Hell Is Not Eternal, Part 4

Rev. James Allen
Rev. James C. Allen

In the last edition of The Contender, Bro. Allen ended reviewing the circumstances present on the earth when the wicked are judged at the return of Christ. In this edition he picks up looking at Christ’s descent to hell after his crucifixion.

We have a message here that Bro. Branham first preached in 1961 that we have been reviewing, to connect it with new scriptures and things into it that were not brought into it at that time. 1961 was my introduction to this teaching. There was much controversy about that sermon. The big-time preachers, mostly radio preachers at that time, were critical of Bro. Branham for the sermon. Many of the sermons he preached in that time, such as serpent seed, they said was from hell. Therefore, to me, they wrote their name off because of their blasphemy. There are people who want to bring up your past. The devil will never let you live your past down, especially if it was a dark past. He always tries to bring that up. He will bring it up through individuals and different things, to remind you what kind of person you once were. But this scripture here, to me, will cover that. Matthew 12:31: “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.” That is the only sin that is mentioned that cannot be forgiven: the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. That is to bring criticism toward the word of God that He has revealed. In this hour of time he is making people feel that they cannot be forgiven. You are already forgiven if you have asked God and met that criteria. “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, (Jesus) it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” This will never enter into the Millennium. It will not be forgiven here, and it will not be forgiven in the Millennium. That is what He is talking about when he says, “the world to come, it will not be forgiven.” We look at scripture this morning and we see a pattern of what would come in this endtime against the saints of God. I praise the Lord for that, because we have to live the word. We cannot continue to just live any old way and think there is no price. If we have truly been forgiven of our sins, then this cannot be held against us. Our past, no matter how wretched it was, our past cannot be held against us if we have truly repented of our sins.

That He Might Bring Us To God

I want to go now to 1st Peter 3. I have some things here I want to bring out that I have not brought out before. We are living in a time of God’s revelation to the saints of God, to let them know what is truth and what is error. I was thinking about this part this week. We have done gone over it in this message, but let us read it again. Starting with verse 18, “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.” Here he is telling us that He died for our sins. He put himself in our place, to be able to take away the deeds we have done, to place them upon Him. People must realize whenever they come to God, whenever they come to the revelation of God’s word and repent of their sins, and are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, their sins are forgiven, for Christ hath once suffered for sins. Not His own sins. He suffered for our sins. That is what it is talking about. He did not suffer for His own sins, but for our sins He suffered. Suffered once for sins, taking them upon the cross. He told the disciples, “You will be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with”, which was the Holy Ghost. He told them that it would happen unto them. For Christ hath once suffered for sins (our sins). By baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, we are covered, our sins, our original sin is purged by the blood of Jesus Christ. The things that we have committed in this body, we take on His name as a married name, as someone that has taken on the Bridegroom, being their Saviour. The just, which is Christ, for the unjust. We were the unjust. “… the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God…” Right here it is telling you the revelation of what His aim and purpose was. It was all to bring us to God. Christ’s sufferings were to bring us to God, because we could not get there on our own. We had no way of getting there until the sufferings of Christ happened. We were brought to God by this, by no other way. “…being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit…” By the Spirit that was in Him. By the Spirit which is in you.  It will bring you up out of the grave. His Spirit in you will take you from darkness to light, then it will bring you out of the grave, if you have gone by the way of the grave. To others, it will bring them from this life and translate them unto a new life by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They too will be quickened by that Spirit. By the Spirit of Him that raised up The Spirit of God that raised Christ from the dead, is the same Spirit that was in Christ to bring us up from the grave unto a living place of God. “By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison.” He went and preached unto those spirits that were in prison, therefore we find in Matthew 27 that many of those Old Testament saints came out of the grave at His resurrection. Their time had already come and gone for them, under the Law, and even Abraham and those that were under grace, Abraham was not under law, Abraham was under grace. Not the grace necessarily that you have, but God spoke to him directly and told him what to do. But He speaks to us now by the Spirit, telling us what to do by the word of God. It is the same Spirit, but Abraham did not have that Spirit, it was the Spirit that spoke to him, to tell him what to do in life at that time. There is a difference, but it is a slim difference because it said Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, because he believed God. We believe God; therefore, we receive the same spirit that spoke to Abraham, but did not live in him. God spoke to him face to face as Melchizedek, which we know God is a Spirit. But It was God in the flesh, in a way. It was Him in the flesh, in a way, but then it did not keep on existing in that form, because God is a Spirit. We must believe on Him that He is Spirit, and He is life.

Disobedient Spirits in Prison

As we look at this, I want to go a little further, “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, (The Spirit of God waited in the days of Noah) while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” You have a whole generation of mankind that did not believe God. How do we know they did not believe it? Because they did not get on the ark. Otherwise they would have made preparations. God did not prepare the ark for more than what He was going to take. If it had been like the religious world today, then they would have wanted the ark to be as big as the state of Indiana, to take everybody in. But the ark was not that big. The ark was like four hundred fifty feet long, but that was mostly for animals that he was going to preserve. God is life. He expresses himself in life. He does not express himself in death. It is in life. God is life and God is light. Why does it say this: “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah.” Why did it just go back to Noah? That is a question I put to you. It is speaking of the ones that lived in the days of Noah, all the way back to Adam. Of the resurrection? Why did He not speak of a resurrection of the prehistoric age? They were animals. Because they were animals die and they lay buried. There is no resurrection for them. None of them will be brought back to life, because they did not have eternal life in them. Only those that have eternal life in them are going to be raised from the dead. “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah.” God waited in the days of Noah, which was a period of time. The days of Noah is a period of time that reaches back into the generations. His life span reached halfway back towards the beginning. He was a preacher of righteousness. He was living righteously. Let us read Genesis 6. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, (the wickedness of man was great in the earth. There is a time right now in the world, that this younger generation that has come up are Communistic. Communist and Socialist. You have a generation right now that is coming along that are atheists. They do not believe in God. They do not believe in the word of God. Young people and young children here at Faith Assembly Church: my advice to you is get a hold of God, if you have not repented of your sins and got rid of them. That is what repentance is. Get away from wickedness, as it has been spoken, get away from internet addictions. People go through the checkout counter moving their thumbs on their little devices. They sit at stop lights. We live in a time where the only exercise they get is thumbs and fingers. The mind is being fed the things that are ungodly and immoral. Get away from that. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth…) and that every imagination (Maybe they had gadgets too. They had advanced some ways because they had all that time to live. Cain’s seed did too. They lived and spread themselves just like it is now. Cain’s seed reaches into this hour, right into the hearts of men, women, and children. Because the family is not teaching anything, the home is not saying anything. Whenever a child is wrong, they are not saying, “You should not do that.” My dad did not say, “You should not do that.” There was a time of correction. Spare the rod, spoil the child. You might think, “Well I do not like that.” Do you not like scripture? Sometimes words do not do everything. Sometimes speaking to them is not enough to get a change. We have to get down to business. We have to get down to business with God in this hour. If I heard of somebody beating their child, I would want to smack you up side the head. That is not right. I have seen it done. There is no reason to fly off the handle. We need a leash on our temper and temperament, and all this stuff. But there is an appropriate way to discipline. Every imagination…) of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” That is America. Trump called the MS13 gang animals. Now they are trying to say that he said all people coming across the border are animals. This is a time of the crooked serpent. “And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.” That is why there are going to be few people that are going to be saved, and that few number is going to be smaller than what you think. If you do not listen to truth, you have nothing else to stand on. Because you are going to face it, it is going to come to you in the near future. We are here at the end. The United States has their embassy back in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is recognized by the United States government as the capital of Israel. What more do we need? How much longer can this stand? How many more bombs do they have to set off in Israel? God said my Spirit will no longer strive with man. It grieved Him in his heart. “And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” Even the animal kingdom. That spirit bleeds off into it. They take dogs and train them to be killers. Others take them and make gods out of them. Maybe I am going a little bit too far, but I do not want one kissing me on the mouth. You see it happening.

God Uses Men

What is wrong with society? I am glad there was an answer. I am glad that somebody had an answer. One person, that is who God dealt with. One person. There is only one ministry this morning, a fivefold ministry. The Bible speaks of it, Bro. Branham spoke of it. They had made their own prophets. Bro. Branham was not self-made. Bro. Branham found the Lord. He went to the woodshed. He got down there, under conviction, and said, “Father, I do not know how to pray. All I know is just to talk to you.” How many times did I hear him say, while going to the Tabernacle, “Let us talk to Him while we pray.” God changed him. He came back to his house and his dad said, “You cannot live like that here.” He said, “Then I will live it someplace else.” He got his belongings, put them in a grocery bag and left. He went to New Albany Indiana. This all happened in this area. Here, in this area, God worked in this area. Right down there at the foot of Spring Street at the Ohio River, there was a baptism taking place. A hundred and fifty people were baptized. When it got to the seventeenth something happened. I knew a woman, back in 1963, that was there. She said that some thought it thundered. Some thought different things. But the voice came to Bro. Branham and said, “As John the Baptist forerun the first coming of Christ, you will bring forth a message that will forerun his second coming.” We are living that message; we are under that eagle message this morning. Just before this thing drops off, God has raised up a people that live the word, that honor the word, that is a part of the word. Whenever you get very interested in something, it becomes a part of you. The Jews had to have it up over their door. When they went out and when they came in, it was there, the commandments, to remind them. But they could not live it. The Law was given because of sin in the camp of Israel, but they could not live it, just a very few. When Jesus came, how many recognized Him? Anna, Simeon, John the Baptist, His mom and dad. That is five. When Mary went to Elizabeth, she said my soul doth rejoice in me to hear the mother of my Lord. It does not make Mary anything to be worshipped. There was never to be an emblem of Mary. Bro. Branham told Banks Woods, and Banks Woods told me, it is alright to play these tapes in your house, but do not make any gathering of it. He talked to me because he said we were doing that. Now that is all some will listen to. What Bro. Branham said is all they care about. What did God say? God spoke before Bro. Branham. God called Bro. Branham for a purpose, to bring a message that would separate. He did not preach water baptism in the beginning, because God had spoken to him to do the work of an evangelist. Remember this: the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Bro. Branham himself said, “If you do not believe what I say, whenever I am dead, take up the cornerstone.” Me and the family drove down by there, the day of Bro. Branham’s funeral. Do you know what they were doing? They had jack hammers out there, digging up the cornerstone. If you do not believe. They showed they did not believe. What did they find? They found a fruit jar where the lid had rusted, and it was already decayed. When they opened it up, there was nothing in it but crumbs of paper that had rotted. I know what I am talking about, I am not guessing. This is not something somebody else told me about. I was there. Bro. Branham said, “If you do not believe, dig up the cornerstone.” What a shame! What a disgrace to a ministry that God had raised up. Now you have to get a tour at a certain time to get through the Tabernacle, otherwise they will lead you out. He said, “Do not make a denomination out of it.” I and the people here at Faith Assembly believe the message of Bro. Branham. But we believe that we had to go on, go on unto perfection. We had to do that. But it is like Noah. That is why we are here today, old Brother Noah. You are kin to Noah. But Noah found grace in the eyes, or in the sight of God. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. “These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, (in his generations, from before the flood until two hundred and fifty years after the flood. That is nine hundred and fifty years. He lived before the flood and after the flood as a witness. Noah’s life did not change after the flood. They claimed that Noah and Shem lived their lives out in a cave. I do not know if that is true, but that is what they claim. God could not have raised him up to do what he did, then forget about him. His message was over, but God did not forget him. W hat Bro. Branham had to say was over in 1965, but the truth of it lives on. Bro. Branham was gone but the truth lived on. The truth lived on after Noah’s time. It lives today.) “These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations…” (It keeps mentioning generations. It means both before and after the flood. He was perfect in his generations. He lived his life in a way that God was pleased with. Was he the only one? He and his family were the only ones that went through the flood. Methuselah died the year of the flood. Lamech, his dad, died five years before the flood. Being what? Seven hundred and seventy-seven years old. God took them away. God is taking generations of people away. Like Martin Luther, like John Wesley, He has taken these generations away and has left the generation of Laodicea. Look at it, how it lays in darkness. In 1963 God shut the church doors to these denominations. A picture in 1964 came out when the pope was in Israel. It came out in Missouri, showing the different stages of a lunar eclipse. It was exactly patterned the way Bro. Branham had planned out the church ages went from one to another. It was perfect. Even the Holy Ghost put it on the back of the church, drew it there. We have a cloud of witnesses.

This thing is not done in a corner. This message that we have is not done in a corner. It is around the world. Our website has had millions of hits. Not all stay and watch it. But every message is watched online by hundreds around the world, either live or the next day on archive. And through The Contender thousands more read the message. They are interested in what just a little hillbilly from Kentucky has to say. I am just as dumb as a box of rocks, but God has put a revelation in my heart and in your hearts. He took Noah, a preacher of righteousness in a bad world. I am not speaking of myself only, I am speaking of a fivefold ministry. It is going to live this thing out to see the end. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations…) and Noah (What? What did Noah do?) walked with God.”

My Spirit Shall Not Always Strive With Man

In that 3rd verse it said, “And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, (He is not going to keep it up. Do you know what you do when you strive with somebody? It is something of force. God is not going to force it; He does for so long. He said I will not always do it. I will not always strive with man. God will not always strive with America. Somewhere judgment is going to hit this country we are living in, to bring it to its knees, that they may recognize George Washington’s vision, that he had while sitting in his tent. He seen an angel come in, telling him three things that would happen to America. The last thing has not happened yet, but it was more severe than the other two. Why? Because at last he seen the standard rise up in America, it said that the Union shall always last. God help me to do my part and help you to do your part. If it is to shovel snow, do the best you can. If it is to shovel gravel, do the best you can. My spirit shall not always strive with man…) for that he also is flesh: (There is a difference between a saint of God and a sinner. There are two natures in a person when they come to God. You come to God as a sinner, you leave as a saint. This is who we are, and this is who we become when we know Christ. It is two lives being brought together, the life of Christ and the life of the individual. We are not a split personality, but we bring our carnal nature in subjection unto his divine nature.) yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.” God gave a measuring stick to countdown to the flood. He has given one in this hour. Whenever we see Israel begin to build her temple, whenever we see the armies in Israel defeating those round about, the end is going to happen. Mark it down, but do not wait to see it, believe now and live right. Live for God. “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” What does it mean, he walked with Him? God was instructing him. God gave him a pattern. God gave us a pattern in His word, a word to live by. God gave Noah a pattern, this is what you want to do. You make so many rooms here, first, second and third stories. He did not need to make rooms for dinosaurs, because there were no dinosaurs in our creation. But all the animals living were there. Even that old serpent that God had cursed, took off his arms and legs, he became a serpent, a snake. God somewhere put it on the ark. Because the devil is not going to defeat God. God will just make it in another form, so it never does the same thing again. That is what He did. He made it in another form. It will go right into the Eternal Age as a snake. That is what Isaiah 66 says. He will still be a serpent, but it will eat its bugs and mice and such stuff from the earth. Look what a fall he had. He had everything, everything imaginable. But there was deceit in his heart, because that fallen devil had inspired him. Because of that he became a snake, a serpent. “And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” Now this is before the flood. It goes back before the flood. “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” See? God talked to Noah. He will talk to you. He will speak to you, day or night, it makes no difference with God. He will show you a dream, He will show you a vision. He will speak to you through the word. He will wake you up sometimes just to talk to you. You will not lose sleep; God will give you good sleep. God said to Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with violence through them, and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. “Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, (make rooms, why? For separation of the animals.) and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. (A tar like substance.) And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of.” It goes on to give the length and so on, but only one window is put in it. You see pictures of the ark with many windows, but it really only had one.

Let us go back to 1st Peter, 3rd chapter, 19th verse again. “By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.” We are going to find out where these spirits were. He did not take them out of prison at His resurrection. He took Noah. He took Shem. He took Abraham. He took Isaac, Jacob, and his sons. Where do you find them then? In the book of Revelation, the elders. Right on down through Moses, David. They have David’s tomb in Jerusalem. They know where it is, but they do not know where David is. David is not there. Go back to Matthew 27:51, I will show you when they were ressurected. “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, (Christ had to be first, because He was the resurrection. He was the resurrection and life.) and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” There you are. The saints of the Old Testament were resurrected. Now go back to Peter. “By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison” (those imprisoned spirits, as it says here) “which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a-preparing.” While Noah was preparing the ark by God’s instructions. See? Just like He instructed Moses. He was instructed to make everything according to what he was shown as a pattern in the mount. That was a pattern of what the heavenly Bride kingdom will be. God waited on Noah to build the ark.

The End Is Coming

The day of the flood was scheduled. The judgement of this world today is scheduled. We are not told the day nor hour, but whenever the time that Israel begins to build her temple, which she is going to do. Now Israel, as they have obtained the recognition of Jerusalem as their capital, at any time things can begin to happen because there has got to be a war in Israel. There has got to be. Then you can begin to count time, because immediately after the next war in Israel, they are going to start on the temple. That little coin I showed you is for building the temple, the one that I showed you of Trump and Cyrus. If you purchase it, the money goes towards the fund to build the temple and the temple institute. Israel is expecting for Trump to send money to build the temple. Did you know that? Cyrus sent everything, whenever they came back, Ezra and them, when they come back to build the temple, Nehemiah, as they came back to build the temple, he told them to go and build it. I am waiting for that day to come, that Trump is going to say, we will help you. Because God has changed his mind on so many things that should delight us.

Trump Cyrus coin. Image credit: The Temple Institute.

The time is here for God to really move. We are on the edge of it. We are on the edge of God really moving. Whatever happens from now on, you can look for a war to start in Israel, for them round about. While the world is getting wickeder, old Noah keeps building. He keeps laying another log on. It does not look like much when he starts. Think about it. A man five hundred years old, out there taking a bunch of logs from the forest, building an ark for water. How dumb that looked. He had to be around the wood. God was not saying, Noah, build it next to a lake. The lake was going to come to him. The ocean was going to come to him. That is the reason why we have oceans out there today. That water settled. Before that there was seas, which there will be again in the Millennium. There will just be seas, not great oceans. The land is going to be uncovered. God is going to put us under that canopy of a perfect climate again. There will be winter and summer. There always has been and there always will be winter and summer. Man wants to get under his religious shelter. They do not believe the word of God any more.  Are you enjoying Christ? Are you enjoying your faith in Christ? It is wonderful. “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that is, either souls were saved by water.” You might think, well I thought you said there was only one that heard the word. These others were not born when God spoke to Noah. God brought a woman to Noah when he was five hundred years old. He was middle aged. God brought a woman to him and said, here, take her for your wife, this is the best I can do with what I have. Noah is perfect in his generations. Not perfect like we should be, but perfect in his generations. He did not have the word we have. He had the word to build the ark, but he lived in a bunch of trash, a mess, just like we are today. We live in a mess, but we have a message of truth.

Lazarus and the Rich Man

Lazarus begs at the rich man’s gate. Image credit: Gems for living

I want to go into the book of Luke 16:19-31 for scripture reading. It is a familiar scripture to you. Familiar scriptures sometimes can be a mystery. “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple (In other words, royalty. That is what purple is, royalty. What a great man he was to many people. People that passed by looked at his house from far away when they could see it, until they turned around and could not see it anymore. Because it said he fared sumptuously.) …clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: (He did not have a care in this life. It was all positive for him.) And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, (That does not mean that every poor man has God in their life, but this one did. Somebody, probably more than one person, carried him there, because he laid at the rich man’s gate, full of sores. It was not a pretty sight. He had lived a good life, but then this sickness came upon him, and now he cannot work. He is looking for mercy from someone who could help him. There are two different avenues here, two different lives, two different lifestyles. One of them just did not care.) And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: (In other words, dog food. If he could just get the crumbs, he felt he would be okay., that this would help him have a little strength to live another day. But he was looked over, his life did not matter. He was homeless, but he was not homeless because he was drunk and drug addicted like many homeless are today. Sickness had overtaken him. I saw pictures of San Francisco, where the trash, garbage, and rubbish lays along the sides of the streets. It is such a great city with a great name. So, it is in Los Angeles, the city of the angels. The homeless there choose to be so, they could work and do better, but they refuse. Not all the homeless are that way. Lazarus was not that way. But let’s look at this.) moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. (The dogs cared more for him than the rich man. There is somewhat of a healing in a dog’s saliva. I do not know if you knew that or not, but there is. But I would not kiss one on the mouth as the world does.) And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: (That is a big change.) the rich man also died, and was buried; (there is a difference in their death. One of them died from starvation as he laid at the rich man’s gate. The other died naturally, maybe of a heart attack. God saw the dilemma, just like He did with David and the man that would not feed his soldiers. He died days later with something that hit him, at the time that David sent messengers to go to ask for something. David had already said that he would wipe them off the earth. He did not speak his words in vain. It came to pass the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. There is a big difference there.) And in hell he lift up his eyes, (This is a place where people go when they where they are cut off from God. It is like a place with burning lava, like you see spewing out in Hawaii. That is the same type of fire that is in there, because hell is in the heart of the earth, in the center of the earth. Yet their bodies do not decay. Although they burn, they do not decay. In hell he lifted up his eyes…) being in torments, (torments) and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (Now the story changes. It changes for the beggar and it changes for the rich man. The rich man now desires what the beggar has.) And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. (See? Tormented in this flame. Jesus says it is a worm that will not go. Bro. Jackson referred to it as a worm of remorse: where the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. This is represented just outside the gates of old Jerusalem, where the people burn their garbage and their rubbish. There rose a worm out of that which was resistant to fire. Something is going to live, in all the struggle, there is something that is going to live. In all the trials and tests, and tribulations, something is going to live. Jesus was speaking of something that was real. Because there is an existence, there is life on this earth of some kind. They dumped a bunch of fertilizer off Hawaii and killed the fish, but there was a worm that had never been seen that began to grow out of that. You take one life and put it out, there is another life that comes in. The people that are in torment today, God gives them a life, a life that is in torment, because of the flame that exists.)

Hell: A Place of Torment and Remembrance

But Abraham said, Son, (He even called him Son, because he would have been Abraham’s natural seed. He said to him, Son…) remember (Remember. That is the worm of remorse, remember, Son, remember…) that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” It is not because the rich man was rich that he was in hell, that is not the reason for it. Jesus said there would be not many rich men that will enter into the kingdom of heaven. It is not because of riches, but of his attitude. He chose to take his reward during his natural life. Many times, Bro. Jackson did things for people that maybe were above what he did for his own family. I do not mean anything by that. Do not make anything out of it.  He wanted to do for others. He said this to me one time, “I do not want to look back and see where I have neglected to do something that I could which would help them in their situation.” Bro. Jackson was not a rich man. I know some of the things that are told which is happening in the Branham movement today. Bro. Branham was a man who always wanted to help his neighbor and did not chase riches. Things have changed among them today. Bro. Branham was in need many times. That is why he hunted and fished, in order to provide. People could not go to the grocery store and get their groceries that they needed. That is why sometimes it was little animals that today we would not think about eating, that were eaten in order to keep skin and bone together. Even Bro. Jackson said that Paul ate rats in order to live and preach the gospel. Think about it. Think about it when you eat your next meal. When I grew up, even at that time, most of the meat that people ate was what they caught or what they killed, wild animals, squirrels, rabbits, different things of that nature. They had to do that. Here Lazarus lays there, but now he is no longer laying there. It was not because he was poor. It was not because he did not have anything, but somewhere inside of Lazarus, there laid something more than what the rich man had. I remember when travel was not like it is today. Most people never left the county they were born in. I remember one man: they were taking him to Louisville for an examination to go into the army during World War Two. He left Casey County and said, goodbye Ole Kentucky. He thought that was all there was to Kentucky. Today we go everywhere, there are no bounds where we go sometimes. Lazarus probably never had been very far. No doubt the rich man traveled a lot. He entertained his echelon of people. Big shots came by his house. He always looked out for them. Why? To gain, and to gain more. To gain prestige. But it did not give him any hope. Prestige without hope is nothing. It is just another word that somebody has made up. The word prestige is not in the Bible. If you find it, show it to more. But you will find certain people that were prosperous. Just like the scribes and Pharisees that walked by the robbed man. They went to the other side of the road. Because the man was bruised and beat up. They did not have time for him. They did not want to acknowledge him. Jesus did not think too much of them, he called them whited sepulchers, full of dead men’s bones. That is not going very far. It even spoke of the man, the priests, standing on the street corner, praying so that everybody could see him. It reminds me of a man that worked at Ford. He went to another church. He would come see me occasionally. I worked on a platform. He would look around to see who was watching us, then he would get loud so everyone could hear our conversation. He wanted everyone to know he was a preacher. It shamed me for people to think I was associated with him. One day, out of anger, he ran over somebody with a tow tug. He claimed to be a preacher. At one time he claimed Faith Assembly Church should be his place to preach, that Bro. Jackson had left it to him. He went to Bro. Bill Tuley’s place of work and told him, “I am prophesying to you that your dad is going to get well.” Bro. Bill Tuley told him, “He has been dead for three months.” How would you like somebody like that to prophesy to you? But Abraham said “Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art tormented.” See? Abraham did not get upset over what happened. He just told him like it was. “You see Lazarus now and you see your condition.” He did not make a big deal out of it, he just told him the truth. “And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: (In other words, here we are in two different parts of hell. When I read from 1st Peter 3, we saw that Jesus went and preached unto those imprisoned spirits. They were imprisoned in torment where this rich man was. Jesus message to them did not change them. The Bible does not say what He preached, but He was preaching to a lost cause. Because they had hear what they missed. That will be the last message that man will ever hear, when he finally goes there: look and understand why you are here. That will be the last thing they hear, and they will be cut off from God. That is what is being said to the rich man. He wants him to know the reason he is here and the reason he missed it. The situation is not going to change. Lazarus is not going to come with a drop of water and put on his tongue. Why? There is a divide. You have two parts of hell. You have the place of the torment for the damned and the place of paradise for the righteous. But paradise is not there anymore. When Christ led captivity captive, he took them to paradise in the heavenlies now. It says so in the scriptures. We will find it. Beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed…) so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.” There is no way. It would be awful to hear Him say, “You missed it. You had the opportunity. It was placed there before you. You rejected it. Now there is no escape.” Everyone has an opportunity to be saved. God gave all man a choice. There is not going to be one person that will ever go before God and accuse Him, I did not have a chance. Look at the chance God gave to Cain. Look at it. He said, “If you will do what is right, you are the oldest. You are older than your twin brother, if you will do what is right, then he will be subject to you.” It is awful when we get to where our own desires mean more to us than what God means to us. There is no peace in the world, there is no peace in living for the world. As the song goes, the only real peace I have is in you. The only real peace I have is in Him. The only real peace you have is in Him.

How many times does the Bible mention not getting caught up with the world? Over and over and over. How many times does it mention overcoming the flesh? Over and over and over. Flesh is what desires the things of the world. I believe, as long as you come here and you try your best, you do all you know, then somewhere God is going to lighten the load for you, to where you are going to feel that realness of the Holy Ghost when it comes in. I remember visions I had years ago, just seeing a light, it would go down one side, numb that side, and come back up the other side. What a feeling, just that tingling. It is the realness, the realness of the Holy Ghost. It is the best experience you will ever have in this life, because it is life and it will put life in you. What the presence of God does is so real, so perfect. I remember a dream I had around the time when Bro. Branham had died, me and somebody else, we went down an old country dirt road, if you could call it a road. It was in the summertime. Finally, we met Bro. Branham coming with a group of people with him. I saw the tiredness in his face. He looked so tired. When he got to me and that other man, he put both arms around us to hold himself up. People did not realize that Bro. Branham really had became very wore out and exhausted in life like I saw in the dream. He began to prophesy to that other man. He got through and it came to be my turn. I thought, where is mine? He said to me, “Your’s is in the word.” That is what he said, “Your’s is in the word.” That is the only reason, not because he said it, but that is the only reason that God has done anything in my life here in this endtime, it is because it is in the word. This is what Jesus is saying of Lazarus and the rich man.

The Rich Man’s Faults Are Manifested In Hell

The rich man is the only one speaking up. Lazarus is there, but he is content. Maybe for the first time in his life, he is content. I will say it again, it was not because he was rich that he went to hell, it was because of his attitude towards the things of God. It was not because of Lazarus was poor that he was saved, it was because of his attitude towards the things of God. “Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, (The rich man is still being religious, because he is calling Abraham father. He is praying. There will be a lot of religious people in hell. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father…) that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house.” He is already doomed, and he knows it, but he is wanting Lazarus to be raised from the dead, to send him to his father’s house to warn his unrighteous brothers. “For I have five brethren; (See who he is concerned about? He is still not concerned about the rest of the people; it is still his family circle. That is part of what led to his problem to begin with, he cared nothing of the poor beggar at his gate. Sometimes we have got to get out of the family circle in order to see God work in people’s lives. What means more to us? For I have five brethren…) that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” Now he is concerned, but he is only concerned of his own, not yours. You are my brothers and sisters. “Abraham saith unto him, (See? They are still speaking.) They have Moses (They are still under the Law at this time. Jesus is speaking unto a man that is under the Law, and he dies under the Law, and Lazarus dies under the Law. Theologians say that this is not a parable because Jesus mentions names. I do not know. It could be some rich royalty in Israel’s past, it may be a true story. Or it may just be an example. They have Moses…) and the prophets; let them hear them.” Now he is going to take the wrecking ball to man’s ideas, to their opinions, and to the opinion of the rich man. He told him, let them hear Moses and the prophets. Let them hear the ministry in this hour: do not count it cheap. Do not call what God has brought up in this hour something cheap. Don’t say a preacher is just this small thing or just that small thing. He is your benefit. Both of these brothers, Bro. Kevin and Bro. Charles, have been called to preach under my ministry, not that I called them, but they have been called under my ministry. The thing about it is, they were called of God, they were not called of me. They have been preached for several years now. So do not count it cheap. You might say, well I do not have to listen to either one of you. That is the attitude of the world. It may be the attitude of some of your family members. Some might think they are too young. Bro. Charles is just in his early thirties. Bro. Branham was in his early twenties when he started. He was hardly twenty when he was converted down there in that old woodshed. Sometimes we need to get to the woodshed. I believe that God is in our meeting places with us, but sometimes we need to get by ourselves. Abraham said unto him, they have Moses, they have the word, and the prophets, let them hear them. “And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.” Bypass everything else. Bypass Moses and the prophets. Send a dead man. They would not even know him, because he would no longer had sores on him. He was no longer that dilapidated man that lay at the rich man’s gate. He lifted up his eyes, being in torment. I will say it again, not because he was rich, but because of his attitude toward another seed of Abraham. Nay father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. Here is the end of what he will hear. “And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses (If they hear not the word of God brought through Moses. Moses was already dead. If they hear not Moses) and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” Miracles like that will not change someone, but the word can. The devil is working on people’s minds, it can get mighty hard sometimes to convince them of anything else, because the majority of the people are lost.  In the days of Noah, the majority of the people were lost. It is no different in this hour because Jesus said as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man. The day the flood came, they did not know what that first cloud meant. They had never seen a cloud. This world will never know what judgment is until it comes because they have never seen God’s judgment. They did not see it in the word. They will not be persuaded though one rose from the dead.

Paradise Is Now In Heaven

Let us go to 2nd Corinthians 12:1. “It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.” Paul is speaking here of what he is expecting, how he is living his life, how he is presenting his ministry. It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory; I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. “I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.” There are different layers, you have the atmospheric heaven, then you go into space, then you go into the realm where God is. But His realm reaches all the way down to earth because He said, heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. This is where He is working, in His footstool. I will take the footstool as long as I can feel that God is working in it.

Image credit: Christian Truth Center

“And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth.)” This is where the saints are today that have died and gone on. They are there waiting for the change that will come about in their body, no longer in the heart of the earth. The saints that resurrected with Christ are there with their bodies, but the saints who have died since are there without bodies. They are spirits, and are waiting to be rejoined with their glorified bodies at the coming of Christ. They are all in paradise together, in this heaven Paul is talking about. The spirits of those saints that have gone on are living tonight, just as much as they lived on this earth. But it will take that return of Christ for their body to be resurrected and glorified. One of these days He is going to say, enough. That is in the future. My point here is to show you Paradise is no longer in the heart of the earth; it is in the heavenlies where saints are waiting for their change to come. “How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Of such an one will I glory: yet of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities.” That is the only way he said he would glory, was in his infirmities. The trials of this life are infirmities that he had in his body. This is the way he lived and the way he presented himself because he felt that if he could glorify God, he would glorify Him in his infirmities. He felt that if he could do that in all the trials and tests, that he had something waiting on the other side. The way we treat our infirmities is going to mean how we are presented in God. We are not doing it for gold stars on Sunday. We have no board to place stars on or count attendance. During the early part of Bro. Jackson’s ministry when I was here, he put a board up. They recorded how many people attended service and so much given in tithes. It did not last very long because everybody was looking at the board, and how much people gave, how many were there. That is where the attention was focused. “For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; (He did not say “My, look what a ministry I have got,” he could have said that. But he said, “I will not do that, no.” Though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool…) for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. (In weakness, he can show the strength of God. This is the Lord speaking to him, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness…) Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power (I would rather glory in my infirmities, that the power…) of Christ may rest upon me.” That the power of Christ may rest on you. What a glorious gospel we do have in the time we are living.

Christ Ascended To Heaven

Let us go to Hebrews 9:23. I love the book of Hebrews. “It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; (That is what I was talking about earlier. That tabernacle they made in the wilderness. They made it out of badger skins to overlay it, dyed red. The curtains that went around it were blue, representing the heavenlies. Then the golden ark represented the throne of God. The heavens should be purified with these…) but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. (Talking about the heavenlies) For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, (Thank God. Whenever He died there on the cross, what happened? The veil of the temple, which was four inches thick, it covered the holy place, and was very thick and impossible for man to tear. But there was an earthquake and God rent that thing to where you could see through it to the other side. The ones in the  temple could see it was empty behind the veil. He rent that thing from top to bottom, the way it should be. It started out at the top and went to the bottom, the rent did. Because the way of the holies is now open, when Christ died. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands…) which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”

Image Credit: Practica Poetica

He did not go appear in his own presence. He appeared in the presence of God for us, us beings right now. He is the same yesterday, today and forever, right into the Millennium, that same spirit you have is going to be your directive whenever the Millennium comes. There are not two Holy Ghosts. You will not be filled with another Holy Ghost; you already have it. You might ask, well what if I die? It will bring you out of the grave. That is not the last thing it will do; it will take you into the heavenlies immediately. “Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” You are no longer a sinner if you have received Christ. I beg somebody’s pardon that would say we are just sinners, they even sing, just an old sinner saved by grace. No. God took that away, you are not an old sinner, your body is decaying every day from the time you are born. Your body is decaying every day, but the thing about it is, though this body be dissolved, we have one in the heavens. You will meet it one of these days, you will not say Howdy! No, it will be too quick. You will be saying, goodbye world goodbye. “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” This is not talking of saints of God, because you are already judged. That is why the saints of God will never go through the tribulation, we bypass it. That is a detour for the rest of them, but it is a bypass, there is a narrow road that leads around it. As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him (Have you been out looking? Are you looking for Him in spirit, because you know He is coming back after you? That is good to know, that He is coming back after you? Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him…) shall he appear the second time (That is not His first appearance. He will appear the second time…) without sin unto salvation.” In other words, there will be no more stripes upon His back. There will be no more crown of thorns upon His head. I saw the Passion movie; I did not want to see it over and over. It was just something too cruel. But that was not half of it, it was just too cruel. It made you almost feel you were there, because it was so real and lined out. He did it once for me and for you, one time was enough. He did not have to go back again year by year. The Catholics whenever they take communion, they say he come back again and gives His life. They are so nutty, nuttier than a fruitcake. But that is the way they like it, they like something they can put in their hands. Because they want the money, give me, give me, give me.

Love Your Enemies

I have something else I want to look at now. This really is not related to my subject of hell. I am looking at this because we have never faced an hour like we are facing right now. People need to know how to live and how to handle situations as they come about, to know the right direction to go. Our lives must fit the scriptures. It must fit the scriptures in order for us to have perfect peace in the things we do and the things that we say. It is always good to look into the word of God and to know what God is sayingbto us in this endtime. I never say “thus saith the Lord” but I do at times say, “thus saith the word.” There is a big difference whenever you are saying “thus saith the Lord”. You have to remember it has got to be God talking. Years ago, there were preachers that said “thus saith the Lord” to everything, it turned out that they became hypocrites. They never did live the things they preached to other people. They just pointed always at somebody else, or  something that they laid the blame on others. They were putting up and putting everybody else down while lifting themselves up. I do not want to do that, and my brothers here do not want to do that either. We are looking at the word and making our statements to everyone and not just to single people out, or to benefit ourselves, but to benefit everyone. I appreciate the word of the Lord. I appreciate our young people who have been faithful to sing and not cause grief or anything. We have young brothers here that keep their notes, read their Bibles as we go along. I believe they are getting something out of it. Otherwise if we do not have our minds on the word, I do not care if we are ten years old or twenty years old, in the teenage years, if we do not have our minds on the word of the Lord, then there is something that is going to shock us. It is going to shock us into a realization. I noticed the other day that the house was getting hot. I went to look; it was four or five degrees above what the thermostat was set for. I had to go to the air conditioner in the breaker box and turned it off and turned it back on, then it started working. Every once in a while, you have to give something a kick start. We do that in our lives. Sometimes we think everything is running alright, but then we have to give ourselves a kick start. We were on a hayride one time at Bro. Jackson’s house. I was sitting beside him as we were going through the field there. He said, sometimes life is like a hayride, you are going along real smooth and all at once you hit a big bump and have to hold on. That is the truth. There are big bumps in the course of our lives. We have to remember that God knows everything, and He knows where we are and what we need at the time those bumps do come.

It is interesting how the bible has the answer for everything. Everything that we face or come up to, there is an answer for it. As there is an  answer to it, then we must realize that God is the God of answers, He is the God of the present time. You cannot limit God. He has an answer.  It is going to spew out. There are a few in this hour that have the word, that God has ordained to be able to have the word. I am talking about the ministry and the congregations of those people, whether they be here or whether they be around the country or overseas. God be praised for it all. He is wonderful. That is what Isaiah 9 says, He is wonderful and Counsellor. I thank the Lord for that, that He is wonderful. Let me go to Matthew 5:41. “And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.” There is something in that. There is something in what I am reading this morning, that has been there all along. Sometimes we overlook it because of the things that are going on. There is something here I want you to see. “Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.” Now this would be in the Law that He is talking about. He said, you have heard this. It did not really mean that, but this is what they were teaching. He told them, you have heard this, how you are to treat your enemy and to love your neighbor and so on, but there is a deeper thought in this that I want to get to. Because of the times we are living in and what we see going on in our own lives and the lives of others, as we would look into the deeper part of this, that He is talking about. Because it is going to free us from a lot of things if we look at this right. It is going to free us of anger when use the mind of Christ rather than rely on our own feelings. Sometimes whenever we build on our own feelings, then we are hurting ourselves by rejecting something that will free us. Because there is a freedom in the word of the Lord. He goes ahead here; “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.” He is pointing out what it was like under the law, where people hated each other, but they just kept it under control. But Jesus here is straightening this out, that we may not come under this same thing. “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, (This has a deeper meaning to it, love your enemies.) bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” This is a hard thing to do, but it will free us from a lot of things that otherwise would be something that the devil could use to hurt us. I am coming to realize some things in this that maybe I had not before. “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: (These things do, that ye may be children of your Father in heaven.) for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good.” See? He is not partial in that. He is wanting us to look at him as an example of what we should do, because He does it. He makes His sunshine on the evil and on the just. He gives them rain. He gives them good crops. We are not under the law. This is how he wants us to be. Because Jesus was planting something in his message that would tell us what we are: children of God.  There is a special favor for us. There is a special favor for us in this. I am not going to tell who, but I had a phone call from a brother that was troubled about something. I talked to him about it, then I referred this scripture to him. Because he was in a situation that he needed an answer. Sometimes there are situations where we need answers, but we can only go to the word of the Lord and find that answer. He thanked me after I quoted that part to him. He thanked me because he felt this was the answer to the problem he was facing. This would apply to people of the world. But this is also talking about people that have left our fellowship and have gone their way. Listen to what He is saying in that verse. “But I say unto you, love your enemies.” This reaches down into a person, it goes down further. This takes away the feeling that we may have toward somebody, including one that has left. It is for our sake that we get any hard feelings towards them out of our minds. Bro. Jackson spoke concerning some that had left our fellowship while he was still living. He said, “If I see them broke down on the highway, I will stop and help. But I will not invite them to supper.” So, there is a difference in it in that way. This type of thing that has happened. I will mention the thing that happened in 2008. It put a big gap between brothers and sisters and many that left. Those type of enemies are included in what Jesus is saying here. He wants us to do exactly what He said for us to do, because He went to the cross. He had already told them what would happen, in Matthew 24. He knew the ones who rejected him would receive judgement. He tells the believers, whenever you see the armies compass Jerusalem, flee to the mountains. They did that. Only those were the ones that were saved from the onslaught of the Roman Empire, because Jesus had said that Jerusalem would be shut up. That is exactly what happened. It was closed, because they thought that they could outlast, but Jesus had already pronounced judgment on them. But what did He do when He was going to the cross? He prayed for them, even though they had messed up, though they had betrayed Him, though they had said all manner of evil against Him, yet He prayed for them as He went to the cross. He said, “Father, they do not know what they do.” So what I am saying this morning, we have to do everything in our being, in order to keep anger from bubbling up in us and spoiling the grace of God, because when some men, especially when some of the men that left, they had children. Those children were not to blame. They are not to blame today. Because somebody else did what they did, that does not condemn the whole family. I remember one little six-year-old girl saying, it was not my idea to leave. It was not their idea; it was somebody that was over them. As I look at it this, I want to keep my feelings right. I do not want anger toward anybody to spoil what is inside me. I want that hope inside me. That hope will keep me steady in the storm and in the trials I am going through. I want that steadiness. Would you want that feeling? I do not want some kind of anger or something that is going to rob me from the grace of God, and the blessings of God that He wants to put in my life, because of somebody else. On their website they had a whole list of things that was against what I had preached. But what I had preached was a revelation of the word of God. I am not afraid to stand on what I preached as a revelation. But whenever this all happened, there were different ones that were on the fence. They did not know which way to go. But when things settled in and they began to see how those that left were turning out, the right way became clear to them. They saw men that have left here and women too, are out jogging in their shorts. Women have stopped dressing in modest clothing. If anybody does that here, then shame on you if you do. That is not the image we want to portray of the Bride of Christ. But the thing about it is, we have got to be different. We have got to be different than the world and not pull the world into our lives to where the light of Christ cannot be seen in us. He goes on to say here, that ye may be the children of God. These things in verse 44 are a prediction of verse 45. It is a counterpart to what Jesus has said just before in verse 43. We will go to verse 45 and finish that up, “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: (This is what we have to do to be the children of our Father in heaven. We must rid ourselves of all animosity, all anger, everything. I am not going to cross the line.  There is no way I am going to cross the line and compromise with sin and wickedness, but He is saying to get all bitterness out of us, and all guile and anger, madness, to get it all away from us. Let them do what they will, I will do what the Lord wills. Let them preach whatever they want to, I will preach whatever I feel the Lord would have me to. If they preach against me, I do not care. It does not matter with me because as Bro. Jackson said, they do not butter my bread and they do not tie my shoes. I can still tie my own shoes; I do not have to have somebody else to do it. I do not have to have anybody else butter my bread. It says, “that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven.” I have read that three different times, but I want it to close in on us. Because He says, “that ye may be.” So, if loving our enemy was not important, then He would not say that, because this is all connected. So that must be our determination. If we can live above anger, above guilt, does that change anything how we would normally treat them? No. Whether we have anger towards them or not, we should treat them according to the scripture. But this is something to get the anger and feelings we have, to get them out of us in order to be the children of the living God.) for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” You see there is a time of judgment coming. Whenever that judgment does come, then everything is already planned out. God knows who will make it and who will not make it. He already knows that we are His children, as we walk in favor with Him. “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same?” They love the ones the ones that love them, that was in the same group they were in. But Jesus is keeping us. He has protected us. That armor of God is a shelter to our being, just like living in a bubble. It is a shelter to us, to keep away anything that the devil would bring against us. Because there is wickedness in high places. “For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others: do not even the publicans so?” He is saying we must be different. We are different. We live in a world of many snares and obstacles, things that come our way. But Jesus is warding these off for us, to keep our lives and minds straight in the hour in which we live as we believe Him. I have never looked at these verses in this way until this week, when I began to think about it as I read it. Because I had another thought in mind whenever I read this, but when I read that verse 44, then that put something in my mind. I began to think, am I fulfilling this? I will admit to you that I was not whole heartedly doing it. I was not. But I will say, then God began to speak to me in that verse 44. Be ye therefore perfect. See? He is talking about making the rain to fall on the just and unjust. He made the sun to shine on the just and unjust. What is He saying? “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” We must love our enemies and let go of the hard feelings towards them if we are going to fulfill the word of God. This generation is a generation of evil. I will not take that away from them, because that is the truth. This is an evil generation that we are living in. We do not have to be a part of that. We do not have to think like them or share their wicked desires. It has been preached over and over to us about the world and things of the world, about getting too interested in the life we have here on earth, and the lifestyle we have. We could go anywhere we want; we could do anything we want, but to fulfill the scripture, this is more important than any other thing we can do. We must be able to reconcile our lives with the word of God. What is He saying? He is saying, get the hate out, get the anger out, get yourself in the word, because this is what will save you and me.

Seven Women Shall Lay Hold On One Man

I am going to the second part of this thought now. But Bro. Charles Meadors had said to his wife a week before, I preached on Isaiah 4, “When will Bro. Allen preach on Isaiah 4?” I did not find out about that until after I preached it. God is good to give us confirmations. Because He is concerned about us. We can take this even further than what I have. “And in that day (One particular time, not always.) seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” Seven women taking hold of one man. I know there was a big uproar about that when I preached it, because Bro. Jackson had mentioned something about the lesbian situation and so on when he preached on this. But this does not fit the lesbians, because they do not want the name of a man. There is a reason Bro. Jackson said that. You take the war of Armageddon that comes from the east in that part of the world. It will be the east fighting against the west, which would be China and her allies coming against the European system.  Somewhere in time the United States is going to cease to be a world power. Our soldiers are going to have to come home.

Image Credit: Fox News

We see the great problem North Korea has been these past years. If North and South Korea can come to an agreement, that can move things towards Armageddon. This negotiation that is going to happen between North Korea and Trump, do not look for it to settle everything. Trump said that in the a beginning. North Korea wants to take a few years to do it. Trump said, no, it must be finished under my first administration. They do not have much of a choice but try to get things worked out between them. Because the alternative is devastation. If North Korea should launch a rocket toward the United States, North Korea will be gone. There would be a bomb sent over there that would empty that place. But it is not going to happen, because of these negotiations that are starting to happen. There may be setbacks in it, do not just think it is going to be in a few days. There may be setbacks in it, but something is going on over there that is going to get the ball rolling. It will get the ball rolling until there is an agreement. When the agreement is made, our troops can leave that region of the world. Our troops will not be needed there anymore. Our troops are going to have to come home from the Middle East and from these parts of the world where they are in now. When it is all done, those eastern nations will meet the armies of the West right in the middle east. East meets west right there at the Euphrates River and spread from there on into Israel. Why do I say that? It said that there will be a war that will happen that will leave two hundred million soldiers dead. That is quite a big army. Because that is the last war. That is Armageddon. That is the reason it is mentioned there in Israel, that little land. That is where Armageddon winds up to be. Just outside the city of Jerusalem. Even Jerusalem is going to suffer some during that time, because it is going to have to be rebuilt. The old city is going to be gone. There will be no more old city because that is going to be a Jewish city that will reach beyond anything they have now. It will take the whole Millennium to do it all. But it will be done by the time that is over. Because as I read the scriptures here, let me go a little further than I will go to another chapter. “And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel; only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” That does not necessarily mean this will happen everywhere in the world. It is that part of the world where that big war will be fought. “In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, (See? It is still in that day. You are going into the Millennium there, that is when all this happens. Seven women taking hold of one man, that is going to be because there will be few men left. In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious…) and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that escaped of Israel. (For them that escaped of Israel.) And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem.” See where it is talking about? That is Millennium people. All that chapter is Millennium. “When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst there by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.” See? What He is planning on is for the Millennium people, especially in Jerusalem and in Israel. Let me go to the Isaiah 13, which I used before, and you will see why He says what He does about the seven women taking hold of one man. We have a picture here. This will not be in the millennium. Look at all these women. “I am a snowflake, and together we all become an avalanche.” That is what one of their signs said. Do you know what an avalanche is? It is something that falls. “Nasty as we want to be.” “My heroin addiction is just getting started.” These are their slogans.

Image Credit: CNN

Just look at what goes on in the world today. But this is going to be wiped out. This is going to be history on day. This will never go into the Millennium. It cannot because whenever that time comes their attitude will be different. What did I read there a while ago? Seven women shall take a hold of one man to take away their reproach. Their reproach is that now they have no children. It used to be in Bible times that if a woman did not have children, it was a reproach to them. This will not last, the seven women taking hold of one man, because that will raise up a generation of men and women. But it is going to be in the very beginning because we read here in the 12th verse, “I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” Because there are so few men that are left. “Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger. And it shall be as the chased roe, and as a sheep that no man taketh up: they shall every man turn to his own people, and flee every one into his own land. Every one that is found shall be thrust through; and every one that is joined unto them shall fall by the sword. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished.”

Few Men Left

 Let us go over to Isaiah 24:1-6. “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; (He is getting rid of all of it, that Catholic priesthood that is so high and mighty, God is going to get rid of them. He does not need them. Bro. Jackson always said, even the Bride will not be overstaffed with ministry. This is coming about.) as with the servant, so with his master; (It is going to happen to everyone.) as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. (Now this is the verse I wanted to get to.) Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.” This is my answer to the ones that would think otherwise. I went over that. I was criticized for it. As I said before, I do not care. It is not a burning thing in my mind to think that somebody has criticized me for what I have preached. You might say, well you sound like it. No, I am not, I just want to straighten things out in your mind that it does not bother me. But it would bother me to leave some saint with a wrong thought in their mind. Remember what I read already: “Pray for your enemies and for them that despitefully use you, that you may be called the children of your Father which is in heaven.” This is for our good. This is for our benefit. That gets the guilt off us. That is why I said what I did.

The Earth Will Be Empty

I want to go to Isaiah 24:16. “From the uttermost part of the earth have we heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. Fear, and the pit, (which is hell) and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.” In other words, God’s judgment is coming from on high, just like it talked about in Peter, the windows of heaven are open. He is talking about judgment coming upon this earth as he is saying that, and what he is speaking of. I want to read verse 18 again. “And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.” He is talking of the final judgment as he is looking at it. This is goes beyond Armageddon. Armageddon is the end of man’s reign. Judgment happens immediately after that. Of course, there are two hundred million soldiers that are killed in Armageddon. The 16th chapter of Revelation says that the blood will come up to the horse’s bridle, for a hundred and sixty miles the blood will run there, from man. “The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.” See? God is putting it back in place. He is putting it back in place where there will be three hundred and sixty days again to a year. Because everything that has happened like that is a curse. Whenever it started out it was three hundred and sixty days a year until the flood came. We do not know what all went on with the flood. The flood came, but there had to be other dynamic things taking place, even where maybe the flood did not reach to. But it destroyed all men but eight people. Some say the Aztec’s in South America survived the flood. That is not right, that is a lie. Nothing lived through the flood. God got rid of it all. “The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, (Talk about being dizzy, that would make anybody dizzy.) and shall be removed like a cottage; (In other words, God is going to wipe it clean through earthquakes, through volcanic mountains, as it happens to the islands that flee away. As I said the other day, the Canary Islands have already had an earthquake which split it. It split and they claim that if that one half of it falls off, then it is going to wipe out the east coast of the United States. New York and all those places will be wiped out. What does it say? The cities of the nations will fall. You can see the big towers, high rise buildings, they are going to be gone. Because God does not like high rise buildings. He does not. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall be removed like a cottage…) and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.” What is it saying there? The earth is going to fall and not rise again, He is saying the works of the earth. The earth is going to be completely different than what we see it to be now. When He is saying removed, that is exactly what He is talking about. The works of man is going to be removed, because He does not like it. He does not like these big cities. There is nothing but crime and rats in them, rats as big as cats are in New York City. They have been seen. They have been filmed. When they built the Freedom Tower, they could not even inhabit it for days, for weeks, because the rats had infested it. I wonder why? Because it was a rat trap, a rat trap for man. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, (This is the final judgment of the earth. I am not talking about the final judgment at the end of the Millennium, the final judgment of the earth. The moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed…) when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.” We see in these scriptures I have gone over; we are looking at things that are getting ready to happen. As I have read the scripture before, I will read it again, verse 19 of the 26th chapter. “Thy dead men shall live, (talking about the resurrection) together with my dead body shall they arise. (He realized it was not going to be in his day. He said, with my dead body, they shall arise.) Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Come, my people, (I like this, come my people.) enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” He is telling us there, where are you going to hide? You are going to hide in the word. Whenever this takes place, then the rapture is going to come. Because there is no other place to hide. I will quote again what Bro. Branham said when he was talking about the tribulation. He said, “No man makes his wife go through tribulation before they are married.” If you do, you are silly to go ahead with the marriage. “For, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.”  I have gone over these things for a purpose, to let you see how we are entering into a time when we are going to need all of the spirit of God that we can get. We are going to need that because He will take all foolishness away from us, that we may look to Him, to be brought into unity around the word of God. That we may take on the whole armor of God as we are living in an hour when we will need it.  We are going to need every bit of it. Otherwise there will be storms come to sweep us away. Before it is over with, every one of us is going to have something to touch our lives that is not going to be milk and cream. Because God is into perfection. He is looking for a perfect people. We cannot reach that on our own. It is the spirit within us that is going to be perfected. You are going to get older. If it is two years from now you are going to be older. You may lose a tooth or two, every now and then. You may lose some hair between now and then. But that does not matter, you are gaining inside. This is where the gain is, inside. That is why I read the scriptures I did, because I wanted to place myself in there. I want to be in a category that I can live without condemning myself, without feeling some kind of anger or negative emotion. I just want to preach the word, be instant in season and out of season, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering as we live in this hour. You all are a product of the ministry that God has raised up in this hour, a ministry that is called. We see this in things that have happened since 2008, a ministry that is raised up. Laying on of hands does not call you, if you are not called. I do not care how many hands have been laid on you, it is not going to work. It has to be God that does this. He is the one that calls. I thank Him for His wonderful word.

… continued in the next edition.