“Seeming to be wise, they were in fact foolish,
And by them the glory of the eternal God was changed into that of the image of man who is not eternal, and of birds and beasts and things which go on the earth.”
— Romans 1:22–23
At first glance, this verse from Romans reads like a stern warning against idol worship. But when read through the teachings of Neville Goddard, it reveals something far more internal: a spiritual misalignment. It shows us what happens when we abandon the truth of the creative power within and turn our attention outward—towards appearances, reason, and form.
The Glory of the Uncorruptible God
Neville taught that God is your own wonderful human imagination—not merely a metaphor, but literally the source and substance of all creation. The “glory of the uncorruptible God” is the radiant power of imagination to assume a state and watch it unfold in the world.
This glory is eternal. It does not decay or change. It is the truth of being. Yet, as Paul describes, we exchange this indwelling glory for outer images. And that’s where the fall begins.
Claiming Wisdom, Becoming Fools
“Seeming to be wise, they were in fact foolish...”
To the world, wisdom often means accepting what’s “real,” what can be proven, what fits the senses. But Neville warns that when you trust appearances over imagination, you have inverted truth.
The fool is not the dreamer, but the one who dismisses the inner world as secondary or irrelevant. When you claim wisdom by trusting only logic, evidence, or tradition, you have abandoned the divine cause—your imagination—and bowed to the effect.
Trading Cause for Effect
“And by them the glory of the eternal God was changed into that of the image of man who is not eternal, and of birds and beasts and things which go on the earth.”
The language here is symbolic. The “image” is not just a statue or idol—it is anything you treat as the source of power other than your own imagination.
These images—man, birds, beasts, and creeping things—symbolise the natural world, the world of form, biology, and instinct. When you take your sense of identity, purpose, or power from these things, you have forgotten your true Source.
You begin to live in reaction rather than creation. You let outer facts determine your state, instead of using your inner state to shape the facts.
The Image of a Physical Christ
Perhaps the most widespread and subtle image is the belief that Jesus Christ is a man of flesh and blood, existing in history and separate from you.
To Neville, this is the most tragic exchange of all.
Jesus, he taught, is the pattern of awakened consciousness within you. He is the “I AM”—the very awareness of being that can assume any state and call it into being. When you confine Christ to a historical figure, you have turned the uncorruptible into the corruptible. You have exchanged revelation for remembrance, and experience for doctrine.
It is no different than bowing to a golden calf. It is a worship of image over essence.
“To whom God was pleased to make clear what is the wealth of the glory of this secret among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
— Colossians 1:27
This one verse holds the key. If Christ is in you, then He cannot be exclusively outside you. Salvation, transformation, and resurrection are internal processes—stages of awareness that unfold within the individual.
Returning to the Creator
To live by the Law of Assumption is to reverse this error. You no longer place trust in images, opinions, or outcomes. You return to the Creator—not as an external deity, but as the imaginative act within you.
“Assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled.” — Neville Goddard
This is how you restore the glory. This is how you step out of false wisdom and reclaim the creative inheritance that is yours by nature.
Final Reflection
Romans 1:22–23 is not only about idol worship in a primitive sense—it is a mirror to the spiritual mistake we all make when we forget that the world is a shadow of our inner state. Whether it’s a golden statue, a limiting belief, or a historical Christ divorced from self, all are creatures, not the Creator.
Neville reminds us that imagination is God, and faith in imagination is the only true worship. When we live from this truth, we are no longer fools in spiritual matters—we become wise in the highest sense.
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