A Riddle

Neville Goddard 4/28/1969

Tonight I will call this, “A Riddle,” for every creative mind rises to the challenge of a riddle. Now a riddle is defined in the dictionary as “an imperial object or person; that which is difficult to understand.” It is also “a sieve to separate the chaff from the wheat, or a puzzling question.”

Now I ask you: who is the greatest of the great of earth, who was never mortal born, or lived – as you and I understand the term – in this secular world? I could use the plural and say “they” who were never mortal born, but tonight I will confine myself to the greatest of the great of earth, the one that is worshiped by all. As far as I am concerned, he is Jesus Christ.

I think you will agree with me when I say you did not choose the environment in which you first found yourself at birth. But you quickly adjusted to everything you found here in this section of space/time; the habits, the classrooms, the religion, and the doctrine. This is true with everyone in the world. If they were honest with themselves, everyone would admit that they did not choose their environment, but simply found themselves there.

God the Father placed you in this particular age, as it is best suited for the work he is doing on himself in you. He did it willingly, prepared to accept all the consequences of this confused world of beings with all of its tangles and enigmas. This he did in Jesus Christ in you, for Christ is God’s power and his wisdom buried in us all.

Now let us turn to scripture. We are told in the 6th [chapter] of Isaiah, that the Lord God blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they turn and be saved. So when someone awakens by reason of the long, long journey he has taken, and scripture fulfills itself in him and he tells it, there are only a few who will accept his message and believe him. The majority will reject him, for they will see only his mortal form in the world of men. They will know his father and mother, his sister and brothers. But when he tells them exactly how it unfolds and they cannot believe, so his story is completely discounted. But those who hear it and believe will experience scripture. They too will tell their experiences, yet it will still be denied by the mass because He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts, turn and be saved.

Now, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? That the words I speak are not my words, but the words of him who sent me? Believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me, for truly I say unto you, the work that I have done you shall do also and even greater works than these. If you don’t believe me, believe it for the sake of the works themselves.” God the Father is not on the outside. I am in the Father and the Father is in me. If you turn you will see Him and, becoming what you behold, you will vanish from sight. All that you see now, that appears so real before your face, is only a shadow made real by the world. This I know from experience.

There is a little boy in New York City who bears my name. He is now about fifteen. Before he was born he stood before me in vision and I felt I was his father. Appearing to be about four years old, he told me his name was Neville Mark. When I asked him when he was coming, he said the 10th of November. This was now September. The next morning I told my wife that a little boy was coming to us on the 10th of November. Well, she admitted that she believed in miracles and in me, but she knew she was not pregnant. Regardless, I told her he was coming anyway.

A friend of mine who was expecting her baby in December wanted a little girl, as she already had a little boy. I said to her: “If your child is born on November 10th and it is a boy, his name is Neville Mark.” She agreed, although she was certain that the child would be born in December. But when November 10th arrived, Neville Mark was born.