INTRODUCTION
IN PART ONE OF THIS MESSAGE WE GAVE PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE IDENTIFYING OF VOICE, VOICES, TRUMPET, TRUMPETS, THUNDER AND THUNDERS FOR THESE WORDS HOLD THE KEY AS TO WHO IS DOING THE SPEAKING. WE ALSO PLACED SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE FACT THAT THEIR VOICES, AS FOUND IN REVELATION 10:3, DEFINITELY POINTS TO THE VOICES OF MORE THAN ONE, AND THE FACT THAT IT IS THUNDERS, UTTERING THEIR VOICES, LETS US KNOW THAT THE VOICES ARE SPEAKING ON THE BEHALF OF GOD. THE SCRIPTURES WELL ESTABLISH THE FAT THAT WHEN GOD SPEAKS SPECIFICALLY, BYSTANDERS USUALLY ALWAYS HEAR IT AS THUNDER, THEREFORE WHATEVER IS BEING SPOKEN BY THE VOICES (PLURAL) OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS, DEFINITELY IS THE WORD OF THE LORD COMING FORTH, BUT PLEASE DO NOT MISS THE KEY HERE: GOD IS ONE AND THIS VERSE TELLS US THAT SEVEN THUNDERS UTTERED THEIR VOICES. THIS IS HOW WE KNOW THAT THE SEVEN THUNDERS (WHEN THEY DO SOUND) WILL BE SEVEN VOICES SOUNDING FORTH THE WORD OF THE LORD, SPECIFICALLY TO THE GRACE AGE BRIDE OF CHRIST, AND CERTAINLY CANNOT BE (AS CERTAIN ONES ARE CLAIMING) ONE VOICE GIVING FORTH SEVEN MESSAGES. THESE THINGS ARE WRITTEN IN SUCH A WAY AS TO HIDE THE REVELATION OF THEM FROM THE EYES OF CARNAL MINDED INDIVIDUALS, BUT THE BRIDE OF CHRIST IS NOT TO BE KEPT IN THE DARK ON THESE VITAL ISSUES WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN THE BIBLE SPECIFICALLY TO BE UNDERSTOOD BY HER IN THESE LAST DAYS. YES I AM WELL AWARE OF THE FACT THAT MANY OF YOU HAVE BEEN TROUBLED BY CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS WHO HAVE GONE ABOUT PREACHING THEIR VERSION OF THE SEVEN THUNDERS, BUT IF YOU WILL TAKE THE TIME TO THINK ABOUT WHAT WE ARE PUBLISHING IN THIS ARTICLE, YOU SHOULD NOT BE TROUBLED BY THEM IN THE FUTURE. I TAKE NO DELIGHT IN PICKING AT INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE, BUT THERE IS A TRUTH TO BE TAUGHT IN THIS HOUR OF TIME JUST BEFORE GRACE RUNS OUT FOR THE GENTILES, AND THAT TRUTH ITSELF WILL CAUSE THE BRIDE OF JESUS CHRIST TO RECOGNIZE FALSE TEACHING WHEN THEY HEAR IT. FOR THIS REASON I HOPE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU WHO RECEIVE THIS ISSUE WILL BE SURE THAT YOU OBTAIN AND READ PART ONE, WHICH WAS OUR MAY ISSUS, IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY DONE SO.
HAS THE ANGEL CRIED?
Our text for this message is verses 1-6 of Revelation, chapter 10, but the main interest centers around verse 3. In this verse we find a mighty angel has cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth. Then, after the cry, seven thunders uttered their voices. Therefore, what we need to find out is, Who is this mighty angel? Has He cried already? What significance does this event hold as far as time is concerned, and what are the thunders which John heard after the mighty angel cried? It was not just because he heard a noise that caused him to write what he did. He called the noise thunders, but the interesting thing about it is, those thunders were voices, and John understood what they said, but he was forbidden to write what he heard them say. Brothers and Sisters, that is exactly why I say that it is vain for anyone to search Brother Branham’s messages trying to find the message of the seven thunders: John did not record what he heard them say, when he was carried by a vision into the hour of time where it will actually take place. Just try to realize that John was seeing and hearing things that are still out ahead of us yet. I assure you this one thing; Those thunders will not sound their voices while Jesus is still on the mercy seat, and furthermore, when Jesus comes off of the mercy seat, with the little scroll open in His hand (Rev. 10:2) it will be time for two spiritual Jews to move on the scene in Israel, the two witnesses of Rev. 11:3-12. As we said in Vol. 11 No. 4, which is part 1 of this message; while the bride of Christ is hearing the thunders of Rev. 10:3, the Jews in the land of Israel will be hearing the word of the Lord from the mouth of these two witnesses. The last week of Daniel’s 70 weeks concerning Israel will be in effect at that time. There is absolutely no scriptural reason for anyone to believe that Jesus would leave the mercy seat, cause the thunders to sound their voices to the bride, call an end to Gentile time, and then let years pass before He turned His attention back to the Jews. That is just plain foolish to think like that when the scriptures make it so clear. Now I am sure that some of you will say, Bro. Jackson, It doesn’t seem that clear to me. It will when the Holy Ghost gives you a revelation. How do we get a revelation? Just seek truth and keep an open mind; God will do the rest.
THE SEVENTH SEAL
Let us turn to Revelation 8:1, now. This is what leads into our text scriptures. “And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” Now, Who is opening the seals? Jesus, the Lamb of God, chapter 5:5-6:1. Where is He when He is opening them? He is still on the mercy seat, and He will remain there until the last Gentile souls whose name is in the Book of Life has responded to the gospel. Where does that place the opening of the 7th seal? Right at the end of the Gentile grace age. Jesus has been on the mercy seat interceding for all the souls whose names were recorded in the Book of Life for almost two thousand years, but when that last soul responds to the gospel, His intercessory work will be over. That is when He will leave the mercy seat with the little book (SCROLL) open in His hand. It will be time to claim all those that He has interceded for. That brings us to our text scriptures, chapter 10:1-6. This is not to be looked upon as the rapture of the bride, where Jesus comes from heaven with a shout, calls the dead saints from their graves, and the living ones with them to meet Him in the air, as we read in 1 Thes. 4:13-17. No, what we see in chapter 10, is the Lord Jesus coming in angelic form to announce the end of grace for Gentiles, and at the same time He causes the seven thunders (SEVEN HOLY GHOST-FILLED MEN WHO HAVE HEARD FROM GOD) to begin sounding their voices with THUS SAITH THE LORD for the bride. What ever those thunders utter, will be something that will get the living element of the bride of Christ ready for that meeting in the air. While those men are speaking to the bride, fulfilling the last phase of her perfecting process, those 7 trumpet angels found in chapter 8, verse 2, just after the opening of the 7th seal, will be working with the two witnesses who are prophesying to the Jews in Israel. Do not allow yourself to think that the seven angels will be pouring out their plagues in one place, and the two witnesses will be somewhere else, smiting the earth with plagues: If you will examine chapter 8, and chapter 11, you will see that the plagues of the seven trumpet angels, and the plagues called for by the two witnesses are the same. These two witnesses will have the same anointing upon them as was on Moses and Elijah of old. They will be doing the same things that were done by those old prophets long ago. In other words the judgments of God will be striking Israel, and they will be called for by those two prophets, but only after Jesus is off the mercy seat, and the great peace covenant has been confirmed to fulfill Daniel 9:27. Some scoffers will say, Why do you jump back and forth in the scriptures like that? It is very simple to explain; there are a lot of things taking place right about the same time, and they could not all be written in one verse, therefore we must depend upon the Holy Ghost to reveal to us just where to place these events. In other words the events of chapter 7:1-8, chapter 8:1-13, chapter 10:1-6, and Daniel 9:27, will all be taking place in an intermingled period of time therefore you cannot say exactly which verses should have been recorded ahead of other verses, but we can study these scriptures and know in our own minds what will be taking place, and certainly, we can place certain specific events in their place. Take the opening of the 7th seal for instance. We know that takes place before the mighty angel of Rev. 10:1-2, can be seen standing with one foot upon the sea, and the other foot on the earth withe the little book open in His hand. Then we know that chapter 10:6-6, must come before chapter 7:1-8, for these 144,000 servants of God are sealed by the ministry of the two witnesses who will not begin their ministry until the peace covenant of Dan. 9:27, has been signed, and Jesus has ended His intercessory work.
SILENCE IN HEAVEN
Now we learned from chapter 8, verse 1, that when the 7th seal was broken, there was silence in heaven for about the space of half an hour. I will not try to tell you what all will take place down here on earth during that space of time; I do not know, but I do believe I know what causes the silence in heaven among all the heavenly beings there. Just try to imagine: Jesus has been sitting on the mercy seat for two thousand years, and none of those angels know exactly how long he will sit there; then they see Him break that last seal and begin to rise from His seated position. Don’t you think that will cause some kind of reaction when it takes place? I do. I believe it will cause a hushed silence as they watch Him change positions after being seated there for two thousand years. Then as that half hour of silence hits in heaven, I believe the Holy Ghost will be doing something down here on earth among the bride that will correspond to what is taking place in heaven. At any rate the events recorded in verses 2-13 of chapter 8, are the judgments of God upon Israel as those two prophets prophesy for 3 ½ years before they are killed by the Antichrist and his henchmen. During that 3 ½ years, chapter 7:1-8, will be fulfilled. These two witnesses will not be preaching sermons in the same sense that we are familiar with; their ministry will be prophesying. We cannot say for sure what they will be telling those Jews in that hour, but we do know that they will reveal Jesus Christ to be the true Messiah of the Jews, and we know also that during their ministry they will instruct those spiritual Jews as to where to flee to when the persecution by the beast begins in the middle of the week. You will not find those instructions written in any book: They will be prophesying to the people, and in the course of their prophesying, they will make the wilderness location known. If the church world today actually knew where God would hide those Jews during that dark tribulation hour, the Catholics would be there building churches, and Oral Roberts would no doubt be there building hospitals, dormitories, schools and cafeterias, getting everything ready for them. Let me tell you: This is something that God is going to do without the help of Oral Roberts and Billy Graham and men such as that. There is not one thing written, telling us what those two witnesses will be prophesying to Israel. Neither is there anything written that lets us know what those thunders will say, but God did let John write something that lets us know there will be such men on earth to fulfill God’s will in the appointed time. Only God knows what they will say, and He will tell them when the hour arrives for them to know. I feel sorry for these poor misguided souls who think God has already done all the speaking that He will ever do, even that He is not able to speak to men now as in days of old. How ridiculous! It is no wonder so many people refer to God as though He was an ancient God who is no long in control of His creation. I am here to tell you that God is still running His plan for the ages; He has not turned it over to the great intellects who think they know more about it than the very Creator Himself.
TWO WITNESSES
Saints: Listen to me. Through the mouth of those two witnesses of Rev. 11:3, God is going to speak specifically to Israel, by prophesy. He will speak to them prophetically concerning their nation and the coming events of that hour, and where they should go, and what they should do. Therefore if He does that for Israel: Why would He not do a similar thing for His grace age bride? I believe those thunders will speak specifically of the fact that Jesus is off the mercy seat and there is no more grace for Gentiles, and at the same time be giving the bride her traveling instructions. No they will not be telling her to go to Arizona, Jeffersonville, nor anything like that. Neither will they be instructing her on how to lift herself off the ground to defy the law of gravity, but rather, they will be God’s voice to her for the purpose of perfecting her revelation. She will hear things that the world around her will pay no attention to whatsoever. Now some of you may say, Bro. Jackson: We thought you were going to tell us something great. You will hear something great when the hour arrives for you to hear it, if you will keep your head on straight, and take this opportunity now to settle the question of what those thunders are. If we do not know what those thunders are to be, then we will not know what to listen for. Brother, to me this is where complete perfection is accomplished. I did not say that perfection would not already be taking place before then; I only said, This will be God’s way to complete the perfection process.
NO NEW CONVERTS
God sent a messenger to this age to call the bride out from denominational traditions and start her perfection process, but she will not reach her peak of perfection until after she has heard those seven thunders. No, every person will not have to hear all seven of those men; the true church is universal, and the universal body of Christ must hear those thunders, but the reason there will be seven is because it is highly impractical to believe that any one man could ever contact the universal body in such a short period of time. Whether he could or could not is not for us to say: God said there would be seven, and that is how it is going to be. When Jesus comes off of the mercy seat, Gentile time will last only long enough for the voice of those thunders to be carried around the world, and even then, there will be no new converts; it will be strictly for the bride. We only call it Gentile time because the rapture of the bride is still to be accomplished. You can be sure of one thing though, whatever those thunders do utter will not diminish one single thing from the message of the 7th church age prophet, or messenger. They will lift up the message and show it in its gospel truth. Then the dynamic climax will no doubt be when they reveal the fact that Jesus is off the mercy seat and ready to call the dead from their graves. Theirs will be a supernatural revelation of the plan of God for His universal church. What could have a greater impact on the true church than for certain brethren, strategically placed upon the face of the great planet earth, to begin to see the true light on this message, and really begin to see Bro. William Branham in his true Biblical setting? It would cause people to really start praying and asking God to help them get rid of their carnal ways, knowing that time is very short. The bride will be watching conditions in Israel that will make her aware that the Lord could come at any time. To me this would be a beautiful way to go to sleep at night, realizing that you could wake up in glory. Hallelujah! Maybe some of you might get up early and start for work on your assembly line and never get there. Praise the Lord! Bro. Allen, here, might start to the Ford plant and never arrive there. He will go to glory instead. Why am I saying these things? Simply to impress upon you the fact that the bride is universal. When the rapture takes place, some will be in the bed asleep, others will be going to work, and still others will be coming home from work. Hallelujah! Regardless of what the dial on our clocks show, We will all go up together from around the whole scope of this old world.
WHY SEVEN THUNDERS?
Let us just look for a minute at why I believe there is to be seven men used by God to wind up this old Gentile age. When we look back at the apostolic beginning of the gospel that we hold so dear to our hearts: What do we see? Sitting in the upper room with a number of other believers was 12 men, chosen by Jesus to be His apostles. They had the verbal word of Jesus in their minds, the things He had taught them for 3 ½ years, but look what happened when the Holy Ghost fell on them; It made those words spiritually digestible to their very souls. Everywhere they went, they preached the same revelation of what Jesus had taught them. Now, Why did He choose 12? Every time God did anything outstanding, He never failed to recognize all twelve tribes of Israel. When they crossed Jordan He chose 12 men to pick up stones and erect a memorial. When old Elijah when up against the prophets of Baal, after he had allowed them to have their time and failed to receive an answer from their god, Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, and built an altar unto the Lord to offer his sacrifice upon. There had to be something there that recognized every tribe of Israel, even though at the time, the nation was divided. When Jesus came on the scene: He did not choose just two apostles to represent the two Southern tribes that were in the land at that time; He chose 12 for the same reason that Elijah chose 12 stones. All Israel was to be represented in what was going to take place. God always recognized all twelve tribes in every outstanding occurrence that affected Israel. It is a matter of recognition to all of Israel, and not just a part of her. Now I believe it is this same principal that is causing God to speak to the bride of Christ by the mouth of 7 outstanding men here at the end time. The grace age church has come through 7 church ages, each age having its own messenger. That messenger spoke, in his particular age, the truth that applied to his age. Now we are coming right down to the end of the age of grace, and God is getting ready to close it out. What will He do? He will make certain that the grace age bride is dressed to be ushered into the great banquet hall of heaven. What is she to be dressed in? A pure revelation of the word of God. That is why God will anoint 7 outstanding men right at the time of the end; He will speak through them, to put the finishing touches on the bride’s revelation just before she leaves. This will not in any way annul the 5 fold ministry that God has set in the church for the perfecting of the saints: What they will say will harmonize completely with what the true five fold ministry is saying. Each man will be a thunder in himself. In other words, a voice of communication whereby God can speak to His people things that are not written in the Bible, nor anywhere else, and they will all be speaking the same things. I will illustrate it like this; Just suppose that a person wanted to broadcast a certain specific message to people who were scattered over a vast area. If he could place a speaker in 7 different locations, so strategically that it would enable him to reach all those whom he wanted to speak to; then his ONE VOICE could be heard by all. In other words, every one who heard the message would be hearing the same thing. There would be no room for confusion. Therefore just try to get a mental picture of such a situation, and it will help you to understand what we have in Revelation10:3. The mighty angel cried with a loud voice, and that angel is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ in angelic form. John had to see it like that in order to write it, but we know it holds a symbolic meaning. By all the other scriptures we have to look at, we know it could not be Jesus Christ on earth in literal form before the last week of Daniel’s prophecy would be fulfilled, yet the cry He gives forth as when a lion roareth, furnishes us with the identity of this mighty angel. Catch this now, this one angel cries with a loud voice, then 7 others were heard. John was about to write what they said, but a voice from heaven said, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. You will notice also, that it was not the angelic voice of Jesus Christ that said this to John; it was a voice from heaven. That reverts back to the Father. All authority lays in Jehovah Elohim. You say, But I thought Jesus had all authority now. Jesus Christ walking among men was God in the flesh of a man, and naturally, being God, all authority rested in Him, but you are probably thinking of Matthew 28:18, where Jesus said, ALL POWER is given unto me in heaven and in earth. That is true; all power was given unto Him and HE still has it, but we must look at this 10th chapter of Revelation which holds the climax of Gentile time, and realize that what takes place here is the announcement of something that Jesus told His disciples was known only to the Father. In verses 5 & 6, that mighty angel is heard, calling an end to time. He lifted up His hand to heaven, and swore by Him that liveth for ever and ever, (JEHOVAH ELOHIM) who created all things, that there should be time no longer. As we have already pointed out: this simply means that God is calling an end to Gentile time, and will return to the Jews with the gospel. There will be delay no longer. Gentile grace will be cut off by the authority of Him who created all things, He that liveth for ever and ever, Jehovah Elohim.
MYSTERY OF GOD
As we go to verse 7, we find Jesus saying, “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, (Bro. Branham, the 7th church age messenger) when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to his servants the prophets.” Naturally that is speaking of the mystery spoken of by the apostle Paul, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs with the Jews, in Christ. Let us turn to Ephesians 3:4-6, and read what Paul had to say about this mystery, for it has been the source of much controversy among the followers of Bro. William Branham’s ministry. Paul says, “Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it IS NOW REVEALED UNTO HIS HOLY APOSTLES AND PROPHETS by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel.” In Colossians 1:27, he said, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this MYSTERY AMONG THE GENTILES: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Yes, in the days of the voice of the 7th angel, this gospel mystery that God has revealed to his servants, the apostles and prophets was finished. It was no longer a mystery. What may strike you to be strange though, is the fact that only the seventh church age angel was mentioned, or recognized. Here is why; God knew that he was the only one of the seven that would be on earth, and say something, at a time when the book of Revelation was going to start being revealed to the Gentile bride. This angel announced him as a VOICE, (singular) not voices. Let me try to say this as humbly as I know how. I was there when Bro. William Branham preached on the church ages, I was there when he preached on the Seals, and I was there every time he preached one of these outstanding messages, and knowing that I will draw much criticism by saying this, I still must say emphatically, You are not going to find the message of the seven thunders in any of the over 900 taped messages of Bro. William Branham. Those thunders are yet to sound their voices. Bro. William Branham was A VOICE, and there is no way you can apply VOICES, sensibly, to what he had to say to this age. I must keep stressing the difference, for that is why we are printing this message in the first place: so that those who have an ear to hear will have their ears tuned to listen for the thunders that are yet to sound, instead of searching through hundreds of books and tapes looking for them. Even though he preached all those messages, he was still just ONE VOICE. We will say also, within the message proclaimed to this age by that ONE VOICE, is every doctrine, and precept that makes up the complete formula of this message of grace, and it is being sounded around the world, so it is no longer a mystery. That which in other dispensations of time was a mystery known only to God, is now being proclaimed around this world to all lost mankind, giving every lost soul a chance to repent and be a partaker of this marvelous grace of God, but the message of those seven thunders will be a message specifically to the bride of Christ. She is the only one that will hear and take heed to what is said. It will not be 7 sermons. It will not be 7 seals, 7 church ages, 7 books, nor 7 statements. It will be utterances from 7 men that are yet to speak, and they will be receiving what they speak directly from God. It is not written in any book.
EAT THE LITTLE BOOK
Now we have a very important part of this chapter 10 which we have never said much about even though we have mentioned it from time to time. That is verses 8-11, where we will direct our attention for the next few minutes. In verse 8, John says, “And the voice which I heard from heaven (the voice of Elohim) spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.” This is the voice of Jehovah Elohim directing John to take the little scroll of redemption out of the hand of Jesus, who has by this time, broken the last seal on the scroll, and left the mercy seat. John says, “And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. (scroll) And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.” There are two things here that we need to catch. First notice that it was the same voice that John had heard in the beginning, the voice that he heard saying unto him, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter, over in chapter 4, and now this voice is directing him to go take the little book out of the angel’s hand. Then as he goes over to the angel and asks for the little book, the angel Himself says, Take it and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. Now we all know that there was no natural food benefit to be derived from eating the little scroll; Therefore we must give it spiritual application. I say that for the benefit of our natural thinking. Actually there was no literal book at all, but it had to be pictured like this. Remember, John was taken up in the Spirit and projected into future time so that what he was seeing and doing was actually things that pertain to our day. The eating of the little book, or we will say, the contents of it, is definitely going to have a profound spiritual effect on the bride of Christ in these last days. The eating will actually take place when that angelic form is on earth, after He (Jesus) has left the mercy seat in glory, and only the bride will eat thereof. Let us read verse 10, and see what John said about the effects of this eating. “And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.” That does not mean that he became nauseated and upchucked what he had eaten. When we translate that into natural terms it simply means that he got a sour stomach. Many times when we eat something different than what we are used to eating, regardless of how good to the taste buds it might have been, when it reaches the stomach we get a sour stomach and heart burn. That is what the reference here, pertains to. Now let us translate it back into spiritual terms for a proper application. We have all be eating from spiritual food, much of which has been handed down to us from our ancestors. We are speaking of the religious teaching that most of us older folks have been raised up on. Our spiritual digestive system has become accustomed to digesting that, so there is no upset, but when the diet changes suddenly it is a different story. When we begin to be fed the nutritional diet of revelated truth, even though it sounds wonderful, or maybe we should say, It is sweet to our spiritual taste buds, when it comes against our traditions and habits it causes upset. The effects can be very bitter as we try to digest what we have heard, but because it is so sweet to the taste buds, we keep on coming back for more, and eventually our system will harmonize with this new diet. This is just a little illustration to help you understand what is involved here before we go on to verse 11. We have said many times, This book of Revelation is a love letter to the bride of Christ, and the revelated understanding of it always includes a spiritual sour stomach as we begin to break away from our old ways.
WHO MUST PROPHESY AGAIN?
Verse 11, places our thinking in the same realm as all those people who think that Bro. William Branham is coming back to preach again, but let us see if we cannot shed some light on this statement. We will read it first. This is still the angel speaking to John. “And he said unto me, THOU MUST PROPHESY AGAIN BEFORE MANY PEOPLES, AND NATIONS, AND TONGUES, AND KINGS.” How many of you actually believe that the apostle John who wrote this part of the Bible will literally return in bodily form to prophesy to anyone? Now some will say, Oh! Brother Jackson: John came back and fulfilled that before he was martyred. No he didn’t! The book of redemption was not open in the hand of Jesus then, and it is still not open, and John had to eat the little book first, before he was told that. When we look at verse 11, from a revelated standpoint, there is only one conclusion that we can come to. The anointing that was upon John which allowed him to prophesy things that the church age messenger did not even touch on in that first age, will rest upon a ministry in these last days that will cause them to do the very same thing that John did. They will prophesy things to the bride that Bro. William Branham never did touch on, and neither could he have, for it was not time for God to speak in such a way. This will not annul the gift of prophesy among the body of Christ; It is just that the gift of prophecy in certain men’s lives is going to rise to a much higher plane when time comes for Rev. 10:3, to be fulfilled. God will be speaking through these men at a time when the people of God need something that cannot be found written in the Bible. They will need specific details to guide them and enable them to cope with world conditions in that hour. None of us are able to say exactly what the order of events will be, but if we do truly believe the word of God, we are assured of one thing: when the time is at hand, God will be on the scene with whatever is needed. In the meantime we have the Holy Ghost inside us to enable us to overcome daily trials, tests, and seemingly impossible circumstances. Remember, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer (allow) you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation (or trial, or test) also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it,” (1st Cor. 10:13). God has so ordained that every believer will be able to overcome. I will say this also, the closing chapter of the history of the bride of Christ will be great, much greater than anything you can read from that first age in the book of Acts. The church world is full of people who realize this, and many of them are doing their best to be a part of that last great move among the Gentiles. I suppose it is alright to desire such a thing, but we still have to let God run His program. We cannot write our books on how it will be, and then expect God to fulfill our ideas of it. There have been many men in the world since the turn of the century that had a genuine gift of God in their lives, but I fear that far too many of them have allowed that gift to be exploited for one reason or the other until it has reached a point where there is very little genuine concern for the true purpose of God left among them today. Of course it is a disturbing situation, but this is a sure sign that we are at the end. The scriptures tell us it will be like that as time runs out for the Gentiles. Our ancestors were pagans, and we are living to see a generation of Gentiles fast turning back to paganism. By the time the bride has gone to the marriage supper, and the Spirit of God is dealing exclusively with the Jews, the poor old foolish Gentile virgins will really have something to contend with. Martyrdom will be their own escape.
WHAT DID JOHN SEE – HEAR?
We are going to direct our attention for the remainder of this article, on what John saw, and heard. The message was preached and titled, What Did John See, and What Did John Hear? But it is in connection with the revelation of what the seven thunders are; therefore we are just making one printed message and including the contents of this message within. I consider this to be a very important message; therefore I encourage you to pay close attention to what is said. For you who may not be as familiar with what we believe, as others may be; if you do not understand what you read just file it away. If you are a predestinated seed of God there will come a day when the Spirit of God will deal with your heart, and cause you to remember that you have certain things filed away in your memory bank. When you re-examine it, then you will understand.
WORLD CHURCHES – SPIRITUAL BABYLON
It is not my purpose to exalt human flesh, but there comes a time when certain things must be brought to light, layed on the line, and a stand taken on behalf of those things, because they are things that affect people’s lives, and attitudes. We believe, and do know for a fact, that God sent a prophet messenger to this Laodicean age. His primary purpose was to call a people out from their traditional bondage, and put them back into the revelated word of God. To this God ordained purpose he was found to be faithful, but many who heard him and witnessed the gift of God in his life have tried to make him more than God meant for him to be. It is for this reason that we, many times, are required to say certain things that tend to offend a certain element of people. I take no pleasure in it, but feel that I must be faithful to the calling of God upon my own life. That is, to hold a line on revelated truth in this age of idolatry and apostasy. Some have taken Bro. William Branham’s teaching and used certain statements out of context to form a cult that I consider to be worse than Roman Catholicism itself. That is not why God sent us a prophet messenger to this age. His message was not to turn us back to ceremonies and creeds which were all a product of the world church, but back to the word of God as taught by the apostles of Jesus Christ. Every major religious denomination in the world of so called Christianity started out with a certain amount of truth as they began to come out of Catholicism on this side of the Dark Ages, but they have taken truth and added to it a long list of man made do’s and do not’s, which placed the followers of that truth under spiritual bondage. Now, did I say they do not have truth? Absolutely not, but they certainly are not the church of the Living God. Biblically, all of those denominations together, including Catholicism which stands at the head of the list, make up spiritual Babylon which we find referred to just as Babylon in the book of Revelation. Babylon speaks of captivity, and that is exactly the state of many hungry souls in the world, even after the message of Bro. William Branham has been around the globe as it has. Nevertheless, God is gleaning the last of these hungry souls just before He changes the world order.
INFALLIBLE WORD
Bro. Branham stood as a prophet to this age with THUS SAITH THE LORD to all those who had an ear to hear what the Spirit of God was unctioning him to say, but he was suddenly taken from the scene in an automobile collision almost 14 years ago. Does that mean that God can no longer speak to His people? Absolutely not. Does that mean that we must have another church age messenger to take his place? Absolutely not. The main purpose in our publishing this message is to show you that God has already made provision for other men to speak THUS SAITH THE LORD, when the time is right for them to do so. It will not be this bunch of Pentecostal preachers that you see running everywhere today, claiming to have Thus saith the Lord, preaching their little 15 minute sermonettes, and taking an hour to an hour and a half to receive an offering, and neither will it be those who fight that sort of thing so hard that they themselves have been captured by a spirit that is even worse. No, God is not at the mercy of any of those extremists. His spokesmen in this last hour will be men who are genuinely hungering for revelated truth to feed their souls upon. No, they will not be infallible, Jesus Christ Himself is the only man who ever lived that was infallible, but many men through the ages have been anointed to speak the infallible word of God. There is a vast difference, you know. Well, Bro. Jackson, What about the prophets? I have said it before, and I will say it again and again; when they were anointed to speak for the Lord; that word was infallible, but anything outside of that, any other statements, came strictly from the man himself, and were subject to the man’s human nature, and his surroundings. Many who have failed to realize this are bringing great reproach upon Bro. William Branham’s name, and his office in this age, as they go forth trying to persuade others that every word he spoke after such and such a date was THUS SAITH THE LORD. That is the same spirit that causes others to claim that the Pope of the Roman Catholic church is infallible. It is a Satanic spirit sent forth by Satan himself to lay a trap for all those who have a tendency to follow human flesh instead of the word of God. Such a spirit will blind peoples’ eyes to the truth, and lead them to a place where they just lay their Bible aside and depend completely upon statements made by the man they are following. (We will get to John in a minute, but first I want to get your thinking directed into a channel where you will be able to catch what is being said, and why it is being said.) Many people who are claiming to be following the message of Bro. William Branham, are looking strictly to his sermon tapes, and books, trying to find the word of the Lord for 1979, and they condemn me, and say that I am against what he taught because I will not confine my own ministry to saying only what the prophet said, but I am here to tell you that I am serving a living God who is still speaking to His people, and we will prove it by the Bible itself if you will bear with me.
ONLY JOHN SAW SOME THINGS
I ask you first of all, as we begin to look into the Bible: What did the apostle John see, and what did he hear? Do you believe that this aged old apostle was a personal witness to the ministry of Jesus, and that he was the one who leaned on the bosom of Jesus at the last supper? Do you believe and accept the fact that he was the very last writer in the chronology of all written scripture? Yes, he fits perfectly into all of this, but let me be quick to say, He was definitely not the 1st church age messenger. What did he see and hear that made him stand out so vividly in the closing hours of that first age, then? He did not write the book of Revelation as a result of hallucinations as some have dared to say. He wrote it by the direction of Jesus Christ Himself, and it was written for the bride of Christ to read and understand in our day. He saw and heard some things that Paul and the other apostles of that age were never privileged to see and hear. Do you not agree that he did?
FIRST AGE MESSENGER
In a previous message we talked about Paul being the messenger to that first church age, and how he wrote the greater portion of the New Testament teachings on doctrine and conduct of Christians. (When we say he wrote a certain letter, let it be understood to mean that it, in most cases, was dictated by Paul, even though someone else did the actual writing.) Paul wrote 14 of the New Testament letters and epistles, and his life and ministry takes up the last 16 chapters of the book of Acts, which is a history of the early church. We read in the 9th chapter how God got his attention and turned him around when he was so zealously going in the wrong direction, but chapter 13 is where we begin to see him going forth in his ministry, and the rest of the book of Acts is taken up with the accounts of the various phases of his service to the Lord. As you read the New Testament from Acts 9, right on through, it becomes very clear that Paul stood out as the apostle, or messenger to that age. We read also, in Romans 11:13 where he said, “For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office.” To me, all this proves beyond a shadow of doubt, that he was the messenger to that first age. In his letters is found every doctrine and precept of New Testament Christianity. He gives more details on the Godhead, says more about sanctification and the believer’s fellowship and walk with God than all the other writers together. He also dealt with more human faults and errors than the other writers. You will find that he was compelled by circumstances to write to the various churches, either by a condition he had heard existed in that local assembly, or as a result of a question that was put to him. Nevertheless his response included rebuke, admonition, and exhortation that applied to the existing conditions. His life, from his call in Acts 9, until his martyrdom, consisted of about 30 years. The last letter he wrote was 2nd Timothy, in the year of 66 A.D., in which he said, My departure is at hand; I am now ready to be offered up. I have fought a good fight; I have kept the faith, and I have finished my course: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness with the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing. This epistle was written approximately 10 years after the great revival he had there at Ephesus, the revival which lit the fire that all the other churches we are going to read about was lit from. Then we go on in our examination of the scriptures to find that the book of Revelation was written in the year of 96 A.D. which was about 30 years after the last letter written by Paul, the church age messenger.
WHAT IS JOHN WRITING?
I wonder if you are beginning to catch my thought? If Paul was the messenger to that first age: What is this man called John writing here in the book of Revelation? What did he see, and what did he hear that caused him to write such a record when there was nothing else like it in all the rest of the scriptures? Bear with me a little while, and we will take a look at this man. It seems that he had been arrested and put on a little island just off the shore of the Asiatic coast line, which today is Turkey. The little island was still in sight of the main land, much like old Alcatraz was to the coast of California. He was put there in exile by the Romans because of the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ that he stood for. They evidently thought, if they could only get this old fanatic out of the way they could have a little peace in the area. It is believed by many Biblical historians that John pastored the church that Paul started in Ephesus, some years later, after Paul had passed off the scene. That certainly is within the realm of reasonable thinking, for the Isle of Patmos puts him within the vicinity of Ephesus. Nevertheless he was arrested because of his faith in God and the stand that he had taken for the gospel. At the time of his exile he was old in years of life, but he was still young at heart. Praise God for that. They put him through all kinds of torture, but there was still something inside of him that had fellowship and contact with God. Hallelujah! I do not believe this beloved old saint had a big pile of Paul’s books of sermons with him out there. No! What he had was a genuine revelation and love for God in his heart. He had that Spirit of truth in him, and that furnished him comfort and security in spite of all the centipedes, lizards, and snakes that may have been crawling all around him. Praise God! He was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and with his eyes, he saw something, and with his ears he heard something which he was told to write. He wrote it down as instructed to do, and the church of the Living God has been carrying that letter ever since. It was God’s love letter to the grace age bride which would still be alive in our day when the events recorded therein would be revealed and fulfilled. Scholars through the years have torn this letter open, examined its contents, become more confused than enlightened, and some of them have even gone so far as to say that it never should have been written. Why would they say such a thing about part of the Bible that they claim to be called to teach and stand for? Simply because it is a letter to the end time bride of Christ and was never supposed to be understood and taught before this age we are living in. Even now the church world in general will not receive the revelation of that which is recorded therein. They consider it to be foolishness, but the little bride who has the Spirit of Jesus Christ to help her read between the lines will cherish it, and take heed to the things that are written for her enlightenment, in these last days. It is just like a letter that a young man might write to his future bride if we could use a natural comparison. Such a letter usually contains intimate language that is meaningful only to the two people. Others could read certain things in such a letter and it would sound like foolishness to them. Why? Simply because they can speak of things which are known only to the two of them without going into full details such as others would need, to understand. That is what this letter is all about, and now we will take a little look at the human instrument the Lord Jesus used to write it.
REVELATION OF CHRIST’S DEITY
We learn from Acts 3:1, that John was with Peter on that great morning when they encountered the lame man as they went to the temple to pray. Peter was the one who said, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” But John was with him. We know also that this man, called John, wrote the three little epistles, as well as the gospel of St. John. He was a personal witness of the calling of the other apostles who followed the Lord Jesus with him, for 3 ½ years. It was John who saw Jesus as the word being made flesh. He also saw Jesus Christ as the word that was with God in the beginning, by which all things were created. In other words, John is the one who stands out among others which may have received the great revelation of the incarnate God, in the person of Jesus Christ. He recorded the crucifixion, and many of the miracles that Jesus did, but there were a lot of the miracles that he did not even mention, as the other gospel writers did. To me, it seems that John was attracted by this great revelation of deity which he recorded so beautifully more than he was some of the other things he witnessed. There is not too much written about John, but from these few things we know about him: we are able to picture him as a very dedicated disciple of the Lord Jesus, and with an understanding of love that is unparalleled as far as we can see. Naturally he was present with the other apostles on that great day of Pentecost when the Holy Ghost was poured out upon them, and when Peter stood in the streets calling on those who heard him preach, to repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. We believe he was a man that did much traveling, and was very informed as to what was going on in the world. It is very evident from what we read in the three little epistles of John, that by the year A.D. 90, he had witnessed many troubling situations in the Gentile church world. If you read closely you will find him talking about the spirit of error as well as the spirit of truth. He talks about the spirit of Antichrist; and says, Even now, there are many Antichrists in the world. He was compelled by circumstances to speak against the spirit of Antichrist, which truly was the white horse rider of the 1st seal. (Rev. 6:2) You may think he was off someplace in seclusion, and lifted up in the Spirit, when he wrote these little epistles, but that was not the situation at all; he wrote them, under inspiration of the Spirit of God, because of circumstances that surrounded him. It was inspiration that was pressed upon him. He was compelled to speak against what he could see spiritually taking place among the people. This necessitated the three little epistles just like the things that Paul was compelled to write about, gave us those letters that set standards for Christian living. Paul was the messenger to the age, but some of those other men had some vital instructions for Christians also.
TRUMPET VOICE
By the year A.D. 96, John was the only one of the apostles of Jesus Christ that was left alive. He was very aged, and probably felt like he had performed his last service for the lord when the Romans exiled him to the Isle of Patmos, but, all of a sudden he heard something behind him. Let us begin reading at Revelation 1:9, and see what he heard. He starts out by saying, “I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, (He was not sitting there with his head in his hands grieving, No. He was in the Spirit worshiping God.) And heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” Now most people read right over that word trumpet, giving no importance to it whatsoever, but that trumpet-like voice got his attention. Do you remember reading in Exodus how Moses was up on Mt. Sinai, and all the rest of the people down below while God communed with Moses with that trumpet-like voice? There were thunderings, lightnings, and voices, and the people were scared half to death, but God was talking to Moses with a voice that sounded like a trumpet. It was not a great musical display. It was the voice of Jehovah Elohim. In all of chronology of the scriptures, we cannot find where anyone but Moses ever heard that trumpet until John heard it here in Revelation 1:10. Paul never heard that trumpet and he was the church age messenger, but this old saint, John, whose soul had thrived on the revelation that he had of who Jesus Christ was, while he was in the Spirit, there on that little island, heard the same voice that Moses heard. John was in exile because of the revelation that he had cherished all those years. If he had ever dared to compromise, it is very doubtful that he would have had any problem with the Romans, but he could not compromise; that revelation burned in his heart so strongly that he was willing to die in the midst of all the snakes and lizards on this little island if necessary. Then he hears this great voice as of a trumpet behind him, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, (we have that book here) and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia. He names the seven churches, beginning with Ephesus and we find that it is the seven churches that were established as a result of that great revival Paul had there in Asia Minor among those Gentiles. Paul preached at Ephesus for a solid three years, during which time the revival fires which burned at Ephesus lit the fire that started the other six churches mentioned here. (Brothers and sisters, this all ties together so beautifully.) By what we read in the 1st chapter of Revelation, we know that God had already caused a particular type to be set in motion over in the book of Acts, beginning with the 19th chapter when Paul went to Ephesus, that would be used as a yardstick of comparison throughout the age of grace. It is true, each of those 7 churches was a local assembly in its particular area, and they were not tied together by some denominational charter, as you would find in our day, where one preacher organized a group of churches. Each one of these 7 churches had their own local government, but each of them also were a type of certain conditions that would exist during the dispensation of grace, the period of time allotted to the Gentiles. Within the framework of these local assemblies there began to be certain perversions of the truth that Paul had taught, arise, that built into a certain spiritual condition which would compare to one of the 7 spans of time we call the church ages, and the message that John was told to write and send to these 7 churches was also a message to the particular church age that compared, by spiritual conditions within that age, to the spiritual conditions within that local church. Paul, the church age messenger and founder of many churches in that first age, had written many such letters of rebuke and exhortation, but these seven here were to have a special meaning and application that Paul’s letters did not have, because of the type that was set by them. You must keep in mind the fact that every one of these congregations were taught the exact same thing in their beginning, and through the process of perverted teaching as the years rolled by, they had strayed from the apostolic doctrine of Christ to the point where they were. You say, How could that happen, Bro. Jackson? Exactly the very same way that it is happening among the ranks of those who are supposedly following the teaching of Bro. William Branham, the 7th church age messenger. You always have certain characters going from one assembly to another one, and so on, claiming to be teaching the apostolic truth of the scriptures, when actually they were never called by the Spirit of God to be a preacher in the first place. Such characters can never preach a true message, for they must depend upon THEIR UNDERSTANDING of what the true message of their particular hour is, not having the anointing of the Holy Ghost to direct them. Now please do not tell me that these preachers who run around with an arm load of Bro. William Branham’s sermon books, and preach from certain quotes taken from those books, are directed by the Holy Ghost. Any person in their right mind ought to know if they were led by the Spirit of God they would all preach the same revelation and we would not have all of this confusion that keeps local assemblies from being able to fellowship together. Remember, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.” But in the verse right before that (John 10:12) He said, “But he that is an hireling, (That is what many of these so called preachers are, “HIRELINGS” for they have not a genuine love for the sheep.) And not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.” The true message of this age is to pull the true sheep back together and turn their attention back to the word of God, (THE BIBLE) before the age closes out.
SEVEN GOLDEN CANDLESTICKS
As we come back to Revelation 1:11, where the voice from behind John, calls each church by name: we notice that John waited until the last one of the seven had been named, then he turned to see the voice that spake with him, the voice that, at first, sounded like a trumpet. The trumpet signifies that the authority of the voice which is doing the talking originated in Jehovah Elohim of the Old Testament, but listen to what John says about what he saw when he turned around. “And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.” Let me say right here; John had walked with Jesus for 3 ½ years, but he had never heard Him speak like this before. He had heard Him speak to the storm, and he had heard him speak in many other situations with a voice of authority, but this time it was different. This man, Jesus Christ, (God incarnated in human flesh) who had walked among humanity with a dual purpose, speaking for God to the people, or on behalf of the people, stood behind John, there on the Isle of Patmos, and spake with a voice that sounded like a trumpet. He had been a prophet to the people, a sacrificial Lamb for the people, and after His resurrection, He had been our intercessor, our attorney, pleading for each of us before the throne of God, but in 96 A.D., John was privileged to view Him in a way that symbolized His full authority. The candlesticks were symbolic of the Spirit of Jesus Christ that was given to these 7 churches in the beginning, and there he stood, right in the midst of them, clothed with a garment of a high priest, but verse 14, goes beyond that of high priest, for John says, “His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; (That speaks of supreme judgeship.) And His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; (speaking of our redemption) and His voice as the sound of many waters.” There is no contradiction here between the sound of the voice that John heard in verse 10, as a trumpet, and the voice as the sound of many waters in verse 15, for you must remember that each identity is symbolic of an investment of authority bestowed upon Jesus for His dealings with mankind. Just to check up a little on your memory: Why did His voice sound like the voice of many waters? It is because this voice as He speaks in this identity represents the people to God. He speaks as intercessor on behalf of multitudes of people from all nations, and tongues. We learn from Rev. 17:15, that waters, symbolically, are people, therefore this is the voice that speaks back to God on their behalf. It is the same voice that Ezekiel heard which we read of in the 43rd chapter of Ezekiel. He saw a great light coming from the Mount of Olives across the valley of Jehoshaphat, coming toward the millennial age temple in Jerusalem, and out of that light which he describes as the glory of God, came a voice which was as the sound of many waters, saying, “Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the souls of my feet, (This shows that He will dwell literally in this temple, and that could be only in the millennial age) where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever, and my holy name, shall the house of Israel no more defile.” Now as high priest He speaks with the voice of many waters in His intercessory role; we all understand that. Likewise when He rules in the millennium He will still speak as the voice of many waters because He will be ruling on earth as a man. He will be invested with authority to rule all nations of people, and to represent them to the great Elohim, (JEHOVAH GOD – THE ETERNAL SPIRIT.) We have shown from the scriptures, in other messages, that the term, for ever, does not always apply to time without end, and that is the case with that terminology in Ezekiel 43:7.
THE FIRST AND THE LAST
Let us come back to what the apostle John saw and heard as he continued to watch the one who was speaking to him, Rev. 1:16. He says, “And He had in His right hand seven stars: (all symbolic of something) and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword.” We all know what the two-edged sword represents; it is the gospel in this age of grace. When He is seen on that white horse over in Revelation 19, with a sharp sword coming out of His mouth, it will no longer be the gospel. It will then be a sword of authority to execute wrath and judgment on wicked mankind as He comes back to earth for the millennial reign. Watch now, as we finish verse 16. “And His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw Him, I fell down at His feet as dead, and He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.” In verse 17, where He said, I am the first and the last, He is speaking from the standpoint of man, in God’s plan of redemption. When we take this terminology to the epistles where the revelation of Jesus being the first and the last is laid out so clearly, it helps us to know what He was actually saying to John. Paul said, He was the firstborn from among the dead. He is the beginning of God’s new creation in the process of redemption. Regeneration had its beginning in Him, so He is definitely the first, the beginning point. Then as we look to the end of God’s process of redemption, we have no trouble seeing that He is definitely the first, the beginning point. Then as we look to the end of God’s process of redemption, we have no trouble seeing that He is also the last, for when this plan of redemption is completed, and Jesus has ruled until the last enemy (death) is conquered, and all things are put under His (Jesus’) feet, then He (Jesus) will deliver the kingdom to God, the Father (not another person, but a sovereign Spirit) that He (GOD) may be all in all, 1st Cor. 15:24-28. That is the spiritual kingdom of course, and that projects time into the eternal age where God (SPIRIT) will have His relationship with His creation restored back as it was before Adam’s transgression.
CYCLE TO REPEAT
Now, John is told to write the things which he had seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter in a book and send it unto these seven churches which are in Asia, in other words, past, present, and future. Then in chapters 2 and 3, we see Jesus in His office as high priest, speaking to John, and this is 30 years after the last epistle written by Paul, the church age messenger. What is John looking at? What is he seeing, and what is he hearing? He is receiving the last revelation that the church of the living God will receive until she comes to the end of the age of grace. Nineteen hundred years have passed since then, and we are approaching the end. We are living in the span of time when the little bride of Christ is permitted to open her love letter, (THE BOOK OF REVELATION) and understand its contents. She will see herself reflecting in it. Hallelujah! I’m in love with Jesus, and I love to talk about Him. I love to read about Him, and I love to fellowship with my brothers and sisters that He has redeemed with His own blood. Naturally you will always hear some say, I don’t believe in being a fanatic about religion. I don’t either, but God is a jealous God and He likes for His people to talk about Him, and to Him. Brothers and sisters, I pray that God will help us get a clear picture in our minds, and enable us to understand the true setting here. John was not the messenger to the age, but I tell you this: There was no one left alive that could criticize him. He was the last living witness among those who had walked with Jesus in His earthly ministry. Everyone else, alive in 96 A.D., would have to give a secondary report of the first advent of Christ, but John was an eye witness and his was a living testimony. As we said earlier, what he had wrote in the gospel, and in the three little epistles, was what he had seen and heard naturally, and in the case of the epistles, circumstances and conditions necessitated their writing, but what he is going to write now could not have been written prior to this. He is commissioned to write of spiritual, as well as natural conditions of the future that could only be seen and heard by a sovereign, supernatural act of God. There was nothing about John that merited such a privilege; he was a vessel chosen by God to fulfill God’s purpose in that hour. Likewise brothers and sisters, I say to you today, regardless of what is going on in this particular movement around the world, God is going to repeat this same cycle that we are seeing here. The church age messenger has already fulfilled his role in the plan of God and passed off the scene, but if he truly did fulfill Malachi 4:5-6, for our day, and we truly have been turned back to the faith of the apostolic fathers, back to their same revelation and so forth, then the very conditions of the hour, this hour of separation, lets us know that God will soon repeat this same cycle, and only the bride will understand. No, God will not build a Bible school, nor a seminary to teach His people, but through the same anointing that was upon John when he saw and heard these things, God will instruct His people and perfect their revelation.
SEVEN STARS – SEVEN CANDLESTICKS
In verse 20, Jesus explains the mystery of the seven golden candlesticks, and the seven stars. 20, “The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” Let it be understood that angels in this particular verse is referring more to the human leader of each separate congregation, than it is to the spirit being behind that person. Naturally there is always a spirit being involved, but he works through an earthly outlet. Now, Where was Jesus standing while He was talking with John? In the midst of the seven candlesticks, and the candlesticks represent the seven churches that symbolically, also represent a certain age, or period of time that the grace age church would pass through. Now He had a message for each separate church, beginning with Ephesus and going right on through Laodicea. What He had to say was brought about by the spiritual condition of each assembly, and each one of those assemblies had a spiritual condition within its body that would represent the spiritual condition of the age of grace which it symbolized. Ephesus was the model church, and was the first one of the seven that was established by the ministry of Paul. In the epistle that Paul wrote to the Ephesians we find the great revelation of the deity of Christ, also we find him explaining the close fellowship of believers and their walk with God. He explains that we are all of one body, and he used the illustration of a man and his wife in the natural to show our place and position with the Lord Jesus. No greater comparison could have been used than this one which shows that one day we will be to the Lord Jesus Christ what a loving wife is to her husband in the natural, in obedience and subjection. Saints the point is this, the Lord Jesus was standing in the midst of these 7 candlesticks, still in His role as high priest, right on through the age of Laodicea, and all this time the church is still on earth, for the message itself lets us know that the grace age is still in force. But there is coming a time when He (the Lord Jesus) will take to himself all the overcomers from every age. You will notice that there is one thing in common through all seven letters, or I should say through all seven message to the churches. That is, to him that overcometh, thus and so. John had lived to see the condition of apostasy which had found its way into each one of these churches, and now he was being commissioned to write and send a message to each of them, giving them a chance to repent of their ways and overcome, or as Jesus said in Matthew 24:13, He that endureth unto the end, the same shall be saved. The message to these churches is two fold. First to the church itself, then to the age of grace that that particular church parallels. Remember now, John was not the church age messenger, but how many of you believe he heard and saw something that is meaningful to us in our day? What he heard and saw, and wrote, did not change one thing that Paul had taught by revelation when he was alive. No, God was just vindicating what Paul had actually warned the saints against, some 40 years before that. I can see why Paul had to be dead by this time though; it would have broken his heart to see the state of apostasy that these churches had fallen into, in such a few short years. One of them even had a woman preacher by the time A.D. 96 rolled around. Now who is to say they were not taught right? No one; they were all taught the same thing, according to the perfect revelation that was given to Paul. It just goes to show how quick the spirit of Antichrist can take hold of an assembly of people when their leadership changes. It seems like there are always a few people around, who are just looking for something different to tickle their ears. That is how Satan is able to plant his seeds of doubt and unbelief in the midst of an assembly of people who have formerly been taught right. False teaching will usually be so close to the truth at first, that it is hardly detectable, but there is a spirit behind it, and when that spirit is given any place at all, it multiplies until it takes over people’s minds. John had witnessed such a change in these assemblies, and he had spoke out to warn the people against what was happening, but evidently to no avail. For instance in 2 John, verse 7, we read these words, “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist. 9, Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. 10, If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed (God bless you) is partaker of his evil deeds.” In his first epistle, chapter 4, verse 1, we read, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: (Why?) Because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” John wrote these epistles in A.D. 90,but chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation show us how far these churches had strayed from the truth by the time John was lifted up in the Spirit in A.D. 96, and given the last revelation that God would have written in the chronology of the scriptures.
OVERCOMING
Saints: John was still on the isle of Patmos when he received the words that he was to send to the seven churches. Are you listening to me? I said he was still on the island, and Jesus was standing in the midst of the seven candlesticks (the churches). He is still doing the work of a high priest, and that high priest intercession runs right on through the age of Laodicea which we are living in today. What were the last words said to each individual church? To him that overcometh thus and so, and, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Through every age of this dispensation of grace that STILL SMALL VOICE of the Holy Ghost has continued to speak to individuals whose hearts cry out to God. It is only when we are willing to listen to the voice of God speaking to our inner man that we can be an overcomer, and Saints, I will say this, The time left in this age of Laodicea, for overcoming, is getting shorter and shorter. Those who know anything at all about church history can trace the route and conditions that the church has passed through, and it is plain to see that what God had John write to the individual churches pertaining to a spiritual condition within them, also turned out to be a condition that existed in the age of grace that was portrayed through those local churches. It was written in 96 A.D., but it took time itself to materialize it, therefore the church of that day had no way of knowing that a type was being set that would span the complete age of grace. It is only by looking back at the ages past that we are able to understand, recognize our day, and take heed to that which applies to us. Paul and John, and those saints of the first church age expected Jesus to return in their day, and it has been like that in every age since, yet through John’s vision, Jesus actually showed that the church would remain on earth through 7 specific ages, and that He would remain as high priest, speaking with the voice of many waters through every one of them. It is the words spoken to Laodicea that thrill my soul though. We are living in an age of materialism, and though our economy is inflationary the world over, I think you will have to agree with me on this; the church world in general is living the highest in a material sense, that it has ever lived. It is a costly, superficial standard of living, and every bit of it draws heavily upon the world’s energy supply, which is what keeps the man of the world in a state of emotional turmoil all the time. Naturally from the standpoint of what the world is able to see, they say, We are going to run out of energy. What they do not know though, is that, they are going to run out of time before they run out of energy. Time is getting shorter than any of the sources of energy that they worry so much about. Praise God! Jesus is coming soon, and the energy crisis will be over, but President Carter and all the rest of those world diplomats who give all their attention to politics and world affairs at the expense of their soul’s salvation will be 6 feet under the ground while Jesus is ruling this planet from his throne in Jerusalem. You say, Bro. Jackson, How do you know that? Simply because there is only one escape. They would have to get truly born again, and get dressed up in a revelation to escape it. If they do not do that they are doomed. They just do not realize how close they are to this word of God. That is why I get so thrilled when Mr. Begin comes over here with his little chest stuck out and says, We will not give up one inch of our heritage. Praise God! To me, Israel seems to be the only nation on this earth today that has any sense left, and even that doesn’t mean that they are going to do everything right all the way. No, there will come the day when they will sell out to the Antichrist, but for now they seem to be the only nation left that has their head on straight. At least they will not sell out to Carter.
Now, back to what I started to say about the beautiful words spoken to Laodicea. After His rebuke for lukewarmness, and His admonishment to them, He says, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my father in His throne.” Why did He tell Laodicea that? Why did He not tell some of the others that? It is because Laodicea is the age that is closest to the millennium, the time when the bride of Christ will sit with Him and rule the nations. This is the age where many of the overcomers will never taste of death, but rather, will be translated, carried alive to be with Jesus. Paul, the church age messenger, spoke of this translation, or rapture of the church, both to the Thessalonians as well as the Corinthians, but that is as far as his revelation goes on the matter. He saw the bride going, but John, in his old age, was allowed to see what would take place after that, and he was instructed to write it and send it to the churches. Brothers and sisters: that is how God preserved this letter through the ages. He let it be kept, and handed down from generation to generation until that generation arrived that would live to see its complete fulfillment. Hallelujah!
TWO FOLD TYPE
John set a type of the bride that would be raptured at the close of Laodicea when he was taken up in chapter 4 to view a heavenly scene, but he also set a type of the living ministry that would be walking right in the midst of the bride receiving revelation and transmitting it to her, right up to the time of her departure. In other words, if John saw things to write and give to the church to carry for 1900 years, there will also be a ministry right in the ranks of the bride of Christ that will hear the voice of Jesus as HE speaks to them specifically of things that pertain only tot he endtime. Brothers and sisters: believe me, it will be things that cannot be found written in a book someplace. You can search books until you are blue in the face, but you will not find what the VOICES of those SEVEN THUNDERS uttered, for John was projected beyond our time when he heard them speak, and he was not allowed to write what he heard. No. Just as John heard a voice at the end of the Laodicean letter calling him to, Come up hither, so also, will the living element of the bride of Christ hear a voice that will have the same effect on her at the end of the Laodicean age. Jesus will speak to her through the voices of those 7 thunders until her revelation is honed to perfection. During that time the trump of God that raises the dead will sound, and all the overcomers from every age will ascend together to meet the Lord in the air. The twofold type set by John is precious because it shows that there must be a true leadership of the Spirit of God right to the very time of the rapture. If John had refused to go beyond the teachings of the church age messenger, we would not have the book of Revelation in our possession today, and without the book of Revelation we would be just as much in the dark about the windup of this age of grace as the church was in the days of Martin Luther. But because John stood firm and loyal to his revelation of the word of God, he was in a place where God could speak to him and let him see things that Paul never saw. Now, as a type of the ministry, where was John when He received the last instructions to the church? He was still on earth but when the last words were spoken to Laodicea: he was taken up to set a type of the rapture at the end of Laodicea. After that, the word, church, is not mentioned anymore throughout the rest of the book of Revelation. In chapter 4, 5 and 6 he saw things pertaining to Jesus on the throne with the little scroll in His hand, and a rainbow about the throne.
FOR OUR AGE ONLY
Before we proceed, let us just look back a little. It was the apostle Paul that actually laid the foundation for this grace age church to be built upon as he went forth with the apostolic gospel in that first age. It was his teaching that established the churches which John wrote to. He is the one that labored among them until Christ was formed in them. But he was the messenger to an age that was more than 1900 years away from the coming of the Lord Jesus to rapture the church, and later, to rule on earth. That generation had no need to know the revelation that God would give to our generation. They did not need to know how to recognize the antichrist and his beast system that is to materialize in our day. They only needed to be warned against the Antichrist spirit that would creep in to pervert the gospel in their age. Paul and John both warned them time and again about that, but Satan slipped in anyway. As a result of that spirit slipping in, the church was led off its apostolic course and into what we call the Dark Ages. Through those Dark Ages God still had a few loyal souls through which the gospel light was preserved, and in every age, even in the Dark Ages, there was always one individual that stood out over the others. That individual has been called the church age messenger of his particular age, but it was because of his loyalty to God in what he had revealed to him, and not because he had a ministry that paralleled Paul’s. Martin Luther has been called the church age messenger of the age that began to emerge from that darkest hour, and it was his revelation that the just shall live by faith, among other things that he found to be contrary to Catholic dogma, that began to spark the reformation. In the years between 1520 and 1900, God used many different individuals to restore nuggets together into one basket, as we know today that they must be. Instead, the world began to be filled with hundreds of different denominations, each one holding on to a little portion of the restored truth of God’s word. It was not until this Twentieth Century that God spoke to the heart of a man to gather up all these restored truths and present them to His church in one basket. That man was none other than Bro. William Marrion Branham, the messenger to this Laodicean age. We have said many times, it was not Bro. William Branham that restored truth that the just shall live by faith: Luther did that. Neither did Bro. William Branham restore the truth of predestination, eternal security, nor any of those basic doctrines found in the Bible, but he is the one that God used to collect all these truths together and present them tot he church for the purpose of turning us back to the faith of the apostolic fathers, back to the written word of God (the Bible.) Bro. William Branham never preached a message that he did not take the text for that message out of the Bible that his ministry in this age was to turn us back to. The only reason some of these people are saying that we do not need the Bible anymore; all we need is the prophet’s message, is because they themselves have no revelation as to what the prophet’s message was. They have become blind leaders of the blind, and the spirit that they have given themselves over to is worse than the spirit of Roman Catholicism. They resent my saying so, but it is true anyhow. It is true, Bro. William Branham had a gift of God in his life that was only outshined by that of the Lord Jesus himself, but that still did not make him God; he was our brother in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ that he stood so staunchly for. He was subject to human faults and failures just like all the rest of us, but my saying that, does not take anything away from his true God ordained ministry to this age. He still had, Thus Saith the Lord to those who had ears to hear what the Spirit would say to the church in these last days. Now, Did I say that he had the final Thus Saith the Lord to this age? Absolutely not! This end time bride will hear much that Bro. William Branham never did speak. He was the only one of the seven church age messengers that was referred to in the book of Revelation, but that still did not make him God. Are you hearing me, saints? Let’s keep our revelation in the scriptures. In Revelation 10:7, we read, “But in the days of the voice (SINGULAR) of the seventh angel, (That was Bro. William Branham) when he shall begin to sound, (That is, when his teaching, or revelation begins to go forth) the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” That is the grace age mystery which Paul wrote about to the Ephesians, and the Colossians, Paul said, When you read what I have wrote, you will understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, the mystery which was not made known in other ages, how that the Gentiles are to be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel. Yes the voice of that seventh angel sounded, and the mystery of Christ is truly made known, but the mystery age itself, (the time when the Spirit of God is dealing with Gentiles) stretches on past the sounding of the literal voice of the seventh angel. There are some who use this verse, trying to prove that Jesus is off the mercy seat already, but that idea does not harmonize with the scriptures. Bro. William Branham has been gone for almost 14 years and we still do not see any signs of the two witnesses that will go to the Jews when God closes the age of grace to the Gentiles, and besides that, we can still see the Spirit of God convicting Gentiles.
WHO IS ON THE FATHER’S THRONE?
Alright now, let us go to chapters 4, 5 and 6, of Revelation where John describes things he saw pertaining to Jesus on the throne. He saw Jesus on the throne with a little scroll in His hand, and around about the throne was a rainbow which is the sign of Jehovah Elohim. You see that same rainbow upon His head in Revelation 10:1 when He is seen in angelic form with one foot upon the sea and the other one upon the earth, closing grace to the Gentiles. It took a better revelation than that to recognize Jesus, to know who He was when He was on earth, for He did not walk around with a rainbow over His head. It took a revelation to know who He was then, and that revelation came through observation of what He preached and the works He did. But John is taken up into the heaven in this vision and sees Jesus sitting on the throne, speaking with a voice that sounded like a trumpet, and a rainbow over His head. In other words, He is seated in the position of the Father, as the Ancient of days judge, and the executor of all authority with power to bind and loose. That is exactly according to what Paul said about Him in Hebrews 1:3, where he was talking about Jesus, the Son of God, being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, how that when He had by Himself purged our sins He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. The right hand always speaks of authority, therefore He was not seated beside another person known as the Father; He was seated in the position of the Father, with all the authority of the Father. Why? Because this was the flesh chosen and manifested by the eternal God to exemplify Himself, and to make physical contact with man and his surroundings. This was the eternal God in the flesh of a man, the man known as Jesus of Nazareth. John had walked with Him on earth for 3 ½ years; now he sees Him seated on this great throne speaking with the trumpet voice of Elohim, that voice of authority. When that door was opened in heaven it was this voice that spoke to John, saying, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. Immediately John began to see this great heavenly scene with Jesus on the throne, the twenty-four elders seated round about, the four beasts full of eyes, and the sea of glass which was before the throne, and from out of the throne came thunderings, lightnings, and voices, and he saw seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, but before long all attention became focused on the little scroll that was in the hand of Jesus, which was sealed with seven seals. A strong angel asked, who is worthy to open the book, (SCROLL) and to loose the seals thereof? John waited for some response, but there was not a man found in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth that was worthy, and he began to weep. Then after much weeping one of the elders spoke to John saying, Weep not: behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. Now we all know who the Lion of the tribe of Judah is; it is Jesus, and John was standing right there looking straight at Jesus seated on the throne. Notice verse 6, “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne.” Brothers and sisters: There is no such creature; that would be a freak of nature. God never created anything imperfect to exist forever; this is all symbolic. Even though the elder told him that the Lion of the tribe of Judah had prevailed, and was worthy to open the seals, symbolically this showed that He did not merit this privilege as a lion, but rather, as a sacrificial lamb. It was the merits of what He did as a sacrificial lamb that made Him worthy to open the little scroll of redemption that was to remain sealed with seven seals through seven particular ages of grace. It is not until the end of the Laodicean age that the last seal can actually be broken to reveal the complete contents of the little scroll. You say, But John saw them opened 1900 years ago. It was 1900 years ago that John was carried by a spiritual vision so that he could stand in this age of Laodicea and look back down through time. It is true he could see that spirit of Antichrist rising and going forth in the day he lived, but it had not yet become the red horse rider, neither the black horse rider, not the pale horse rider, and neither were there any souls under the altar in John’s day. This all came over a process of time, and could only be seen by standing in the age of Laodicea and looking back. Even then we did not have the revelation until time in heaven had progressed to the point where God had a Laodicean prophet messenger on earth to speak through. It was time for the seals on the scroll of redemption to begin to be broken, and Jesus was the only one who was worthy to loose those seals, but He had a mouthpiece on earth that He spoke through to make the contents known to the church. That brings the progression of time into the 1960’s. A war had been fought where six million Jews had died mercilessly at the hands of Adolph Hitler and his henchmen. Thousands more had been held in detention camps on the Isle of Cyprus, and there was a cry of Zionism, Go home. England had been there in the Middle East, the nation that used to boast of the fact that the sun never set on the English flag because of her great era of colonization, but the cry had gone out for England to release her hold on Israel and go home. In process of time that release came, and we find ourselves living in that generation which is to see the fulfillment of all things pertaining to this age. That marked time to the point where the 5th seal could be revealed. That is the one where souls were seen under the altar, or we could say, at the foot of the altar, or before the altar crying with a loud voice, How long O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Who knew before that, who those souls under the altar were? There was no way for any of the other six church ages to have that revelation for those Jews had not been killed. The fulfillment of that 5th seal came about after Hitler’s great slaughter of Jews in W.W.2. Now we can look back through time and actually see what it took to fulfill the first five seals. We also have the revelation of what will take place to fulfill the sixth seal; those events are prophetically recorded in the Bible, but Hitler’s slaughter of those poor Jews is not written there; so we had to wait until after that took place to know what, or who those souls under the altar were. I am sure we all agree that the sixth seal will have its fulfillment at the end of that last week of Daniel at the coming of the Lord Jesus, for we can read the remaining chapters of the book of Revelation and find it all written there. John was standing over here in Laodicea, (by a vision) seeing those things as if they were in existence in 96 A.D. In other words, in order for him to see those souls under the altar he had to be projected into time this side of World War II, for they were not under the altar before that war. Notice the response to those souls who were crying, How long O Lord. First, white robes were given to every one of them, and then it was said to them that they should rest yet for a little season until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled. Brothers and sisters, I do not see how that little season could be more than a human generation, and we know that the next such slaughter will be when the Antichrist makes his great purge in that last week of Daniel. That is when the next bunch of Jews will be killed for the word of God, and the testimony which they hold. Can you see that? If you can, then you must realize that we are very close to the end.
IS YOUR MOTIVE RIGHT?
Brothers and sisters, I wonder if you are catching what I am trying to get across to you. Can you see that John was a type of the living ministry that will be walking in the ranks of the bride of Christ as this age closes out? Can you see that God showed him things that none of the other apostles of Christ ever saw, including Paul, the church age messenger? We are living in the hour when such a ministry is already on the scene being prepared for their last day role. Such a ministry will not be using quotes, quotes, quotes, and telling people that there is no more revelation beyond what the prophet messenger brought to this age. No, they will be doing exactly what John was doing; they will be in the Spirit, receiving things from God for the bride of Christ that the church age messenger never did see. Furthermore, just as John was alive when he was taken up to heaven, so will there be men alive to fulfill the type that was set there. They will walk with God and speak for God until such time as God has determined to rapture the bride and leave this old world in the hands of the Antichrist for awhile. Now in order for them to speak for God, they must hear from God. I am not talking now about some sermon that has been quickened to them as they studied the Bible; I am referring to things that are NOT written in the Bible. John heard the voice of a trumpet that Moses heard, the voice of Elohim. Did that make him another church age messenger? Absolutely not. John did not teach doctrine in the book of Revelation; the doctrine of Christ had already been established. What you see him doing is writing letters of rebuke and exhortation to those churches that had strayed from that doctrine. To Ephesus he wrote, you have left your first love; repent or your candlestick will be removed out of his place. I know you have tried them which say they are apostles, and you have found them to be liars, and that you have laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. They were still busy but their motive was not the same. They were living in the days when apostles were still going forth, and they knew enough about the word of God to put those false apostles to the test, but their own motives had changed; they no longer did it out of genuine love for God, and a love and concern for other souls. That is why they had to be rebuked, but the rebuke had nothing to do with their doctrine that had been established by Paul, the church age messenger. Neither did his exhortation to them. He had THUS SAITH THE LORD, and he did not find it written in Paul’s sermon books. That is why I say, When the time comes around to the point where Revelation 10:3, is to have its fulfillment, God will have some men in the ranks of the bride of Christ who will receive and speak forth, THUS SAITH THE LORD, just like John did. They will be the same to the endtime bride that John was to that first age. Paul was the messenger to the age, but John received the last message for the church in that day. Bro. William Branham was the messenger to our age, but these 7 thunders of Rev. 10:3, will have the last message for the bride before she leaves, and those thunders will be men who are hearing the voice of God just like John did. Where do you get that idea from, Bro. Jackson? I get it right from the very book that the prophet of Mal. 4, turned me back to. Where do you get those strange things you teach? Who ever told you that we do not all have to see certain things the same way? You do not have any scripture for that. Who ever told you to lay your Bible aside and take up the Spoken Word books in its place? Who told you that God would never speak to His people any more after the 7th angel messenger passed off the scene? Who told you that Bro. William Branham was infallible, and that you should believe every word he spoke was Thus saith the Lord? I know who told you those things. It could not have been anyone but the devil himself. You have been deceived! You have been captured by the spirit of idolatry! You have brought reproach upon the name of a little man that loved God with all his heart, a little man that cherished every word that is written in this Bible which some of you do not believe you need any more. You harp about Malachi 4, and you are so proud of the fact that you knew that prophet, but the only thing that some of you have been turned back to is paganism; you are in worse shape now than you were while you were still out there in denominationalism. At least, those people out there still have a chance, for Jesus is still on the mercy seat, and they have not set one of their brethren in the seat of God. Every one of them know better than that.
HIS POSITION IS IMPORTANT
Sixteen years have passed since God gave Bro. William Branham the revelation of the first six seals, and Bro. William Branham has been dead for most of those years, but God is not dead; and if you will bear with me for a few minutes, I believe you will see that. He is still able to speak to, and through earthly men. How many of you know what verses 2-12, of Revelation chapter 11, is about? It is about TWO WITNESSES who will PROPHESY for 3 ½ years, and then be killed by the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit. Right? Alright, Who are they PROPHESYING to? No one but the nation of ISRAEL. When will they prophesy? After the angel of Rev. 10, has closed time for the Gentiles. When will that be? Naturally we cannot set dates, but the time is just up ahead of us a little. They cannot go to Israel as long as Jesus is still on the mercy seat interceding for grace age believers, for in Romans 11:25, we find that Paul said, Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. They cannot receive the prophecy of their two witnesses as long as they are blinded, but once that last Gentile who is predestined to believe the gospel hears his call, Jesus will break that last seal and leave the mercy seat. That is when He is seen in chapter 10, with the little scroll open in His hand. That is when He stands with one foot upon the sea and the other foot on the earth, and cries with a loud voice as when a lion roareth. I want to say this again: His position here is important. As long as He is seen with one foot upon the sea and the other one on the earth, that shows what He has to say still has a universal application. In other words to the bride which is made up of people from every nation under heaven. Now while He is standing like that, seven thunders (it has to be seven men.) Utter their voices. Like we have said already, the fact that it is called thunders, shows that it is God speaking, and the fact that there is more than one voice, shows that it has to be men speaking the word of God to this universal bride, for God is ONE and could never be VOICES, and we know that angels do not preach nor prophesy to the universal body of Christ. Saints! Please hear me one more time; These men will not be quoting something that has already been written; they will be prophesying, giving the bride of Christ instructions, and revealing things to her that are straight from the throne of God. You say, Where do you get the authority to say such a thing, Bro. Jackson? I get it from Revelation 11:3. That verse tells us that those two witnesses are going to PROPHESY for a thousand two hundred and threescore days. They will not preach sermons, as such; they will PROPHESY. How do you suppose the woman (Israel) in Revelation 12:6 will know where to flee to when the Antichrist begins his bloody purge? She will have to be told by the two witnesses, for there is nothing written anywhere, to tell her where the place is that God has prepared for her to be fed for the last 3 ½ years of the week of Daniel, the time of the great tribulation. Why are we so sure of that? Read verse 14, “And to the woman (ISRAEL) were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly (where?) Into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, (one year) and times, (two more years) and a half time (half a year) from the face of the serpent,” (the Antichrist and his beast system). Some of you may say, What does that prove? All we need to do is go to Exodus 19:3-4 to establish that eagles wings is referring to the message of those two prophets. We know that the children of Israel did not literally fly on the backs of great eagles when they came out of Egypt, and into Canaan land, but through the leadership of Moses and Joshua, God brought them out of Egypt and into Canaan. Let us read those two verses. “And Moses went up into God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I BARE YOU ON EAGLES WINGS, and brought you unto myself.” That is enough for you to catch scriptural terminology. Through the prophecy of those two witnesses that spiritual element of the nation of Israel will be told where to go when the covenant is broken in the middle of the week, and the wrath of the Antichrist is turned loose on her.
TWO FOR ISRAEL – SEVEN FOR THE NATIONS
Now I will just ask you a very simple question. If God will have two prophets in Israel getting her ready to take her flight into the wilderness, and revealing Jesus Christ to her; what would be so strange about God having seven men on earth prophesying to the bride, getting her ready to take her flight? You see, God’s promise to Abraham was not just to the Jews. In Genesis 12:3, God made him a promise that, in him, all the families of the earth would be blessed. Isaiah spoke about how God would perfect praise from the Gentiles, and in Psalms 2:8, we read, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” What do you suppose all such references as these were pertaining to? Of course, they pertained to us Gentiles, but even though the prophets spoke many times pertaining to the age of grace, they did not understand that the Gentiles would be joint heirs with Christ, and that they also (the Gentiles) would be called the children of Abraham. This of course includes only those who have the faith of Abraham. Abraham has a natural seed, but most important to us is the fact that he has a faith seed, for that is where we enter into the picture. As we said before; this is the mystery that was revealed to the apostle Paul, how that this grace age would make the Gentiles partakers of the promise of God through the preaching of the gospel. Now we who are living here at the close of this age, understand by revelation that this age will close when Jesus comes in angelic form and announces the end of grace. Bro. Jackson; will the living saints hear the literal voice of Jesus when He makes this announcement? That is revealed by the thunders. You will have to make your heart in tune with God to even know it. The world at large will not hear the message of the thunders. Only those who are spiritual will hear and benefit from the message of the thunders. Furthermore, only those who are spiritual will accept the fact that the seven thunders are seven men, chosen by God, to receive revelation of God’s last message to the bride of Christ. The bride will recognize those voices of authority, and she will receive the message of the two witnesses who will be speaking to them. Right now we know what those two witnesses will be doing for a period of 3 ½ years, (PROPHESYING TO ISRAEL) but we do not know what they will say. What they say is not even written in the scriptures, but we do know some of what will be accomplished by what they say. We know there will be one hundred and forty four thousand Jewish men sealed by the Holy Ghost as a result of their prophesying to the nation of Israel. We know also, that a certain element of Jews, referred to in chapter 12, as the woman, will be warned of the wrath of the Antichrist, and will be instructed where to go, and when to go, to avoid being killed by that beast. We know from chapter 8 and chapter 11, that they will be smiting Israel with plagues in the same manner that Moses dealt with Pharoah in the land of Egypt. That will be God’s wrath upon that nation for selling out to the Antichrist in signing the peace covenant which Daniel spoke of in Dan. 9:27. In other words, brothers and sisters, we could go on and on speaking of what those two prophets will be doing, and some of the results of their ministry to that nation, but we cannot tell you what they will say, for they will be PROPHESYING by the Spirit of God, and not preaching sermons from texts taken from the scriptures.
DO NOT BE FOUND NAKED
Saints: any way you look at it, those Jews will be hearing things from the lips of those two prophets, that the generation in that first age never had opportunity, nor need to hear in their day. Believers in that first age had no need to know how to protect themselves from the wrath of the Antichrist in that hour of great tribulation which is just ahead for this generation. By the same token, bride saints in past ages had no need to know when Jesus would leave the mercy seat, nor when the translation would take place. Neither did they need to know what the 7 thunders are, but those who are to be alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord must know, for it will take that along with what they have to say, to complete our preparation to meet the bridegroom. Do not tell me it makes no difference; only foolish people would think God does things in vain. The wise know for sure that everything God does is necessary to fulfill His predetermined plan for the ages. To the angel of Laodicea He spoke words that He did not speak to the others. We know the application was two fold, first to a particular church in 96 A.D., and then to this Laodicean age as a whole. Listen to some of what He said, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, (That is faith; not faith in the natural things round about us, but faith in the word of God, faith to believe that if God said something, that is exactly how it is going to be.) That thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” Look at 3:17, “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Brothers and sisters, when we look at these verses with a spiritual eye we know that we are to be clothed with the revelated word of God and we can only put on that garment one way; that is by exercising genuine faith in that word. God’s word is food for our soul, and when we have it in its proper balance we are truly rich. You who are acquainted with the ministry of Bro. William Branham will have to admit that he was constantly rebuking this age for its materialistic yardstick. The denominational churches are given to measure everything by numbers in church and Sunday school attendance, how much money comes into their treasury, and by the size of their very modern buildings, as if God cares about any of that. I assure you: a certain amount of these material things are necessary, but to have all that the world has to offer, and still be without faith in the revelated word of God is to be wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. Just look around you, and then tell me: Does this scripture have an application for our day? You know it does but thank God, the little bride of Christ has come out from all that foolish nonsense, and she has her eyes anointed and her ears open. She is hearing what the Spirit of God has to say to her in these last days. Let me ask you this now: What brought her out of bondage and into a place where she can hear the word of God? It was the voice of the 7th angel messenger. But. Bro. Jackson, there are thousands of genuine Christians that never had an opportunity to hear Bro. William Branham; What brought them out? God took His messenger off the scene, but He did not take away the message that little man brought to this age. Remember this; His message is his voice; therefore that voice is still ringing around this earth. It is being sounded through the lips of men who are able to hear from God themselves, and do not have to say, Bro. William Branham said thus and so with every breath they take. Yes; that message is still just as effective as it was in the days when it first began to go forth. God sent the man according to the words of Malachi; not to argue with theologians, but to cry against sin, and to bring forth a teaching which God vindicated to be Thus saith the Lord. It was not for the purpose of converting the whole religious world, but it sounded a voice, (please notice that I am saying A VOICE, not VOICES) to this age, to be heard by all who have an ear to hear what the Spirit saith to the church, and the church is universal, not just in Jeffersonville, Indiana and Tucson, Arizona. Praise God! That thrills my soul! I am glad that God is not so small and helpless that He has to be confined to a certain little geographical area, like some of these sweet-talking, so called brethren, claim He is. Furthermore let me say this: We do not baptize in the name of Jesus Christ and believe that God is one instead of three persons just because Bro. William Branham said so. We do it because it has become a revelation to us that the Bible teaches it like that. Sure Bro. William Branham taught it like that, but if that is the only reason you do it, you have missed God completely. You have not even heard the voice of the seventh angel.
THE HOLY GHOST REVEALS
Brothers and sisters in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ; let me warn you to beware of these fellows who seem to be such experts on what Bro. William Branham said. If they cannot preach to you from the Bible they do not have the Spirit of God, and have no business trying to teach the bride of Christ anything. One person said to me recently, We are aware that there are certain things in the book of Revelation which the prophet never did explain, but the very fact that he did not touch on these things causes us to esteem them as unimportant to us, for we believe it takes the prophet to bring them out and he is no longer with us. Saints! Do not let the devil blind you with such talk as that! I am here to tell you that the book of Revelation is a letter to the bride of Christ, and before she leaves this earth she will understand everything that is written in it, regardless of whether the messenger to the age taught on it or not. If people would just stop long enough to realize that he taught on every doctrine that you can find written in the letters of Paul, they would surely realize that his purpose was to put us back in the word of God from which we had strayed. Once we are back in the Bible, and filled with the Spirit of God, we have that Spirit of revelation in us, and He can open our eyes just like He did the apostle John. He can show us things that pertain to our day, things that those who have passed on by the way of the grave had no need to know. I will never forget how I felt when that little man looked straight at me and said, It’s good for you Methodists too. He was preaching on the baptism of the Holy Ghost, and when he said that I felt like an icicle on a hot stove, but brother, it put a hunger in my heart and I began to seek God for the experience, and would not stop until I received it. When I received the Holy Ghost experience it began to open up something new to my soul; I began to understand things that had been such a mystery to me prior to that. It is that Spirit that lets me know we are not confined to what God has revealed to men who have served Him in their day, and already passed on to their reward. We serve a living God who is well able to feed us with fresh bread in our day. His plan for the ages has never depended on any one man since the days when Jesus Christ walked upon earth among men, so do not sell your soul for a carnal interpretation of what the prophet messenger came for. There is no scriptural authority for anyone to believe that Bro. William Branham was to perfect the bride of Christ. Ephesians 4:11-13, tells us that the five fold ministry is for the perfecting of the saints, and if you will read those verses you will discover that every one of the 5 offices is spoke of in plural terminology. No, it will not be a one man show. God will wind it up with SEVEN THUNDERS speaking to the Gentiles, and two prophets speaking to Israel, and everyone of them will be prophesying straight from the throne of God. They will not need to quote from any books. Now some will say, I don’t believe that. To that, I will say, It is not for you; it is for believers. When Jesus leaves the mercy seat, His instructions will be to those who are in unity, those who are still striving against revealed truth will be caught by the wrath of God when it is poured out upon unbelievers. It will not do you one bit of good to stand and scream: I knew the prophet, I hunted with him; I fished with him; he prophesied to me many times. In that day, if God even speaks to you at all, He will say: Why then did you not take heed to the prophets message? Depart from me; I never knew you. Brothers and sisters, I do not enjoy talking like this, but God’s word is true even if it makes every one of us a liar. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away, saith the Lord. We must stand by the word of God, even when it hurts our old flesh to do so. “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. NOW IF ANY MAN HAVE NOT THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST, HE IS NONE OF HIS. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But, IF THE SPIRIT OF HIM THAT RAISED UP JESUS FROM THE DEAD DWELL IN YOU, HE THAT RAISED UP CHRIST FROM THE DEAD SHALL ALSO QUICKEN YOUR MORTAL BODIES BY HIS SPIRIT THAT DWELLETH IN YOU.” (Romans 8:6-11)
CLOSING WORDS
Saints: In closing I just want to say this, If I read this blessed old book right, the only hope for any of us, no matter how much we know, is to have the Spirit of God in us and be subject to Him. Any effort without Him is vain, and can only lead to more confusion in this late hour of time. We certainly do not need more confusion; we need to get ourselves settled on the word of God. As for what we have said about the seven thunders; I am fully persuaded that God will vindicate anything He inspires a man to speak, but He is not obligated to do it today just because some scoffers say these things cannot possibly be right. You will just have to stick around and see what God will do. For you who appreciate this message; let me say to you, There are many more things that could be said to establish scripturally what we have taught, but I believe there is enough here to put every sincere believer aware of the fact that God is yet going to speak to this generation by the mouths of some prophets. If there is something you do not understand, please feel free to write me. It is too costly to your soul if you reject something from God just because you do not understand it. May God be with you as you make every effort to follow Him in truth. Amen.