WE PUBLISHED A MESSAGE IN 1977 TITLED “CHRONOLOGY OF REVELATION,” IN WHICH WE DEALT WITH THE FULFILLMENT ORDER OF THE BOOK OF REVELATION , BUT AFTER 61/2 YEARS SINCE THEN, WE HAVE A LOT OF NEW PEOPLE ON OUR MAILING LIST THAT NEVER HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO READ THAT MESSAGE, AND WE HAVE PEOPLE RIGHT HERE IN FAITH ASSEMBLY THAT HAVE NOT YET HEARD WHAT THE HOLY GHOST HAS REVEALED ABOUT THE FULFILLMENT ORDER OF THIS BOOK, SO WE ARE GOING TO DEAL WITH IT AGAIN. WORLD CONDITIONS AT THIS TIME CAUSES US TO FEEL AN URGENCY TO HELP TRUE SAINTS OF GOD UNDERSTAND MORE OF THIS LOVE LETTER TO THE BRIDE OF CHRIST. MOST OT ITS CONTENTS DEAL WITH GOD’S DEALING WITH THE JEWISH PEOPLE, BUT THE GENTILE BRIDE OF CHRIST HAS BEEN THE KEEP-ER OF THIS LETTER FOR MORE THAN 1900 YEARS, AND IT IS TO HER, THAT THE REVELATION OF ITS CONTENTS HAS BEEN GIVEN, AND I CANNOT HELP BUT BELIEVE THAT GOD INTENDS FOR EVERY BRIDE SAINT THAT IS TO BE ALIVE UNTIL THE END OF THIS AGE, TO THOROUGHLY UNDERSTAND THE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN DEEP MYSTERIES TO SAINTS OF OTHER AGES. SAINTS OF OTHER AGES WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO UNDERSTAND THESE THINGS THOUGH, FOR THEY ARE THINGS THAT PERTAIN TO GOD’S DEALING WITH MANKIND AT THE END OF THE AGE, OR AGES, JUST BEFORE THE MILLENNIUM IS SET IN MOTION. YOUR MODERN CHURCHES OF TODAY COULD NOT CARE LESS ABOUT THE TRUE REVELATION OF THESE SCRIPTURES, FOR AS FAR AS THEY ARE CONCERNED, THE BOOK OF REVELATION IS A SEALED BOOK, NEVER TO BE UNDERSTOOD. THEY ARE TRUSTING IN THEIR DENOMINATIONAL CHURCH DOCTRINES TO GET THEM DRESSED UP FOR THE RAPTURE, IF THEY EVEN BELIEVE IN A RAPTURE. A LOT OF THEM DO NOT, YOU KNOW: AND MANY OF THOSE WHO DO BELIEVE IN A RAPTURE, ARE TRUST-ING IN THINGS LIKE THEIR LONG SLEEVES, OR NOT WEARING GOLD WATCHES AND RINGS, AND THAT SORT OF THING. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY ARE WEARING A HOLY SHELL, AND THEY ARE GOING TO PERISH IN THAT SHELL, JUST LIKE THOSE “HOLIER THAN THOU,” ESSENE JEWS DID, IN 70 A.D. WHEN THE ROMAN ARMY OVERRAN THEM, AND SLAUGHTERED THEM LIKE ANIMALS. OF COURSE SOME OF YOU MAY SAY, BRO. JACKSON: ISN’T THAT A HARD STATEMENT? YES IT IS, BUT IT IS THE TRUTH, AND IT IS TOO LATE IN THE HOUR OF TIME, FOR US TO CONTINUALLY BEAT AROUND THE BUSH TRYING TO KEEP FROM HURTING SOMEONE’S FEELINGS. PEOPLE ARE EITHER GOING TO GET THEMSELVES DRESSED UP IN A PURE REVELATION OF GOD’S WORD, OR THEY ARE GOING TO BE LEFT HERE TO FACE THE ANTI-CHRIST IN THE HOUR OF GREAT TRIBULATION THAT IS TO COME UPON THOSE THAT ARE LEFT HERE WHEN THE BRIDE GOES TO GLORY. GOD INTENDS FOR US TO GET THE BIBLE OFF OF THE NIGHT STAND, AND BEGIN TO GET THE REVELATION OF IT INTO OUR HEARTS, FOR WE ARE TO BE LIVING EPISTLES THAT ALL MEN CAN READ, AS WE GO ABOUT OUR DAILY ACTIVITIES. I WILL SAY ONE OTHER THING, AND THEN WE WILL GET INTO OUR MESSAGE. THIS IS TO YOU WHO HAVE NO INTEREST IN A MESSAGE SUCH AS THIS, YOU BETTER CHECK UP ON YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE LORD.
I am going to approach this a little differently this time, for I feel that there is something in it, that will help us better under-stand why some people are saying that all 7 seals on the little scroll held in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne, are already broken, and that Jesus Christ is already off of the mercy seat ; and that the thunders of chapter 10,
have already sounded. The main reason why people are so confused about these things, is because they do not understand who was sitting on that throne John saw when he was caught up to heaven in chapter 4:1-2. Brothers and Sisters: I hope I can help you see, that if all these things were fulfilled already, we would not be here this morning. God will not play around 20 years, after fulfilling these scriptures, and allow carnal men to run backwards with HIS WORD. But what we must realize, is that there is a broken sequence in the writings of the book of Revelation, and certain things are recorded in a way that hides the true revelation from the great scholars, and allows the Holy Ghost to reveal them to the hungry souls that love to feed upon truth. It was not John that scrambled them up; it was the Lord Himself that did it. He did it like that so that only those whose understanding is opened by the Holy Ghost will be able to read it in its fulfillment order. As I have said many times before, It is a love letter to the bride of Christ, and was never meant to be very interesting to the church world as a whole. I must admit though, that my soul is deeply disturbed about the fact that so few people in this old world are even aware of what God has done in this generation, and also about all the confusion among those who supposedly are aware of what God has done. Now we know that God is not the author of confusion, but we also know that it had to get its start somewhere, so you tell me, Where does confusion originate? It is very simple; that Antichrist spirit is ruling the mentality of multiplied thousands of professed Christians, and just merely sitting under the ministry of the prophet to this age does not exempt you from its influence. In other words, the world is sick, religion is in a turmoil, and the only hope we have, is in a pure revelation of the word of God, and especially the book of Revelation, for it tells us what is to come upon this world shortly, and what the outcome of it will be, so let us see what the Holy Ghost would have us learn from this little study.
JOHN’S COMMISSION TO WRITE
Chapter 1 opens with the apostle John on the Isle of Patmos, in exile there because of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. While in prayer, on the Lord’s day, he heard a great voice behind him, as the sound of a trumpet, and that voice was saying, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia.” He then named the seven churches in the exact order that they appear in chapters 2 & 3, and that particular order was for a specific reason which we will discuss later on. John turned toward the voice, and saw seven golden candle-sticks; and in the midst of them, he saw one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. He goes into much detail describing the One he saw, and we know that this was Jesus Christ, robed in the garment of high priest, and wigged with the ancient authority of the great eternal Spirit. The very sight of His person, caused John to fall at His feet like a dead man. But John was told not to fear. The Lord had a work for him to do. He was commissioned to write the things that he had already seen, and the things of that present time, and the things which would be afterward. He was given a special message for each of the seven churches of Asia Minor, because of existing conditions in those churches after only thirty some years from their birth. Acts chapter 19, tells of the great revival at Ephesus where these churches were actually started from, but by 96 A.D. when John wrote letters to then, some of them were hardly recognizable as Christian churches. But it was all working out a purpose of God, for now, we know that the prevailing conditions in those churches in 96 A.D., typed conditions that would be present in seven distinctive ages, or periods of time that the Gentile church would pass through, before the gospel would be given back to the Jews from whence it came. We have recently published an article on the seven churches of Asia, and we specifically pointed out the fact that not every condition was the same between the church age and the church that typed it, but the prevailing spirit was the same. In other words, Every condition present magnified the working of the spirit of Antichrist in the church of the living God. We are living in the era of time allotted to the age of Laodicea. The true church is not a part of Laodicea, but you do not end the Laodicean age until the judgment of God strikes her and brings her to an end. The Laodicean church is still here, even though the Lord has already spewed her out of His mouth. World religion (so called Christianity) is rotten to the core. That is why the bride of Christ had to be called out of it. She is to be separated from all of that confusion, (Babylon) and be holy unto the Lord.
JOHN LOOKS INTO FUTURE
Chapters 2 & 3, are given completely to the seven churches of Asia, and we have seen the comparison between the various churches and the age they typed, so now ‘let us look at the era of time that we are living in. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 down through verse 11, brings it up to our present age. We are living right between verse 11 and verse 12 of chapter 6, and those seals have been broken in this very generation. Some people will tell you that those seals were broken in 96 A.D., and only revealed to the church in 1963, but that is not true. If you try to hold to an idea like that, you will distort the picture in a lot of other areas. Of course we realize that those who would say such things, are only looking at John, and failing to understand that John was conveying a prophecy for a future time, just like Daniel was when he saw the Son of man come before the Ancient of days and the kingdom given to Him, that all nations and languages should serve Him. That was a prophecy for the Millennium, that Daniel spoke more than 500 years before the advent of Christ, but if you do not keep these things as prophecies for the future, you cannot help but wind up in utter confusion. As for John, you just have to realize that he was projected into the future, in a vision, and shown things that would be hereafter. Therefore when he saw those seals being opened, he was in the year 1963 in his vision, for you must realize that when he saw these things in 96 A.D., that 2nd horse rider of chapter 6, verse 3, had not even gone out yet, and neither had the 3rd horse rider gone out, and so on. But when the seals were opened, all those horse riders had already gone forth, and the Jews of that 5th seal had already been slaughtered, and time had moved on to the very generation that would live to see the end of all these prophecies of the scriptures fulfilled. In other words, when the seals were actually broken, God’s man on earth was given the revelation of what they pertained to, but I am sure that most of you
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would have to agree that John did not know what these things meant. He was not given the revelation that the souls under the altar in that 5th seal, were actually Jews that were slain during Adolph Hitler’s great a slaughter, when he was determin-ed to rid the world of all Jewish influence on mankind. John did not know any more about those things that were prophesied for future generations, than Daniel did. when he wrote what was shown to him. Therefore let us realize that when John was taken up, and saw One sitting on the throne with a little scroll in His hand, sealed with seven seals, and the question was asked, Who is worthy to open the book, (scroll) and to loose the seals thereof? He was witnessing something that was going to take place almost 1900 years later.
WHERE SHEKINAH GLORY IS
As I said already, people who do not have a one God revelation, will always get confused when they read chapters 4 and 5, for they cannot possibly know who is actually sitting on the throne. They first think it is Jesus, but then, when the Lamb steps forth to take the little scroll out of the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, they change their mind, and say, Well, we know the Iamb is Jesus, so that would have to be the Father sitting on the throne. When they do that; they have two persons, so where is their one God revelation? They do not have it. 41 All they have is a lot of confusion. When Bro. William Branham was preaching on the first seal, he did not take the time w stop and explain the Godhead first, so when he casually made the statement in the form of a question, Could it be, that the Lamb has left the mercy seat? It caused a lot of heads to start spinning, and some of them are still spinning 90 miles an hour. They could not get a true revelation if their lives depended upon it, and it really boils down to that, if you know what I mean. In other words we could say, Without a revelation, the people perish. That is why it is so important that we get it straightened out in our minds, so that we know who is doing what. Paul said in Ephesians 1, that he was praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give unto them, (or us) the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, and brother, I am here to tell you, If He has not done that for you, you are still in confusion. Paul also went ahead to say, that God had highly exalted Jesus, and had placed Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, for above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under His feet, and give Him to be the head over all things to the church. In other words, There is nothing in the earth, nor under the earth, that is any greater than the position the Father elevated His only begotten Son Jesus to, after He had obediently suffered and died for the sins of the whole world, there at Calvary. Therefore I ask you, Will we then, turn right around and lower Him from that exalted position? What John saw when he was caught up to heaven, was only for the purpose of conveying a picture of revelation to the true children of God, for we know assuredly, that there is no literal throne in heaven, nor is there any literal mercy seat. The term mercy seat comes from an Old Testament setting, and it pertains to the ark of the covenant, when it was resting in the holy of holies in the tabernacle, or temple. On each end of that box was seraphims of beaten gold, each angel facing the other, and over that box, between the golden seraphims, is where the shekinah glory was, and that was called the mercy seat, for it was a type of Christ. It was the ark of the covenant when carried on the shoulders of the priests, but it was the mercy seat when it was resting in the holy of holies. That of course, is the place where the high priest went once each year, with the blood that was shed on the altar of sacrifice for the sins of the people on the day of atonement, and offered it to God. walking back and forth before the mercy seat. But Saints: Listen to me. When the Father (Spirit) incarnated His Son, (Jesus) the day He was baptized by John, in Jordan, that shekinah glory has been with Him ever since. You will recall that Ezekiel saw that shekinah glory depart from the temple, and go out over the Mount of Olives, and ascend to heaven. That glory will never be found hovering over that box again, for Jesus Christ is the true ark of the covenant. He is the incarnate God. He is everything that the Old Testament pointed to. The glory that Ezekiel saw departing from that temple, returned to it one day inside a human vessel, and that little human vessel took a scourge of small cords (a whip) in His hand, and drove out all those people that were making a trading post out of the temple of God. He did It again about three years later, just prior to His crucifixion, but none of those scribes and Pharisees ever saw the remotest possibility of the God their fathers worshipped, being incarnate in this little man called Jesus. They had Him crucified, placed in a tomb, and the tomb sealed, but three days later He came out of that tomb, was seen of His disciples from time to time during the next 40 days, and then, He ascended to glory from the Mount of Olives, just like Ezekiel saw the shekinah glory depart from the temple in the 6th century B.C. Now Zechariah lets us know that when Jesus, the ark of the covenant, comes back again, He will descend right back to the Mount of Olives from where He left, and the mount will cleave asunder. Hallelujah! When he comes back like that, He is back to stay. But I believe you can see why Jesus told those Jews, when it was obvious that they had rejected Him, “Your house is left unto you desolate.” In other words, Their temple would be void of any spirituality. There would be no more mercy for Jews in that place, by just merely coming there, and going through their rituals, but they do not know that. That is why they will again one day build the temple back on the same spot where the others stood, and set in motion again, everything the law required in Old Testament times.
WHO WAS ON THAT THRONE IN HEAVEN?
Now let us take a look at that throne. In Revelation 4:1, we find tile apostle John writing, “After this (after the letters to the seven churches had been dictated to him) I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me: which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.” Brothers and Sisters: I hope you realize that these are all terms used to emphasize the splendor, the majesty, the universal glory and honor that has been bestowed upon this obedient Son by the great eternal Spirit. A person that literally looked like that, would be scary looking, but this terminology helps us get a little vision of what Jesus the Christ has been exalted to, and of the sovereignty of this incarnate one who is to be the judge of all mankind. Jehovah was never a man, that could seen by other men, except in those times when He would temporarily manifest Himself to someone in a theophany form for some specific reason, as with Abraham. But this only begotten Son was to be an eternal form, in which He would dwell. Now while He was on earth, walking among men, Jesus did not look like a jasper, nor a sardine stone. To those that saw Him, He looked just like any Jew of that day might have looked, for the indwelling presence of the Father did not change His outward physical appearance one bit whatsoever. Neither did it keep Him from humbling Himself, and allowing Himself to be mocked and spit upon. He hung there on that old cross in the most humiliating circumstances that a man could be subjected to, and it even seemed that the eternal Spirit had forsaken Him, but He had submitted Himself to such a fate, in order that He might die like any other man would. He could have called twelve legions of angels to deliver Him from that fate, but He said, If I do that, how shall the scriptures be fulfilled? On the cross He cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But you believe me, the Father had not forsaken Him ; He was just allowing Him to fulfill all that was prophesied of Him. When He went down into hell, to preach to those captives there, the Father was still with Him. It was by the authority of the Father that was in Him, that He loosed those imprisoned souls, and carried them into a heavenly paradise. Hallelujah! It was the power of the Father, that brought His body out of that old tomb to walk in immortality, never to taste death again. Then He took Him up, and seated Him on the right hand of His majesty, power, authority, call it what you must, but do not make the Father another person, or you will be in trouble again. There is only ONE PERSON in the Godhead, and that is Jesus Christ. It you can keep that straight, everything else will fall in place at the proper time. He is a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek. He is our intercessor, our mediator, and He is the one John saw sitting on the throne. He was sitting there in the position of the eternal Father, invested with all power and authority of the Father for the purpose of redeeming lost man-kind back to God.
LAMB AND LION ARE SYMBOLIC TERMS
In closing the Laodicean letter, in chapter 3, Jesus said, “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.” His throne is in Jerusalem ; He is not in it yet, and let me reemphasize the fact that what John was seeing, was not a literal throne in heaven, but only a vision that allows us to know what position our Lord and Savior has been exalted to. John is permitted to view Him holding a position that is above everything in heaven and earth, and under the earth. He was already holding that position in 96 A.D. when John was caught up to heaven, and shown these things that were yet to be at that time. He was sitting there holding that little scroll of redemption in His hand, interceding for the contents of what was written within, but it was sealed with seven seals, so that no man could possibly know what was written in it. Next, John tells us that a strong angel was proclaiming (or asking) with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book, (scroll)
and to loose the seals thereof?” John began to weep, because there was no man found that could open the book, but one of the elders sitting there, said to him, “Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath (past tense) prevail-ed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.” When did this take place? How did this Lion of the tribe of Judah prevail to accomplish this? We all know that Jesus Christ was the Lion of the tribe of Judah, but we also know that He did not die as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. It was His obedience in sacrificing Himself at Calvary for the sins of the whole world that made Him worthy to open that little book, and when He hung on that old cross, He was taking the place of the sacrificial lamb. That is why He is also called, in the scriptures, the Lamb of God. So what does John see next? Right in the midst of this throne setting, he sees 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. He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne. Now saints, pay attention to what I am saying here. John’s attention is focused upon that throne, and Jesus is the one sitting there, and He does not move, yet, here comes a Lamb, according to John’s description, right out of the midst of all that he is already watching, and takes the little scroll out of the hand of Him that sat on the throne. You just have to realize that all of this is symbolic, for we know the Lamb was also Jesus, and we also know that Jesus is not two beings, so we have to realize that it was by the merits of what He accomplished as the sacrificial Lamb, that He is able to open the seals on this little scroll, and reveal its contents to His instrument on earth, and anoint that instrument to convey it to others also. Alright now, just so you will pay attention, When did John have this experience? In 96 A.D., while on the isle of Patmos. What year was he actually projected into, when he witnessed these seals being opened? It was the year 1963. Let there be no doubt about it. There is not a doctor of divinity anywhere, that ever touched the revelation aspect of those seals before then. Furthermore I challenge any of you to try and find denominational theologians who will walk in the light of the revelation of them, even today. They say the same thing about this, that they say about the revelation of the serpent seed, and many other truths that Bro. Branham taught. They say it is out of the pit of hell, and they treat it as such. But we love and appreciate truth, and give glory to God for allowing us to hear and understand these things. There-fore let me say again, These are symbolic pictures that John is seeing. There is no literal throne in heaven, Jesus was never a literal lamb, and He will never be a literal lion, but when He comes back to earth to rule and reign as King of kings, and Lord of lords, that is when the symbolic Lion of the tribe of Judah title will apply. It will be His ruling authority that will portray lion likeness, for just as the lion is known as king of the beasts, so will Jesus be known as King of all the earth, when He sits upon the throne of David of the lineage of Judah. Therefore when we understand that the Lion is only symbolic, we should have no trouble reconciling the fact that the Lamb is also symbolic.
LIVING ON EXCITEMENT
Jesus could not break those seals just strictly on the authority of being high priest, nor because He is going to be the Lion one day. It had to be done on the merits of what He accomplished as the Lamb of God. Keep in mind also, that during all of that time, Jesus never moved one inch from the throne. Do you know why? Because only six seals were broken, showing that Jesus is still on the mercy seat interceding for lost mankind. Why were the first six broken, you may ask? It was a means whereby the Holy Ghost has worked to perfect some, and make manifest the true nature of others. The revelation of those seals generated a lot of excitement, and the world is full of people that are constantly looking for excitement. A police car can go by, and all eyes will turn toward the window. The fire engines can come roaring down the street, and ever so many people will jump in their cars and follow them, simply because they love excitement. Spiritually we see the same thing. The Holy Ghost can do something that is a little out of the ordinary, and here they come, What is going on? Praise God, Jesus is on the move, but most of them never really put down any spiritual roots. They will run wherever the excitement is, and never bother to analyze the methods by which the excitement is created. They will say, Boy! God is really in this place, and they do not mow any more about God, and what God wants to do for them, than a jack rabbit knows about flying an airplane. They never stay in one place long enough to get straightened out. They just grab something and run with it. But do you know what some of them remind me of? Some of these folks that run around all excited about an accident they witnessed, but when you ask them to give specific details about it, they get all mixed up, and cannot tell the same thing twice. That is why prosecuting attorneys have such a hard time in the courtroom, their witnesses are many times very easily confused, simply because they were more interested in the excitement aspect, than they were the details of what actually took place. Sure, they saw it happen. Sure, there was a lot of people hurt. Sure, there was a lot of blood on the highway. But what actually happened? Who caused it? What was the condition of the roadway? They cannot be sure about any of that. It was the same way at the Branham Tabernacle, when Bro. Branham was given the revelation of those first six seals. Brother, they came from far and near. Everyone enjoyed the excitement, which is only natural. I would hate to be SO calloused, that I would fail to get excited about something like that. But my point is this, Don’t just live on the excitement of what God is doing. Let the reality of it get down deep within your soul, and give you some spiritual direction. It would be hard to count all the different versions that have been related by those who sat in those meetings and heard the same audible words that everyone else heard. Some of them grabbed that question, Could it be that Jesus is off of the mercy seat? And when they repeated their version of what they heard, Jesus was off of the mercy seat, and there could be no one else saved. Many of them have had to eat their own words, as the grace of God reached down and got hold of the lives of their own children. Not one of them said, God, You can’t do that, for Jesus is already off the mercy seat. They just had to admit that if the Spirit of God was still convicting lost souls, Jesus had to still be on the mercy seat to intercede for them.
WHITE HORSE – RED HORSE
Alright now, John had seen four beasts in the midst of that throne setting, full of eyes before and behind. The first beast was like a lion, the second beast like a calf, the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. But notice verse 1, chapter 6, as the first seal is broken. John says, “And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.” John did not say that it was the first beast that he heard saying that, but by paying attention to the other seals, we know that it was, for he named the others in relation to the opening of the next 3 seals. Therefore the first beast was the one that was like a lion, and this is the one that said, Come and see, when that first seal was opened. This speaks of that lion-like Spirit that was exemplified through Jesus Christ, who, in reality was the incarnate God. That fearless Spirit in Him, stood right up in the face of those Scribes and Pharisees that opposed Him, and preached the gospel to every Jew that would listen. Furthermore, when they crucified Him, that did not remove that lion Spirit from the scene for very long, for on the day of Pentecost that same Spirit that was in Jesus came right back to indwell those first age believers. Did you ever try to tell a lion to shut up when he feels like roaring? You may tell him, but it will take a lot more than that, to stop him from sounding off when he feels the urge. That is exactly how those first age Christians were; the more they beat them, and commanded them to shut up, and stop preaching about Jesus, the louder they roared. They brought them before the Sanhedrin council, and they put them in jail, forbidding them to preach any more in the name of Jesus, but as soon as they got out, they were right back on the streets of Jerusalem, preaching as though they had not heard a word that was said to them. Even in jail, they would pray and sing praises to God in the middle of the night. Then when they would beat them to within an inch of taking their life, and actually leave them lying for dead, the first thing they knew, those same disciples were right back among the people, convincing them by the scriptures, that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah they looked for, and that through His name only was there any salvation. It took that kind of lion-like boldness to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to those Jews, for they were completely bound by Judiastic traditions, and anyone who departed from that was worthy of death, as far as those Scribes and Pharisees were concerned. Therefore only those that had the real thing even dared to mention the name Jesus, and they could not help but talk about Him. The very nature in them just naturally reacted like that, just like the nature of the lion causes him to roar. In other words, It was a lion beast boldness that guarded the true revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ in that first age, and that is why it was that particular beast which said to John, Come and see, when that white horse rider went out. In reality, there was no such beast guarding the throne. In reality, there was not even a literal throne. But symbolically, these terms allow mortal man to understand the working of the Spirit of God under these various conditions. That white horse rider symbolized the spirit of Antichrist that tried so hard to deceive the church as that first age closed out. The rider had a crown on his head which no doubt was very beautiful. He had a bow in his hand, that surely had a mighty thrust, and he was riding a powerful horse, but close observa-tion revealed that he had no arrows to shoot, with that bow. He was a fake. He was bluffing. Is that not the way Satan always works? He works through fear and deception. That is how he captures unstable souls, those who never get themselves ground-ed in the truth. His deception would not work in that first age though, for that old lion was on the job to show him up for what he was. In 54 A.D., Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, (2 Thess. 2:7-13) warning them that the mystery of iniquity was already at work, but he also let them know that the Spirit of God was still restraining him, (Satan) so that he could not really make any headway until the Spirit of God allowed it. In 90 A.D., John was also warning the saints about this Antichrist spirit when he wrote the little epistles, so we would have to say. The Lion beast was still on the job then. But eventually those old apostolic guards of the true revelation all passed from the scene in death, and the spirit of ratan had a little more freedom to operate in the midst of the church. There were still gallant men who stood dogmatically for the truth, but as time moved on, God allowed the scene to change dramatically. Going into what we now know as the second church age, an age typed by the church at Smyrna, Satan began to realize that he could not destroy the church of God by deception, so he began trying to kill all the true saints of God. History reveals that a terrible blood bath hit Christendom in that second age. Those who were arrested and put in jail then, were not as apt to be turned loose, as those who were likewise arrested in the previous age. Their fate was more to die for the gospel. That is why the second horse was red, the horse that went out when the second seal was opened, (Rev. 6:3-4) and that is why it was the second beast that said, Come and see. This was an age of martyrdom, an age when Christians sacrificed their lives for the truth of Gods word. Therefore since an ox is a beast of sacrifice, God purposed to let the Spirit in those saints be symbolized by a beast that looked like a calf. That speaks of the power of
God, that gave those second age Christians grace to die a martyr’s death, while giving glory to their God. The rider on the red horse was the same one that was seen on the white horse. It was the spirit of Antichrist riding out to shed blood instead of trying to deceive true saints. He could kill them, but he could not deceive them. He could kill them, but he could not torture them enough to make them renounce their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; there-fore the horse was red, and the beast that guarded the throne was like a calf, going into that second age. They could slaughter a hundred saints, and up would step two hundred to take their place. They could not kill them fast enough to rid the world of Christianity.
NOTHING CHANGES GOD’S WORD
Brothers and Sisters: I hope we . are covering enough of this for you to actually see what each beast, and each horse and its rider portrays here, for God did not give this to the church in vain. It all has its purpose in God’s perfecting process of His true believers. Naturally we want to continue on through these seals, but before we go further, I feel that I should say something to you. In 1963, all because of the way God dealt with His servant Bro. Branham, out there in Sabino Canyon, many heard certain things differently than what others heard, even though as I said before, We were all hearing the same words. God had a reason for dealing with His servant in such a unique way, and it was His sovereign privilege to do so. But saints, I want you to know this for sure, Nothing that took place in Sabino Canyon should ever be allowed to change the continuity of God’s written word. Nothing that takes place,’ can ever rule out, nor change that which God has already spoken. How many of you believe Jesus actually walked on the water? Of course you do. But does that mean that all of His disciples had to do the same thing? How many sermons were ever preacher? about Jesus walking on the water) by anyone in the New Testament’. We find no record of any such thing. All we can find is no historical account of the event of it. Mat was the purpose of if then? Some may say. It added to the revelation those disciple were getting; therefore when they went out to preach that revelation’ according to the commission given to them, they always pointed every repentant soul back to what was wrought at when Jesus offered Himself upon, the sacrificial altar, for the sins 61 lost mankind. There was no saving virtue merely in the fact that He walked upon the water There is no saving virtue in the mere fact that He turned water into wine, nor in the fact that He fed a great multitude with one little boy’s lunch. The only saving virtue is in what was finished at Calvary. That cannot be changed, nor annulled by anything else that God will ever do in Any super-natural way, anywhere, through anyone. Nothing God ever did to vindicate Bro. Branham’s minis-try, could ever change the gospel from the way Peter, Paul, James and John, and all those early disciples preached it. In the 17th chapter of John’s gospel, where Jesus prayed for His disciples, He said, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall BELIEVE ON ME through their word.” In other words, As long as there is any reason to preach at all, the preaching must point all eyes to Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, and what was accomplished at Calvary. The same Spirit that enabled Jesus to walk on the water, also picked up Phillip in one place, and set him down in another place, but does that give us any reason to continually harp on Phillip’s plane air ride? How many of you actually understand why I am saying this to you? Naturally I realize that there are a lot of carnal minds that you simply cannot preach to, but to the rest of you I will say this, If you are ever going to get right with God, you are going to have to come back to the Bible. The rest of you can believe that Bro. Branham was God if you want to, and you can believe that the seventh seal was opened, and that the seven thunders have already sounded, if you want to, but what you believe will not change the word of God one bit. You can believe all of that with your whole heart, and wind up in hell because you failed to believe the truth that God has given you the opportunity to hear. Now, notice how I say this, concerning these seals. In 1963, the first six were revealed; the first five were already fulfilled, and number 6 will not be fulfilled until the 70th week of Daniel. The 7th seal will be opened and fulfilled, before the 6th is fulfilled. The 6th seal spans the great tribulation and covers the wrath of God that will be poured out upon wicked mankind at the end of that week.
SILENCE IN HEAVEN —BUT NOT TO BRIDE
In the book of Revelation, we read of seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven vials of wrath, and in each setting we find conditions that speak of the coming of Jesus Christ back to earth literally, and of course we know that He is not coming back literally, three separate times, so we must compare these events with each other to get the true understanding of how and when they will be in effect. Therefore as we do this, we find that the 6th seal, (Rev. 6:12-17) the 7th trumpet, (Rev. 11:15-19) and the 7th vial (Rev. 16:17-21) all deal with His literal bodily return to earth, at the end of the great tribulation. But in so doing, we cannot help but notice the broken sequence in the writing of the seals and the trumpets. When you read down through chapter 6, you find six seals recorded there, but the seventh seal is not recorded until verse 1, of chapter 8. There had to be a reason for this broken sequence. It is the same with the trumpets. Starting with chapter 8, verse 2, and reading right on through chapter 9, we find six trumpets and their effects, recorded in succession, but the seventh trumpet is not recorded until chapter 11, verse 15, which shows that its contents cannot be applied until after the two prophets have ministered for 31/2 years, the 144,000 servants of God sealed, the two prophets killed, and the tribulation saints martyr-ed. Therefore that lets us know also, that the events of most of the remaining chapters of the whole book will be fulfilled between verse 11, and verse 12, of chapter 6. Some of you will remember that when we printed the message titled, “The Chronology of Revelation,” back in 1977, we endeavored to list the chapters and verses in the order of their fulfillment, and a lot of it can be so listed, but we must keep in mind also, that as that last week of time draws close to the end, the effects of certain parts of many of these chapters are being applied all at the same time, therefore since we cannot stack them up on top of each other on paper, you will just have to depend upon the Spirit of revelation to help you keep the picture straight, in your mind. For instance, the sixth seal of chapter 6, the seventh trumpet of chapter 11, and the seventh vial of chapter 16, the coming of Jesus with the armies of heaven in chapter 19, and many of these recorded events, are all taking place at the same time; therefore we will just have to tell you what they apply to, and you will have to collect it together in your mind. One thing we do know for sure about the 7th seal, is that Jesus is still on the mercy seat until it is opened, and He cannot be seen in chapter 10, in angelic form, with the little book (scroll) open in His hand, until after the little scroll is fully open, and as I have said already, when these things do take place Jesus will be off of the mercy seat, and the clock will be starting for that last week of time allotted to the Jews, so you tell me this, If that 7th seal was opened in 1963, and Jesus left the mercy seat, as some of you are teaching, where are the two prophets? Do you actually think God is just going to let time stand still for years and years, just to fulfill your carnal ideas? He did not do it like that when He left the Jews, and went to the Gentiles in the book of Acts. It was just the opposite of that ; there was actually an overlapping period where both the Jews and the Gentiles had the gospel preached to them rather than a void space where nothing was being accomplished. Some will say, Oh! But we are in the half hour of silence. Don’t be that foolish! The Spirit of God will never be silent to the Gentile bride of Christ while she is still in the mortal flesh. Sure it says that there was silence IN HEAVEN about the space of half an hour, and I am not going to try to explain to you what will be taking place during that time, for the revelation of it is still concealed under that 7th seal, but I will assure you one thing. When that last seal is broken, the revelation of it will be given to the bride of Christ in that hour, and she will not have to search through Spoken Word books, looking for some secret clue, or key of understanding. The key to understanding that 7th seal, is to get your nose back into the word of God, (and I am talking about the Bible) and be faithful to Him with what He has already revealed to this generation.
WHEN THUNDERS WILL SOUND THEIR VOICES
Now, for you who desire to be realistic about this thing, and keep it in harmony with the true principles of God I will say, When that 7th seal of Rev. 8:1 is opened, and the half hour of silence in heaven has accomplished what it is supposed to accomplish, then, and then alone, can He (Jesus) project Himself to earth in angelic form to fulfill chapter 10:1-6. That is when He will stand with one foot upon the sea, and the other on the earth, and cry with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth. Then, only after that cry, will those 7 thunders utter their voices. I ask you to make special note of the fact that it says THEIR VOICES, in verse 3. There is no way that one man uttering 7 prophetic messages could fulfill that verse, for “THEIR VOICES” could not possibly be limited to the single voice of one man, no matter what kind of anointing he had. Some will say, But how do we know that the mighty angel of 10:1, is Jesus? By the description given of Him. “He came down from HEAVEN, CLOTHED WITH A CLOUD: and a RAINBOW WAS UPON HIS HEAD, (4:3-RAIN-BOW) and His FACE WAS AS IT WERE THE SUN, (1:16, COUNTENANCE) and His FEET AS PILLARS OF FIRE: (1:15) And He had in His hand a LITTLE BOOK OPEN: (5:1 SEALED BOOK) and He set His right foot upon the sea, and His left foot on the earth, (Showing universal dominion. Jesus is the only one that has universal dominion) and cried with a loud voice, as when a LION ROARETH.” Jesus is the only one that the complete descriptions could apply to, but He will not be on earth in bodily substance again, until He comes back to assume His Kingship, so this is only an angelic projection, symbolizing what is actually taking place, marking the end of Gentile time, and opening up the way for the thunders to sound their voices. That Lion’s roar lets us know that it is just about time for Him to move into that identity as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. In the meanwhile, you can play around with the 7th seal, and the thunders, all you care to, but none of us are going to know what the actual fulfillment of them are until the time comes for God to reveal it to the universal bride church. It will not happen 10 years, or even 5 years before the week of Daniel starts. It will be just prior to the time that week of time hits the earth, for when God fulfills that to the bride of Christ, He is going to take her to glory, and that week of time will be in effect.
BLACK HORSE RIDER
We will now return to verse 5, of chapter 6, and continue with the seals that have already been revealed. Remember, it is Jesus the high priest symbolically sit-ting on the throne of His Father, still interceding for all who will ever partake of God’s grace, that is opening these seals, but He is doing it on the merits of what He accomplished on earth as the sacrificial Lamb offered upon the altar of God for the sins of all lost mankind. That is why John saw Him in appearance as a Lamb that had already been slain. He is the administrator of the benefits of His own death, burial, and resurrection on behalf of others. Alright now, verse 5. “And when He opened the third seal, I heard the THIRD beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” Remember now, all four of these horse riders are symbols of the spirit of antichrist riding in power against the church of the living God. There-fore this black horse rider porrays that spirit during the longest, darkest period of time in church history, from the 3rd age, all the way through the Dark Ages. We realize of course, that a man riding a horse down the road carrying a pair of balances in his hand, would be a very strange sight. But when you look at the spiritual aspect of it, knowing what we know from history, it was easy to accept the revelation that came forth in 1963, which showed that black horse rider to be the spirit of antichrist in the old Roman Catholic church during that long dark period of time when the light of truth burned so very dimly. What did they do to the gospel of Jesus Christ, you may ask? We know that wheat and barley were the natural grains that Israel always used in making their bread, in the Old Testament. Bread is the staple food of man’s natural diet, and scripturally, the word of God is referred to as bread. In John 6:33,35, Jesus referred to Himself as the bread of life, and in the wilderness, when the devil temp-ted Him to turn the stones into bread, He said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, (natural bread) but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (spiritual bread) That should cause us to realize that the true word of God is to the soul of man, what natural bread is to his physical body. Both must be nourished properly, in order to be strong and healthy. Now we know that most people are very reluctant to stick just any kind of old bread in their mouth. especially the great multitude that makes up the ranks of high society. Everything has to be just so so, or they will turn their noses up at it. But not so spiritually, Many of those same people will just eat out of any spiritual garbage can they can find. Do you know why? They have no spiritual sense of smell nor taste, and they are as blind as a bat. They cannot see what they are sticking their head into, (spiritually speaking) and none of their spiritual senses are able to tell the difference. so they just eat anything. They will go to anything that is labeled a gospel meeting, and come away thinking they have heard the word of God, when in reality, a lot of them only hear a lot of man’s theories on what his carnal mind believes the word of God means, and some of those preachers do not even bother to open the Bible at all; they just preach on political and social issues. You could safely say, that there is already a famine in the land for spiritual bread. When the Catholic church ruled, during the Dark Ages, during that black horse rider period of time, they polluted, perverted, adulterated and changed every true apostolic doctrine of the New Testament, converting them into monetary rituals that they could sell to poor innocent souls, sometimes for the very last little piece of change they had between them and starvation. They changed the Lord’s supper into a Mass, and what political figure in the world today would even dare to speak one word against it? It is no wonder that South America is having so many problems today. Four hundred years of Catholic rule has stripped her of all her material potential, leaving her ripe for a socialistic, cummunistic spirit to move in, and take over. Every one of those South American dictators was ruled by a click of Catholic bishops that sat behind the scenes, pulling political cords, and all the time draining their coffers of all their material wealth, and shipping it back to the Vatican, in Rome, along with what they could collect from the poor peasant people that had to pay for every prayer that was prayed for them. They pay for the Mass no matter what the occasion. To dedicate a baby, they pay. The child gets a little older, and they pay for catechisms. The marriage ceremony, another charge, death, another monetary gimmick. They almost never get through paying to have their dead loved ones prayed out of purgatory. I started to say, From birth to the grave, it is pay, pay, pay, but it does not even stop there, for someone has to keep right on paying. Where can you find any such thing in the Bible? Where, in the Bible, do you find anything
about a mass? Every true Bible doctrine was turned into some rite that those priests could sell. They sold the word of God. but they did not do it until after they had perverted it, and changed it to their word, the word of the church.
STIMULATION OF REVELATION
Alright, so the voice said, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. Oil and wine speaks of the liquid part of man’s diet, so when you apply that spiritually, it pertains to the Holy Ghost part of the living word. God will never let the Catholic Church have the Holy Ghost, to sell by the cupfulls. That is one experience God reserves for His true children. When you speak of the Holy Ghost, many times, you are speaking of the anointing. Without that anointing, the word they sell has no life in it. That means it is just a dead ritual, performed by spiritually dead men. Well, how does the wine enter into the picture? Wine is a stimulant in the natural. Holy Ghost revelation is a stimulant spiritually, and the Catholic Church is completely void of Holy Ghost revelation. That is why their word is only dead letter. God has let them sell their version of His written word, and fool the great hordes of human souls that are under their spell, but there is one thing for sure, they can never mess with the Holy Ghost, for there is no way they can lay their money-grabbing hands on that anointing, and without the anointing, there is no revelation. Brother! A true child of God can read a verse of scripture, and the Holy Ghost can open up the true revelation of it, and no matter what the pope of Rome, or President Reagan might say about it, they could never rob that person of the stimulating affect of that revealed scripture. Hallelujah! You can shout, and jump, and dance all over the place. Why? Because of the stimulation of that revelation. That is what gets that trinity out of your head, and gets the oneness straightened out in your head. It gets us out of Babylon, and into the church of the living God. Denominational churches are full of people who could not care less, whether God is one, two, three, or a half dozen. They are a lot more concerned about the rocks on the moon, than they are about a true revelation from the word of God. The Reformation opened up the avenue for God to shine His light into the souls of His foreknown sons and daughters, but world religion as a whole is still in almost as much darkness as they were one thousand years ago. Scientifically, and materially, we are advancing rapidly, but spirit-ual darkness is enveloping the whole of natural minded mankind. Did you ever stop to realize that there was no material, nor scientific advancement made, through those long years of the Dark Ages? They went into the Dark Ages riding horses, oxcarts, or walking on foot, and they came out doing the same thing. No wonder it was called, “The Dark Ages,” but do not ever forget what made it so. Far too many compromising souls are already looking back to that old mother system for leadership, after having heard the truth. It just simply proves God’s word, for Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, that God Himself would send strong delusion upon those who have no love for the truth, that they may believe Satan’s lie, and be damn-ed. People have done a lot of compromising in the last 20 years, and it was mostly for some material benefit. But the word of God teaches us, that we should seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all those things we have need of will be added unto us. Not as we want, but as we need. That is why things began to happen when the Reformation struck the world, God was simply fulfilling His word to those who were seeking Him and His righteousness above all else. The wheels of advance-ment turned terribly slow though, until after the turn of the twentieth century.
PERVERSIONS OF GOD’S WORD
Let us get our thinking turned back to this black horse rider, and to the beast that said, Come and see. I want you to understand that this 3rd beast, with the face as a man represents the power of God that contested that Dark Age dogma, but it did not immediately do so, as soon as the Dark Ages started. No. God let that black horse rider, ride through Europe selling His word for quite some time before He began to contest it by the power of that third beast. It brought spiritual darkness, and spiritual death. Brothers and Sisters: It is a pitiful thing, when people who are smart about worldly things, are so blind and ignorant about spiritual things. They actually believe they can light a little candle, and stick it in a window somewhere, and that is a perpetual prayer to God from them. How foolish can people be? I have witnessed this kind of thing over in Israel when we would take those tours. The Catholic Church has built on just about every site in Israel, where the Bible makes particular mention of some out-standing event that took place there, and these Catholic groups that go there, are easy targets for every gimmick those Catholic priests have going for them. One group will come through and light their candles, and drop their quarter or half dollar in the dish and move on out, and the old priest will snuff out the candles, and have them ready for the next bunch that is on the way. Their perpetual prayer candle burns about three minutes. Bro. Jack-son: Is that the truth? Come, and go with me, and see for yourself. There is no more Christianity in the Catholic Church, than there is in a jack rabbit out here in the field. That black horse rider blinded the world to the apostolic gospel, and the Catholic Church is still blind, and full of darkness. They have their trinity in place of one true God. They have sprinkling instead of immersion, and call it baptism. They have confirmation instead of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They have their catechisms to qualify for church membership instead of the new birth. They have their apostles creed, infallibility of the pope, no salvation outside the Catholic Church, the pope as the vicar of Christ, and their blasphemous indulgences, that allows them to sell forgiveness to the poor ignorant souls that are always sinning because they have nothing in them to keep them from sinning. Now saints, please do not misunderstand my statement. The Holy Ghost will not force you to do right, but He is in every true child of God to enable them to do right ; therefore they do not have to give in to temptation. That is what John meant when he wrote, “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” True children of God have the Spirit of Jesus Christ in them, but that other religious spirit, is the spirit of antichrist, and I do not believe we will have much trouble discerning which spirit is leading people if we will just keep our eyes open.
WHAT THE REFORMATION WAS FOR
Now as for the power of God represented by that third beast was most predominant in the Reformation, but we do need to realize, that even during the Dark Ages God had faithful servants that protested that Catholic dog-ma, such as John Wycliffe, Huss, and various others, and they were not a bunch of dummies either; they were educated men. When you come into the actual Reformation period, you find that Martin Luther was a theologian of the Catholic Church. But God had put a hunger in his soul for something else, and when the time was right, God gave him the revelation, that the just shall live by faith. Brother, the day came, that Martin Luther walked up to the church house door in Wittenberg, Germany, and tacked his 95 thesis up there for all to see. Ninety five things he found wrong with the state church. Do not ever think that did not send a tremor throughout all of Europe. It was like an earthquake when it hit the Vatican. But when the Vatican began to reply, the king of Germany came to Luther’s res-cue, and said, Fear not, Martin Luther, I will defend you with my army. That let the pope know that this case could not be handled like a lot of others had been previously. Why? The power of God was working through the beast that had the face as a man. These men that God was using is what that symbolic beast pointed to. It was not just one man; it was many men. Sure, some of them had some extreme ideas, but in the midst of their extremity lay an apostolic truth that God wanted to shed some light on. A lot of people do not think John Calvin should be recognized as one of the Reformers, because he had the idea that anyone who would not believe his revelation, should be put to death. Listen, Saints: You have to realize that he was just coming out of a church system that had been doing that sort of thing all along. In other words, Calvin cannot be measured by conditions of our day; he has to be measured by what was in the forefront of religion in his day. Besides that, he had a determination, that God could use, and you will have to admit, they got the job done, or we wouldn’t be where we are today. God’s purpose was to get the true church out of that dark mess. Get it free from papal dominion, so it can move back into the scriptures. Every last one of them brought a lot of Catholic doctrine out with them, but nevertheless, God was restoring them back to His word, combat-ting that black horse rider. In the light of what we know today, some of what they taught seems terribly carnal, but do not forget, they were stepping out of an age that was dark, and had been for over a thousand years. Those poor souls were not even allowed to read the scriptures themselves. They were forced to believe only what the “church” taught. Regardless of what some may think, God used those men one by one, to bring His church back to the sacred scriptures, back to the gospel that was preached by the church, in the book of Acts. The church lost it step by step; therefore God restored it back to her step by step. That is what the Reformation was for. That old Roman beast was being wounded, but the final blow, and the one that finished fulfilling Revelation 13:3, came from Napoleon Bonaparte, somewhere around 1800 when he actually dethroned the old pope, imprisoned him, and he died in prison. When John was writing about that old ten horned beast that had seven heads, he said, in verse 3, “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” Brother, I want to tell you, from Napoleon’s hour, until around W.W. 1, the pope of the Roman Catholic Church was mainly a figurehead. During those years colonialism was on the move. Those political horns of Europe went every-where, putting down roots for territorial conquests. The Reformation was in full swing. All of the main denominational churches we see out here, are a result of the Reformation. Each of them was founded upon a truth that brought the church back one step closer to what she drifted away from; the revelation of the scriptures. Those Reformation movements began making their way to the New World where they could have freedom to worship God as they chose. That is what made this land of America the greatest nation on the face of the globe politically, except for Israel. She was born at the dawn of the Reformation, and came into full bloom as the Reformation left Europe and came here. This nation embraced the Reformation and everything God wanted His people to have. But I have to tell you something saints, This nation has already sold herself back to that same old system, that same old spirit that once ruled Europe.
TWO HUNDRED YEARS, AND WHAT?
In just a little more than two hundred years, this nation that once dedicated itself to God, imprinted “In God We Trust,” on her currency, and set up her constitution on the merits of the Bible, has kicked God out of her schools, out of her politics, and out of a lot of her churches. Is it any wonder that we are on our way down? These long haired, brainless professors would rather preach and teach evolution, for that gives natural man’s education the limelight, instead of an invisible God that must be contacted by a simple faith. But do not despair, brothers and sisters, for Ezekiel 38 will soon be fulfilled, and when it is, some of these great professors are going to feel the need to rewrite many of their text books. For God has said, “I will be sanctified (or magnified) in the sight of the heathen.” Do you think He was referring to those poor black men of Central Africa? No! He is talking about the great white men of Washington, D.C., New York City, and where ever else they are, who have so much in the top of their heads, they have nothing in their hearts. The heart of man is what God is after, and He knows how to get what He is after. Hallelujah! I am so glad that the God of this Bible is still in control. It may not look like it to some of you, but you take my word for it, educated man can only go so far as God will let him go, and that is only to fulfill the prophecies of the Bible. He is letting this generation choose sides, and I pray that everyone here is on God’s side, for if you are not, you will shortly be cut off. For this is the generation that will live to see Jesus Christ come to earth in power and great glory, and all wickedness shall receive its just reward. Do you think for one minute, that God would have moved upon those Reformers to call His people out of that old mother whore system of religion, just to let time drift on and on until the church is back like it was one thousand years ago? If He allowed time to run on, it sure would be. Just look what ecumenalism has done with religion in the last 15 years. The Protestant daughters have every one jumped right back in the bed with mama. There is not a virtuous one among them spiritually speaking. It just goes to show that the old black horse rider is still riding. The only difference is, he has changed horses again. He started out on a white horse, and changed to a red horse, and then to the black horse that he rode for more than a thousand years, and now he is riding a grey horse. The Bible says pale horse, but we all know that there is no such thing as a pale horse, for the word pale, speaks of the color of flesh when there is an improper flow of blood within, so instead of pale, we should think of a grey horse when we read that 4th seal. Grey is what you get when you mix some white paint in a bucket of black paint, and so forth. In other words, The spirit of antichrist is riding a horse that is neither white, nor black. Why is that? Simply because this ecumenical spirit has caused Protestant denominations to take the little light they had, and run right back into the darkness of Roman Catholicism with it. What do they say? Oh, the Catholic Church is not so bad. Those priests and nuns even believe in speaking in tongues just like we do. Sure they do! The devil has always been able to speak in tongues. Did not Pharoah’s magicians duplicate every sign God gave Moses and Aaron down there in Egypt? Why would he not speak in tongues, if he could deceive a bunch of carnal minded people, by doing it? He could never deceive a true child of God completely, but he can sure get a lot of attention, and he can capture all of those poor unstable souls that are forever looking for some kind of signs to run after. Yes, he is definitely ruling the grey horse now, and we are going to go back to Revelation 6:7-8, and read what John wrote about it, in a minute, but first let me tell you something about the four beasts that represent the power of God combatting that spirit of antichrist. There are seven seals, and seven church ages, and only four beasts, so there is not a beast for each seal or church age. The Spirit and power of God symbolized in each one of those beasts is to be associated with the horse riders; therefore we have to realize that there is an overlapping of each of them, as compared to the seals and ages. The black horse rider did not stop riding as soon as the Reformation started, and neither did the third beast begin combatt-ing that black horse spirit as soon as he started to ride. They each had their hour of introduction. Keep that in mind as we read this fourth seal scripture, in Revelation 6:7-8.
LET US ALL BE ONE
“And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth BEAST say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat xi him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.” Saints: We have a beautiful picture here. Remember, the fourth beast there around the throne of God, was the one that was like a flying eagle. This is the one that will be against the grey horse rider, when he rides for his full purpose. That spirit of Satan can no longer ride a black horse, like he did all through the Dark Ages. The Reformation has made it necessary for him to update his tactics. He can no longer keep people from reading the Bible, so he gets them to make carnal application of what they read. Do you remember when Pope John 23rd made his great ecumenical overtures? Let our Protestant daughters come home. We are all brethern. Where do you suppose he got the idea for that? St. John 17:11 & 21 of course. He used the Bible, but it is not fulfilling what Jesus was referring to when He I prayed like that. In order to be ONE, the way Jesus meant it, both, or all parties would have to be filled with the same Spirit, and that would have to be the Spirit of God. Demons running wild, can never come into true unity, and that is what the church world as a whole is inspired by. They will take off after anything that looks good to their carnal eye, not even caring whether it will line up with the revealed purpose of God or not. Brother, there was a time, when Lutherans, Baptists, Methodists, Nazarenes, Pilgrim Holiness, and these other main religious bodies, did not act like they do today, and it is all because the horse rider has changed horses again. The Charismatics come upon the scene with the same invitation that Pope John 23rd came out with, “Let us all be one, for we are brethren,” and they have picked up everything that wanted an experience. Furthermore, they have used everything that has had any kind of experience, to minis-ter to others, and it has all turned into a putrified mess, and it is a stench in the nostrils of God. That is why you find Him spueing that lukewarm mess out of His mouth, in Rev. 3:16. He received more true worship from many of those poor starved souls back there in the Dark Ages, than He can ever receive from a compromising bunch of “so called,” Christians in this Laodicean age of deception. Multitudes have received an experience of some kind in those Charismatic meetings, but they have no revelation, and neither do those who are leading them. That is why all of them are headed for Rome, back to their old mother, the great whore of Rev. 17:1. Nowhere in the Bible, can you find where God will ever give the Roman Catholic Church any place to repent. The only thing you can find is judgment. Those priests and nuns may speak in tongues and sing in the spirit as much as any one else, but they are all still trinitarians; they still deny the oneness of God, and you don’t find them even looking for truth. They have Mary exalted to the place where Jesus alone can ever be exalted to, and to many of them, He is just simply the one that died, two thousand years ago. Well, I have news for them. Mary died two thousand years ago also; and she is still dead, and she has never interceded for anyone since. But Jesus arose from the dead, ascended to glory, where He sits on the right hand of all power and authority interceding for the sins of the world, and in His name alone, is there any answer to prayer. God is letting that gray horse rider ride though, for Laodicea must reach the fulness of her rotten state before the hand of God makes a clean sweep of it all. These world council of churches, leaders, have one great theme, “Let us not preach doctrine, doctrines divide.” They will not divide the true children of God! Did you hear me? I said, They will not divide the true children of God. Brother, Sister, You will either believe all the doctrine that was taught in the early church, in the book of Acts, or you will not be in the Church at all. God did not put these doctrines in the New Testament just to fill up space. These are what separates true believers from make-believers, and separates believers from the world in general. Otherwise you would be just as justified to remain a pagan, as long as you had a mental belief that included Jesus, or even Judaism. The early church was called Christians, because they believed, and adhered to the doctrines taught by the apostles. That is what brought them out of Judaism, and out of paganism. Their faith was pure. The truth was unadulterated in those days. The antichrist spirit had not yet come on the scene. That is why you can accept every Bible doctrine and precept, for those who wrote it, were writing from that pure revelation. That does not hold true, as you begin to read what other true saints of God wrote, after that white horse rider started to ride, in the closing hours of that first age.
BLINDED EYES OF WORLD RELIGION
Saints: Is any of this making any sense to you? Can you look back through the pages of history, and see how that spirit of antichrist changed horses from time to time? Remember, horse speaks of power. Therefore we would have to realize that the
power of the antichrist spirit has been manifested in different ways through the ages. That is why the power of God that stood against it, had to be symbolized in different ways. Furthermore, Do not expect make-believers to get a revelation of who these horse riders are, for these things are written for the saints of God. This may sound a little carnal to some of you, but all these religious systems, in their modern day state, (not as they were in the days of the Reformation, but as they are today) are nothing more than pagan Gentile religions. They have sold themselves out to the devil, and their leaders will never allow them to go any further with God, than just far enough to get them involved in their carnal programs. The power of the black horse rider is so blended with apostate Protestantism, that he has lost his black color. The horse is neither black, nor white; it is gray. But from a distance, a gray horse can be mistaken for a white horse. Satan has blinded their eyes, until the world is completely color blind. They look at sin, and cannot even tell what color it is. Modern day religion is void of all the old standards that sin used to be judged by. Does that mean that God has changed? The answer is emphatically, No! God never changes! That eagle sits up there on the balconies of glory, seeing everything just as it is. An eagle does not have to be taught to see; they are just naturally born to see. That is why the power of God against that gray horse (pale horse) rider is symbolized as a flying eagle. God knew the world would become so blinded to sin in this age, that it would take something sitting higher than man himself, to see through it all. Therefore He sends that eagle Spirit, to expose the spirit of Satan, and call the bride of Jesus Christ out of Babylon, and back to the world of God. As we have proved over and over from the Bible, God’s true prophets are referred to in the scriptures, in various places, as eagles, so it is this all seeing eye of God, that is exposing Satan to the true saints of His, and He is doing it through those whom He has anointed for this hour. The prophet messenger has already appeared on the scene, and gone, but that gray horse rider is still riding, there-fore God must keep anointed men on the scene, to expose him. The great masses of religion will go with that gray horse, simply because they are color blind. They will end up in hell, after running from place to place speaking in tongues, shouting, dancing, and talking about the benefits of believing in Jesus. I get excited when I think about the benefits of believing ‘in Jesus Christ myself, but at least I realize that those benefits are not just for the carnal flesh of man. The eternal benefits are those doctrines and precepts that get down deep within your soul and make you more like Him. They will cause a true believer to groom himself, or herself, and dress that outer flesh in a manner that will not identify with every carnal spirit that is in the world today. Young people in our day, look more like something the devil has dragged in, than they do humans. Of course, there are exceptions, but you under-stand that we are dealing with what the spirit of this age is producing. They will say, God hates pride. That is true. But God also hates orneriness. Open your Bible to the book of Proverbs, and you will discover that God looks upon humans that do not care how they look, as lower than animals. You will not find those words there, but you will see what I am talking about. I remember the days when people who were not even Christians, had respect for those who were, and for the Bible, and they had moral convictions that they held to, but not any more. Now it seems that they just try to see how low they can get, and they have respect for nothing. The power of the grey horse rider is blinding them to all principles of decency, and you need not expect the overall condition to get any better, for this rider will ride all the way to the end of the age. That is why verse 8 says, that the name of him that sat on the grey horse was Death, and Hell follow-ed with him. Nothing but spiritual death could come out of following this compromising spirit of ecum-enicalism that the World Council of Churches is pushing off on society, and hell is awaiting many who are forever talking about going to be with Jesus.
TROUBLE ON THE WAY
Spiritual death is not the only thing we see in the 8th verse of that 4th seal. Notice what else it says. “And power was given unto them (Death and Hell) over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger, and with death, (That is death to the physical being) and with the beasts of the earth. That is covering the general conditions of the great tribulation, in the last half of that seventieth week of Daniel. During that period, the ecumenical spirit of the council of churches is going to be just as diabolical and Satanic as the old Roman beast was, in the Dark Ages. Do you know why? It is because the image of the beast gets her power from the same spirit the first beast got its power from, the devil. Those beast forces will kill anyone that disagrees, or refuses to go along with them. No, the bride of Christ will not be here then, but there will be a lot of Gentile foolish virgins, and a lot of Jews, that will choose martyrdom, rather than submit to that beast. You may think it was bad in the Dark Ages, but according to Daniel 12:1, there is a time of trouble coming, such as there never has been before, and brother, it will be right there in that week of Daniel when the full effects of the spirit of this gray horse rider is turned loose on mankind. I say that in that way, just to empha-size the fact that it is the spirit of the devil in his futile attempt to outdo God. Of course we need to realize something else also; when the bride is taken up to glory before this terrible time hits the earth, that means the five fold ministry will be gone also. But the eagle will still be on the job working through the Moses and Elijah prophets of Rev. 11:3-7, until the middle of that week, when they are killed by the beast, and their dead bodies are allowed to lay in the streets of Jerusalem for 31/2 days while the whole world views it on their television news broadcasts. By that time, there will be a hundred and forty four thousand Jewish servants sealed with the Spirit of God, and they will scatter to the nations of the earth warning people to flee from that beast and his evil forces. In other words, we will say this, As long as the effects of those four horse riders are being expressed in the earth, the Spirit and power of God to combat it will be present also. That is what was symbolized in those four beasts John saw in the midst of the throne of God.
FIFTH SEAL REVEALED
Alright now, let us look at verse 9, here in the 6th chapter of Revelation. These next three verses deal with the 5th seal, all of which is fulfilled in the age of Laodicea. I will never forget that night in 1963, when Brother Branham stood to present the revelation of this fifth seal. I thought to myself, What is he going to say. But by the time he had finished, I could easily see that the souls under the altar were Jews that had been slain in the WW2 era, as Hitler’s forces tried to exterminate every last one of them. Let us read it, and pay attention to the wording, and you will see that it is not what a lot of people think it is. “And when He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar (or before the altar) the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Most Gentiles that read this, think because Gentiles have had the gospel for almost two thousand years, this has to be Gentile souls under the altar, but it is not. It does not say they were slain for the gospel’s sake; they were slain for the word of God, and the testimony which they held. Jews have always had the word of God, and their testimony is, that they believe in Jehovah. Therefore when you realize that Hitler slew more than six million Jews during those WW2 days, it all adds up. That does not mean that all six million of them are under the altar of God, for I am sure that many of them stood before the firing squad, or went to the gas chambers cursing God. Just being a Jew by natural heritage did not make them believers in Jehovah. There are a lot of them in Israel right today, that are just as atheistic in their beliefs as anyone else, but there are also enough spiritual ones to fulfill the purpose of God. Why did God allow that mass slaughter, some will say? Something had to happen, to cause those Jews who were left alive to want to go home, back to the land of their heritage. There were scriptures to be fulfilled, prophecies that had been laying there for centuries, prophecies that speak of a gathering of Israel from the nations in which she had been scattered, back into the land given to Abraham and his seed after him. Do you think Jews that were prospering in the other nations would have wanted to go to Israel to live, if something had not happened to force them? No. But after those who went there to get out of Europe, got the ball rolling, Jews from every nation have gone there to make their homes. Some of them are believers in Jehovah, and some of them are not, but it will take political minded Jews to sign the peace covenant with the antichrist, so it is all working in the overall plan of God. As for those who were slain believing in Jehovah, no doubt thousands of them died crying, O Jehovah, why has it fallen our lot to be treated like this? We read in verse 11, concerning them, “And white robes were given unto every one of them ; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, (For how long? A little season.) until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” It will not be Hitler killing the next bunch; it will be the Antichrist and his beast forces. Some have thought these under the altar might be those who were martyred in the 13th century, in the Spanish Inquisition, but that would not fit the little season of time in between the two slaughters. Be-sides that, the revelation God gave to His prophet messenger, was that it was those slaughtered by Hitler in WW2, and we have no reason to question that, when the other seals were opened and revealed so clearly at the same time. Even the purpose for allowing Hitler to do that, adds up scripturally, for the sixth seal could not be fulfilled until world conditions were in line for it. Israel had to be a nation of people again. There has to be another slaughter of Jews. There has to be two prophets prophesy to the nation for 31/2 years. There has to be an Ezekiel 38 war fought, a peace covenant signed, more land obtained by Israel, a temple built, and much, much more, before the fulfillment of the sixth seal, even though the revelation of it has already been given to the people of God in this hour, the Gentile bride.
FULFILLMENT ORDER OF RECORDED EVENTS
What is the revelation of the sixth seal, you may ask? It is the wrath of God being poured out upon wicked mankind after the great tribulation has run its course. It is the fulfillment of Isaiah 13, Isaiah 24, Joel 2:10, Matthew 24, and all those other scriptures that speak of a time such as we read of, in verses 12-17, of chapter 6, where John recorded the events and conditions of the sixth seal. Let us read it, and then we will show you some of what must transpire between verse 11, and verse 12, here in Revelation chapter 6. “And I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Isaiah said the earth would reel to and fit like a drunk man, in those days, and Joel said the earth would quake, and the heavens tremble, And Jesus said, (Matthew 24:29) Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. All of this pertains to the sixth seal fulfillment. Notice verse 14, now. “And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? There is two things I will point out right here. When this is taking place, Jesus will not be still sitting on the throne, and neither will He be seen as the Lamb of God at this time. If you want to see what He will be like in that hour, open your Bible to Revelation 19:11, and let us read a little of that. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written, that no man knew, but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him (There is where you will find the bride in that hour.) upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” So you see, In that hour, He will no longer be the Lamb of God. You can see also, that this is what the last 6 verses of chapter six are dealing with, and we know that this occurs at the end of the great tribulation, so that leaves many recorded events of the book of Revelation to be squeezed in between the 5th seal, and the 6th seal; even the fulfillment of the 7th seal, which is found in the first verse of chapter 8. That is why I can tell you, that we are living between verses 11 and 12, and the very next thing we are looking for, as far as what is recorded in the book of Revelation, is the opening of the 7th seal, chapter 8, verse 1, and chapter 10:1-6. That will bring Jesus off of the mercy seat, and close Gentile time. That will bring chapter 11, verses 3-6, into the picture, as those two Jewish prophets appear on the scene in Israel, and their ministry is what fulfills chapter 7:1-8, where the 144,000 servants of God are sealed, twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes. Verses 2-13, of chapter 8, cover the signs that accompany their ministry. Actually the fourth TRUMPET angel sounding, in 8:12, is what marks the middle of the week, and announces the three woes that are to follow the sounding of the other three trumpets. That of course, opens up chapter 9, verses 1-12, covering the fifth trumpet, and the first woe, which in reality is hell being turned loose upon earth. It puts chapter 11:7-14 into effect. That is the killing of the two prophets, also in the middle of the week, and after they have laid there 31/2 days with the whole world looking upon them, the Spirit of God enters into them, and they stand up. That causes great fear to fall upon those who witness this. But that isn’t all, a voice from heaven says, Come up hither, and they ascend to heaven with their enemies staring in amazement, and immediately, there is a great earthquake, (Not the one of the sixth seal, it will come later.) and the tenth part of the city falls, and seven thousand men are slain. That fulfills the second woe that was announced in 8:13. The first 5 verses of chapter 12 show a panoramic view of the nation of Israel through her law age, and into her Millennial glory. She is impregnated with the prophecies of her prophets concerning a man child, (who we know was Jesus the Christ, whom they rejected when He came) who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. It speaks of a dragon which stood before the woman, ready to devour her child as soon as He was born. That was the devil incorporated in the old Roman empire, which was the means of His crucifixion. He was caught up to God, after He was raised from the dead. Verse 6 shows the woman (Israel) fleeing into the wilderness into a place that God has prepared for her. A place where she will be fed and protected for a thousand two hundred and threescore days. In other words, that starts the spiritual element of the nation of Israel fleeing into her place of hiding, right in the middle of that week of Daniel when so many other things of the book are being fulfilled at the same time. That is why we said earlier, that you simply cannot list on paper by chapter and verse, the exact order of fulfillment. But we will point out the fact that the whole grace age is inserted between verses 5 & 6, of chapter 12, therefore we just place chapter 12 and chapter 13, right after the killing of the two prophets in chapter 11. The third woe is found in chapter 12:12, in relation to the persecution of Israel during the great tribulation.
TRIBULATION SAINTS
Chapter 13 deals with the beast that had seven heads, and ten horns, the image of the beast, and the mark of the beast. Verses 5-8, also pertain to the middle of the week and onward to the end, so we just look at the whole chapter right there. Then we will drop back to chapter 7, and pick up verses 9-17, for in here we see all those tribulation saints which will be martyred during the last half of that week, both Jews and Gentile foolish virgins. In verse 9, John says, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands.” Those white robes show that they are saved people, but they are not a part of the bride of Christ, for the bride is arrayed in fine linen, white and clean. But these have white robes, the same as those souls under the altar, in the 5th seal of chapter 6. John was observing how this great multi-tude was giving glory to God, when one of the elders said to him, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? Whence came they? John only answered, “Sir, thou knowest.” In other words, Sir, I do not know, but you do. Then he said to him, “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” This same group is identified more completely in chapter 20, going into the Millennium, for over there, it shows that they were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, (Gentile foolish virgins) and for the word of God, (That would be the other bunch of martyred Jews, that would die the same way as those we saw under the altar, in the 5th seal, making the little season, the time between WW2 and the great tribulation.) and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” We see two or three things there, that removes all question of who they are, and what period of time they were martyred in, for there has never been an image to the beast before, and there has never been a mark of the beast before, but there will be shortly, when that week of Daniel is in effect. Also, we see by this, that there will be a resurrection between the great tribulation and the starting of the Millennium, for these tribulation saints are going to live and reign with Christ and His bride for one thousand years.
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
The remainder of chapter 9, which is verses 13-21, deal with conditions that set the stage for the battle of Armageddon, which will be fought in the end of that week of Daniel, as the week of time draws near the end, and chapter 14, verses 1-13 is dealing with the ministry of the 144,000 Jewish servants of God, that will fan out to the nations, preaching the everlasting gospel, during that great tribulation time. It will not be a gospel of salvation as we think of the gospel. But they will be condemning spiritual Babylon, and warning their Jewish breth-ern still in dispersion not to have anything to do with the beast, nor his image, nor receive his mark. Therefore since they are pro-nouncing judgment upon Babylon, you can just insert chapters 17 & 18 right there, for chapter 17 tells us about that great whore, which had a name written upon her forehead MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS (protestant denomina-tions) AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH, and chapter 18 tells of her judgment, and the affect of her judgment upon those that had dealings with her. Chapter 15 is only eight verses, but it shows the angels of heaven preparing to descend to earth with the seven last plaques, which in reality is the wrath of God being poured out upon the earth, when it is turned loose. Then we go back to chapter 14, and pick up with verse 14, where we read these words, “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, (That is exactly who it is.) having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.” That golden crown shows that He is already crowned King of kings, and Lord of lords, and it is just about time for Him to descend to earth in wrath, bringing His bride with Him, as we have already read in chapter 19. Notice this verse 15 here in chapter 14. “And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap: for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” We will not read all of this, but in this particular situation, ripe could be translated rotten, for that is what will be on earth in that hour, a rotten mess. The hour is at hand for the Lord Jesus to descend to earth with the armies of heaven and reap vengeance upon all ungodliness that is still present in mortal flesh. By that time, the battle of Armageddon will be in full effect. The communistic forces from the East, and those of Europe, will be locked into the greatest of all battles, there in the Jezreel Valley, in Israel. Catholicism will have been swallowed up by communism, and the old pope (antichrist) will have used up just about all of his allotted time, (31/2 years) and dead bodies will be rotting where they fell in battle, so we can go back to chapter 6, and lay verses 12-17, right after the conclusion of chapter 14, for what you read there, in the 6th seal, covers the windup of it all. That includes verses 15-19, of chapter 11, where the seventh trumpet angel sounds, and great voices in heaven declare that the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. All of chapter 16, will go in here also, for it deals with the seven vials, which cover the wrath of God being poured out, upon earth, at the coming of Jesus Christ and His saints, and the 7th vial of that chapter is definitely the literal coming of Christ, and that in-cludes what we have already read from chapter 19. In verse 17, of chapter 19, we read this, “And I saw an angel standing in the sun: and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather youselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sat on them, and the flesh of all men both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the white horse, and against His army.” This is all those forces that have been fighting the battle of Armaged-don, at least what is left of them by then, and when they see Jesus descending to earth with His armies of heaven, they turn to fight against Him, and verse 21, tells us that they that were left by then, were slain with the sword that proceeded out of the mouth of Him that sat upon the white horse. His sword is His word. That cleanses the earth of all ungodly mankind, and sets the stage for the Millennium to be inaugurated.
FROM MILLENNIUM INTO ETERNAL AGE
Chapter 20 opens with an angel of heaven locking up the devil for a thousand years in the bottom-less pit, so he will not be around during the Millennial reign of Christ to cause any trouble, and after the devil is bound, thrones are set, and Millennial subjects are chosen from the still living element of mortal flesh that has survived the great tribulation, and the wrath of God, and they are given the privilege of living and repopulating the earth for the next one thousand years. That is what the sheep and goat judgment of Matthew 25:31-46, pertains to. Later on in chapter 20, after the thousand years has passed, we see where Satan is loosed from the bottomless pit, and allowed to go out, and test the people that were born during the time he was bound up. (Every mortal has to be tested before he receives eternal life.) He deceives a great number of them, a number so great that they are as the sand of the sea, and they gather together to make war with the saints, but God sends fire from heaven to destroy them, and then takes the devil that deceived them, and casts him into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are already. That brings the great white throne judgment into the picture, for after the devil is cast into the lake of fire, all those wicked, dead souls are resurrected to stand before the judgment of God, and when that judgment is completed, and every wicked soul cast into the lake of fire, truly, all the earth will be cleansed from every trace of sin. That brings you to chapters 21 & 22, which deal with the eternal age. God will then be back in His sons and daughters in the fullness of Himself, and Jesus will then be our elder brother, for we will all be filled with the fullness of the great eternal Spirit then. That is what Paul was speaking of, in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.
ONLY ONE PERSON IN GODHEAD
Brothers and Sisters: Would you not have to agree, that this book of Revelation is a beautiful love letter, written to the bride of Christ’? It is mostly about God’s dealing, with the nation of Israel, but it was written to the bride, you might say. I do not know about the rest of you, but it thrills my soul, just to realize what God has made known to us, here in these last days. All through the ages, men have studied this book, and many of them have concluded, that it never should have been written, simply because they did not know how to read it. But tell me, Do you find it to be so confusing, now that the Spirit of God has showed us how to read it? The books of Revelation and Daniel studied together, lets us know the day we are living in, and allows us to know what to expect next. Naturally we do not claim to be able to explain fully, every verse, to the satisfaction of everyone who may read this message, but I am convinced that we have the book layed out in the order of fulfillment, at least, as much as is possible to do so. Furthermore I realize that we could never cover everything in all of the chapters, in one message, regardless of how many papers we run it in. Therefore we are just trusting the Holy Ghost to help every sincere soul, that desires to learn more of the truth of God’s word. The book of Revelation, like Daniel is filled with symbolic references, but I do not feel that this should cause all that much trouble to any person who is studying it for the right reasons. Some people question the 16th verse of chapter 6, where it says that men cried unto the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” Naturally it takes a revelation to get it, and that would rule out all
possibility of anyone understand-ing it, unless they first have a revelation of the Godhead. A trinitarian will look at it, and say, The one sitting on the throne is the Father, and the Lamb is Jesus. But when you do that, you have two persons in the Godhead, and that will not line up with the scriptures. You must remember what we read in chapter 19, verse 11, where the heaven was opened to John, and he saw a white horse, and the one sitting on that horse was without a doubt, Jesus Christ, coming in wrath and judgment. He was robed in a vesture dipped in blood, (The vesture is symbolic of the author-ity of Jehovah, the eternal Spirit.) His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns.” We know that He did not have a bunch of crowns stacked upon His head, so what does this symbolize? Simply the fact that He has been invested with the authority from the eternal Spirit, to rule all nations upon the face of the earth. Therefore with all authority to judge and execute wrath upon wicked mankind, the Lamb is symbolic of the fact that He is executing the wrath of Himself. In Him, lays an invest-ment of authority from the Father, to execute all things pertaining to redemption and restoration, but He does not exercise Himself in every office at the same time. He walked on earth as the Son of God, went to the cross and shed His blood as the Lamb of God, intercedes for our sins as high priest, rules on earth as King of kings, and Lord of lords, and sits judging at the great white throne judgment with complete authority to do so. You just have to remember that Jesus is the only PERSON of the Godhead, and therefore, regard-less of what it may look like, there will never be two persons exercising themselves in the capacity of God, for God the eternal Spirit only works through His only begotten Son Jesus, and He will never be seen in a theophany bodily form again. Whatever God is to any of us, that is what Jesus is, for when you have a revelation to know how and why He is, it is proper to say Jesus Christ is God. Jesus is God, because the eternal Spirit that begat Him, incarnated Him when He became age 30, and was baptized by John the Baptist, in the Jordan River.
SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY
In Hebrews 1:1-3, Paul wrote these words. “God, who at sundry times (various times) and in divers manners (different ways) spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son whom He hath appointed
heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds.” Now to every trinitarian, that says that God’s Son Jesus was right there with Him, when He created the world, the Father, and the Son both distinct persons, and both equal in authority, but they do not even leaven it at that, for they make the Holy Ghost the third person of the Godhead, and that gives them their trinity. On the other hand, revelated children of God know that the God that created all things in a sovereign Spirit, and has never been a person, and will never be a person, and they know also, that Jesus the Son of God never had any preexistence with the Father except in the Father’s great mind, like all the rest of us. But by the same word that created the Son as an embryo in the womb of a young virgin, He had already created the world, and all things therein. Paul knew that God is one, and that Jesus Christ was the one and only person of the Godhead, but he had a way of writing, that made him sound like a trinitarian for sure. But he was writing to people who also knew that same thing; therefore he did not have to worry about being misunderstood in that way. It is just like I said earlier, If people do not have a revelation of the Godhead, they can never under-stand terminology like we find in so many places in the New Testament. For instance, in chapter 5, verses 5-7, of the book of Revelation, where John is told, 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. 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.” Without a revelation of the Godhead, you are bound to come up with more than one person when you read those verses, for it is that one God revelation, that lets you know that the Lion, and the Lamb, and the enc sitting on the throne is one and the selfsame person. The symbolic terminology only speaks of merits, and authority of the one who is going to open those seals by the direction of the eternal Father. As I have said many times before, When the Father which is Spirit, incarnated the Son which was a person, there was only one person in the picture, but there were two minds, and the mind of the Son was always subject to the mind of the Father that was in Him. God’s sovereign choice to express Himself only through the person of His only begotten Son Jesus, confuses a lot of people who try to study the Bible. They know that the throne in heaven is the throne of the Father, and they simply cannot understand how Jesus could be sitting on it, simply because they do not understand the Father Son relationship. The Father is sitting on His throne incarnated in the person of His only begotten Son. The fact that the little scroll was held in the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne symbolically speaks of the fact that the opening of those seals rested within the sovereign authority of the Father which is in His Son. I keep stressing the fact that the Father was in the Son, for it would be wrong on our part if we ever looked at these things as though the Son Jesus operated independently from the Father. That could never be possible, for they are both one Spirit. The Father is not in the Son as a separate Spirit, making two Spirits in one body of flesh. No. When Jesus said, I am in the Father, and the Father is in men, He meant it literally, for the Spirit which is the Father, blended with the spirit of the Son, and they became one Spirit. Therefore whatever the Son Jesus does, it is done by the sovereign authority of the Father that is in Him. When He sits upon the throne, in the Millennium, ruling all nations with a rod of iron, those that see Him will see Jesus, but the Father will be right there in Him.
CLOSING WORDS
Brothers and Sisters, I hope we have said something that will make this beautiful prophetic letter stand out a little more clearly to you, for we are living in a day and hour when much of it is shortly to be fulfilled, and my prayer is, that when chapter a. verse 1, and chapter 10:1-6, becomes a fulfilled reality, we will all be ready to go to the marriage supper with Jesus, our heavenly bridegroom. As I have already said, Those thunders are for the bride, and they are for her final preparation before she takes her flight, but they cannot sound until after the 7th seal is broken, and Jesus leaves His mediatorial officework. In the meanwhile, the gray horse rider is still riding, and that flying eagle beast is still guarding God’s interest. That does not mean that there will have to be another prophet messenger to take Bro. Bran-ham’s place, it only means that God is going to keep His five fold ministry on the scene, and they are going to have their spiritual eyes open to what the devil is doing, and they will let the little bride know about it. God bless you. Amen.
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