The Name of God Is the Key to Understanding the Bible

The name of God is the key to the understanding of the biblical doctrine of God. In biblical terms, the religious question is not “Does God exist?” but “Who is God?” What is his name? What is his Son’s name? And with this riddle you and I wrestle from the beginning of the journey to the end. I will tell you tonight. I am hopeful that you will believe me, but it comes from self-revelation. When it’s revealed to you, then there is no argument; you know. Until it’s revealed, you search the scriptures and there it is. It is in scripture, but man conditioned as he is hardly ever sees it. When he sees it, it’s such a surprise he won’t believe it…so he goes on, because of his conditioned mind. But, here it’s in scripture.870 ¶1

Now we turn to my pal—I call him my pal, for we are separated in time in Caesar’s world, but we are closely and very closely woven in the tapestry of life—and that is Blake. Blake had this argument with his friend—I call him a friend—the Rev. Dr. Trussler. Trussler didn’t like Blake’s interpretation of scripture; and made it very obvious that he didn’t care for Blake’s work, any of it, and said to Blake that you need someone to elucidate your ideas. Blake answered it…Blake said, “You say that I must have someone to elucidate my ideas? You ought to know that what is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men.” He hoped that would put him in his place. Then he said, “What can be made explicit to the idiot isn’t worth my care. The ancients considered that what was not too explicit was fittest for instruction because it rouses the faculties to act.” Then he asked the question, he said, “Why is the Bible more entertaining and instructive than any other book? Is it not because it is addressed to the Imagination, which is spiritual sensation, and only immediately to the understanding or reason?” To Blake man was all Imagination. He saw the parable…but revealing this revelation of his: That all things existed in the human Imagination. So to him the Bible was the most instructive and the most entertaining book in the world. There was nothing comparable to it.870 ¶2

So tonight, we’ll take that book, only sections of it, because how could we cover sixty-six books? The Bible is constructed in three layers. We’re told in Ecclesiastes, “A threefold cord is not quickly broken” . We’re told the ark must be constructed with a lower, a second and a third deck . The whole Bible is written in that manner. Anyone who can read can read the lower level, the literal level. It’s symbolized in scripture as a stone or a rock. Anyone who will dwell upon it, who may be blessed with a vision or some mystical experience, may see that rock (like a Moses) giving water, actually see the inner meaning behind the story. Then one who sees the meaning behind the story, who has the courage to test it, will then find the third symbol and that is wine…so it is stone, water, wine.870 ¶3

So here we are told the shepherds go into the field to water their flock, and when all are gathered together, the shepherd rolls away the stone and waters his flock. After he has watered the flock, he must roll the stone back to the mouth of the well. You will say that’s a very kind act if you took it in that form, for men walking over the field not seeing the well, and there’s no protection, could fall into it. But that’s not it at all. You always put back…leave it just as it is…don’t change the words of God. In other words, you leave it just as the story is told. So then you leave it without an attempt to re-write scripture—and so many are always attempting to re-write it to give it sense—leave it just as it is.870 ¶4

So that well is there forever and it’s always covered. If you’re a good shepherd and you have a flock and you know how to roll that stone away, then quench their thirst. For man who is sent is the shepherd; or one who has been trained by one who is sent is the shepherd, and he has those who are thirsty for truth. He can read the book, or he can listen to someone who can read the book, and listen to it with understanding.870 ¶5

But he will say, what is it all about? Why tell this story in a book called the Book of God? God’s Word must never be altered. Why? Here’s why. Here is a story and it has a meaning, and the meaning is symbolized in the form of water. I am thirsty for something more than the facts of life. Because I was born in a certain limited environment, must I accept these facts forever? Must I accept the limitations of birth and go through life with them until the grave? This story is telling me that I need not. The shepherd who comes who knows will show me how to take the stone and convert it—roll it away and draw forth water, psychological meanings, from the stone. So every story has a hidden meaning, a lovely meaning, and it’s all to set man free, every story.870 ¶6

So you come to me and you tell me the facts of life, what you’re earning, your obligations to life, everything about you, you’re giving me the stone. Then I tell you it doesn’t really matter. Could you now believe me when I tell you that you can be anything that you want to be, but anything? Could you go that far with me? Well, do you believe you could improve your lot if you can’t go that far? Do you really believe you could improve if you can’t go that far? Do you really believe that if I told you of a certain trick…call it a trick…and you applied it, that it would work? Well, this is what the story tells me: I’m going to quench your thirst. If you go away from me thirsting, I haven’t helped you; I have left you with the facts. But I’m not going to tell you that you are suffering because of some past karma, that you’re reaping the fruit of some past, I forget that. I’m going to tell you right now you can be what you want to be in spite of your past, in spite of your present.870 ¶7

In this past Sunday’s paper, you might have read it, the science editorial, and he wonders why man has gone all out for psychoanalysis, analyzing the mind of man. For, he said, “The greatest of them all is called Freud, and those who follow him are the fanatics of the world. And so they will say, my neighbor on my right is polite because he has an inferiority complex; my neighbor on my left he is rude because he has an inferiority complex.” So, said he, if I take this theory of complexes and turn it around, I find that the inferiority complex can produce either politeness or rudeness. That’s not scientific. That’s not what I call a theory that proves itself in performance. You tell me that I am rude because of the same thing that the other fellow finds himself being polite. No, the Bible doesn’t teach that.870 ¶8

It teaches definite outcome of drinking that water. If you would now in spite of what you told me—you’ve given me all the facts—if you would dare to assume that you are now what you want to be, and mentally see the world as you would see it were it true, and dare to believe in that imaginal act, in a way that no one knows, and you need not raise a finger to ask the help of anyone, that imaginal act will crystallize and become a fact in your world, a fact that you can share with others.870 ¶9

So you come asking for water, I give you the water. You believe it? If you don’t have to drink it, you will never turn it into wine. You’ll never know the first great mystery as recorded in the gospel of John. He has these signs and the first one is the marriage feast. He turns to the servants—now he is the Lord so they have to obey his command—he said, “Fill the stone jars with water,” (the stone). So the servants filled the stone jars with water. He said, “Now withdraw some of it and give it to the steward of the feast.” When the steward tasted it, it was the best wine; and all the guests asked of the host, how did you save the best wine for the last? He took the knowledge that he knew…and used it. So he could write through his servant to his friend called Timothy, he could write, “Do not continue to use water only, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent infirmities”.870 ¶10

In other words, this doesn’t cure you forever. You come here today with one problem and so I ask you, what do you want in place of what you have? What would be the solution? So you tell me the solution. I ask you to assume that you have it, just as though you had it, and walk the earth just as though you had it. No breaking any blood vessels…just as though you had it. And watch the thing crystallize and become objective fact. But, I’m not saying that that’s the final thing. You’ll come back tomorrow, another problem. Because man grows in this world, he grows and he outgrows. When I earned eighteen dollars a week, oh, my dream was to earn twenty-five. If I could only earn twenty-five dollars! So I earned the twenty-five. It was not enough. Then I earned the seventy-five…not enough. And I earned the $100…that was not enough. No matter what I earned it’s not enough, because new obligations to life.870 ¶11

You move out of one environment, you grow, as you grow you outgrow, and as you outgrow, you need more of everything to simply live comfortably in this world. And that’s life. You aren’t going to simply accumulate and live in your little home; you’re going to grow with it in mind, and you’re going to grow in your environment. So he said, “Your frequent infirmities.” Don’t use this water only. Use the water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent infirmities. You’ll always have them…up to the very end when the name of God unveils itself and reveals itself in you.870 ¶12

So, all these stories all the way through are on three different levels. The stone is the literal level. And strangely enough, what is literal and stone, the rock, when you experience these stories in depth they are literal. The strange thing about it, you experience it and it’s never as you thought that they would be. You always thought that they belonged to the past and that scripture is the record of some past events. One day you are blessed with the unveiling of God within you, and you have the experiences—what you always thought when you discover the stone, the water, the wine and you could apply it to this world of Caesar—but you never thought that it was still literally true in depth.870 ¶13

Who would have thought that the story of Jesus Christ must be experienced by everyone in this world? And that he himself goes through the experience? That the story is simply an acted parable that every child born of woman will one day actually experience? He will be born from above, he’ll be resurrected. And that last question which we proposed the very first moment we took the platform, “Does God exist?” You don’t ask that question, but “Who is our God?”…we ask that. Then we ask, “What is his name?”…we ask that. Then we ask, “What is his Son’s name?” and there is the cue. When that comes, everything else is revealed.870 ¶14

When the Son reveals you as God the Father, here is the most, I would say, simple, clear and concise expression of the doctrine of the logos, as we find it in the beginning of the prologue of John: “I and my Father are one”. Who will take that literally? And yet it is literally true: I and my Father are one. If that is literally true, then I am my Father; and if I am my Father, then I am self-begotten. Well, how on earth can I be my Father? Wait for the Son, and you’ll find his name, and then you’ll know you are the Father. He reveals you as God the Father.870 ¶15

Scripture tells you he did have a Son, but the name of the Father is Jesse. Well, we’re not all scholars in the Hebrew tongue. You can look it up…and Jesse is simply “any form of the verb to be.” In other words, it’s “I am.” But scholars added to it to give sense to it and wrote the book called Ruth. So we have a genealogy in Ruth that is not found in the ancient manuscripts. We have a genealogy in other words not found in the ancient manuscripts. So you go back to the earliest known manuscripts and there is no ancestor for Jesse. How can I AM have an ancestor? Because I AM is the name of God.870 ¶16

I can tell you I AM is the name of God, but do you know I cannot turn you into love by that knowledge. You can use it as power, real power! As we are told in the 16th of John, “And the hour is coming that they’ll put you out of the synagogues”. Well, the word synagogue you have associated with only one kind of temple: every church made by man. Well, that was the only church of the day. So today it would be all the churches of the world. “They’ll put you out of the churches; and whoever kills you will think he is doing God a service. This they will do because they have not known the Father, nor me”—God believed in, yes, and revealed as I AM. He takes it, I AM, and he works it beautifully, but he doesn’t know that that is Father. Until it is revealed as God the Father love doesn’t burst through. I can be I AM and not turn to anyone in this world. As we’re told in the Book of Kings, “Why do you walk around all the time limping on two different opinions? If the Lord is God, serve him; if Baal, serve him”. Then Joshua comes forth, “Choose this day whom you will serve. We choose the Lord. And then he said to them, ‘You are witnesses against yourself that you have chosen the Lord’; and they replied ‘We are witnesses.’” Well, the word translated Lord is I AM. I’ve chosen that and only that to serve; I will not be misled, I will not turn outside. It doesn’t make me want to love.870 ¶17

And nothing reveals it but God the Father…until I find him as the Father, and not another but myself. Not a power in the world can convince me that I am the Father but the Son who calls me Father. When he stands before me and calls me Father, it is only then that I know how I really am. That comes at the end of the search, the end of the journey. So here, the name of God is secret in this biblical mystery. Find the name. The name also is his nature, and he unveils, one after the other, his nature. He first unveils it as power, El Shaddai; he unveils himself as infinite power. In the very end what a thrill when he unveils it as love! Here you stand before your very being, a radiant being, and it’s infinite love. He embraces you; he has ceased from that moment on to be two, you’re one, one with the body of God who is love. You still don’t know yet that you’re the Father.870 ¶18

Then comes the final revelation when he unveils himself again within you, and he stands before you. Who stands before you?—your Son. You had hidden him in you at the beginning of the journey for the purpose of remembering at the end of the journey who you really are, God the Father. So they will kill you. And why will they do it?—because they have not known the Father, nor me. So God…could believe in; and Father…could ignore.870 ¶19

Today, you ask one million Christians of the world about God the Father, they put him out there some place and put his Son out there some place in time and space, and call the Son Jesus Christ, and call his Father by some name, God, some other name, the Lord. Yet there is one who tells you, “The Father and I are one”. How could you say it more clearly or concisely? How can you in eternity find a sentence so short to reveal so much? I and the Father, therefore, I am the Father! Well, don’t tell me you’re the Father, because then you must have a son…at least, you have a child. What Christian in the world would not think you’re blaspheming if you said that Jesus Christ has a Son? What in this world would they do to you if the law allowed them? Why, they would skin you alive for such blasphemy. And he tells you, I am the Father…when you see me you see the Father. Well then, show us the Son.870 ¶20

Now this is the riddle that’s propounded in the 30th chapter of Proverbs: “Who laid out the foundations of the earth, who did it all? What is his name and what is his son’s name, surely you know?” You don’t know ‘til the end. In the very end you know because he reveals you…when he reveals the Son’s name. I’ll tell you the Son’s name, if you will accept it: The Son’s name is David. And David is [...] although personified as a youth, an eternal youth, beauty beyond measure, you can’t describe the beauty of David, who calls you Father, in fulfillment of scripture; for we are here only to fulfill scripture. In the 89th Psalm: “I have found David, he’s cried unto me, ‘Thou art my Father, my God and the Rock of my salvation.’”870 ¶21

So after he has told them of the two ages—this age where we procreate and are born, and that age where we neither procreate nor are born for we are of the resurrection—we have been raised from this world of procreation and birth. Having explained the difference between the two ages, that a man walking this earth while in history he’s resurrected and lifted out of this age, out of this section of time; and when he makes his exit, having been raised while he walks the earth his death is a coronation. In that age to which he passes, he is above the organization of sex; he doesn’t need a divided image, male-female to create. He is one with himself, wearing the body of God, which is love. So he explains the entire thing…read it in the 20th chapter of Luke. Then he raises a question that was not asked, and as you read the entire chapter it’s not related …so he raises the question, “What think ye of the Christ? Whose son is he?” repeating the son again. And they answered, “The son of David.” Then he replies, “Why then did David in the Spirit call him Lord? If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be David’s son?”870 ¶22

And I know that when I was writing the last chapter of The Law and The Promise, when I came to that experience of mine I wrestled with it for days. I finally concluded I would say man matures when he becomes his own father’s father. I was sticking to scripture, yet he matures when he becomes his own father. But the Bible begins, in the New Testament, “This is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David.” But then when David calls you Lord—which is the name used by every son of his father, “my lord”—having seen David and David calls me Father, and scripture tells me I was his son, well then, I use the expression “I became my father’s father.” Getting as close as I could get to scripture…and yet I would be quite clear I hope if I said that man matures when he becomes his own father; because David really comes out of humanity.870 ¶23

If I took all the generations of humanity, and all of its experiences, and fused them into a single whole, this concentrated time into which all the generations are fused and from which all generations spring, is personified in scripture as “eternity.” And eternity is personified as a youth—that youth is David. So you bring forth, after your journey is over, a son that is the quintessence of all generations and all the experiences of humanity. So, in the end you did all and can forgive all, because your son is the quintessence of all the experiences of humanity…that’s David.870 ¶24

So memory has been taken for a purpose, so that you cannot remember. If man could remember the horrors through which he has passed, if he could remember the horrors to which he lent a hand, he couldn’t live with himself. So the veil has been lowered, and memory has been taken for a while. In the end, the whole thing will be unveiled and we well see that everything worked for good, but everything worked for good. There wasn’t one little thing that seemed so horrible that when I see it in retrospect and see it at the very end, it was part of the entire unfolding drama…and it all worked for good. In that end, you are God the Father.870 ¶25

And it doesn’t really matter how your exit is made from this world or what moment, after your resurrection. The other important experiences will come quickly in three and one half years. After the final one, what does it matter? The final one is the descent…where you are sealed with the Holy Spirit…sealed with it as he descends upon you in the form of a dove, and smothers you with kisses. And then you know who you are. That seal will be broken when they call you dead, and at that very moment no restoration to life. So that’s the seal, that’s this age, and that death is your coronation.870 ¶26

You can say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith; henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness”. “Now I bear on my body the marks of Jesus”. Everyone will bear the marks of Jesus, because everyone is going to be God the Father. Not because someone tells him that he is, but he’ll know it. Therefore, he knows in the end there’s only one Father and he is the Father; he only has one son: “Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee”.870 ¶27

So if our priesthoods of the world have misunderstood this mystery, all right, forgive them, they don’t know it. Now they’re railing all over with this new concept, should the priests marry? Some can’t stand the burden of celibacy. And so, I think it’s the current Time magazine, at some age, I think it’s the 14th or 15th Century in a certain town in Italy, these are statistics, half of the illegitimate children in that town were sired by the clergy. They couldn’t get married, but they could sire children all over the place. Then who knows the popes that were fathers? Alexander the 6th had four children. Have you ever heard of Caesar Borgia? Lucretia Borgia? Their father was Alexander the 6th, Pope Alexander the 6th. Henry the 2nd was married when he was pope. So what’s all the palaver about when his very first command is multiply, replenish the earth. It was never rescinded; it was never taken back. All through the Psalms, the blessing of man is the multiplication of his family. Fill his cradle with these arrows.870 ¶28

So I say, forget all these little isms on the side. Just keep your mind straight and make your choice tonight. We have chosen to serve the Lord. What is his name?—I AM. And I believe he will unveil himself within me, and eventually I will stand in my own presence and know it to be infinite love. I’ll know it to be God the Father by revelation, not by persuasion, not by argument. I will know it because he unveils it. Who unveils it? You unveil it…it’s all you. You became this for a purpose, and the purpose is hidden until the end. In the end, you see it.870 ¶29

So you live by the name of God. Don’t turn to the left, don’t turn to the right. Become a witness against yourself that you have chosen to serve the Lord, and the Lord’s name is I AM, that’s his name. He’ll take you through all the things, yes, infirmities, yes, but use a little wine. When you come up against these things, use a little wine. I’ll also take a bottle of wine…take what you know concerning the psychological truth and use it. As you use it you are turning it into wine. So his first great marriage feast was jars made of stone filled with water, and the water turns to wine. So here you have the literal truth, the facts of life.870 ¶30

So when he said the Father and I are one, they took up stones to stone him. Read it carefully. He said, “For what good works do you stone me? For no good works but for blasphemy; for you being a man, make yourself God”. We know your background, we know where you came from, and when the Christ comes, no one will know where he comes from. And they’re right, because you don’t see him; you only see the mask, and you know the history of the mask. You either believe that presence wearing the mask and what he tells you, or you don’t believe. So you never see him. When you see Christ, you’re going to see yourself.870 ¶31

So no one…he said, “Look here, here’s Christ! Don’t believe him.” Why? “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, and see him just as he is”. You shall be like him. Well, if I’m not like him in my own mind’s eye, well, then I haven’t seen him. But if David called him Father and he called me Father; and if he is the one who is resurrected from the grave, and I was; and if he is the one who is born from above and had witnesses to the birth that came from above, not from below, not the womb of woman but the skull of man, and I was; and if the Son of man who is God himself must rise in the form of a serpent—that’s the only way he can rise—and the one who rises must be the one who descended, for no one will ever ascend to heaven but he who first descended, and I did; and if the dove descends only on Christ Jesus, well, then he descended on me, so I know who I am. Everyone will have these experiences.870 ¶32

So if you say it’s blasphemy, he’s a man, we know his background, we know all about him, and he’s blaspheming to say these things, well, go back and read the scriptures. The central figure made the bold assertions, for they were happening in him. And they called it blasphemy; for their concepts of God would not allow this completely startling thing to take place within a man unless their mortal eyes could see it. Can’t see it! So they took up stones to stone him, and the stones they threw at him were the facts of his life. We know when you were born, your brothers, your sisters, your neighbors, your father, your mother…we know them all…and you dare to claim what you have claimed? Then he disappeared from their sight.870 ¶33

So this is the story of our great Bible, which Blake claims is the greatest book in the world, and he’s right. It’s the most entertaining and the most instructive. But bear in mind it’s on three levels: the stone level or literal; the water level or the psychological meaning behind the stories; and then the wine level, when you experience scripture and you can take the water and turn it into wine to benefit yourself in the world of Caesar, and wait patiently for the Promise when you’re all wine. Did they not call him a wine bibber, a glutton and a wine bibber filled with wine? For that’s what he gave. He completely fulfilled scripture.870 ¶34

Now let us go into the Silence. * * * Are there any questions, please?870 ¶35