From Azusa Street Until Now, Part 4

Rev. Raymond M. Jackson

CONTINUING FROM APRIL ISSUE WHERE WE WERE SPEAKING OF THE APOSTASY THAT WILL COMPLETELY TAKE OVER ALL OF THOSE TELEVISION MINISTRIES IN THESE LAST DAYS.

DENOMINATIONAL OPINIONS V/S VINDICATED REALITY

Denominational preachers are always talking about how doctrines do nothing more than divide Christian people; but I have to proclaim loud and clear, “The true Bible doctrines taught by the Spirit, (the way they are laid out in the Epistles) are the spiritual framework that holds your faith together when you do have an experience of salvation and purpose to walk with God and grow in spiritual stature.” Every true Child of God ought to know that it is these Bible doctrines that support your faith as you travel this highway of life. We are yet in carnal flesh; and this old flesh does not always enjoy the things our recreated spirit enjoys and it takes these Bible doctrines to keep everything on a true course. That is exactly why we need every doctrine that is written in these epistles. Woe be to the man that would say, “What the apostles taught at that hour was alright for their day but we do not need it today.” Brother! This, of all days, is when you need those doctrines for sure. In the book concerning the life of Bro. William Branham, (as I read from those two histories earlier) in the years of 1947, 1948, and 1949, he began to move out, taking that general direction in which his ministry began to progress. In one of those early meetings in California, a man and his wife that were present were of the old Pentecostal fellowship: so when they came to Bro. William Branham’s meeting that particular night and saw the little man standing on the platform, and heard his name mentioned, they looked at each other and said, “Remember that piece of paper at home in the bottom of our old trunk? Some twenty years before that, being of the old Pentecostal experience people, through one of the two of them while sitting at the table, (so the story goes) a prophecy came forth; and these words were spoken, “In the last days, I will bring my prophet up the West Coast and William Branham shall be his name.” They wrote that down on a piece of old brown paper, just part of a grocery sack, and stuck it in the bottom of a trunk. It had been laying in that trunk about twenty years at the time they attended this particular meeting. This man and wife sitting in that meeting, watching Bro. William Branham, looked at each other and said, Let’s go dig it out and compare the name. They went home and dug it out and there it was, William Branham. With that piece of old brown paper in hand they came back the next night. They never thought they would have an opportunity to meet Bro. William Branham personally; but God just so ordained that their paths did cross. There was a big crowd, and they were outside the main door, standing there in a great throng of people when Bro. William Branham was escorted straight through past where they were standing. They had the chance to get his attention. The man said to him, Sir, how do you pronounce your name? Bro. William Branham repeated it to him. They took out that sheet of paper and showed it to him. Therefore we can say this, From an instrument of their own kind, Pentecostal people of the old order had God’s vindication that He would have a prophet on the scene in the last days. I have to say also, And not just a prophet of divine healing, but a prophet who was just like John the Baptist, a preaching prophet, and also a SEEING PROPHET THAT HAD THE SPIRIT OF ELIJAH UPON HIM. Somewhere in time that man’s lips were destined to bring forth things out of the Bible that doctors of divinity today have sneezed at, laughed at, and have thrown away as nothing more than trash; but in reality, he put it back in the Bible where it belonged. That is why he always said, Let’s get back to the Bible! Let’s get back to the foundation of God’s word! That is why everything from Calvin, Knox, Wesley, Pentecost, right on up through there, he took all their basic teaching, put them together in a unique way, presented them to the Church as part of the gospel restored, and said, LET’S STAND ON THIS! Of course that hurt denominations when he began to preach against denominations. They all begin to denounce him because of it, saying, He is against this, and against that. Well I say, JESUS CHRIST WAS AGAINST IT ALSO. That is why I said earlier, I do not want anyone to get the wrong idea about the things I say. I am not going down the road of life calling people bastards just for the fun of it: I used that terminology to express a point, to get your attention. Every time God moves, there is always some loud mouthed theologian somewhere, who supposedly knows all about it, and has the right to denounce it and condemn it. The louder they get, the more God says, come on: Show yourself. They know they are guilty of it, but they refuse to admit it. I have to say this in the light of Bro. William Branham’s teachings, I will agree with you critics: that there were followers of this man that have brought untold injustice upon him by taking such a carnal attitude about his person, and the things he did in life. We do not even attempt to justify that. On the other hand I emphatically say to all our critics, Do not ever think that every person who follows his Bible teaching has become carnal minded fanatics that have gone off the deep end. I challenge you who disagree with us, If you hear this on tape, or see it on video, or if you read it in the Contender, Please stop forming your opinions of us by listening to all the lies propagated about Bro. William Branham and come look and listen to some people that can tell you a few things you need to know. We live where he lived. Some of us sat where he taught. If you want to know anything, we will tell you the truth about the matter. For instance, We read in one of those history books: that Bro. William Branham was killed by a car running into him while he was putting petrol in his car. That was not the way it happened. He was miles away from a filling station. He was on an open highway, in the open country of Texas, when some drunks came out a side road and turned, facing him head on. Bro. William Branham was coming up the highway, (not at a filling station) when he was run into, head on, by those drunks. It was not just a car load of youths, it was people of different ages. So I am saying all of this to let it be known that this man was truly anointed with the spirit of Elijah for this age of Laodicea. He was the man that did bring the midnight cry as stated in the parable of Matthew 25. He was the cry in the midnight hour, “BEHOLD THE BRIDEGROOM COMETH.” I might also say this to some of the critics, I have watched some of Oral Roberts’ meetings. I sat in one when he was in Louisville Kentucky. I also sat in A.A. Allen’s, Gordon Lindsay, and many of the other men’s meetings; but as I listened to what they said and what they taught, I came to one conclusion, William Branham was the only one among them that has a message out of the Bible for this hour of time. He could make Jesus Christ stand head and shoulders taller than all the rest put together. Therefore whether anyone else will accept it or not, we are not a cult because we believe him to be the fulfillment of the last part of Malachi 4:5-6. In other words, the part B, which was for our day. Anyone who knows anything at all about the Bible ought to know that Malachi 4:5-6, part B, is for our day; and is definitely not Elijah to the Jews. He came upon the scene in the Laodicean Age with a message of rebuke to the Pentecostal world, which is fast going into commercialism, and we will say materialism, just like it says in the book of Revelation. He came right on time. He brought his message and it was necessary for him to preach the things he did. With that, God took him at the closing of 1965. For thirty years now that man’s teaching has been laying in this earth and it has been printed and heralded around the world. There is not a jungle or mountain region that his message in some way has not had an effect. While the denominational church world, where the foolish virgins are, have been having their big revival, so they think, God has been schooling the little bride Church: getting her ready to take her flight to glory. Those who think they have been in a great revival for the past so many years are finding out that they have revived nothing. I do not deny the fact that the Spirit of God has moved with them: I just say they are void of any revelation of knowing what to do and where to go with what they have experienced. That is why you are still sitting right where you are. You will sit there until all these denominational systems are bound in a bundle, ready for judgment. Therefore whether they like it or not, it was necessary for the spirit of Elijah to come again as this age of Grace, the Laodicean age, is coming to a close. He came with a message that points to some people that they should get their hearts, revelatory wise, experience wise, restored back to like it was when Paul, Peter, James, John, Jude, and those other first age disciples of Christ preached it. I have to say, Thank God for it. That is where we stand. That is what we got from his message. That is our foundation. I am thankful to God for it. I know the schools of thought of the theological world. Malachi 4:5 in its last event (according to them) goes to the Jew, not the Gentile. Well I say, It does not go to the Jew at all because it is tied to the NEW COVENANT. You only have two applications of it, the beginning and ending. What about the Elijah in the book of Revelation? You are looking at an altogether different set of scriptures. In Zechariah 4:2-3, and in Zechariah 4:11-14, two places, Zechariah, the prophet, has been shown the olive tree, the candle sticks. Looking at them, he became so disturbed, so fascinated, what does it mean? Finally as he begs the angel, the angel told him in the 4th chapter, 11th through the 14th verses, these are the two anointed ones that stand by the God of the whole earth, and yet that did not tell what these candlesticks symbolized. We can say this, Even the Jewish nation yet today does not realize, because it is a type. But when we do come to Matthew 17, did not Jesus say one day to a multitude of disciples, Verily I say unto you, there are some of you standing here that shall not taste of death until you have seen the Son of Man coming in the power and glory of His kingdom? That is not talking about His coming for the rapture. That is talking about His coming to be revealed to the world, to take the reins of human government and pour out the wrath of God. A little later on He took three disciples, three witnesses, and went up on a high mountain, apart from the multitudes. You can read it in the 17th chapter of Matthew. There His clothing, His whole image and everything was transfigured before the eyes of those disciples. This was a vision. This was not Moses and Elijah coming out of the past in a corporal body. It was a vision. If you read further, that is why when they were coming off the mountain Jesus told the disciples, See that you tell the vision to no man until after the Son of Man has risen. Just let the scripture say what it says. It was a vision. The Holy Ghost has the right to take any image of any particular prophet or patriarch and use it to convey a thought or a purpose to people of another generation. In this sense, what did the disciples hear Moses and Elijah saying? They heard them telling Jesus of the things He was going to suffer. Notice in the writing of that, they never mentioned one thing about Jesus coming in the Millennium. They spoke specifically to Jesus of the things He was soon going to suffer. But the setting was, them seeing Jesus transfigured. This is an image of Him beyond death, the grave, resurrection, how He is seen coming again in power and glory when He is revealed from heaven. Before that can be a reality, he is to be preceded on earth by two witnesses: The Bible identifies them as Moses and Elijah. Had the book of Revelation never been written, you and I would not even know how to interpret Zechariah 4, nor Matthew 17; but once we see how God, in 96 A.D., took John into the future and allowed him to see things no other man had ever been allowed to see, it opened up other scriptures to us. (I will say this to you doctors of divinity and all you theologians of the religious world, John was not a theologian in his hour. He was a man with a simple education, but he had an experience of something inside his soul that was so trust worthy God could let him see things that were going to be a means of how people can base their lives somewhere in the future tense of time on other scriptures. I have to say also, Thank God for a man like John who was so loyal to the truth he had received by the grace of God, that God could give him an insight of the hour and time we now live in. Therefore when John was in the spirit he saw far into the future. We learn that especially from the 11th chapter of Revelation. Remember this, In 96 A.D., the Jewish temple that he had seen in the earlier days of his life was in ruins. Jerusalem was a ruined city in 96 A.D. The older generations of Jews had all been carried off into slavery and sold. So Jerusalem and the temple lay there in ruins. Yet, here, as God shows John these visions, while he was out there on the Isle of Patmos, He gave him a preview of something that would transpire hundreds of years later. The angel gave him a reed and said, Arise, take this and measure the temple and the altar and them that worship therein, but the court leave out for it is given unto the Gentiles and it and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months. Then it goes on and says, and I will give power unto my two witnesses. You can read it in Revelation 11:3-4. “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. (4) These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.” Right there in the end of our Bible, is a letter of prophecy given to you and me for the Church. You and I are living in a short period of time no doubt, just before that prophecy is to be fulfilled. Those two witnesses are definitely going to be the two candlesticks, because it is described in Revelation 11, and it is the fulfillment of Matthew 17, that just before the visible bodily coming of Christ in all of His glory, He is going to be preceded by two prophets that will present Him to the Jews through their prophesying. One is Moses and the other one is Elijah. Not the literal Moses and Elijah of old: but two other Jews with those same anointings that Moses and Elijah of old had. That is the best way I can explain this: That we can look at this thing called the spirit of Elijah and put it in its chronological order. Every one of these comings of that Elijah Spirit had a specific purpose in the plan of God. We just have to be able to see each one in its foreordained period of time.

HOW TO ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SERPENT’S SEED

At this time, I want to go back into something else the denominations condemned Bro. William Branham for preaching. It was his teaching on the serpent’s seed. People who believe the truth about his calling and his ministry are ridiculed, and branded as being a fanatical cult. I knew I wanted to deal with this; but was not sure how to go about it without going into a full teaching on the subject. Every other time, I have always tried to preach a message of explanation when I bring up the subject; but I knew I could not do that in this type of message because I do not want to take that much time. Yet I do want to put something in here to help the critic as well as other people who do hear it or read it, understand that the Bible is written in such a unique way, a man in his carnal way of reading it does not see a thing that would suggest serpent seed: yet a true revelation of the Spirit leaves no other explanation for certain things we read in the scriptures. Those who only read the Bible from a carnal minded standpoint cannot possibly see what is revealed only by the Spirit. On the other hand, People who are led by the Spirit in Bible study, even though they just get a clue here and there, they still come out with a picture in their mind that does make sense. That is what we call a revelation. When it is really a true revelation, do you know what it does? It drives these carnal minded preachers up a wall. That is why that evil gang condemned Jesus: Simply because their carnal mind’s could not receive what He taught. Well I thought and thought, How can I present this thing of serpent seed without going into a full teaching on the subject? and nothing seemed to come to my mind: so after lunch, I laid down to take a nap with that on my mind. Just as sure as I am standing here, when I woke up, in my mind, was already the thought, Present it to them in the form of seven questions. I just got up, went to the desk, got a sheet of paper out and wrote them down; and here are the seven questions. (If people cannot answer these questions, it would do no good to try to preach them seven sermons: They would still never see it. First off, most all the religious world will say, “That serpent seed teaching is of the devil: Anyone who believes that, has to be in a cult.” Well my reply to that type of person is, Be careful how you talk, because if you are a Trinitarian, you are in a much larger cult than those who believe in serpent seed will ever be. How can the pot call the kettle black, when they both sit on the same stove? Do you understand what I mean by that? Well here it is in the form of seven questions; and let me say to you young people, When someone at school begins to criticize you, ask them, Do you have a Bible? If they say yes, then the NO. 1 QUESTION is this, What were the two trees mentioned in Genesis 2:9? One is called the tree of life, and the other one is referred to as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil: so what were they? Were these two trees part of the plant life growing there in the garden? Ask them specifically, Were they part of the plant life? If so, why is the tree of life no longer here? It is in heaven. It is mentioned in Revelation 2:7 where the Lord is speaking to John, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” In what way will overcomers eat of the tree of life? You know, and I know, it is through a new birth experience. IT IS NOT EATING AN APPLE OFF OF A TREE OF PLANT LIFE EITHER. It is also mentioned in Revelation 22:2, where the tree of life is spoken of in the plural, as well as in the feminine gender. Why? Then, come right back to the garden where Adam and Eve lived, back to where the Bible says the tree of life was in the midst of it. It is evident that it was not a tree of plant life at all, for at what time, in time, did God dig it up over there and take it to heaven with Him? What answer can your critics give you? They have to give you an answer if they want to continue.

QUESTION NO. 2, is this, Where is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Where is that tree today? In their minds they think these two trees are plant life; but this is to get their mind’s opened up to the fact that they are not plant life trees. One thing is sure: Those trees did not grow up out of the ground. You need not go looking for them. It is in the mind of every mortal human being that has been born on the face of this earth since Adam was driven from the garden: that he was driven out of a beautiful, fenced in garden. I admit that the scriptures sound exactly like that; but our revelation of the thing lets us know it was not like that. Genesis 3:23-24, says this, “Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (24) So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” They went out from the presence of their Creator with the knowledge of good and evil and the angel was assigned to keep them separated from the tree of life. This should show that you are not dealing with all these other trees that are plant life. You are dealing with two other trees that has got to be understood only as symbols of two basic laws. They are symbols of something that basically is going to govern how you and I propagate ourselves while on this earth.

QUESTION NO. 3, What was the garden that God planted eastward in Eden? (GENESIS. 2:8) “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.” In the natural human concept people see a geographical place where a lot of seed were planted. However when we look at it right and read the literal words right, we are not just reading words, we are getting a picture of something; so the question is, What was the garden that God planted eastward in Eden? It was a little bit of heaven placed in a small area on this earth. This was God’s beginning for another age of time: because it is evident now, that the prehistoric age was all in the past. To the critics, the atheists, and agnostics, all of that is eons and eons, millions and billions of years in the past. Any sensible person has to realize there was a prehistoric age of time on this earth long before Adam’s time. That has been vindicated by all of what has been uncovered by various one’s in our age of time.

QUESTION NO. 4, When God created man and woman according to Genesis 1:27, He commissioned them. In verse 28, we find these words, “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” WHAT WAS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORD REPLENISH? The word replenish, which the natural mind reads right over, has a definite meaning. The word replenish, in that verse, is the first clue we find that the earth had already been inhabited by something. God is saying in the word replenish, that the earth had already been full of life from some other age of time. God used the word in the commission for man and woman to replenish the earth for another purpose; and it gives us a clue that most people just read right on past, never even realizing the significance of the word He used.

QUESTION NO. 5, The man and his wife were told to again fill up the earth, Genesis 1:28. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Therefore in order for that commission to be carried out, MY QUESTION IS, Would you not agree that this can only be brought about by there being a sex act carried out between the man and woman? This is exactly why God put Adam to sleep, and out of his side He took a rib and made a woman. When Adam came to his senses, he looked at her and named her Eve, which means the mother of all living. In other words, in the mind of Adam lay the commission and revelation as to how man and woman were going to replenish their kind on this planet. Therefore this commission, if it is carried out, has to involve a sex act. We will have to see and realize that this very act would have been an act sacred in the eyes of God. Why do I say that? Because if you notice in the genealogy of chapters 4 and 5 of Genesis, which is the genealogical trace of the Cainite line as well as Adam’s offspring, every time a child is born, it always connects that Cain knew his wife and she conceived another child. Cross over to Adam’s side and Adam knew Eve again and she conceived and brought forth Seth. Does that not tell you that the language in that hour was sacred? Why? Because it is a means of bringing life into this world, which should be life coming from God, invested in human form, and a life that at least expresses Godlike characteristics, which God wanted manifested on this earth. You doctors of divinity, how blind can you be? This is why when Adam came to himself, he looked at his wife and said, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and the twain shall be one flesh.” For what purpose? To reproduce their kind, through an act which was to be sacred in the beginning of man’s onset of propagating himself on this planet. What we all have to understand is, If Adam and Eve ever fell, if Adam and Eve’s free moral agency was ever to be tested, they had to be tested on the merits of what God had put them here for: They were not tested on their other capabilities: but strictly on whether they would fulfill the commission according to all of the Creator’s instructions. They were going to be tested on the merits of what God had put them here for: To be fruitful and multiply and REPLENISH the earth. Therefore you have the question, How will the test come about? How could Adam and Eve fail the test?

QUESTION NO. 6, In what form was the serpent at the time he was created? Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” We can say this, He was certainly not a crawling snake. He was not a long reptile hanging by his tail in an apple tree as Eve came walking through the garden: Good morning Eve! No, he was not a reptile. Read what the Bible says. First off, this serpent was a part of the animal kingdom that God had created out of the dust of the earth and brought to Adam. Had God not already said, It is not good that man should be alone? He said He would make him an help meet. Well the first help meet that God made for man was the animal kingdom. He made every one of those animals to somewhere serve a purpose to man’s benefit on this planet. The woman, taken from his side, was the last thing He created. God did that so man could reproduce his kind; but the animal kingdom was first. It plainly tell you in Genesis 3:1, the serpent was the most subtil, which when you break it down, it tells you that of all the animals God created, from the fishing worm, the grub worm and all the other worms, right on up the line to creatures with legs and so forth, this serpent stood at the head of all of them. He stood between man and the next thing that looked or acted much like a man: Which of course was the chimpanzee. Right there is where the atheists and scientists play around. Oh what a picture they play with. I will be so glad when the era of the miraculous opens up in the Middle East: the time when the heathen will come crawling out of their holes, the time when they see the hand of God at work. Let us just take a look at this serpent. There is no serpent around today that you can look at and even get an imaginary picture of what the first serpent looked like. Keep in mind though, the first one had to be something far superior to what a gorilla, a chimpanzee, or an ape, or a monkey could possibly be. This creatures (in his physical makeup) looked very much like Adam. God had designed him that way, because of what he was created for. Was he to be just another animal walking around, eating this and that? No. God made him to be a servant to man. He made the horse to be ridden, and therefore made a place for a bit in his mouth. One thing sure, God did not have to have a dentist come along and pull certain teeth from the horse’s mouth for the bit to go in there. When he designed the horse’s mouth, God knew for sure that man would ride him with a bit in his mouth. I do not think evolution accomplished that. Do you understand what I mean by that? My point is this, We must see a creature that had been so physically designed that he looked much like the physical profile of Adam. Yet he was not a son of God. He was the most intelligent part of the animal kingdom. He was designed that way because he was to be a personal servant, to carry out certain duties for Adam and Eve. We can say this, This creature may have been created much in the likeness of the prehistoric man which had already existed here on the planet in other millions of years gone by. He may have been like them; but he was not one of them. No, this serpent was definitely a creature created right out of the ground, which had a beginning in a new order like all the rest of the animal kingdom. I will say this for the sake of this particular type of subject, There is no doubt in my mind, many of the animals we have today that you see out here, are in one sense replicas of some of the old prehistoric animals. If you go to various places of the earth today, there are lizards, some very small, some larger, and larger again; but none of them look exactly alike. However if you look at some of these through a magnifying glass, you would say, Well I have seen pictures of that creature, because it looks just like a dinosaur. When God created another kingdom, did He have to get another set of molds somewhere? He never used molds to begin with: He knew exactly what He was making; but you will have to admit, He made many of them much in the same likeness of what was here before: only He changed the physical size because of the hour they are needed in. The serpent definitely did carry some characteristics of the old prehistoric man, but this serpent in the garden where Adam and Eve was placed, was the most subtil of all creatures. We can say this, In his physical makeup he had all the qualities of being a tool for the devil to use. Bro. William Branham‘s teaching on serpent seed is criticized by the great doctors of divinity. They all denounce it, saying that Bro. William Branham taught that the devil carried on a sex act with Eve. HE NEVER DID SAY ANY SUCH THING AS THAT. A lot of people who are supposed to be very intelligent, do not see any difference between the serpent and the devil: simply because of other references in the scriptures which they cannot separate. Anyhow, just plain spiritual understanding lets us see that if Adam and Eve were to be tested by a demand that their free moral agency be exercised, the devil knew what would be involved in the test: In other words, The test involved how they were going to carry out this commission, “BE FRUITFUL AND MULTIPLY, AND REPLENISH THE EARTH.” They were not tested on how they were going to plant corn or raise watermelons. It was HOW THEY WERE GOING TO REPRODUCE THEMSELVES. Since there was going to be a sex act involved, right there is where the devil was sure going to strike. He used this serpent creature that had the ability to talk and communicate with Eve; and that is why we see in Genesis 3:1-5, him carrying on a conversation with her. “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (The devil knew what God had said to Adam: That is why he had the old serpent working on Eve in this way. Notice how Eve answered in verse 2.) “And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: (3) But of the fruit of the tree which is in the MIDST of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. (It was a sure thing: If they partook of that tree, death was certain; but notice the cunning answer the serpent came back with in verse 4.) “And the serpent said unto the woman, YE SHALL NOT SURELY DIE: (He was disputing the very word of his Creator.) (5) For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” You do not read anywhere, that this serpent creature ever carried on a conversation with Adam about this thing. The devil knew Adam could not be tempted to go against the word of God: That is why the woman was targeted; and that is why the serpent was the instrument the devil used.

IDENTIFYING THE SERPENT

Let me just go ahead and identify the serpent creature in the garden of Eden for those of you who have never yet heard the teaching on the serpent’s seed. He had all the physical characteristics that made him look much like Adam physically. He had an intellectual mind to know and understand all earthly related subjects of interest. If he was given to Adam to be a servant to him, he had to know the makeup of plant life, seeds and such things? He was the one that would have been planting the garden: if Adam had kept faithfully the words of his Creator. He is the one that was going to harvest the pumpkins and whatever else was grown. He was the one that was going to do all of the manual labor. If there were any callouses on the hands of anyone, it was not going to be Adam: It was going to be on this servant, the serpent. Well saints, what have we learned from these scriptures so far? The serpent had the ability to speak; and he had an intellectual capacity to know how to turn phrases into thoughts; and that is why he was a tool for the devil to use. The devil is a spirit, so he needed a physical vessel he could impress, to carry out his evil scheme. As he impressed the serpent to allow himself to be used like that, then this tool came walking through the garden talking and enticing Eve to submit to him. Read it again, in the 3rd chapter of Genesis, until you see what is really there. What was he doing? Was he showing her fruit off of one of the apple trees like the church world believes? You know it was something other than that, if you know anything at all spiritually. He was showing her the fruit of the tree of knowledge, which is not a plant life tree at all, but a basic law God set forth in the midst of His Garden of Paradise. I remind the critics once again, When you can prove that the two trees in the midst of the garden of Eden were trees of plant life, then you must also tell me at what time God dug up the tree of life and took it to heaven. Then I want you to show me where the tree of knowledge is today. If it is a plant life tree, it has to be somewhere: God did not do away with it. In reality, those two trees were symbolic representations of two basic laws God set in the midst of His creation to govern them. The trees represent RIGHT AND WRONG, LIFE AND DEATH. That is why you cannot place them with all other trees of plant life. With that, the serpent was the most logical creature to become an instrument to introduce Eve to the sex act for pleasure: which was an act without a God given objective; for God’s objective for the sex act was that it be entered into solely for the purpose of reproducing life. He gave His son and daughter a perfect plan for reproduction; and if they had followed that plan, every child born into the world from such a union would have been a perfect son or daughter of God, totally sinless and innocent. After their disobedience though, because they were forbidden to ever partake of the tree of life, every little baby born into the world since then has been the result of a sex act for pleasure; and they were born with a sentence of death hanging over them, standing in need of a Savior to deliver them. We know man is tampering with this law of God and little babies are being brought into the world; but I am speaking in general terms. That forbidden fruit is partaken of when a man and woman comes together in this relationship solely for pleasure; and that is what the act has been ever since woman lost the knowledge of the exact time when she could conceive seed and bear a child for the Creator. I do not have time to go into all the explanations; but really, every child born in the overall sense of the word, is born as the product of a young man and woman coming together in physical relationship for pleasure. She does not know when she will or will not conceive. God is the author of that. How many realize that? Therefore we are a product of the tree of knowledge, which I say exists in the mind of people. Now I have to come back with this, to the critics, If this is not the clue that tells you what went wrong back there, then please tell me why it is that in the United States and Canada, which has been known to the world in years gone by, as a Christian nation of people, What one thing has caused this society to go to the dogs? Sex education. We needed sex education like we needed a row boat to take us to the moon. Look what it has done to our society. It has stripped us of the virtue and recognition and honor and dignity as a nation. You doctors of divinity are going to have to come up with something a lot better than your old tradition, “Eve ate an apple from the forbidden tree,” to explain this thing: Because we all know redemption does not come through plant life. Redemption comes through life given by a man whose blood was shed to pay our sin debt. What we have been talking about was definitely how Adam and Eve were to be tested in regards to the commission God gave them: which was to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth with replicas of themselves; so to be talking about a sex act is not wrong in that sense of the word. It is absolutely necessary, if we are to get a true revelation.

NOW LET US GET QUESTION NO. 7. Why did God curse Eve’s reproductive organs if all she did was eat fruit from a plant life tree? If that was her sin, Why did God not curse her mouth? In Genesis 3:16, you see that God cursed her periods, the cycles that set up in the female body that leads to that appropriate time when there would have been the relationship carried out and conception would take place and Eve would have brought forth another baby, which would have strictly been a reflection of another son of God. That is why we teach this, to show you why it was necessary that Jesus Christ be born of virgin birth. Think of it, the religious world wants to start with an apple as the downfall of man, then wind up telling us we have to believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ in order to be saved from our plight. I have to say they are as blind as a bat. When God dealt with those who had sinned, the serpent was the first one He spoke to. When He did, He said, (GEN. 3:14) “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” He did not crawl on his belly before that: He stood upright just like Adam. He was taken from that position and placed at the very end of all of God’s animal kingdom, at the lowest place of the animal kingdom. God could have made him a fishing worm, but He just made him a crawling reptile; and he will never be redeemed from that position. He put him in the reptile family for as long as time lasts. He is still out there. Then God put enmity between the seed that he left and the woman’s seed, which is Eve’s own seed by Adam. The war started back then and the battle has been going on ever since. I am not going any further with this: I feel that I have said enough. If the skeptics do not see anything from this, they would still not believe it if you preached seven complete sermons on the subject. As I said, When I woke up from that little nap, this is what was laying right on my mind: Just give them seven questions: You do not have to preach them a sermon. All of these, we know, are dealing with something so specific, if you look at it right. You cannot come out looking at anything else but the fact that the devil used a serpent creature to plant a wrong seed and get the woman to do the wrong thing at the wrong time and then man started his downward course. We have every one been affected by it.

READING FROM HISTORY

I am going to read a little section from another book at this time. I will not read much: Just enough to give some history of what has taken place in years gone by. A lot of people in our religious world, in the hour we live in, are ignorant of what God has done at certain places in former times. As a matter of fact they could not care less about what God has done for others: Because to them religion is just a formality anyhow. It is another way they have of identifying themselves with society; but as far as becoming a part of God’s plan, it is just not in them to be interested. I am thankful and grateful to God that He has moved among us like He has in the past so many months, and for the way He is still moving. I pray to God that we all find grace with Him in that way. Whatever He sees fit to do with us as time goes on, may we all be submitted vessels He can use. Anyhow what I have here is just about a page and a half from the history Bro. Bobby gave me recently. This is what went on in America before Azusa Street ever came about. In fact there is one hundred years difference.

IT IS CALLED “20TH CENTURY REVIVAL MOVEMENTS IN NORTH AMERICA BY RICHARD M. RISS.” “It was in the year of 1800 that one of the greatest revivals of all time began on the American frontier. This move of God ushered in the awakening that, according to the later historian, Winthrop S. Hudson, swept back and forth across the country for almost two generations after 1800. A four day sacramental meeting was held in June at Red River, Kentucky, where Presbyterian minister James McGready, assisted by two of his colleagues, William Hodges and John Bankin, addressed about 500 people. Also present were William and John McGee. During the first two days of these meetings, the congregation was moved to tears on several occasions. On the third day, a Sunday, William Hodges’ sermon caused one woman to scream loudly, and before long others were dropping to the floor, crying out, “What shall I do to be saved?” The official meeting came to a close and the three ministers left, but no one in the congregation moved. The McGee brothers had remained behind. Without warning, William McGee sank down to the floor, and John was trembling. He made one final appeal to the people to “Let the Lord Omnipotent reign in their hearts and submit to Him.” A woman shouted for mercy and John went to her side. Several people said to him, (Now brothers and sisters, keep in mind, this was a joint fellowship going on between Presbyterians and Methodists of the early frontier days.) “You know these people. Presbyterians are much for order. They will not bear this confusion. Go back and be quiet.” As a Methodist, who perhaps did not wish to bring offense, he retreated and almost fell under the power of God. However he returned, and “losing sight of the fear of man,” he went through the place shouting and exhorting with all possible ecstasy and energy. The floor was shortly covered by the slain. According to McGready, the most notorious infidels were pricked in the heart, crying out, “What shall we do to be saved?”

News of these events spread like wildfire and the following month when McGready held another sacramental service at Gasper River, people came from distances as great as 50 and 100 miles. At the end of John McGee’s exhortation that Sunday, the power of God seemed to shake the whole assembly. This was the first of many camp meetings, the most famous of which was at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County, Kentucky. The attendance at the Cane Ridge meeting was variously estimated to be between ten and twenty five thousand. This was at a time when Lexington, the largest settlement in Kentucky, had only 1,795 inhabitants.

Although the western frontier was known for many excesses during the second awakening, the East Coast became the scene of wide-spread revival during this time as well. Yale College experienced a revival during the presidency of Timothy Dwight, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards. After Dwight’s 1796 baccalaureate sermon on “The Nature and Danger of Infidel Philosophy,” there was a reawakening of faith among many of the students. By 1802 there had been wide-spread revival, and one third of the students turned from the infidelity that formerly reigned through the entire student body due to the influence of the French Enlightment.

In the South the second awakening spread from Kentucky to Tennessee, North and South Caroline, western Virginia and Georgia. At the University of Georgia in 1800-1801, for example, they swooned away and lay for hours in the straw, prepared for those smitten of the Lord, or they shouted and talked in unknown tongues.

The second awakening brought unprecedented growth to many of the denominations in the United States. Methodism received its initial impetus in the U.S. during this time, growing from only 15,000 members in 1784 to slightly less than one million in 1830. The Baptists doubled in number from 1802 until 1812, and the Presbyterians grew from 18,000 in 1807 to almost 250,000 in 1835. That this growth was not due to immigration is evident in the view of the British interference with European migrations into North America during the Napoleonic wars until 1815.” I felt like reading that to get that into the line of this message: because this was just one hundred years before what happened at Azusa Street came about.

Now I will ask you to turn back to Matthew 13. In the light of what is going on in various places now, we still have much to consider. I was handed an interesting article Thursday night. One of the Indianapolis, Indiana papers published a full front page article about things going on in the Charismatic realm. I made reference Thursday night also about a front page article of a Montreal Canada paper, called The Gazette. These things are not all in vain, in this sense, for something is going on in the realm of religion. We can say this, To some people, whatever they view it to be, it is going to be the last opportunity God will ever let them have to try to understand the plan of God as this dispensation of Grace closes out. I would have to say the religious world is evidently blinded to the reality of these parables. I have a section of what I have read from. Here are different excerpts from the various printed articles concerning what goes on among the Charismatic people. Very few of these writers of this experience and this moving of the Spirit among them, even mention anything pertaining to how they view the overall picture of things in the scriptures. They are more or less looking at this moving, some with questions in their mind, some we might say are hesitant about giving in to it; because they do not know how to fit it into the scriptures. They do not know whether it is a true move of God or something false. As I read the various articles from magazines, sent to me from Bro. Govender in South Africa, I was even more prone to look at ourselves in the light of what Bro. William Branham‘s ministry has truly done in this religious world; and it makes me feel inside, “Oh Lord, I am so thankful to you for allowing me to be a part of what you are doing in this generation. I could have been left in that Methodist Church, blinded, not knowing my way; but you had mercy upon me.” Saints: Just think, Out here in this Charismatic realm, there are Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals of all the mixed realms, that are all going along with this. It goes to show, they do not know what else to do but go along with it. There seems to be nothing restraining them. They are drawn toward it like a magnet. We can say, looking at it from the standpoint of the scriptures, Why do they not see where they are in the Bible? It is all because, in that anointing they are receiving, there is something missing. I do not question whether it is the Spirit of God or not, because I know the Bible says that God will send strong delusion to those who have no love for the truth of His word. What they are receiving is not an anointing that is dealing with revelation or understanding from the scriptures. It is just allowing them to put importance upon the sensations, the experience, the joy, and all the other manifestations they have in their midst. To them, they associate it to be the same as what fell at Pentecost; but that is because they are without revelation. It has to be the same Spirit of God that fell at Pentecost; but what causes a lot of people to doubt that it is the same, is that they cannot understand that a loving God would send a delusion upon anyone. The thing that is so different from 2000 years ago, is that the heart’s of this element of people are quite the opposite of what the heart’s of those disciples were, when they gathered together in that upper room in Jerusalem. God’s word declares that He would send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie and be judged unless they seek Him the right way, and for the right reason: so He is not unjust to do it. For what reason would God do that? Because in the same prophecy of Thessalonians, the apostle Paul makes it very clear, why: BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOT THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH. That is the reason. If you talk to those people, Oh but we love the word of God. It is one thing to love the book and to say it is the infallible written word of God. Anyone can say that; but what they do with truth when it is presented to them, is what really tells you that truth does not mean one earthly thing to them. You can read the letter of it, but until the letter of it has become alive and quickened to your inner being you do not see the hidden thought that lies therein. When we look at ourselves in the light of what God is doing, yes, there are many of the same manifestations right among us, that other church groups are experiencing; but one thing is sure, God is not working among His true Church to confuse anyone. If our heart is right and our spiritual attitude is right, God is working among us to quicken every passage of scripture and make it alive to us. The more He would manifest Himself, the end results is that it must cause us to love His word more and more, because only as I see Jesus becoming alive through His word, can I really understand where the wise people of Matthew 25, are today. It is true in the parable of Matthew 25, while the foolish went one way to the market place of religion to buy what they were short of, the wise went another direction. They went in. Into what? A tent? No. Into what then? A building? No. THEY WENT INTO A REVELATION, BECAUSE THE LORD WHO IS THE GROOM CAME TO THOSE WHO WERE READY TO RECEIVE HIM. They already had sufficient oil (SPIRIT) to receive the revelation of their BRIDEGROOM. One thing we need to keep in mind, is that before you will ever see Him in the clouds, coming for His bride, you have to first see Him in the WORD. If you cannot see Him in His word and He is not alive to you so you can talk to Him and have fellowship with Him, you are not in a place to see Him when He comes for His bride Church. Let us just look this thing straight in the face. Wise virgins are not foolish people. They are not wise because they merit it. They are wise because somehow they have submitted themselves to God in a way that He was able to deal with them to help them to be wise. The great mass of religious people today think God is out there among all that conglomeration of Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, or whatever the rest are called by; but I have to say, I am afraid they have missed the mark. Out there are some of the best trained scholars that religion has ever had. You would think with all their knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, and with all their theoretical background, that surely from their midst one of those educated men would be able to read the Bible and find out that God is not coming for such a mess. We still have people around today whose mind is hung on a thread: They see all of that going on and say, Bro. Jackson: Are you sure that is not God over there? Listen to me saints: I am not worried about what God is doing over there in that camp. I am concerned about what He is doing right here in this Assembly today. Really, as I see it, God had to start in that element out there first: Because it was designed to set the agenda and start the end time clock in motion. Over there, He is doing two things. First, He is binding the denominations into bundles. He is doing it through the World Council of Churches or the Ecumenical Council. They are all being knit together and bound together in a false fellowship that has very little scriptural structure. They have taken a few basic scriptures, put them together to present a God of love and peace; and have completely ignored the scriptures that really are the foundation stones of a true faith in God; and what they came up with is what they operate on. Outside of that, any other thing in the Bible is irrelevant to what they view as being important. I have to say, There is not one thing in this Bible that is irrelevant to true children of God in the hour we are living in. It is important that we see all of it in its proper perspective. You have never heard one of those men take a parable and explain it in any detail. They leave the impression to all, that no matter whether they are Baptist, Catholic, or what, as long as they are in that fellowship everything is all right. The reason God is giving us His wonderful presence is because He loves us, Hallelujah. That is the attitude they have. Therefore they sit there together week after week, just looking at those manifestations of the Spirit as though that is all there is to walking with God: never even thinking for even a moment that this should lead true believers into something else, something that would add to their spiritual stature. This experience, in wise believers, will introduce them to the reality of walking with God through the pages of His holy, written word. Jesus spoke all of this in advance. We could ask ourselves this question, In the light of all that is so clearly written, How can some people be so blind? Well the truth is, Some are foreordained to receive revelation and the rest are not. Why? Because God, by His sovereign ability to see the entire picture from beginning to end even before He ever created the first star, saw all of those who would ever love His truth and they are the ones He deals with like that. The gospel is preached to every creature; but only those who were foreknown of God through His ability to see them from the beginning, will be dealt with in the area of divine revelation of the whole plan He has for the ages of time. God saw, (before He ever created anything) what Satan would use the serpent for; and He saw the two lines of seed that would populate the earth; but He had to allow it anyhow in order for man to be a free moral agent. Otherwise all He would have had to fellowship with would have been a bunch of puppets doing only what He would allow. The way it is, those who do fellowship with Him in truth are doing it because they choose to; and not because they have no choice in the matter. It may sound very complicated at first; but it is a beautiful picture once you see it in the proper light. Remember, It is all regulated by, and because of God’s foreknowledge: which allowed Him to know the end from the beginning. He did not just sit down and pick out some to be saved and all the rest to be lost: The end is known from the beginning simply because God could see the choice each of us would make in life concerning the gospel of our salvation. Right there, is where predestination lies: By God’s foreknowledge.

AN ENEMY SOWED TARES;

AND GOD’S END TIME REAPERS WILL SEPARATE THE END TIME CROP

We are going into the second parable of Matthew 13, at this time. We have already preached these parables so we are not going to give a long discourse on them; but I do want to show you in the light of the time we are living in, how we can see ourselves. Jesus says in Matthew 13, beginning in verse 24, that the kingdom of heaven will be like the parable portrays; but when? and what will be the end result? We will see all of that a little later. Matthew was the only disciple that recorded these parables in the proper chronological order that they fit into. This was Jesus’ own way in advance of the book of Revelation, even before any epistle was written, of saying that once the Grace Age starts, the age which begins that period of time called the kingdom of heaven, that dispensation of time would pass through seven dramatic changes wherein Christendom, the body of Christ that had its beginning on the day of Pentecost would have to travel. It describes seven different phases the Church would have to pass through. The New Testament Church is made up of people of various generations; but being a body of people from various generations it would definitely travel through seven distinct, major changes, until it would eventually reach the end of grace for Gentiles: when grace would be cut off to them, fulfilling every one of these parables in Matthew 13. Yet I do not believe you can go anywhere and find any of the writings of those doctors of divinity; and find that they have said that these parables parallel the seven churches of Asia as seen in the book of Revelation. Notice what Jesus was saying as we read from the second parable. We are starting in verse 24: where He spoke of the tares among the good crop. “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: (Of course this is pointing to the pure word of God that was preached in the earth by Jesus first: then by His apostles: which when it took root produced true children of God. You will see how it fits as we go along.) (25) But while men slept, His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” This is a picture of none other than the Lord Jesus Christ in His first advent; and what happened later, as Satan began to sow make-believers among the true children of God. First He preached three and one half years. He brought forth by divine revelation the ultimate plan of God, the plan of salvation, taken from the scriptures of the Old Testament, fulfilling the promise of Jeremiah 31:33, that we have already spoken of: which pertained to the new covenant God would make with the nation of Israel. Jesus was the messenger of that new covenant that was to be applicable first to Israel, (and later to the Gentiles) after the days when the Law dispensation would come to a close. We know this, God then offered that covenant through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and that which was preached by the disciples, to the Jewish nation first. They eventually rejected it, basically because as Paul says in Romans 11:25, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; THAT BLINDNESS IN PART IS HAPPENED TO ISRAEL, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Of course we now know that their spiritual blindness was ordained of God so this wonderful gospel could be preached to us Gentiles and graft us out of the wild olive tree into this good olive tree: so we could also be made partakers of this new covenant. When we look at this parable, let us keep in mind that when Jesus, at the ending of His ministry, submitted Himself to Calvary to be crucified, He was then becoming THE LAMB OF GOD that was going to be the means of this NEW COVENANT being activated, or set in motion. Then He was RAISED FROM THE DEAD by the power of God; and taken into glory to become the Mediator, the High Priest of this new covenant of which we are all partakers by faith. Not only was this done for the Jews, but for all Gentiles who would later be introduced to this same gospel. Therefore with all of this in mind, Jesus was foretelling them that when the gospel and the time of this kingdom of heaven moves from the first generation, or from the first age of Christendom into that which is the second age, they would begin to see something else appear. What was it? Verse 25 says, “But while men slept,” and this is referring to the first generation of the apostles and ministry: that had either been martyred or just died and was no longer on the scene, and also to the older generation of Christendom that had died and left the next generation to carry on. The second generation that through conversion, and through receiving the same benefits as the first, were to fill the ranks of that which was still to be looked upon as the body of Christ, put it altogether in the hands of another realm of leadership. “But while men slept, His enemy,” did something. We do know this, When Jesus interpreted this parable over further in the same chapter, He plainly tells you who this enemy is. IT IS THE DEVIL. It is a strange thing that in an hour as this, when we can see the effects of this parable hanging over religion today, every portion of it is being dropped down into the hearts of humanity and people are responding, reacting and they are fulfilling this parable precisely the way it is written. Yet the religious world around us cannot see it. They treat it as though, Oh that was just a parable. It truly was a parable: but a parable so unique and so simple that the natural, educated brain just looks at it and says, Well what could possibly be in that? Nevertheless while that first age began to die off, the enemy of the Lord’s plan began to do something that still affects the Church yet today. What did he do? He came and sowed tares among the wheat, (The wheat refers to the good seed the Lord sowed.) “But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.” Meaning, when the seed that had originally been planted died off, (You know the natural cycle of seed in reproduction: it dies off from its original identity and then new life comes forth from it.) in its place, up came something that was not the same as that which was originally sown. It had much the same appearance; but a trained eye knows the difference. We can say, Well what is that? That does not look exactly like what was planted. We all understand this about plant life, (which is what Jesus used to project this truth.) The natural law of reproduction has a cycle it goes through. If your theologians of the religious world could only realize this, they ought to see that whatever that early Church was, or became, that was born on the day of Pentecost in that first century or generation of Christianity, right there is the only pattern we have of what to expect the Lord Jesus to come back to receive to Himself. Those who have certain ideas can go back and point to things the Holy Spirit is doing and say, Well that is just like what happened on the day of Pentecost. Sure they can say that; but look what came forth out of what the Holy Spirit did in that upper room on the day of Pentecost. Every epistle in this Bible became a written fact as a result of what happened there. What if the disciples of that hour had treated that anointing in the upper room with the same attitude your Charismatic’s of our day handle the anointing with? You would not have a New Testament in the Bible. They would not have written a thing pertaining to the doctrine of Christ. They would have wrote articles on how drunk they were, and how they felt certain sensations and so forth; but you would not find one statement you could anchor your soul to. I have to say, Christianity would have died out completely in the first century. It is very apparent that this is like that; (speaking of manifestations of the Spirit) but with certain exceptions which we have already mentioned. We just have to keep in mind that there are certain characteristics that are just exactly like what happened at Pentecost. That is why these parables, we can say, are the Lord’s simple way of illustrating how time and conditions will bring the Church, ultimately, at the end, to reflect back to God just exactly what He is looking for. Let me finish reading here. (Matthew 13:26-30) “But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. (27) So the servants of the householder came and said unto Him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? (28) He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto Him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? (29) But He said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. (30) Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, GATHER YE TOGETHER FIRST THE TARES, AND BIND THEM IN BUNDLES TO BURN THEM: but gather the wheat into my barn.” Saints: That is the words of Jesus: I did not originate them. There is one thing sure though, They do pertain to some people who are living right here at the end of the age: That is why He gave the parable. He wanted true children of God to know that they did not have to go around personally casting make-believers out of their congregations. God will take care of that, after He has used them to test us. The servants of the householder are the true ministry of the Age; and the householder is none other than the Lord Himself. This is speaking of the ministry of the second Church Age of course. They began to notice those adverse people with ideas, revelations and opinions that were completely contrary to the original apostolic teachings. This is how the ministry of the second age began to rise and take a look at the conditions. They are praying, Lord, shall we go out and dig them up and throw them out. The Lord says, Not so, leave them alone, let them all grow together until harvest time. Well we are approaching that harvest time; and there is not a doctor of divinity on the face of this earth that can change the meaning of this parable. He is guilty of fulfilling his part, and is so spiritually blind he does not even realize it. Anyhow the Lord says, Leave the tares alone: lest you do harm to the pure seed. In the 28th verse, He is naturally referring to those servants. “He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But He said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.” I have to say this once again, If there had not been a man by the name of William Marrion Branham, who was already born on this earth and lived in this area back in the 1940’s and 1950’s and into the 1960’s, and had that man not been anointed to bring things out of this Bible like he did, the entire church world would be in this Charismatic thing today. We would all be running after sensations, not knowing our way through the word of God at all; and could not care less. That is the ultimate attainment in those circles. As I said in Canada, If you doubt what I am saying, then go to one of their meetings and try to stand up and tell them that God dealt with you for the past six months on this thing of believing in the trinity. You will just barely get it out of your mouth and there will be ushers taking you by your arm, “If I were you, I would sit down. Otherwise we will have to ask you to leave.” All this indicates they are not going to allow anything to tear down the foundation or platform they are pulling that fellowship together on. The biggest percentage of the platform they have built on is old obsolete, hand-me-down tradition that is destined to crumble and fall one of these days: when God judges it. Well when you look at verse 30, you see what the Lord’s advice is, “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” He was not interested in tearing up the devil’s playhouse prematurely. Those tares have been running free and undisturbed for 1900 years now and harvest time is still not here. It is getting close though. They preach their sermons, they write their articles of faith, they write different accounts of what has taken place in various places; but they miss God by a million miles spiritually because they do not know who or what He is. As long as people believe God is manifested in THREE PERSONS and that those THREE PERSONS are all equal in authority, they can never understand the deeper spiritual truths concealed in the word of God. When you deny the oneness of God, election and predestination, and refuse water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ you are building on sinking sand. Your spiritual house cannot stand. Revelation truth is the only sure foundation we can build on.

JESUS INTERPRETS THE PARABLE ABOUT THE TARES

When you get over to verse 37, in this 13th chapter of Matthew, you find Jesus interpreting the second parable and He leaves no question about the disposition of the tares when the proper time comes. We will just read it straight through; and then I will say a few words about it. The disciples came to Him and asked Him to explain it to them and here is what He said, (Matthew 13:37-42) “He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the SON OF MAN; (38) The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom but the tares are the children of the wicked one (39) The enemy that sowed them is the DEVIL; the harvest is the end of the world(r)and the reapers are the angels. (40) As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. (41) The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; (42) And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” This just goes to show that whatever the second age of Christendom did produce, the spirit of it remains to be that same thing until we come to the end of the Age; and that is where we are living right now. We are fast approaching the end of the Age, the time when this parable will finish out. Does that mean we are to look at this hopelessly, blindly, ignorantly? Do we not have something in here to encourage us, and show us how to look at ourselves as that hour approaches? I do. I thank God for it. It is not because we are so smart. It is because of the grace of God. None of us are smart enough, or good enough to merit what God has done for us. It all goes back to the very scriptures this world of popular religion rejects. I love what the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:29-32. “For whom He (God) did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He (Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brethren. (30) Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He (God) also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. (31) What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (32) He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” There, is where our hope lies: in God who foreknew us before the foundation of the world. No doctor of divinity can deny the fact that Jesus gave that parable for a purpose: They just do not see the proper application of it. I will pick it up in verse 40, and say this, The parable does not mean the tares are burned first: before the saints are raptured: That just tells what their final disposition will be, when they stand before the great white throne to be judged. “As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world.” That is the reward they receive for their make-believe religious practices. It just means they are bound into bundles and reserved for the fire later: to be burned when the Lord is here and judgment is passed out. (The word world, as used there, does not refer to the planet. It means the end of this age, or this present sphere of human government.) It may look like people who are not really concerned about understanding the revelation of God’s word are receiving more blessings than those who are; but I must remind you, God’s payday is coming. You saw in verses 41 and 42, what is in store for those who are guilty of iniquitous practices and I need to remind you also, that those who do iniquity are not the crooks and criminals of this world: They are religious leaders, but blind leaders of blind people. They are the ones that stand in the places of great recognition. They are the ones known for the great educational programs and intellectualism. They are the ones that politicians will say, Come with me on my inauguration day and say a prayer. They do not want people like us around when they have those polluted occasions. They choose those who fit in with their kind. I know it is hard for people to realize when they see those great preachers, priests, and doctors of divinity of every brand, that behind every one of them there is an angelic being sent forth by God to fulfill His word. Of course some would say, Bro. Jackson: Would that not be evil spirits that are with them? Absolutely not. They are righteous angels; but they are fulfilling scriptures because God knows those various preachers and so forth of great world recognition are not interested in truth, and also that their heart’s will never change. Therefore God can send that angel, Go anoint him to do this and that, and while that is being done, those people, whether they be male or female, are being bound into bundles for burning. Keep in mind, Jesus said in Matthew, That in that day when He comes, will there not be those that will say to Him, Lord, have we not cast out devils in that name, have we not prophesied in thy name and done many wonderful works? That is exactly who those people are. Never has there been an age like it. You know it. Keep in mind, God is not deceiving the foolish virgins. He is deceiving the tares. But those that are foolish are caught up in that thing until a certain hour of time arrives. God is giving the foolish virgins life, but He is blinding the tares: Because He knew from the foundation of the world that they are individuals that never will change their mind and attitude about the word of God. They use religion as a front to find their way in society, and to work their way to the top. Therefore God can send His angels along with them, and the angels can anoint these men, and women to do things that seem so wonderful; but their reward is just what they receive for that occasion; and God’s final judgment is sure. Now some may get the idea that I am happy about the end all such as these are destined to come to; but I am not. The thing that makes me happy, is the fact that true believers can depend upon the word of God. His word is true and not one word of it will ever fail. Therefore I am only reporting to you what the Bible says about all of that which we see going on in our generation; and I assure you, I do not get any pleasure out of knowing that certain people are destined to be burned when this all reaches its climax. That is why you see on TV, every so often, some News source interviewing some of those characters out there for one reason or another. Some of it seems good, but some of them are really caught up in a mess; and the News reporters do not know the difference. You never see any of those News crews coming around here to praise us for anything. They could not care less who we are. They think we are a cult; and that all we do is devise ways to be contrary. They would rather shut our doors than to say anything good about us. Wise people are not looking for an occasion to get their faces shown on the Television News. Our heavenly Father knows what we have need of and He supplies that. Anyhow, the Bible says the Son of man shall send forth His angels. When does He do that? When the age is coming to a close, which is the very hour we are living in. “The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend.” In other words, gather out of the realm of everything that is to be looked upon as the true Church, all that is offensive to God. He separates everything: so it is no longer the two going together, mingling together, fellowshiping together. He gathers first the tares and binds them in the bundles. That is what has been going on for a number of years. “And them that do iniquity.” Keep in mind, when Jesus says in Matthew’s writing, that some will say, Have we not done this and that in your name? Jesus’ reply to them was, DEPART FROM ME, YE WORKERS OF INIQUITY, I NEVER KNEW YOU. Does that mean He did not know what they were doing? No, it just means they never had that intimate relationship with Him. They climbed up to where they were some other way. What is iniquity? It is when someone rebels against divine authority, or takes credit to themselves that belongs only to God and so forth. That is what it is. Do not ever get the idea that it applies to getting drunk or robbing a bank and killing someone. No sir. It is perverting the word of God and using it to blind human souls: which amounts to leading them to destruction. No wonder He has a right to call them workers of iniquity: They rebel against divine authority, divine revelation, everything that is consistent with the overall plan and purpose of God. Therefore, how can any person go on down the road of life thinking that they can hang around where all of that goes on, rejoice about it, and still be a wise Christian? I am thankful to God for this one thing, at least the foolish virgins are getting light, even though they can never go in the rapture. They will still be allowed to live in the Millennium with Jesus and the bride. They will be resurrected after the great tribulation has run its course. As we read the parable of Matthew 25:1-13, we realize for sure that the wise people go to the foolish for nothing. It is just the opposite: The foolish come to the wise and ask (in reality) that they explain the revelation of the word of God to them. However, since the wise know that those who do not have the baptism of the Holy Ghost that would teach them all things, the first thing they need to do, is go to the Holy Ghost market place, out where there are those who specialize in (according to the scriptures) selling the experience and buy what they need. It is useless for anyone to try to explain a genuine revelation given by the Spirit of God, to anyone who does not have the experience. Well, Bro.Jackson, I thought the foolish virgins have the Holy Ghost already. No. Not in the fullness of the experience. If they did, they would not be foolish virgins. That is what separates the two elements: that complete NEW BIRTH EXPERIENCE OF RECEIVING THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST. They have all received an anointing of the Spirit that has been interpreted by them to be the complete experience; but in reality, what they received never did lead them into all truth according to the words of Jesus in John 16:13, which says, “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.” First when the cry was made that woke the people of this age up, they woke up and realized that they did not have what they needed; but when they asked the wise, Help us, give us of your oil, It goes to show, there is not one earthly thing that the wise people could ever do, (in other words) to be in fellowship or cooperation with them on any basis. The second thing is, when they come asking for oil, even though the Bible does not explain the parable, what they really wanted was to be in the same revelation you and I are in. It is not a tent, nor a building they are wanting to get inside of: It is a revelation that has united saints from around this world, the true body of Christ, those who have been in the process of being perfected by God’s word and the workings and moving of His Spirit, and has all of them looking at the same picture spiritually. He has perfected into one body of people, all that have truly yielded themselves to Him, those who are united together in the Lord Jesus Christ: for He is the head of this great body and they are walking in fellowship with Him. We are walking and following Him because we see His footprints right through the pages of this book. This religious world does not even realize they are stepping right over the word of God in just about everything they do. Every time they come together for one of these great anointings, where thousands are gathered together, and hundreds fall in the Spirit laughing, they do not even consider that this ought to lead them to something else, something that would build into them the mind of Christ. I have to say, Yes, there is a holy laughter for those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is one way God is exciting and enthusing the recipients that have received Him in every way His word has offered them; and He wants praise back to Himself in that way as well as other ways. It looks foolish to the world, but God gets glory out of it because God likes to laugh at these educated idiots, these doctors of divinity who will have nothing to do with anything that they have not organized. That reminds me of something I heard one time. Back in the 1950’s, there used to be a brother come here from South Africa. He is dead now; but he told how, out in California one evening, when he was with some of the Full Gospel Businessmen, they were having a street meeting in the city square. I forget what type of building it was, a court house or civil building of some nature that had a series of steps they were using. All the singers were there; and They had asked him to speak: so as he spoke a sizeable crowd of people gathered around. When it came time to dismiss, someone noticed there was a known preacher of the city, a preacher from one of the big churches standing there, one of those starchy type fellows. When the message was over and prayer had been made for the people, and it was time to be dismissed, one of the Full Gospel Businessmen said, I see Rev. So and So has just stepped up. I am going to ask him to dismiss us with prayer. Of course you can just picture some of these doctors of divinity: Here he comes up the steps, up to the microphone, now let us pray. He opens his mouth, Heavenly Fatherrr–, (You know how some of the speak>) and just then a hard shelled bug hit him right in the mouth. He went into a coughing spasm and could not finish the prayer. I just tell that to remind us that God knows your motive, and your attitude about everything you do. Some people just have a desire to be known. Well when that fellow opened his mouth, God said, (by sending that hard shelled bug along) Shut your mouth. He can sure shut us up when He wants to. That is just like what I have read in various books written about the Azusa Street hour: A lot of characters back then came looking the situation over; but their motive was wrong. In other words they came investigating. When they thought they saw an opportunity to say something to express their opinion, no sooner did they stand up, BINGO, the power of God floored them. I have to say, From now on until the church is leaving this world, we can expect God to work in our midst, in our lives, to produce not only a fellowship, but to mold our individual lives to make them fit into the scriptures. It will not be me going down the road of life choosing: I will do this, but I will just fake this, and this. No, we are not going to fake anything when He gets through with us. We are going to live all of what we believe. As we live it by the grace of God, He is going to deal with us many times in a way to let us see what He can do, and what He will not do just to please some people’s fancy. Sometimes we forget that God is a Spirit that can make iron float on water if it serves His purpose. He did it for the prophet of old. It is true that societies change; but God never changes. We are living in a day when our religious world is filled with all kinds of theoretical teachings of unbelief. There are preachers today that will read the front page articles in News Papers, of what is going on in some churches, then they will make fun of the whole thing. Now you see brethren, we do not need this sort of thing for today. Miracles were for the days of the apostles. Speaking in tongues was alright for their day; but we do not need that today: because times have changed. Yes, times have changed and they who preach like that prove time has changed. One Church of Christ man said the reason they needed to speak in tongues back then, was because God was going to send them to a primitive world of heathen, so the speaking in tongues was so they would be able to speak to the heathen. They never did preach to the heathen in an unknown language. History does not speak of anything like that. They preached to their own Jewish people speaking in other languages on the day of Pentecost; and they were the only ones that ever heard anything like that. That of course fulfilled a prophecy of Isaiah 28, that says, “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people;” but my point in all of this, is that it was necessary at a precise time within this Laodicean Age, for God to place something within the realm of the Spirit, to test that which started way back at Azusa Street; and is now represented in the Assemblies of God, Pentecostal Church of God, Pentecostal Holiness, and a lot of other independent Pentecostal works, all catering to the same revelation. When God did test the thing in those mid teen years and brought back water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the revelation that God is ONE, here again it has broken off and formed its oneness movements: United Pentecostal Church, Apostolic Faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, Pentecostal Adventists, all baptizing the same way, preaching one God; but without a complete revelation of His oneness. Both the trinity side of the Pentecostal flow and the oneness side of the Pentecostal flow, have put the lid on the flow of revelation by organizing their fellowships and taking that experience of speaking in tongues and receiving this infilling of the Spirit and building all of it on a foundation of human government, which is strictly against the Bible. The reason they did that was because they were afraid at that time, of how to handle a revelation that might come among them and maybe it would not be scriptural. Well in the first age when the early Church had the apostles’ original teaching and revelation, there were men running the road with false teaching even then; but that did not keep the true believers from receiving revelation by the leading of the Holy Spirit. Did not John, in 90 A.D., write about it? Did not Paul, I think in 54 A.D., when he was writing the Thessalonian letter, say, The mystery of iniquity doth already work? He was not talking about the underworld, and bootleggers. No. He was talking about the spirit of Satan bringing along those so-called converted men to the Christian faith. By their intellectual speech, they were able to twist the meaning of thoughts and words, and pervert the truth to seduce some people into a wrong way. Therefore I say to you, If the early Church had to contend with it, will not the end time Church, to some degree, have to contend with the same thing? That is why the Lord spoke like He did to the Ephesus Church in Revelation 2:1-2, when he was admonishing them about leaving their first love. That Church was set forth as the model church in that first Gentile Age because of their faith and love for truth. This is what was said to them, “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; (2) I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: (and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars.” Saints, if that Ephesus Church had not had a revelation of the thing that so uniquely held it together, which was the truth revealed by the Holy Ghost, how would they have known what was a false teaching and what was not? God could commend them because they had been able to withstand that spirit of antichrist and stare it in the face, reject it and expose it, and the only thing the Lord had to rebuke them for, was that they had been so zealous of truth and so full of enthusiasm in doing the work of God that they forgot what it was all about. He said to them, You have forgotten your first love. We all know that is the thing that begins to wear down the patience of the saints: that constant bombardment of the antichrist spirit which is forever trying to come in and break up the fellowship, the unity, and pervert the revelation. It gets people so busy defending what they have, that they sometimes forget why they have it. Well my point, as I bring in these various things, is that the Charismatic realm of our day does not even realize that they are living right under the effect of these parables. No one within their ranks dares to open a mouth to say, People, something is going on. We must take heed. They will say, The Lord is coming; but that is as far as they get. That is about as far as their revelation goes. They read in the scriptures, that He is coming again; but without revelation, they do not have a clue as to how believers are to look for Him.

WHEN WILL THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH TAKE PLACE?

A brother here in the church handed me a sheet of paper this morning: a front line article from one of the News papers. Right out of that same type of background of religious people that we have been talking about, are many of those preachers and people beginning to come on with this idea: that this teaching of the rapture of the church before the tribulation is wrong. They say it is false. I have read that same thing at other times. It has been going on within that realm of people for a number of years. This is not coming forth from back woods, uneducated preachers. This is educated, learned, scholarly men of various denominational backgrounds. They come along and say, I have done historical research on this. They are supposed to have gone back to dig into such and such records of years and generations and centuries gone by, and then come to the conclusion that this idea of the rapture of the Church before the great tribulation is false. They project that the Church is going to be left here to go through the tribulation. Well saints, we do not have to take their word for a thing like that: We have the Bible to look at; so go with me to Revelation 7:9-17. In the earlier verses you are reading about how many Jews, servants of God are going to be sealed away with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, in the first part of the last week of Daniel’s prophecy. You see all the twelve tribes mentioned, coming right on down through verse 8. Then in verse 9, we find that John’s attention was drawn to another scene. “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, (We can see that John is not looking just at Jewish people. He is looking at people of all nations and races, Gentiles.) stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” Now let us come on down to verse 13. “And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. (In other words, Sir: I do not know; but you do; so please tell me.) And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, (This is what these people see: the people who think this great multitude has to be the Gentile Church, the bride Church left here to go through the great tribulation; but the scriptures tell us differently.) and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple: and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.” I believe every one of you sitting here, if you have been here for a while, know that this group of martyrs are not the bride Church. This is your foolish virgins along with Jewish believers: that actually do have to seal their faith in martyrdom during that dark hour of time; but the little bride of Jesus Christ is with Him in glory during that time. Anyhow this is how that element of supposed-to-be believers see the Gentile Church. They see the rapture only taking place just at the coming of Christ: when He comes to earth in person at the end of the tribulation. According to their theory, she is instantly caught up just to escape the wrath He is going to pour out when He does return to earth; but if they would read the Bible right, they would see that His bride Church comes back with Him at that time. We will examine it further, in other scriptures. Notice that this speaks of these people having white robes. That is not the description of what the bride Church is arrayed in. When you go to the 19th chapter of Revelation, it shows you that the Bride is already in heaven; and she is not wearing just white robes; Their robes are of a particular quality of material. I am going to pick up the 7th verse in the 19th chapter. “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready.(Made herself ready down here, in this life, for the word HATH, is past tense.) And to her was granted that she should be arrayed (not just in white robes) in fine linen, clean and white: (They are white also; but they are white of another quality of material. This lets me know you cannot take the 7th chapter and that group of people and this chapter and this group of people and mix them together and say they are one and the selfsame thing. They are not. They are two different elements of believers.)for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” I have to say, That is exactly why the parable of Matthew 25, speaks as it does: The wise Christians are going into this marriage, but this marriage consists first of her (the bride Church) coming into a realm of courtship with Him, and it is how He reveals Himself through the word, by the Spirit, unto her, that sets up the separation between the two elements. Even though the other element rejects what we believe about the rapture of the Church, true saints that truly do walk with the Lord, actually rejoice in the whole thing because they see a perfect plan of God in operation. It is a fact though, if one of us had a chance to preach this in the Supreme Court of the United States today, that bunch would sit and look at you with their eyeballs popping out of their head, thinking, Man, you are the craziest bunch of people that has ever walked on this earth. Well, I personally am glad to be considered crazy for Jesus. Of course the reason that other element cannot teach these things the way we do, is because the Spirit of revelation is not among them. They rejoice in the fact that they have manifestations that bring physical emotions, laughter, speaking in tongues, and to a degree even certain prophetic utterances, all related only to what God is doing among them. The reason God is among them to that extent is because He is giving life to the foolish virgins in their midst. Keep in mind saints, This fulfillment of this parable of Matthew 25, started years ago and it is going to last right on up until the rapture takes the prepared bride out of here and the foolish are going to be left here in this earth to go through the week of Daniel: in what we refer to as the great tribulation. That is why you see that great host of people in Revelation 7, the scripture we read first. They are going to have to come through that tribulation hour, undergo the hardships and persecution and ridicule and such, and then face martyrdom in many places. That is why they have to wash their robes and have to have their testimony based on what the blood of Jesus Christ has accomplished for them. On the other hand, when we think of the bride, we have to say she has a revelation that lets her know that she will not be here during that time. In 1st Thessalonians 4, here is how we relate the parable of Matthew 25 and what is going on, because in Matthew 25, at the midnight hour, there was a cry made, Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him. All of the virgins (believers) began to awaken. That was the revival that began to take place in the latter part of the 1940’s. In that revival there was a man who began to teach certain things, declare certain things by the authority of God’s word, and his main theme was, Let’s get back to the word of God: Back to the foundation the apostles of Jesus laid as they proclaimed the revelation of that word. It is all recorded right here in this Bible. They all heard it with their natural ears; but only those wise virgins heard it with their spiritual ear. What we see here in 1st Thessalonians 4, is the revelation of the apostle Paul. I have to say once again, If the apostles, in the hour they lived, would have taken what they received in the upper room with the same motivation and attitude your Charismatic’s now have, this never would have been written. No epistles would have been written. They cannot say these epistles were just for the days of the early church. They were for all time. I go to the book of Acts, to the testimony of the apostle Paul, when God told Ananias to go to a certain house, there is a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus there, and dealt with Ananias like he did, Ananias came to where Saul was, spoke to him, told him to rise and be baptized, calling on the name of the Lord, and he prophesied to Paul, how that he had been chosen to be a light unto the Gentiles, and a means of salvation to the ends of the earth. That included me, all the way here in 1995. Yes saints, these epistles were written for saints of all time: that we might have the mind of God on these matters discussed. To the critics who want to throw certain things out, declaring that they are not for our day I have to say this, There are doctrines taught by those apostles that you do not dare teach for fear of losing your financial support. You know your supporters do not want to hear the truth: They want to hear something that makes them feel good: without their flesh having to pay any price for it. All of this goes to show, the reason God can move like He does to deceive some, is because He knows they do not want truth. He knows their mind is made up, so He moves among them like He does, just to give life to those referred to as foolish virgins. It is a delusion, an appearance that it is the real thing, but it is minus the key that shows them where they are in time; and what is going on in the scriptures. What we are going to read again, was Paul’s revelation concerning the translation of the saints, the Bride of Christ, at the end time. Paul says this, 1st Thessalonians 4:14, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, (This was the divine revelation given to him.) that we which are alive and remain (We are the alive and remaining element that is fulfilling this scripture.) unto the coming of the Lord (I have to believe the coming of the Lord is getting very close.) shall not prevent (or hinder) them which are asleep. (That would be those that have died yesterday, last month, last year, and on back through the years of time since the days of the apostles.) the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, (He has already done that, keep in mind, descending from heaven in this respect is not His glorified, immortal body coming back and appearing so the church world can see it. It is how the Spirit begins to project this thing by divine revelation to those who look for His return. That is why the messenger to this age, who was the cry of Matthew 25, also becomes the shout that sets this in motion. According to this scripture, He first comes with a shout, and next, with the voice of the archangel, which is what will happen when Revelation 10 is fulfilled and the thunders come forth.) with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” There goes the Bride: before the great tribulation hits the earth. That is the rapture, the secret thing. That is the mystery that the religious world cannot understand. Going on into chapter 5, Paul explains the basis for this. “But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. (Look at that. Who is He going to sneak up on? Not the bride: She is looking for Him the right way. It is on the religious world that looks for Him without a revelation.) For when they shall say, Peace and safety; (This is the secular world.) then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, (I like this, God has given us light. He brought a messenger to show us how to walk in this light.) that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. (That is where they are out there: in darkness.) Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep, sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, (to go through the tribulation) but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” I just have to say, If they want those doctors of divinity to preach that to them out there, that the Church is going through the tribulation, then it is all because they have no revelation. They do not know how to see themselves in the scriptures. I do thank the Lord for the mercy and grace He extended to me. It is not enough just to be excited, I want to see myself in the scriptures: as those scriptures come alive to my soul. Praise His Name!

WHAT ABOUT FALSE ANOINTED ONE’S?

As we continue on in the message, I pray that God will help me, from a scriptural setting, show you where certain things came to when there began to be a change that set certain things in motion. Here is the article from the Indianapolis paper, and here is the front page. It is about the Pentecostal faith, the fastest growing faith there is in the world now. It has taken the religious field like a forest fire. Here, is the continuation of the same article, it gives you the percentages of what Pentecostalism is affecting in the religious world compared to the fundamental denominations and their percentages. We pray to be able to feed that into this message so you can see how the trend is going. Let me remind you once again that this which is going on in the Charismatic religious realm is ordained of God. Get it out of your mind, that all of that is the spirit of the devil. Get it out of your mind before you go too far with what you are thinking. If you will go back to Bro. William Branham‘s message, “The False Anointed Ones at the End Time,” you will see exactly how he brought it out. The anointing is not false: It was the ones the anointing was on that were false, according to his message. Here is how you have to look at that: In that second parable we read earlier, who were the tares? It plainly tells you they were the children of the wicked one. The wicked one is the devil. How did they get into the Church? They got in through the calling of the gospel, through the wooing of the Holy Spirit, but Satan brings them in and truly the natural person himself is affected by the convicting power of God; but somewhere along the route there is something about the person inside, he refuses to submit to the living God that is able to change him and make him a regenerate creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. He remains basically just the same, sitting in the church, as he was before he got in the church. Once that kind of spirit got in, it was there to feed together with all the rest. That is exactly why we have to realize that God sends the rain on the just and the unjust both at the same time. You have to understand that it is at the end of the world, meaning the end of this overall political system of mankind, that God sets in motion the means of separating the two qualities of those sitting together. That is why we can say for sure, The anointing that is out there, is absolutely the Spirit of God coupled along with the spirit of Satan that still rules the motivation and decisions of his own children. I do not see that this should be so hard for some to understand. You just have to look at it in this light, If that same person, years ago, was convicted of sin, such as dope, alcoholism and everything, and God set them free, but somehow or other along the process of time, they are confronted with an element of truth, but they see not the importance of the truth itself to the extent that God is allowed to lead them any further in the line of truth, from that moment on God can deal with that person any way He sees fit, to fulfill every related scripture in the Bible. It did not start out that way; but it sure ends that way. When Christianity started there were no tares in it. It plainly tells you in the book of Acts, that no man dared to join himself among them for fear. No man or woman with the wrong motive dared to join them; but after that first generation began to leave the scene and that spirit of antichrist began to slowly make its inroads, it brought in the pretenders, or make-believers, as we often refer to them. Actually they are false believer; but the natural human spirit does not discern them as such because they do whatever the true believers do; and God allows them all to sit together. Through the years, as the generations of Christians have lived in this earth, it was hard for people to realize when they live in a local community and all in that community would go to the same congregation, whether it was Baptist, Methodist, or whatever, it was hard for people to accept the fact that some of their own neighbors and sometimes their own relatives, could be tares, children of the wicked one. They have a self willed attitude that refuses to let the grace of God change them from becoming what they are; but that is no surprise to God because His foreknowledge saw them that way before the foundation of the world. That is exactly why in the religious world out there, we cannot hope to change the Catholic system, nor any of the rest. No. Do not ever entertain the thought that there is anything any of us could ever do to change those systems of religion from what they are, and make true believers out of them. Yet God, knowing all of that, can move within their ranks and bestow certain blessings on individuals and they cannot deny the fact that God did do whatever was done; but it is for the benefit of certain individuals within that system and all the rest are just being bound together for burning. Nothing that God does among them ever changes how the leadership of those systems look at it. No. They look upon it as though, (“This proves God is approving of us.”) Keep in mind this Charismatic thing, as it has moved among the thousands of Catholics the world over, they actually see themselves as the old mother church being revived. They call it the spirit of renewal. They think God is giving back to them the same thing the Church had at Pentecost. That is why the Lutherans and Episcopalians, and many of those others that have been so starchy through the years are not giving in to what is taking place among them. Some of those articles that Bro. Govender sent, prove that. In England, in a big Episcopal Church, they are gathering there and speaking in tongues, singing in the Spirit, laughing in the Spirit, and falling prostrate on the floor. A church that has been so ecclesiastically bound for many generations, now has opened the doors wide open to this spirit of renewal (as they call it) and they see themselves just as the Catholics see themselves: that God is restoring to us this infilling, this renewal of the manifestations of the supernatural. People ought to be able to see that this is that delusion the apostle Paul spoke of. A delusion is like we described earlier in the message: A man lost in the desert begins to look for water. He can only go for so long without it. He constantly looks for a sign of water. When he begins to reach that point where he is just about ready to give in, then he can see a giant lake of water on out in front of him. Anybody knows when you are looking across desert sand on a hot day you can see that heat and it makes the sand look like a mirror. It is because of the way the glow of the sun hits it. That is an illusion or delusion. Sometimes man has been known to run as though he can see a lake of water in which he can fall head first into and drink to his heart’s content and cool his body; and he is usually found dead a few hundred yards further on. Keep in mind, that is a natural way to illustrate it, but you and I know it is not that way when you are talking about something illusionary in the spiritual realm. It has got to look much like the real thing, even though it is not; and those who go for it are not necessarily found dead soon afterward: simply because God has a more far reaching purpose in it. In other words, when you are talking about spiritual illusions those who have them really do see manifestations of the real thing: Only the end result is different. That is why this thing has to have certain characteristics of the Holy Spirit. It is God’s way of sending them a moving of His presence; but they do not receive a new birth experience out of it. The number one purpose is to unite the systems of man. Then the number 2 purpose is to give the younger generation of people that have never been brought up in church, those that are destined to be foolish virgins, their chance to receive the Spirit of eternal life. I do not see how I can make it any easier to understand. You just have to leave the end results of all of this in the hands of God. There is no possible way you and I could instill enough of the revelation of God’s word in those who are destined to be foolish virgins, to make them into bride saints. All of that is already settled in the mind of the Creator; and He knows exactly how to deal with every individual soul: to bring them to the end of the Age in the place where they are destined to be. He will not loose any of those who are predestined to receive life. They will all be allowed to live in the Millennium with King Jesus: There will just be a difference in their functions. We have explained all of this in other messages; so I will not try to cover every detail in this message. Nevertheless all of those preachers out there in those systems of religion who have participated in this thing they call a spiritual renewal, can come under that category Jesus spoke of in Matthew 7:21-23. We will read it again. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (22) Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? (No one can deny that some of them have done what is said right there: because God always honors His word. No matter who presents the scriptures to any one, if that person believes the word of God, He (God) honors their faith. That is why you do see healings in various places that in the overall sense of the word, those ministering, do not give a thought to many of the precious doctrines of the scriptures. They are handling the word of God without a calling from HIM to do so. That is why Jesus could answer like this,) 23 “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Never in the history of Christendom has it been like this. Christianity did not start out with men working miracles, and doing it in the spirit of falsehood. The words of Jesus, let us know that He never had an intimate relationship in the Spirit with those He has to give that answer to at the end of time.

THE SPIRIT OF ROCK

I want to refer to a parable explaining something to those who would question this message. Sooner or later there are people out there in the world that are bound to begin to be informed that there is something going on among the Bride people. Right now we appear as a minority. It looks like we are secluded behind the curtain. That is for a reason. I believe God has kept it that way. He has let that be publicized about what is going on in those other places; and that is why certain articles are being written. Right now, they are celebrating King of Rock, Elvis Presley. He came out of the home of a Pentecostal family in Tennessee. It is a known fact he learned a lot of his ideas from watching Pentecostal people as they jubilantly danced, and some were slain in the Spirit, and such. It is sad to think that a boy like that, instead of giving his heart to God, he would let the devil use his emotions to take him out of that surrounding and introduce him to the youth of his hour, out in the world, and the youth of this very hour are still following the spirit of that thing. He brought on a style of music that is out of the pit of hell. I despise it. Regardless of what some of you young people think, this rock beat is not music at all. Anyone who wants to yield themselves to an evil spirit can make a noise like much of that. Anyone can pick up a base guitar and beat the strings. That is all they do, beat the strings. In order to get a decent sound out of those instruments, you have to know how to note those strings and make a distinction between the key of G, C, D, and E. Anyone can beat the strings and get a noise out of it; but it takes a musician to make distinction in the sound of the notes. In my opinion, just a lot of noise, is about all this rock beat is. It has about three notes. It goes up the scale, down the scale, with the same tempo and beat. That is a spirit that has multiplied, it has gripped youth today. They are caught up in that spirit. It has led youth into a realm where it has deprogrammed their mind. It has separated them from dad and mom, who were brought up to be acquainted with other styles of music.