L I V I N G W E L L N E S S On the Book of Revelation

On the Book of Revelation | A Neville Goddard lecture

It was asked by someone present, would I please talk on the Book of Revelation, and I in an idle moment said yes… because here is the end of the play. You see, the whole vast world is a play. The word genesis means beginning; an apocalypse is the end—a complete unveiling of the purpose of the play. So I could no more explain Revelation in one hour than I could do the most impossible thing in this world. I wish I had asked you all to bring Bibles and simply ask me questions from the book, because you can’t separate the last scene of a play from the play and give it any meaning. You can’t possibly do it.

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God’s Dream

I can only tell you that God conceived the play. He not only conceived it and wrote all the parts, but he built all the scenery; and God and God alone is playing all the parts. His name is I AM. So you can say “I am”—that’s God. He’s playing that part that we call Mary or Jane or John, or by some other name. He’s playing that part. We are the incarnation of the tragedy and the glory of this divine play. We must not forget the glory in the tragedy. There’s more of the glory than of the tragedy, but when we are in that tragic state we tend to forget the glory. Now, to cover this would be impossible. But there are a few aspects of the great play that will stick into the mind of man and I thought I would pick these out tonight. Then when we come to the question period, then you can ask anything that I have forgotten or didn’t have the time to cover.

A play in 7 acts!

It’s a play in seven acts and each act has seven scenes. The first chapter is a prologue where it states the star of the play, and the star of the play is named Jesus Christ. You’ll find it in the seventh verse. Although the book itself is titled The Revelation of John, the first verse tells you whose revelation it really is, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Yet all Bibles will give you a title and call it the Revelation of John; yet the first verse tells you exactly whose revelation it is. In this prologue, the whole thing is set up what God intends to do. The last chapter, the twenty-second chapter, from the sixth through to the end, is… you may call it an epilogue. Where in the beginning, which is Genesis, he needed a sun; in the end, there’s no need for the sun—we are light unto ourselves. In the beginning, there was an earth; in the end, there is a new earth. In the drama there is tragedy and tears, horrible things; in the end, he wipes away all tears. So Revelation is a complete wiping away of the entire picture as it started in the beginning.

The Serpent in Genesis and The Serpent in Revelations

Here, he speaks in Genesis of a serpent, which was the beginning of the exit from a state of bliss—and they speak of the serpent in Revelation. You might think, as I was taught to believe, it’s some horrible monster that in some strange way came into God’s picture, and it isn’t. There’s only God in this world. Did you ever run, as child, an obstacle race? Well, in little Barbados we had those. Our teachers would simply put a tarpaulin down, and it was as flat as this desk, and we had to run through this very tightly formed canvas, where it was anchored on both sides. Then, when we came out we were exhausted from getting through this very tight canvas. Then you were confronted with barrels, and you went through barrels. Then you jumped over some kind of obstruction, and then you climbed a greased pole. Then, maybe it was more difficult, you had to catch the greased pig. And that is life: an obstacle race. The opponent in this is God, and the being playing the part is God. And it’s called in the drama “the serpent.”

May I tell you from actual experience, one day you will see him, the opponent. The opponent is called a slimy, greasy, horrible being, a monster. And the hero of the play is also a serpent but a winged serpent, a radiant winged serpent, while the opponent is the crooked serpent from the 27th chapter of the Book of Isaiah. And here is that strange monstrous being, as it begins the 27th of Isaiah. But in Isaiah 27 we are told, “We are called and redeemed one by one.” So redemption is not something that takes place as the world has been taught to believe, suddenly, where billions of us are suddenly brought to the end. No, the play is on and we are playing it, God is playing it, and we go through this horrible obstacle race. As Paul said in his final letter to Timothy, he said, “The time for my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:6). That’s what everyone has to do, fight the good fight, finish the race, and finish it only by the keeping of faith.

7 Letters

Now, there are seven letters, which begins with the second chapter. No one can read these seven letters… it only takes two chapters to read them, they’re short letters addressed to seven churches. Now, seven in the Hebraic tongue is “spiritual perfection.” So when one has been brought to the limit, to the end, it’s spiritual perfection. And here, he addresses (????) and every one as you read it he emphasizes, he doesn’t criticize them, he praises them for what they’ve done; but there’s something lacking and the one thing lacking is repentance. Repent. I know you’ve done it. In the midst of the horrible world you kept the faith alive to an extent, but you have not quite fulfilled the command to repent.

Repent And Change Your Mind

Now, to repent means a radical change of mind toward what you see in the world. Here is the obstacle race. It’s a horrible race that God set up to develop himself, to bring forth himself as you, as me, as every being in the world. And the only way we can go through it is to repent. To repent means a radical change of attitude toward life. It hasn’t a thing to do with remorse, with regret. I see you and you do not look as I would like you to look, and you, in a conversation, you tell me things are not going well. I am supposed at that very moment not to wait, at that moment to change you in my mind’s eye and to see you as you ought to be seen by yourself and by me, and remain loyal to that changed aspect relative to you.

But every church is told to repent. They are catholic in what they have done. In the midst of the horror of the world, they have, in a way, remained loyal but not good enough. The one thing that he told one church after the other, they must repent. Teach the principle of repentance to the whole vast world. And the principle is this: When you see anything, beginning with yourself, and things are not as you would like them to be, assume that they are as they ought to be, and dare to live in the assumption as though it were true, just as though it were true. And then you go through this strange obstacle race quicker, easier, by repentance. Because, in the end, the goal is God. When God takes himself through, he gives himself to us at the very end. It is God’s purpose to give himself to you as though there were no other in the world, just God and you. And at the very end, when the gift is given, it’s only you: You are he.

It’s a new world, a new kingdom; everything is new. No need even for a sun—you are light unto yourself. No need for anything you have here, not even for the sea. If there’s need for a sea, you’ll create a sea. For the whole vast world will be subject to your imaginative power. It’s all Imagination that’s playing this wonderful, wonderful drama. Divine Imagination creates it, Divine Imagination is playing it, and when he comes out, your wonderful human Imagination is Divine Imagination, creating everything, as it desires in this world.

Now it comes, after he tells these stories to the churches. There are seven churches, seven bowls, seven lamp stands, seven seals that would seal the book, and seven all the way through. But so many people who I discuss the Bible with them, when it comes to Revelation their minds… as someone came to my door about two months ago and said to me, “Don’t you know only 144,000 will be saved?” So that’s in Revelation. It’s not in any other part of the Bible—there are sixty-six books—that’s in Revelation. Then came, about two weeks ago, a fine wonderful looking lad, about twenty-six, twenty-seven years old, and he had the Bible all marked and there he was with all these marks. He started to open the book—the same concept of life—and he’s going to prove to me something about the Bible. And he goes to Revelation, about a beast, a beast that is six hundred and sixty-six, that’s his number. This you will read in the thirteenth chapter and here at the end of the thirteenth chapter they speak of a beast. But you must read it carefully. He tells you this calls for wisdom, this calls for understanding, when you hear about this beast, for the number of the beast is a human number. It’s the number of a man.

The Number Of The Beast 666

Well, I have heard all kinds of arguments about Nero was the man, Hitler was the man, Napoleon was the man. They can make it fit any name in this world. It hasn’t a thing to do with any individual man in this world. That Hitler represented a monstrous thing, no one denies that. That Napoleon did, no one denies that. That Stalin did, no one denies it. But this hasn’t any reference whatsoever to any individual man in history. The beast that opposes me happens to be myself. I am opposed by myself; for the number is the number of a man; it’s a human number.

For man was created on the sixth day, so the number is 666, raised to the nth degree, three sixes. And I am man. You, though you are female, you’re man, you’re generic man. Everyone is man. And we are opposed only by ourselves. We have to overcome our beliefs in this world, no matter what we believe in. That I am unwanted in the world? I’ve got to overcome it. Not by hitting the one who thinks that I think he opposes me, no, I must overcome that belief in myself. That I am unwanted? I’ve got to feel I am the most wanted being in the world and not crush anyone who reflects my unwantedness. I will actually feel, in spite of that reflection, I am so wanted. When I look at the same being, he wants me, and he reflects the whole vast world.

So the beast is not Nero—and you can take the name, yes, in a certain way you could write Nero out and give numerical values to the letters, and make it come to 666.

I’ve seen it done with the name Hitler. I’ve seen it done with the name Stalin. But that is not scripture. They were not prophesying existence of a Hitler or a Stalin or any other being in the world.

The only beast is man. And the 4th chapter of the Book of Daniel reveals it to us. Daniel is the apocalypse of the Old Testament and Revelation is the apocalypse of the New Testament. And in Daniel, when the tree is felled, they are told to strip off the leaves, cut off the branches; bring it down just to a root. And then, strangely enough, a tree, which is referred as “it”—“take off its leaves, strip its branches”—suddenly it’s personified as man. Then we are told, “Take from him”—it’s a tree now, a tree of life—“take from him the mind of a man and give to him the mind of a beast, until seven times passes over him” (verses 14, 16). Here we have seven again. Heat the furnaces seven times more than they are wont to be, because only pure gold must come out. Seven times more, so let seven times pass over him. It’s a tree. Suddenly the tree becomes humanized, and it’s man.

Now, in this picture of the 666, I tell you it hasn’t a thing to do with any being outside of yourself. The whole vast world is the animal that opposes you, but it’s yourself. Because, “All that you behold, though it appears without, it is within, in your Imagination” and this world of mortality only reflects that which is taking place within you. But if you think you’re unwanted? All right, as long as you think you’re unwanted and you try to force the issue and break it down on the outside, you’re fighting the most horrible tyrant in the world. You’ve got to assume that you are the most wanted being in the world, that your contribution to the world is so great the whole vast world rushes to praise you. And when you live in this wonderful dream as though it were true, you produce whatever is necessary to make the world see it and praise you, regardless of where you are today. That’s how you overcome the beast.

And, may I tell you from my own experience, you will see him. He will fill this room, may I tell you. He is the most horrible, slimy, loathsome thing that you have ever seen. You don’t see yourself because they’re in opposition.

You the being that is really the star of the drama, you are a winged serpent, a radiant winged serpent. But you don’t see yourself; you see only the opposition. The opposition is the crooked serpent of the 27th chapter of Isaiah. You see him as a green… when I saw him he was green, a greenish yellow-green, I can’t quite describe him, but a monster that would fill this room. There he came toward me and I’m trying in some way to corral him, not to kill him but to make him impotent. And I got him. One time I got just the head into a vice that was smaller seemingly than the head; he couldn’t dislodge it. But you don’t kill him. He’s always there to oppose you. He takes on all these forms and he’s always ready to once more dislodge that head, and once more because he’s slimy he can pull it out. So you think you’ve got him for a while and there he is. The vision is a true vision. I have had it. I have had the vision of this monstrous leviathan as told us in scripture.

144,000 Will Be Saved

Now we go to the next chapter, the fourteenth chapter, another number. Did you not know, said this lady to me, only 144,000 will be saved? That’s the fourteenth chapter—right after the beast appears.

In the 144,000, you are told here they are the perfect ones redeemed from earth, redeemed from humanity. And they will sing a new song and no one in the world can sing this song but the 144,000. No one could even know it; only the 144,000 could know it. And they’re going to sing a song. May I tell you the song?

Because only the 144,000 can sing it, and you think that 144,000 persons; no, 144,000 is the number of man. It’s Aleph is one, Daleth is four, and Mem is forty. (ADAM-Mankind)

One plus four plus four is nine. No matter how many zeros you add to it, it still remains one plus four plus four, which is the number of Adam which is nine. So the 144,000 tells you everyone in the world will be saved, none can be lost. I don’t care what the world will tell you, no one can be lost, for God is playing all the parts.

His opponent is himself. The opponent is a slimy, horrible, crooked monster; and he is the winged, radiant serpent, the cherubim. So the 144,000 represents not 144,000 persons. That would be horrible. There are three billion people living in the world today. There may be six billion in another twenty years. There may be twenty billion in another hundred years.

And 144,000 literally?

No. Don’t believe it. This is all symbolism.

Everyone will be saved.

So here we are told 144,000 sing the new song. And I’ll tell you, because I heard it, he’s going to call your name when you are called. And they will ___(??), the most heavenly chorus that you have ever heard, it’s a heavenly chorus, and the song, the new song, calling you by name—no impersonal thing saying he, she or it—but your name, your eternal name.

They’ll call it and you’ll know it. You’ll feel yourself lifted up, right through your skull. And you’ll feel yourself in the most glorious world where there is no sun. You are light unto yourself—there’s no need of a sun. You radiate light from your own being. You are luminous. And you will come upon this most wonderful world, a world of imperfection—the blind, the lame, the halt, the withered.

And as you come upon them, the choruses sing, calling you by name. Whatever your name is, if it’s Jane, they will say “Jane is risen.” It will be simply a repetition of the same theme “Jane is risen.” They don’t change it. Not even something other than that. But in the most marvelous way that one little theme is made the most glorious thing you have ever heard. “Jane is risen” is multiplied in the numberless ways of telling it, as the chorus exults, and you are the being of whom they speak.

You walk by this sea of imperfection, and as you walk by they are all transformed into beauty. Those who are blind, they are made perfect. Those who are deaf begin to hear. Those who have lost their arms, arms come out of nowhere and the arms are returned, everything is returned, and everything is made perfect. And then you will understand the words, “And those I will call forward, the lame, the halt, and those whom I have afflicted I redeem” (Micah 4:6). Read it. I’ll call them all and those whom I have afflicted. Haven’t I afflicted in my world? Haven’t I fought with my shadow? Haven’t I seen someone who I thought was my opponent and fought with them? And haven’t I, in my own mind’s eye, whittled him down to a smaller state so that I could take advantage of him? So I have whittled down everyone in my journey, from the beginning to the end. So all that I have lamed and maimed and I have hurt, I’ll call them all and redeem them.

And the song of the 144,000, because no one knows the song but the 144,000. It’s a new song. So forget the 144,000 persons, it means humanity.

As you are lifted up you join the 144,000 and you don’t expand it to 144,000 and one, it’s still 144,000. And when all of us join that, we are still the 144,000. We know the new name and the new name is every person’s name as it’s given. For you’re called by name. You are loved by God. You are not known as humanity, you are known singly, individually. “I call you by name” as told us in the 48th chapter of Isaiah, just where the name and all of these are brought together. All that I have injured, all that I have hurt, I will now bring and redeem, and in that same 48th of Isaiah, I will now call one by one. Everyone will be saved. At the very end of the chapter, “He calls us one by one.” But he tells us he maimed us, he hurt us, everyone, and then in the end we’re all redeemed.

So here, to take this fabulous book, I couldn’t do it if I talked through night after night for several months. There are only twenty-two chapters but I could take any one verse. For he tells us: To him that overcometh, I will let him sit with me on my throne, as I myself overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. So here is a form of overcoming. But he gives us the clue in the very beginning: we overcome by repentance and repentance is a radical change of attitude toward the world. Instead of thinking that “he” is opposing me, it’s because I felt myself inferior he rises in my world against me. I know it. I’m speaking from experience.

When I came to this country unknown, uneducated, with no one to receive me, and I felt, being a stranger, that naturally the world stood against me, the world was against me. And then I began to have my visions. I began to appropriate them and put them into practice. So I can safely say and honestly say to you I have never been barred—and I have no high school certificate—I have never been barred from any club in this land where I was invited. I have been invited to the most exclusive clubs as an honored guest, from east to west, never any bar, because I overcame the bar in myself. I had all the limitations in the world against me, uneducated, unknown, with no social, no intellectual, no financial background, but none. And then, I overcame it within myself. When I did, I met those who were members of these clubs and they invited me as their honored guest. There was no question asked, I was simply welcomed as an honored guest.

So Revelation tells us, “To him that overcometh.” I don’t overcome the other by hitting the shadow and destroying the shadow, for I am ever casting the shadow. If I destroy the shadow at this moment and remain where I am, I cast a similar shadow one moment later. And so, I may kill John, who offends me, well then, Peter will rise in my midst and reflect the same distortion in me that I hold of myself. So everyone has to simply change his own concept of self. As he changes the concept of himself, he changes the world in which he lives, and goes on overcoming, overcoming and overcoming until he comes whose right it is to rule, and it’s yourself.

For God is playing the part. God’s only name is I AM. Can’t you say, “I am”? If you couldn’t say “I am” you wouldn’t be here tonight. Before you say anything you say “I am”—that’s God. And he’s playing the part against himself. He sets up the opponent. And there are two serpents in the scripture. Now listen to this one at the end of the third chapter where the serpent appears in the Book of Genesis. At the end of the third he banishes man, he drives man out, and then he takes a cherubim with a flaming sword that moves in every direction to guard the way to the tree of life. To guard the way, and the way is “I am the way.” There is no other way. So he sets him up to guard the way to the tree of life. Who was it? “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.” There is no other way. The way to what? The way to everything in this world, but especially to the Father.

No one in this world can come to the Father save they come through this way. And he tells you he is the way. Know who he is? You are he: it’s all hidden in you.

And the day will come, it will begin to like a flower begins to unfold, unfold in the most wonderful series of mystical experiences. When it begins to unfold, you stand amazed at the beauty of this story. And may I tell you, you are told that the kingdom is taken by storm? It’s true.

When you move into it, and it’s called Zion: “And I looked up and behold there was Zion and the Lamb, and around the Lamb 144,000.” And it’s all here, it’s all in your own wonderful skull, that’s where he’s buried. And may I tell you, when you go into it having ascended that wonderful spine of yours, you will make the most tremendous effort ever to get out. You’ve never heard such a storm. But you cause the storm. So when we are told, “And they take it by storm today,” when you get in, you make every effort in the world. You’ve never heard such an earthquake, never heard such frightful, I would say, vibration that you cause. But you don’t get out. There’s no other place to go; it’s all within you. “So the whole vast world, though it appears without, it is within, in your Imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow” (Blake, Jerusalem, Plate 71).

The Bible begins with the words, “In the beginning God,” and it ends with the words, “Come, Lord Jesus.” Jesus is God—the world does not believe it—and Jesus is playing the part.

When you say, “I am,” that’s he; but he’s individualized when you say, “I am John, I am Peter, I am Ray, I am Mary.” But it’s the same Jesus. There’s only Jesus in this world.

There’s nothing but Jesus, and Jesus is God.

So, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and the end of the book, “Come, Lord Jesus.” Come, let him awake within you, for he had to die to become you. So we are told, “I am the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. I am he who is, who was and who is to come. I am he who died but is alive again.” All this is Revelation.

I am he who died. I had to die. He had to die to become me, to make these that are dead alive, for I was dead. He created a whole vast world, God did. It existed only for him, not for itself, just like a picture exists for the artist but not for itself. And then the artist falls in love with his picture. He so falls in love with his picture that he wants to make it alive for itself, and so to do so he has to become his picture, his sculpture. So he actually enters this dead thing called Neville, called you, by any name, and he enters us, and he lies down in the grave of the thing created. And then he starts his dream, dreaming that he’s you. Then he sets up the opposition to bring forth the dreamer and to awaken the dreamer as you. But the dreamer is himself—that’s God. And he’s dreaming he’s you and brings it forth through opposition.

For without opposition not a thing could happen in this world. I couldn’t leave the platform unless I was opposed, the car couldn’t move unless opposed, the bird couldn’t fly unless opposed, the plane couldn’t take off unless opposed, the fish couldn’t swim unless opposed. Everything in this world must be opposed in order to move, so God sets up that opposition. And then in me, the dead, he sets up the opposition and then he moves. And I’m frightened to death with all the things that scare us. But in the end, when he takes me through, he awakens and I am he.

You and he are one. We are one.

Then you’ll know why that wonderful question when it was asked, “What is the greatest commandment in the world?” and he answered, quoting from the Book of Deuteronomy, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4). “Hear, O Israel; The Lord”—the word translated “the lord” is Yod He Vau He, which really means I AM. The word translated “God” is Elohim, it’s plural, and then goes back to I AM. So, “Hear, O Israel: I AM, our God, is one I AM.” Here is a unity, a one made up of many. It takes all of us awake to be Jehovah. Everyone in this world will be awake, but it takes all of us completely awake to form one Lord. So, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord”—that is Jehovah, I AM—“our Elohim”—we are the Elohim—“is one Jehovah.” So all of us completely awake will be one Jehovah—that’s God. No little thing left behind, just God.

And what is the next? As the poet said, “Be patient. Be patient. Our playwright will show in some fifth act what this wild drama means.” And what you and I, completely awake, forming one body, will create tomorrow will put all this fabulous world into kindergarten. What we will do in our next creative power when we are awake will make it all look as though this was really kindergarten. And yet, we pass through it as though it’s the most horrible thing in the world. So take comfort, he who created all became you because he loved what he created when he created you, and he’s buried in you.

Now take the message of Revelation and practice the art of repentance. You start to read the letters and the emphasis in each letter save Philadelphia—Philadelphia means “brotherly love”—they so practiced brotherly love that he did not give to them this suggestion to repent. So the Philadelphians, which came in the sixth letter (which is man), so he didn’t do it to the sixth. But he starts off Ephesus and he goes through, and each one he emphasizes the art of repentance. But when he comes to one who loves, he doesn’t. If you fall in love with someone without trying to change him, just simply love, he allows that because God is love. And if you don’t change him in your mind’s eye and make him what you would like to see him in this world, that is permitted, that’s permissible. So Philadelphia did not receive the suggestion to repent, for it means brotherly love, the city of brotherly love. All the others had to repent.

Now let us go into the Silence.

Q and A

Q: (inaudible)

A: ___(??) in Revelation the 144,000. You will read the 144,000 were chaste—they were not defiled by women.

That’s been a complete misunderstanding of scripture—those who become celibate, those join the monasteries, and all these things of the world—it hasn’t a thing to do with sex. Because fornication in the Bible was always equated with idolatry. Therefore, to worship anything in this world other than God is idolatry, whether it be the emperor, whether it be our president, whether it be the government or anything in the world, that is fornicating.

For we are married to God and to go apart from him is to fornicate, to commit adultery. We’re told in the 54th chapter of Isaiah, “The Lord is your husband” (verse 5). Well, if the Lord is my husband, I must find out who he is, and I’m telling you who he is: he is your own wonderful human Imagination. So to believe that any power in this world is causative other than your own wonderful Imagination is to fall in love with a power you believe to be causation and therefore you are attached to it, and that is fornication.

So when you read it—I didn’t cover it, but I must before I leave—so this so-called “they were chaste, undefiled by women” hasn’t a thing to do with sex as we understand the word; it has all to do with idolatry.

And so you actually believe in some creative power other than your own wonderful human Imagination is to have another man or woman in your life.

Q: What about the child, the woman with the child out in the wilderness?

A: Well, that comes from the 12th chapter of Revelation. ___(??) there’s a woman in labor giving birth to a child and then this dragon, the red dragon appears to devour the child, but as she brought forth the child it was caught up into the presence of God.

But remember, the birth took place in heaven; it just simply moved into the presence of God.

And so the dragon is always in the world ready to oppose any progress of the individual who is God. He’s always present. And if I go back to my own personal experience, when the child is presented and I held him, suddenly it was all vanished, all gone. No one could take him. And it did take place in heaven; it certainly wasn’t on earth, as we understand earth.

And so, here was the discovery of the symbol of the event that took place. I held him in my hand, looked into his beautiful face and called him by an endearing term, “How’s my sweetheart?” and then at that moment, the sudden vanishing of the entire scene. So we’re told in the thirteenth chapter, as the red dragon came right into the presence of the woman in labor, she was bringing forth the child, a male child—and as she brought him forth he was caught up so the dragon could not devour him. It’s all symbolism, but it’s true. It actually takes place in the consciousness of man.

Q: When the beast is thrown into the lake of fire, he is enchained for a thousand years. What does that mean?

A: It’s thrown into the lake of fire. He’s been enchained for a thousand years. Now what does that mean? Well, I can only give you my own experience. When the dragon is cornered by you, you don’t kill him. It seems that man always needs opposition for growth, and growth is forever. So these two serpents are antagonists. One is the radiant, winged being that is Jesus Christ, and may I tell you, he is that, and you are that. And the other is the slimy, crooked monster.

But you need it for opposition. So you enchain it while you revel in your accomplishment. But there must be another journey; there is no end to the unfoldment of an infinite God. If I could unfold and that was all I could ever accomplish, that would be stagnation and that would be worse than death. This is constant expansion. There is no limit to luminosity, to expansion; there’s only a limit to opacity, to contraction. So we reach the limit of opacity, of contraction, and then we start a journey that never, but never, comes to an end. Because, it never comes to an end, I couldn’t move forward without opposition. And that’s the drama. What will be my opposition in the next great drama, I don’t know. But he will be that serpent.

I didn’t kill him. I’ve never succeeded; strangely enough, he’s a very frightening thing. He would fill this room, may I tell you, this monstrous thing, slimy, crooked, subtle. I only encountered him a week ago. So, how many times, I don’t know. I still encounter him. But I got him. It means that you expand to a certain point where you arrest him, but he’s very much alive. It’s all you. There is nothing but God in this world, but nothing, and God opposes himself for God’s expansion. He has to set up his own opposition.

When I was a child going through these things, who created it? Man did. And they tied that tarpaulin down so tight, and we were only little tots, but so tightly stretched, how to get through it, and it was a very long one. By the time you got through you were exhausted, and you looked up, others were coming through too, like cats crawling. Then you have to go through barrels. That’s the next one. Then you jump over some hurdle, and then you climb a greased pole, and then the greased pig. There is always a prize at the end, but there is opposition for the race. We are, as Paul said, “The time for my departure is come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”