E-1 Thank you brother. (Let her sing.) Let us bow our heads now. Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee this morning for Thy goodness and mercy, for giving us the privilege of assembling here together again, a day this side of the great Eternity, to worship the lovely One, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You because that He come to the earth to—to redeem us from a—a life of sin, and to give us this great heritage that we have through His righteousness. And as we, this morning, are here as His ambassadors, to—to break this Bread of Life to this waiting congregation, may the Holy Spirit inspire every Word and place it into the hearts of the people, just as we have need. We ask this in Jesus' Name. Amen.
Be seated.
E-2 I certainly deem this, and a great privilege, again this morning, to be standing here with you. Sorry that we don't have no more room than what we do, to take care of the people. Our tabernacle isn't quite large enough. And we are very grateful to be here, through this holidays, from—from down at our home in… at Tucson. And weather was kind of rough, but we was happy to be here and to have the meeting.
Now, I want to announce that tonight there will be a healing service tonight, or a prayer for the sick. And I told Billy just now. He said, "Well, what will you do?"
E-3 I said, "Well, maybe you better give out some cards tonight, about six-thirty, so that where the people won't…"
And, see, it's so jammed in here, we can know just how to bring them, one by one, so you can be called by the number of your card, and so there won't be any congestion. We can just call them, one by one, let them go through the line as we pray for them.
E-4 So, you, if you are sick, or have loved ones are sick, and want to bring them in, come about six-thirty, something like that, seven o'clock, and get a prayer card. He'll be at the door, or however he gives them out, as you come in.
E-5 And, then, this will probably be about the last time I get to be back, for some time, 'cause I got a very heavy schedule now. Down, and still in the United States until this spring, late. So, we, we'll maybe get back again a little later on this summer.
If the Lord willing, I'd like to, if we get the—the place over here if it's air-conditioned. I was going to ask Billy. I would like to speak on those Seven Trumpets, have a ser-… a meeting here for the Seven Trumpets, if—if the Lord willing. For, that, the—the Seven Church Ages, and the Seven Seals, and now the Seven Trumpets. And could get some time like in June where peoples has their vacation, give them time so they could get in.
E-6 And I'm glad to see Brother Shepherd here this morning, from the hospital. I was out to see him the other day. And Sister Shepherd, I didn't get to call you yesterday. That dream that you sent me was very, very fine. You seen, as it was, Christ in a—on a… in—in the skies, upon this white horse, but yet being bound, you see. But, yet, before it faded away, all your family got to see it. That, the dream interpretation, is that your family has seen His move of this last days before it passed away, what It was. So, it's, that was very spiritual, and a very good blessing to you, you family. That family come up out of some great tribulation, to come to where they are today.
E-7 And now we have something, a little on the sad side, this morning. Since I met here… One of our precious friends, and—and comers to this tabernacle, the Coats family; which, we all love them. They come down from the east, and, or from Chicago, around. And Sister Billie Habib, and—and her sister, Armstrong, and all the girls. They… I think they were formerly Nazarene, and has come to the Lord, and they're very precious friends of ours.
And Brother and Sister Coats, their father and mother, was on the road home the other day, from over in the West, and someone slid on the road and—and killed Sister Coats, instantly. And—and while they called me over, in—in Tucson, and I heard about it, I was setting right there then with a box of candy that she had just made for me, setting on the—on the table. And you don't know how it made me feel. But I—I think that, thank the Lord this morning, she didn't have to suffer. She was getting aged, and she didn't have to suffer. And she went Home to be with God.
E-8 I was just thinking, and talking to her two girls, just now, in the room in there. Brother Coats is here this morning; he got some broken ribs. And I called him in the hospital and where he was hospitalized, over in Missouri, and his ribs broke and things, but he certainly had a real courage, a real Christian; knowing that his little queen is not dead, she is alive forevermore, with Christ, and there'll be a uniting time.
E-9 Job said, one time, "Oh, that Thou would hide me in the grave, and keep me in the secret place, until Thy wrath be past."
E-10 Did you ever notice God, in nature, does the same thing? Like the sap that's in the trees up here, holding on the leaves; and 'fore wintertime comes, the wrath that's poured out upon the earth… See, at one time the earth didn't have winter. And in the Millennium there'll never be no more winters, you see. So it's the wrath upon the earth. Then when that happened… See, before the wrath comes, God in His mercy sends that sap right down into the… underneath the ground, into the roots of that tree, and keeps it there until the wrath of the winter be passed, then raises it back up again, see, in the springtime.
"Oh, that Thou would hide me in the grave, and keep me in the secret place, until Thy wrath be past." That's what He's done for our sister. That's what He does for all Christian.
E-11 Brother Coats, God bless you. I'm so happy to know that, that the Seal of God holds in the hour of trouble. I know what he going through with, 'cause I went through with something similar, years ago. But I'm… One by one we have to cross over this great river; and, I, and it'll be my time, one of these days; and your time, one of these days. But as David said, "I'll fear no evil; for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."
E-12 Now in commemoration of Sister Coats, our precious sister who has gone on to God. I… As a little commemoration to her, this morning, I want the congregation to stand just for a moment.
Let us bow our heads and think of one who once, a few days ago, walked in—in this tabernacle, in and out among us, shook our hands, a lovely Christian, is now in that place that the Lord let me see not long ago, a young woman again, waiting for her oncoming family.
E-13 Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for the memories of Sister Coats. What a precious, dear sister! And now time comes that when we live out our span in life, that's been lotted to us, we must cross the river. We thank Thee because that she did not have to suffer. There must not been anything against her here, that she had to suffer for. She just went straight into the arms of God, just in a moment.
E-14 Her husband, her children, are here this morning, Lord, right back to their post of duty. How we thank Thee for that gallant faith! "The Faith of our fathers living still, instead of dungeon, flame, and sword." We thank Thee for all these things.
E-15 Rest her precious soul, Lord. She was our sister. Grief, teardrops fall in our heart, for her absence, but joy springs up from the teardrops, let us know with assurance of Thy Word that she lives on in an immortal life than can never die. And there never be a accident where she is at now, only waiting for those who come afterwards to join with her.
E-16 Bless Brother Coats, and bless them girls and her family, Lord, and those loved ones, and all who love her. And someday, Father, we trust to meet her up there in that great Beyond, where there is no sickness, sorrow, or death. Until that time, keep us all healthy and well, serving You, and looking forward for that day. In Jesus Christ's Name we ask it. Amen.
E-17 May the great Holy Spirit that deals with us here at the tabernacle, in revealing His Word, may He rest her gallant soul in peace till we meet her.
E-18 Now it is warm in here this morning, because it's bodies, you know, so much being the heat of the human body.
E-19 Now, we would like to make announcement now. Sometimes our services here, being long, of a—of a morning, the reason it is… It's really not right to hold a service that long, because, hour, an hour and a half, or sometimes two hours. But what I'm doing, I'm taping back here, see, and this tape goes all over the world. And that's what I… we gather in, so long, of a morning, is—is because that I come here to make these tapes. That's to…?… they're… See, you can see in the room there, the—the tapes that's being—being made now, and they go out everywhere across the world.
E-20 Now, soon, the Lord willing, this coming, just as soon as I leave here… I'll be leaving, the Lord willing, tomorrow morning, sometime, back to Arizona, because I've got a meeting coming up. And then it's just all the way across the South. And you southern people from down in Georgia, and Mississippi, and Texas, and Alabama, we're coming right down in there, all the way into Florida, right away.
E-21 Going from here to Phoenix, then to California, and right back to Dallas, and—and perhaps drop down into San Antonio, I think it is, and back over in Alabama, and Florida, and through there. So we'll be seeing you people down in there, the Lord willing, right away.
E-22 And then you keep praying for us, and we'll let you know when, if we… the Lord puts upon our heart now to hold a—a few days here, this coming summer.
E-23 I had a group of meetings scheduled. And many of you in New York know when the vision come, that said that those meetings in the Scandinavian country… You remember them scheduled in there? And then, while I was in New York, the vision came, that every one of those meetings would cancel, for some reason. And I remember I told some of you here, when we was in New York. That's just exactly what happened, 'cause they all wanted the same day and couldn't get that building.
So, then, that might leave a little spot there in June. It might been the will of the Lord, I was thinking, maybe to come back for those Trumpets right here, before it's too late. See? So we know that everything works just right. So that was on my heart, so it might be what He wants us to do.
E-24 Now I see you're changing seats with each other, and—and out in the halls, and so forth. We wish we just had place to set down.
And now when we have those Trumpets, that's… we want to get the high school gymnasium. I think it seats fifty-five hundred, and then we'd have a chance, too, everybody to have a seat, and set down and listen quietly while we're—while we're preaching.
E-25 Or, this, the Trumpets, they're very, very fine. I looking at it the other day. See, on the Sixth Seal, all Seven Trumpets sounds right there on that Sixth Seal, see, just before the Seventh Seal opens the Coming of Christ.
E-26 And, tonight, I have a very important Message that I want to speak just before the—the—the healing service. And if you're here, and are going to stay over, well, we'll try, if it possible to start just a little bit early, 'cause there'll be a prayer line. I won't preach too long, but there is something that I've wanted to say to the church, for some time, and kind of post you on the—the—the—the… how things are running at this time, and just where we're standing, and the best of my knowledge through the Scripture.
E-27 Now, I want you to turn this morning with me, if you want to mark down or keep record of where we are reading from, the Book of Isaiah. And I wish to read from Isaiah, the 42nd chapter of Isaiah.
E-28 We are very happy this morning, also, to have Brother Dauch sitting with us here. While you're turning… You know, they thought he wasn't going to live, here in Shreveport the other day. And he's certainly got faith. Yes, sir, he climbs right out of it; the Lord blesses him…?… See, Brother Dauch is ninety-one years old, and had a complete heart failure; and heart attack, on top of it. And the very doctor said that they didn't see there's any way for him to live. Brother Dauch is living, and the doctor is dead. See? Cause, he… See, Brother Dauch sits here.
E-29 And then, a—a man ninety-one years old, with heart failure and heart attack. And there, when I was going up there, I saw him come walking down a street; I saw him in the church. And I went and told him, under a oxygen tent, "In the Name of the Lord, I shake your hand in the… I'll see you in church again, and shake your hand on the street."
The very next service, here he was, sitting right back here in the church. And I went over to Louisville, where we eat at the Blue Boar over there, to eat, and just as I got of my car, started up the street, here come Brother Dauch walking down the street. There it was, just perfectly. And how the Lord has blessed him!
E-30 Now we're going to talk on healing, tonight, and things, and got some real outstanding things to tell you for tonight.
E-31 But now, so that I can get the tapes now, then get ready to turn them on, I want to start reading from Isaiah the 42nd chapter, and the 1st to the 7th verse. And Matthew the 4th chapter, beginning, I believe, 15 and the 16th verse.
E-32 Now, in—in the 42nd chapter of—of Isaiah, we're going to read.
Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not cry, or lift up, or cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and a smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he has… have set judgment in the earth: and the islands shall wait for his laws.
Thus saith… the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and the spirit to them that walk therein:
I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and I will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
To open the blinded eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
E-33 Now in the Matthew's Gospel, the 4th chapter, I wish to read the fulfillment of that prophecy given by Isaiah. In the 4th chapter of Matthew, I—I will begin to read. If possible, let's begin at the 12th verse instead of the 15th.
Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;
… leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying,
Behold, the land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentile;
The people… sat in darkness saw great light; and to them that sat in the regions of the shadows of death light is sprung up.
And from that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
E-34 May the Lord add His blessings to the reading of His Word! And now, odd little text that I heard someone speaking, said this, but I want to take this for a text: There Is A Man Here That Can Turn On The Light. And now we're going to speak on the subject of light.
E-35 This follows the three subjects that we have just been speaking on.
One of them, at Tucson, or at Phoenix, on why Jesus came by the way of Bethlehem. That, He must be, because He is Bethlehem. Bethlehem! B-e-t-h is "house"; e-l, "God"; e-h-e-m is "bread," bread. "House of God's Bread." And each Christian that's born in Christ is born in Bethlehem, God's house of bread.
E-36 Then, in there, a typing of David, which was a fugitive at the time of his excommunicating from his people. He was turned out. And Bethlehem was besieged, and the Philistines was garrisoned around Bethlehem. And David, a fugitive, a type of the church today, of Christ. See, Christ is a fugitive to His Own church today. They have. A fugitive is something that's refused. And David had been refused, yet he was anointed to be king; but the prophet had anointed him.
E-37 And during this time, being a—a fugitive from his people, he had picked up many gallant Gentiles. One of them killed eight hundred man, one day, with a spear, or sword. And another one jumped into a pit and killed a lion, on a snowy day. And—and they was gathering lentil, which is beans or peas, or something, and—and the all of them run away, and he stood and killed man till his arm got tired. They also killed those giant brothers of Goliath.
Gallant man, holding to David, because they knowed he was coming in power. They knowed, no matter what anyone said. God had the anointing on David, and they knowed it. They were Gentiles. No matter how much they turned him out, they yet knowed that he was coming to power. And one day there…
E-38 What a type it is today, of—of Christ, a fugitive! You say, "Christ, a fugitive?" According to the Bible, that we… God has gallantly taken us through those Seven Church Ages. This Laodicean church, Christ was a fugitive outside of His church, rejected, trying to get back in again. See? He is a fugitive, to His Own church. And the reason He is a fugitive, is because He is the Word, and they won't let the Word in. They've accepted creeds, instead.
E-39 And we find out, then, that in this great struggle, those gallant man around—around David, Gentiles.
E-40 If you notice how Bethlehem was formed. Don't want to get on that subject, but how Bethlehem… Actually, Rahab, the harlot, her son was the one who founded Bethlehem. It was a wheat center, and a lot of fine water there. And he founded the little city. And it was the smallest of all the cities, 'cause the prophet said, "Out… Bethlehem of Judaea, aren't thou the least amongst all the princes of the cities of Jerusalem… or Judaea? But out of thee shall come the Governor that'll rule My people." Out of the little one.
E-41 David, when he was selected up there. The great, fine brothers, when the prophet Samuel went up, to anoint, all of them was standing there. Great, gallant man, looked like would be, look, fine-looking kings. But the very rejected one was the one, David, that had the oil poured out upon him. The rejected city was the one that Christ…
It's the rejected that Christ picks up, see, the ones that's rejected.
E-42 Then we find, after he come Obed. And after he come Boaz. And there come another Gentile in, which he come in by Ruth. And out of there come Jesse. And out of Jesse come David. And a little hillside stable out there brought forth the King of kings, Jesus Christ, the Son of David, his spiritual Son.
E-43 Now then, he was, David himself being born in this city, he had to come to this little spot. And it was called Bethlehem, which means, "the—the house of God's bread." And He is the House of God's Bread.
E-44 David, laying there on the hill that day, and he looked down and seen the Philistines garrisoned around like that, must got hot and thirsty. He said, "Oh, if I could just have a drink from that well, once more!" Why, the least of his thoughts was a command to his, them who loved him.
E-45 So is it today, the least of Jesus' thoughts, or how about His Word, should be a command to we Gentiles who love Him. For we know He's coming into power, no matter how much He's rejected. Heavens and earth will pass away, but This will still reign just the same when all heavens and earth is gone. And we know He's coming into power, 'cause nothing will keep it from happening. [Brother Branham pats his Bible—Ed.] This is Christ, the revelation of Him, and this is going to happen just the way the Word says it is, 'cause He is the Word. And the least of His commands there, no matter how little it is, if it's "to be rebaptized," or whatever it is, we'll do it, anyhow. It's His command.
E-46 And the least of David's thought was a command to those Gentiles, for, they, a type of the Gentile Church today. Gallant man! See, those man who stood by David were Gentiles, but, gallant man. They were fearless. They didn't even know what fear was.
E-47 One man took a sword and killed eight hundred man, and them all around him. What a man that was! One of them, a…
One other man. There was an Egyptian warrior run up, with a long spear. He only had a stick in his hand. He took the stick and knocked the spear out of his hand; took the spear and killed him, hisself. See?
E-48 One of those giants had fourteen-inch fingers, like that. Now, fourteen inches, your finger is just as long as your hand, closed; open that up, that would be twenty-eight-inch hand. And with a spear! And jumped right in there and killed him. See? Why? He was a gallant man, a Gentile looking upon anointed one that he knowed was coming into power.
E-49 Did you notice, them being so gallant to David? When David finally come in power, he made them ruler over cities. Didn't Jesus promise the same thing? The same thing, make them ruler.
E-50 Then, in there, when David's desire was to have a fresh drink. He probably had some old, warm stagnated water up there, he was drinking. But he happened to think of that fresh water down there at Bethlehem, the house of God's bread. And he said, "If I only had a drink from that well!" And those man pulled their sword and fought fifteen miles of Philistines, not because he asked them to, but because they knowed he wanted it. And they cut them Philistines, all the way to the well. While two of them fought, the other one got a—his bucket of water; and fought their way back, all the way back, and handed it to David. Talk about gallant!
E-51 David, that godly man, said, "God forbid that I would drink it from these friends that put their life in jeopardy." And he made a drink offering; poured it out upon the ground, to the Lord. "Give it to the Lord. He is the One worthy of that, not me." They put…
E-52 The very type of Christ Himself, with His Own Eternal Life within Him; the smitten Rock, poured His Life upon the ground, as a sin offering for us, that this Word could live.
E-53 Oh, Gentiles, as I have said, who will pull that sword with me? He wants a fresh drink, this morning, not this old stagnated church creeds and things we're fooling around with. He want genuine faith in His Word, who will believe every Word of It. Let's go to the well and bring back a drink, a refreshment; a worship that's built upon not creeds and denomination. But a genuine Spirit worship, with Christ among us, living His Life the way He wants to, among us, that—that's not with creeds and different things. Let's just—just have Him that way.
E-54 Now, the next was how God dealt with the people through a dream, in the days of—of Joseph. Did you notice? A dream is secondarily. It's a secondarily way of God working. Some people can have dreams, don't mean nothing. You can eat too much and have nightmares. And dream is a secondarily way. See? But why would God protect His Own Son through a secondarily way? He appeared to Joseph. The welfare of His Own Child, He sent in a secondarily way. Did you ever think of it? Cause, there was no prophet in the land. He had to work through dreams. And it wasn't a dream that had to be interpreted. The Angel of the Lord said, "Joseph, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost."
E-55 It was a unusual thing for that to happen. Joseph being a just man, he… It was unusual. God is unusual. And the unusual is hard to understand. That's why it's so hard to understand Truth today; It's so unusual. A woman to have a baby without knowing a man, that was very unusual.
But if you're honest and sincere, God can appear to you yet in a dream. It goes to show that anything that you have, whether it's your mind, whether you can whistle, sing, testify, or whatever you can do, if your whole being is committed to God, God can use it if you'll just let Him do it.
E-56 Then, the following night up here, Brother Neville preached on the subject of "escaping," how the—the man escaped. And I thought it was kind of remarkable.
And this morning the Holy Spirit seems to have me to deal upon the subject of the light, the very next. Go right on, in the beginning, how Christ's life started at the manger, we're walking right back through it again in our text. And he didn't know it; I didn't know it; and here it is right at the same thing. See, right on, the next thing is where He enters His ministry. And tonight we got something that'll blend right with that, to go right on, tonight, the Lord willing.
E-57 Now, great Light! "The Gentiles who sat in the regions of the shadows of death, great Light sprang up among them. In Zabulon, and Nephthalim, in the… by the way of Galilee of the Gentiles, great Light, they saw a great Light."
E-58 Now light, the first time light, we find it in the Bible, is found in Genesis 1:3. It was, God's spoken Word made the light. God said, "Let there be light," Genesis 1:3, and there was light.
E-59 Now remember, then, light comes by the spoken Word of God. And light is the vindication, or the subject that He has spoke, is light. When the light flies, shows that. God said, "Let there be light." There was no light, and He said, "Let there be light," and there was light. That's a proof. The light is a vindication of His spoken Word. Same thing today, a vindication of His spoken Word.
E-60 Now when you see His Word being vindicated, or, other words, made known, proved, that is a—the Light of His spoken Word. And, without light, nothing can live without light. There is no life upon the earth today that but what has to come by the—the light of the sun, in a botany life, and so forth. And there is no Eternal Life outside of the Son of God. See? He is the Light.
E-61 Now we find out, I believe, as we study now, and this light… "The earth was without form."
E-62 Now, some people argue today in our schools, and so forth, about the world being so many million years old, and trying to condemn the Bible and say It's wrong. They just don't, never read the Bible. That's all. Because, the Bible don't tell us how old the world is. The Bible said, "In the beginning God created heavens and earth." Period! When, how, that's, we don't know it. Now, that's the first. And, that's a period, that's the end of that sentence.
E-63 "In the beginning God created the heavens and earth." It might have been a hundred million, or billion, or whatever it was. And how He done it, that's up to Him to know, see, not to me.
But the world, well, "The earth was without form, and void; and the water was upon the—the earth. And God," said, "moved upon the water." And said, "Let there be light."
E-64 Now, I believe that the sun, and so forth, was already in existence, I believe, the moon. As it goes on, Genesis 3, to explain it… But I believe, what was here, that the world, we was going to use it, and therefore… And it moved in; there was fog and mist all over the earth, making it dark. And God said, "Let there be light," and the darkness faded away, and there was a cloudless sky.
E-65 And I believe that's God's way of doing things. He… in the Bible, the next verse says, the 4th verse says. "And He separated the light from the darkness. And the light He called 'day,' and the darkness He called 'night.'" And God's Word always separates Light from darkness. See? It's the Word that does the separating, see, Light from darkness.
E-66 God ever does the same thing, when He gets ready to use anything. Like He got ready to use this old star, or whatever it was, this world, He had to separate the light from the darkness. When He gets ready to leave, to use a—a group of people, He has to separate the Light from the darkness. When He gets ready to use an individual, He separates the Light from the darkness. See?
E-67 Light comes by God. And the… Remember, the light come by His spoken Word. The Word of God said, "Let there be light," when there was no light, and He sent the light to separate the darkness from the light.
E-68 This Word of command cleared the sky so the sun could shine in. And His Word today is what clears back all of the atmospheres of unbelief.
E-69 I was talking, had—had, I think, eleven interviews just before I got to the pulpit this morning, in there. So bad…
E-70 The other day a little friend of mine, Jim Poole, his little boy, they had thought he had a heart attack, rushed him to hospital. It was an asthmatic condition, had throwed the little fellow… He couldn't… His little heart jumping, and breathing, and—and he screaming and couldn't get his breath, and the little fellow looked like he was dying, when they got him here. And I was fixing to go to the hospital; they brought him here. And took a hold of his little hand; I said, "What's done it, measles has struck the kid. And, the measles, the fever has struck the little fellow. You watch him. In a couple days I want to see him again. He'll be full of measles." And here he is full of measles, you see. See?
E-71 Now, what? God separates darkness from light, or light from darkness. And He separates death from Life, and He does it by His Word. His Word is what always brings this forth.
E-72 Now, light! Well, now, the seed was already upon the earth. I believe God had planted the seed. And just as long as the sun could get to that seed, it begin to grow. And that's the reason it only taken days to bring forth these things, because the seed was already in the earth. All it needed was light.
E-73 And that's the way God has today. His Seed is already here, His Word. The only thing It needs is Light on It. And He is that Light, for He is the Word. The Word and the Light is the same thing. The Life in there is the Light of the Word, see, is the Life. The germ of life lays within the grain, and the grain… the life is what breaks forth and brings forth the life out of the grain. That's the way that Christ, in the Word, makes the Word do what It's supposed to do. Just like the life in the grain of wheat, or whatever it is; it makes the wheat do what it's supposed to do, because it is the life that's in it. All life!
E-74 So, Life is only by the Word of God made manifest. Life comes only by the Word of God made manifest. As long as it is just in the Book, like this, it still can be questioned. But when it's made manifest, then you see the product of what It spoke of, being manifested, then that is Light on the—on the Word. See? That's what brings… The Word said so, and, then, when it comes to pass, that is Life in Light, Light bringing Life. Light brings Life.
E-75 Plant the wheat out here, it'll… and put it in the basement, cover it all over, and it'll—it'll never bring forth anything, because it can't. There's no light there. But as soon as light strikes it, then it'll bring forth life if it's a germitized seed.
That's the same thing it is in the Word. See, the Word is God, and when the Life strikes It, it brings It… Light strikes It, it brings the Word to life again. Every age has always been that. Oh, how we appreciate these great things, how that the Word being vindicated is the Light of the spoken Word. See?
God said, "Let there be light."
E-76 Now, what if He just said it and no light come? Then we don't know whether it's true or not. We don't know whether He is all right. We don't know whether He is God or not, because He just said, "Let there be," and there wasn't. See?
So then when God speaks and we see it is, then that's the Light that shines forth, the Truth of the Word. See? There is Light and Life.
E-77 All natural life comes by His spoken Word. And the sun is His spoken Word. He said He created a great light in the heavens, for the day, and a lesser light for the night. See? And all natural life has to come by God's spoken Word. A flower cannot grow without the light of God's spoken Word shine upon it, for the sun is, the s-u-n, is the spoken Word of God, when He said, "Let there be light." See? It's God's spoken life. And no matter how much people try to—to say this, that, or the other, it still remains the same. You have to have that sun, so life, natural, can only come by the spoken Word of God.
E-78 And spiritual Life, Eternal Life, can only come by God's spoken Word of Life. Life was the S-o-n this time. In Him is Light, and in Him is no darkness; and He is God's spoken Light. Is that right? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] God's spoken Word, for, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And It's forever God. See?
And it takes the Light of God to strike the Word, to make It live. Here is what He spoke [Brother Branham pats his Bible—Ed.], now let the Light shine! Amen! Let the Light shine, and the Light will bring every Word to Its right position, in its season. Amen! Oh! You see, when it comes time!
E-79 Sometimes that grain lays in the earth, dormant, all through the—the winter, like seed, winter wheat sowed in the ground. But when that sun gets just right, oh, it's got to live. See? And it can't live without the sun.
And God has made promises for every age and every day. And when the Light gets right, and shines upon that, it'll produce just exactly what the Word said, because He is the Light and the Life.
E-80 God's Word comes only by the Bible. God's Bible is the—the printed form of the Son of God, because the Bible said that It is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's God revealing Himself through Christ, and Christ is the Word. And it takes the Light of God to shine upon that Word, to vindicate It, to prove that God still speaks Life, Eternal Life. He speaks natural light, brings the life. Life only comes by the Light, the Word made manifest, or made flesh. When all the promises become, in the Bible, become manifest, is when Jesus Christ, the Word, was made flesh among us. God always works through man. Man is God's subject.
E-81 Now, if it gets a little warm in here for you, you can pull the windows down, or whatever you wish to, cut the furnace down. Maybe the janitor would cut the furnace down a little. I see many are warm. And it's warm standing here, too, so—so remember that. I'm glad it's warm instead of cold, 'cause I—I like warm. I… Warm always bring light, life, takes fire.
E-82 Notice now, "made flesh." When the Word becomes flesh, It becomes manifested. Like, take the Word and put It in the right position and the right kind of ground, It'll bring forth. The—the seed will bring forth its kind. And the Word, brought into the right kind of a heart, it'll manifest Itself. It'll bring forth the light. It'll break forth upon it. All right.
E-83 Nothing natural, nothing natural or spiritual, can live without God's Light. Life can only come then by Light. Nothing natural or nothing spiritual can live without God's Light. Think of that. All right. But when He sends us the Light, see, and does all these things, and then we reject It; now that's the pitiful part, is when Light is rejected when it's sent to us.
E-84 Now could you imagine some man today saying, "I just refuse to say there is such a thing as a sun. I don't believe there is a sun"? And he runs down into the basement, and—and shuts all the doors, and sets back in the darkness, and said, "There is no such a thing as sun. There is no such a thing as light." You would know, right away, there was something mentally wrong with that person. See? There is something wrong, when he runs back into a dark basement and refuses to accept the benefit of God-given light. There is something wrong with him. He don't want its warm rays. He doesn't want its health-giving substance. He doesn't want its light, to walk in. He would rather sit in darkness. It shows, mentally, something wrong, natural, with the man.
E-85 And I say this with all love and respect. So is there something spiritually wrong with a man that'll run back into his denominations of creed and refuse to see Bible Light when it's shining right before him. There is something wrong with him. See, goes back into his creeds and forms, and shuts the door and says, "There is no such a thing as That. The days of miracles is past. There is no such a thing as Divine healing, there none of these things. That was for an apostle." The man is spiritually crazy. See? There is something wrong with him. He—he—he has pulled down the curtains and rejected the Holy Spirit that can come upon him. If he can…
"If ye abide in Me, and My Words in you, then, the Light shining upon this Word, ask what you will." See? See?
E-86 There is something wrong, that he would reject the God-given sources that God has give to us to live by, His Word. "The just shall live by faith."
"And man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word," not part of the Word, "every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." And when a man will just refuse That, there is something wrong with that person; something wrong with his experience, that he claims to love God and then refuses God. There is something gone wrong with the person. We know that, without a shadow of doubt. He rejects It, runs into this place, and says, "Now I just… I don't want to know nothing about It. Don't tell me nothing about these Things. I, I don't believe nothing about It. You, don't matter what you say!"
E-87 A fellow said, not long ago. I was telling you about. He said, "I don't care if you would bring fifty cancers, and bring fifty doctors to testify of them, I don't believe. I don't care if you would raise up the dead, right before me, I wouldn't believe it." See, there is something wrong with that person. There—there—there is. And—and, yet, the man was a minister, see, see, supposed to be a minister.
But just because that organization doesn't believe in—in the powers of God, don't believe that (the Word) It meant just what It said, the man runs into this basement, old musty, dirty, filthy basement of a organization, and refuses the warmth and Life-giving rays of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, which is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Then there is something wrong with that person. See?
He would rather live in that must, darkness, and so forth, than to live in the Light of the God and of the Bible that said, that, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The works that I do shall you do also. Even greater than this shall you do, for I go to My Father." There is something wrong with that person. Without a question, at all, there is something wrong.
E-88 And to you man that's listening to this, across the world, wherever you may be. There is something wrong with your experience, when you say that you love God and refuse His Word. There is something. You refuse the very… No wonder the things can't, the church is in its condition, and things cannot be done as God promised, is because you won't even receive the Word or walk in the Light. The Bible said, "Let us walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, then the Blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin." Sin is "unbelief."
E-89 Then if we are walking in the God-given Light of the hour, then God takes that Word that's given for the hour and vindicates It.
Just like He did in Genesis 1:3, said, "Let there be light," and light come forth. His Word went forth, and light followed It, and cleared away the mist. And the darkness went to one corner, and the light shined on the other side.
E-90 That's the way God does today. He sends His Word for this hour, and the Holy Spirit comes and makes that Word live. And the darkness goes on to their creeds and denominations, but Light shines because it's the Word of God being vindicated that His Word is true. Now, there is nothing fictitious about that, that's just exactly Scriptural. All right.
E-91 Now, we find that the—the wise man, the wise man of the Old, followed the God-given substance. They followed the Word of God, to the Light, because it was the Word that brought Life. Now you say, "How did they follow?" Well, they were, kinda, magis, we understand.
E-92 And then we find out that Balaam, the prophet, back in Numbers 24:17, Balaam was kind of a magi himself. He was a prophet, truly, and he prophesied here and said a Star would rise out of Jacob.
And when these wise men saw that the Word of God said a Star would rise out of Jacob, they followed that little God-given token to the source of Eternal Light.
So will wise man today, who is not blinded by creeds, will follow the God-given, spoken Word till they see the fullness of the Power of God blooming forth in this hour. They, they see it, and they know that it's here in the Scripture. God promised it for this day.
E-93 No matter how many observatories, how many other things, told the wise man, "Why, you're out of your mind!" Two years they was in travel. They passed by many nations, and they would say, "Where you going?"
E-94 "Oh, we have seen His Star in the East, and we come to worship Him."
And when they lined up in Jerusalem, the denominational headquarters, they didn't have the answer. They went up-and-down the streets, crying, "Where is He, born King of the Jews?" They knowed nothing about it.
So, they called on the Word, to find out. They had followed, knowed that Star was leading them to the Eternal Light. "Guide us to Thy perfect Light." And the Word is what guides you to the Light, and the Light is what makes the Word vindicated. Notice, they were wise man.
E-95 And wise man today, not wi-… "The wisdom of this world is foolishness to God." All your scientists, and you people who are depending on some great scholarship, or something another, telling you how to split a atom; it can't give you Life. There is nothing can give you Life but the spoken Word of God. It's the only where that Life can come, is through His spoken Word.
E-96 And that's all right, to know how to split a atom. I wish they'd a-never found it out. But if they… They have to do it, because this world is hanging today… It had to happen, to burst these big holes in the earth, to let that lava come forth and rejuvenate this world again, to make a new earth; where the righteous will walk out upon the dust of the wicked, where sin will be forgotten. Everything has a way of renewing itself. And man, who was given to live on this earth, by his own wisdom, taking the tree of knowledge instead of the tree of life, he'll destroy the earth that God give him to live on. But those who are still on the Tree of Life, shall come to a new heavens and a new earth, where there is no sickness or death. Light! Light, Lord, send us Light.
E-97 It was the Angels of God that showed light upon the hill, to guide the shepherds to the Eternal Light. See, it only comes by Light. Life can only come by Light. The shepherds, wanting to know. You know, when a king is born, they have singing, great carrying on, when the king is born. Now, He was so secretly born, and born in a stable, in a—a manger where the cattle and horses was eating, but yet He was a King. And the—the Angels came down and sang the hymns to the shepherds, in the Light.
The Angels, themselves, were lights that showed with the Word of God. They had the Word of God, and told them, "Today, in the city of David, in Bethlehem, is born Christ the Saviour." The Angels had the Word, and the Word came by Light, to guide. And they followed the Word of the Angels, to the Eternal Light. They found the Baby there, wrapped in swaddling cloth, as They had said. For, you see, Life only comes by Light.
E-98 Notice, He was the Word made Light, or became Light. The Word in that generation, He was the Word Light of that generation, because the prophets of old had spoke of Him, and here He come and vindicated He was the Light of God's spoken Word. See? All the prophets had—had said, had been fulfilled in Him, see, the prophets back here with the Word.
Like God was at the beginning, when He said, "Let there be light," and light came.
Now the prophet said, "A virgin shall conceive, bring forth a Son. They shall call His Name Immanuel, for It'll be God with us." Now, they had spoke it, the Word had went out; but He was the Light. What was He? The fulfillment. Hallelujah! He was the fulfillment of that Word. He was the manifestation of that Word.
E-99 So is it today, God's Word has been fulfilled at the hour! That's the Light. It's God manifesting Himself. He was the Light of the world.
E-100 And when the prophets, inspired by the Holy Spirit, said, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a—a Son is given, or a Child is given; and His Name shall be called 'Counsellor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,'" there it was. What was He? The Light that fulfilled that Word, amen, the Light that fulfilled that Word.
E-101 In Matthew, in Saint Matthew the 28th chapter, we find. And when Jesus raised from the dead, He also was the Light of the spoken Word of David, which said, "I'll not leave His soul in hell; neither will I suffer My Holy One to see corruption." Death was in darkness. But He broke open the seals of death, and walked into it, and come back out again. He was the Light, the vindicated Word, that the dead can live after they are dead. He was.
E-102 On the Day of Pentecost, that was the Light that showed when the Holy Ghost had come.
Isaiah said, in the 28th chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah said that, with, "Precept must be upon precept; line must be upon line; here a little, and there a little." "Hold fast to that what's good." "For with stammering lips and with other tongues will I speak to this people. And this is the rest, this is the Sabbath that I'll give to… And all this they would not hear; walked away, wagged their heads."
And when on the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost fell upon those people, and they acted like drunk men and women, staggering under the impact of the Holy Spirit. And they walked away and wagged their heads, and said, "This people is drunk, full of new wine," and so forth. It absolutely was the Light, the Word that had been prophesied, made manifest.
E-103 So is it in every age, the Word made manifest, come to Life, is the Light of that age, there the Word made manifest. Just like it was in Genesis 1, when God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. When God said there will be a Son; and there was a Son.
E-104 When God said, in Joel 2:28, "It shall come to pass in the last days, I'll pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy; upon My handmaids and maidservant will I pour out of My Spirit; your young men shall see visions; your old men shall see dreams." And all these things that He promised, when It, Holy Ghost fell, was the Light upon that Word. When the Word was made manifest, then It become Light.
He is the Light. He is the Light that we should follow. He is the only Light. The Angels found Light, and followed it to Him.
E-105 Now, in all ages, God has set forth so much of His Word for each age. God always sends somebody that that Word can get into and show the Light of It. That, every age, it does the same thing, always does that.
E-106 He was the fulfillment, as I said, of all of the Divine, holy powers of the prophets. They were minor gods. When the Word of the Lord came to a man, Jesus said, Himself, that he was a god. You know that. He said, "If your law said, and your fathers back there, called them, who the Word of God came to, called them 'gods,' how can you condemn Me, saying, when I said, 'I'm the Son of that God'?" See?
When, the very God Himself, Who spoke the Word through the prophets, He was the manifestation of that spoken Word. And if the prophet was called a god, because he was the manifestation of another prophet's Word, how can you condemn Him when He was the same thing? He was the Son of God, as He shall be called the Son of God.
E-107 He was the long-promised Messiah that the world had waited on. He was the Messiah's promise made manifest.
E-108 Look at Him when He stood there. He said, "If I do not the works of My Father, then condemn Me." See? "But if you can't believe Me, believe the works that I do. They testify Who I am. They tell you Who I am."
You see, that blind, darkened hour that they live in, they couldn't see It. They just couldn't understand. "How could He be That? How can he be any Son of God, when he was born right down here in Bethlehem?" If they only knowed, the Word said It would come that way. "Why, His father, Joseph, is a carpenter. His mother, why, it's actually believed amongst our brethren that He was born illegitimately." See? But yet the Word of God said that.
E-109 He said, "Search the Scriptures, for in Them you think you have Eternal Life, and They are the very Ones that testify Who I am. They are the Ones that testify of Me, this Holy Scriptures." Then what was He? God's Light. No wonder He said, "I am the Light of the world."
E-110 Not only did He say, "I am the Light," but He said, "Ye are the Light." If His Word is in you, bearing record of Itself, then you are Light of the world. Notice, we find out, Light of each age made manifest just the same.
E-111 Then I want to ask the question, as… 'fore our time gets away. Why, why then were they… did they turn it down? How could they do it, when the… Their very Bible, that they was reading, was being made manifest before them. Now study real hard now.
E-112 Now remember, I'm talking to many people at this time, you see. Not just four or five hundred here, but I'm—I'm talking to many thousands.
E-113 Stop just a minute. Stop your tape recorder and ask the question. Why would religious man, good man… Why would Joseph question? See? Why would Jo-…? Because he never searched the Scripture.
Why did the priests question? One reason they didn't; they knew it. Nicodemus well expressed it. He said, "Rabbi, we know You're a teacher from God. No man could do what You do except God be with him. We're aware of that." But what was it? Their traditions kept them from doing it.
E-114 Then why were they, did they reject the Messiah? Is be… Why did they reject that Light? Here is the Word that they knowed was coming to pass, but when the Word was made manifest to show that the Word of God had been fulfilled, compare that with today. See? When there, written in the Word, that would take place, then why did those man reject it; teachers? Because they were living in a glare of another light. That's it. They was living in a glare.
That's the thing they're doing today. They're living…
The reason they turned it down is because they're living in a glare of another light. See? Now, they was living in a glare of what Moses said, they claimed. They was living in a glare of what (another age) had passed by.
And that's the very reason today that this Message, that, "Jesus Christ still is the same," is turned down, because the people are living in glares of other ages. The same reason, they'll turn It down. Now we notice.
E-115 And Webster says, that, "A glare is kind of a false light. A glare is a false light; same thing that glares."
Like—like a mirage on the road. You go down the road, many of you driving cars, and look down ahead of you. When you see that sun on the ground, it reflects a light, and like a mirage, look like there's water all over the road. But, when you get there, there is nothing there. It's only a false, mirage, the glare of a true light.
That's what the devil is doing today, is showing people a mirage, a Council of Churches, a group of denominations, which will turn out to be false. Because, it's because there is a real Light shining. That real Light wasn't shining, a mirage couldn't be there. Real Light shines. And that's… They're living in a glare of another age, another thing, for it's hit and passed on.
Now, a glare, this mirage is false. It's a glare of the sun.
E-116 And that's the way, they did the same thing, a false glare of the true Light.
E-117 Now, it proved to be that He was the true Light. He was the Light. Why did they know that He was the Light? How could you know He was the Light? Because the Word that was promised was made manifest through Him, so He was the Light of that spoken Word. Amen! Oh, that would almost make me, a pentecostal Baptist, shout. Notice, think of it!
E-118 A glare, see, living in a glare! But when the true Word is living, that's the Light, what God said.
Now, what if God said, in the beginning, "Let there be light," huh, well, and there was something else appeared, see, just a mirage? See, it wouldn't a-been, though, what God said. No, it wouldn't a-been. What if God said, "Let there be light," and more fog came? See, it wouldn't a-been light. But, the reason light come, it was His Word manifested.
And today, when God has said such things will take place at this time, and you see it doing it, (what is it?) it's the Light on God's Word. It's Word being made Light, manifesting Itself.
E-119 Now, they said, "Who do You say we are? Why," he said, "You try to… We know that You're crazy. Why, You're a Samaritan; You haven't got Your right mind. Well, You'll try to… Who can tell… We know You was born in sin. We don't know where You come from. We have no record of Your identification in our groups. Why, You're crazy. You got a devil." See? Said, "Why, You're out of Your mind." But He was actually the genuine, true Light of God, shining.
And the glare had put out, their eyes out. "We have Moses as our guide!"
E-120 He said, "If you would have believed Moses, you'd a-knowed Me."
E-121 And if you would believe Jesus and the Bible, you would know this hour that you're living in. They say, "Well, we are Christians. We…" If you were, you would know the acts of Christ for this day. See, you would know it.
E-122 Jesus said, "All those prophets spoke of Me. And if you believe those prophets, why, you would know Me. My works identify. Because, what they said I'd do, I do it. And who can condemn Me now of unbelief?"
E-123 And still they didn't see it. Why? Their eyes were put out, with a glare; see, the glare of something else that they had taken what the true spoken Word was. Now think of it. Think of it. They claimed that they believed that Word. But their traditions had turned their faces from the true Word, to a glare, therefore they couldn't see the real thing.
So is it today. So has it been in every age. See, the—the true Word shines, but they have been so traditionalized, that, they can't see that Word. They're looking at a glare, and they're blind. A glare will blind you. There is a arc off of it. It'll blind you. And, it'll, when…
E-124 Jesus said, "You are blind, leading the blind." They should have been able to see it, to see Who He was. But they didn't, because they was living in that glare.
E-125 Now, a glare, as I said, is a false light, a mirage, a false conception of the true Light. False conception; it's something that—that's supposed to look like It, but it isn't That.
E-126 Now the only way they could tell the difference, because the very things that Jesus did proved Who He was, that He was the Light. They thought they was in the Light. But now if you just stop a minute and consider who is in the Light, then.
E-127 Now, today! If such a rashel mistake was made by the churchmen of that day, such a rashel thing was did, brethren, don't you think that it's time that we stopped and considered what is Light? Let us not make such a rashel mistake. But you're doing it. You've already done it, see, and knew it not, same as they was then. Now stop just a minute and find out what the Word says for today.
E-128 If they'd a stopped and thought, "Here He is fulfilling, to the letter, exactly what the Word said He would do."
And He challenged them, as I'm challenging you! See? See? I'm challenging you to look in the Word, search the Scriptures, see if this isn't the hour. See? "Search the Scriptures, for in Them you think you have Eternal Life, and They are They that testify of Me." They are They that testify of this work today. The works itself testifies that it's being done, and the Scripture says it'll be done, so it's the Light of the hour. God's Word said so.
E-129 Your traditions and things is exactly what the Bible said, like those who wagged their heads and walked away. "All the tables become full of vomit," the Bible said. And that's where they were. They wouldn't believe it. They wagged their heads. And, gentlemen, do you realize? And, brethren, do you realize this, that, when you are rejecting the very thing that God is vindicating before you, that you're doing the same thing they did, going back to your traditional vomit?
E-130 "As a dog goes to its vomit." If it made him sick the first time, it'll make him sick the second time. If the Catholic church, being organized and made the first organization, brought sickness to the church; so will Lutheran, Methodist, and all the rest of them, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Pentecostals. "A dog goes back to its vomit, and a sow goes back to her wallow." See? We're getting to that in a few minutes, the Lord willing.
E-131 Glare, walking in a glare, see, a mirage, a false conception of true Light. He proved that He was the Light.
Because, He, being in the… way in the minority, oh, my, millions against Him! There was not one sixth of the people, one ninetieth of the people, on the earth, ever knowed He was here. Not, I guess, one—one hundredth of the Jews, or hardly one fiftieth of them, or fortieth of them, I'll say, maybe less than that, of His Own country, ever knowed He was there. And them that did know He was there, considered Him a false something, because the denomination had told them that's what He was. See?
But yet He was the true Light that had been spoke since Genesis, in the beginning, and asked them to search the Scriptures and find out if He wasn't living just in that time; if He, the works that He did, didn't fulfill exactly what was promised of that time. Amen. Oh!
E-132 What a serious thing it is, brother! We're living in a tremendous time.
E-133 He proved to be the right. He was the very Light that they claimed they were worshiping. They claimed to be worshiping that Light.
And so is it today. They claim they are worshiping That. Pentecostals claim it. They claim they are, and so blind they can't see it. Why? They organize, and, but a glare in their face. See? A tradition is what some people set together, and said, "We'll go and make this and this, and this and that." Now we're going to come to why that has to happen, the Lord willing.
E-134 Notice, His works was the living Word Itself. What He did was the living Word Itself, showing He was that Light that had been promised since the beginning of the world. He was that Light. His Light on the promised Word of the age made It live to exactly what the promise said It would do, but they had It so turned around until they couldn't see It. See? But He was the Light of that age.
E-135 He was the Light that they claimed to be worshiping. They thought that they were worshiping the very God of creation. They was living in and worshiping a glare, and Jesus said, "You worship Me in vain, teaching for Doctrine their traditions of man, and not the Word." He is the Word, and He was the Word made manifest. They ought to have knowed it.
E-136 I hope that can break through, everywhere it's heard, see, that it is the Word made manifest. "Oh," say, "oh, we have the Word." Why, the Word, everybody pack a Bible, that wants to. But, when the Word is vindicated, made manifest!
Why, say, "Well, we believe!"
E-137 Yes, sir, they believed, all the way along. So does Satan. Those Pharisees, who could condemn them, not believing? But they didn't believe the Word for the hour. They were worshiping the glare of something else.
It's the same thing they're doing today. See? They're keeping up Luther's predict-… traditions, or—or Wesley's traditions, and the rest of them, the Pentecostal tradition. But what of the hour?
The Pharisees was keeping up their traditions. But behind their traditions was the true Word of God coming to shine forth, and, when It did, It blinded their eyes. They couldn't see It because they was watching something else.
So is it today! May God let that soak in, till it really hits home to the people that should believe it. It's later than you think.
E-138 My son, Billy Paul, he talks in his sleep, but he doesn't have dreams very often. He had one the other night that shook him up. Said he dreamed he was in a church, and—and they… I hadn't come in yet.
Said, when I come in, fire was flying out of the eyes, and I said, "The time is here. It's over."
And everybody begin screaming, "I can't! My children!"
E-139 And even my wife said, "I can't get Sarah to ask the blessing at the table, and so forth." And I said…
He said, "I've got to go get Loyce and—and the baby."
E-140 I said, "Loyce can't come now. The baby is too young to know. Billy, the hour is here. We must go." I said, "It's midnight now. Before daylight, Jesus will be here. If it isn't, then I'm a false witness of Christ."
And somebody spoke up, said, "No man knows the minute or hour."
E-141 "I never said minute or hour. I said, 'Sometime between now and daylight.'" And I said, "Let's—let's go."…?… I said, "But we're at the time. Let's go."
And we got in the car, and started, and we started up the mountain. And when we did, it was looked like the light was coming in the skies, but dark upon the earth. He said I pulled off the side of the road, and held my hands over like this, fire still flying from the eyes. And he said I said, "Lord, I have did this at Your command. I have did this just because that You told me to do it this a way. I have did these things according to what You've told me."
And I motioned to a big granite mountain; and a—a Light, without hands, cut a Stone out of the mountain, weighing hundreds of tons, and here It come. I said, "Turn your heads; don't look. It'll all be over just in a few minutes." Said, then a great holy hush come everywhere, as this Stone come towards the place.
E-142 It may be later than we think. There, see, that's exactly Scriptural, you see, "the Stone, without hands, cut out of mountain."
And so one of these days it's going to be that way, when you're going to scream for something. I said to them, "You've already had that time. God has constantly warned you, time after time. Yeah." I said, "Even if it's my own kid, or whoever it is, the hour is here. I can only say what He's told me to say, and it'll be there," and it was.
And—and then, all of a sudden [Brother Branham claps his hands together once—Ed.], here He come, "the Stone cut out of the mountain, without hands." Daniel saw that, you know, back many years ago. Billy knowed nothing about that, but it was a—it was a dream sent to him from the Lord.
E-143 Now, see, they claim to be worshiping that very God that they were making fun of. And the same thing has reversed again today, by the same reason, living in a glare instead of the Light. Great Lights has a shine. All right.
E-144 Look what darkness we're in today! Look what's going on today! Look at murder, rape, strife! Why, it's come to pass. I believe it was Billy Graham said, in his last meeting, "In ten years from now, every citizen of California will have to pack a gun to protect themself. You can't put enough law enforcement." The people has just gone insane; shooting, murder, and rapes, everything, see. It's just gone wild, see, upon the streets. See, it's a—it's a day we're living in, a Sodomite day. See?
But there is a Light shining! If they'd only look, if they'd only see, look into the Word and see what's supposed to be in this hour, they would know what's trying to be done.
E-145 Now, they claim they're worshiping that Light, so did they claim they was worshiping that Light, but they were worshiping in the glare of another light instead of the real. See? He was the Light.
E-146 Creeds and traditions, in their blinded condition, had turned them from the true Light of the promised Word. The Word that God had vindicated, by Jesus, the Light of the world, came and made that Word live right exactly through His time, exactly to the days. "He'll be cut off in the midst of the seventy weeks, that's right, which is the three and a half years of His prophecy. The Messiah would come, the Prince, and would prophesy, and three and a half days of this, then He would be cut off from the living, and make atonement." And that's exactly. He preached three and a half years. And their…
E-147 And the very Psalm that David said, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" The 22nd Psalm, "All My bones, they stare at Me. They wag their heads. They pass by Me." Eight hundred and fifty years, beforehand, when David sung that song in the Spirit, and it was considered prophecy, and given. They was singing them songs in the temple when the same Sacrifice was hanging on the cross, with His hands, and pierced. "And they pierced My hands and My feet." See? See there? Then, why? They were living in a glare. They didn't see the Light.
E-148 Could you imagine a sensible person doing that? No more than I can imagine a sensible person running down in the basement and get in the must, and pulling his doors together, and say, "I refuse to see there is light." It's insanity.
And his spiritual has slipped, somewhere, when a man sees that the Bible has promised this, and see it living right out before him and made manifest, and then continually stay in those creeds and things out there that reject It. It's a spiritual delinquency. That's exactly right.
E-149 Here He was now. "He was—He was the Light of the world, and the world knew… He came to His Own; His Own knew Him not. He came into the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." See? "But as many as did know Him, to them He gave power to become sons of God, to them that believed on Him."
E-150 Remember, we cannot live by yesterday's light. Yesterday's light is gone. It isn't no more. It, yesterday's light, is only a memory. Yesterday's sunlight is only a memory, or, it's history. We cannot live in yesterday's light, no more. And the same, though it's the same sun, the same sun, but each day it brings forth its strength a little stronger, to ripen the grain for the harvest. See?
E-151 The sun comes today, gets a little stronger. Each day now it'll get a little stronger, a little stronger, and till finally the wheat, that's laying there, it'll—it'll go taking life. After a while, the—the life will come up, then a little stronger, a little stronger. March, April, May, June, July, she is in the harvest then, you see. The same sun shining today, in—in January or December, that's up there bathing that snow and melting it down on that grain, bringing it water; it's the same sun, but that wheat could not live in that same sunlight in June. See, it can't do it. See, the sun comes a little stronger each day, and the grain should be a little more matured to receive the sunlight.
E-152 That's what's the matter today. The grain that was sowed in the early fathers, back there in—in Luther and Wesley and them, it dwarfed; it can't take the Son. The Son kills it. It refused to grow. See? It cut it, it took itself from the stalk, like, and come over here and made itself an own little thing. It become a husk, then, and no Life in it. The grain should be maturing and getting stronger, as the Son becomes stronger each day.
E-153 Now let's watch a minute. We'll watch the church ages. There is seven church ages. And as those church ages, each one, watch how He spoke to them what would do, how the grain would mature and come down to this last hour here, this last hour that we're living in. So the churches must do the same thing, see, the churches.
E-154 Now look, Luther sowed a grain, and Luther was a grain and he sowed it. All right. So was Wesley; and, also, so was Pentecostal; so was the Baptists, the Nazarenes. But, you see, now Luther would not go back and live in the light of the first denomination, Catholic. No, sir; he was another light. That was God ripening something. Now a little minority come out of that, that Lutheran revival.
E-155 Then come along the Wesley revival, and then, in that, why, they couldn't go back and do the Lutherans. See?
And then along come the Pentecostals. And then the Pentecostals organized and done the same thing, taken the husk. Notice.
E-156 But the grain goes right on. Now we're in another age. Why won't they receive It? Why won't they see that the grain is matured? Here is the promised Word for this day. [Brother Branham pats his Bible—Ed.] Why don't they see It? Because they're living in Lutheran glare, Wesleyan glare, Baptist glare, Pentecostal glare. They're living in the glare of another light. That's the reason they can't receive the Light of the total Word being a vindicated as God promised. Them Seven Seals, where the whole mystery was revealed, would come back and tell why these mysteries was done like that; and, yet, when that comes in, they walk farther away from It than ever. They're without excuse.
E-157 God has done it through Spirit, through revelations. He's—He's proved it perfectly, by scientific and everything else, that it's the Truth, that it's the Truth. And still they want to live in a Pentecostal glare, "I am the Assemblies! I am the Oneness! I am the Church of God! I am this!" See, living in a glare of a age forty, fifty years ago. Living in a Lutheran glare. Living in a Wesley, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, or some Nazarene, glare of another church age that went on and organized and done the same thing, and refuse and reject the Light when It's actually shining.
E-158 And you're living in a mirage. I say that reverently, see, but you're… not to hurt you, but to wake you up. You're living in a mirage.
What if Jesus, said "Why, you're blind, and you're leading the blind"? They couldn't… He tried to tell them; and didn't do it. Said, "Let them alone. If the blind leads the blind, they'll all fall in the ditch." That's the hour I've come to! If they're going to stagger, I can't help it. Done all I can do. I've done exactly.
I've done this at Your command, Lord. You're a witness.
Since 1933, down on the river, when that Light there you see, shined down, It's been right here in the tabernacle and witnessed to you, all these years. And everything It said has come to pass. And continually they go on. "Let the blind lead the blind." I'll just wait for that hour; He'll arrive, one of these days.
E-159 Notice, living in a glare of Luther, living in a glare of Wesley, living in them glares back there, that's the reason they can't see true Light. If they would stop for a few minutes, and just pick up the Bible and read It, they would see that the… this is Light promised for the hour.
E-160 Now we're going to take some of these things in a minute. He promised, according to Malachi 4, these things would happen. He promised, all through the Scriptures, they would happen. See?
E-161 Notice Israel also, our type, in the journey. Look, eating manna, which was their Light, Life, that give them strength, Life. Is that right? [The congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] Israel could not eat manna that was yesterday had fell on them. It was contaminated. It was rotten. It was no good for them. They would die, over it. The manna that kept them alive yesterday would kill them today. The Bible said it got germs in it, contaminated. And the manna, they had to get new manna every day. Amen.
And what is it? The people that live on manna of Luther, Wesley, and them back in there, you are eating contaminated stuff that's killing you, spiritually. It's killing you, dead in your traditions.
E-162 Yesterday's, Luther's manna, would not work for Methodist. Methodist manna would not work for Pentecost. Pentecostal manna will not work for today. See what I mean? Every day it come, day by day, fresh, and so has It through the church ages.
Luther's manna was the message of justification. Wesley's message was the manifestation of sanctification. Pentecostal was the restoration of the gifts. But this is introducing the Headstone, the last day, the Bride Tree, which is contrary to all of it, and yet It's the same Light for the matured.
Like the same sun, shine today, will be ripening the grain for the harvest in July. See what I mean? But the light today won't do any good back there in July. It's stronger. The wheat is more advanced; it's ready to take it. Amen. Certainly is. They couldn't take it now; it can then. The season wasn't right, then; it is now.
E-163 You can't go against God's nature. He's got a law, and, to contrary that law, kills your plant. You've got to go according to God's spoken laws, and His laws is His Word. Any law is a word spoken. And a word is a thought manifested. See? Now we—we know that that's true.
E-164 A vision is what? The Word of God, or something foretold, or a forecast of a event. And a vision that the prophets had, and Jesus had, Paul had, and all of them, and tell of this day, was a forecast of what would happen. And here we see the forecast being made manifest, and people don't even recognize it. See what I mean? Now, yesterday's manna…
E-165 Look here. Did you ever notice, the sun, s-u-n, has traveled, East to the West, as it's went each time. Did you notice that? And, notice, the church ages did the same thing. What? The sun, s-o… s-u-n, started in the East. And civilization has traveled with the sun, God's spoken light for them to live in. They've come on, following the sun, see where it was going.
E-166 Life itself, when you are born, is like a sun. You go on, right on to the setting of the sun, from your birth to the setting of the sun.
E-167 Man has traveled westward, always. The oldest civilization we have is China, in the eastern countries. Jerusalem… And, notice, she keeps traveling westward as it goes, and as it goes on and on, to the West.
E-168 So has the church age traveled the same way, by the S-o-n of God. Look, Paul, the early church, started in the East; it went from there, jumped across the—the—the—the sea, over into Germany. It's made three pulls. Look here. From Asia, down in—in Palestine, it jumped across the ocean to Germany; that was Luther. And it jumped from Luther, across the English Channel, over into England; by Wesley. And from Wesley, she's jumped to the West Coast, to the United States. And this, if you go any further, it's coming back East again. This is the evening time.
E-169 Look how the church ages has fought. Luther… Paul, first, back in the early age; then come down to Iren-… to Irenaeus, and so forth; on down into France; from there, over into Germany; over into England; constantly going West.
And now we can't go no farther. This is the last age. And what does the Bible say about this last age? See, geographically, chronologists, and almost any way you want to take it. Scripturally, first; Scripture, of course, first. Evidence, historically, any way you want to take it, we're at the end, the last church age.
E-170 And, watch, as it went forward it grew stronger and stronger. And so has the real, little minority of the Church growed from justification, sanctification, baptism of the Holy Ghost, and now to the coming Capstone, shaping itself up. No more organizations after this. There won't be no more. See, can't be, see, we're on the West.
E-171 Just to show you, through all types and everything else. And look at those three jumps, three pulls. We'll get into that tonight, see, see, how we're at the end time. It's just…
E-172 The s-u-n has traveled like S-o-n; S-o-n like s-u-n. The church has come the same thing, from the Seven Church Ages, and so forth. Civilization has moved right on to the West, and the Church has moved right on to the West. And now if we go any further than what we are now, we come back East again. You leave the West Coast, you go right back into China, Japan, right back in again. Seven thousand miles across, you go right back to the East again. So, East and West has met, that's all of it. We're at the end. There is nothing left.
E-173 And the same thing has happened, today, that happened back there. The same thing has met at the West that was met at the East. The people living in a glare of another light that was absolutely trying to show forth the Light was to come, and reject It, because they got the glare instead of the Light. Oh! "And there was great Light in the land of the Gentiles; Zabulon, Nephthalim; of Galilee,… in Galilee, land of the Gentiles."
E-174 This is the seventh church age. Remember, and each time that that sun begin to shine in the East, is the same sun that shines in the West. And the same Spirit that's been all down through the ages, like that, is the same Son today. Only, what is it? Just like ripening, the season. The sun that's now, will be the same sun that ripens the grain this fall, this autumn, see, but (what is it?) it's this sun plus what it will be. And today, in this last age, is what they were, plus This.
And yet they want to live back there, as a dwarf, go down into a musty, old internom-… old nominational basement and creed, and pull their blinds down, say, "I just refuse to see It. It's all nonsense." And when the very Bible, that they claim to believe, is being identified by the same Holy Spirit bringing Light in the last days!
E-175 Did you notice? And watch real close there in Malachi, how he lotted that, "The Faith of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers." See, the same Spirit where It raised back yonder, where It raises here again, the same thing. See, just vice versa, exactly, setting right back again. Cause, why? East and West has met. Just exactly right under our face, and yet they don't see it. Why? No wonder Jesus said, "Just let them alone, then. They're blind, lead the blind, they'll all fall in the ditch."
E-176 The light of other ages only reflected this Light. See? The sun today only reflects, is the reflection of the sun that will be this July or August, if God… for the harvest. And the Son, of Luther, Martin Luther, and Wesley, and Sankey, Finney, Knox, Calvin, Moody, all them others, them great man back in there that had those light; and John Smith of the Baptist church, and Alexander Campbell, the Campbellite church, and the so-called Disciples of Christ, Christian Church, and whatevermore names they got for them. All them man back there, in their ages, was only reflecting what It will be here at the end.
E-177 And then here, the children, immediately after them founders, what do they do? They didn't stay on the stalk. They pulled away from It and made themself a little husk thing out here. Which, you get away from the real source of Life, you have no Life. You take a husk off the thing, and plant it out here in the ground, it'll lay down and rot. And so are you, trying to eat rotten manna from back in them days.
The harvest is ripe! Jesus has a table spread, where the saints of God are fed on ripened Food of the day, by the Gospel Light that vindicates and proves that He is here today. Amen. The saints eat the Bread.
E-178 Just think. The old husk of yesterday, see, don't plant it back there. It's rotten. It cannot, it cannot stay with it. No, sir. It will not do no good. It won't grow. It's off of the Life; and the Word is the Life. That's right. The husk drops off, the little old beard falls away, and things like that. It just denominates itself and drops off. It refuses to go on with the Life.
But the Light vindicates It. Oh, my! Yes, sir.
E-179 Yesterday's, oh, my, how we ought to see that! See, that, the rotten things of yesterday, don't eat them today. See? It's got worms in it. You know these little wiggletails that I call them? I don't know. I—I don't know much about germ life, but I know we always called them wiggletails. It gets in anything when it gets a little rotten. See? I don't want it then. If you're satisfied with it, go ahead, but not me. But remember…
You say, "Then why was it good yesterday?"
E-180 If you only knew that the very little hull that was on the wheat at the beginning, if it's abides in the grain, it makes the grain further. That's the very thing that makes the wheat flower, is what was yesterday; but if it separates itself from the grain, and it don't mature, then it goes away. See? But if it goes through the process, of life-giving process, as it dies out it just blends into something else and makes the grain. If it isn't, where does it come from? Amen. You get it? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.]
E-181 Like the Queen of England, once, she went to a great paper company, and she said she would like to see through the paper mills. So they showed her the paper mills, many years ago before they went to making it into pulp and stuff, so they find… making papers out of it. So they, well, after a while, she come into a room that it was nothing but a big old pile of dirty rags, and she said, "Where did this come from? What's this? Oh," she said.
The—the—the president of the plant said, "This is—is what we'll make the paper out of, these dirty rags."
She said, "That, make paper?"
"Yes." So she couldn't hardly believe it.
E-182 So after she was gone, the man took the same dirty pile of rags, and run them through a certain process, and brought them out a clean, pure paper, you know, had been went through a process and made real… And put her profile in it, and sent it to her, reflecting herself in this what she called "dirty rags."
E-183 Now that's what it is. The dead things of yesterday, the message of Luther, the message of Wesley, the message of Pentecost, if it can only go through the process of God's Holy Spirit and the Word of a vindication, it'll bring forth the reflection of the Jesus Christ, the King. Amen. But if you leave it lay, it's dirty rags. See?
E-184 It's got to be molded into something else. Luther has got to be molded into Wesley, and Wesley has got to be molded into Pentecost, and Pentecost has got to be molded into Christ. It goes through a process. So has the Gospel gone through a process. It's processing. Luther's age, of justification, we believe that; Wesley's, of sanctification, we believe that; the Pentecostal's, of the restoration of the gifts, for the Holy Ghost, we believe that, certainly. But, mold it all together, what do you come out with? Jesus, right, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Oh! It'll come out with Jesus.
E-185 When a man in a foundry is making a bell, he's got a certain tone he has to put in it. When he is setting his mold and pouring his iron, he puts in so much brass, so much steel, so much copper. Why? He knows just exactly how much to put in, to make, give it the right tone.
And that's what Jesus has done by His Bride. He had to put so much Luther, so much Methodist, and so much Presbyterian, so much Pentecost, in it. But what does He come out with? His Own reflection.
What is it? Just like pyramid Message, you see, it's heaping right up, this, come into the minority, with the Headstone. The ministry of Jesus Christ, on earth, has to be the same as the ministry He had, or He can't come to it. Just like the head, to the feet. The head… Feet is not the head, but the head packs the feet, or makes the feet, tells it where to go. You get it? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] Beautifully, it's the Light of the hour.
E-186 Wesley was a great Light. Like He said to John the Baptist, "He was a great Light for his hour." Sure, he was.
E-187 No. Yes, sir, the clean rags… Or, the dirty rags of yesterday, if you remain that way, it's got… it'll just become dirty rags all the time. It served its purpose, as clothing, but now it's become paper.
Justification served its time, in justification under Luther, then it had to become sanctification through Wesley. And sanctification served its time, till it become the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And the baptism of the Holy Ghost served its time; until the Holy Spirit (which, there's only one God) blends into the Church, and the Church into Christ, and it makes Jesus Christ reflected on the earth, what He promised here in the Bible. Might not believe it; I can't make you do that. I'm only responsible for the Word. See? That's right.
E-188 So you see it? Do you see that? If you do, it'll be like the—the man one time went to… during, went over to Wales, during the time of the Welsh revival. A bunch of man went from the United States. So they goes down, and they said they wanted to find out what building they was holding this Welsh revival in. Many of you remember the Welsh revival, great revival broke out amongst the—the Welsh people in Wales. So these man, these great big ministers, and so forth, went from the United States, they doctors of divinity. They wanted to go over and see what great thing they had done, you know.
So they was walking down the street, and they said… met a little old policeman standing on the corner, whirling his club around, you know, and whistling a—a hymn, like that. They said, "Well, he is just whistling a hymn. We might go up, and see him, see what he's going to do. Why, ask him a question."
So they went up to him, and said, "Sir, where is the Welsh revival at?"
E-189 He tipped off his hat; he said, "Sirs, the Welsh revival is held in here," in his heart. Oh, that's it, he was the Welsh revival.
O God, if we can only—only understand that we are the reflection of Jesus Christ, His Word made manifest. You are the reflection of His Word. See?
"Where is the Welsh revival held? What building is it in?"
He said, "Sir, it's in my heart." He was the Welsh revival. That's right.
E-190 And today the Church ought to be Jesus Christ in action upon the earth. "Because I live, you live also; and My Life will be in you. The works that I do, you'll do also." See? The Church has got to get to that place, too. And He promised it would do it, and it will. It's got to come that way. So, you see, that's what takes place. We, we got to be that way.
He is the Light.
E-191 So was Noah the Light in his day. He was the Light. Noah was that Light. He was the Light to what? To make God's Word, "I will destroy man upon the earth, that I've created. Build an ark, and all desires to come into it will be saved."
Noah walked out there, said, "There is one way, and that's the ark."
E-192 They said, "The old crazy fanatic." He was the Word made manifest. Noah was the Light of the hour, sure was. His day, his age, he sprung forth the Light.
E-193 Moses was the Light of his hour. "I'll surely visit you," God said to Abraham. "And I'll come down, and I'll take out My people, with a strong hand, and I'll show My power in Egypt."
And when Moses up there met that burning bush up there, and found out the I AM was in that bush, Moses went down there, and he was the Light. Amen. No wonder he could take some dust, and blow it up and say, "Let there come fleas upon the earth." He had the Word of God. What happened? The dust begin to blow, and the fleas begin to come into existence. Hallelujah! Why? He was a manifestation of the Light of God's Word, "I'll plague Egypt." He was a prophet. What he said come to pass. He was the Light of that day. He was God's Light.
E-194 Pharaoh might have had everything he wanted to have, and the rest of them, all the priest had what they wanted, but Moses was the Light. Why? He was showing forth God's Word, manifested. God promised, "I'll bring them out, under a strong hand, and I'll get Myself glory." That's what He was doing.
That's the reason Moses proved that he could create. Not because he wanted to create; because God told him to. "And with that, 'Go to the congregation, say, "Tomorrow…"' The Lord God had just spoke to me, 'Take a handful of dust and throw it up in a sky, like this, and call for it.' There is none here, but it'll be there." Amen!
Oh, I hope you're not asleep. Oh! [Brother Branham claps his hands together once—Ed.] Manifestation!
E-195 He said, "I am sent. God did say to our fathers, surely He would visit us down here and take us out. I've come to prove to you the hour is at hand. Get rid of what you got. Let's go!" Yes.
E-196 Some of them said, "Well, I believe…"Dathan said, "I don't think there's any hurry. We shouldn't be all excited about this." And looked like it failed, four or five times. But, just the same, it moved on.
E-197 They thought. They come out and said, "We'll stone this Moses! Get him away from us! We don't want him in our—our group here."
Moses just moved right on, anyhow, because he was the Life, he was the Light of the hour. What he had, what was it? God manifesting His promised Word through Moses, and Moses was the Light.
E-198 Elijah was the Light. "Go out there and set on that hill! I've commanded the ravens to feed you." Amen! Yes, sir.
E-199 He come back down with THUS SAITH THE LORD. "Not even dew will fall from Heaven till I call for it." Amen! "Sun might shine, you might call for all the clouds, and do anything you want to, but not even dew will come till I call for it." What was he? The Light! Hallelujah! He was the Light. The Light! He was the Word of God made manifest.
E-200 They thought he was crazy, setting up there. He had porters feeding him; and them starving to death. They wanted to live in their traditions;. go ahead. Not Moses, or not Elijah, he was living right in the Light. Setting up there by the brook, Cherith, and just having a good time; having meals, and somebody to take care of him, and everything. They thought he was crazy, but he was—he was the Light.
E-201 They say, "Hey, what become of that old holy-roller we had around here? Well, you know what? Somebody was hunting the other day, and said they seen him setting up there by the way, way up on top of that mountain there. I bet that old feller is about dried up, by this time." Oh, no. He was the Light. He was the Light. He was the Light of God, in his day.
E-202 John, when he came to the earth, and went out in the wilderness to get his education from God, not the seminary. He had to introduce the Messiah. So when he come forth, Jesus said, "He was a bright and shining Light." Hallelujah! Why? He was the Word manifested.
Isaiah said so. That's it. That's right. "He'd send forth a voice in the wilderness, crying, saying, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, and make straight His gate, make straight the way.' He would cry, one… voice of one crying in the wilderness." Here he come forth. What was he? "The voice of one crying in the wilderness."
What was he? Manifestation of the Word, Light. Same God that spoke in Genesis; that spoke this, and here come the Light. As He said, "Let there be light, for the sun," the sun come in existence; say He said there'd be "a voice of one crying in the wilderness," here it come forth. It was the Light of the hour.
E-203 He also said, in the last days! Amen! It's the Light of the hour, crying in the wilderness of Babylon, "Come out of her, My people, that you be not partakers of her sins. Touch not her unclean thing! Get away from it! Flee from the wrath that is to come!"
E-204 John said the same thing. "The axe is laid to the root of the tree." Didn't have an education, didn't talk like even a preacher. He talked about serpents, and sticks, and trees, and axes, and things, what he was used to, in the wilderness. He wasn't raised up in some of this great, big, fine stuff they have today, like they had in that day. He come out with his own language. He didn't stand and say, "Ah-man," and make all these fancy bows. He come right out, out on the wilderness, raw and rough. Said, "Don't you begin to think that, 'I belong to this and I belong to that.' God is able of these stones to rise children to Abraham."
E-205 Don't you think because you're Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, that you have any hold on God. God is able to take bootleggers and harlots out of the street, make sons of God out of them. Somebody is going to hear It, and somebody is going to believe It.
E-206 He said, also, "The axe is laid to the root of the tree. And every tree that don't believe, is hewed down and cast into the fire." So that was his message. He was the Light of the day.
E-207 Jesus said, "He was a bright and shining Light, and you for a little while desired to walk into it."
E-208 And what did John say, the prophet? "He is standing among you right now. I'm not worthy to loose His shoes. And as soon as He comes on the scene, I'm going off." Oh, my! For, He was the Light.
There is no two or three Lights, no four or five different organizations. There was one Light. There is not Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Presbyterian. Christ is the Light, and the Light is the Life. And the Word manifested is the Light of the hour.
E-209 "Let there be light, and there was light." Yes, sir. "Let there be Light," and there is Light! He spoke there would be Light in this day, and there is Light. He is coming. I believe it. Look to the promises of this age. Oh, my!
E-210 Every Light that's ever shined, these church ages, we see how they… It—it's been a pitiful sight to see, rejecting. Revelation 3, I have got wrote down here, Revelation 3, and I know what—what I was referring to then.
E-211 Look to the promise of this hour, what we're living in; a rejected Light. What did they? They rejected It back there. Why? They was living in a glare. What are they doing today? Same thing.
E-212 Well, are—are you a Christian? "I'm a Lutheran. I'm a Baptist. I'm Presbyterian."
That don't mean one thing. Just might say you was a "hog, pig," or anything else you want to call yourself. See? That, that's about how much it means. Now no—no disregards to you, but if you're taking it to its fundamental part, that's right.
I asked the question, "A Christian?" That's Christ in you. And if Christ is in you, then the Word is in you. And then if the Word is in you, when the Light is shining, how you going to walk out of It? See, that's the question. That's what's in now, the Light. The evening Light's a-shining. The Bride Tree is blooming.
E-213 Oh, remember, they pruned that old Tree. "And what the cankerworm left, the palm—palmworm eat; and what the palmworm left, the caterpillar eaten." What the Methodist left, the Baptist eat; and what the Baptist left, the Pentecostal eaten. He said, "This Tree was," Joel there, "was cut all down to a stump," but he wanted to know if it would live again. Oh, yeah! He reserved that tree. He reserved that Tree, yes, sir, for it was His Bride.
And He said, "I will restore, saith the Lord." What is it? "I'll bring it forth, all that the Lutheran eat, and the Wesleyan eat, and all them. And I will restore it, 'cause it's all still in the root of the Tree." See?
It's laying yonder in the ground. Just like the sap that went down, as I said about the sister, it's laying there. And the trumpet of God shall sound, someday, and them elected Lutheran, Methodists, Baptists, that had nothing to do with any organization…
E-214 Luther never organized nothing. Moody never organized nothing. It was that group of Rickey's, after him, is what done the organization, took the husk. John Smith organized nothing. None of the rest of them organized; it was the Light of the hour. Luther, Wesley, or none of the rest of them; it was that group afterwards, come by, that made the organization.
E-215 The Holy Ghost never organized nothing in Pentecost. Pentecost is an experience, not a denomination. It never organized nothing. Oh, no. But the man who claim to be Pentecost, organized it. That's the husk yonder, dying. Instead of pressing it into the paper, and make the full image of Jesus Christ come forth; no, they pulled themselves out, so they're nothing to do into It. Just let them alone.
E-216 But we find out now, this Light, this Tree, Christ, rejected again by the church. Why? For the same cause they did it at first, the old false glares of lights of other days. And "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever." Hebrews 13:8 says He is. He's the same today as He was then, because He does the same thing that He did. The same Word, that Christ.
E-217 Listen, I want to just take you now, and let this be personal. I don't know, I'm a little decided whether to turn that off now or not, see, for that tape. I'll just let it stay there. See? [Congregation rejoices—Ed.]
E-218 I want to ask you something. Look, watch this. See, "He is the same yesterday, today, and forever." Watch. His works, that He did, manifest itself. Now listen close. When He stood there, in John 14:12, He said, "The works that I do shall you do also. Greater than this shall you do, for I go unto My Father." Now, He said it. "Heavens and earth will pass away, but that Word will never fail." Now if we're at the last end of the age, where is them "greater works" going to come? See? See? We're here. We haven't got…
E-219 Listen, if the Roman calendar is right, we got -six… we got thirty-six years left. Every two thousand years, the world meets her end. First two thousand years, destroyed by water; second two thousand years, Christ come. This is 1964 coming up; thirty-six years. Now, the Egyptian astronomy calendar says we're seventeen years out, "it's seventeen years advanced from that," that would leave nineteen years left.
Jesus said, "The work will be cut short, for the Elected sake, or there'd be no flesh saved." Where are we at?
E-220 "The works that I do shall you also. Same kind, but greater, shall you do." Now watch. Listen close. Get on your… I pray that God will open your heart and your mind, to understanding, so that you'll understand without saying it's too much here. Notice. He said one day…
Let's see some of the "great" work He done. Let's just stop for just a couple things. Let's think.
One time, He said, "You feed them something to eat."
They said, "We have nothing."
Said, "What have you got? Bring Me what you've got."
And they said, "We have five barley loaves and two fishes."
He said "Bring them to Me."
E-221 And He took the original five barley loaves and begin to break the loaves. And, from the original, He made bread. It fed five thousand. Is that right? [Congregation says, "Amen."—Ed.] Then He said, and He got a fish, "Hand Me the fish." It was a fish, to begin with. And He took off, that fish, another fish and another fish, and fed five thousand. Is that right? ["Amen."]
But in the last days He had nothing. He just spoke, and said, "Say it'll be there," and it was there, without anything in it. He never had a squirrel; there was none there. He just said, "Let there be," and there was. See? Oh, His Word is infallible, and It has to be fulfilled.
E-222 I could tell you things that would shake you. See? It's there when He says it's there. Let Him say it. See, just exactly.
E-223 See, the East, the West here has come back and met the East. It was Moses, even picked up sand, and said, "Let there be fleas," and so forth like that, "upon the earth." But in this last day He doesn't take anything; see, just the Word. "Let it be," and it is. What is said, that's the way it'll be.
I want to testify of some of those things tonight, see, see, of what's happened, that you can see He is still God. His Words cannot…
"These works that I do shall you also, and greater than this shall you do. I took a fish to make a fish; you don't even have to have a fish." See? He is still God, is still the same Son. The same Son of God that took a fish off of a fish, it's the same Son of God today. "These works that I do shall you also. Even greater than this will you do." It'll be magnified, "Greater than this shall you do." And people refuse to see it. Huh! "Greater works!"
E-224 A false light. You know, I was just thinking of something. I was referring a lot about England, but I was thinking about a false light. Here not long ago, you all remember that greatest robbery that—that England ever had, that was done. It was a seven-million-dollar holdup. I don't think there's ever been anything in the world to compare with it. A great holdup, recently, of seven million dollars, even Scotland Yards can't get it figured out.
You know how they done it? By a false light. They put a light on the railroad track, caution, on down till it come to a red light, and stopped them. And there the robbery taken place, just at the right place. A false light gave the greatest robbery that the nations has ever knowed. It robbed the nations. Of the greatest hold-up, greatest robbery, it was done by a false light.
E-225 And the greatest robbery the church of God has ever had is a false light, a glare, their denomination. It's robbed them from the power of the Holy Ghost. It's took from the church the very Life-line. It's robbed them of the Word, when they accepted a creed instead of the Word. It's robbed them.
Oh, they claim to have the Word. The Word lives Itself out for the age; It makes Itself known. They claim they had the Word, too, back there in the days of Jesus. But It said, "They saw a great Light," and they rejected It. They saw It, but rejected It.
E-226 Oh, false light, yes, it's cost the church the greatest robbery it ever had. Cold denominational creeds, brother, won't ripen a vindicated Word, a grain. The Bible said, Jesus said, "The Word of God is a—a Seed that a sower sowed." See? And cold creeds won't ripen that Word. No, no!
Cold blizzardy days won't ripen the wheat. No, indeedy! It takes the warmth of the sunlight, because it was God's spoken Word to do such a thing with.
And it'll take the Word spoken of God, today, to show the saints of God that Jesus Christ lives. Just the same as He was yesterday, He is today. Creeds and denominations will never do it. They're cold and indifference, and the grain will rot right in the ground. It can't come forth under that.
E-227 That's the reason, today, we have what we do. Like our precious Brother Billy Graham, the great revivalist. I think God is using the man. But look what he does; goes out there amongst them Baptists and Presbyterian. What you do? Get a bunch of church joiners.
E-228 See where the Southern Baptists is crowing down there because they had the most denominations, or, their denomination growed more than any other Protestants? The Catholics took them all, nearly, last year. You see it in the paper? It sure did. Don't worry, it's going to take them all, 'cause it takes Baptists and all, right together. And they're all the one, and don't know it.
The council of church, Council of Churches, puts them all just the same thing. Denomination put… Why, why will you want to stay over here or over here? As long as you're rejecting This, what difference does it make? Aren't you using the same denominational tags, just the same as you are at one place? One, the beast; and the other one, the mark. So, there you are, so just doesn't make any difference.
E-229 It's where he's been. He stomped his seal of approval, and there you take it. And there she all led, right straight to the White House, and to Washington, DC, and—and the Council of Churches, and there you go. The clergymen taken them right on back, exactly what the Bible said they would do. [Brother Branham knocks six times on the pulpit—Ed.]
My, wish that clock didn't go so fast! [Congregation says, "Take your time."—Ed.]
E-230 Now, just think now where we're at. Look at the promises for the day, rejected again. How the churches has done in this last day, the denomination glare!
E-231 Living in the false glare is the reason that It won't ripe. That's the reason that, this Word, you don't see the miracles.
E-232 A priest interviewed me, not long ago, and he said, "Mister Branham," he said, "how'd you baptize?" A—a certain girl that come out of this church; and had backslid and married a Catholic boy, and went into the Catholic church. And he was going to take her into the church.
E-233 I said, "I baptized her in Christian baptism."
He said, "The bishop wants to know."
I said, "All right, there it is."
Said, "Do you swear to this?"
E-234 I said, "I don't swear at all." And he said… "Yeah," said, "if he can't take my word for it, well, that's all right. Cause, I don't swear. The Bible said, 'Don't swear by heavens; it's God's throne; the earth is His footstool. Let your yes be "yes," and no, "no."'" I said, "He'll have to take my word for it."
Said, "Well, you—you said 'Christian baptism,' what do you mean, by—by 'immersing'?"
E-235 I said, "That's the only way Christian baptism is performed." I said, "I baptized her in the Ohio river; took her under the water, in the Name of Jesus Christ, and brought her up. I baptized her in the 'Name of the Lord Jesus Christ,' which is the only Christian baptism there is."
Said, "Yes, sir." He put it down like that. And he said, "Strange!" Said, "You know, the Catholic church used to baptize that way."
I said, "When?"
And he said. Went ahead, and the discussion went on for a while. And he said, "Well, we are the original Catholic."
E-236 Knowing, there laid right there the—the books, you know, and the history on it, I said, "That's true, but," I said, "why don't you do it today?"
He said, "We have power to remit sins." Said, "Jesus, didn't He tell His disciples, 'Whosoever's sins you remitted, to them they're remitted; and whosoever's sins you retain, to them they're retained'?"
I said, "Yes, sir. He did."
He said, "Then don't that give the church the authority? Peter was the head of the church."
E-237 I said, "If the church will remit sins the way Peter did it." I said, "Now, when they ask, 'What must we do to be saved?' He said, 'Repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.'" I said, "You do that, and I'll go with you."
"Oh," he said, "you're trying to plead a Bible."
I said, "That's the Word."
He said, "God is in His church."
I said, "God is in His Word. 'Every man, other men's words, is a lie; His is the Truth.'" See?
E-238 So there's no way he could see. But there—there they go, right on in darkness. And the Protestants, by the thousands, falling into it. Here they are, right down to adopting their creeds and things, going right on within. The Word coming right out, proving it, Jesus Christ manifesting Himself, "same yesterday, today, and forever." In that creed glare, they move right on out into darkness. Just like they did in Noah's time, just like they did in all times, they do it again today, right out in darkness! Why? They reject the Light because the creed has blinded them.
E-239 Oh, what a darkened hour that we are in now! Uh-huh! Yeah, they reject Christ's true Eternal Light, and that's what does it.
E-240 Cold denominations can never bring Life to the Word of God, because it brings life to their denomination. We've got more professed Christians right now… Looky here, if the Christian…
I asked this priest this. "If the… I'll go with you, that the catholic Church was, at the beginning, at Pentecost," not at Nicaea, Rome. The Church never did begin at Nicaea, Rome. It begin at Pentecost. See? At Jerusalem is where the Church begin. But I said…
E-241 Here, I'll admit that these people, them slaves and things, that got the Holy Ghost, they's masters seen their powers and things, what they were doing; raising the dead, speaking in tongues, casting out devils, foretelling things. And prophets among them, and so forth, come out with sheepskins around them; eating herbs, coming to that Nicaea Council, and so forth, and how great man! And there they come out of there, and come up there to that Nicaea Council, standing for that Word.
But, that bloody fifteen days, they accepted "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" as a creed, instead of the Bible doctrine, "in the Name of Jesus Christ." Through that come all the Protestant churches, born right into it, the same thing, all these other things. The false conception of the Holy Ghost; they took, take the communion, drink the wine, "That is the holy eucharist, which means, 'Holy Ghost.'" The priest gives it to you.
E-242 Now, the Bible don't read, "When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, here come a priest up the road, collar turned around, said, 'Lick out your tongue and take the holy eucharist.'" No, It didn't say, "All you people run up here and give me the righthand of fellowship, you Baptists, Methodists, and Baptists, I'll put your name. Bring a letter from somewhere."
E-243 He said, "They were all in one place, in one accord. And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven like a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the room where they were setting. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there…" Out into the street they went, staggering like drunk man, Mary and all the rest of them, under the impact of the Holy Ghost.
Why, the people said, laughed at them, and said, "These man are full of new wine." What was they? Blinded by a creed.
E-244 That little two-by-four preacher stood up there, named Peter, and he said, "You man of Judaea and you that dwell… you man of Jerusalem, that dwell in Judaea, let this be known to you, and hearken to my words. These are not drunk. But let me tell you what the Scripture said it'll be. This is the Light. This is the Word being manifested." Amen.
Same thing happens today, and they do like they did then, walked away and shake their heads. Said, "Let them alone; blind leads the blind, they all fall in the ditch."
E-245 Oh, it takes Christ, Eternal Life, to bring the Word of Life to the vindication, made flesh. Oh, my, goodness! Takes the Word… takes the Holy Ghost to operate the Word of God.
E-246 When Jesus said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Now look, Mark 16, His last commission. "All the world, all the world," it never has got there yet, see. "All the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth," in all the world, "and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe."
"They'll shake hands with the preach-…"? No. "They'll be good church member"? No.
"In My Name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; or, drink deadly things, it won't harm them; if they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." Oh, my!
E-247 How far? "Every creature." How much? "All the world," till He comes again. "These signs shall…" "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also. Even greater than this will he do, for I go to My Father."
E-248 Oh, how we can walk away from That is more than I can say! We are in more darkness now than they were. Now just got a couple more verses here, then I want to get to the end as quick as poss-… We're in more darkness than they was.
I know I wear you out here, for about an hour and a half. [Congregation says, "No!"—Ed.] But, see, this tape is a-going on in there. See? See?
E-249 They are in more darkness than we are. I made the statement, that. Why? The churches, in this glare, is so deceiving, it looks like it's the Truth. Now, didn't Jesus say? Let's see Matthew 24, see. Matthew 24, Jesus said that, "In the last days, the two spirits will be so close till it would deceive the very Elected if it was possible." There would be an elected group come out to make the Church, in the last days. And these organizations, with what they call their Truth, would be so close like the real Thing, that it would deceive the very Elected, even Pentecostals.
E-250 Now, you know you ain't going to take a Pentecostal and deceive him with some Methodist or Baptist doctrine. You ain't going to tell him that. He knows better. And you ain't going to deceive some Baptist with a Lutheran doctrine, either. See?
And neither are you going to receive the Message, to see the Message now in this Word, by some Pentecostal doctrine, a false "Father, Son, Holy Ghost," and all this stuff like that, and back there in them creeds that they have in that organization setup. No, indeedy. You'll never deceive them, because the Elected won't be deceived.
E-251 What is it? What is it? Deceiving. These glares, what they doing? They are leading the church to the council slaughter, by their glare. That will be the final slaughter, when her and Rome connects together. When they form that image of the beast, that's the final slaughter. And these glares that you got now, look what it's doing, leading the people. It's a goat.
E-252 A goat always leads the sheep to the slaughter. You've seen that in slaughter pens. That goat will run right up there and lead the sheep, then he'll jump out and let the sheep go on in. That's what he does. He always does.
It was the goats that led Jesus, the Lamb, to the slaughter. The Roman goats! That's right.
It's the—it's the denominational goats today that's leading the innocent sheep to the slaughter. Put their self, their names on them books yonder, and they are finished. That is the mark of the beast. In the Name of the Lord, I speak. Held that for a long time. That's true. That's exactly. What is the beast? What is the beast? It's the Roman hierarchy, the first organization. What is the mark of it? The same thing, exactly, the same thing exactly as that was. The slaughter, to the glare!
E-253 But in the face of the present darkness, we still have seen the Light of God shine through. How thankful we are for that!
E-254 Listen close. We have seen the Light, His Word that He promised for this day, proven and vindicated. It's the Truth, the Light of the hour. Oh, my! I'm so glad. There is nothing wrong. There is nothing.
E-255 Here not long ago a minister was saying that he was down in Florida, and he had him a—a car, I believe it was a Chevrolet, and the thing went out on him. He couldn't get it fixed. And he went into the garage, and a little old mechanic was going under it and over it, and pecking around; he couldn't get it fixed. And he—he would try this, and it wouldn't work. And he'd try something else; it wouldn't work. He'd put on a generator, put on this, and put in plugs, put in points; he couldn't make the thing work. He just couldn't make it work.
Finally, a nice-dressed man stepped up. He said, "May I give you some advice?"
E-256 The little mechanic had sense enough to say, "Yes, sir."
He said, "You take this, and times this and this, and," he said, "put that together once and try it." And he took this times that, and put it together, and there she went.
E-257 The little mechanic turned around, and said, "Say, who are you?" He was the engineer, General Motors' chief engineer. He made the thing. He was the one designed it.
E-258 And, today, when we're talking about Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian. The Chief Mechanic is here; the Designer of His Word, the Man Who created the heavens and earth, and designed His Church! Does He know more about what it takes for the Rapture, or does the Methodist or Baptist church know more about what it takes? He is the Designer. He knows what it takes. He is well dressed in the Power of His resurrection. Hallelujah! He is walking among us, today, in the Power of His resurrection.
He knows what it takes to put a Church in Rapture order. He designed It, and put the parts together here in the Bible. Amen! Just let the Current flow through It, now watch It operate. Let faith, in His promised Word of today, flow through, you'll see how It operates. Why? He designed the thing. He designed His Church by the Word. That's what He puts together. Not by Methodist, or Baptist, or Presbyterian, or Pentecostal organization; but by His Word. "Man shall live not by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Yes, sir.
E-259 Get out of them glares, in the midst of darkness, this dark time that we're living in now. (Just got about five minutes more left.) In the midst of darkness, who is going to bring the little Bride out? Who knows about It? The Chief Designer. Oh, yeah. From all this confusion of glare!
Here, the Methodist glaring one way, the Baptist another, and the Presbyterian another, and the Pentecostals another, all this glares around. They run, put their name over here, in this glare here; come to find out, something there. And come over here; and something there. Come over here…
E-260 Like I said to that priest, "If you all are the original church, and you went after the doctrine of these men set together at Nicaea, why is it you haven't got the power that they had back there in the beginning then? See? Why don't you do the things that they did, which Jesus said?"
Said, "Oh, we are more people now. We, we live in a different age."
E-261 I said, "But the Word doesn't change. He said, 'These signs shall follow them to all the ages. Heavens and earth will pass away, but My Word shall never.' That's it."
He said, "Well, you're talking about a Bible."
E-262 I said, "Yes, the Word, which is Christ." That's right. And so there you are. See?
E-263 And in this glare, the Methodist showing theirs, the Baptist showing theirs, the Presbyterian theirs, each one growing bigger and bigger, all the time.
The poor little Bride, where is She at? She run over here at the Pentecostal Oneness, a while; She put Her name on there, and She say, well… Come to find out, look what they do. And they come over here, and, "You got to belong to us. If you don't belong to our church, you're not even in the Bride. You're not even nothing." Go over here at the Assemblies, and look what they got; there you are again. Go down to the Baptists, look what they got. Look at the Presb-…
E-264 What's going to happen to the poor little Thing? See? But She is coming forth. Don't you worry. She is going to be there.
E-265 A fellow was saying, here about a couple years ago. He was down in New Mexico. I held a meeting there close to Carlsbad Caverns. You've heard of them down there, the great… And they took a man and his wife, and a bunch of children, went on this elevator, went all the way down to the very bottom of the pit. And when they got down there, they turned all the lights off. And when they turned all the lights off, it was midnight dark.
I had them to do that over here in these gardens here, and at one time at over in Colorado there, wife and I, back there, was in there. And they turned them lights on. My, you put your hand like this, you couldn't see nothing.
And there was a little girl standing there, and she begin screaming, "Oh!" Screaming. She, she was scared to death, it was so dark. The poor little thing was grabbing everywhere, and trying to scream and holler for her papa, mama, everywhere. She just couldn't stand it, it was so dark. She never seen such darkness.
E-266 And that's about the way it is now. That's right. It's so dark you don't know where to go. You go to the Methodist, go to the Baptist, go to the Presbyterian, it's all the same thing, see, eating that old dead, rotten manna with wiggletails in it. See, same thing, some creed, "Come in and join this, and the other that," old creed and everything. You don't see Christ in it. See? Oh, you see self-righteous people, I would say so. Many are fine people in there now, in them denominations. I'm saying the system, not the people in there. But, you see, that's what they're eating on. Tell them about it!
And Here is fresh Food!
E-267 And this little girl standing there, she was screaming, top of her voice, about to go into hysterics; about like the little Bride is. But you know what? Her little brother cried out, said, "Little sister, don't fear." Cause, he was standing right by the engineer. Said, "There is a man here who can turn on the lights."
Don't fear, little Sister, there is a Man here Who can turn on the Light. He can make this Word live. We don't know how He's coming. We don't how, when He's coming. I don't know nothing about that. But He is here, and He can turn on the Lights. How we going to get out of it? I don't know. But He's here, and He's the One that can turn on the Lights. Yes, sir. He is the One. He is the Light. He just makes Hisself known, that's how He turns on the Light. Exactly right.
It takes Christ, to flash away on His Lights, then all the darkness scatters. He separates. He is pulling His little Bride out. "I'll take a people out of the Gentiles, for My Name's sake, that'll have My Name." What is His Name? All right. Not Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran. It's Jesus Christ. That's right.
E-268 He is the Light, the Truth; the Light, and there is no darkness in Him. And He scatters the darkness when He comes in, because He is the Word. The Word is the Light. That's right. Because, He spoke and said, "Let there be light," that was the Word that become light. When He speaks This, it's the Light of that age, each time.
Now He is here, in—in not in a glare; but people are living in a glare. But He is the vindicated Word. He is absolutely the—the Light in the time of darkness. Yes, Sir. All these false glares and things will fade away. Yes, Sir. He is here. Don't fear. Turn on the Lights, His promised Word. It lives. It makes…
"He that believeth in Me, the works that I do, ye do also." Then, it is the Word. "As the Father sent Me, so send I you." The Father that sent Him, come in Him. The Jesus that sends you, comes in you. And the works that He did then, He does the same thing, because (why?) the Word is made flesh, in human flesh, manifests Itself as the Light of the day. There we are. There it is. It just is showing the way to Light, in the Light. Wise man, who are not blinded by creeds and denomination, will walk in that Light. Oh, my!
E-269 There is a Man here that can turn on the Lights, all right. What does He do? By vindicating His Word for this day. Jesus, the Son of God, Who promised the Word for this day, is right here with us.
Don't get scared. Don't pay any attention to what they're doing; you do, you'll walk in darkness.
Be wise. "They that do wise," Daniel said, "in these last days, will do exploits for their God." See? See? They'll walk in the Light, as He is in the Light.
E-270 Don't worry. It may be dark, look like they're going to force us, every one. All these, you see their proclamation going out, "All these little churches and things are got to come in now. You've got to come in," or they're going to close you up. They're going to make it.
E-271 Now we want to hit that real hard, tonight, when I get to this time, see.
E-272 Now, they, "We're going to close up." You have to be one of them, or not. You're—you're either into that, or you can't do nothing, can't even buy or sell. That's it. You're daresn't to pray for the sick. If you are caught ministering to any sick or any person with any spiritual thing in there, you are subject to a federal law, to be executed. That's exactly right. See? You know that. That's right. It's in their papers. Yes, sir. So, you cannot do it, you have to belong to the cult.
Brother, let me tell you something. You better get Christ sure in your heart right now, 'cause there is a time coming where you're really going to need It. You're out then. Remember, when that seal is put on, she is there for good. See? So, don't you do it. Don't you believe that stuff. You get right into Christ right now, the Word. Yes, sir.
E-273 Vindicates the Word, and shows that It is the Light of the hour. That's how we know He is the Light, because He is the Light manifesting Itself in flesh.
How do we know? He was God's Word made flesh. See, God's Word was showing Itself, vindicating Hisself, when the Messiah cometh, what He'll do.
E-274 The woman said, at the well, "When the Messiah cometh, He'll do these things. You must be the Prophet, which is the Word, foretelling us these things."
E-275 He said, "I am He." See? That was enough. The Light shined on the promised Word. There is the Light.
E-276 Right into the city she went, said, "Come, see a Man Who told me the things I've done. Isn't this the very Messiah?" That was it. See? No matter what the others said, she knew that was the Messiah.
E-277 Remember, in every age, in time of darkness, God has always had His Word to divide the Light from the dark.
He had It in the days of Luther, when the Catholic church had everything; He sent Luther as a shining Light, and Luther divided Truth from darkness.
And when the Lutherans got twisted up, He made a John Wesley, and he divided Light from darkness.
And in the days of Pentecost, when the Wesleyan got all… and the Methodist got all gummed up, and the Baptist, and Presbyterian, He sent the pentecostal message to separate Light from darkness.
The Pentecost went right back out into the darkness again, like that, in their organization, took their creeds and things.
Now the hour has come for this Word to be vindicated. He sends the Light, the Word made manifest, like He did in the beginning; sends the Word, and It proves Itself. There is Light, and He always separates. The same is now, as Eternal little Lights in the beginning.
E-278 Looking children, as I say, I'm five minutes past time now. But let me say this one thing.
There is a Man present! Don't get scared, no matter what they say. I've seen it come to the spot to where I didn't know where to move next, but He is always present. The never-failing Presence, He is always there. He can turn on the Light. Yes, sir. He is just waiting, see what you're going to do. He can flip the switch any time He wants to. Yes, sir.
E-279 There is a Man here that can turn on the Lights. "Those who set in the regions of the shadow of death," some of them under cancer, some of them under the death of denomination, some of them under creeds death, some of them under traditional death, and all them kinds of death, "and they have seen a great Light." The Man that flashed the Lights then, is the same One Who said, in the beginning, "Let there be light." That same God, "yesterday, today, and forever," He is present today, right here now. Don't get scared. He can turn on the Lights.
When the persecution comes, don't get scared. There is a Light, said He would catch His people away. She'll not go through the tribulation. She'll never do it. He said She wouldn't. She'll be caught away. "How they going to do it, Brother Branham? Looks awful dark!" No matter how dark it gets, you can't see your hand before you, just remember, there is a Man here that can turn on the Light. He'll Rapture that Church.
You say, "Well, I'm right…"
E-280 Yeah, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, was right up to the fiery furnace, but there's a Man there Who could turn on the air. Yes, Sir. That rushing mighty Wind that come down on the Day of Pentecost, He turned It on again and fanned all the breeze away from them, all the fire. There was a Man there; He's called "the fourth Man."
E-281 There is One here today. He's the only One! Hallelujah! He's got the Light switch in His hand. "Those who sat in the regions of the shadow of death, great Light sprung up." Don't reject It. Receive It, in the Name of the Lord. While we bow our heads just a moment.
We'll walk in the Light, beautiful Light,
Come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
We'll walk in the Light, it's such a beautiful Light,
It comes where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
Come, ye saints of Light, proclaim,
Jesus, the Light of the world;
Then the bells of Heaven will ring,
Jesus, the Light…
What is? The vindicated Word is Jesus today. He is the Word.
We'll walk in this Light, it's such a beautiful light,
It comes where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Oh, shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of…
E-282 With your heads bowed. I wonder how many here would like to walk in this Light, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the vindicated Word of today? See the Word that God promised today, see It manifested!
Wasn't that what He was in the beginning? He was the Word. The Son was born; He was the Word. He was the Messiah; He was the vindicated Word. So then the Word, God spoke the be-… the end from the beginning.
E-283 Now there is a Word for this day, and He's here vindicating that Word.
In the midst of confusion, darkness and glares, it looks a whole lot like It, but it isn't It. It don't prove to be It; the creed.
E-284 Jesus said, "If I cast out devils by the finger of God, who do you cast them out by?" They didn't cast them out. See? "But, no, if I cast out a devil by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you."
Oh, let's think of it, as we raise our hands. Slowly now, and think, real quiet.
We'll walk in this Light, this is such a beautiful Light,
And it comes where the dewdrops of…
Make your confession. Believe God now.
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
We'll walk in this Light, it's such a beautiful Light,
It comes where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
E-285 While they continue playing, I want to ask. Every age has been the same. In the days of Noah, those who rejected the Light, what did they do? Walked out into God's judgment. What happened to Pharaoh in the days of the Light of the burning bush, that was in Moses? Walked into the sea of death. What happened to Dathan who started and then rejected the Light? Walked into the crack of the earth; it swallowed him up. What happened in all ages, to those who failed to walk in the Light, the Light of the day?
It's Jesus all the time. It was Jesus in the days of them man. It's Jesus today, for He is the Word, and the Word makes the Light. It's the Light of the day.
Think of it now, real quietly, while we're with sincerity, ask, are you walking in the Light? While we hum it through again. [Brother Branham and congregation begins humming, Jesus, The Light Of The World—Ed.]
… beautiful Light,
Comes where the dewdrop of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
O Jesus, the Light of the world.
Let's stand up now, to our feet.
E-286 I pray the Heavenly Father to let this Message soak deep into the hearts of the people who are present, and those who will hear It by tape. And may the Light come forth upon the Word, the Seed, and bring forth every predestinated Seed that's been planted out here in these different glares and organizations. May they see like Nicodemus, even if they have to "come by night," come to the Light. Grant it, Father.
E-287 May there come forth this great issue, of this Rock that's cut out of the mountain, without hands. It'll crush these Gentile kingdoms to the ground, all these kingdoms, spiritual kingdoms and natural kingdoms. And the Rock will cover the whole earth; it'll be a purified affair. Those who that Rock crush will be ground into powder; those who fall upon that Rock shall have a solid foundation.
E-288 O Christ, let me, as Your servant, die off on this Rock, this Rock of Thy Word. Lord God, let me stand, as David, and them warriors of old who stood for David, let me stand for this Word today while I see It's rejected by the denominations. It's laying up here in a little retreat somewhere. O God, I… Grant that we'll have strength and courage, and the Holy Spirit, to stand, for the hours are getting darker and darker.
But let us always remember that You are present to turn on the Light. At any hour that You wish to, You can turn the Light, Father. So we pray…
E-289 As You said, "Ye are the Light of the world." Grant, Lord, that our Lights, who are of Your service, will shine so bright to the others, that they'll see the Light of the Gospel as we live it, Lord, day by day, reflecting to them the Life of Jesus Christ as He was on earth; full of humility and sweetness, yet with the Word being lived right through Him. Grant it, Lord.
For, we're looking to You, the great One with the switch in the hand. You hold the world in Your hand. You hold all things in Your hand, and uphold the world by Your Word.
O Father, let us receive the Word; will You, please, Lord? Let that be the testimony and the desire of every heart in here.
E-290 Father, as we sing these hymns… As David sung the hymns, they become prophecy. They were prophecy, and You recognized them, prophecy. As we sing it, Lord, let it be in our hearts, too, as we sing, "We'll walk in this Light." Let it be, Lord.
This is a beautiful Light. It's the Word. It's Christ living among us. Not what He was; what He is, and, we know what He was only reflected what He is. And we pray, Father, that the people will understand and walk in this beautiful Light. We ask in Jesus' Name.
E-291 And while we remain standing just a moment, I want us to all sing.
E-292 Now in here there is Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic. This is a mixed-up audience, when it comes to denominational.
E-293 Now remember, let it be known, that I'm speaking nothing against the people in these glares. But I've proved it, to the Bible, that they are glares. If it wasn't, Christ would be doing like He promised to do, with them. See? But they refuse That. See? And when you get there, what do you find? A "join the church, recite a creed." And what does it come out? Come to the end of the road, you find out it was a false, mirage.
Christ is the Word. He is the Light. Live now, while you can live. You live for something.
E-294 What are you living for? So you can die. Every one of you, what are you working for? To eat. What are you eating for? To live. What are you living for? To die.
So why not live to live? Why not live to live? Then, the only way you can live is accept the Word. Cause, "Man shall not live by bread alone," what we make out here with the sweat of our brow, "but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God." Now the Word of the mouth of God is being vindicated right here before us, by the Holy Spirit. Live by It, won't you?
E-295 Now I want, while we sing this again, let's just each one just stand in our place, reach over and take hold of somebody's hands, and say, "Brother, let's walk in this Light," while we sing Walk In The Light. Will you? Pray for each other as you put your hands together, while we sing it together; with closing our eyes, as far as possible.
We'll walk in the Light, such a beautiful Light,
It comes where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night, (Who is It?)
Jesus, the Light of the world.
Now let's raise our hands.
We'll walk in the Light, it's a beautiful Light,
Come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
O Jesus, the Light of the world.
Come, all ye saints of Light, proclaim, (What is it?)
Jesus, the Light of the world;
Then the bells of Heaven will ring,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
All, let's sing it out now.
We'll walk in the Light, and it's a beautiful Light,
Come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
E-296 With our heads bowed now. Remember when Israel was in their journey, eating new manna every day, they walked in the Light of a Pillar of Fire. That Pillar of Fire was Jesus Christ. The Bible says It was. And today He is with us; we have It. We know He is with us, the same Pillar of Fire, doing the same things that He did when He was here on earth, to fulfill His Word.
E-297 As we go from here, let's remember, keep that song in our hearts as we go to our homes, as the wheels hum a song. Before you eat your dinner, bow your head and thank God for sending forth light to bring food upon the earth, for your physical body. Then thank God for sending spiritual Light, His Word, that He might give Food to the soul. "For man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God."
E-298 Just keep singing this hymn to yourselves, in your home, among your people, and meet us back here about six-thirty, tonight, for the prayer cards and so forth. We'll see you then. Until then, bow your heads.
E-299 I'm going to ask Brother Neville if he'll walk up here now, the pastor, and dismiss us in a word of prayer.