll take everything in this world: There is nothing impossible to God and God who is crucified upon you is your own wonderful human Imagination…that’s God. There never was another God and there never will be another God. So all things being possible to God…if I could imagine the end, knowing all things are possible to God, and remain faithful to that assumption as though it were true, it will harden into fact. “An assumption though false if persisted in will harden into fact” .813 ¶23

This is what we teach here, and it’s provable. But we are the operant power. It will not operate itself because we know what we should do; it will operate if we do what we know we should do. So are we willing to assume at the moment of decision that things are as we desire them to be, are we willing? If we do, it will come to pass. Now others will say no…doesn’t really matter. You who know it, you try it. And to the best of your ability persuade others, although they may be against you for a moment, because they’re all human enough to resist anything of this nature. Well, they’ll accept it, so don’t give up. Just simply in your own mind’s eye persist in the assumption that things are as you desire them to be. And if you do and you do not falter, it will come to pass.813 ¶24

So if we go back to what we started to say in the beginning, he tells us that the story of Abraham is an allegory, that this is an allegory. Well, the Bible really begins with that allegory. Know what an allegory is? It’s a story told as if true, leaving the one who hears it or reads it to discover its fictitious character and learn its lesson. If the story of Abraham and Sarah and their offspring Isaac, and Abraham and Sarah’s servant Hagar and their offspring Ishmael, if this story is an allegory, and yet Abraham is the father of all of us, well then, where is the reality of the story? For we are told, this is an allegory in the 4th chapter of Galatians . Well, if it’s an allegory and an allegory is a story told as if it were true, leaving the one who hears it to discover its fictitious nature and then learn, well then, if that is the origin of all the stories of scripture, for all things come out of Abraham. For the very first beginning of the New Testament, “And this is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham” . Abraham begot Isaac and Isaac begot Jacob and Jacob begot Judah and his brothers, and he goes all the way down. So if Abraham, the source of all, is an allegory, well then, the whole thing has to be an allegory. Therefore, you have to discover the fictitious character of all the stories, including Jesus Christ; for he is the culmination of the entire genealogy that begins in the first chapter of Matthew. So find out what is the story. It hasn’t a thing to do with what the world is talking about. And then you find out the whole thing is a grand, wonderful plan of salvation buried in Christ; and Christ is not a person as you think, but the power and wisdom of God, crucified on man as man’s own wonderful human Imagination.813 ¶25

Then, knowing that plan is contained within you, and you believe it, the whole thing will awake one day within you. You may be completely unaware of that moment when that plan was fertilized; but it has to be fertilized. It will be fertilized by one who has awakened from the dream of life. It is going to be that kind of a birth. One who has not yet awakened from the dream of life can be used on this level to bring about a beautiful poem, a play, a great, wonderful story, on this level if that is the ideal in your minds’ eye. But when it comes to the plan, God’s plan of salvation, it can only be fertilized by one who has already been raised from the dead; and God, in this world being a protean being, he will assume that mask and play that part, and that one will be fertilized.813 ¶26

So let me again go back. Because there are eight levels, I do not know how long between such fertilization and birth…because I do not know what level you are destined to play. I only know in my own case it took the maximum, because I was destined to play the part I’m playing, which is the part of the apostle. For, the one indispensible qualification for that part is to have seen the risen Lord. There is no other, I would say, qualification named in scripture but that. You read it in the first verse the ninth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, when he says, “Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen the Lord Jesus Christ?” You do not see him standing before you, who talks to you, who embraces you, and you fuse with him and become one body with him unless that is also that you’re going to be sent. To be sent is to be an apostle. Everyone who is called into that level of his being is always sent. And so, the apostle comes first, then comes the prophet, then comes the teacher, then comes the worker of miracles, the healer, the helper, the administrator…all these are different levels and there are eight levels . So there are different intervals of time, undoubtedly, concerning the birth. So I will not say it has to be unless you’re going to be the apostle.813 ¶27

Now let us go into the Silence. * * * Are there any questions, please?813 ¶28