Neville Goddard Lectures: “The State of Paul”

07 Dec Neville Goddard Lectures: “The State of Paul”

12/7/65

Tonight’s subject is “Paul.” When we speak of these characters of the Bible we invariably think of men—it’s a person as you are, as I am—but the Bible is not secular history, not the smallest part of it is history as you and I understand it. It is sacred history. It is God’s plan of salvation beginning with the call of Abraham and culminating in the career of Jesus Christ. When I use the word Abraham I’m speaking of the eternal state of faith. With these characters, as we call them, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and so on, bear in mind they simply represent these eternal states through which the immortal man passes in this journey towards complete awakening as God the Father. So when I say culminates in Jesus Christ, I also take Jesus Christ as the eternal state.

I speak of Paul, and you think, well, Paul certainly was a man, as you are a man, as I am a man. No, it’s a state that you and I enter. That’s the last state before the crown of glory which is Christ Jesus. Paul’s name is not mentioned in any ancient non-biblical source. You can’t find his name in anything outside of these early manuscripts. Naturally, after that the churches got together and wrote unnumbered volumes on the personality called Paul. But Paul is a state of consciousness as Abraham is, as Jesus Christ is.

So here, we turn to Paul tonight. It is said the word means “small.” His first name was Saul, which means “to enquire, to ask, to desire.” But the word Paul means “to desist, to stop, to come to an end.” It’s the end of the journey. Paul was intense, in fulfillment of Revelation: “Would that you were either hot or cold, but because you are neither hot nor cold and are lukewarm, I spew you out” (Rev.3:16). There was nothing lukewarm about the state called Paul. When he persecuted, he went to the extreme. And when he was converted not from one religion to another, when he was transformed, he called it revelation, and then no one was more merciful, no one kinder. No one pursued the telling of the story more than that state. Everyone enters that state. When he enters that state, he enters it from Saul, the state where he’s so furious, looking and looking.

His name first appears in the Book of Acts (7:60); he is consenting unto Stephen’s death. They are stoning Stephen, and when he heard the cry of Stephen “O Lord, do not hold this sin against them” he could hardly believe that man could reach the state where he is being stoned to death and holds nothing against those who are killing him. Unlike the blood of Abel that cried out for revenge, the blood of Stephen cries out for forgiveness. Like the last cry on the cross “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Then you see that state, when man could forgive every being in the world for what he’s done. Now the word Stephen means “crown.” If you take any passage of the Bible…in the New Testament where the word crown is used—as Paul said: “The time of my departure is come. 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” (2 Tim.4:7)—that word crown is the word Stephen. When we are told, one appeared like a son of man and on his head was a golden crown, the word translated crown is Stephen (Rev.14:14).

So when you are in the state of Paul, you see the entire book differently. So Abraham, Isaac, Jacob are no longer persons to you, they are simply states, eternal states. The individuals are but representatives or visions of those eternal states which were revealed to mortal man in the series of divine revelations as they are written in the Bible. They are simply signifying by their names the states of consciousness that man must pass through. So when you are in the state of Paul you see the entire book differently. You don’t see persons, but you see them as these eternal spiritual states of the soul through which the immortal man passes. So he said, “From now on I regard no one from a human point of view. Even though I once regarded Christ from the human point of view, I regard him thus no longer” (2Cor.5:16).