And Knoweth It Not
65-0815, And Knoweth It Not, Branham Tabernacle, Jeffersonville, IN, 107 min
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L-1 Thank you, Brother Neville. The Lord bless you. I got into something, didn't I? I want to thank the Lord, real well, for undertaking for Brother Capps' boy. It just so happened that this is the little time that I come back to Indiana. I know that they're not recording this; I suppose they're not. And so then I don't see nobody in there, so they... I come back to go squirrel hunting. And so I guess Charlie is going to have to put up with me, him and Nellie, and them down in Kentucky, now for a day or two, to squirrel hunt. So, I'd rather miss anything, any other kind of recreation, then come here on... about the middle of August, and go squirrel hunting with Charlie and Banks, and all of them. It's kind of a traditional thing with me. And so I took Joe...
L-2 When we was here the other time, everybody got sick, the change from that real hot climate down to this--to this cool climate you got here. I know you think this is not cool, but you come out to Arizona once. It was a hundred and nine in the shade when I left the other morning; and then at around midnight, in the night, when the cool air come down off the mountains, it was still ninety-six. Uh-huh. See, that's at midnight, when the cool air was coming down. And so it's... That place is all right in the wintertime, but it's for scorpions and lizards in the summertime, not human beings. Even all the animals take off for the mountains. They just can't stand it.
L-3 And I had been out and shooting my little rifle in. I... Somehow I just want to tell you about the little Capps boy. And I said... And, Joe, I'll just have to give him the rifle, 'cause he can outshoot me. We had got it shot in, and I was--I was driving tacks at fifty yards. And I said to--to Joe... Joe said, "Daddy, I believe I could do that." Poor little fellow had had a headache. I had been praying for him, a high fever. He went out to the range with me, and I...
L-4 Any two-over-ten bore in a twenty-two rifle, it crosses its line of fire at twenty-five yards; is in again at fifty, just the same, if it is two-over-ten. So then... And I had shot it in at twenty-five yards. And so I had two more tacks and I put them up, and if Joe didn't drive both them tacks! I didn't have no more tacks, so I put a little bit of piece of an old clay pigeon had been bursted there, what trap shooters shoot at, just about a quarter of an inch across, and took it out on fifty yards, and he cut it half in two. And the scope was set for my eyes, just a few years older than he was. So he said, "You know what? I've got to go by and tell Billy to keep off of my feet from now on."See? [Brother Branham and congregation laughs--Ed.]
L-6 I said, "Joe, in matches across the world, I don't care who it would be, nobody..." Now, the tacks wasn't drove sideways, they were drove straight through. And that piece, not over, I guess, a quarter of an inch, and a sixteenth thick, and a quarter of an inch high, he cut it half in two, at fifty yards. I said, "There is no one in the world could have made a better shot. They could, champions, could have done the same thing, but you couldn't have made three better shots than them." The tacks, not bent, just a straight hole through the paper where the tack went through. And I said, "No one could have made a--a better shot." All right. I think his headache left him right away.
L-7 And I said, "Well, let's go show this to Brother Norman," which works for the Field And Stream, Brother Tony Stromei's sporting goods place.
L-8 He said, "Let's go by Billy's first." He said, "I--I just want to tell Bubby something." See? And, frankly, his brother has never done that good. So he said, "We go by there first."
L-9 And just as I got in the door, Billy was still in his pajamas. And he said... We went down early, 'cause it gets so hot. And so he said... The phone rang. And I said... He kind of looked at me like that. I said, "Maybe a sick call."And it was Brother Capps for his boy, in the operating room then, with peritonitis and that pending. And just now he told me his boy is recovering real, real good.
L-10 So, see how God just worked that, even in the voice of that little boy, Joe? Instead of going down to Brother Norman's, wouldn't have been there, and come up. And Brother Capps and I joined together. I don't say it was our prayers that done it, but it did mean something to him for us to make contact like that. And, frankly, that's what... When you got--you got to have faith in what you're doing. See? And, that, his faith to call, and Billy was...
L-11 They was putting in money. He said, "This must be a real long distance," said, "he was putting in pretty near five dollars worth of change, in a three... for a three minute call." And I thought it would be coming from New York or out in one of the islands or something. But he made a person-to-person call, to get Billy instead of Loyce, you see, and that's what cost him to do that.
L-12 And now his boy is recovering. Brother Capps said the doctor give him very little hope of ever coming out of it, you see, from the operation. And we are thankful to God this morning for this, very glad for it.
L-13 Now, we got in, towards daylight this morning, and I had about three hours sleep, and--and I'm pretty tired. But when the church... come time to come to church, why, I come down.
L-14 And the Lord willing, now I've got to go down in Kentucky, as I said. Then I got promised to speak one Sunday while I was back here, and I had better make it this next Sunday, because the following I'll be... I have to go back. Because I'm going away again, up in Canada. So I--I better make it next Sunday, and next Sunday morning.
L-15 And Brother Neville said, "Why don't you just go out and greet the people, and talk to them just a few minutes?"
L-17 He said, "Well, go out and say something to them." And, Sister Neville, I--I--I don't know how you do it. He's a very persuasive fellow. But while...
L-18 I don't get a chance to say this when the place is all packed, and crowded, and everything, but I'm very grateful to God for a pastor like Brother Orman Neville. Faithful, just as faithful as he can be, to the Cause, and never hear him grumbling. I sit back there... I had a good half-hour's talk with him while I was enjoying Brother Mann, and so I'll tell him more about that when we get in Colorado this year. So when we was enjoying his message, and I got a good talk with Brother Neville. I said, "I don't even get to tell the people nothing about our fine pastor." I said, "Are the people treating you right?"
Said, "It couldn't be any better."
And I said, "Well, that's what I'm glad to hear."
Said, "It couldn't be any better."
And I said, "Well, that's what I'm glad to hear."
L-19 When a pastor is satisfied, and the people is satisfied, it makes a real good church, and then God is satisfied. And I think, to see them satisfied together, especially in this day of the Message that we're carrying, I think that shows the continuity of the Message with the people and with God. See?
L-20 And I'm very grateful for Brother Orman Neville, and his fine wife and family. And I pray that God will keep them loyal to Him and the Cause. And if it so please Him, may we be standing here in the tabernacle when the Lord Jesus comes for us, you see, to take us away at the Rapture. We hope we're both so old, Brother Neville, that one will have one arm around the other, and standing there on our canes, still trying to hold up. See? "Then we'll be changed, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye." [I Corinthians 15:52]
And these old robes of flesh will drop,
And rise and seize the everlasting prize,
And shout while passing through the air,
"Farewell, farewell," sweet hour of prayer.
We moved on up then.
And rise and seize the everlasting prize,
And shout while passing through the air,
"Farewell, farewell," sweet hour of prayer.
We moved on up then.
L-21 Heard about Brother Coomers' healing from the Lord, and so thankful for that. So many things. So I am grateful to be here this morning. And I thought, instead of...
L-22 I'm always coming here with a certain text, and speaking. I thought I'd just come out this morning. And I said, "Brother Neville, I'll watch the clock real easy, and probably let the people out on time, and just talk to you from my heart, a few minutes; just things just, that we just have... No, they're not taping it or anything, so we just have fellowship while there's just the church folks here, you see, just us together."
So let's pray.
So let's pray.
L-23 Dear Jesus, we are grateful to You for the privilege that we have of assembling together here. And, oh, as I looked upon this tabernacle early this morning, after midnight, passed by, I thought of how You have stood by it.
L-24 And I think of the old pond that was here, and big old weeds standing up, right about where this pulpit is at. As a little boy, I--I stood here. Mr. Ingram said we could have the lot for just a little money, and pay something down; and no money, no collateral, or nothing to offer, but just to try. How that it, then, as full face value was a little over two thousand dollars; with twenty years to pay it out.
L-25 And now, Lord, look at it now! And while it was in its infancy, still sitting down in a hole here, water pouring into it; how that You promised us, by the Word: "I the Lord have planted it, I'll water it day and night, lest some shall pluck it from My hands." [Jeremiah 24:6]
L-27 But literally thousands of souls has found Christ here at the altar. And the tabernacle, the baptistery has constantly... People has been baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus; calling upon His Name, washing away their sins. Hundreds of crippled, afflicted, blind, halt, lame, cancer-eaten, have walked away from this platform; come in, dying, men and women, boys and girls, and gone out to live a new life, with a new flesh on their bodies, and walking again; leave their wheel chairs, crutches, and so forth. O God, this thirty years of service!
L-28 Father, I remember the morning that we laid the cornerstone. And You gave the vision over there, showing the place, packed and jammed, a beautiful corner; I--I knew that that could not fail. So I thank You for all these things.
L-29 Many of them has done fought a good fight, and finished the course, and kept the Faith; laying yonder, waiting, resting now from their labors, and their works following them; waiting for the hour for the trumpet to sound, and to spring forth again unto new life, a new body. Many of them old and shaken, some young, middle-aged, and so forth. But Thy Name be praised for all.
L-30 Now we're standing here again, before the--the living and the dead. I pray that You'll anoint Your Words this morning. I don't know one thing to say, but I pray that You'll furnish that, which You've always did it, Lord.
L-31 Bless our pastor, Brother Neville, his wife. Bless the trustees, deacon boards, every member of the body. May, together, we live so in this life, that in the life to come we'll have Eternal Life.
L-32 Help us this morning to take corrections from the Spirit and the Word, that we might prepare ourselves as we move away from the doors this morning, determined in our heart to live a better life than we have in the past. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.
L-33 Now, I--I just opened the Bible here, and it happened to be a few minutes ago. I'm in Revelations 3, so I'll just read here, on the--the Message to the Laodicea Church.
L-34 And I want to announce, also, Brother Neville was just telling me; Brother Parnell, as I happened to look down and see him sitting here, is in a--in a revival, just this side of Memphis. At the--the... any of you know where the old Wimpy, the hamburger stand used to be, he's got a--a tent setting in there, trying to bring in the sheaves and find if there's any lost ones out in that way that's been ordained to life, that he might win through his ministry to Christ. And he closed it up for Sunday, on account of the services being at the tabernacle, and--and that's very loyal of the brother. And we want you to know that the services will be open Monday night following, next week. And I know you're all cordially invited out to hear Brother Parnell bring his message of the love of Christ.
L-35 And now let us read from Revelations the 3rd chapter, just a portion, to say that we read the Bible. Because, what I would say might fail, but what He says won't fail. And I don't know where to start from, what to do, where to go, but I'm just reading the Laodicea Church Age.
... unto the angel of the church of... Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, and the beginning of the creation of God;
I know thy works,... thou art neither cold nor hot: I would... wert that cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou are wretched,... miserable,... poor,... blind,... naked:
I counsel of thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich;... white raimnent, that thou mayest be clothed, and that thy shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. [Revelation 3:14-19]
I know thy works,... thou art neither cold nor hot: I would... wert that cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased in goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou are wretched,... miserable,... poor,... blind,... naked:
I counsel of thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich;... white raimnent, that thou mayest be clothed, and that thy shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. [Revelation 3:14-19]
L-36 You know, somewhere in there, as I was reading, I... If you'll excuse me a minute, I--I found some place that sounded good to me, and I don't know just where it was at now. Here it is.
... and knowest thou not... wretched,... miserable,... poor,... blind,... naked: [Revelation 3:17]
... and knowest thou not... wretched,... miserable,... poor,... blind,... naked: [Revelation 3:17]
L-37 Oh, my, that's kind of the picture here of the church of today! Now, it's, I--I think that that church age here, that we're speaking of... Course, I've got the church age coming forth now in the books. But being that is the Laodicean Church Age that we're in, let's just look at the conditions.
L-38 I don't want to take any text or anything, because we're not... just talking casually, as we see to talk on whatever the Lord would lead us to do, but something that would help us.
L-39 Let's think of the Laodicea Church Age and its condition today. As far as I know, I don't see anything to hinder, at this time, the Coming of the Lord Jesus, outside of the readiness of His Church. I think that one of the--the prophesies... [Revelation 3:14-21]
L-40 Yesterday, coming up in the car, we drove it in two days, from Tucson, here, right two thousand miles, Billy and I. And so we, now, that wasn't breaking any speed laws. We stayed right. I sat there, if he's driving, and I--I rolled--rolled up my fists back like a shotgun with the hammer back. I seen him go over. I said, "Wait a minute, boy."
Now, we're told, "Give Caesar what's Caesar's."
Now, we're told, "Give Caesar what's Caesar's."
L-41 Then we come in down here last night, a little girl lying sprawled across the road, about three years old; mother dead over in the ditch. Some drunken boy, coming from the R.O.T.C., is eighteen years old, driving a hundred and twenty miles an hour, on the left hand side of the road, killed. And I guess he was dying, too. Then you could realize what it is.
"Give Caesar what's Caesar's."
"Give Caesar what's Caesar's."
L-42 Innocent people dying. A little three-year-old girl lost her life, because of some drunken soldier, see, driving hundred and twenty miles an hour, estimated, on the wrong side of the road. Coming up over the hill, and shot right down, and killed them all right there together. I... He was dying, too. So then you can see, even though the innocent party was doing...
L-43 Now that boy is guilty of cold-blooded murder. See? I think if a man would be caught on the road, drinking, he ought to be given ten years, flat, for premature... premeditated murder; any man, 'cause he just... any man.
L-44 We, we'll never do any good with politics. It's rotten. God's idea of having a king, a righteous king, is right. But politics just simply spread out, you can buy anything out; cheat, lie, steal, everything else. As I said a few Sundays ago: and look where you're at, see, nothing but just a crooked mass of everything. But a righteous king can make his own laws. And you can kill a man; you know a good politics, that's all right, you get out of it. See? And so, it's, it--it...
L-45 The democracy is a good idea, but it won't work. Just like communism, all things in common; it sounds good, but it won't work. No. The God's way of having a king, like David was, was right, and you got one mind centered over. Like one leader and a bunch of geese, or so forth, you can't take two or three of them. Then, you mess them all together, you come up with any kind of an idea.
L-47 But, while Brother Neville and I, and these other brothers are trying to shepherd a flock, I've got something on my mind now, that comes, that we might talk about.
L-48 That is, I got a letter the other day from a fine lady. I never got it; it come through another person. And she was certainly tearing me to pieces, or trying to. Was saying, "Did you ever... Can't you Christian Business Men do something to stop Brother Branham?" Said, "Because that he's got this book out now called The Laodicea Church Age, bringing out more." And said, "He's just simply tearing Pentecostal doctrine to pieces." Said, "Now he's talking about the initial evidence ain't speaking in tongues." And said, "Then, he's against women preachers." And this was a woman preacher. And her boys, some of the best friends that I got in the world. She... They're among the best friends that I got. And she said, "Now..."
L-49 And this man and wife, I was eating breakfast with them; they said, "Brother Branham, look at this. Would you think it?" and pulled out a letter.
I said, "Well, sister, she just don't understand."
I said, "Well, sister, she just don't understand."
L-51 And now she says in here, she said, "Now he said, 'Women should not have authority over man.'" Said, "How about Phebe in the Bible, Paul's helper?"
L-52 Certainly, she was a seller of goods. And Paul asked the people... Do you think Paul would say, "Let the women keep silent in the churches, not permitted them to speak," and turn around and say, "Now, Phebe, my helper in the Gospel, she is going to preach a few nights"? Why, he would contradict his own word. See? [I Timothy 2:12], [Romans 16:1], [Judges 4:4]
L-53 And said, then, to top it all, "I believe it was Esther... was one of the judges in the Bible." Said, "A woman was a judge in the Bible. If that's not authority over man!" [Judges 4:4]
L-54 And this businessman that was healed right here in the church not long ago, he said... Now, his wife said, "Brother Branham, that always puzzled me."
I said, "Why, sister, how would that puzzle you?"
Said, "Well, here is a woman judge." [Judges 4:4]
I said, "That's politics, not the church. That don't have nothing to do with the church."
I said, "Why, sister, how would that puzzle you?"
Said, "Well, here is a woman judge." [Judges 4:4]
I said, "That's politics, not the church. That don't have nothing to do with the church."
L-55 Paul said, "Let them be under obedience, as also saith the law." And the law can't put a woman up to be a priest; can't put it up. You never seen a woman high priest. You never seen a woman a priest, nowhere in the Bible. You never seen a woman a preacher, in the Bible. Certainly. [I Timothy 2:12]
L-56 Some of them was prophetesses, and so forth; Miriam and different ones. And Esther... One of them was a judge over Israel. Sometimes they were queens over them, and so forth like that, king and queen. At the decease of the king, the queen had to take his place till they elected another king, and so forth. [Exodus 15:20], [Judges 4:4]
L-57 In--in Tucson, Arizona, we got a woman judge there in the city. That's the reason the city is so polluted. And we got... A woman ain't got no business in politics. She ain't got no business in the... over any authority in the church.
L-58 Her place is a man's queen at home. Outside of that, she has nothing. And we know that to be the Truth. You'll never find... I know that sounds old-fashioned, but I'm responsible.
L-59 And I know that, after my going away from this earth, them tapes and them books will be living on, and many of you young children will find, in the days to come, that this is exactly the Truth, because I speak it in the Name of the Lord.
L-60 Now, we wonder how a woman, that's a good woman, and she has brought on this earth by her loyal husband, a good man, some of the finest boys that I ever met, they're man, that I've ever met. And just quickly, just as soon as they heard the Message, they were sold on It, one hundred percent. Now, that could only come by foreordination. It's the only way it can come. [Acts 13:48]
L-61 Now, the question is, here. I was thinking that, see, now why the Lord was bringing me back. "And know it, knowest... Know it not; thou art naked, miserable, wretched, blind, and know it not." [Revelation 3:17]
L-62 Before I get to that spot, I might brief what I said a few days ago, here in a Message on, I believe it was, The God Of This World; blinded the eyes of the people, that they absolutely worship the devil in religious services. Did you all get that? All of you understood it? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
L-63 And then in that same Message, I brought the subject, that, a woman wearing immoral clothes, indecently, she is be judged at the Judgment Bar as a street prostitute. That sounds awful strange.
Let me draw you a little picture. [I Timothy 2:9-10]
Let me draw you a little picture. [I Timothy 2:9-10]
L-64 Now, here is an attorney in the city, a young fellow, and he's a nice man. As far as--as politically, I imagine he may be decent as any, his politics. And then he goes with a girl that's very popular. They fall in love and marry. They attend to all the parties and the great things, and they all drink together. Finally, she... He has a nice home. He lives in a nice neighborhood. He is well thought of amongst the people. But he... Both of them drink. She wears shorts, cuts her hair, wears makeup, everything just as sexy-ish, beautiful woman displaying herself. Well, she never goes to church, at all, neither one of them.
L-65 So, move in, next door to them, comes a woman from the Baptist church or the Methodist church, her and her husband. Now, this woman...
L-66 Let's make it Methodist, because the Methodist go a little more on holiness than the Baptist; all except the New Testament Baptist, they believe in holiness. But, usually, Baptists don't go for holiness at all, see. They don't believe in such a thing. So then, now, let's make it Methodist 'cause they believe in holiness.
L-67 And then a Methodist woman moves next door to this woman, on the same street. Her husband is a... Let's say he's a public accountant, and, or some office. Well, this Methodist woman looks over to the other woman.
L-68 And when this lawyer goes out of town... His name is John; say his name is John. Now, don't presume on that now. I'm just taking fiction names now. And his name is John. Well, she used to go with Ralph. And that's fiction name, all of it, see, just so you get the story, to make the picture.
L-69 Well, first thing you know, at a drunken party, Ralph hugs her again. Well, she gets all fired up, because she's in love again with Ralph, she thinks. Then, after a while, Ralph begins to meet her. And she can put it over John, pull it over his eyes. And she thinks she's a pretty smart duck, because she can run with Ralph, married to John. See, the woman don't even have the very bearing of decency, and she thinks nothing about that.
L-70 But this Methodist woman has raised up in another bracket. She does, at least, go to church, and she thinks that that woman is horrible. Why, she says to her husband, when he comes in, "I see that man go in there and meet her. And when John is out on a case somewhere, Philadelphia or somewhere, he takes her out in his roadster, and they lay out on the beach. I see them come home; don't even pull the curtains down sometimes, kissing her and making love to her, next... Oh, isn't that awful?" she says to her husband. "Why, she is nothing but a public prostitute." It's true. She is worse than a public prostitute, because she is a married woman. See? And she, this woman, this Methodist woman, thinks that's horrible, she never goes to church.
L-71 Now, this Methodist woman would not do a thing like that. No, indeedy. She is a decent woman. And another thing, she would not touch a bit of whiskey, because, the Methodist church, ninety percent of their program is prohibition against whiskey, against whiskey. So, they got a prohibition program, and them people of that Methodist church don't live no higher than that church teaches.
L-72 But this same woman, this Methodist woman, goes out, of a evening, with her husband, wearing shorts on Sunday, after Sunday school. She cuts her hair. She wears lipstick, and even smokes a little.
L-73 Now, in God's Word, they are both prostitutes, but this one here is "naked, miserable, wretched, blind, and don't know it." One is just as guilty as the other, for, "A man that looks upon a woman, to lust after her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart." [Matthew 5:28], [Revelation 3:17]
L-74 And if this woman, now, she would say, "Wait just a minute, Mr. Branham. I'll give you to understand, I am no prostitute." My sister, maybe if you'd be took before a Bible, and put your hands upon It in the Presence of God, and swear an oath that you've been just as true-l, true to your husband as you could be. Your body belongs to your husband, but your soul belongs to God. There is a evil spirit that's anointed you. If that, if you are not, then you're... I can prove that you're totally insane.
L-75 What would have happened to your grandmother if she'd have walked out on the street with those shorts on? They'd have put her in the insane institution; she come out without her dress on. There is something wrong with her mind. If it was so then, it's so now. [Deuteronomy 22:5]
L-76 So it throws the whole world into insanity. The whole thing is insane. And it so gradually crept in till the people don't know it.
L-77 Now, is she a prostitute? Not by her husband, vow to her body. But, before God, she has got an evil, prostitute spirit on her, that makes her dress like that. And she's in the Laodicean Church Age, and don't know that she's doing that. The innocent woman don't know that God will judge her for a prostitute. There you are. [Revelation 3:17]
L-78 You get It to her; you can't tell her. There is no way of getting It to her. The Bible said, "They're naked and don't know it." [Revelation 3:17]
L-79 If you would call her a prostitute, personally, she would have you arrested. She would. I never talk personally about anybody. I talk about sin. I don't say, "This certain church, Mr. So-and-so there, Rev. So-and-so, he's a..." No, no. I say that, the doctrine of that, see, the whole thing together. I don't call individual. It's not individuals. It's the system that they're in. It's the world system.
L-80 Brother George Wright sitting here is... He is seventy-five or seventy-eight years old, I guess. What would you think would have happened if you would have went to seen Sister Wright some day, and she would have been standing in a pair of shorts? Why, you'd have never, you'd--you'd have had the woman locked up. You'd have never married her. Well, if any young man in that day would have done it, the same thing would have took place. Well, if it was sin and wrong then, it's the same thing; but the people has growed into insanity.
L-81 Let me prophesy something to you, just before it comes to pass. The whole world is grouping in insanity, and will get worse and worse and worse, until they'll be a bunch of maniacs. And it's almost that way now.
L-82 Could you imagine a man driving with his lights off, on the wrong side of the road; a ricky, young kid, supposed to be right out of high school, kill a bunch of people. Does that stop them? The next one come right behind him, doing the same thing. Can you imagine a young man that thinks any self... anything of himself, getting out here and acting the way they do?
L-83 Could you imagine a young woman, and a bloom of womanhood, beautiful, well-built, shaped, profile, face, beautiful; and the very thing of her being pretty shows that we're at the end time. See, she has went all together to worldly feature, worldly things and not the beauty of holiness, sweetness in her soul. I've seen women, on the outside of them wasn't nothing to look at, but you speak to them one time, talk to them a few minutes, they're a real genuine something that you can't get away from. See, beauty of the outside is of the devil, it's of the world. [Proverbs 31:30], [I Timothy 2:9]
L-84 Look at Cain's children, how they went into it. "When the sons of God saw the daughters of man were fair, they taken unto them wives," and God never did forgive them. [Genesis 6:1-3]
L-85 Look, when them Israelite women with--with calloused hands, and hair stringing; when them sons of God came up through the land of Moab, and met them dainty women with well-set hair, and fancy, and a lot of manicure on their faces, or what you call it; and when them sons of God saw those real fair women, a false prophet said, "We're all the same." [Brother Branham knocks on the pulpit six times--Ed.] And they married among them, and God never did forgive them. [Genesis 6:2], [Numbers 25:1]
L-86 They perished in the wilderness. Every one of them died there, without hope, without God, and is Eternally lost; damned forever, though they had seen the goodness of God, though they had drank from the fountain that never runs dry. They had drunk from the smitten rock. They had seen the brass serpent perform miracles. They come out from under the baptism of Moses in the sea. They had seen the hand of God. They had eat Angel's food, and had done all of those things. But married in, let women bring them in, and marry among them. Not commit adultery, just marry among them; God never did forgive it. [Exodus 17:6], [Numbers 21:9]
L-88 I know that's hard. And I've often wondered, in many ways, how will it ever be? Why do I have to talk so rashel to people? What makes it so? And yet, I notice, if it wasn't God, there wouldn't be nobody, not a woman would sit and listen at me. But they come back, because there is somebody that's got a little anchor of Truth there, that knows that That's right. Regardless, they know It's right. Now watch what happens. I know it's hard.
L-89 It's just like if a doctor give you medicine, and you refused to take it, then don't blame the doctor if you die. And This is like medicine. What about these people that always claim to me being a woman hater?
L-90 You see, you just watch the way the women act, and I'll show you where the church is. The women morals is in Laodicea, in the world, physically, "naked, miserable, blind, and don't know it," the--the people, the women of the world. And the church is in the same stage. Watch the natural type the spiritual, right through, each time. Now, someday at the Judgment Bar... [Revelation 3:17]
L-91 I know it's not popular to say it. And if a man is not ordained to say it, you better not say it; 'cause you're impersonating, and then you'll get in trouble, sure enough.
L-92 Now notice. I've actually, look like, in times, held a woman's mouth open and poured the Medicine in her mouth, and then hold my hands over her mouth, and she'll spit It out every time. What if a doctor did that to a patient, then the patient died because they refused to swallow the medicine? At the Judgment Bar, when all these things like cutting hair and wearing shorts and...
L-93 I'm only building. The hour is close at hand when you're going to see something happen, when something is going to take place. And all this background here has only been laying a foundation for a short, quick Message that will shake the whole nations.
L-94 Why I been picking on women, it's just been laying up here for something that you can hit it right on the head, with it. Even trying to tell them what's right. And I holding a hand down like this, as it where the mouth, and they spit It out. Then who can blame the doctor?
L-95 How you going to say, at the Day of the Judgment, when the very voices that's cried out against it, will play the record right back in the face of the people? Then how they going to get away from it?
L-96 Spit It out between your fingers. Pour some more down, then finally shake their head and revolt back, and go back, won't do it. Yet, you come back again and pour It in again. Then who is to blame? Not the doctor, not the Medicine, but the attitude of the person. That's exactly. Be a horrible day, one of these days, when this sinful adulter-ness generation stands before Almighty God.
L-97 I see my years creeping up, my shoulders stooping; and, I know, thirty years here in this platform, yeah, thirty-three years here on the field. That's a long life. That's thirty-three years of service. Only one regret I have; that I didn't have a hundred and thirty-three years of it. For this will be the last opportunity I'll ever have, while here mortal, to preach the Gospel. God help me to stand true as true can be, to that Word, and say just as He says.
L-98 What made that Methodist woman... How could you ever get It to her? Here she is, in that Laodicea Church Age.
L-99 Now we'll take the Pentecostal woman. She shouldn't wear shorts, make-up, or cut her hair, but she looks back down at the Methodist, say, "Look at that woman do so-and-so!" Say the woman don't wear shorts, but she say... and herself with bobbed hair. See?
L-100 Higher you rise in God, the more sinful the whole thing looks. And then sometimes, in prayer, you can imagine, when the Holy Spirit take you up into a sphere, then the whole thing looks chaos. Then when you come back down, you seem like you're, to the people, you're a rascal, that you're--you're nothing but an old sarcastic. You're a fool, because you stand as an old crank and always rebuking the people. But if you ever climb into them spheres one time, where you can be in the Presence of God (not through emotion, but through genuine Holy Spirit lifting up), the whole thing is wrote, "ICHABOD." The Glory of the Lord has departed from the whole denominational outfit. That's right. There none of them that's right. [I Samuel 4:21]
L-101 Now let me draw you a little circle. If I had a blackboard... But I want you to watch here. [Brother Branham draws the following rings on something--Ed.] I'm going to make one ring like this, and I'm going to make another ring on the inside of that ring, that's two, then I'm going to make a ring on the inside of that ring. That's three rings, three circles. Now, that's you.
L-102 That's God. God in a trinity is One, and without a trinity He's not God. He can't be manifested any other way.
L-103 And neither can you be manifested without being the trinity person that you are, that's: body, spirit, soul. Without either one of them, you're not complete. See? You didn't have a soul, you'd be nothing; you didn't have a spirit, you wouldn't be nothing; you didn't have a body, you just be a spirit, not a body.
L-104 So, God is complete in the tri-unity of a Being; not tri-unity of beings, but One Being in a tri-unity. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is one true manifested God. God! [I Corinthians 8:6], [I Timothy 3:16]
L-105 Notice here, just wait, I--I believe I read it just a few minutes ago. Listen to this.
... unto the angel of the church of... Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; [Revelation 3:14]
... unto the angel of the church of... Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; [Revelation 3:14]
L-106 God is the Creator. And how was He ever created? But this is "the beginning of the creation of God." When God, the Spirit, was created in a form of a Man, that was God being created; God the Creator, Himself, becoming a creation. God, Who made the dirt, made the calcium, made the potash, cosmic light, petroleums, took the thing together and created Himself, in "the beginning of the creation of God."
L-107 "The Amen," the final. Amen means "so be it." "The final of God," when God completed in His creation.
L-108 Now, how was it? "No man has seen God at any time, but the only Begotten of the Father has declared Him." You get it? [John 1:18]
L-109 Say, just a minute, you no hurry. Let's turn over to Colossians, just a minute. I just happened to... come a Scripture in my mind. Let's turn to Colossians, the Book of Colossians, and get the... I believe it's the 1st chapter. I'll have to look at this, 'cause it's not premeditated here. So I'll... As I used to be, when I was a young preacher, I could think of these things [Brother Branham snaps his finger--Ed.] just right now, but as I get older I can't. Let's begin at the 9th verse, I believe.
"For this cause..." Is Paul telling the Colossians about Christ, Who He was.
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and... desire that you might be filled with all the knowledge of his will in all wisdom of spirit and understanding;
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and to the increase in the knowledge of God;
Strengthened all... according to the glorious power, of patience and longsuffering with joy;
Giving thanks to the Father, which has meet... which made us meet to... partakers of the inheritance of the saints...
Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: [Colossians 1:9-15]
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and... desire that you might be filled with all the knowledge of his will in all wisdom of spirit and understanding;
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and to the increase in the knowledge of God;
Strengthened all... according to the glorious power, of patience and longsuffering with joy;
Giving thanks to the Father, which has meet... which made us meet to... partakers of the inheritance of the saints...
Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: [Colossians 1:9-15]
L-110 Here we're getting now. Watch.
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin:
Who is in the image of the invisible God,...
Get it? 15th verseColossians 1:15.
... the firstborn of every creature: [Colossians 1:14-15]
Who is in the image of the invisible God,...
Get it? 15th verseColossians 1:15.
... the firstborn of every creature: [Colossians 1:14-15]
L-111 Amen! The what? "The firstborn of every creature." Let it be Angel, let it be any what it may be; He's the firstborn of every creature.
For by him were all things created--all things created, that are in heaven, or... in earth, visible... invisible, whether they be thrones, whether they be dominions,... principalities,... powers: all things were created by him, and for him: [Colossians 1:16]
L-112 Let it be anything it might be; no other being! Notice,
"And in... And he is therefore..."
... he is before all things, and by him all things consist. [Colossians 1:17]
... he is before all things, and by him all things consist. [Colossians 1:17]
L-113 Whether it be Father, Son, Holy Ghost, whatever it is, "He is before all things." "Before all things that's in Heaven, in earth; visible, invisible, or anything," this Son of God was before all things. That right? I don't care, it's thrones, dominions, whatever it is; Heavenly thrones, kingdoms, whatever it might be in the great supernatural realms beyond, in the Eternities where it was; whatever it was, Angels, gods, whatever it was, "He is before all things." Amen! Can't you see Him? "He was before all things; and were created by Him. He..." The 17th verse.
And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. [Colossians 1:17]
L-114 There is nothing can make it run but Him. Whether it's God the Father, God the Holy Ghost; whether it's the Angels, principalities, powers, dominions; whatever it is, all things run by Him. "All things consist by Him." He!
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning--who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead (that is, raise up what He come to redeem);
that in all things he might have the preeminences. [Colossians 1:17]
that in all things he might have the preeminences. [Colossians 1:17]
L-115 "Might have preeminence," you know what it means? That's, "over all." He is over all things that was ever created; every Angel, every being, every--every thing that there is. He is over all things. What Creature is This? Who can it be? Over all things! "And having made peace..." Let's see, just a minute. Preemi-...
"All the fullness of all things." All the fullness of God, all the fullness of Angels, all the fullness of time, all the fullness of Eternity; everything dwelt in Him. That's this Fellow.
For it pleased the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell; [Colossians 1:19]
"All the fullness of all things." All the fullness of God, all the fullness of Angels, all the fullness of time, all the fullness of Eternity; everything dwelt in Him. That's this Fellow.
And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. [Colossians 1:20]
L-117 Now, now that, the Church, that His very whole purpose was the Church. Now how do we get into this Church? "By one Spirit we're all baptized into one Body," the Church, the Body of Christ. It cannot fail.
L-118 Now, here is what happens. Now watch this, just a little figurative picture here. [Brother Branham again shows his drawing of three rings--Ed.]
L-119 Now, this outside man is the flesh. That's what we look at; what we see. And it has five inlets to that body. And any grammar school child, as myself, would know there is five senses control the body; see, taste, feel, smell, and hear. Without that, you can't touch the body. That's the only way you have to the body; see, taste, feel, smell, hear; you see it, taste it, feel it... Now, that is the evil one, on the outside. [I Corinthians 12:13]
L-120 Now, inside of that is a spirit, which you become when you're born in the earth and the breath of life is breathed into him. That spirit is of a worldly nature because it was not given from God, but it was (given) permitted by God. Now you got that? For, every child that's born in the world, "is born in sin, shaped in iniquity; come to the world speaking lies." That right? So, that person, inside there, is a sinner, to begin with. Now, but... [Psalms 51:5]
L-121 Now, it's got five inlets. And them five inlets... I don't know whether I can call them right off now. When the... First, I know, is thought, conscience, and love, choice... No. Conscience, love, reason... There is five inlets to the spirit. You can't think with your body; you have to think with your spirit. You can't have conscience in your body. It has no mental faculties at all; your body doesn't, so you have to think with your spirit. You have to reason. You can't reason with your physical being, 'cause reason doesn't see, taste, feel, smell, or hear. Reason is what you can make in your mind. If you're asleep or you're out, your body is lying there dead, but your spirit can still reason. There is five senses that controls that inside man. And that...
L-122 Now, to the last man, which is the soul, there is only one sense that controls that, and that is free... moral agency's free will to choose or to reject.
L-123 And now the reason that people today... Now, don't forget this now, and you'll--you'll see what the Holy... what the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost is. See?
L-124 Now, people can live in this spirit, and they dance in the spirit. They shout in the spirit. They go to church in the spirit, and they can absolutely have the real Spirit of God anointed on that spirit, but still be lost and just as devil-possessed as they can be, with that spirit.
L-125 Because, watch, that's the reason you couldn't tell that woman, she was wearing shorts, was wrong. You couldn't tell her bobbing her hair was wrong. "Well, what's your hair got to do with it?" Well, it did to Samson. See? [I Corinthians 11:3-12], [Numbers 6:2, 5]
L-126 "Whosoever shall add one word to This, or take one Word from It." You've got to have an ultimate somewhere. [Revelation 22:18]
L-127 Now, for instance, if I was a--a--a--a Baptist man, and you come down and told me I must be--I must be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ; it's in the Bible. Well, first thing you know, I'd say, "I'll ask my pastor."
L-128 And I go to the pastor; he say, "Oh, that's something back yonder, see. Yeah, see, we Baptists, here is what we believe; we believe that we should be immersed in the titles of 'Father, Son, Holy Ghost.' That's the way all the church has done it. Since John Smith founded it, that's the way it's done." Well, that's your ultimate. "Heck with what that guy says!" [Acts 2:38]
L-129 What if you're a Methodist, and sprinkling is your system, and you are told you must be immersed? See what I mean? You go back to the Methodist pastor, and he'll write and ask the bishop, if so-and-so said so-and-so about this. "But we, the Methodist church, we was founded three or four hundred years ago, in England, by John Wesley, and Whitefield, and all the rest of them there, and Asbury. We founded this document, following John Wesley, that we are to be sprinkled, because it's just an outward emo-... form. And we think that sprinkling is just as good as it is the other way."If you're a real... If the Methodist church is your ultimation, that's as far as you go. [Romans 6:4], [Revelation 22:18]
L-130 If you're a Catholic... And I'll tell you, it's not in the Bible not to eat meat on Fridays, and all these things like this, and "the Holy Eucharist isn't a wafer, because it's a Spirit," and so forth. And you go to your priest, the priest say, "Here it is, wrote right in our document." And if the church is your ultimate, you don't give a hoot what anybody says. That's your ultimate.
L-131 O God, help this to sink in! To me, the whole thing is wrong. God's Word is the ultimate. Whatever that Word says, then that's right.
L-132 Now, the only way up here in this spheres, that you could ever be in this little inside man; and you have to be foreordained. Because you was with God, you're a part of God.
L-133 I was in my father. I also was in my grandfather, and my grandfather's grandfather. By seed, I was in that. [Ephesians 1:4]
L-134 And I was in Christ. You were in Christ before the foundation of the world. He came to redeem His Own, His Own that was in Him. Hallelujah! His children that was in Him!
L-135 He never came to--to save the devil's children. They never will know It. And they are so shrewd in the ways of their intellectual learning, that you can't compare with them at all. You can't outtalk them. But, by faith you see It.
L-136 Now, science don't need any faith. Science proves what they're talking about. It doesn't need any faith.
L-137 The Catholic priest will tell you, "Look how long the Catholic church has waved. Look how long she stood under the persecutions of paganism."
The Methodist church say, "Looky here how long..."
The Methodist church say, "Looky here how long..."
L-138 I seen a church... talk about a hypocrite sign; coming up the road yesterday, I seen. Said, "The church of Christ, established AD 33." It ain't a hundred years old yet, see, the denomination. Oh, my! "Doctrine of the apostles"? Hardly got anything. They're the Sadducees of the day; no Spirit, no... And you can't tell them; you can't talk to them; you can't reason with them.
L-139 Because, we go beyond reasoning. "Lean not to your own understanding." Faith doesn't reason at all. Faith believes It. [Proverbs 3:5]
L-140 They say, "Now, look here, do you believe we have to do these things back there? Nonsense! That..."
L-141 But the Bible said so. I can't explain how it happens, but it happens. God said so. So you don't have... I can't tell you nothing about it. Faith doesn't explain It. Did you know that? Faith just believes It.
L-142 Jesus said to Nicodemus, from the San-... ecumenical council of His day; come to Him by night, said, "Master, we know You're a Teacher comes from God, 'cause no man could do the things You do, unless God is with him." [John 3:2]
He said, "Verily, I say unto you, 'Except a man be born again, he can't even see the Kingdom of God.'" [John 3:3, 5]
Said, "Me, an old man, enter into my mother's womb, to be born?" [John 3:4]
He said, "Now how am I going to tell you Heavenly things, when you won't even believe earthly things?" See?
Then He said, one day, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, drink His Blood, you have no Life in you." He didn't explain it. [John 6:53]
He said, "Verily, I say unto you, 'Except a man be born again, he can't even see the Kingdom of God.'" [John 3:3, 5]
Said, "Me, an old man, enter into my mother's womb, to be born?" [John 3:4]
He said, "Now how am I going to tell you Heavenly things, when you won't even believe earthly things?" See?
Then He said, one day, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, drink His Blood, you have no Life in you." He didn't explain it. [John 6:53]
L-143 Those apostles and them of that day, who was ordained to Life; He knowed it. Said, "All the Father has given Me will come. Only thing you have to do is just make My Voice known; they know it, for My sheep know My Voice." And a voice is a word expressed. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] "They believe It, anyhow. They don't have to scientifically prove anything, or ask any Sadducee or Pharisee, or anything else, about it. I said it, they believe it, for My sheep hear My Voice." [John 6:37], [John 10:27], [Acts 13:48]
L-144 And This is the Voice of God in letter form, because This is the entire revelation of Jesus Christ, Old and New Testament put together. Amen. There you are.
L-145 Why? You say, "These are good people. What makes them..." Because, one thing, their tie post is on a church. And in here... You remember last Sunday's, a week ago; how many was here and heard the sermon on The Anointed Ones In The Last Days? I think all of you. See, they are anointed. Their spirits are anointed, in this second realm.
L-146 Now, that first woman says... No, she don't give a hoot what the church says, what anybody else said. She's a smart duck. She's got college education. She could put it over on her husband, and think she is smart by doing that.
L-147 This other woman is "naked, blind, and don't know it." Oh, it's pitiful, but that's the picture the Bible paints us. Now, she goes to church. That woman, would probably be better, that woman would be... She lives a good, clean life; there is nothing against that. God will be the Judge of it. I don't know; I'm not the Judge.
L-148 I'm only the... responsible for what He shows me. That's what the apostles said. "We do speak that what we know, what we heard, what we seen." That's all I'm responsible for. That's all you're responsible for. [Acts 4:20]
L-149 But now, you see, if you would take that same woman... Where did she wind up at? See? She moved right around. She heard, no doubt; turned the radio on, many times. The Voice of God has been speaking, many times. Well, now, see, she comes over into this cult here, a clan. All churches are clans. Everything, that's exactly right, they're just lodges where people group together as membership. And she comes over here; well, that fits her just right. Now if you go to telling her what she has to do, she won't listen to you. You show it to her in the Bible; she won't listen to It.
L-150 Now, my dear brother, sister, just one or two more comments before closing. It's quarter till, time to let out; fifteen minutes.
L-151 Now look, I want to ask you something. Why can't that woman see it? Why can't she? As far as being in adultery physically, to her husband, she's not guilty; she has nothing to confess. She's as clean as she was the day she was born; no man has touched her.
L-152 I'm speaking parallel now, to the woman, to the church. She's as clean as she was born. Well, that's exactly what the church is, as she was born, but she was "born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come..." See what I mean?
L-153 Now you tell her that it's wrong for her to cut her hair; the Bible said so. It's wrong for her to wear them shorts; the Bible said so. She would say, "Nonsense." Why? Her ultimate is not down here, in that third man, the soul that's predestinated and sent from God. But her ultimate is on an organization out here, that some man has organized outside of This. See?
L-154 But if the Word of God is down in that soul, it says, "Amen! I see it."It lines up with It. Now look here. Therefore, the man that's born of the Spirit of God...
L-155 See, here is the outside flesh. And I speak in a mixed audience, going to speak as your--as your pastor, as your brother. Here is the flesh, it's weak, it's bound to... A little lady walks down the street; some young man just in his young age, when he's seventeen, eighteen, twenty years old, twenty-five, thirty, walks around in there... And this young lady comes, twisting every form, her body, walking with a pair of high-heeled shoes on; herself stuck all out in front and back; and dress is that high above her knees, or a pair of shorts on. Do you know the Bible said she would act like that? You know, the Bible said that's the way she would act, how she would be so filthy.
L-156 Did you read this here, this month's Reader's Digest, that, "Men and women of this day, little girls, from twenty or twenty-five years old, is in menopause," that you go through the change of life in the middle-age of life, according to science, between twenty and twenty-five. It used to be around thirty or thirty-five, in my age. In my mother's age, a woman never struck menopause till she was forty or forty-five.
L-157 What is it? It's through science, and the food, the hybrids, that's perverted the whole human body till we've become a bunch of--of--of a mass of corruption. Well, if the physical being is corrupted, isn't the brain cell in that physical being?
L-158 Now watch the Spirit, following it. There'll come a time, in the Name of the Lord, that people will go completely insane. The Bible says so. They'll scream and holler; great hideous things in their imaginary mind. The radios and things, our television programs, are producing it. There'll be such things as ants raise up on the earth, that will be as high as fourteen trees; there will be a--a--a bird will fly across the earth, with wings four or five miles across; and people see them, they'll scream and holler, and cry for mercy. But it'll be the Plagues. Wait till I preach on those Plagues opening up.
L-159 Watch what Moses done under the physical being, not the Spirit, when He said, "Moses..." God said to Moses, "Go out there," to His prophet, "pick up a handful of dust, throw it up in the air and say, 'THUS SAITH THE LORD, fleas will come upon the earth.'" There was no fleas. The first thing you know, they begin to see something crawl on a bush. Looked over, there is something else. And after a while, they was so deep you couldn't wade through them. [Exodus 8:16-24]
L-160 Where did they come from? God is the Creator. He can do what He will. He is sovereign. He could make a--a bird that would reach--reach his wings from one side of the earth to the other.
L-161 He said, "Let there come flies, enclothed upon all the earth." There wasn't a fly in the land. First thing you know, an old blowfly begin to fly around. First thing, there was eight or ten, twelve. First thing you know, you couldn't walk through them. God, the Creator, keeps His Word.
L-162 And he stretched forth his rod, at the command of God, and said, "Let frogs come up and cover the earth." And the frogs come till they heaped them up, piles, and stink was everywhere, maybe forty or fifty feet high, of frogs. They were in the cupboard of--of Pharaoh. They were in the... turn down the sheet, and there would be a five hundred frogs under the sheet, under the bed, in the grub. Everywhere they went, was frogs, frogs, frogs. Where did they come from? God, the Creator, is sovereign. What He says, He'll do! [Exodus 8:2]
L-163 And He said there'll be hideous sights upon the earth. "Locusts with hair like women," long hair, to haunt them women that cut their hair. "Teeth like lion; stingers in their tails, like scorpions; they would torment men, months." Just wait till we get in to opening them Plagues and Seals, and them Seven Thunders, watch what takes place. Oh, brother, you better get to Goshen while there's time to get to Goshen. Don't pay any attention to this outside. [Revelation 9:3]
L-164 Looky here. Here's a little lady twisting herself down the street; here's a young fellow, his eyes catches it. He's a member of the church. He's a Pentecostal. He's whatever he is. But the first thing you know, there's no hold post in there. She'll say, "Hello." He's got curly hair, and kind of nice-looking, straight-shouldered young man; maybe tried to live right. She start walking up to him, even a preacher. The first thing you know...
L-165 What is it? This out here, the flesh desire; and the spirit down here, yet anointed, saying, "Don't do it, don't do it." But what will it do? It'll move right around, there hold, there it goes. First thing you know, he's trying to make a date with her. He is guilty of committing adultery, whether he touches her or not.
L-166 But, a genuine, born-again son of God! Amen! You can't do it yourself. It's totally impossible for a--a red-blooded male to walk before a female like that, without something taking place. But when there is Something on the inside; that little born-again Something here!
L-167 Though that man might have shouted, spoke in tongues, jumped, danced, everything else, anointed with the Spirit; done all the signs and wonders that God said in there, by His Spirit! Jesus said, "Many will come to Me in that day, say, 'Lord, haven't I prophesied in Your Name? Haven't I cast out devils in Your Name? Have not... ' He said, 'Depart from Me, you that work iniquity.'" What is iniquity? Something that you know to do, and don't do it. "'Depart from Me, you that work iniquity; I didn't even know you.'" [Matthew 7:22-23]
L-168 But down on the inside of that man, if that little tie post is in there, that Seed of God that was predestinated before the foundation of the world; I don't care what takes place, it holds him. It's there to stay.
L-169 That's why that woman will wear them shorts. She is counted a prostitute, the same as the woman in the act. See? She doesn't know that that spirit... How does she know? Her ultimate.
L-170 What is an ultimate? Is the last word. The ultimate is the amen. It's the end of all strife, your ultimate.
L-171 And if your church, a Pentecostal church, that tells you that, "Long hair and stuff is just fanaticism. You got a spare tire, the back of your head," and so forth, them kind of things, the man is possessed of the devil.
L-172 For, God's Word said, "It's a shame for a woman to cut her hair. She'll dishonor her head." If she dishonors her husband, and her husband is the Church, and the Church is Christ, she is a dishonorable religious prostitute; naked and don't know it. Naked! Don't the Bible said, "The woman's covering is her hair"? Isn't the hair give to her for a covering? [I Corinthians 11:5-6]
L-173 Someday, yonder at the Judgment Bar! I've tried to pour the Medicine in, and hold It with my hands, and you spit It right straight back out between your fingers. God will judge them someday. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD. It hasn't been a bunch of foolishness, or some crazy old man all worked up. It isn't. Because, it's the Word of the Lord.
L-174 And a real, genuine Christian will cope with that inside man, that Spirit that was back yonder at the beginning, which is the Word.
L-175 As He was the fullness of all of you, you were in Him back yonder at Calvary. He foreknew you would be here. He only broadcast what would take place. And you were in Him; you died with Him. You died to your pride, you died to your fashions, you died to the world. When He... You died with Him in Calvary, and you arose with Him when He arose again on the third day. And because you've accepted it, now you're sitting in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah! [Ephesians 2:6]
L-176 There you are. It's that inside man. That inside that will punctuate the Word, hang with the Word, regardless. You can't help it. I learned that, many years ago.
L-177 My little baby laying here, dying. My wife laying here in a... in--in the morgue, embalmed and laid out. They called me out there, and Sharon was dying. That's the hardest temptation I ever met in my life. I was about twenty-five years old. I walked out there, and Billy Paul lying at the point of death.
L-178 Doctor Sam come, said, "Bill, I don't think we're going to save Billy. And I..." He said, "He's so bad." Said, "Bill, I feel so sorry for you."He put his arms around me.
I said, "Doc, I ain't got no more strength."
I said, "Doc, I ain't got no more strength."
L-179 Couple of hours, I called him, my baby, Sharon, I run her out there, he... to see her in spasm; it wouldn't stop. They put a needle in the spine; they punctured it, brought the sign up, tubercular meningitis. That's all.
L-180 I waved my way out to the hospital; stopped my old truck out there, and got out and started walking down to the room. Here came Sam down the hall, with his hat in his hand, crying, put his arm around me, said, "Come on back, Bill."
I said, "What's the matter?"
Said, "You can't see her." Said, "She is dying, Bill."
And I said, "No, Sam, not my baby."
I said, "What's the matter?"
Said, "You can't see her." Said, "She is dying, Bill."
And I said, "No, Sam, not my baby."
L-181 Said, "Yep." Said, "Don't even ask for her, Bill. She'd ever live," said, "she'd be afflicted." Said, "She'd always be drawed up, and she'd be afflicted all of her life." Said, "She's got meningitis." Said, "Don't go around her; you--you'll just kill Billy by doing it."
I said, "Sam, I got to see her."
I said, "Sam, I got to see her."
L-182 Said, "You can't do it, Bill. I--I forbid you. Now, you know how much I think of you, and you're my buddy and everything," said, "how much I think of you," said, "and how much I believe you, Bill," he said, "but don't--don't go to that baby." Said, "If you do that,... Meningitis is on her." See? Said, "She'll be gone in a few minutes, and," said, "you can... we'll bury her." Said, "Bill, I just feel so sorry for you."
L-183 And he call, told, called a nurse, to order me some kind of medicine. Said, "I don't know how the man is standing up."
L-184 I stood there a little bit. He brought the medicine in. I sat down, in the hall. He said, "Sit." And the nurse brought it, said, "Drink this, Brother Branham."
L-185 I said, "Thank you. Just set it down there a minute." When she left like that, I poured it over in a spittoon; set the glass back down.
L-186 I set there. I thought, "O God, what have I done? You're a good God. Why did You let her die, the other day, me holding her two little arms like that?" Begging Him for her. "Why'd You let her go? There is Billy laying there, dying; and here she is, dying. What have I done? Tell me! Well, I just might as well go with them."
L-187 I opened the door, and no nurse was there. I slipped down in the basement. That was before the hospital was fixed. Screens, no screens on the windows, hardly, and flies on her little eyes. Had a piece of mosquito bar, we call it, netting put over her face. I shooed the flies off; laid there. Her little eyes, she suffered so hard till they were crossing.
L-188 Then Satan moved up by the side of me there, and said, "Did you say He was a good God?"
I said, "Yeah, I said that."
I said, "Yeah, I said that."
L-189 "Did you say He was a healer? Well, why did your father die in your arms over there, and you calling, him a sinner, calling for his life? Why did your brother die in your other brother's arms, out there, and you standing in the pulpit preaching, a few weeks ago?" Said, "Then why didn't He answer you? You said He loved you and saved you."
L-190 He couldn't tell me there was no God, 'cause I already seen Him. But he was telling me He didn't care for me.
L-191 Said, "There lays your wife. Your babies will be there pretty soon. Your daddy is buried. Your brother is buried. And your wife is going to be buried now, tomorrow. And here is your other baby, dying. He's a good God? Huh? He's a healer?" Said, "You made a sap out of yourself!"
L-193 Said, "Now look. You know, when you was a few years ago, about two or three years ago, before you accepted This, you was well thought of amongst the people. You lived a good, clean life. Any girl in the city, that wanted to go out, go out with you, 'cause they felt clean and decent." I could stand before any of them. I never insulted one, never said anything. She even act smart, I'd take her home. "And you were liked amongst the people. But what are you now? A religious fanatic."
L-194 "That's right. I was." See these things begin to move together? The outside, reasoning in the spirit, moving these things together. "That's right, Satan."
"And did you say He was a healer?"
"Yes. Hum. Yeah."
"And did you say He was a healer?"
"Yes. Hum. Yeah."
L-195 "And you begging and crying, and the people telling you it wasn't so, that you're all off the line. Your own church turned you out, for This. Your own Baptist church down there, put you out the door, for the very same cause.
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
L-196 "Your daddy buried. Your brother buried. Your wife lying there, to be buried. Here is your baby, just about fifteen minutes longer and it'll be gone. And He's a healer? Your own flesh and blood; one word from Him would save the baby's life. 'He's a healer,' you said. The people tried to tell you. The preacher told you you was all messed up; you was all insane; you was become a religious fanatic. And you said He loved you. Could He love you?
L-197 "And how you cried for your daddy! How, night after night, you fasted, and when you... in daytime, when you'd have to pray, to get up a pole, to work. And when He let him die in your arms, a sinner.
L-198 "How your wife, what a fine woman she was, and how you loved her!"Billy's mother; many of you remember Hope. "What a fine girl she was! How happy you was, your little home over there; with about seven or eight dollars worth of furniture, what furniture you had, but yet you loved her; and you... and you loved one another. And you went and prayed for others; and, some mental emotion, they got up and walked away and said they were all right. But now your own wife; and there she is, dead, second day now, lying in the undertaker's establishment down yonder, Scott and Combs. He's a healer? Huh?
L-199 "And your little boy at the point of death, Billy Paul, eighteen months old. And your little girl, at eight months old, is lying here, dying, with meningitis. And you just prayed; and God pulled a sheet down, said, 'Shut up!' Don't hear, won't hear you, at all! Turned His back on you. He's a good God? Huh? He loves you? And every girl you ever went with, every boy you ever associated with, your very best friends, has walked away from you as a religious fanatic."
L-200 Everything he was telling me was the truth. Everything that he would say, just fall right in line, see, here. I was just then about ready to say, "Then I, if that's the way He has to act, then I won't serve Him."
L-201 Just as I said that, there was Something came from somewhere else, way down on the inside. Said, "Who are you, to begin with? The Lord gave, and the Lord taken away." See, that's that inside man, don't reason at all.
L-202 I looked back, and I thought, "How did I get on earth? I come from a bunch of drunkards. How did I get here? Who give me life? Who give me that wife? Who give me that baby? Where did my wife come from? Where did my life come from?" I said, "Though He slay me, yet I'll trust Him."
I said, "Get away from me, Satan!" [Job 1:21], [Job 13:15]
I said, "Get away from me, Satan!" [Job 1:21], [Job 13:15]
L-203 I laid my hand over on the baby. I said, "Sharon, honey, I'll lay you on your mother's arms in a few minutes, when the Angels of God comes to take you away, but one day daddy will see you again. I don't know how it's going to be, honey. I can't tell you how; when He turns His back upon me, won't even hear for you."
L-204 He let my wife die, and me holding her by the hands, crying for her. And my daddy, in his arms, died on this arm right here; looking up at me, trying to get his breath. And I prayed as hard as I could. How could I face the public again, to preach Divine healing? How could I preach He was a good God, and let my own daddy die, a sinner? How could I preach that? I don't know how, but I know He's right.
L-205 The Word of God shall never fail. It'll triumph, no matter what that is. Then I knowed there was Something inside of all reasonings, Something inside of all emotions, everything else like that. There was a inside Man that held in that hour. Nothing else could a-done it; every reason, everything could be showed, everything could prove that It was wrong, and I was in the wrong. But the Word of God, that was predestinated before the foundation of the world, held on the inside.
L-207 Brother, sister, let me tell you, That's the only thing. Don't try to reason It out. Don't try to have long hair because I said so. Don't try to do these things just, because, in your flesh. Don't try to do it, just kind of cope up. But just wait before the Lord, till Something way down on the inside!
L-208 Many of you think, 'cause you've got long hair, that means you're going to go to Heaven. That doesn't mean that. Many of them thinks, 'cause you're a good, moral woman, you're going to...?... It don't mean that. Many of them think, because their churches, and belong to this, and this great groups, and great doctors of Divinity. That don't mean that. See?
L-209 Many think, because they speak with tongues, they've got the Holy Ghost. That don't mean that. Though, the Holy Ghost does speak with tongues. But until that real, genuine Holy Spirit in there will cope with every Word! If that Holy Spirit in you, that makes you speak with tongues, looks back there and doesn't agree with the rest of the Word, then it's the wrong spirit. See?
L-210 It's got to come from the inside, which is the Word, from the beginning. "In the beginning of the creation of God," when God begin to create, bring you into existence, you see. You started back there as a seed, and worked down to where you are now. And, then, you were all in Christ. And then when Christ died, He died to redeem all of you. And you are a part of this Word, and how can... the Bible, all of It! "Precept upon precept, line upon line; here a little, there a little." "Not one jot or a tittle shall fail." How in the world can you, being part of that Word, disagree with the rest of It, or any part of It? [Isaiah 28:10, 13]
L-211 God bless you. I'm overtime now. I didn't mean to do this, keep you that long. Sorry that I kept you; not sorry for what I said.
We're right at the end of something, friends.
We're right at the end of something, friends.
L-212 All of you here, I guess, are just the members here of the church. I don't get around, in time, to see what members there is. I imagine all of you are constant comers here. Let me tell you something that happened. Will you spare, say, six more minutes? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.]
L-213 Is that Rev. Mr. O. Walker here from Oregon, that was here that--that Sunday I was here? Anybody know about? Was great, strange thing.
L-214 I come down here, there was so many people in, I--I had... I had a pile of interviews, and every one of them worthy; their boy, children, married, drunkards, and--and different things, and just things that was worthy. Every one of them should have been seen. I can't do all that. And I commit you to God, and hold my hands over them, in prayer. I said, "O God, I--I couldn't do it. Get to them, Lord, do... You know how to do it. I pray for each one."
L-216 And, look, I see people drive out there sometime, in the lane, look in. And I look out at them, then wave at them like that, and they--they almost turn their head. I don't want you to do that.
L-217 The other day when they was buying that place out there at Tucson for me to live in, Brother Tony had a place up there he wanted to buy me, for about three or four times what this place cost. He even wanted to put in so many thousand dollars on it, himself. But the only way you get in there, a gateman was standing out there. A great big... Well, it's a addition up there. But any... This people that lives there, you have to have a written permission, then this gateman calls you and see if it's all right for them to come in.
L-218 I said, "Could you imagine, me, my brothers and sisters who come to see me, that wants to shake my hand and ask God's blessings for me, could you imagine me put myself in there, Tony?"
He said, "Well, you have..."
He said, "Well, you have..."
L-219 I said, "Tony, the way the church and all of them has the people not to come around," I said, "that's for people that's got everything they want me to do."
L-220 They, they say, "Well, the Lord told me. Hallelujah! I'm going to stay right here. Glory to God! The Lord told me you have to hold a meeting over here in our group. Yes, sir, glory to God! The God told me that. If you don't do it, Brother Branham, you're sure backslid." Me in there trying to study, see. That's what, see. And many a good person gets beat out, of coming in, because of that.
L-221 Just like a man going hunting out here on a farm. A farmer say, "Come on in. You can hunt."And you get out there and shoot one of his cows; a rabbit run under the cow, and just shoot the rabbit, anyhow. You get up on the fence, instead of going to the post and climb over like a decent man should do; climb up on the fence and break it down like that. See? And then he'll say, "I'll post the place!" I don't--I don't blame him one bit, not one bit. Well, what does he do? He keeps the decent hunter from coming in. It's always that way. It's the evil that keeps the good from having the preeminences. It's always.
L-222 Now, but them people are, thousands are really needy and nice people, loving people, full of God's grace.
L-223 Now we have this, how these people come like that. We don't, we don't want that, no.
But this man come...
But this man come...
L-224 Billy said, "Run down now, right quick, daddy." Said, "Mrs. Waldorf is down here with some people dying; must see them right at once." And I run in; come down here.
L-225 And coming back, they said, "There is nobody down here but a man sleeping on a side of the side, out there, on a pillow every day, on the side of the building." Said, "He wants you to pray for him."
I said, "All right." Said, "I'll put him in." I came in.
I said, "All right." Said, "I'll put him in." I came in.
L-226 There was, I think, a Cadillac sitting back here in the back, or some kind of big car. I rode in, was... And that man said, "How do you do." He didn't know me.
L-228 You know her case, don't you? See, she had cancer; died in the prayer line, about an hour before I got to her. Her doctor come, showed... That's been about eighteen years ago, cancer in the heart, see, and she is living today. And she's living down in Arkansas now.
L-229 And she was in Phoenix, then. And she said, "Brother Willie, I hated to come in like this, but," said, "I didn't have no place to stay. They did... They said this pa-... this woman is going to die. Oh, Brother Willie!"
L-230 Said, "I wanted to bring you a little offering in my hand, Brother Willie," said, "but I couldn't do it. But I canned some blackberry jelly."
L-231 Oh, when I went up there and seen them little glasses of jelly she had sitting there, I... it looked too sacred for me to eat. See? That dear little old woman, about seventy years old. I said, "Sister Hattie..." I--I couldn't say no. No. Jesus seen that widow putting in three pennies, and He--He--He let her alone. See? No. God will reward her for it. Yeah.
L-232 And so the Lord healed the woman, healed all she had, revealed to her pastor what he, she, had on his mind, what he's supposed to do, another thing. And, oh, they all went out, shouting.
L-233 Then Billy run in. He said, "Daddy, that man is gone. I can't..."
I said, "Who is that out there in the car?"
I said, "Who is that out there in the car?"
L-234 "Oh," he said, "some guy came down from Oregon, said he's got some kind of a dream. And I told him, 'I wouldn't give you no false hope. There's three hundred here, waiting now.'" And said, "And I told him, 'Just write the dream out.' Said, 'I got a pile of them in here, that high, anyhow, and I just add it to it.'"
I said, "Bring him in. Give him five minutes."
I said, "Bring him in. Give him five minutes."
L-235 Well, as soon as the man walked in, five minutes? He said, "I am Rev. Walker," I think his name was, "from Oregon." I think he's a some other denomination, I don't know, Presbyterian, Presbyterian something.
L-236 He said, "I met you about twenty years ago. I come down to Grants Pass where you..." Or, not Grants Pass, but I forget the name of the place. "There," said, "whole country, headlines in the paper every morning." Said, "Everybody knew about it." Said, "I couldn't even get to the building where you was at, but I seen you go up. And one day, on the street, I walked up," said, "four or five man around you, and I shook your hand. And you... I told you I was Brother Walker, and you told me who you was." Said, "We passed a couple words, and then three or four big man with you just pushed you on." He said, "I wasn't your critic, and I wasn't for you." He said, "I just didn't understand."
L-237 He said, "It went on that way for a few years, and after while," said, "I... a man told me to come listen to some tapes, about three years ago." And said, "The man played the tapes. And, when he did," he said, "I heard him talk." And said, "This man believed that you was a--a prophet. I said, I told the man, 'I don't know about those things; might be, for all I know.'"
L-238 So, said, "Then another man moved into our town, had a meeting, and I met him. And he said, 'I'm God's prophet for this day.'"
L-239 He said, "'How many of you guys are there, anyhow?' Said, 'I--I--I hear where a man down here is listening to tapes, said, "William Branham, back in the east, was a prophet of the day," and things like that.'"
L-240 He said, "This man..." I ain't going to call his name, 'cause it don't sound right, here, you see. "And he said, 'I know William Branham,' said, 'but he's all false in his Doctrine.' Said, 'He isn't Pentecostal; he doesn't believe in initial evidence.' And said, 'Another thing, he says there is major and minor prophets. There is no such a thing.' Said, 'You're a prophet or not a prophet, and that's all.'"
L-241 He said, "'Well, mister, I'm... didn't argue with you about it. I just said I heard this man say that this man, William Branham... and that this man claimed that he was a prophet.'" Said, "'I just wondered how many there was.'"
L-244 He went on, never paid any attention to it. And said he started on, amongst his brethren, a series of three or four meetings. And he went down to the post office, said, "Don't--don't change my mail. Leave it here till I come back, about four or five days later."
L-245 "All right," they said. They put a ticket up there, not to change it.
He went down and seen his daughter.
He went down and seen his daughter.
L-246 And on the road out, he--he stopped at a church. And he had that night's meeting. The next morning, he said he just happened to think, "Go get general delivery." And when he did, one letter had creeped through the post office and got to his daughter; his daughter sent there, general delivery.
L-247 And he opened it up. And said it was a man, Mr. Hildebrandt, which is a friend of mine, that had been the man playing the tapes. Said Mr. Hildebrandt had a word from Roy Borders (and that's one of the managers, you know), that I was going to hold a meeting back here, for from the twenty-eighth through the first, come back and see for himself.
L-248 He said, "Now, looky here, them guys trying to pull me in something like that!" See? And he just flipped the letter over in the wastebasket, and went on, see, like that. Went on in and held that meeting that night. And the next morning...
L-250 He said, "Mr. Branham, I realize I got to stand before God." He said, "I don't know whether I was asleep or what happened." He said, "I dreamed. I'm going to say I was asleep and I dreamed."
L-251 Said, "I thought my son, in the market, stuck his hand in a--a sack." And said, "When he did, it was a sack of apples, and they all turned over." Said, "When I went to pick them up, they was all green apples with one bite taken out of them." Said, "I was picking them up, put them back in the sack." Said, "Some of them rolled out, and rolled down, so I went to try to get them, and under... on the grass." And said, "They rolled under one of these chain-lock fences. And there was a big super highway run in there. I looked back east, and," he said, "the--the--the chain was hooked against a--a big rock back in the east. And I went back there, and thought I'd let this chain down, then go over and get the apples for the man." Said, "I started to let the chain down."
L-252 Said, "A voice shook the whole earth." Said, "The earth shook, from under my feet." And said, "After it quit shaking, I heard a voice." And said, "Brother Branham, it was your voice," said, "I knowed; there was something said that." Said--said, "It said, 'I'll ride this trail once more!'"
L-253 And said, "I started looking up the rock, like this, and looked on, in a past the clouds. And way up there, standing on a rock that reached from the east to the west, in a pointed shape like that, like a pyramid, run back here to the east, and," said, "there you were standing there, on a horse that I never seen anything like it in my life; great white horse, white mane hanging down." And said, "You was dressed like an Indian chief, with all the things the Indians use." Said, "He had a breastplate; them bangles on the arms, and all down around like that." Said, "You had your hands up like that." And said, "That horse standing there like a military horse, with a prance like this, walking," me standing still. And said, "You pulled on the reins, went riding off towards the west."
L-254 Said, "I looked down there, and there was a whole lot of scientists." And the next morning... That was Saturday. On the next morning, I preached on scientists, you know, being of the devil. And said, "Scientists there were pouring things in tubes, and mixing it." Said, "You stopped the horse, raised up your hands again and screamed, 'I'll ride this trail once more!'" And said, "The whole earth shook. Them people shook," said, "looked up and looked at one another, like that, and looked up to you. They just shrugged their shoulders, went on with their scientific research." And said, "You started going on towards the west.
L-255 "And when it did," said, "I seen this man that called himself a prophet, you know," said, "he come up on a horse that was mixed with white and black together." And said, "He got up behind this great big horse." Said, "It was," said, "way up above the clouds, and the road wasn't over about that wide." And said, "That horse just danced, to the wind blowing the feathers and everything on--on your garb," and said, "then the horse mane and tail blowing. Great master, big white horse, walking right in line." And said--and said, "This guy ran up behind you, come from towards Canada," and the man lives in Canada. And he said, "Come back, and," said, "he took his little horse, trying to knock your big horse off; turning him around; make his hips hit against the..." Said, "It never moved the big horse; he just kept walking."
L-256 Said, "Then, all of a sudden," said, "you turned around." Said, "That would be the third time you had spoke, but the second time you said 'I'll ride.'" And said, "You didn't speak like you did. You commanded." Said, "You turned around and called the man by name, and said, 'Get off of here! You know that no man can ride this road here without God be ordaining him to do it. Get off of here!'"
L-257 And said, "The man turned around." And said, "The man has wrote me letters." And said, "Across his horse's hips," that black and gray, and mixed up together, said, "across his horse's hips was wrote his name, signature just exactly like is on his letter. And he rode off towards the north."
L-258 Said, "Then you went on down; that big horse turned around, way as far west as you could." Said, "You stood and raised your hands up like that." Then he started crying. Said, "Brother Branham, to see that horse standing there; all that war bonnet and everything like that, and," said, "that breastplate and everything shine." Said, "You held your hands up a little while." And said, "You looked down again, picked up the reins, said, 'I'll ride this trail just once more!'" Said, "The whole earth shook back and forth, like that." And said, "There was no more life left in me; I just fell down aside of the rock. Then I woke up."
Said, "What does it mean, sir?"
I said, "I don't know."
Said, "What does it mean, sir?"
I said, "I don't know."
L-259 Next morning... Junior Jackson, who dreamed about the pyramid, you know, when I went out west. You remember that? He called me, a month or two before that. He had a dream that's burning; he had to tell me. And I said, "Billy..."
L-260 There was about twenty standing out there. He said, "Junior Jackson, down there, said he had to tell you that dream."
I said, "Send him in, just about five minutes."
I said, "Send him in, just about five minutes."
L-261 He brought his wife in, and, he said, for a witness. He said, "I dreamed, Brother Branham, me and my wife was out riding." And said, "I looked back in the east, and I saw, look like, a spot, like one of them flying saucers."
L-262 See, the world don't know what that is, you know. You know it's on. We know what it is. See? We know it's investigating, judgment Angels, you see. And how at the Pentagon and all, about how it comes right down; and the intelligence, how they can [Brother Branham snaps his fingers once--Ed.] go like a flash and be gone, pull away from anything they got. See, they don't realize what it is, see. Let them think whatever they want to. They call it flying saucers, or whatever. They don't know, see.
L-263 Said, "And I seen it coming, and I watched it. And what it was, it was a man on a horse." And said, "He was coming with lightning speed." Said, "I seen he was going to come down in front of me. And I stopped my car, jumped out. When it did," said, "the car... horse was standing in the road, a great white military horse walking in a prance." That's the Word, of course, you know, walking in a prance.
L-264 Said, "There was a man sitting on there." Said, "He--he was dressed in western garb; wasn't a cowboy, but," said, "looked like a chief over rangers or something." See, all of his chief authority, from the west; the Indians over the Indians; rangers over, see. And said, "The man had his hat pulled down, and had... was looking sideways." And said, "When he turned sideways," said, "it was you, Brother Branham." Said, "You never talked like you did. You said, 'Junior!' Called him three times. And said, 'I'll tell you what to do.'" And said, "Then you pulled up on the reins of this horse. You made about three lopes, and took to the skies, and you were gone towards the west."
L-265 He said, "Just a minute, I looked around, and here came a horse smaller than that one, of the same breed, but smaller, and stood." Said, "I walked around, said, 'He must have sent this back for me.'" Said, "I got in it." (Junior has done a little riding, too. He said, "You know how your saddle fits you, Brother Branham, the stirrups and everything?") Said, "I thought, 'Well, this fits me just right.' So I pulled up on the reins, off through the skies." Said, "I pulled on the reins and stopped him, turned him around and went back. See? When I went back," said, "I stopped the horse, got off, talked to the wife. The horse was gone." And he woke up.
L-266 Then, day before yesterday, three days ago, come Leo Mercier, coming down with exactly the same dream, not knowing nothing about it; about trying to breed a big white stallion to a black mare, and they couldn't do it; nervous. Said I walked up there, said, "'Leo,'" and told him what I did. I don't want to say it here, see, but I told him what I did. "Said, 'Don't you see? Now, to know this; I didn't know Ed Dalton had a son-in-law, and the son-in-law had a dog by this name. You'll know, Leo, that you're dreaming. But, when you wake up, remember it!'" And said, "I never heard such a command."
L-267 About that time, Roy Roberson come in, said, "Brother Branham, you remember back there before you left the church the first time? We was... I seen you sitting, like in Palestine. We was all, the board and everything, was sitting like the Lord's supper table, and then you talked. And you... He wasn't sure what you was talking about." Said, "A white cloud come down and got you, packed you away." How many remembers the--the dream of Brother Roy? And said, "The white cloud packed you away," and said, "then you was gone. I walked through the streets, screaming and crying."
L-268 When I come up out here, and that little old arm crippled up, like he was, a reading this. He dropped the rake and started crying when he seen me coming up out there. I hadn't seen him so he tell me the dream. And he said... And he was raking. I said...
L-269 "And--and you went away." Said, "I walked the streets, everywhere, trying to find you. I couldn't find you, nowhere. I was screaming, 'Oh, Brother Branham, don't leave!'" Said, "A white cloud come in and got you, and packed you away from us, towards the west." That was before the pyramid or anything. Said, "Packed you towards the west. And I cried, and I walked the streets."
L-270 Said, "After a while I went and sat at the table. I happened to look up there at the head of the table." Said, "I could just see that much of you, was snow white." Said, "You was standing there." And said, "You spoke with authority. There was no guessing to it." Said, "Every man understood exactly what you said."
L-272 Just watch! Stay close to Christ. Let me warn you now, as a minister of the Gospel, of this. Don't take any foolishness. Don't imagine anything. Stay right there until this inside of the inside is anchored to the Word, that you're right in Christ, 'cause that's the only thing that's going to... Cause, we're in the most deceiving age that we ever lived in. "It would deceive the very Elected if it was possible," because they have anointing, they can do anything like the rest of them. [Matthew 24:24]
L-273 Clean your lives up. Pay your debts. "Owe no man," Jesus said. Now, now, I mean, like your house rent and stuff, you got to do it. Get all your things off your hands. Get everything right. Make ready. Get ready. Remember, in the Name of the Lord, something is fixing to happen. [Romans 13:8]
L-274 I'm going into the hills this week, not exactly to hunt squirrels; course, I like to hunt squirrels. But I'm going out there for this purpose, saying, "O God, I don't know which way to move, and I don't want to miss this. Help me."
L-275 You pray for me. Will you do it? I'll be praying for you. I hope, by the mercies of God, that I meet every one of you, and we meet in a better Land than this here.
L-276 And what are we coming here for? What are we doing? Are we coming here, playing a game? Are we coming here, meeting as a lodge? It's, Christ can't come until that Church is perfectly right. He is waiting on us. I believe we're at the end.
L-277 Look at, in California. Look at the riots. Look at nineteen people being killed, racial. Didn't I tell you, here not long ago, that that Martin Luther King would lead his people to a massacre? How many remembers that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] It isn't them colored people; it's them leaders stirring them up. It isn't integration, segregations, and whatever they want to call it; it's the devil. That's right. Not only to the white, colored; this is all of them. It's the devil.
L-278 The mental faculties and reasons of man is broke down. There is no hopes. It's beyond hope. The whole thing is a putrid-ated sore. The mental faculties of man; they can't make decisions.
L-279 I'm not a politician. I don't, neither Democrat or Republican. They're all filthy. I'm for one Kingdom, and that's the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. That's all. But how in the world did you ever see a bunch of puppets like we got up there now, like that bunch of Texans we got in there? "Why," they say, "whatever the people wants! If they want communism, we'll give them communism. If they want integration, we'll give them integration. Want segregation, we give whatever." Did it... Where is man?
L-280 O God! That's like the pulpit. Where is man, man that's man, that stands for a principle? Where is women that stands for a principle? Where is a church that stands for a principle? I ain't got a nickel's worth of time for a wishy-washy, give in, compromising spirit. A woman is a woman, let her be lady. If a man is a man, let him be man.
L-281 If he's a president... Where is our John Quincy Adamses? Where is our Abraham Lincolns, man of principle? Where is our Patrick Henry, said, "Give me liberty or give me death"?
L-282 Where is a man that stands for what's right? Where is the man that's not afraid to speak out? Regardless, the whole world's against him, speak out for what's right; and stand for it and die for it. Where is our Arnold von Winkelried again today? Where is men of integrity? Where is men with spirit? They're so wishy-washy and gaumed up until they don't know where they stand.
L-283 God, let me stand with the principles of one Man, as a minister, the Word of Jesus Christ. "For heavens and earth will pass away, but It'll never fail. On this Rock I'll build My Church; the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Let us stand.
Let us stand.
Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred mind
Is like to that Above.
Now join your hands with one another.
When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.
Till we meet! till we meet!
Till we meet at Jesus, feet;
Till we meet! till we meet!
God be with you till we meet again! [Matthew 24:35], [Matthew 16:18]
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred mind
Is like to that Above.
Now join your hands with one another.
When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.
Till we meet! till we meet!
Till we meet at Jesus, feet;
Till we meet! till we meet!
God be with you till we meet again! [Matthew 24:35], [Matthew 16:18]
L-284 Let's bow our heads now, while Brother Neville dismiss us, in a word of prayer.
Be back tonight, now. We're expecting a great service tonight, here at the tabernacle. God bless you. And pray for me; I'll pray for you.
Be back tonight, now. We're expecting a great service tonight, here at the tabernacle. God bless you. And pray for me; I'll pray for you.
L-285 Don't think that I'm a fanatic, friends. Don't think I'm trying to push something on you. I love you. And I have a principle, that's the Bible. Not one Word can be taken from It. Not one word can be added to It. And I believe It the way It's written. [Revelation 22:18]