The Mystery of Jesus Christ

I’ve been dwelling on this subject all week, and I do hope I In the opening scene of Henry VIII, these words are put into the mouth of the Duke of Norfolk: “Order gave each thing view.” Now we will take a good concordance, say James Strong’s Concordance of the Bible. Every word as we have it in the King James translation is in that concordance, from the original manuscripts — the Old Testament from Hebrew and the New from the Greek. Every word is there, and its meaning. Not every word has the same Hebrew word or Greek word, so take nothing for granted — it was simply the choice of the translator. But you will find a little number, and look up the number in the back of the book, whether it be Hebrew or Greek, and see why they made that choice. So everything is there; it gives order to the book.1157 ¶1

Now here we have the Bible. The Old Testament, 39 books. And that is the root of the entire Bible. Without an Old Testament, there would be no New. The New is only the fulfillment, the expression of that Old. What is that Old — Christ? Just who is he? That question is asked in the book of John. “Who are you?” And he answers, “Even what I have told you from the beginning.” Is this a man speaking to one who is asking a question? He is the mystery. He is the secret of Scripture. “From the beginning” means it was given to you in your Scripture from the very beginning. “And I am he” — the very beginning, and I am he, the very one who was from the beginning, even from the beginning.1157 ¶2

Well now, who is he? If you receive a letter — all right, a letter conveys a certain message; a dream conveys a certain message. There is a single jet of truth in a vision, in a dream. There is a single jet of truth in those 39 books. And that jet of truth is God’s promise to man. That promise is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what is contained but hidden in the Old Testament. That is what must be resurrected.1157 ¶3

It’s very rare. You do not resurrect it by being very, very wise and studying the words — it doesn’t come that way. There is a pattern in that book, where although the words of the 39 are gathered over the centuries — for it took centuries to accumulate the 39 books — they still form one book. It’s all one book. And although hundreds of years passed before we had the one book, it contains that central jet of truth. Now what is it? It is called in Scripture, Jesus Christ. It’s a pattern. When you know the pattern and you can’t find it through reason, for this is revealed truth. And revealed truth cannot be logically proven. It is simply revealed. And suddenly all these little pieces scattered in time are brought into a definite pattern in the one in whom it’s going to be revealed. And in that one, all these scattered over the centuries, brought into one definite pattern, unfold in him in the first person singular. Then he knows who Jesus Christ is. Jesus Christ is the pattern man that is buried in Scripture. And he, and he alone, resurrects that pattern. And he resurrects the pattern in himself. And only then does he know who Jesus Christ is. He knows now it’s not another coming from the outside and holding his hand and taking him towards the Father — for that pattern leads man towards the Father: “No one comes unto the Father except by me” — but this is the pattern speaking.1157 ¶4

When the pattern unfolds in a man, then that man knows himself to be God the Father. The whole thing unfolds within him. But it’s a pattern. So Jesus Christ is not a person on the outside of man. Jesus Christ is that secret hidden in Scripture. You can say it’s hidden in God, for God’s word is Scripture. And being buried in Scripture, then man suddenly, in the fullness of time, the pattern collects itself. And what seemed to be so scattered in time over the centuries forms itself into a composite that takes 1,260 days to unfold within the one in whom it erupts, as told in Scripture. It is sealed, and Daniel said, “I do not understand it.” And he said, “Seal the book, Daniel, until the time of the end. It will take a time, times, and half a time” — a year plus two years and a half a year, three and a half years, or 1,260 days. That’s what it will take, for the Hebraic year is 360 days. As told us then in Revelation, in the 12th chapter, the great mystery of the birth of the heavenly woman took 1,260 days.1157 ¶5

So the entire pattern gathers itself together, and you, in whom it unfolds, realizes the secret of Scripture — and you are the secret. It’s buried in Scripture, but you are there. So, in the volume of the book it is written about me — but who is speaking? It is said that the prophet spoke, and then in the New Testament it is quoted as though it is said of the Lord Jesus. Well, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is the secret of Scripture. He is buried in Scripture, and so we are told in Hebrews, of whom was it said, “In the volume of the book it is all about me.” Well, it didn’t occur to me for one moment, born in the 20th century, that anything written prior to my own little birth here was related to me — say, what they said of my earthly father or my earthly mother or grandparents, but certainly not anything said away back in time. Could I ever for one moment believe that what was written in the 39 books of the Old Testament, where they take 4,000 years of the history of Israel, and then they take 300-odd years of the prophets writing of that Scripture, writing of the history — then they come into the prophecy for Israel — and tell me, in the 20th century, that in any way it was related to me? How could it be?1157 ¶6

And yet it happened in me. The entire pattern gathered itself together in me, and in 1,260 days it unfolded in me. And here I am now, fully conscious of the fact that I am the father of David, that David mentioned in those 39 books. I am fully conscious of the fact that it was of me that Moses wrote when he spoke of the fiery serpent rising up upon the great staff. It was of me that they wrote when that dove returned to the ark, and then Noah stretched out his hand — pardon me — and took him into the ark. That I am that ark, containing all things. All things are contained within me, and I am all imagination, and all things are contained within my imagination — so the ark contains all. I had no idea it was all about me.1157 ¶7

So, having resurrected that pattern, I long to transmit it and to tell it to everyone in the world. For it must be for this reason that I was sent, to experience the resurrection of that pattern. So I tell you who Jesus Christ really is. He is hidden in the Old Testament as the true pattern, the meaning of that — he is the direct and deliberate self-revelation of God the Father in the context of human life. He is the meaning of life. Without that, life has no meaning.1157 ¶8

So here is the context, here is the actual meaning of why we are here. So we go through hell in this world, and let no one tell you that we do not — no matter how you are born in this world, with all the silver spoons and the golden plates, you will go through hell. You will suffer pain. You will know want. You will know concupiscence. You will know all the things that the body is there to know. For you took upon yourself this body, and you experience all the things related to this world. But one day, the essence — it’s all called in Scripture Jesus Christ, the promise of God — you are going to experience. And you will experience it in the fullness. It will take you 1,260 days — for that pattern that took hundreds of years to be gathered together — suddenly all the related parts related to the promise will be actually gathered together, and then the promise will unfold within you.1157 ¶9

And the promise is the Lord Jesus Christ, that, as we are told in Galatians, was the promise made to Abraham. “And to your offspring” — he does not say offspring, referring to many, but referring to one, “and to your offspring, who is Christ.” So the Christ of Scripture — and you are told in Scripture, in the same book of Galatians, that the story is an allegory. That the story of Abraham and his son is an allegory. For an allegory is a story told as if it were true. Leave it to the one who hears the story to discover its fictitious character and discern its meaning, and either accept it or reject it. I ask you to accept it, for I have experienced it. This is no longer to me the myth the world talks about. This is reality, the only reason for being.1157 ¶10

I came into the world for one purpose, to fulfill Scripture. You came into the world for one purpose, to fulfill Scripture. You may think you came to have a lot of fun and make money and have a fortune. Well, they drop off one after the other. This past week, only about a half dozen who will leave behind them millions made their quick little exit from the world. One played 18 holes of golf in the morning, went to his hotel room and slept and didn’t wake. He was three-time governor in New York City. Ran twice for the highest office in our country. He didn’t make it, but he ran. Very impromptu, up to the very last moment. So he slept after his 18 holes of golf. Another one left $300 million. At the age of 54, he entertained our late — or rather not late, but our ex-President Johnson and his wife — the previous weekend in his Malaysia home in Florida. He only had 12 homes carried over the world; didn’t smoke — that the Lord blessed him with millions, which he did. He left a little personal estate of 30 million, but a business that has over 3 billion a year. His name was J.C. Penney — you know, J.C. Penney, my first employer in this country — but he left it behind him. So I tell you, the purpose is not to leave behind you your business of 300 million, or personal fortune of 300 million, or a record of being three-time governor of the state of New York, or any of these things. It is to fulfill Scripture.1157 ¶11

“I have come to fulfill Scripture,” said that pattern when it is awakened in a man. Scripture must be fulfilled indeed. But what is the Scripture? So you look at it and you wonder what is its meaning. There are 39 books, and so much of it seems so contradictory. And you read, and suddenly it erupts within you, and that which was written hundreds of years prior to this moment that this is written is all gathered together. It took all the centuries to write it, and then in one little moment of three and a half years the pieces fall into a pattern, and the pattern unfolds in you. And then you know who the Lord Jesus Christ is — that he’s not a man born of a woman in some miraculous way two thousand years ago. He is the secret of God, buried in God’s Word, in Scripture. And that Word must unfold itself in you. “My word that has gone forth from my mouth shall not return unto me void. It must return unto me, bringing with it that which I purpose.” It must. So it actually unfolds, and that is the word of all the centuries put into three and a half years.1157 ¶12

So I hope I can convey to you tonight the true meaning of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is that secret, that mystery, hidden in Scripture. It’s a pattern man, and that pattern man is man’s earthly escape from this world. “To the Lord our God belongs escape from death. I am the Lord your God; besides me there is no savior.” So God — and God himself is savior — he set up a pattern, and the pattern is called in Scripture Jesus Christ. And man has made a little icon of that pattern and stuck it on the wall. And then he bows before it and crosses himself for luck, and thinks that is going to save him. It’s not a thing on the outside. It’s a pattern. I am asking you to accept the pattern.1157 ¶13

So let me tell you the pattern in detail, as I have experienced it. For I took this pattern as I experienced it, and I told it in a book which I named Resurrection. There is one chapter that bears the title of the book, and that is my personal confession of faith, based upon my own personal experience of the resurrection of this pattern within me.1157 ¶14

It begins with your own awakening within your scarab — that’s how it begins. You’re completely sealed within that scarab when you awaken. But you have the innate wisdom to get out without the help of any being in this world. You know exactly what to do, where to push. And you know exactly what you know you should do. And you do. You come out. And then the wind, spoken of in Scripture, surrounds you — the unearthly wind that you read of, Pentecost, the storm wind that came to them all, that unearthly wind. And then the scene as described in Matthew and Luke concerning the birth of God surrounds you. All the imagery is there.1157 ¶15

And then comes another scene, and that other scene is when the Father now declares himself. And you don’t look upon anyone and call him Father, but the Father’s son stands before you and calls you Father. And you know he is your son, and he knows you are his father. So the Father reveals himself in you, in the only way that he could ever — through his son calling you Father — and you know he is your son.1157 ¶16

And anyone who saw the fiery serpent, he was cured. Cured of what? He was cured of slavery — he’s leaving Egypt and moving into the Promised Land. And anyone who could look upon that fiery serpent as it was lifted up, he was cured. And then that happens to you, and you realize what it means now to have that entire thing take place within you. You are that fiery serpent that rises within yourself into the heavenly spheres, and when you get there it reverberates.1157 ¶17

And now you know what it is to have the dove descend and remain upon you and smother you with love. For here he floats above you — actually floats, as you’re told in the story of the flood. Here is a flood, and the dove returns, and when you look up and you see him, he is simply floating, because he doesn’t move a wing. He makes no effort to remain above you; he simply floats. But the water is crystal clear, so you see him floating. And then you extend your hand, as if he said, know what is, and then he descends upon your hand, and you bring him to yourself. You are the ark; you contain all things, for all things exist within the human imagination. And he comes down, and he simply remains upon you, and he smothers you with love.1157 ¶18

In those three and a half years, these four majestic, fantastic, supernatural events take place. And that’s the essence of the Bible. It took centuries to bring it into this being, into this world, and record it. Here they’re recording a most violent history of the Israel, of the people of Israel. And then comes the prophets of the people of Israel. And then comes the prophet, bringing the promise. And here comes the promise. But no one understood it. And Daniel confessed, “I do not understand it. I heard, but I did not understand.” And he who stood close, in the linen clothes, he said to me, “Seal the book until the end.” You can’t break the seal now, but one will come — he is the Lamb of God — and when he comes, he’ll break the seal. In the fullness of time, the whole thing will break. And then that which is buried in you — for you are Scripture — unfolds within you.1157 ¶19

So when you hear the word Jesus, don’t think for one second some being on the outside. Jesus Christ is a pattern of salvation buried in you, and in the fullness of time you are going to experience that pattern, and the whole thing will awake within you.1157 ¶20

Let those who insist on having a personal Jesus on the outside have him — it’s perfectly all right. If they insist on it, let them have him. And so many still insist on having some little personal God on the outside. And they go on morning, noon, and night praying to a God that does not exist. But I tell you who he really is: he is a pattern, a pattern man buried. And no matter how erudite you are, you can study Scripture from now to the end of time and you can’t find him there. Yet he tells you, “You search the Scriptures because you think in them you have life.” And he tells you, “I am life eternal. I am the way, the truth, and the life.” But you can’t find me there. But you search, keep on searching the Scriptures. And they search morning, noon, and night, as they think they’re serving God.1157 ¶21

Now let me tell you a vision of my wife that happened years ago. She found herself in the clearing of a lovely grove of trees. At the end of the clearing was a man behind a table, and there were men around this one man, like an assembly. And then two women entered. Each carried a book. And one had a book, and the title of the book was, “The Credence of Belief and the Forgiveness of Sins, According to Judaism.” The other entered from the other side, and the title was, “The Credence of Belief and the Forgiveness of Sin, According to Christianity.” And both went up towards the man at that table, and each read from the book.1157 ¶22

And she said, “As I heard the reading, I was struck — I stood there dumbfounded, because until that moment I always thought it was so infinitely more difficult to be a Jew than to be a Christian. And suddenly, as they read from the — I realized how much more difficult it was to be a Christian than to be a Jew. One was keeping the external observations of law — that if I abided by the dietary rules, if I abided by all the external worships, that was perfect, no matter what I did personally. And the other, if I abided from within.”1157 ¶23

Well, I do not know very many Christians who really live the Christian life. They think going to church on Sunday morning, or saying Mass, or doing all these outer things, that that is all right. Yet that is not Christianity. Yet, “I have come not to abolish the law and the prophets, I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.” He reinterprets the law in the light of his own experience of law and makes the whole thing imaginable. “You’ve heard it said, you shall not commit adultery, but I tell you that anyone who looks lustfully on a woman has already committed the act in his heart.” But what man has not violated that act, that law? Well, if that is Christianity, it’s infinitely more difficult to be a Christian than to be a Jew, if a Jew means restraining the impulse.1157 ¶24

So I didn’t do it. But I had the desire to do it. But I had the desire to do it. But the desire to do it, in the Christian concept, was as good as doing it — therefore the desire demands payment — but I refrained the impulse. Best if I didn’t do it, in the Jewish faith. But in the Christian faith, if I desire — I coveted what he had — I did it. Well, how much more difficult it is to be a Christian. I have to live by that golden rule and do unto others as I would have them do unto me, but do it inwardly — not by restraining the impulse, not even having the impulse, not even in reem.1157 ¶25

So she heard these two women read from the book, and the book had the same title, only with this difference — “According to Judaism,” “According to Christianity.” And so, according to Judaism, if I restrained the impulse, that was all right — I didn’t do it. According to Christianity, restraining the impulse wasn’t good enough. The impulse was the act — or rather, living in a world of imagination. And the imaginal act is fact. And it’s not receding into the past, it’s advancing into the future, and it’s going to confront me. And so I accept the Christian faith. Now, what a challenge.1157 ¶26

Now I tell you what you’re going to actually experience one day. You’re going to experience what I have told you tonight — who Jesus Christ really is. He’s not on the outside. He’s talking from that book, the Old Testament. He is trying to be born. He is trying to be resurrected. He is in the Old Testament. They’re looking for a Messiah to come from the outside and save a nation — he doesn’t come from the outside. He is buried in those 39 books, and that whole book is buried in us, and therefore he rises in us. And when we experience his resurrection, it is always in the first person singular — he rises in me, and I am he. So we are told, “You will die in your sins unless you believe I am he.” And so I must read it, try to find out who is he. Well, I am telling you, you can read it from now to the ends of time, and your great learning will not convince you that that is it. But I am telling you, from my own experience, who Jesus Christ is. Jesus Christ is the pattern man buried in you.1157 ¶27

You will find him confirmed in Scripture after he awakes in you, when he rises in you — as you — you go back into the Old Testament, for that’s where it is, and you will see confirmation. It was all there, but you couldn’t see it before. Therefore, you have now the external written witness, and you have the internal living witness — here you have the outside witness, and then the inside witness, having experienced it. Now, if two witnesses agree in testimony, it’s conclusive. You have the external witness of Scripture and the internal witness of the spirit, and having experienced it, you know who you are — you are the Lord Jesus Christ.1157 ¶28

So having experienced it, having raised that pattern within me, I long to transmit it and to tell it to everyone in the world, and ask everyone who will listen to me to hold fast to that faith, for it is true. Do not deviate, do not turn to the left or the right. Hold fast, and set your hope fully upon this, which is the coming of this pattern unfolding itself within you. May it unfold tonight. No one knows when. Let no one tell you they can tell you when — they do not know. It comes like a thief in the night. It comes suddenly. But it must first be preceded by believing. You must first hear the story, and you either accept or reject. Well then, set your hope fully upon this grace that is coming to you as the unveiling of Christ in you, not outside of you.1157 ¶29

So I hope tonight you have a clearer concept of who Jesus is than you ever had before. Because, trained as you and I have been trained in the belief in a personal external Jesus, when we hear the name we think of something on the outside, and we think of one who lived 2,000 years ago. We can’t feel that he is contemporary. We can’t feel that he is going to erupt in me, and then I will know who he is — because if he is God the Father, as he claims he is, “When you see me, you see the Father.” And if I’m a father, there must be a son. And what one called him father in Scripture? David did. He asked the question, “What think you of the Christ? Whose son is he?” And when they said, “The son of David,” he said, “Why then did David in the spirit call me my Lord?” Well, “my Lord” is an expression that every son used of his father — always referred to his father as “my Lord.” In the fulfillment of the 89th Psalm, “I have found David.” And he said unto me, “Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.”1157 ¶30

So he comes only to fulfill Scripture, and the only Scripture he could fulfill was the Old Testament, because the New was not written. He actually — by the fulfillment of the Old, they write the New. So who fulfilled it? The unknown men of the day. For we do not know to this day who — Matthew’s an anonymous name. The name Paul is not mentioned in any non-scriptural book of the first century. And yet he’s supposed to have been in jail in Rome, in all these different places, as he wrote his letters from prison — well, there would be a record, for we have records going back centuries before that. So he writes from prison, and where are the records? We have no record. And he isn’t mentioned in one book that is not non-Scripture — no historical, not a thing written about him. And yet, here we have Paul, the beginning of the Christian faith, in whom God unfolded himself. “When it pleased God to reveal himself in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood.” For what flesh and blood could ever extract from Scripture what happened in me?1157 ¶31

So Paul begins to explain to the Jew, for he said, “I am a Jew. I am of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Jew of Jews.” He knew his 39 books backward. And then he saw the pattern unfold within him. “And when it pleased God to reveal his son in me, I conferred not with flesh and blood.” And then he began to tell it. Well, who is Paul? Is that too unannounced, saying — certainly he’s not mentioned, and we have the records of everyone in prison here, and he was in prison, one after the other, many prisons, as described in the book of Acts and described in his own letters. But we do know that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are anonymous names — no one knows who they are.1157 ¶32

So who are the men in whom the pattern erupted, who then told the story — which is really not the birth of Christ, it’s the birth of Christianity, it’s the birth of the promise of God. If you think of it in that light you’ll see it differently — the birth of Christianity, rather than the birth of Christ, and you think of a man. No, it’s the birth of the new age. For it is the new age that was born when this pattern assembled itself and then erupted within man. And it’s erupting day after day after day.1157 ¶33

So I can say that God not only came — God himself — into human history in the person, that pattern called Jesus Christ, but he comes — he came, and he comes — into human history in the pattern, and unfolds himself within the one who is going to experience his coming. So do not look for him to come from without. Today, the very popular speakers all over this country, when they go on TV, they get an audience of millions of people, and they want to be still here when he comes, and go and shake his hand and tell him what good work they did for him. For they’ll wait in vain. They’ll wait to the ends of time and they won’t find him coming from without, for he comes from within.1157 ¶34

He said, “I am from above, and you are from below.” Above and within are the same in Scripture, and without and below are the same in Scripture. If he’s looking for him to come from without, he’s looking for something to come from below, and that is not where the pattern comes from. It comes from above, and it comes from within. It unfolds within. It comes so suddenly, no warning, but when it first appears you can mark it: 1,260 days. And then you linger, and you tell your story to those who will hear it. And if only one hears it with deep conviction, you planted it. But it doesn’t really matter — you’re gone. When you take off the garment, after you have experienced the resurrection of the pattern within you, you are in the new age, which is eternity, and there you are, one with the body of the living God. For there’s only one body, only one spirit, only one Lord, only one God and Father of all. And you are incorporating into that body of love forever and forever.1157 ¶35

But before you depart, you must share your experience with your brothers who are still searching the Scripture. And you will tell them exactly how it happens, and it comes in this manner. It doesn’t come as you’ve been taught that it’s going to come — you can look forever, it’s not going to come that way. So I am telling you what I know from experience. I am not theorizing, I am not speculating, I am not erudite. I never went to college. I never graduated from high school. So you cannot accuse me of being scholarly. As you are told in Scripture, “How does this man have such learning, seeing that he has no studies?” He has not studied, as told in the second chapter of the book of John, for the man in whom it erupted, whoever he was who first spoke, was a simple man. As told us in the fourth chapter of Daniel, “He will give it to whom he pleases, even to the lowliest of men.”1157 ¶36

So don’t look for him to come among those who are highly exalted and highly promoted by themselves, because all these enormously promoted beings are self-promoted. A man doesn’t go out and find others promoting him — he gathers the funds together and he promotes himself. Well, you can call it a political campaign or religious campaign or any other campaign. And then, even in that little world of theirs — in this morning’s paper, you might have read this — when the queen was accused of maintaining a certain castle, Sandringham, and someone said it has 360 rooms, she said, “Oh no, it’s just a little hideaway.” That’s not a castle, about it — it’s a little hideaway. “I’m quite sure it doesn’t have more than 150 rooms.” You see, you get to the point where you live in such a strange place, mentally, that you have no contact with the world of reality. None whatsoever. It’s like, “Let them eat cake.” If you have none whatsoever — it’s like, “Let them eat cake.” You need to have no bread; well, let them have cake. And then a few hours later, her head came off. “Let them eat cake.” Well, here she said, “What? Oh no, certainly it doesn’t have more than a rooms,” when the average person doesn’t have one.1157 ¶37

What I tell you is far greater, infinitely greater, that you experience the pattern unfolding within you, than if you own the earth — if you own the whole vast world, and everyone was subject to you, and everyone was subject to you to obey your command — you are still mortal and will depart, leaving your world. For this, you don’t depart — you enter eternity, the new age, incorporated into the body of the living God. And you only enter that by the unfolding of this pattern within you.1157 ¶38

I hope tonight I have brought to you a clearer picture of Jesus Christ than I have ever done before. It’s that pattern that is buried in those 39 books, which no one by searching could find, until it erupted in a man. And he, being familiar with the 39 books, he told them — that although it is scattered over the centuries, there is simply a meaning to it all. And the meaning is put into 1,260 days, as told us in the 12th chapter of Daniel and the 12th chapter of Revelation. And there the whole meaning is condensed. But it takes the scattered fragments from these centuries and puts them into a pattern. And together they give meaning, and this meaning now unfolds within you, and you are the promise that God made — he promised you a son, and the son he promised you was his own son. To give you not as a companion, but to give you as your son. And if he gave you his son as your son, then he gave you himself. That’s how God gives himself to you.1157 ¶39

Now let us go into the silence. Thank you. Good, good. Are there any questions, please? Any questions? Any questions? Well, may I remind you that we are approaching the day we call Easter, which is resurrection. I’m not trying to sell you a book, but I do not know of any record of the true resurrection that is in print comparable to my chapter on resurrection, where the book is titled Resurrection — for I have told you the story as I personally have experienced it. Others only talk about it as a being on the outside. And I’ve told you exactly how it happens.1157 ¶40