Neville Goddard Lectures: “Eternity in Man’s Mind”

17 Dec Neville Goddard Lectures: “Eternity in Man’s Mind”

12/11/64

Tonight’s title, I should say, is “God has put Eternity into the Mind of Man.” It’s taken from the 11th verse of the 3rd chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes. It’s considered the most disputed verse in the book. It begins: “God has made everything perfect in its time; and he has put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that man cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” That each event in life comes in a setting in which it fits. That God had, by the limitation of man’s power, made it impossible for man to comprehend the whole of his purpose. So man cannot quite see the purpose behind it all.

Now the entire world rejects this almost in its entirety…that everything is predetermined. Well, that’s what the book teaches. There are a few inserted verses, which if you’re serious as a student you can find them. They were inserted by some zealous religious leader, who tried to make God some great judge where he’s a God of retribution. That’s not what this one is talking about. He said the rich and the poor they go to the same end, that the wise and the foolish they go to the same end. He invites us all to simply enjoy life, eat and drink, and simply rejoice in what you do; for the end of all as far as he’s concerned it’s the same. He said, “That which has been is that which will be. That which has been done is that which will be done; and there’s nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, ‘See, this is new’? It has been already, in ages past. But there is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things to come later among those who will come after” (Eccles. 1:9). But man rejects that completely; he can’t believe that for one moment.

But, we’ll come into this present generation of ours, and here are the words of one of the truly great physicists of the day, Professor Feynman at Cal Tech. Professor Feynman made the statement—-and it isn’t new, he only confirms but he doesn’t know he’s confirming Ecclesiastes—that having observed the strange behavior of the positron, where this little particle produced by atomic disintegration, starts from where it hasn’t been and it speeds to where it was an instant ago; arriving there it’s bumped so hard its time sense is reversed, and then it returns to where it hasn’t been. That’s Professor Feynman. This is this generation. He said, “Now, having observed the strange behavior of this little particle, we have to change our entire concept of the world. No longer can we believe that the future is unfolding gradually out of the past. We must now see the entire space-time history of the world laid out, and we only become aware of increasing portions of it, successively.” The whole vast thing is a world of recurrence.

Well, that’s what the writer of Ecclesiastes saw. He calls himself Koheleth. No one knows what the word means, because it only appears in this book, so they’ve guessed at it. But these are the words, “These are the words of Koheleth, the son of David king in Jerusalem.” That’s all that it says. So they have concluded that it means either an assembly, or the speaker before the assembly, a preacher, a teacher—one who has gathered together all the wisdom of the world and tries to convey it to an assembly. That’s what they believe the word means. But the words are this, “These are the words of Koheleth, the son of David.” That’s how the New Testament begins, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David.” Is this Koheleth? Now we go to the end of the Bible, the Book of Revelation, in the very last chapter: And “I Jesus” say to my angel, “I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star” (22:16). I am the root, therefore, I am father, I am the origin; I am also the offspring. I am the origin of the flower, of David. I conceived him, I am his father, and yet I am the flower. Here is the great mystery. “I will bring forth from you” said the voice to David “a son from your body. I will be his father and he shall be my son” (2 Sam. 7:12).