Neville Goddard Lectures: “What Is Man?”

08 Apr Neville Goddard Lectures: “What Is Man?”

January 31, 1972

There’s a little poem by Robert Penn Warren, just take the last line of it. Speaking of the Lord, he said, “He stared into the dark pit of self, whence all had sprung. He said: What is man that I should be mindful of him!” What is man? It is in you, the individual that the great things happen, the kingdom of God comes to you in you. The Davidic tradition has its root and its fulfillment in you. The whole is actually contained within the individual. We think this whole vast world is so real. Let me tell you that to believe that the visible kingdom is unreal and that the invisible kingdom is real is the supreme act of faith. To this faith, the kingdom of this world has already become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ. The terms Christ, messiah, and anointed are interchangeable terms.

When you read them in the Bible, they’re all interchangeable. They’re all synonyms for the savior. Christ is called the Son of God, so is the anointed, the son of God. And so is the Messiah. It means the same thing. So let us see now who this Messiah is and what he is and where he is. I tell you he is in you. So, when Paul tells us, do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless of course, you fail to meet the test. He separates Jesus from the Christ. He speaks of Jesus as the Lord, but no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit. He speaks of Jesus as the Lord and then Christ as another. So, in the book of Revelations, you speak of the Lord and of his Christ to tell you that he is the Father.

You can read that in Scripture, but how are you going to know that Jesus is the Father? He tells you, “I am the Father; who sees me, sees the Father.” If he’s a father, he has a son. At least he has a child. Let us turn to the book of Acts. You’ll find this in the fourth chapter. “Oh, sovereign God who made the heaven and the earth and the seas and all within them, who by the mouth of our Father David, thy servant did say, why do the nation’s rage? And why do the people imagine vain things against the Lord and his anointed?” Against the Lord and his anointed. Now in the King James Version of the Bible, that word anointed is translated as it should be, Christ. For the Greek is Christos, “against the Lord and his Christ,” not the Lord, Jesus Christ, but the Lord Jesus and his Christ, his son, the word translated, servant, thy servant, David. The Greek poet means son.

As told us in the second Psalm, for he is quoting now the second Psalm, what I’ve just quoted is from the second Psalm. He attributes the author of the Psalm, at least the one who wrote it, to David. He says David is the author of the Psalm. Now, here we find in the 18th Psalm, one also says that David is the author. “Great triumph you give to your king and show steadfast love to your anointed, to David and his descendants forever.” The anointed is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the son of God. Now let us turn to this statement, concerning the root, who is going to open the Bible, who is going to give it meaning? And John began to cry, as we are told in the fifth chapter of Revelations, “He saw the book, but it was sealed with seven seals.

And the wise one asked, who can open the book? Who can break the seal?” When no one in heaven or on earth, or below the earth, could answer that he could, John began to weep and then this wise one said to him, “Weep not. Know there is one. One from the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David. He has conquered. He can open the book and its seals.”

Now, who is the root of David? Go to the end of the book, “And Jesus said to the angel, say unto John, I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.” He is the root. He’s the father of David. He’s also the offspring. So, the grandfather and the grandson are one and the same being. “I am the root and the offspring of David.” David remains the son of God.