Neville Goddard Lectures: “Repent and Believe in the Gospel”

29 Dec Neville Goddard Lectures: “Repent and Believe in the Gospel”

By Neville Goddard December 10, 1963

Tonight’s subject is “Repent and Believe in the Gospel.” When you read the words, you wonder, what is it all about? These are the first words put into the mouth of the central figure of the entire Bible, Jesus Christ. This is the earliest gospel, the gospel of Mark. You read it in the very first chapter, the 15th verse, “Repent.” Then he tells us, “The time is fulfilled; repent, and believe in the gospel.”

What is this time being fulfilled? “The time is fulfilled” simply means the time foreseen by the prophets, the time fixed in God’s own foreknowledge. For he said, “The vision has its own appointed hour; it ripens, it will flower. If it be long, then wait; for it is sure and it will not be late.” So the time is fulfilled: the time for the hatching has come. It does not say that if you and I repent that we would in any way aid this passage. But as man repents he does not in any way cooperate with God in bringing him in. Then you are God. Then you are ___(??) whether we repent or not. And so the door is open for everyone to enter; not because of their repentance. The door is open and when the time is fulfilled for the individual, then he enters, whether in the interval he repented or not.

Yet we are invited to repent. Why? Because divine history is culminated; human history is cyclic. And so, you may wait without repentance for the entire cycle, then move and move and move, and suffer beyond the wildest dream of man. At the end, when it’s all culminated, then you enter. But why suffer that much? And so, he calls upon us to repent. To repent means “to turn from and to turn to.” It’s like praying. It’s an art. I turn from what I don’t want in this world and turn to what I want in this world. Turning to, I am repenting. To repent means “a radical change of attitude toward life.” But not only to turn from it, but to turn to what I want in place of what I am presenting in this world.

So here we find these four statements. The time is fulfilled; it’s already happened, and the first ___(??) is broken, and all are moving through the open door, leading to a new order called the kingdom of God. So, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.” Believe in the gospel—believe in the good news of salvation—that’s what it really means. Hear the story of salvation and believe in it, for every word of it is true.

Tonight, we’re going to stress repentance, but I cannot leave the platform without telling you that it has come and every word is true. We are told, “There are some standing here who will not taste of death before they see the kingdom of God.” And many scholars have scoffed at that word. There is no record that they saw the kingdom of God, and yet they were told they would not taste of death before they saw the kingdom of God. I stand here as a witness to the truth of that statement. We are told in the 14th chapter of the Book of Luke that, here, he is giving a banquet, it’s a messianic banquet: Go out into the highways, the byways, and bring in first the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. When he made that statement the servant said, what you have commanded is already done, and still there is room. Go out into the ways now and command all to come in. But only these four followed him, the blind, the poor, the maimed, and the lame. Bring them in. And they are all seated waiting for the coming of host, who was Messiah. Suddenly he appeared and restored to wholeness. That’s the banquet. They don’t gorge themselves, as we would on this level; they’re completely restored. The blind began to see.