They Related Their own Experience

They Related Their Own Experience

Neville Goddard

Tonight’s subject is, “They Told What Had Happened” – “They Related Their Own Experience,” is the better translation of that phrase which you and I will read in the 24th chapter of Luke. When I speak of “they told it,” I am speaking of the evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

These are anonymous names. No one knows who Matthew, Mark, Luke and John really are. They are all anonymous. They each related their own experience. These experiences, which they talk about, were seen and heard by none, save him in whom they occurred. Through these experiences they learned for a certainty that they are God. They were not speculating, trying to set up a workable philosophy of life; they are simply relating their own experience.

One must experience Scripture for himself before he can begin to understand how altogether wonderful it is. So, tonight I will show you just what I mean by relating one’s own experience concerning Scripture.

We have what is known as the Old Testament. The Old Testament is an adumbration – that is, it is a foreshadowing in a not-altogether conclusive or immediately evident way. It is a sketchy representation, omitting details and – well, avoiding revealing God’s plan of Redemption.

When Blake was asked by Reverend Trussler why he wrote in such a strange manner and said to him, “You know, you need someone to elucidate your writings.” Blake replied, “That which can be made explicit to the idiot isn’t worth my care.” And the wisest of the ancients considered what was not too explicit was the fittest for instruction, because it rouses the faculties to act. That’s why we have an Old Testament, because it rouses the faculties to act.

So, you study it and you study it and you try to extract from it some bit of meaning, and yet it is only an adumbration – a very sketchy representation of the Plan of Redemption. But then, in the fullness of time, it unfolds within the individual, and then he sees the true meaning of the sketch. But not until it unfolds within him can he really understand that which was foreshadowed and told us through the voice of the prophets and given to us in what is now called the Old Testament.

So, the New Testament is simply that which is the individual’s experience, so he tells it and relates exactly what happened to him.

Let us take now a simple statement in the 22nd Psalm, which is called a Messianic Psalm. You will find that in this story of the Crucifixion – for it’s all in the New Testament; in the story of the Crucifixion you will find tremendous correspondences between the sufferings of Christ and those of David. The 22nd Psalm is a Psalm of David. Let us take one simple verse, and he calls upon the Lord: He says:

“Deliver my soul from the sword,

And my life from the power of the dogs!” (Psalm 22:20)

How on earth can you interpret that? “Deliver my soul from the sword, and my life from the power of the dogs!” You can just look at it and read it, and then you will skip on to something else. He tells you at the very end of that chapter that God “wrought it.” (Psalm 22:31) Let me turn back; now, to the word translated “my life.” It only appears twelve times in the entire Bible. It means unique. It means “the only one;” it means “Thy only Son.”

In this 22nd Psalm it means, “Thy only Son.” Let me quote it now:

“Deliver my soul from the sword,

And Thy only Son from the power of the dogs!”

The night that I encountered David – for those who are not familiar with this teaching of mine, which is Scripture – David is the personification of Humanity, after the individual has experienced all that Humanity offers. Having played all the parts, with not a thing else left to be played – gone through everything; then David stands before you as the personification of Humanity, as God’s only Son. He calls Him, “Father,” and you know you are his father, and he knows that he is your son. He’s calling upon you to deliver your only son, which is himself, from the power of the dogs.