WE WERE SPEAKING OF THE MINISTRY GOD PLACED IN THE CHURCH FOR THE PERFECTING OF THE SAINTS; AND HOW IT WAS NECESSARY FOR THERE TO BE A MALACHI 4:5-6 MINISTRY UPON EARTH BEFORE THE FIVE FOLD MINISTRY COULD BECOME AN END TIME REALITY; SO THAT IS WHERE WE WILL PICK UP AND CONTINUE ON FROM.

If we will look back to the beginning of the gospel era, first you had John the Baptist. We can understand what he was. Then we have the Messiah the Christ. He came upon the scene right on the heels of John. It was through Jesus Christ that this whole dispensation was activated, through His death, burial, and resurrection. When He was crucified, buried, rose again, and ascended on high, then that same Spirit that was in Him was sent back to dwell in every true believer. That first happened on the day of Pentecost, enabling them to pick up and continue on with what He had been doing. When that Spirit came back, what did He do? He literally fulfilled exactly what Ephesians 4 speaks of. “Now God has set in the Church apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.” That ministry got the Church established upon a solid foundation; and as long as that generation remained alive and able to guide the Church, Satan was unable to do much in the way of perverting Bible doctrine. However as they finished their course and left the leadership responsibilities to the next generation, that antichrist spirit began to infiltrate the ranks of the various assemblies; and before very long, it was obvious that the Church was being robbed of that apostolic type of men. Every imaginable Satanic teaching began to be introduced among the ranks of the believers. You can read Revelation 2:1-3:18, and get a pretty good picture of the shape the Church was in even before the apostle John died. He was anointed of God to write the book of Revelation in the year 96 A.D.; long after the rest of the original apostles were all dead. There were none of the original apostles left alive at the close of that first Church Age. They were all martyred. History picks up the record and speaks of many men who had sat under their teachings, that were affected to a great extent; but somehow or other even in that second generation of men there was something lacking, when it came to holding a line on the original revelation given to the Church. Therefore the Church was destined in process of time, to begin to decay, slip away, deviate and begin to err concerning the faith of our apostolic fathers. Satan just simply began to strip the Church of these important things; such as the apostolic ministry and the revelation they held. While in the Middle Ages God raised up various types of men, much like those of the Reformation that came later, only He Himself knows what the gallant faith and stability of those men caused them to have to labor under as they faced persecution of not only the governments, but also of the Catholic Church and every other kind of Satanic spirit. Many of them were just literally slaughtered because of the things they stood for. What we need to realize is, if the Reformation itself, which has been in process for the almost five hundred years, has been a process of God restoring back gradually what the Church had been stripped of, then rest assured that it was here in the end time that God intended to put everything back in true perspective, in every detail, so that the faith of our fathers (our apostolic, spiritual fathers) can give us exactly what those had who formed the foundation upon which your and my faith and understanding and walk with God is established. It absolutely has to be back in the Bible. That kind of faith cannot survive on nothing more than denominational church tradition. That is why we have for twenty six long years, labored and strived to present something in a Christian way, to give people that would listen to what we say, an opportunity to know what Jesus Christ is coming back for. We have had much opposition since the death of Bro. William Branham; but we are witnesses of what that man was, what he said in this area, and of the fact that he had a message for the universal body of true believers. It was in this area, Jeffersonville, Indiana, Clark County, the southern portion of Indiana, right along the Ohio River, that God raised up this man to sound this truth to the ends of the earth. I do not care from what nation some may come from, they were not witnesses of this man and his unique ministry. How dare the man that lived in Rome, whether he may have been Jew or Gentile, come to Jerusalem ten years after Jesus had been crucified and dare to say, I was a witness. How could such a person claim to be a witness? To be a witness, you have to be there personally. You have to see and hear what is taking place. Furthermore God has to establish you, in order for you to be an effective witness of spiritual things. You know how this kind of thing works. A lot of people can be driving down a highway and be involved in a catastrophic automobile wreck; but you believe me, not every one can be a legal witness of what actually happened, in a court of law. By the time those attorneys get through screening everyone, you find out there were not nearly as many real witnesses of the tragedy as you might have thought there were. The mere fact that they were all involved in the mishap did not necessarily qualify them as acceptable witnesses of what actually caused the thing. They have seen all the chaos; but what really caused it? They all have a different version; and that makes it necessary for those who have the responsibility of learning the truth to determine which testimony has merit, and which does not have sufficient merit to be acceptable. It is the same way concerning the life and ministry of Bro. William Branham. A lot of people claim to know all about him, his ministry, what he said, and what he meant; but when you put them to the Bible test, very few qualify to give personal testimony of these things. That is why I talk like this; because God allowed me to be a personal witness. By the grace of God, I know what I am talking about. I did not receive what I know from someone else. God raised up this man, in this area, because it was the end time; and because there are certain things in our Bible that had to be characterized in much the same fashion as it was in the apostolic hour. Also there came people of this end time, their outlook was affected much in the same manner as it was back then. I will give you an example.

WHAT SOME HAVE BELIEVED AND TAUGHT

I will never forget: it was along about 1958 when there began to be the murmuring or rumor that certain ones within the following was secretly believing William Branham was none other than the Messiah, the Lord. I know I have told this in other messages; but I feel that it should be in this one also. It was in the fall of 1958, a particular preacher that had moved to this are from Michigan paid me a visit. He came down where I was building on my house. Standing there on that day he asked the question, Bro. Jackson, do you reckon mankind today would recognize Jesus if He were to come on the scene as before? I said I believe they would, if God was dealing with them. Then he said, Well, what I mean is, if he dressed like you and I, would He be recognized? I thought, What is he talking about? He followed up by saying, Have you ever thought about who you think Bro. William Branham is? When he said that, then I realized, this is exactly what I have been hearing over the months that have transpired. I said, Brother, he is that Elijah of Malachi 4. He is that Church Age angelic messenger of Revelation 10:7; and when you start making him more than that, you are getting yourself in trouble. He shut up and never said any more about it. I never heard much more of him after that; but I do remember it was in the fall of 1958. Then in December 1960, Bro. William Branham was led to start a week of meetings; and during that time he taught on the seven Church Ages. He took each age separately as he dealt with them, reading about each church assembly that portrayed the spirit of a certain Church Age. He went into the history of the time that was related to that particular church that exemplified that particular age. That whole week was really a blessing to the people of God. I will never forget sitting there, hearing that little man preach those things. It made the Bible which was already a unique book, such a living reality. You could just see the picture in your mind’s eye. When the meeting was over, you just wanted to be that much more dedicated to the faith you felt God was giving you the opportunity to exercise. I heard many people say, It is going to be so wonderful when the Spirit of God begins to move over the earth and people begin to see this. However it was just a few months later, in the year 1961, while Bro. William Branham was in a meeting in Chicago, that this thing about him being more than he was began to appear. It spread fast though, for from there he went into Canada and ran into the same thing. Here, is the booklet titled, “The Bruised Serpent.” In there, he tells about the particular characters that had gathered around him and how God had showed him in a dream, this particular snake or serpent, and how the people thought it was so beautiful. He tells how he had been fishing with certain ones of those men and the subject was brought up. He told them and even begged them, in that experience of talking with them, saying, I am your brother. Please don’t play with that thing. Get rid of it. There in Canada, in that message, he told how up in Alaska among th Eskimos, they were wanting to baptize in the name of William Branham because they believed he was their Messiah. There is just no limit to what the devil will do, trying to cause people to miss God’s true way.

WHAT I SAID AND WHAT I MEANT

Let me take this opportunity to say a few things to clear up some of my other remarks. When I said, I was a witness, some of you older ones sitting here were witnesses also, to things that developed in this area. Therefore I say these words to viewers of the video, hearers of the other tapes, and to those others that are away from this area. I have a reason for saying what I am saying. When I said earlier, Bro. William Branham is not about to be resurrected to come back and fulfill some long hypothetical dream of someone that thinks it is the only way everything can be wound up properly. Even if God would bring that man back from the dead to please the fantasy of some people, it would not make them one bit better; it would only make them worse. In fact, the effect on them would be just as nil as when Jesus spoke of the incident and the circumstances concerning the rich man and Lazarus. (Luke 16:22) “And it came to pass, that the beggar (Lazarus) died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: 23 the rick man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.” That does not mean Abraham was carrying him around like a baby. God just let him see Lazarus leaning against Abraham’s chest, like the scripture speaks of John the apostle leaning on the Lord’s chest. What did Jesus tell them in that parable? If they will not believe the written word, they will not be persuaded by one resurrected from the dead. Can you see how vain all of this kind of talk is? I want to read the rest of that parable; so you can get the message right from the words of Jesus, as He used this setting to convey a truth. God does not depend upon dead men to come back from the grave and preach th gospel. That is a job for His living ministry. (Luke 16:24) “And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: 28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. (Notice how Abraham answered him, and apply that answer to your present day, for that part is still exactly the same.) 31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” All this foolishness about Bro. William Branham coming back from the dead to finish his ministry is mere hypothetical, presumptuous ideas that carnal minded men think God will yield to. He will not! It was in te year 1955, in the month of November: Bro. William Branham came down home to go rabbit hunting. He had seen this vision about the tent, the third pull, some months prior. (I remember when he first mentioned it in the pulpit.) It was on a November day, with drizzling rain, that he was down home. It finally rained enough we went up to the edge of the woods and sat down underneath a tree. He sat on a stump, and that is when he told me the vision. Yes, in the vision he literally saw a tent. In the vision he saw how he was to pray for people. He told me, Bro. Jackson, I believe the day will come when God will give me the tent, and I will not have to pay any attention to these ministerial associations. He said, I will be able to have the equipment, the trucks, and such to move about from place to place. I will just send out a coworker into a certain city and acquire the facility of a ballpark or something like that where we can set the tent up. I believe I can move in there and stay there a week, two weeks, six weeks, however long God wants me. I will not be restricted by the ties of a ministerial association that always requires cooperation with them, to carry out their plan. I just have to say this, There is no doubt in my mind that the vision was absolutely God’s way of showing him what his ministry would potentially become. Watch now. By 1957, not only do we have this Messiah spirit arising, but we begin to have a category of people, people with money, not the poor laboring class, that began to move into the area, people who did not have to depend on a particular job for their daily keep. These people began to press themselves around him. Everywhere you would see him, you would see them following. It did not matter whether he went to Georgia, Chicago, or where, they went with him. You could hear it said behind the church many times, in other places where you would see these people, I’ll be glad when he gets that tent. I want to be a truck driver. I want to help put up the tent. On and on it would go. The expectations people began to have, I want to do this, I want to do that, and so forth. By the time 1961 came and this Messiah spirit began to be so strong, it was those people who always pressed in so close to him, that were forever sowing that idea in the mind’s of all who would listen. Let me say to you out there across the land, wherever you may hear my words, You may say, But Bro. William Branham saw it. It has to come to pass. I will just come right back and say, Moses was told a certain thing in the desert, when he had fled from Pharaoh. He herded sheep for forty years on the back side of the desert for his father-in-law Jethro. When God finally spoke to Moses, you know what God told him? I have called you to go down into Egypt and lead my people out. He told him where they were to be taken to. They are going to be taken back to the land of their fathers, a land that flows with milk and honey. For four hundred and some years that had been the dream and expectation of all those Israelis sojourning in that strange land; because it was spoken to Abraham by the Spirit of the Lord. Well Moses went to Egypt. Moses was commissioned to display and manifest the power of God, as God worked it through him. You know the whole story. Finally the hour of the exodus came. What a display of God’s power was manifested as they crossed the Red Sea, and later as God gave them the rock, then the manna. We know from the story of the scriptures, the children of Israel were sustained for forty years. They did not have to depend on anything other than God’s provision. IN the desert there was no such thing as planting a garden or anything like that. They ate manna from heaven and drank from that rock. All this typed the Christ that was yet to come. Christ is that hidden manna; and the rock that was there in the natural, typed the Rock Christ out of which flows the Holy Spirit. That makes Him the rock of our salvation. My point is this, When they came forty years through that wilderness journey, you know the story so think of this, Moses left Egypt with a promise, with an assurance in his heart, I am going to a land that flows with milk and honey. No where in the scriptures did God ever tell him six months after they left. You will not go all the way. He never said one thing about it; but when they got to the final points, and the children of Israel got to complaining, fussing, and it so aggravated Moses, that after forty years of this, it just moved him to say a little word and make a statement in disgust. The minute he did it, God said, come here Moses. Did this diminish anything from what Moses had already done? No, it just goes to show that he was a man and could only take so much of that kind of grumbling without expressing himself. Yet the Bible tells me there were none of the prophets greater than Moses; because God talked to him mouth to ear, and so forth. Nevertheless when Moses said those words, and God said to Moses, Come here, and then said to him, Because you did not honor me, you will not lead them over. What did that do to the vision inside his soul, as being the instrument that would lead the children of Israel into the promised land? That vision was cut off; and soon afterward Moses was cut off; but what did God do for him first? He took him up on a high mountain on a clear day. God did this when the angle of the sun would be just right and He cleared all the humidity out of the air so he could see far away. God said to Moses, Take a look. You know what the scriptures say. He was privileged to look over into Canaan land and see a little bit of what he had for forty years longed to be able to lead the children of Israel into; but circumstances changed the picture. I say this, there is such a thing as man getting in the way of what God is doing, and when this happens it will cause God to cut short something that could have been. It does not cut God’s plan for His people short. Many times it is just a case of God cutting something short that He was going to accomplish through a certain man, if the instrument had not allowed circumstances to change things. It is all because of what people do. Therefore when Bro. William Branham, had this vision, if those people would have gotten themselves out of God’s way and let God lead and direct in the proper way, there is no doubt that as Bro. William Branham came into the later months of his ministry, things could have been different. He was moved by divine inspiration to teach the revelation of the seven seals; because they are written in symbols to hide the revelation from carnal mankind, in Revelation 5 and 6; and what a wonderful thing, if at that same time his ministry would have blossomed into the point that he could have been praying for the sick and God do some of the outstanding things in that fashion. As I listened to him tell of the vision, the tent and what he had seen done in it, that was really to be a further extension of the ministry, as to how he was to pray for the sick and the things that was to be accomplished. However none of that has anything to do with the revelation of what he preached. You just have to keep everything in its proper place.

A MESSAGE THAT FELL UPON DEAF EARS

When 1961 came, Bro. William Branham heard of this thing that was being spread about him, and he came home from the field. I just read it the other night. I remembered that Sunday morning as we went to the tabernacle. We did not know what we were about to hear; because we had gotten a telephone call: Bro. Jackson, please come to the Tabernacle in the morning. Bro. William Branham has come home. He cut the meetings short in Canada. He has something he wants to say to the people. When he stood on the platform that morning he was white, like he had been injured. He cried. He stood and looked at the people. You could not help but feel sorry for him; and when he began to bring out this terrible thing those people had turned loose, I thought to myself at that time, Yes, suppose he had a tent, suppose he had trucks, then what? Suppose these same characters were driving his trucks. Every meeting he would have had, before the service would start and he get a chance to preach, they would be out among the people indoctrinating them, twisting their understanding about this man, who he was, what he was, and what he was here to do, as though God needs that kind of help. God has never needed that kind of help. God wants you and me to be witnesses of something for sure; but He does not want us to be perverters of what we see and hear, and find us out among people giving them the wrong picture. God is not the author of confusion, but of love and peace. It is only the devil that stimulates such adverse things. Well when Bro. William Branham preached that sermon, at first it looked like those men responsible for the trouble all went to him personally, repenting and asking forgiveness. I remember that night, when he came back and spoke of how he felt relieved. He felt like that spirit would die after that; and never cause any more trouble. God knew whether it would die or not; and I can assure you, It did not die. In the dream, when Bro. William Branham saw that snake, he shot it. He shot it through the midst of its body. He was about to shoot it in the head; but one of the men said, Don’t do that, just take this stick. As he turned to get the stick, that allowed the snake time to get off into the water. He said, Well it is mortally wounded, it will die. However after Bro. William Branham’s death, that spirit revived; and from the land of India, Africa, as well as North America, there has been a scattered element of people through this time since, that have revived that thing. They preach that Bro. William Branham is none other than the Messiah. He is the Lord. They have even gone so far as to say the Lord Jesus’ new name, which you see written in the scriptures, in the 19^th chapter of Revelation, is William Marrion Branham. All these things put together, have been sown out among the people that were to be the bride of Christ; but you cannot help but see that Jesus is not coming for a movement like this, with all this kind of confusion in it. They may all think they are bride people; but do not fit the category of those whom God would entrust the responsibility of rulership. They are not fit to rule. However there are some within it that frame of thinking that have thought upon nothing else that how to rule people. That is all they have ever wanted to do, rule people. They have a very unique way of taking quote and statements and compiling them into some far-fetched teaching they can rule people with. They use that tool as a club. If you do not see everything their way, they will beat you to a pulp, spiritually speaking. Therefore, for twenty six years these spirits have spread that kind of picture around the world. It is no wonder Bro. William Branham’s name is evil spoken of. Just about every serious minded man or woman out here in the denominational churches know more about God and His plan than to fall for the kind of picture these perverted minds present. I do not mean to be unkind; but sometimes you just have to call a thing what it is. This idea among some people that Bro. William Branham has to rise from the dead to finish his ministry is pure nonsense; but this is not the first generation that has ever been faced with a thing like this; so let us just keep our hearts in a humble attitude; and our mind’s open to the things God desires to speak to us through His living ministry. Other men back through the ages have said things similar to what you hear from these Branham people; because the man they were following did not complete everything some of them expected him to. Here is my point: You can look in the 21^st chapter of St. John, where Jesus is saying to Peter, Lovest thou me? And he said, Yea Lord. Then go feed my sheep. And again Jesus said, Peter lovest thou me? Lord, you know I love you. Go feed my lambs. Then again Jesus said, Peter do you love me? By this time he said, Yes, you know I love you. Go feed my lambs. Well it irked Peter instead of getting his attention. Do you remember what he said? He turned, looked at John, and said, “Lord, and what shall this man do?” People are just like that. They are not going to do anything until someone else is doing something. Mankind is just that way. Bear with me; I am going to show you something. Peter was given instructions by the Lord; and instead of accepting responsibility for what the Lord told him to do, he wanted to know what John was going to be doing; and that caused Jesus to make a statement He would not have otherwise made. He said to Peter, “If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me.” In other words, Jesus just as same as said, Peter, it is none of your business what John is destined to do; you just do what you have to do; and do not be concerned about him. If I want him to tarry until I come, that is still none of your business. Jesus was just simply making a point; but what did those who were listening do with His words? Instead of catching the point He was making, they only caught a few words which they completely perverted. Notice what they began to spread around. (John 21:23) “Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die: but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?” Did Jesus say John was not going to die before He comes back again? He absolutely did not. Did that stop those disciples from spreading that rumor? No. They told what they thought they heard; but they did not hear it right. Jesus just used that as a figure of speech to let Peter know it was none of his business what John would do. Go do what I told you to do. There will be times in your life and mine, that God may say something to one of us: Go do this. We are completely out of line if we say, Well who else is going to be doing that? We are that way though. That is our carnal makeup. John is not going to die until Jesus comes again. That is what they got from what Jesus said; but that was not what He said. My point in bringing this out, is that you may see how people build upon something when they just half hear what is said. Jesus did not explain what He said; even though He knew they had heard it wrong. There are some things said, that God allows and uses to test your and my ability to shake ourselves and look at ourselves in the right way. We as individuals, have to give ourselves to God in such a way that we are not found just floating along with the crowd. We must have something inside of us guiding our way. It is my personal commitment God is after, rather than my believing and saying only what everyone else does. There is no salvation in that. If you knew whole truth, you would probably learn that a lot of people are believing Bro. William Branham is supposed to rise from the dead, only because they have heard some influential person say it. When you hear something from someone you believe to be a responsible person, it is easy to be led astray, if you are not sensitive to the Spirit of God so He can check you. God has allowed many of these men to run the road and spend fabulous sums of money proclaiming the letter of Bro. William Branham’s teachings; and then God has allowed the revelation of those teachings to be presented also. That those who are hungry for truth may have the opportunity to hear it. The teaching itself has reached the ends of the earth. It is even in various parts of what was for many years the Soviet Union. Russia’s door is now wide open to the gospel; and I am sure they have only a little short period of time to receive it. No doubt chaos will rip and tear it all to pieces before very long; because they have to be tested also. Some will receive a true revelation; and others will receive this, that, and who knows what; but that is how this thing works. God has His ways of sorting out the predestinated seed from all the rest. When this thing of an early resurrection is taken by influential people and built into a doctrine, (a doctrine is a teaching) and that teaching becomes a yardstick used to determine who is, who is not a Christian, who is in and who is out of the message, then someone is in trouble with God. That is exactly what many of these carnal minded men have played with for the past 27 years. Natural minded men always like to take things out of the hand of God and put them down on their own level so they can build their ideas into some kind of yardstick to measure others by. God will not allow it to end like that. Therefore I am forewarning you: This is going to be one of the longest messages of this type that I have ever preached; but I intend as we approach the end of it, to deal with this thing of the resurrection of Bro. William Branham in a way to show you how it is absolutely unscriptural; and at the same time, I am not saying that those who have believed it are all going to hell. Only God Himself knows who is going to hell, and who is not. Just listen to how I say it, when I deal with this teaching on the resurrection as a point of Christian faith later on. Right now though I am going to ask Bro. Allen to come and give his testimony of how God has led him, through these years of much controversy. The reason I am doing this, and the reason I am having the congregation included in the Video today, is so those in other areas of the world will be able to see, and hear enough to know I am not standing here alone in what I teach and stand for. I want those in other lands to know there are people here with me. People who believe what I believe and support me. I also want them to know there are witnesses here, of the things that have transpired through the years. There are people here that God has dealt with just like He has with me, to recognize the truth for our day and hour. They are here because they believe this is where God placed them. Furthermore I believe God has dealt with people around the world, to cause them to hunger spiritually, for more than they have been getting. I want them to know there is a people here in America, in the Jeffersonville are, right where this message came forth to be sent out to the universal body of Christ, that witnessed much of what was preached and manifested by and through the prophet to this age, and their own lives have been directed by what they witnessed. Bro. James Allen is one of them; and I am asking him to come at this time, to give his personal testimony of these things. Then we have other people with testimonies from various periods of time; so we will be having some of them testify later on.

TESTIMONY OF BROTHER ALLEN

I would like to start out with the year 1959, the year my wife and I were converted. It was in January of that year. Very shortly after that time I felt the call to the ministry. Then, it was a feeling in my heart, but just a little later on, in the spring, about April, the Lord dealt with me and told me what my ministry was to be. During the time from then until the last of June, I got with my brother who was already a Methodist preacher; and he wanted me to go into the Methodist Church. So I, and another brother which was a little older than me, started preaching. He started a little after I did; and both of us became Methodist preachers at the same time, with our older brother who was already a Methodist preacher for some years. After that time I became very hungry for the Lord. I spent my time when I was supposed to be doing school work many times off somewhere praying and reading the word of God. It went like that for two years. After my first year of ministry I moved to Burkesville, Kentucky, which was about a mile from where Bro. William Branham was born. I got in contact with some of his family, some of his uncles. They did not believe what we believe about him; but they gave me some information about Bro. William Branham, and during that time I got acquainted with another preacher who was preaching about him. Then in May of that year I found out there was a scriptural way to be baptized, and I knew I had not been baptized that way. I came to understand that baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, something I had been against, was the only scriptural way of obedience to that command. God changed my mind within just a few seconds. I did not have to dwell upon it or days. After that, to make the story as short as I can: In June of that year, it was conference time. I came to Louisville, Kentucky for that. In Louisville, I was supposed to be praying, at a prayer meeting in a Methodist Church. They wanted me to pray at a certain time; but instead, I was with another man that knew a certain sister that went to the Branham Tabernacle. We were staying at her house. I went to the Tabernacle that morning. On going there and coming back to her house, she gave me the tapes of the seven church ages. That was in June 1961. I began to listen to those tapes, and before I got through with all of them, I had to be re-baptized. Because of this, as I began to preach at the Methodist, the district superintendent moved me. He moved me to Bowling Green, thinking that would get it out of my system, being completely away from everyone I was acquainted with. On moving there, I got word that Bro. William Branham, in 1963, was going to preach on the seven seals of the book of Revelation; and that it was going to be a series of messages all on the seals. I determined that I was going to go. I came, and heard him preach on all but one or two of the seals. After attending those meetings, I decided it was time for me to leave the Methodist Church. I began to make plans. I did not tell the people, but I began to make plans to move. In the meantime, they liked us there, and had even accepted what I had been teaching. I baptized five people in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I never baptized another person from that time on, in the titles the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It was in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, like the Bible says. Then they asked me, Are you going to stay another year. I said, No. They said, We have raised your salary and we are depending on you to stay. I said, I will give you the answer Wednesday. God woke me up the next morning and told me it was time to move. I had the answer; but I did not tell them until Wednesday. God gave me the answer the next morning, about 5 o’clock. I woke up about four, but about five the next morning I had the answer. I moved in that year and was privileged to listen to God’s prophet messenger all that summer. He was there at the Tabernacle a lot of the time through the summers, 63, 64, and 65. Many times I was approached by certain people who tried to inspire me to believe that he was THE Son of God. That never did bend me one bit in what I believed about the man. I said I can believe he is a prophet. I can believe that he is a son of man, but that is as far as the scripture goes. Therefore I could never believe he is God. At the end of the year 1965, Bro. William Branham passed off the scene; and for some time after that my wife and I both had dreams, and a vision that God gave us both on one occasion, and one of our little sons with us. It was in the year 1966, when this happened. This was concerning some error I had heard of a preacher friend of mine at that time. Soon after that, we ceased to be associated with him in any way. I had a lot of decisions to make in a short time. After Bro. William Branham died, I began preaching in a man’s house and continued to do so for more than a year. After I made certain decisions, we closed the meetings out; but God was dealing with me all along, in this line. After we closed out the services there, we went back to the Tabernacle; but I had been given a dream three weeks before that time. The dream was one I mentioned here a year ago. It was about how they (those still attending the tabernacle) were worshiping Bro. William Branham. In the dream they were playing a tape of one of his sermons. When he would say, (on the tape) Raise your hands, they would raise their hands. When he would say, Amen, they would say, Amen; but if you said amen when he had not said it, they would all turn and look at you. When my wife and I went in that Sunday morning after I had closed out this other meeting, I did not know then what I was going to do. We went back to the Tabernacle and they were acting out exactly what I had seen in the dream. After witnessing that, we knew we had to do something. I had been to Bro. Jackson’s assembly down on Market Street a few times; but had not been led to start going there regularly at that time. However when this church building was opened up in 1967, we began to come here. I did not know a lot about Bro. Jackson: I had heard things pro and con, a little bit of everything as people would talk; but I did not really know anything about him really. I still had a lot of questions in my heart, that I needed answers to. I needed to have questions answered about the Godhead, and about the seventy weeks of Daniel as well as other things. I had heard Bro. William Branham preach on the seventy weeks of Daniel back in 1961 or 1962, which ever it was. Then when he preached on the seals, I heard it a little different concerning the seventy weeks of Daniel. These things needed to be straightened out in my mind. Serpent seed was another subject I had questions about. When I came here I saw the titles on some of the tapes, Serpent Seed, Seventy Weeks of Daniel and so on; and I did not know what to think about it all; but when I began to hear Bro. Jackson preach these things, answers began to come. Things began to be straightened out in my heart and mind. Therefore because of that, if I live, and time last until June of next year, I will have been here 25 years and I have not been disappointed by what I have been privileged to hear during this time. I am glad I came here. One thing Bro. Jackson has always said is, If you do not understand what you are hearing, stick around and in due time you will. Well I have stuck around and now I do see those things as one should see them. I came here, not for any position, not for any other reason than to hear the word of God; so I praise the Lord for allowing that. I appreciate this church. I appreciate the ministry here. I appreciate Bro. Jackson; and the opportunity I have had to do a little service for the Lord. I do not have to do much; but I do want to serve God with all my heart and soul wherever I am. Once again, I appreciate the place God has allowed me to come to that I might be able to hear the word without denominational compromise. My wife and I both appreciate it. We are very thankful to the Lord for that. (Bro. Jackson responds) thank you Bro. Allen.

THE SEVEN SEALS – ARE THEY THE SEVEN THUNDERS?

I have one more little explanation I want to give you, concerning the seven seals. I hold in my hand the Seventh Seal book. I sat there every night while all these things were preached. When we come to his statements and things about the seventh seal, you can read for yourself what ye said. He plainly tells you that he did not know what it will be, yet he spoke of it in a fold. He tells you there in that seventh seal, that the mystery of it was not broken. It was not revealed to him; but it will be in effect around about the time of the coming of Christ for His Church. It would be then, the bringing forth of the seven thunders, which are not even written in the Bible. He said the reason they were not written, was because God knew the devil would use them. Just suppose that whatever they are to be, was already written. We would say, Oh it is wonderful. Look what we are reading. It would all be in the revelational writings. However that was one thing that was forbidden. That is why, when that meeting was over, everyone had the understanding that the seventh seal is not revealed in its complete understanding; and that it will not be until around about the time of Christ’s coming. When it is revealed, it will set in motion the sounding of those seven thunders. He (Bro. Branham) said those seven thunders will be something to bring about rapturing faith. Then a few months after that when he was having questions and answers, and he was answering the question put to him, he made the statement that has been used by many to cause friction in the following. When he was asked, Was the thunders revealed in the revelation of the seven seals? He said, Yes. The mystery of the seventh seal is the sounding of the seven thunders. I tell you, when I heard that, I said, Now there goes somebody’s mind. That is why many are saying the thunders have sounded already; when here in the book where he was preaching under the anointing he said, They are not even written. Therefore no one knew what they are to be. Later on he says, Yes it is all in the revelation of the seventh seal. It is very strange, that for twenty six years they have been reading these sermons, listening to the recordings and picking them apart, yet if you ask one of them, Tell me what the first thunder is: All they can do is read you the first seal. Well the first seal is a seal. It is not a thunder. The thunders cannot sound until the seventh seal is completely revealed. Therefore again I say, Here is what he said when he preached the messages; and this is what we will stand with; that the thunders have not sounded, and neither is the revelation of the seventh seal been given. In other words, The seventh seal has not been broken. It is still a sealed mystery known only to God Himself. It is yet to be. Therefore evil servants will take that last statement Bro. William Branham made, that they (the thunders) are in the revelation of the seven seals; and they will run up and down the road of life proclaiming, It is all in here. (The seal books) This is all we need. Yet they cannot tell you a thing that will feed your hungry soul. Such a servant will just tell you, It is all in there. They will use that one statement trying to make everyone who does not go along with their ideas, feel like they have missed it all. While on the other hand, the wise servants will stand before God’s family feeding them from the things that truly have been revealed, helping them prepare themselves for the soon return of their blessed Savior who is coming to usher His bride Church into that heavenly chamber where the marriage supper will be held. The wise servants will teach just exactly what they have been called to teach, without trying to convey the thought that they are entrusted with some secret revelation that others cannot get except from them. God can reveal anything to anyone, any time he sees fit to do so. The perverted way some of these people look at things, is what keeps them from seeing that this very scripture we are using for our text is being fulfilled right now. That scripture will hang right over God’s work until He (God) has finished His work and taken His Bride Church away from here. You every one know by now, what He said He is going to do to that fellow who falls into the category of an evil servant. (Matthew 24:50-51) “The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” I do not wan to go where those fellows are going. They are going to be worse off than Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggart and that bunch of compromisers that have been so successful in deceiving unsuspecting souls. I thank God for His grace. We are not deserving of it; but He has made it available to all who will receive it with the right attitude and motive. He has even allowed some to abuse His grace and mercy; but according to His written word, they have a payday coming that they are not going to enjoy so much. We just need to be humble, and sensitive to the leading of God’s Spirit, so we do not step into one of Satan’s snares. He has them everywhere. That is what we are endeavoring to do in this message, reveal many of them to you. We still have others that will be adding their testimonies to these you have already heard; for it is our desire that allowing you to know how God has dealt with them, will be of benefit to you, as you are faced with decisions of life.

INSTRUCTIONS AND WARNING FOR THIS PRESENT HOUR OF TIME

Like I said earlier, This is a lengthy message; but I believe we can help some people find their way through all this spiritual maze they have been in for so long now; so we will not be concerned about the length of the message. It is going to find its way into several places throughout the world; and I realize there will be people read the paper that may not be familiar with our Southern Indiana terminology; but I am trusting the Spirit of God to make it clear enough for everyone who loves truth, that they can receive it. I am not one who wants to commercialize anything; so be assured that we are not putting it on Video tapes just so we can sell thousands of them for a huge profit. We just want to make them available to those folks who find them to be helpful. We are already sending the printed messages absolutely free of cost to anyone who requests them; and our audio tapes which may be ordered at any time are just barely above cost; so our purpose in making the Videos is just to make another arm of this ministry available to folks who prefer to receive the messages like that. Having said that, I now want to return to our text scripture in Matthew 24; and stress a few things once again that I am persuaded are important to believers of this hour of time. For those who may think, What is meant by “Meat in Due Season?” I would just like to illustrate it to you by using a very natural example. I am aware of various customs and habits in other part of the world; so this example is based upon common practices of people in this part of the world. We are a people that enjoy eating three meals a day. We have breakfast when we arise from a night of sleep in the morning; and there are certain foods that we just naturally associate with that meal. Then a few hours later, we have another meal which is very commonly referred to as dinner; but also called lunch by many others. For that middle of the day meal, there are also foods that are commonly related to and accepted for that particular meal. When evening time arrives we have the main meal of the day, which a lot of us refer to as supper; but those who refer to the noon meal as lunch, refer to this evening meal as dinner. As for me personally, I am going to stick with breakfast in the morning, dinner in the middle of the day, and supper in the evening when you quit work and go in to retire for the night. Remember, the wedding supper is not called the wedding dinner; and we know from the scriptures, that it is going to be in the evening time; so we will make our remarks as biblical as possible. Nevertheless regardless of what one may call each one, there are certain foods that are thought of as belonging to a certain meal of the day; and to receive them in that order is to receive the proper food at the proper time. That, to me, is like receiving the proper spiritual food for the hour we are living in; and that is what Jesus referred to as giving meat in due season. At this time, I am going to read these verses we have been using; because after what we have said, I want you to catch the picture exactly as Jesus presented it. (Matthew 24:45-51) “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made rule over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, That He (The Lord) shall make him ruler over all His goods. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth His coming; And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” I have stressed the fact at the beginning of this message, that this wise servant is more than one, even though the admonition and identity is worded like this in order that each person that is in the ministry may know that he is responsible to God for how he as a servant acquaints himself with time, and how he sees the body of Christ, and for knowing in the season and time of his ministry, how to preach and present the word of God to believers to fulfill these scriptures. I stress also, as we consider the verses written here, and as we think of separating the wise from the evil, that the wise servant is not Bro. William Branham who preached back in the 30’s, and on into the mid 60’s. There are people in the world that will say, That wise servant was Bro. William Branham; but I just have to say, I beg your pardon. There was no one to my knowledge, at that time, while he was still alive, setting dates for the coming of the Lord. These verses are only fulfilled because there has been a ministry on the earth in this generation, doing and saying things that have caused people to begin to calculate the time for the return of the Lord. They have done this because they did not understand what he said, nor why he said it. A spirit grabbed hold of them, causing them to begin to set in motion a time factor related to when they think the Lord is coming back. This has never occurred among the followers of Oral Roberts. Neither has it occurred among the following of Jimmy Swaggart. It is not even going on in the World Council of Churches; nor in the ecumenical move among the Charismatics. They are just not setting dates. This only goes on right in the move of a people that has been dealt with by God in a way that they should know better than to do what they are doing. They have been given the revealed truth for this hour of time, that should by now, be putting them back in the Bible, instead of something they call, “THE MESSAGE”. They are in a message for sure; but it is not God’s message. That is evident after twenty six years since the man’s departure from this world. After God took him from us, multitudes began interpreting what he had said, to fit their own carnal fantasy; thereby fulfilling these very scriptures. Nevertheless, regardless of what some may do, that does not change the plan of God. There is, and always will be a few men that have sense enough to keep their heads level, their feet on the ground, and their heart’s and souls in tune with the word of God. These are the men you need to be following the same way the apostle Paul exhorted those who listened to him. In 1^st Corinthians 11:1, we find him saying,  “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.” (And in Philippians 3:17-19, we find these words) “Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” You hear people say, Bless God, I am not about to follow any man! There have been enough carnal minded scoundrels roaming the earth under the disguise of being called to preach the gospel, to cause a lot of people to feel that way; but sooner or later, any person who desire to walk with God will end up following someone; so it had better be someone who is following Christ, or that person will be in trouble with God.

THE GREAT STRUGGLE – WHAT IS THE ANSWER?

Because there are both wise and evil servants in the world today, within this Branham teaching, there is a great struggle going on all the time. The wise servants go about their business of feeding the flock of God; and the evil servants go around trying to destroy their image, undo everything the wise servants do. Also because of their kind, the denominational world of religion fights everything associated with Bro. William Branham’s ministry and message; and look upon all who associate themselves with it as members of a cult. To an extent, and up to a point they have every reason to do so; because they have only been exposed to the fanaticism element: those who bring reproach upon Bro. William Branham’s name, and upon the very plan of God. To our critics I want to say, Stick around long enough and you will find out what these evil servants have been doing to the word of God; and what they have done among innocent minded people who just needed someone to guide them. As for you in the denominational church world who see nothing worth while in any of us, the day will come that you will know who the parable about the tares was really pointing to; but it will not do you any good to find out; for you will already be bundled together for burning. I may sound hard hearted to some of you; but I am only stating truth that I can produce scripture to vindicate. It is too late in the hour of this age for anyone to just be playing church. We are living right at the threshold of the coming of the Lord, and in a time when you will either shake yourselves and line up with the word of God, or you will be left behind to face that great tribulation hour that is soon to come upon this world. Trying to follow God hanging on the coat tail of someone else while having no revelation yourself will not be sufficient to get you off the ground in the rapture. This walk with God is an individual thing that no one else can do for you. Every individual child of God will have to be responsible for adorning their own wedding garment. The five fold ministry that so many speak of in these days, can only supply you with the proper material; you have to dress yourself, just like the scripture says. When you look at Revelation 19:7-9, you see there that the Lamb’s wife has made herself ready. She is wearing a robe of righteousness that only can be adorned by those who have a true revelation of the scriptures. That is why you will not find these ritualistic, denominational truth shunning, modern church members going in the rapture. They will have shunned, even despised the only thing that can made anyone ready to meet the Lord in the air when He comes. I will read those three verses to you. “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.” Let no one who refuses to walk in the revelation of truth think for one moment that you are going in the rapture with the bride of Christ. This business of living for God is a twenty four hour a day life you live; it is not something you just put on when it is time to go to church. Those who live that way will wind up in the same place where all the other abominable and hypocrites are destined to be; and you will wish you had opened your heart to the word of God; but it will be too late. I believe there are some who need to hear this before they will honestly face their loose way of living a Christian life. Light has no fellowship with darkness. They cannot both be in the same place at the same time.

ANOTHER LOOK AT THE FAN IN THE HAND OF JESUS

Not only must we be aware of the snares and traps of the devil, but we also must be aware of the fact that John the Baptist spoke of a fan in the hand of Jesus with which He would thoroughly purge His floor. I realize some of you may be thinking, Bro. Jackson you have already gone over that: so I will just ask you, Do you understand everything about it? As long as there are those who do not understand the significance of these various points, it will still be beneficial for us to think upon them. This scripture is found in Matthew 3:12, and it is a prophesy having profound significance; because this symbolic terminology applies to something the Lord has intermingled with His word in such a unique way it separates the genuine from the make-believers as time goes on; and the ultimate result of this separation will be the presentation to Himself a pure, blood washed, WORD adorned body of people He (Jesus) can take to the Marriage supper, to be with Him while the wrath of the old antichrist is being turned loose upon all the rest of mortal mankind John, speaking of Jesus, said, “Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” These scriptures we are reading have a present tense application. They could not have had any kind of application a hundred years ago; for Jesus Himself gave us the key to when they would be effective. Pertaining to the separation of tares from the genuine He said, (Matthew 13:30) “Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.” Then of course you remember me saying there could not be any evil servants fulfilling that scripture until after the seventh Church Age Messenger fulfilled his ministry to this age. That is when some people felt they had a reason to set a date for the return of the Lord. I have to believe there are people laboring under the load of these scriptures, that the Spirit of God is dealing with. These people are definitely going to understand what the right meat is, who is feeding it, what they themselves should be eating, and how to digest what they eat so it will produce spiritual growth. Spiritual growth will produce unity, harmony, a healthy environment in the fellowship of people destined to be the true children of God. That is what all of this has to come to before it will ever be acceptable to God. It is only by His grace and mercy, that we have been able to make it to this hour of time where we have reason to believe we may still be alive to see the Lord coming back for a Church without spot, wrinkle or blemish. Known only to God Himself, is the exact time that the last predestined seed of His will come to full maturity. In the meanwhile the evil servants will continue to persecute the wise servants; and the fan in this message will continue to expel those who are not anchored upon a true revelation of the word of God. The fan does not work in Billy Graham’s message; nor in any other of these popular Television preachers’ messages. It only works in this end time revelation message first delivered to us by God’s messenger to this age. It works in what we usually refer to as dual statements God allowed Bro. William Branham to make from time to time.

Before I go any further in the outline of this message, I want to give you the opportunity to witness the personal testimony of another dear soul whose life was affected by Bro. William Branham’s ministry through the years. Sister Hess met Bro. William Branham many years ago; so I want her to come and speak whatever is on her heart at this time.

TESTIMONY OF SISTER HESS

(Sister Hess speaking) I am from Milltown, Indiana. Bro. William Branham had a vision of someone at Milltown, that needed to be healed. He came, prayed for her, God healed her, and she wanted to be baptized in the name Jesus Christ. The Milltown people did not believe in that of course; so the news of it went like wildfire through the town. Nevertheless it was real, and she definitely wanted to be baptized in Jesus’ name. He preached, and told us about it; and had a baptizing that Sunday afternoon. Sis. Georgia and a couple from Jeffersonville, that he brought with him were the ones that were ready to be baptized. Bro. William Branham did the baptizing. I believe the place was out from Milltown, a little ways. While he was baptizing, the power of God was so strong that we people which had gone to witness the baptism and be with them, walked out into the water, and were baptized. Men, women, people that were just there to be at the baptizing. Oh the power was so strong and God was so real. There were men standing up on the hill a little ways, leaning against a barbed wire fence. They said the power was like electricity on that fence. I just praise God that I had the opportunity to meet Bro. William Branham. He was a wonderful man. I never heard anyone like him. I praise God. Praise His name! I praise God for Bro. Jackson also. Just as I had never heard anyone like Bro. William Branham, neither had I ever heard anyone like him either. He has really been used of God to enlighten me to the Bible. Praise God! (Bro. Jackson says) God bless you sister.

SOME WAYS GOD WORKS – TO LEAD PEOPLE TO TRUTH

I have observed through the years, how God allowed Satan to put sickness and disease upon people, that would cause them to reach out looking for help. That is how a lot of them first found their way into a service to hear Bro. William Branham preach; and to be ministered to by him. I saw many people back in the late 50’s, that would come, and after seeing them come to his meetings, and hearing them give their testimonies, you soon found out that many times God allowed these physical needs to be brought on by Satan, to cause them to reach beyond where they had been, to find help. Sooner or later they would hear about this man, and were thereby led to where they could witness his life and ministry. God used various means to get some of us into the right place. When it came to hearing the truth, many people were getting hungry for something they were not getting. They could see how in the churches where they were going, things were getting so formalistic, and so cold and indifferent, that going to church had become an obligation of boredom, with nothing in it to satisfy their soul. When they would hear about this man’s life and his teachings, it seemed to revive them; just like recharging a battery. It just put new vitality in them. When my wife and I were led out of the Methodist Church to hear Bro. William Branham I said, This man makes Jesus of the Bible stand head and shoulders taller than any doctor of divinity, or any professor of Asbury College, or anyone else. I had heard them all. I had heard some of the big radio preachers from the 1950’s. I can name them; but I will not. They did very well in certain Bible teaching subjects on the radio; but there was something about the life and ministry of Bro. William Branham that made Jesus stand head and shoulders taller than I had ever been made to see Him. After watching how the Spirit of God worked through his life, there began to be a picture painted inside my heart. That man was sent by God; to show the church world that the true Church of the living God is not going to wind up in the end time, just being a mere fundamental element of people believing the written letter of the Bible, with no revelation. It has got to be a spiritual, dynamic organism of people that know how to walk in the fellowship of truth, and that find it is a joy to walk that way. It satisfies a hunger, a yearning of our hearts. It is God’s way of allowing our spiritual appetite to be fed, just like we feed our fleshly appetite. The Spirit of God being allowed to manifest Himself, and being allowed to work in and through the various members of the body as He sees fit, is a glorious thing to be a part of. When you read the book of Acts, you cannot help but see a spiritual body of people in which the Spirit of God had free reign to work through. He lived in them, He motivated them, and empowered them when there were circumstances that needed to be dealt with. Christianity lost much of that. As I sat under this man’s ministry I was made to realize that he came unto this age to be a testimony and witness of the power of God; and a preacher of the truth that God’s Church in the book of Acts stood for. Why? So the end time Church can be made up of that same kind of people. It began to make me want to be that kind of Spirit filled and Spirit led person. I got so tired going to the Methodist Church, going through the same rigamarole; and never really realizing very much satisfaction for the effort. Many times the services would just end up in a Sunday School discussion, or you could say, an argument. I have said before, When and if they would have a church house cleaning to clean the dust out, and if someone would happen move the piano a little, reposition it, you could expect someone the next Sunday to say, Who moved the piano? They would get all worked up over it, as though no one had any right to do a thing like that without taking a vote first. That just absolutely got next to me. That is why the Lord dealt with my wife and me after we were privileged to meet Bro. William Branham in October 1952. After we began going to the Branham Tabernacle, I will never forget how right after the first of the year, in 1953, we went one Sunday night and found that they were going to have foot washing. We were glad to take communion; but when that part of the service was over and Bro. William Branham said, Now we are going to have foot washing, I thought, What is that? I remember hearing my grandfather on my mother’s side, talking about the old time foot washing Baptists; but I somehow just did not think I would ever meet anyone like that. I found out later, this was not foot washing Baptists; it was foot washing, Holy Ghost filled, Bible believing people who loved God and desired to walk according to His word. It turned out though that one of the socks I was wearing that night had a hole in it. I was so embarrassed about that, I said, There is just no way I am going in there and allowing anyone to see that hole in my sock. I told Bro. William Branham about it later. He had a good laugh about it. I determined right then and there, that from then on I was going to be wearing a good pair of socks. (I just thought you might enjoy hearing how I was introduced to foot washing.) Coming on through the years after we started attending services at the Branham Tabernacle, we come to December 1960, the time when Bro. William Branham was moved upon to preach on the church ages. I sat there on the platform every night. He would go into the history of each particular age, reading from various historical writings of the Nicean fathers and others, that go back to that particular period of time, bringing out some of the conditions and things that developed, and showing how it affected people. Sitting there through all those services, you could not help but see how the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, right from the beginning of Pentecost has journeyed down through time, continually being replaced by oncoming generations; and how the Church as a whole has gone through these seven various stages winding up here in Laodicea, the last of the seven ages. The meeting really did encourage me, and make me realize how much I thank God for leading me to truth. I thought, Thank God, I have found a man that can preach the Bible the way it ought to be preached, without having to preach it in favor of the Baptist, the Methodist, or the Church of Christ, or the Catholic hierarchy. He preaches it in a manner that lets you and me know that Jesus Christ is the head of His Church. I began to say, Lord, I want to be a Bible believing preacher. Hallelujah! He granted me that prayer.

BROTHER JACKSON’S ROCK OF REVEALED TRUTH DREAM

I well remember something that happened in the month of February in the year 1961. At that time things were going along very nicely in the movement. People were praying, Oh God, may the day soon come when you will send me forth to labor in your work. They were praying for the gifts of the Spirit, and everything like that. Well in February, I saw myself in a dream one night. In the dream I saw myself walking over rolling countryside. I know how Bro. William Branham told it in the booklet, Sirs: Is This the Time; but I am telling the dream as I saw it. As I saw myself walking through rolling countryside, it reminded of a stretch of the country as you leave Pekin, Indiana going toward Salem. The grade began to climb constantly. It was not level land. As I was moving, walking, and at first all by myself, I knew in my heart, I was moving toward a point where I would meet many people. I just kept on walking. Finally as I came up to the summit of a knoll, I could see off in the distance around the skyline, individuals that were beginning to form a gigantic circle. As I kept walking, I saw myself go down into a little valley, then come up again on another little knoll. This circle of people kept getting larger, and the immediate area became very congested. Finally, as I came up over this last knoll I looked off into the distance in front of me, (Bro. Branham said in the book, like on a mountain) but no, it was not on a mountain, it was in a valley where I saw this lone figure standing by a rock in the center of the valley. As I saw that little figure at that distance, I knew it had to be Bro. William Branham. As the circle of people, hundreds and thousands of them, were converging on that point, I saw myself as I got to a certain point, I yelled out very loudly saying, Listen to what he says; for he will not always be here. I just kept on walking. This circle of people kept congesting, getting thicker and thicker. When I got up close, I yell out one more time, Listen to what he says for he will not always be with us. Well in the message, Sirs: Is This the Time, when Bro. William Branham referred to this dream, he never mentioned those words. He had a reason for not mentioning them. After I had said those words the second time, by then the vast crowd was gathered around him. As we all moved in close, he was standing by a rock that protruded up out of the ground. The rock itself, on top, was flat like a little breakfast table. Then I noticed that about six inches down from the top there was a hairline all the way around; and between the hairline and the top of the rock was some beautifully engraved words, engraved in the rock like you see it on memorial stones. The words engraved there were, “The Rock of Revealed Truth.” Lying there on top of the flat surface of that rock was a long bar, a bar like they use in rock quarries. I knew the little man that stood there was the only man that knew how to use that bar to accomplish whatever was to be accomplished. He then took the bar and reached back and jabbed at that little hairline. In so doing, the whole top of that rock literally broke loose. He slid that bar in underneath and began to move it. He eventually worked the whole top layer completely off, leaving newly exposed rock beneath, that looked just like this high grade of limestone. It looked like it had snowflakes in it. It glistened. When he had done that, he laid the bar back on top of the rock and said these words, Stand by this. With that he turned and began to move out of the crowd. Something inside me said, Watch him. I turned sideways, so that as I was looking at the rock, every once in a while, out of the corner of my eye, I could keep watching him move away from us. He started walking westward; and just kept going. Finally he would disappear for a while and then reappear on another summit. Again he would drop out of sight and then reappear, and finally he went completely out of sight. I knew when he went out of sight that last time, I would never see him anymore. I just happed to look at the angle of the sun. It was low in the western sky. It was casting evening shadows back across the earth. With that I looked back at the rock, and the great crowd of people were still looking at it. As they stood there looking, everything went silent. Nothing was said. After so long someone noticed Bro. William Branham being gone and said, Where is Bro. William Branham? Someone else would then say, Where is Bro. William Branham? Where did Bro. William Branham go? Oh, Bro. William Branham! Bedlam broke out. People began to turn from the rock and would run screaming, Oh, Bro. William Branham! Oh Bro. William Branham! Some were literally screaming, Where is Bro. William Branham? That great mass of people left there and went back in the same direction they had come from. It left only a small number of people standing there by the rock. Time went on after that until October 1962. I asked Bro. William Branham to come one Thursday night and preach for us. He did. I had been wanting an occasion to tell the dream to him. When he got finished preaching, he prayed for some sick people, and then someone came in the side door (not in this building, but the one we had over in Clarksville) and said, There is someone out in a car which just drove up, that needs prayer. They asked if Bro. William Branham would come out and pray for the sick person? He said, Yes. Bro. Jackson, let’s go. We walked out to the car and prayed for that person. Then as we moved away from the other people, I took the opportunity to say, Bro. William Branham, I had a dream I would like to tell you. He said, Good. He walked over and got in his station wagon, and said, get in on the other side. I got in on the side where the driver sits; and Billy Paul got in the back seat. I told him the dream I have just told you. When I was through telling it, these are the words he spoke to me, words which were never repeated in the message, “Sirs: Is This the Time?” when he made mention of the dream. He picked up his Bible from the dash and said, Bro. Jackson, that is getting ready to take place, isn’t it Billy Paul? We are getting ready to move to Tucson. Actually it would be the first of the year; because it was in October 1962, that I told him the dream. He said, Now Bro. Jackson, I want you to remember: when this all comes to pass, you stick with this word and he held up the Bible he had just picked up. He said, “They will go after everything, teaching everything.” Since his death, they have done that, yet they still look for him to come back and do something out of the ordinary. I have to say after twenty six years, What could that man do to change the picture of things? There is nothing he could do. They would only idolize, deify, and make the whole sick picture even worse than it already is. Therefore I have to say to those who will read this in the Contender, see the Video, or hear me on the other tapes, You are not going to see William Marrion Branham coming back from the grave to have a tent ministry, or anything else this side of the rapture. Even if time lasted another thousand years and you remained alive, you will still not see anything like that take place. In six thousand years of time, we have no record of God allowing anyone to come back from the dead to warn a bunch of carnal minded people to get their lives straightened out. He would not let the rich man’s family be warned by anyone sent back from the dead; and neither will he allow such a thing to take place in our generation. God has a living ministry to attend to that which He deems needful; so if you will not submit to those He has already on the job, what right do any of you have to expect Him to resurrect someone who has already fulfilled his part in the plan of God? Do you not have enough confidence in the sovereign God of all creation, to believe that He is able to keep every individual servant of His alive until he has finished what he was called of God to do? Read the first seven verses of the 11^th chapter of the book of Revelation, if you have any doubt about that. The plan of God is not a hit and miss situation. Satan has never been allowed to take the life of a faithful servant of God before that servant was finished with his part of the calling. I know it has looked that way at times; but that is because we do not see every thing the same way God sees it. God is still running His plan of redemption regardless of how it may look to mortal men at times.

ABOUT THE SEVEN SEALS

In December 1962, at the end of the year, Bro. William Branham preached the message I have already referred to, “Sirs: Is This the Time?” At the first of the year he then made his move to Arizona. In March and April of 1963 he came back and preached the revelation of the seals as far as they were revealed to him. Why did I say that the way I did? Simply because I want you to pay attention to what I am going to say next. Only six of those seven seals were broken. We now have the revelation of what the first six pertained to; but even though he made some comments about the seventh seal, with his own mouth he said, I do not know what the seventh seal holds. In other words, he did not have the seal broken and the complete revelation opened up to him. Naturally he felt that it has something to do with the coming of the Lord, and made a few comments to that effect; but do not try to tell me he preached the revelation of all seven seals. He did not. I hate to have to keep saying it over and over again and again; but as long as that element out there keeps telling that he did, it will be necessary for me to say, No He absolutely did not. As 1963 finished on out many things began to materialize. You could begin to see people moving from different areas of the nation, trying to get situated where they felt they could have ready access to Bro. William Branham and his ministry. Some would come to the Jeffersonville area; and others would go to the Tucson area. A lot made the move, only to learn later that it was to their own spiritual and material ruin. Some even began to say, No one can be saved after the seals were preached; because Jesus is now off the mercy seat. That was the result of a statement Bro. William Branham made when he first started preaching the seals; and not because he taught any such thing. What he said just made it appear that Jesus was off the mercy seat.

DELIVERANCE IN DUE TIME

Coming to the year 1964 in our little rehearsal of events, I will now relate a certain experience involving my own wife being healed. My wife and I had gone through a lot of emotional, psychological pressure because of criticism from the main body of followers, concerning our stand on church order. I think I just have gone through a year of sickness. Not that I went to the doctor for it, but inside I just felt sick. At times I felt like my heart would stop beating. Every time I listened to it discussed, played the tape of it, or looked at that church order thing, I said, It is just not in the Bible; but at the same time I knew he had a right to put something like that in, because somewhere there was something that needed to be corrected. Therefore it was actually in February 1965 that Bro. William Branham came back and was preaching in the Parkview High School in Jeffersonville, the time when he preached Marriage and Divorce, that I had the experience I am now going to relate. As I sat there that night, the last night, it was just like the Spirit of the Lord said, How long will you doubt? When that was like a question presented to me, in my heart I said, It is not in the word, so I will not accept it as something that has to be preached to the church or put in my church. When I took that stand, it was just like a giant pair of scissors came right down my backbone and cut a steel band from around my chest. For more than a year, I had felt like I had a tight belt or a steel band fastened around me, so I could hardly take a deep breath. All of a sudden that band was cut loose from me, and from that day until this, I have never felt that belt holding me any more. I realize Satan had to take his hand off my life when I settled it in my heart. Now I will go back to the year 1964 and fill in something else I want to share with you. My wife had developed a very chronic and acute bladder infection. She had gone to our family doctor several times. He kept giving her different kinds of medicine. Finally the last time she went he told her, I am going to give you this certain drug and if it does not help, then I may have to send you to a specialist. In June of that year, Bro. William Branham had a weekend meeting out in Topeka Kansas. I decided one night, that (after our mid week service) I was going to take my wife to Topeka and see if I could get her in the prayer line. We left from the church that night and drove as far as we could. We got close to St. Louis, and pulled over on the side of the road and laid in the seats of the car and slept a little while. Before long the sun came up and we went on our way; because we wanted to be sure we got to Topeka before night. Arriving at Topeka, it just turned out that it was not in the plan of God for my wife to be able to get in the prayer line. It just seemed like everything we thought to do was blocked; and we were kept from the very thing we made the trip for. We enjoyed meeting a lot of people there; but I will never forget how, on my way home I felt very troubled. I thought, Well Lord, you know all about my wife’s problem. I just cannot stand to see her go on with this tormenting thing much longer. After I got home that night, very concerned about this physical condition in her body, I had a dream. I saw myself with my wife, walking into Bro. William Branham’s house. When we walked in, I could hear myself telling Bro. William Branham my wife’s problem. In the dream, I could hear him say to her, Sister would you care to sit here? Bro. Jackson would you care to sit over there? Well after having the dream, I felt led to call Billy Paul. I said, Billy Paul, could I get a chance to talk with Bro. William Branham, my wife is in need of prayer. He said, Sure, come on up this evening. We went up there; and when we approached the house, he met us at the door and greeted us. We walked into the house and he said, Well Bro. Jackson, What is the problem? On our way between the door we entered in through and the living part of their house, I just briefed him a little on her condition. He sat down on the piano stool first, then finally he said, Sister, would you care to come over here. He sat her down on the couch, and I sat in a chair over a little from there. He went ahead talking. Then he said, I guess you wonder why I am talking, I am just waiting on the Lord to see what He would have me do. Then he just went on talking about other things. Before long, he got up from the piano stool and came over and sat down beside her on the couch and said, Sis. Jackson, you do a lot of worrying. Well at that particular time we had both done a lot of worrying over the church order thing, and over how people felt about us, that we were just a bunch of black birds. AS he said those things like that, he began to explain certain things. I will not tell the part how he explained certain things that occur in the body. He spoke though how sometimes these bladder conditions can go into an ulcerated thing within the bladder. The way he explained it, you could not help but see how realistic that thing really was. A lot of it is brought on by worry and stress, and pressure that builds up. He took his wrist watch off his arm, because every time he would pray for somebody and would use that gift in his hand, he would take his wrist watch off. The power of God that would work in that way, many times would crack the crystal. That happened on time at the Tabernacle. Sister Drucie Wood was there and saw it. As he took his watch off and laid it on a stand, he took my wife’s hand and said, Yes, in fact it has gone into an ulcerated condition. He said, Things like this can be very severe at times. As he talked, he then prayed. After he prayed, he went back over and sat down on the piano stool and began talking about other things. Sis. Branham had been in another part of the house doing something; so when she came into the room where we were, Bro. William Branham said to her, Sis. Mede, you weren’t here when we prayed for Sis. Jackson; but I believe God has done something for her. He got up from the piano stool, went over and took my wife’s hand. The way that gift would work through his hand, when he would take hold of your hand, his wrist would puff up and big blotches would come on his hand and wrist. He said he could hear this thing some times, just like a roaring sound, when the spirit of that condition in someone would come against that gift. Well the second time he took hold of her hand, he said, See there, it’s gone. Sis. Jackson, you have more faith than I thought you had. Now in my dream I remembered he said these words as we were leaving that day: Sis. Jackson, don’t worry. Everything is going to be alright. That day, as we were getting ready to leave, the first thing he said after we were moving toward the door, Sis. Jackson, after about three days, if I were you I would go back and have it checked again, see how things are. As we went out the door, what were the words I heard him say? Sister Jackson, don’t worry. Everything is going to be alright. Just like I hear it in the dream. We went home, and for the next three or four days my wife felt so good she said, There is no need to go to the doctor, I feel fine. However about a week later, she got up one morning and felt like the whole thing had come back on her. I said, Then we will go to the doctor. We got ready and went on our way to the doctor; and on the way to the doctor’s office, all of that left her. She went on anyhow and he took various tests then said, Everything is clear. It has been that way ever since. I tell these things to let people around the world know that this was one man who recognized where a doctor fits into the picture. He himself would go to a doctor at times. He would use a doctor when he had the need for one; but he realized also there were times when God was not going to let the doctor do one bit of good. Many times, after God corrects a situation, He then creates the opportunity for the healed person to go back to the doctor; because it sometimes take the doctor’s diagnosis or test to prove that God has done something to correct the situation. Then it becomes a vindicated thing; and produces a testimony that God is truly a healer. No, this was not a man that condemned you for taking an aspirin for a headache. A lot of times he would do that himself. I say that for the glory of God; and certainly not to diminish anything from Bro. William Branham. He knew when to trust God for something; but he felt no shame, and certainly did not feel that he had sinned, if he decided to take an aspirin or something. To walk with God in truth requires spiritual priorities; but it does not require one to become fanatical with a do, and do not list. There was just something about that man, that changed the whole life of a lot of people.

EDITH WRIGHT’S FUNERAL

As we approached the end of 1964, in the month of December, I went to bed on this particular night, not thinking about anything in particular, when about eleven o’clock the telephone rang. It was Sister Wright (Bro. George Wright’s wife) calling. She said, Bro. Jackson, I am calling to let you know Sis. Edith just passed away. She requested that you preach her funeral. I said Sister, if the Lord is willing, I will. This was in December 1964. Bro. William Branham had already moved to Arizona. After we went back to bed, I said to my wife, Honey, do you remember the dream I had when we were in Cuba in December 1957? In that dream, I say myself back in the states walking into a funeral home. I was asking myself, who is dead? As I walked across the funeral parlor, there was a casket on the stand. All the flowers were there. I walk over to the casket and it was closed; but there on a stand were the little memorial cards. I read one of them and it said, Edith Wright passed away on such and such a date. Funeral services will be conducted by Rev. Raymond Jackson, at such and such a funeral home. I awakened from sleep and said to my wife, I had the strangest dream. I just do not understand it. Remember now, that was when we were in Cuba, in the month of December, 1957. At that time, in 57, Bro. William Branham still lived here. These Wright’s were close friends of Bro. William Branham. I have heard him say many times, that no matter where he might be, if he ever got a telephone call that little Edith Wright needed him he would be there. Her name was mentioned in his sermons many times. The old timers know how that was. He loved this family; because when he used to walk the power lines, many times he would stop off at the Wright’s and eat with them. The became close family friends and were connected to Bro. William Branham’s life and ministry in many ways. (This was a family that was also brought into the truth during the Milltown meetings. That is where Bro. William Branham got acquainted with them.) I always thought, if anything was to happen to that poor crippled girl, Bro. William Branham would conduct the funeral, not me. That was just the natural way to look at it. God was the only one that knew it would not be that way. Anyhow after seven years, the dream I had about little Edith’s funeral was being fulfilled. Bro. William Branham had moved away from this area; and at the time of her death he was in a meeting he felt he could not get away from to come back here and conduct the funeral. That is why Sister George Wright had called me that night. After my wife and I talked about it a little while, I fell asleep and dreamed another dream.

BRO. JACKSON’S WHITE HORSE DREAM

After talking to my wife about sister Wright’s telephone call, and about the dream I had seven years earlier, I fell asleep and saw myself and my wife in our car traveling. My wife was driving. Many times when we are on a long trip, I will drive a little while, then my wife will drive. I want you to know, it is not because my wife runs things. My wife through the years has been a true helpmate to me in every way. Back when I used to farm full time, I just don’t know what I would have done many times if I had not had a wife that could drive a car. Many times I would be in the field with the hay bailer, or combine, and have something break down, if I could get to a phone somewhere and say, Honey, I need you to go to the parts place in Corydon, and get me this certain part, and bring it to such and such a location, she would stop everything, pick up the little ones, go get it, and bring it to me. That is just one little example of the many ways she has been a helpmate to me, in addition to being a faithful wife and a dedicated mother to our children; but she has never tried to tell me how to drive the combine or anything like that. Nor has she ever attempted to run my ministry; no matter what my critics say. I only say these things for the benefit of some of my critics out in the world who have made up stories about my wife running things. I want the world to know, I married a woman that knows how to be a wife and help mate; and that knows how to take care of a home. I will get back to the dream now. I fell asleep and saw myself and my wife in our car traveling. My wife was driving. In my heart, I knew we were going somewhere to be in a meeting. I also knew we had never been there before. Well in the dream, while we were traveling along, with me sitting on the passenger side, just relaxing and looking out the window, all of a sudden I see a little speck in the sky. The sky was clear. That speck keeps getting closer and closer and closer. I watch it, and as it gets closer and closer to us I see that it is a man on a horse. The thought struck me, I just be seeing things. There is no such thing as a man riding a horse in the sky. I just turned my head away without saying anything to the wife, and kept it turned away for awhile. After a little interval of time I thought, I will look again and see if that thing is still there. I turned again, and by this time the man on the horse was descending in a way that I knew he intended to intersect us there alongside the road. When I saw that, it was then real close to us. I said to my wife, Honey, pull over here, I want to watch this. There is a man on a horse, in the sky. By the time she pulled off onto the shoulder of the road, the horse with his rider was on the ground, standing a little bit in front of us, just a little further off the road. It was a beautiful white horse; and sitting in the saddle was a man I recognized to be Bro. William Branham. He was dressed like a western range rider. I have seen them at various times in the state of Colorado, when I used to go there with my father and mother deer hunting. I sat there looking at him and he turned in the saddle, pointed his finger at me, and said, You! Get ready! There is a work for you to do. He raised his finger and said, Prepare yourself for the work where unto you have been called; and if you believe these words, a powerful horse will be given unto you to carry you in the calling where unto you have been called. He repeated that and touched the reins, and that horse turned, made a few lopes and he was right back in the sky. I sat watching the horse. He rode that beautiful white horse off into the sun. (This is the second dream I had, where I knew when he went off into the sun, I would never see him any more.) As I turned my head back, standing right there in the same spot where his horse had stood was another beautiful, white horse. It was not as large as the one he was on. I said to my wife, I am going to get out and try him out. I got out of the car, and the horse stood right there like a well trained horse would. I stepped up in the saddle. The stirrups were adjusted just exactly right for me. I touched the rein and the horse made a little turn, took a few lopes, and headed for the sky. Sitting in the saddle, I felt the movement of that little animal’s body as he kept getting higher and faster, higher and faster. It just seemed like he kept reaching out there. The thought came to me, There is no end to where this horse will take me if I just let him go; but I am only trying him out; so I must go back. With that I touched the left rein, he turned in the sky and brought me right back to the same spot. I got off, got back in the car, as I shut the door of the car I woke up. When I had that dream it really startled me. I could not figure out what in the world such a dream would ever amount to; so I kept it from December 1964 until August 1, 1965, when I finally got a chance to tell it to Bro. William Branham. I told Bro. William Branham the dream that Sunday morning; and he gave me the interpretation of it; but I am going to stop right here and let you hear the testimonies of some others whose lives were changed as a result of Bro. William Branham’s ministry. The first will be Brother Billy cox; and I especially want him to tell of something that took place up here in the Parkview High School, the last night of the meeting, as Bro. William Branham with his back toward them, responded to their heart cry.

TESTIMONY OF BROTHER COX

We were there in the meeting. We had a little girl that was born in July. We had taken her to the doctor a couple of times with some problems. They said she had a hole in her heart. We had taken her to the Children’s Hospital in Louisville. They said the hole was definitely there and it was about the size of a dime. At that time she was six months old; and they said that when she was a year old they would have to do open heart surgery to correct the problem. This was in 1965, much before open heart surgery was as common as it is today. It was a big thing back then. We were very young at the time; so the very thought of such a thing scared us half to death. I tried several times, to get in to see Bro. William Branham and tell him about it in person; but I was never able to do so. It was hard to get in to see him because there were so many people with the same desire. We tried several times without success; so we were doing a lot of praying about it. Then as we sat there in the high school auditorium, he was up on the stage which was between the auditorium and the gymnasium, with people seated in both places. We were about half way back in the gymnasium, sitting in chairs placed out on the floor of the gym. When he got through preaching the message “Who Is This Melchizedek?” (My name is mentioned in the book, in the back of the sermon.) He came out to the middle of the stage and had his back toward us. He called out two or three people over in the auditorium, told them where they lived, what was wrong with them and so forth; and while he was still standing there looking in the opposite direction from us, he pointed back over his shoulder and said, I see a man behind me. HE then called my name and said, Everything is going to be alright. It took six months for that to come to pass. I will not go into all of the details; it would take too long to tell the whole story; so I will just say, Our daughter is 27 years old now. She has two children of her own. A couple years ago there was a clinic opened up here in town and her and her sister went by to get an EKG; because they were giving them free. They thought they would just go by and see what it was like. Both of them were O.K. To my oldest daughter the man mentioned that hers would kind of do a little flip once in awhile; but he looked at Becky’s (the one that had the hole in her heart) and said, I see you have never had any heart trouble. Yours is perfect. When God does the operation, it is a success story. It never left a scar or anything: Her heart is perfect. Amen. (Bro. Jackson says) Yes, this man’s life was destined to have an influence on the lives of a lot of people. At this time I am going to ask Brother Bud Thompson to give his testimony: how God dealt with him and brought him into this truth.

TESTIMONY OF BROTHER THOMPSON

First of all I would like to say that I am thankful and very grateful, and feel very honored to be a Christian, a child of the living God. It is by His grace and mercy that I am here; and that I have this opportunity to give my testimony. I will try my best to condense what I have on my heart to say and make it as short as I can; yet there are some things on my heart that I feel I must say. I will just try to start by telling a little about when I was a child. I grew up in a very good home. I have two very wonderful parents. I appreciate the Lord for that. My mother always took us to church and taught us to pray and trust in God: that He was real, and that He would minister to us. However as I grew older I began to drift from the way I had been taught; and as I got into my teenage and young adult years I just quit going to church altogether, got out into the world and began to do things I knew were not pleasing to my parents; and certainly not pleasing to God. Nevertheless I just let myself get in that condition and lived the life of a lost sinner. I never murdered anyone. I never robbed anyone or anything of that nature; but I was a sinner, doing what sinners do. I met a young Christian girl by the name of Patricia, who was of a Christian family. I fell in love with that girl. We have been married for almost 18 years. It was through my wife and her family that I began to see there was something in their lives that I had never experienced. Though I had joined the church at a very early age, eight years old, and was baptized, I still saw that there was something in their lives that I had never experienced. I really came under conviction. The Lord just spoke to my heart one day through an eight year old child, and let me know I had never really surrendered my heart to Him. I cam under great conviction. For several months after that I was just simply miserable, knowing I was not a Christian, and that I needed salvation in my heart. I finally became so troubled, and so burdened, that one day when I was alone, I knelt beside my bed in prayer, and when I was finished pouring my heart out to God, and as far as I knew how, completely surrendered my heart to Him, He filled me with the Holy Ghost and made my life what I had never known a life could be. He put within me a joy, a peace, and satisfaction that I had never known any mortal creature could ever experience. Wanting to do what was right, I went and joined another church, and was baptized again. During that period of time when I met the girl that later became my wife, her family had been introduced to Bro. William Branham’s teachings; and they were in the process of studying what he taught and trying to understand some things that were different than what they had always heard. All during that period of time, the things they were saying were in the back of my mind. I had never been taught those things; but still they began to make sense to me. As I began to mature as a Christian, I began to search the scriptures, trying to find some answers for myself. I went to ministers that we were associated with, as well as other people in the church; and I suppose they all thought I was crazy. They told me things like, You scare me when you talk like that. The things you ask bring fear. I did not understand why something in the word of God would bring fear to a man who was supposed to be a minister. It really discouraged me, and troubled me greatly. I did not know what to do. I continued to pray and search the scriptures for myself; and then my in-laws and Sis. Margie Crook began to introduce me to the tapes of Bro. William Branham’s teachings. I sat and listened to those tapes; and the more I listened, the more encouraged I became. Yet there were some things said that I did not fully understand. We now refer to them as dual statements; and we understand why God allowed his prophet to speak like that; but at the time it was very hard on me. Nevertheless I continued to listen to those tapes prayerfully. When I got the seven seals, I would sit up late at night when the rest of my family had gone to bed, so that I could really concentrate. Through those first six seals I was just so excited. Then when I got to the seventh seal I was just so thrilled, that I was going to get to hear the seventh seal. When he was all finished he said, I can’t open this seal; its not yet time. That always stuck in my mind, that he never opened that sea. Along about that time, my in-laws and Sis. Crook began to inquire about this man we had heard on Bro. William Branham’s tapes by the name, Junie Jackson. That name just seemed to come up often, even in the books we read. They began to inquire about him. They obtained a tape from here at Faith Assembly. They ask me if I would listen to that. I had already become discouraged because of the quotes. All of that just simply troubled my heart. Yet when they asked me to listen to the tape of Bro. Jackson I said, Well yes, I will listen. I listened to it; and when I heard him teach on the subject, “The Wise and Foolish Virgins,” it thrilled my soul. I heard that entire message almost sitting on the edge of my seat; because I heard a man who stood and ministered his own message without having a lot of quotes from Bro. William Branham’s messages. I said in my own mind, and to the others, This is a man that God has anointed. This is a man that knows what he is talking about. As time passed we heard more of Bro. Jackson’s tapes; and in 1978 we were privileged to come here for service. I came here and was baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bro. Allen was the one who baptized me. From that time on we began to strive for opportunities to come here and be a part of this fellowship; but finances did not permit it as often as we desired. We lived about 123 miles from here; so for about two years we came only 3 or 4 times a year. I knew in my heart that truth was being taught here and that I needed to sit under this anointed ministry; but I thought, A hundred and twenty three miles sure is a long way to go to church; so maybe we can still go to the local churches we were already fellowshipping with, and just go to Faith Assembly three of four times a year, and the Lord will surely be pleased with that. As I continued to attend the local fellowships I became more discouraged; my soul was not being fed spiritual manna. It got to the point that I would get ready and go to church, get in the parking lot and say to myself, I cannot go in there. I know that God is not in it, and that this cannot be His will. I just cannot fellowship where there is no truth. I decided that I could stay at home and serve the Lord just fine. Little did I realize that God would not tolerate that attitude from one of His children. Therefore I believe what I am now going to tell you was ordained of God for a purpose. It was December 1^st, 1979, I went on a deer hunting trip. About 9:00 A.M. we started to leave the woods: it was very cold that morning. My cousin who was with me was walking maybe twenty feet behind me when he slipped and fell, knocking his gun off safety, causing it to fire striking me in the calf of my right leg. The twelve gauge deer slug went completely through my leg leaving a hole about the size of a half dollar coin piece where it entered my leg and a hole 3 ½ inches wide and 6 1/4 inches long where it came out. I lost about four pints of blood, most of the large muscle in my leg was destroyed and just at tremendous amount of damage was done to my leg. I will not take the time to tell the entire story. I spent twenty one days in the hospital and had four surgeries. I began to question why, Why did this happen to me? As I asked that question I realized it was my attitude. God just simply would not tolerate it. He did not want me in the denominations; and neither did He want me sitting at home. God will use whatever corrective means necessary to get our attention; and believe me brothers and sisters the Lord did heal my leg; but He left me with the scars as a permanent reminder. After I came home from the hospital, and was able to travel, we found a church about fifty miles from where we lived, a church that was associated with Bro. William Branham’s teachings. We began to have fellowship with them hoping that this was God’s will for us. They were wonderful people; but they began to teach that the seventh seal had already been opened; and in my mind I thought, I never heard him say that. I thought maybe I was crazy; so I went back and listened again. He said the very same thing I thought I heard the first time. Yet they said the seals were all broken. They began to talk about Jesus being off the mercy seat in 1965. Well that would have excluded me from the family of God; and I knew better than that; so I just searched that much harder. I had heard preacher after preacher, who were followers of Bro. William Branham. It was quote this, and quote that. They never stood on their own two feet and preached their own message. That really troubled my heart. This is when we really began to pray and seek the Lord: that He would make a way for us to come to Faith Assembly. I was then more than willing to travel a hundred and twenty three miles to hear God’s anointed word preached. My soul was just so hungry, I sat down and wrote Bro. Jackson a letter asking him to pray that the lord would help us to be able to come. The Lord opened up a way for us; and from then until 1986, we drove 123 miles each way, every week, coming to church. We did not come here just for natural fellowship. There were friends close to home we could have that kind of fellowship with; but our soul’s were hungry for fellowship led by the Spirit of God; and for hearing His anointed word preached; and this was a place where we could find what we hungered for. Never, in all the years of my association with Bro. Jackson, have I heard him stand and belittle Bro. William Branham’s ministry. Instead, he took Bro. William Branham’s teachings, and especially the things that had put questions in my mind, and put a picture together that enabled me to see clearly, why the statements were made the way they were. Then in 1986, the Lord made a way for us to move to this area. We gave up our job, packed up what we had a moved to this location. The Lord has just blessed and given us a great understanding of things than I ever knew any creature could possibly have of the word of God. It is all by the grace of God. It is not by the wisdom of man. It is not Bro. Jackson. It is not Bro. William Branham, but the grace of the Spirit of God in those men, that included us. God took a little man by the name of William Branham, and anointed him to speak some words. I never was privileged to meet him because he was gone off the scene before I became a Christian; but I have heard the tapes messages he preached and read the books. Therefore I just thank God for allowing that little man’s ministry to touch a poor unlearned heart like mine. He took that man and introduced me to the scriptures. He also introduced to me another man that would continue to stand and minister and carry out the work of God. He is not standing here to carry out another man’s ministry; but to carry out the work of God committed to him. I just have to say, The Lord has been gracious to us. I appreciate the Lord for eternal life, and for the revelation of His word that He has allowed me to have. That is why I said, We did not come here just to make natural friends; but for the benefit of our souls; and we have not been let down. The Lord has always prospered our souls for every effort we have made. WE have had valleys to walk through and hills and mountains to climb just like other; but our souls have always been encouraged. I am not ashamed to be associated with Bro. Jackson and his ministry; but quite the contrary, I am very honored; because it has led me to God’s truth. I just appreciate the Lord for His grace and mercy. (Bro. Jackson says) Thank you Bro. Bud. We still have some others to testify; so at this time I want Bro. Jay Reliford to give his testimony; and then I will give you Bro. William Branham’s interpretation to my horse dream. Before Bro. Reliford comes I want to read a verse of scripture; because this verse of scripture goes with this message. Around the world, wherever it might be read or heard on tape, or video, let me say this, concerning the prophecy: It is a prophecy found in Isaiah 52:8, concerning the end time ministry. “Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” As I said, That is a prophecy pointing to the ministry of the true end time church. I will not read it; but the 7^th verse is a prophecy that has been hanging over the Grace Age, and has been applicable to the ministry that has been down through the age of Grace. The apostle Paul used it when he wrote the Roman letter, in chapter 10, verse 15. That verse has been applicable for all times: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” Of course we realize that particular prophecy will run its course one day. As a matter of fact, it has just about finished its course and is about to terminate because we are at the end of time. Therefore verse 8 comes right in, saying that the ministry in these last days, will all see eye to eye. I just have to say, It is a crying shame, to think that what God has given many people in these last days to allow them to see, to get them pointed back to the same faith, and the same scriptures this faith was founded upon in the beginning of the early Church, has been treated in such a way a lot of them are as far away from reality as daylight is from dark.

TESTIMONY OF BROTHER RELIFORD

I am thankful to have this opportunity to tell you what the Lord means to me, and how he brought things about that have changed our lives. I am grateful, and very thankful. Bro. William Branham was born and raised as a young child, just a few miles from where I was born and raised up. However I did not know him; and never even heard of that name. I was raised up in a Methodist Church. We didn’t know anything else but that. The Lord has His way of bringing you to wherever He wants you to see and hear though. Just to make it short, in July 1952, we came to Clark County: My wife and I, and our children, still not knowing anything about Bro. William Branham. We drove down from Illinois over night on Saturday night; and drove down through Jeffersonville; but we knew nothing about Jeffersonville. We drove by the Branham Tabernacle; but did not know what it was. It was just the Lord leading us where He wanted us to go. We did start going there just after we moved to this part of the county, for we began to hear about Bro. William Branham. There was a curiosity set up and we started attending the Tabernacle occasionally. When we began to hear him minister, and were allowed to see the miracles, as well as the gift in his life in operation, we certainly felt like we were in the right place. You know, I think of his ministry as a complete ministry. We went to the Methodist Church, but the spiritual diet was not satisfying. You have to have spiritual food as well as natural food. We were just not getting a proper diet at the Methodist Church. When we began to hear Bro. William Branham we were getting the right diet and it was seasoned just right. You have to have something to grow on. As we sat and listened, the thing that I thought about a lot, he would say so many times, I am your brother. Knowing some people were taking it otherwise, just made that stand out to me. He kept telling us to get back to the word. That was something else that stuck with me. We had attended a Pentecostal Church for a little while, and they had some doctrines we had heard Bro. William Branham did not teach the same way. We didn’t quite understand it; but we were fortunate enough to get an interview with him August 1, 1965. My wife and I went in together to see him. He talked to us for a little bit, and then he, more or less just feeling us out, reached over and took us by the hand and said, Your lives are clean. I don’t see a thing in your lives. He took his Bible and laid it there on the stand and said, Now this is the capstone over a well of water. Remove that and let water flow freely. He said, The gifts are for you; pray, speak in tongues, or prophesy. Then he said, I can’t go out this morning and tell the congregation what I am telling you; because some of them will try to get the gifts without having what you already have. That was a blessing to us. We attended there on up until he passed away. I noticed while we were going there, that there were some ministers setting there which were being fed a spiritually balanced diet. They knew what he was saying; and why. Shortly after he was taken from us, (Let me say, I do not believe God makes mistakes, I believe his work was done and the Lord took him home.) We again began to get dissatisfied. The Lord was going to move us again. At that time we did not know where we would go. Some time in early 66, we were driving home from church one night, very discouraged because of the spiritual diet we had been on: because it was just not like it used to be. WE were getting very hungry spiritually. I looked over at my wife and said, Honey, what are we going to do? She said, Let’s go to Bro. Jackson’s. That has been 25 years ago. I thank God for this place, for the ministry that has been set before us and for the spiritual food that is seasoned just right. You can grow on it. I am grateful and thankful to God for that. (Bro. Jackson says, Thank you Bro. Reliford, God bless you. I wanted Bro. Reliford to give his testimony before I tell you the interpretation Bro. William Branham gave me concerning the horse dream.

HORSE DREAM INTERPRETATION

On August 1, 1965, the same day brother and sister Reliford had the interview with Bro. William Branham, my wife and I also had an interview with him. That is why I wanted him to give his testimony before I tell what Bro. William Branham told me. As they were coming out, we were going in; and that is when I told him the horse dream. To save time I will not tell the dream again; I will just tell you what he said about it. When I related it to him, Bro. William Branham looked at me and said, Bro. Jackson, something is getting ready to happen. I don’t know what it is; but whatever it is, when it does, you have a job to do. I do know what the horse is. He picked up the Bible and said, Stick with this word, because the horse symbolizes the power of the word. With that he turned and walked over to a wall there in the office and said, Isn’t this a beautiful picture? It was a picture of Elijah being carried away in a fiery chariot. He told how a certain person had painted that picture just a few days prior to this occasion, and had give it to him as a gift. He said That is really beautiful: isn’t it? I said, It sure is. As he turned away from the picture on the wall, he came right back to his Bible again and said, Bro. Jackson, stick with this word. There is something about to happen. I don’t know what it is, but that horse is the power of the word. With that he set about to tell me of a dream someone else had told him. Therefore I will say no more about my dream: I will just leave his interpretation with you.