WE ENDED OUR FEBRUARY ISSUE WHILE SPEAKING OF THE SPIRIT THAT IS ON DENOMINATIONAL CHRISTIANITY AND HOW THEY REJECTED THE MIDNIGHT CRY OF THE PROPHET TO THIS AGE AS TAKEN FROM THE PARABLE IN MATTHEW 25: WHICH ACTUALLY WAS THE SHOUT OF 1ST THESSALONIANS 4; SO THAT IS WHERE WE WILL BEGIN THIS ISSUE.
When I speak of how denominational church people responded to the prophet messenger to this age, I am sure there are some who would say, Bro. Jackson, I just cannot believe that. Well read your Bible. Did the Judaistic leaders of Jesus’ hour not respond the same way? Did they really want God? You know good and well they did not: They just wanted a form of religion. You could read the Bible through forty times and not read enough to convince yourself that the Jewish hierarchy, the ecclesiastical leadership of Judaism in the days of Jesus, really wanted God. They had a theological concept of God, coupled with traditions of interpretation of the scriptures; and they felt justified in believing that was all God required of them. Sure they knew the Law. At least they knew the fundamentals of the observance of it; and the fulfillment of it; but when it came to the types and shadows it projected, and the reason for the types that corresponded with other passages of scripture, they did not know one thing about any of them. That is why when Jesus came on the scene, they did not know that written prophecies were being fulfilled right before their very eyes. He came right down the road of life doing just the opposite of what they thought their Messiah would be doing when He came. When we read from the four gospels of the New Testament, it becomes very obvious to us that the Judaistic religious leaders of Jesus’ hour did not want to walk with God in any way, shape, form or fashion. They wanted their old traditions; and that is all they had any time for. If God had allowed them to have had their way, you can rest assured that none of us (Gentiles) would have ever known God had a plan of salvation for anyone but Jews. You would still be pagans just like your ancestors; because Jesus would not have been to Calvary yet. Think of it. I have to say, That is the way you have to look at this religious world out here right now. We are living in a time when this religious world with all its ecclesiastical, organized structures have the best of everything at their disposal. Turn on the TV or radio and the Mormon Tabernacle choir from Salt Lake City may be filling the airways with beautiful songs and music; but they do not carry a message concerning the coming of Christ: You just hear well trained voices accompanied by a huge pipe organ; and it is beautiful; but shame on them for thinking Jesus Christ died for any of that. Shame on you: if you think that is what Jesus Christ is coming for. That is what the world likes; and it is apparent that this is where the people who received that anointing of the old Pentecostal move got sidetracked. The people of that move just simply would not move on with God; and the result was, God just simply moved off and left them going in circles on their denominational merry-go-rounds. He began to do what the apostle Paul spoke of in 2nd Thessalonians: send them delusions. (2:11-12) “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” What every one of them started with was truth; but when God purposed to reveal more truth from His word to them they were satisfied with what they had already and just literally refused to receive any further light. Well let me ask this question, If God offers you something for your spiritual growth and development and you refuse it, is He unjust if He just simply allows (or causes) some other spirit to deceive you? I say no, He is not; because He has already warned us in His written word that He would do just exactly that. Therefore the people of modern day religious systems of the world in this hour of time will believe a lie of Satan and be damned: just like the Bible says. That leaves a wise element of people within this parable, and a foolish element; and the foolish element is still out there fellowshipping with those who are already doomed to split hell wide open. The wise are a separated people that (to the world) seem to have very little of anything God would approve of. That is because their ways are so different from what religious people in general portray Christianity to be. We do not allow ourselves to take part in everything that is sponsored by supposed-to-be Christian organizations. We do not believe the true Church of the living God has to sponsor rummage sales, soup suppers, and all kinds of sports activities to support the work of God. I have always believed that God is well able to support His entire plan and purpose on our behalf without requiring us to become beggars and puppets; and without us always having to portray the Church as being in desperate need of someone’s generosity. God is well able to lead true saints to do the right thing: both with their finances and their every day way of living; and that is something the world cannot understand. We have to understand that God, by His foreknowledge, knew every wise virgin from before the foundation of the world; therefore not every individual of that number has the baptism of the Holy Spirit (the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God) already abiding within them to do this wonderful work; but the potential is an ever present reality; and those who do have that indwelling presence have the privilege and responsibility of giving direction to the others. Those that do already have that blessed presence dwelling within, we can say, are the backbone of all those that are foreknown of God to be wise virgins. They have their ears tuned to listen to what the Spirit has to say to the Church; and they know what they are looking for as well as what they are looking at. This is why when we began to see in this hour of time we are living in, this move of the Spirit that has suddenly come among us, especially among our young people, it lets us know that this is God’s way of quickening (or vindicating) the truth we have believed, received and stood for. By one sweep of His great hand around this world, God can collect up the wise virgins, give the rest of them that experience of the baptism of His Spirit, and cause every last one of them to see the same picture in His word as they continue to study His written word and wait for Jesus to return. God Himself is the One that finishes up His program of redemption for His lost children. He has the final word on everything. He has not left those last details in the hands of carnal minded mankind.
THE OTHER PHASE OF WHAT GOD IS DOING IN THIS HOUR
We have already spoken of what I am going into right now; but there is yet a few things to say: to clear up the thinking of some people. In other words we could say that there is another move of the Spirit in the land today; and it is commonly referred to as the charismatic revival. It has much the same thing taking place as what we have been experiencing. At least it looks like the same thing. The only difference is, there is no revelation. It is no different than what it was in the Azusa Street move of the Spirit. Over there they do not want anyone to talk about water baptism in the name of Jesus. They do not want anyone to talk about predestination, nor eternal security of the believer. Their doctrine is, Leave doctrine out of the picture: it only divides. We must understand this, If that which they are receiving is truly apostolic, then it has to bring them back to apostolic teaching. They want an apostolic Spirit, with an apostolic blessing and with an apostolic benefit; but they do not want apostolic teaching. That is the sad part of what looks so wonderful. There are five basic concepts within the charismatic realm of religion in the world today. First there is a trinity in the godhead. They dogmatically contend that anyone who does not believe in a trinity of persons in the Godhead by saying the Father is a person, the Son is a person, the Holy Ghost is a person, is automatically branded as a cult. Well saints, I would like to just turn it around the other way and say, If you do not teach what is written in the Bible like the apostles from the Jerusalem church did, (That there is only One God, and that this One God has become manifested in three offices) then I would have to say, Your trinity is definitely heresy. It is false teaching. It is promoted by the spirit of antichrist; and that is why the Spirit of God moves among them, but without a revelation to correct them in their errors. HE ONLY CORRECTS HIS OWN CHILDREN. I know it is hard for people to understand how God could do that, but you have got to understand, when Jesus says in one of His parables, in the 13th chapter of Matthew, especially that seventh parable, which lays out the plan that there is definitely to be a separation, and the tares are to go one way to be burned while the pure grain is to be brought into the garner, that is exactly how it is going to be: He was not just guessing. He said He will send forth His angels first (and these angels are not fallen spirits, or demons doing diabolical devilish things) and gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them. (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.” ( God gives every one of those people the same opportunity to walk in truth as He does anyone else: The only difference is, they are not foreknown of Him to be bride saints. (Matthew 13:36-42) The disciples of Jesus came unto Him, saying, “Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. (37) He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; (38) The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; (39) The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. (40) As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. (41) The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; (42) And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” When we speak of various people being led by the spirit of antichrist, that does not mean they choose to be led by the devil: it is just a matter of them being deceived. The devil has devised shrewd schemes through the ages of time whereby he has been able to warp the mind’s of those who do not hunger and thirst for the revelation of truth. Therefore since the mind of the average church-going person is already warped with the creeds and traditions of the systems they fellowship in, it does not matter how much the Spirit of God is poured out upon them, nor how much they love it when they are shouting, dancing and having a good time, the end result is, all that is precious to bride saints just runs off of them like water runs off of a duck’s back. They have too much of that denominational oil on them for the oil of the Holy Ghost to be able to penetrate it. Therefore He can give them certain signs and wonders, but it still does not open up a revelation to them. They say give us more, more, more: just like it was back in the Azusa Street times; and it is now apparent that something is going on in systems of religion around the world that is different than what the charismatic move has been used to in the past number of years; but we just have to realize that God is making a final sweep around this old globe before He begins to wrap up the whole thing to close out this age. You know, this was never voiced eight or nine years ago when the charismatic move was moving through different religious circles in the world; but now in the past few months, from South Africa, from London England, Canada, and wherever there is a move of a major extent that goes on within the charismatic people, there are voices, and there are eyes watching; and there are questions asked, Is this really God? There begins to be a doubt as to what is going on and why. You have to understand though, if you do not have a revelation from the Spirit of God to teach you how to look for things that are in error, you are not going to be able to tell whether it is right or wrong. For instance, how can a Trinitarian who wants to insist Jesus Christ is the second person of the trinity, and that the Holy Ghost is the third person of the trinity, have a revelation of the word of God to know how to interpret other passages of scripture that definitely speak of what will take place at the end time? Does the Bible not proclaim that there will be those on the scene that will show strange signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible it would deceive the very elect? That is why it takes a true revelation to know the difference. If you know what to look for, the false will always make a slip here and there that will reveal what they really are. Right from the same framework, you find both the true and the false going on. Satan is a duplicator. He produces counterfeit that looks to the natural eye exactly like the genuine. Listen to me now: What does that tell you? In the same congregation of people, you have the Spirit of God being poured out for all to benefit by; and at the same time, you have that false anointing manifesting the same things the genuine is manifesting. Why does God allow it to be like that? That is the method He uses to bind the tares. As the Spirit moves among them, it has come with such a dynamic surge, people are slain, people speak in tongues, all these dramatic things take place just like we described earlier. All of it can be of God; but none of those manifestations carry an automatic revelation. All of a sudden people begin to wonder, Is this really a true anointing? Is this a true move of God? How do we perceive this? Do we understand it to be beneficial to His church? You have to understand, it is how God first binds the tares that are in the various systems of religion. That is the primary, and foremost purpose for what God is doing in some places today. All of your Pentecostal systems immediately jump right into any camp where they can find these various manifestations of the Spirit regardless of what is being taught; so that automatically binds them all together and the Bible calls them tares. Does that mean every person out there among them is a tare? No, but the systems that control the whole thing is staffed with tares. What does that do secondarily? It has gone on long enough that it has caused the foolish virgins, which were definitely awakened along with the wise virgins, to be caught up in the whole excitable program of those systems. When you read the parable where they woke up and said to the wise, Give us of your oil, the wise said, Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you, go to them that sell: and buy for yourselves. In other words, Go to the market place, out there in the religious world where you have the evangelists and the preachers with their various degrees saying, Send me another offering! God has just given me a vision showing me that I must reach so many more thousands of people for His kingdom. You must help me fulfill this vision, or thousands of souls will end up in hell. No Brothers and Sisters, not one predestinated child of God will go to hell because those people fail to reach their goals. God is not depending upon people like that to reach His lost children out here in the world. They are all still preaching a message that is without a revelation for the Church of the living God. It wakes up foolish virgins, but it does not show them what direction to go in. It never guides them to where the wise virgins are. Nevertheless we cannot change the picture: it is all in the hands of God.
PRINTED ARTICLES ABOUT PENTECOSTAL EXPERIENCES
I am going to read something right from their own writings just to show you how some view what is taking place in this hour of time. I can truthfully say this, As the grace of God allows us to live and be guided through the pages of His word, we will appreciate more and more the fact that one day God saw fit to let you and I have a little glimpse of truth; and the fact that He taught us how to respect it and learn how to perceive it, understand it, and to apply it to our lives. In the end of this journey, God’s objective is this: He will have an end time Church here on earth believing just exactly like that apostolic Church of the first century. They will be living a holy life and walking with the Lord while this modern, apostate religious world and society in general has gone completely to the dogs. God will have a people that will bring honor and glory to Him because they allow His word to be quickened to their spirit and their very being’s made alive to Him. I say, Thank God that He did not leave me in the system of Methodism. We can truly say, It has been God’s grace that has kept us in the middle of a road with what we know; and all praise belongs to Him for truth He has revealed to us. I just praise the Lord from the depths of my soul for His grace and mercy. Now as I said earlier, This book I am going to read from covers everything from Azusa Street all the way into the 1980’s. It tells you where that move has gone, where it has been, the people affected by it, what they believed and taught; and it even declares that the Pentecostalism that started Azusa Street is now being enjoyed by every denomination on the face of this earth. That ought to tell somebody something. Do you mean to tell me that what they had at Azusa Street the Catholics are enjoying it? Rest assured they are. Back in the 1960’s David Duplessis, who was the big pusher of this Pentecostalism to the Catholic Church, is the very one that came out with the name Mr. Pentecost. The book is upstairs. He is the one that took speaking in tongues, the same experience that was at Azusa Street, right on over to the Catholic Church. Catholic laymen, cardinals, all are now speaking in tongues and even the pope has put his blessings on it. It is all in here. Lutheran priests are speaking in tongues. It is all in here. The Episcopal Church of England is now speaking in tongues. It is all in here. I am going to read a portion of it so you can get their exact words. One might ask, How come it wound up in the very systems that pronounced the whole thing to be of the devil, when it started out at Azusa Street? The very systems that spoke evil of it at the beginning now endorse it; and it has been accepted right into their camp. Does that not tell you something has happened? Does that not tell you why God would send them a strong delusion here in the end? What is a delusion? In the natural, a delusion is an illusion. It usually does not even exist. It is usually seen by people who have looked for the real thing for so long their mentality becomes marred. It is like what people who are lost out in a desert without water might begin to see. In other words, a mirage. They see water in front of them and when they run to fall into it, they are left to fall on dry, barren land. This is like that; but it is not that. This is something that is definitely to blind people of the religious world. There is a certain amount of reality to it. It has to be that way. That is why the denominational systems, after many years of persecuting the people of the Pentecostal move, and after preaching against it and saying it is of the devil, are now going for it. It is taking place right here at the end time in order for God’s word to be fulfilled, as Paul wrote in 2nd Thessalonians: that HE WOULD SEND THEM A DELUSION. The delusion has to have certain characteristics within it that look just like the apostolic hour described in the book of Acts: yet it is minus something that is essential. What is it? It is minus that quality of revelation that the true bride saints have. I want every one of you to think seriously concerning that which Azusa Street had and what was lacking in what they had. What did Jesus say in John 16:13, concerning the Spirit that was to come? Let us read it again. Notice the wording. “Howbeit when He, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, is come, HE WILL GUIDE YOU INTO ALL TRUTH: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.” What was missing at Azusa Street? It was an experience, but it was an experience minus a revelation. Then when it did come out later and He gave them one revelation (water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and one God) they went overboard with it. They never had another revelation from then until the Malachi 4, prophet messenger came upon the scene. Those same people who had accepted the name of Jesus in water baptism and believed that God is ONE and not three persons, sat on the platforms where Bro. William Branham ministered and saw how God vindicated his ministry with miracles of all sorts; and then when he began to preach other doctrines from the scriptures, they were ready to say, That is of the devil: Away with it! Well I have said enough to let you know why I want to read some of this to you. I am going to read this to let you see just how this anointing is having its affect, and what it is doing. Truly there is a great surge of it. It is coming in a way that looks almost parallel to what has been going on among the people of our assemblies lately.
BEGINNING
“The story begins far from London, at a little church near the end of the runway at Toronto Airport in Canada. In January the Holy Spirit began to fall in a new and powerful way upon members of that Vineyard Church.
Some of the events were described in last month’s Renewal. (Magazine) Services began to be held each weekday evening. As the extraordinary outpouring of the Holy Spirit continued, pastors from North America, and then from other parts of the world, began to travel to Toronto to see and experience for themselves what was happening.
Among the visitors was Eleanor Mumford, wife of the pastor of the south-west London Vineyard Church. Back at their home in Kingston, she spoke briefly to several church leaders about her experience and then prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Everyone present was affected in a remarkable way and the session continued unabated throughout lunch.
Among those present were Nicky Gumbel, curate at Holy Trinity, Brompton, and his wife Pippa.
Nicky suddenly realized he should have been back at Holy Trinity for a staff business meeting. He hurried there, to find the meeting about to break up.
He apologized and spoke briefly about what had happened. Everyone was in a hurry to get on with other matters and Nicky Gumbel was asked to say a closing prayer. He asked the Holy Spirit to fill everyone in the room. The effect was instantaneous. The Holy Spirit touched all those present in ways few had ever experienced or seen. People fell to the ground again and again. Other people walking past the room were also affected.
The news spread to those in other offices and they too were powerfully touched by the Holy Spirit. Prayer was still continuing after 5 pm.
On the following Sunday, 29 May, Eleanor Mumford spoke at the morning service at Holy Trinity. At the end, she prayed for the Holy Spirit to come.
There was a time of silence. Then slowly, members of the congregation began to cry quietly, and some to laugh. As the Holy Spirit came, Eleanor asked people to come forward if they wanted prayer. Many did so.
As Eleanor’s team and members of the church ministry team started to pray, people began to fall in the power of the Spirit. Soon the whole church was affected. There were scenes that few had ever seen before.”
There were many more pages that went with that report. I just wanted to use that one because it went on and talked of other things. Now here is a writer, an onlooker, a person affiliated in the charismatic; but he is either a spokesman or a theologian that looks things over before he writes to give anything a positive picture. So I am going to read to you his words. As I read, I want you to understand, it is now understandable why he would look on this that is going on among them with misgivings. It is because there is no revelation. They do not have the Spirit of revelation to deal with them on how to go further with what they are receiving.
In one report, the writer stated that in his church the preacher had just began to speak by saying, “The story of Solomon is one of the most tragic in the whole Bible.” Several people in the meeting immediately broke out into hilarious laughter. Many such accounts, which just do not seem to fit in with the work of the Spirit, leave one feeling very concerned.
In fact it is this matter of preaching the word of God which seems to have suffered in so many cases. Some of those leaders have even played down the importance of the Word. (That is what I just got through saying. They do not want doctrine, nothing that deals with getting a church back to its scriptural foundation.) It is the experience which is being sought rather than what God’s ways are. In several of the reports people have gone seeking “a fresh anointing” or visited Toronto (where the article I just read originated) because they were “dry” or going through “a barren time”. That is dangerous because in such times of dryness we are in no position to evaluate whether these things are of God. In any case, is it no better to seek the Lord directly for His blessing just as Jacob did?
It is worth bearing in mind that in past revivals not everyone was happy with all the manifestations of that day. (Then he refers to John Wesley. Then he continues on by saying.)
We need to weigh carefully all that is happening in these last days (Something, one of these days, is going to tell those poor foolish virgins they are missing out. That is why in the ending of the parable they come to the people that are the wise people and begin to knock, saying, Let us in.) especially as Jesus warned of false prophets, and false messiahs, (anointed ones) as being a mark of the last days, even to the extent that the elect would be deceived. Paul issues a similar warning in 1 Timothy 4:1. In fact in Paul’s day there was the danger of being deceived for he warned of “Satan disguising himself as an angel of light” and “his (Satan’s) servants also distinguishing themselves as servants of righteousness” and that they might actually “receive another spirit”. (2nd Corinthians 11:4, 13-15.) We must “test the spirits to see whether they are from God.” (1 John 4:1)
(When Jesus said in Matthew 24, concerning the signs of the end time, in that day they will come and show great signs and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they would deceive the very elect. We have got to come to one specific fixed thought. The elect are not just any religious person. They are a specific people that correspond to the wise virgin category. When the foolish ones began to get their eyes open and come seeking what they were lacking, where did they come to? They came where the wise were. So the wise definitely knew in what direction to go. Therefore we can say this, When Jesus referred to these false anointed ones (Matthew 7:20-23) He made it very clear that they were not of His flock. “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. (21) Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. (22) Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? (23) And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity: Is that not a sad shape to be in? It was not like that when the Church first started two thousand years ago. But here in the end time when we see this religious world doing the same works the true saints are doing, we can see there is an anointing out there. That much is sure. Yes there are healings and various blessings; but what will be the end result of it? The Spirit is falling on them like these various writings declare; but the sad part of it is, they are a mass of people that have no thoughts of receiving divine revelation. They do not want to be straightened up in their godhead understanding. They do not want to be straightened up in how they baptize. Neither do they give two cents worth of thought about being straightened up over Malachi 4:5-6. They do not even believe in an Elijah for our day. That was all fulfilled in John the Baptist according to them; and anything else goes to Israel. We are going to bring this in, in this message. The next time we want to show and prove to you that the Malachi spirit of Elijah in its last day setting, according to Malachi, is not for the Jews, it is for the Church. Because what is in Malachi 4, is what is connected with the covenant that God promised in Jeremiah 31:33, when He said, A new covenant will I make with the house of Israel, after those days. It is pointing to the dispensation wherein the Holy Ghost would be poured out. That was poured out to the Jew first and given to Gentiles after the Jews as a whole refused it. This is what constitutes or is that which is the essence of the New Covenant. It had to first be forerun by John the Baptist who was the Spirit of Elijah that forerun the first advent of Jesus Christ. John introduced the time for it and Jesus Himself who was the MESSENGER of this NEW COVENANT inaugurated, or set it in motion. Then on the day of Pentecost here came the Holy Spirit; and the covenant was fully in effect. Jesus was taken up to heaven where He continually intercedes for all that shall ever be heirs of salvation: leaving the Jews as sole beneficiaries of the NEW COVENANT that fulfilled Jeremiah 31; and it stayed among the Jews until God saw fit to move among the Gentiles with it. When He did turn to the Gentiles, it was not long until the Gentiles were the guardians of this good news. The Jews no longer held exclusive rights to it. (Acts 13:46)”Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: ( (JEWS) but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” They received the same out pouring of the Holy Ghost that the Jewish Church at Jerusalem received. When God cut the Jews off He gave this covenant of the Holy Ghost, the gospel of Grace through the Lord Jesus Christ, to the Gentiles in the fullness of all its benefits. That is why we have to read Malachi 4:5-6, and see it in its last day setting; because it is to turn the heart of the children back to the apostolic fathers. It means the end time children of this covenant of grace. That coming of the Elijah spirit has no application to the Jewish nation at all. In Matthew 17, when Jesus took the three disciples up on the Mount and showed them Moses and Elijah, that fulfilled Zechariah 4; and it fulfilled Revelation 11. That is how we must perceive the appearance of Moses and Elijah in that scene. But Malachi 4 and Malachi 3:1 is all related to the first and second advent of Christ in connection with the covenant of Grace. It is a shame that the world of theologians cannot get the Bible straightened out on these things. Of course I say that: knowing full well that all of this is in the hands of God alone: We cannot change the overall picture.
I want to finish reading the rest of this now. “The last thing we want to do is withstand a genuine work of God, but as we have evaluated this phenomena, we are left feeling (Just listen to this.) distinctly uneasy. It just does not square with the work of the Spirit, even although some of the results seem to be beneficial.”
Well brothers and sisters, if you are going to be honest with God, the true baptism of the Holy Spirit will always take you back to every precept that the early Church started out with; but how can those who have refused to allow the Spirit of TRUTH to give them a revelation of scriptural reality ever hope to discern what is, and what is not of God? How can we have the knowledge to discern what is and what is not right, if we have already turned down the Spirit of every revelation? That is first and foremost when it comes into the Church being led by God. To the individual, He is life. To the individual, He is a Comforter. To the individual, He is a teacher; but in the collective work in the Church, He will show the church things to come and He will lead the Church into ALL TRUTH. Never will He lead the Church astray.
I have yet a little more to read. “It is perfectly possible for some to have a genuine experience of the Lord because they are genuinely seeking Him; much the same as Paul rejoiced as Christ was preached although some did so “out of selfish ambition.” (Philippians 1:17) Benefits can come through laughing, enabling one to feel relaxed, and thus respond better to others and to the Lord, but that does not make it a genuine work of the Spirit. We cannot remove from our minds, however, the origins of this move that seems to us to be deeply suspect. Time alone will tell whether this is a genuine work of God, or a matter of the flesh, or even deception. If it is genuine, then it will be seen by its fruit. If it is carnal, then its effect will be superficial and will be proven in the test of time. If it is deception, then further deceptions will follow.”
When I saw that, I thought to myself, Something has got to make those people come to a point that they realize they have missed something. No where else and nothing else could shake them or disturb them. Think of people enjoying all these blessings, laughing in the Spirit, let me say this, When the Spirit makes a person laugh, He knows who He put that on because inside that person, that person needs something. Many times you never know the psychological turmoil that has been going on in their life. Just like that last Sunday morning in our fall meeting. That young man from Montreal, I do not know whether you all heard about the ordeal or not; but he had to help deliver his little baby: which was born dead. This almost tore the young couple to pieces emotionally. It was because of that ordeal that the other people felt like bringing them down here to the meeting. His wife’s mother is a UPC Pentecostal person, so this was not something new to her. However the young man, his testimony while we were in Canada was he had just gone through eight years of living for the devil out in the world, just about as far as you could go. He recognized it was the grace of God that got hold of him, turned him around and started him back to give him a chance. Then to see a man like that, when the power of God comes on him and he falls out on the floor, laughing, how can anyone find fault? God saw something inside of him and knew exactly that he needed. How many understand that? He knows exactly how to move on any person. Was it just to make a bunch of people laugh for silliness, I do not think we need to see it in that light. Nevertheless, if God said He would give certain ones a delusion, sure He can make them laugh; but they do not really have a thing to laugh about. They are just being deceived by the thing that is happening. That is why, think of the tragedy, if those people only realized that on the other side of this parable is another element of people being dealt with around the world, a people that has sought the will of God, they love the truth of His word, and they have been willing to be identified with the reproach of it. They saw that a trinity was wrong and sought to make their experience with God right. They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ just to make their lives bear out according to the Bible, and the world says that is fanaticism. I have to say, No, that is not fanaticism: That is getting your brain fixed right. That is looking at things the right way. This thing of holding on to a tradition is as futile as putting your money in a cardboard box and saying to Jesse James, (an outlaw) You cannot touch it. That is the same way with this thing we are talking about: We are living in the closing hours of time and this parable is hanging over our heads. The spiritual points are being fulfilled precisely. I just say, Lord, whoever is among us, and however you see to move among us, move in our midst to do what pleases you. Do with us, and through us what accomplishes your purpose. Make us to be the kind of people you want us to be, so that our lives will correspond to every verse of scripture pertaining to us in this blessed old book. It has to be that way because He is coming for a people that have made themselves ready.
GOD IS NOT FINISHED YET
I called Bro. Govender over in South Africa yesterday to see how things were progressing over there. Everything was moving wonderfully well. He was telling me how people from some of the other churches had been coming to his services. He did not elaborate as to what type of church they may have come from, but just said people from other churches have been in attendance lately. He felt like some of them were just looking things over, and probably so; but that is alright. They had heard about the moving of the Spirit and that naturally aroused their curiosity. He said that those who had children, many times during the services it would not be long before the anointing would fall on those children. In one particular case, some of the parents said, Pray for my child, I just do not understand this. He said to them, Do not worry about it: It is the Spirit of God on them: They will be alright. They are in good hands. Once these young people got a taste of this moving of the Spirit, there was one particular instance he reminded us of, everyone was leaving the service and had more or less left the building; and some of the children were down the sidewalk a short distance and just suddenly turned around and ran back to the building. They did not want to leave the place where they had felt such a wonderful feeling. I tell you, it is a shame the religious world has so many people starved half to death, and they do not even realize it. While we were talking I said to Brother Govender, Adults can sit and never respond to anything, but God knows how to bait the hook: He gets the children first. This way, Mom and Dad have to follow. Nevertheless here is the clincher. In every area you always have those individuals who like to just hop around from congregation to congregation without any responsibility whatsoever. They usually do not even sit through a whole service. They come in like they know everything, take their place, and will sit through two thirds of the service, then get up and walk out as though they already have all they will ever need. It happens in this area as well as others. One night there was a particular person in their service, (I realize this video will go there, so I pray that if that person is now coming to Bro. Govender’s church he will not be offended by me telling this.) sitting in the back of the church. (Usually that is where that type of person will sit.) There he is sitting in the back, the Spirit begins to move, the service is going on and he just sits there right through all the different phases of the service, through the singing, worshipping, and everything, he just sat there through it all. Bro. Govender said he could not help but notice that he was still sitting there when the service was concluded. Finally, the service being over and everyone beginning to leave and the man still sitting there, he thought he would go back and see if something was wrong. He went back and said, Brother, is something wrong? The man said, I have been sitting here for a certain length of time and I cannot move. HE COULD NOT MOVE. HE WAS UNDER A SPELL. He was just sitting there, not able to move a muscle. I said to Bro. Govender, That is God’s way of saying, Now sit still for awhile. Well, I tell you, the Lord has a lot of things in His category that we have not yet experienced. I have to say, Some people, when they go to church in this day and hour, had better go with their heart right. They simply do not know what God may choose to do. A lot can happen to a person’s heart in two hours.
DEFENDING A UNIQUE MINISTRY
I realize there is a lot of history in what I want to present to you now; therefore I want to make it as interesting as possible. I am doing this portion of it in defense of Bro. William Branham who ministered the word of God in this area, and preached most of his main messages which we feel are definitely related to an overall message from the Bible to the bride Church in this area. I am going to be reading certain excerpts from these various histories. This one Bro. Nelson gave me is a book written by a Swiss man. He was an interpreter for Bro. William Branham in one of His overseas meetings. What the man has to say, is said very nicely, nothing critical of Bro. William Branham at all. It is very uniquely put together, but very little is said about the things Bro. William Branham preached. I can understand that. Likewise this other book also has some nice remarks about Bro. William Branham in it. Most of the data, wherever they got their information, it coincides, and they agree. Nothing is written in a critical manner. Bro. William Branham‘s ministry, it is sad to say, as I hold these books up, to the average preacher or doctor of divinity or historian, their view of Bro. William Branham‘s life and ministry was that he was a man sent from God. He had a prophetic type of gift: they all agree; but really God sent him to confirm what the Pentecostal revival that started around the Azusa Street hour and come down through the twentieth century into the years of WW2 had come to. To most people of various denominations, if they know anything at all about him, their view is that Bro. William Branham was just a man with an outstanding gift of divine healing. Really all he was, was a man sent from God to confirm the old Pentecostal experience, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, supernatural display of the gifts and divine healing. Because he had this unusual gift, they all give recognition that he was an unusual man, sent at a precise period of time to more or less confirm the old Pentecostal message. However there are other people in the world that God has dealt with also: They know this man was sent for more than that. While they will not accept the fact he was God’s messenger sent to the Laodicean age with a message for the Church, they still recognize that he was more than what some others say he was. They somehow or other want to repudiate any claims where people say he had the spirit of Elijah upon him to fulfill the prophecy of Malachi; but that is because they cannot see God raising up a prophet from among the Gentiles. Many of these doctors of divinity take a challenge by saying the man was wrong in even saying that. Also like serpent seed: They cannot possibly accept that teaching. Throughout this message, however long it takes me to get it finished, I want to do what I can to give the people around the world an opportunity to recognize another element of people that are now looking at this move of the Spirit among us and saying it is the same as in the Charismatic. It is not. It is God, but it is God in another measure, with something else in view. That is the beautiful part of it. God did not have to come among us like this right now; but if it is truth we have, then God is among us to vindicate it, to quicken this truth in a way to prove to the world eventually, whether it is six years from now or when, that we are a people that are not caught up in the spirit of the Charismatic world of religion which have taken the doctrines out of the Bible and thrown them here and there as though they are entirely unimportant to one’s growth and spiritual well being. They just want the love of God and His blessing, but everything else in His word can just go somewhere else. That is the attitude they have taken, yet they say we believe in the Word of God. They believe only in that portion of the Word that just causes them to see and recognize Jesus Christ and the blessings, divine healing and such. I like all of that to but there is much, much more than just that. At this time, I am going to ask you to turn back to the 25th chapter of Matthew. I will read just one section of it. The more I look at this parable where Jesus was speaking to the disciples at the hour He spoke this, the more I realize how important it really is. When He said, “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins,” He was definitely speaking of a precise period of time somewhere in the future. He was not speaking of a period of time that would cover only five, eight, or ten years either. He was definitely speaking of a period of time that will cover, we will say, a human generation, much like all the other prophecies He gave, like in Matthew 24. If that be true, then this parable is how we look at the Laodicean age which started at the turn of the century. The beginning of the revival at Azusa Street is a beginning point. That was God’s way of offering mankind an opportunity to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which is oil in their vessels. Now it is a sad picture though, the main part of the denominational world did not accept that. The rest of the denominational world is still looking back on the various periods and moves of the Spirit like in, we will say, the Reformation period, still quoting this, looking back to that leader, so on and so forth, still living in the past. Anyhow this revival, starting at the turn of the century, was definitely an outpouring of the Spirit of God; but as we have already said, The only revelation that came out of it was the UPC version of ONE GOD and water baptism in the name of Jesus. It was mostly a moving of the Spirit to give preeminence to the supernatural power of God. Now we have written here many physical manifestations; and all these have been substantiated in these histories I have. They have went on in different moves in years and decades gone by. It is a sad thing to think our denominational world will turn out their preachers from Bible schools and seminaries, never indulging into these historical facts of various moves of God to see what really went on. They put all that in the past, somehow or other leaving it as if it is unimportant. Tell me saints, How can people who profess to be children of God even dare to think that those manifestations of the Spirit of God recorded in the book of Acts were unimportant? What is taking place in this hour of time is just as real and important today as it was in any other era of time throughout the Grace Age among the Gentiles. This parable shows us that as we come through time, through these years of time, eventually the enthusiasm begins to die and the whole thing again begins to go to sleep. It says at midnight a cry was made. Midnight is half way between sunset and sunrise. “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” As I said earlier, The religious world today would not know how to explain that. First off, they have to realize something definitely, somewhere in time, had to come on with a profound effect that began to awaken people to the reality that time is moving toward the coming of the Lord. Many of them might relate it to a certain revival, to the deliverance era and such. Both of these writers substantiate the fact that coming through the war years, all that had started at Azusa Street was more or less carried right on through. All of these things that went on, gifts of the Spirit and so forth, coming down through the years of time, as we come through the years preceding the war, many of those old evangelists that promoted these things began to die off, or just became too old to carry the burden and pressure of the revival any longer. I will read exactly what the writer says in respects to those men; but the point is, WW2 brought time into the later part of the 1940’s, which coincides much with the fact that time in this Grace Age, especially in this Laodicean Age, had been brought to a midnight hour. And behold the bridegroom cometh. So from that point on, there was a gradual awakening. That awakening began to cause some people to realize they no longer had oil. What they had enjoyed in earlier years seemed to have gotten away from them. Others which were classified as wise, began to realize they have just enough to do for them what will need to be done in the time that is left. Therefore they began to go one way; and eventually the foolish went another way. In the scriptures it says the foolish begin to ask the wise, Give us of your oil, our lamps have gone out; but let us look at it in this light, Those words were actually never even spoken or preached in any way. That is not the way you look at the parable. You begin to look at the condition, how people react to the reality that dawns upon them, how they begin to live. It was as if those words had literally spoken; but we all know they were not: It was something that took place in the spirit: that brought about the separation. One thing we do know, there was definitely a separation of two elements of people that were awakened by the midnight cry. The wise began to go one way and the foolish began to go another way. The affect in reality was as if the wise had said to the foolish, You must go out into the market place where there are those who sell what you have need of and but what you need. All that dramatically portrays a picture of our religious world of evangelism when we hit the 1950’s coming into the 1960’s. I said before, Over here was this evangelist with his truck, two or three semi’s loaded with chairs and such, going from coast to coast, border to border. All through the later part of the 1950’s, into the 1960’s this went on. There was definitely an awakening process beginning to take place. At the same time there was still another element of people that really began to listen. They began to realize God is doing something specifically for a certain element of people. That is why there had to be a messenger. That messenger definitely did say something that began to turn the trend. While the trend to some was, the average Pentecostal just kept going on their way, yet out of all that there was another element began to listen, began to trim their lamp, and it says they went in, into the wedding. Well we are dealing with this point, that which started at Azusa Street. All down through the years, all those evangelists preached and felt like that was the anointing that was going to get the Church ready for the rapture. Yet now that we have come to 1995, it is very evident that the anointing that fell on Azusa Street was not the anointing that was going to finish the Church at all. It was God giving back to a certain element of people accessibility to something the Church had lost. God was giving preeminence to some things He wanted people to pay attention to. Regardless of the wonderful experiences that many of those people enjoyed, it did not set God’s Church in a Biblical state of readiness for the coming of the Bridegroom. Yet all the songs that have been sung and written of the coming of the Bridegroom and so forth, none of that seemed to change the trend of that denominational minded Christian. They just kept on going the same old way, thinking that this anointing, this great joy and all the things they were enjoying, were theirs; and they could do with it whatever they wanted to. I have to say this, and very dramatically, We cannot do with it what we want to unless our mind is dogmatically made up that we are going to follow the leading of the Spirit of God in every thing we do. When we come to that place, it is referred to in the scriptures as taking on the mind of Christ; and at that point we can do what we want to because what we want to do is the perfect will of God. From here on out to the end, we are either going to be found walking with Him, or we are going to find ourselves in a ditch somewhere, discarded where all the other chaff will end up eventually.
THE USELESSNESS OF MAN’S THEOLOGY
I want to go back now to bring out certain things we have touched on already. As time passed and the middle of this century arrived, it became obvious that the anointing received at Azusa Street did not put the Church in a Biblical state of readiness even though it had all the characteristics and potential that were present with the Holy Spirit that fell on those disciples in the upper room at the beginning of the New Testament Church. Those who came into the streets of Jerusalem speaking in tongues and glorifying God were doing it with utterance given by the same Holy Ghost that fell upon those at Azusa Street all those many years later; so I ask you, Can you understand what the difference was? Those that received that anointing in the first age had been taught truth for 3 1/2 years prior to the time when the SPIRIT OF TRUTH was given to vindicate that truth. On the other hand, When that anointing fell at Azusa Street the Church was fragmented. Each element of what was looked upon as Christianity in that hour had a truth that had been restored to the Church by the various instruments God used in the Reformation; but none of them were in a place with God to the point where they could apply all of those truths to a single body of believers. The denominational groups were all suspicious of each other, each one thinking they had the right formula and all the others were mixed up in false teaching. Therefore that great move of the Spirit of God eventually became identified in all kinds of denominational organizational structures. Each one taking his portion, his experience, and his theory of Bible interpretations and applying them to what they were organized around. Therefore that whole thing became mainly a move showing preeminence upon divine healing and gifts of the Spirit and things of that nature without ever moving the recipients forward with any kind of revelation that the Church had been founded upon. The exception to the general picture was, along about 1912, 1914, somewhere through there, God did give man a glimpse of the godhead showing His ONENESS; and that water baptism was to be applied in the name of the LORD JESUS CHRIST. That revelation went through the Pentecostal assemblies like an earthquake through a metropolitan city. It brought about broken fellowship and began to set things in disarray. Even those that went forth on the side of the oneness of God, as the years came and went, especially by the time we come to the war years of WW2, they also, just like the Trinitarian side, had organized, split themselves up into various groups; and were in general disarray and confusion. Well the point is, what happened at Azusa Street, by the time we come to the 1940’s, and on through WW2, that experience was just lying there in all those denominations, not really accomplishing anything for the glory of God nor for their statural growth. That is the very way these writers pictured the whole thing also: because they bring out how at Azusa Street the denominations had rejected what was going on there. But by the time we come to the 1950’s and 1960’s, here is where the denominations, at least certain groups of them, begin to move out a little; and that is where the Charismatic spirit began to manifest. Now look where that has spread to. These denominations run to it by the thousands. I have it written down here, to try to keep my mind going in one particular direction: so I can present the whole picture as I see it. If the true Church has not yet been placed in a Biblical state of readiness, then that means there has got to be something done within the duration of this parable, (which covers a specific period of time) something outstanding, of a dramatic nature, something that comes forth from God, that is to deal specifically with an element of people that are caught up in all of what is going on in the religious world, to bring them out of the systems of confusion and man’s error of false teachings and interpretations of the Bible; and bring them back to a Biblical interpretation of the things taught by the apostles. When you begin to say that a man must come with a message, the first thing doctors of divinity of all denominations begin to say, That is not Bible: you have no right to teach anything like that. If you endeavor to name the man you believe fulfilled Malachi 4:5-6, they say, You know the Bible does not speak anywhere that God will send the Gentiles a prophet. Well I say this, There did not have to be any more Bible written stating specifically that God would send the Gentiles a prophet in the latter years. It is already in the Bible: if one has eyes to see it. I say what I am going to say as humbly as I know how to speak: yet I know my language can be judged by some of these doctors of divinity and they will make fun of it just like they have done Bro. William Branham‘s; but I have to say to them anyhow, It does not matter what you think or say, the hour has already come, that your theology is as worthless as anything this world has ever seen. Christianity has come through many years where God honored intellectual, educated men: because of where the Church had been. (In the Dark Ages) If those reformers God used to begin to reflect light back to the Church coming from 1500 A.D. on up through the Weslyan hour had just been backwoods country preachers as many are today, I have my doubts as to whether the Reformation would have ever gotten off of first base. When you go back and look into the records of history coming out of that Dark Age period, all those men that definitely made an impact on the social world in respect to their spirituality, their outlook toward God, eternal life, and things in the Bible, had to be educated enough to know what the church was subject to in the dark hours of Romanism, how entrenched it was in politics, and how politics ruled inside the church. You are not going to combat that kind of picture with just an old backwoods hillbilly preacher that knows nothing about the system that is ruling. You have to have a knowledge of what goes on in high places, as well as in the everyday walk of life. That is why God used those educated men back then. God anointed those men for what they were faced with and gave them utterance that overwhelmed their opposition. If you could read some of the sermons they preached in the places where they were able to preach, you would have to say, How could that man think of such things to say? That is where the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:18-20, become a reality “And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. (19) But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. (20) FOR IT IS NOT YE THAT SPEAK, BUT THE SPIRIT OF YOUR FATHER WHICH SPEAKETH IN YOU.” Time and history has proved that this has always been God’s way of showing Himself on the side of that which is right. Now we come to the era, the world is at the highest point of education I think it will ever be. Yet the social leaders and politicians are crying, We need to educate the younger generation better. How can you, when you have turned God out the door and He is no longer allowed in your midst? There is no such thing as man ruling this world and educating man into some kind of super human being. I heard a fellow the other day: I suppose he is a scientist. He is working on the theory that by the year 2000 and something, way off out there in the future, man on earth is going to set his gaze, or his eyes on space frontiers. We have to more or less wake up and realize as we multiply ourselves on this planet, we have to have a vision to go beyond the clouds and get ready to settle people on other planets. That is how those people are thinking. Saints I am so glad we are living just before the coming of Christ. I know the coming of Christ will put such brains as that to sleep forever. To me, that is just another sign that we are truly are getting close to the end of this old rat race. When mankind begins to think like that, does that not tell you something happened back at the garden of Eden more than Adam and Eve eating forbidden apples? In Genesis 6, when it said men of renown were born, and that along with those giants, it is strange none of those men of renown ever got their name written in the Bible. It is not really strange because God does not depend upon that kind of human vessel to minister His plan of salvation for lost mankind. I do not expect to see the names of these intellectual giants of our day that depend completely upon their intellect for everything, in the Lamb’s book of life either. All this tells me, those brains did not come from Adam’s side. Those brains had to come from something that was strictly earthly. Cain’s line produced those giants and men of renown and we all know Cain was the son of the serpent, not a son of Adam.
LET THE WORD OF GOD BE TRUE-REGARDLESS OF WHAT MAN MAY SAY
Looking at the religious world today and all their critics who say it is unscriptural to expect God to send a prophet to this Gentile age, makes me realize that I have to put something in this message that will at least give them something to think about. Therefore on one hand I will take certain points they believe, up to a certain point anyway; then show by the help and grace of God, that if God does not do something, somewhere in a strategic hour of time within this Laodicean Age that separates an element of holy living people from this worldly conglomeration of religion, there will not be a Church at the end time that God would accept. There is no way these doctors of divinity within the religious world, like on Trinity Broadcast, will ever put together a church on a Biblical basis. What they do is an abomination to God. They have a vision of a church of their kind, but it is going to wind up a product of Hollywood with no more principles than Hollywood has. Their morals are already practically on the same level as that of Hollywood. In fact, it will be a perversion of everything God is doing in the world today. Therefore looking at it in this light, I just have to say, As people overseas watch these videos, may they realize they are looking upon an element of people that have been brought into this place and to what we believe; and to this hour of time, all because of something that William Marrion Branham preached in this age of time. Not just because he had a supernatural gift, but because of something he preached. However to prove that, we first have to prove Biblically, that there was a spirit of Elijah involved in the first advent of Christ, and if so, what was his purpose? What purpose of God did the spirit of Elijah fulfill back then? Well we know almost everyone will say, Sure we believe that John the Baptist was the fulfillment of that because Jesus said so; but He said nothing at all about another prophet with the anointing of Elijah coming to the Gentiles. Well I have to proclaim very boldly that the Bible does say so. You doctors of divinity have managed to turn the Bible off as far as it being able to speak to you any more. Nevertheless we are going to give you something to think about. First, did not Jeremiah the prophet, in the 31st chapter and 33rd verse, prophesy concerning a new covenant that would be given to the house of Israel? Sure he did; and that covenant is now in the hands of the Gentiles until the fullness of the Gentiles is accomplished and then He will again deal with the Jews; but it will still be under that new covenant: He will not return them to the old LAW COVENANT. Let me read that scripture. (Jeremiah 31:31-33) “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a NEW COVENANT with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: (32) Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: (33) But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, (That means after the Law age has run its course and fulfilled God’s purpose.) saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” God said I will make a new covenant with Israel after those days. He tells how He will come down and write those laws in their minds and plant them in their hearts, and specifically relates that this is another covenant completely different than the Law Age Covenant they have been living under. We know as we read the gospels and all those things about the first advent of Christ, and what took place in the Upper Room as is recorded in the book of Acts, that all of that was the fore front of all we are talking about now, and that it was the fulfilling of Jeremiah 31:33. I have it written down in this way, and to the preachers of denominationalism who set up against it, here is the layout the way the Bible and Jesus puts it. In Isaiah 40:3-5, Isaiah prophesied there would come a time that there would be a man in the wilderness and he would be referred to as a voice. You can read it. May I say this to all Christians, Isaiah 40:3-5 had a one time fulfillment. It does not have a dual fulfillment like Malachi 4:5-6 does. John the Baptist was that voice that came in his hour to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the voice. John the Baptist was also Malachi 4:5-6 in its first advent fulfillment. You can find that in Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3 and John 1. All four gospels verify the fact that John the Baptist was that spirit of Elijah who came preaching in the wilderness. When the Scribes and Pharisees sent men out to inquire of him, who he was, Are you Elias? He said, No, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Yes, in a public sense he denied that he was Elias; but we know this, it is also stated in Luke, which gives the announcement by the angel to Zechariah, Elizabeth’s husband, that he was going to go before the coming of the Lord in the power and spirit of Elias, or Elijah. That fact is well established. All of those early men vindicated that John truly was a Jewish man on which the spirit of Elijah rested. It literally did fulfill Isaiah 40:3-5, because John testified, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. When Jesus came on the scene, then John was in prison, and we find that John sent certain disciples of his own to this man that he had baptized saying to them, Go ask the man, Are you the ONE we look for, or do we look for another? When they went there, they had a chance to ask Jesus, multitudes were standing there hearing these men ask Jesus this question. Jesus gave them a certain answer for John; and when the men turned and walked away, Jesus again vindicated that John was that voice. He tells that John was the voice of one crying in the wilderness; and he (John) was also the fulfillment of Malachi 3:1. Malachi 3:1, is a specific prophecy. Listen carefully. Malachi 3:1 is just like Isaiah 40:3-5, that has a one time fulfillment. Malachi 3:1 had a one time fulfillment also and there is no reason to look for anything else to come from it; but when you come to Malachi 4:5-6, you have a different picture because no one man could fulfill both parts of those two verses. In Malachi 3:1 John is referred to as the messenger who forerun the Messenger of the covenant; and that messenger of the covenant was JESUS the CHRIST. Notice the wording. (Malachi 3:1-3) “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, He shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. (2) But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: (3) And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” All of that connects John the Baptist with the forerunning of Jesus Christ who was the Messenger of this new covenant which Jeremiah 31:33. speaks of. It is a shame the church world gets the Bible all mixed up like they do, prophecy with prophecy and the pitiful way they interpret it. Well, let me read the scripture in Isaiah 40:3-5, while I am on this. This is the other scripture I spoke of, that had a one time fulfillment. (3)”The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (4) Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: (5) And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” John fulfilled Isaiah 40:3-5, and Malachi 3:1, and the first part of Malachi 4:5-6, but the last half of those two verses had to be fulfilled by another prophet with the God identifying spirit of Elijah on him; and that is the man I have been speaking to you about. I believe it is plainly evident that Malachi 4:5-6 has a two advent application: even though the other two references do not. You cannot have two fore runners before the Messenger of the covenant: because Jesus is not coming again to be the Messenger of a covenant. The next time He comes literally, in a body of flesh and bones, He is coming as KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. We are living two thousand years beyond the time when He came as the MESSENGER OF THAT NEW COVENANT; and all of our hope in God is based upon the merits of this covenant of Grace that was give to the Jewish nation in the time of His first advent: and then given to us Gentiles a little later on. By His foreknowledge, God knew the Jewish nation as a whole would reject that new covenant; therefore through His foreknowledge and predestination, He caused various prophets to prophesy down through the ages of time, that He would turn to the Gentiles, to take out of the Gentiles a people for His name. Amen! Hallelujah! That is why we are able to enjoy the wonderful works of God that we are witnessing in our services lately: we received what the Jews rejected. By His foreknowledge, God saw all of this before time began. As for the part 2 of Malachi 4:5-6, I just have to say to all you religious doctors of divinity, That is not pointing to the two prophets of Revelation 11 as you suppose: It is pointing to something that has already been fulfilled also. Malachi 4:5-6, part B, is still dealing with the covenant that we Gentiles have had now for 1900 years. How do you arrive at that, Bro. Jackson? Read the prophecy. In John, who fulfilled part A, he would turn the heart of the fathers, who are these? Your old Judaistic elders, scribes, and priests, to their children. They were the ones who were going to be heirs to the on coming covenant: because God was not giving life back to the old Law covenant. He was bringing in a new covenant and there had to be some who would receive it: so John forerun the Messenger to that covenant, and the messenger was Jesus Christ; and those who believed John’s preaching were the children after they believed; but they became the fathers of this new faith that we are to be turned back to; and we are the children that had to be turned back. (Malachi 4:5-6) “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: (His first advent was the great day of the Lord; but when He comes again, that will be the dreadful day of the Lord because He will be executing the wrath of God upon all ungodliness on this earth.) And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, (John did that.) and the heart of the children to their fathers, (God used Bro. William Branham to do that.) (or before) I come and smite the earth with a curse.” John first prepared the way for the Lord, the MESSENGER OF THE NEW COVENANT; and then his ministry turned the heart’s of some of those of Jews to receive this new covenant in simplicity like little children. That is the essence of the whole picture as far as John’s ministry went. He could not fulfill the last half of verse 6: That was for another time, our time. We, the children of the last part of verse 6, have had our heart’s turned back to the faith of our spiritual fathers: which we know was Peter, James, John, Paul and all those who carried the gospel message in that first era of the birth of the New Testament Church. Therefore I say to you doctors of divinity, If you do not claim those apostles as your spiritual fathers you are a bastard. I realize that is plain language but why beat around the bush with it? If you cannot quote it like the apostle Paul wrote it, you prove by your own ignorance you are a bastard. Yet you want to jump on everyone who disagrees with you and brand them as a David Koresh kind of cult. Sure we have a lot of that kind of people, new age believers and such stuff; but what they believe does not even resemble what we believe; and if you cannot tell the difference, shame on you. I am going to say things through this message that will make the blood boil in some folks; but time is too far gone for us to try to pacify those who are without revelation of the word of God. If they want to get angry and sound off, let them go ahead. The fact that they have a brass plaque on a wall somewhere, Dr. of this or that, does not make them anything in the sight of God: They can have all of that and still be as ignorant as a skunk concerning the truth of God’s word. Let them interpret that with Hebrew or Greek. It does not require very much knowledge of Hebrew and Greek to get a revelation of what was accomplished when Jesus went to Calvary and gave His life, shedding His own blood to activate this covenant of grace we are heirs to. He was buried and rose the third day, then ascended into heaven to be the Mediator and High Priest, not of a Law covenant, but of this new covenant, which consists of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Regardless of the fact that many disagree, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the seal of this covenant; and every genuine believer must have that seal. THAT SEAL IS THE ONLY ASSURANCE OF ETERNAL SECURITY that the person, the believer, can receive. John the Baptist had the anointing of Elijah to forerun Jesus, and he preached to the old Judaistic fathers of the Law of Judaism. Within the ranks of those people stood some who were going to be the children, the beginning generation of this new covenant which God was in the process of giving to the house of Israel. Two thousand years ago, He poured out the Spirit of this new covenant upon about 120 souls who had followed Jesus in His ministry and obeyed His last instructions to them. (Acts 1:4-5) “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith He, (Jesus) ye have heard of me. (5) For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” They waited together in an upper room; and on the day of the Jewish feast day, Pentecost, they received exactly what He had promised them. John has already come and announced it. Jesus has already come and preached it. Then He gave His life to secure it, was buried, then arose from the dead and ascended into heaven to become the High Priest of this, a better covenant. You Gentile doctors of divinity, look what you have done to the gospel of Jesus Christ. You have done it exactly like the old Judaistic fathers did the Law, the way they interpreted the writing of the old prophets. You have your own school of thought; but you do not know a thing about the God of the book you got all of your theories from. If anyone is found preaching it any different than the way you have it put together you immediately brand them as a cult. Well I would like to remind you of a fact of life: You can brand us as being a cult if you wish; but you live in a glass house: You are no doubt in fellowship with one of the oldest and most abominable in the sight of God, cults on the earth today. I myself am forever mindful of the fact that the other side can always throw rocks, so I want to be very careful what I say; and be absolutely sure that the rocks I throw cannot be thrown back at me. I know that blind people cannot be expected to see; and I know most of these doctors of divinity of our modern day denominations are as blind as a bat, spiritually speaking. They are just like the Pharisees were in Jesus’ day, blind leaders of the blind; and Jesus said, If the blind lead the blind, they will both fall in the ditch. There is no need for people like that to think God is coming to take from their denominational structure a people for His name when they do not even seem to know what is right or wrong. They interpret the Bible any way that suits their way of life instead of bringing their way of life in line with the true revelation of the scriptures. That is not the Church of the living God. That is why one of the last things we read in the Bible, is, Come out of her my people. That means Catholicism, Lutheranism, Baptistism, Methodistism, Presbyterianism and all the rest of those isms. The true Church of the living God is of ONE BELIEF: They are not split up into denominational divisions. How could they even think God would ever accept anything like that? All of them like to call other groups cults; and they do not even realize that the Bible calls them a bunch of harlots. Yes, you heard it right: The Bible calls those denominational systems harlots. Those are not my words: I got them from the 17th chapter of the book of Revelation. That scripture points directly to the ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND HER PROTESTANT DAUGHTER. Even though they came out of Romanism, their doctrines are still basically the same as what the old mother teaches and holds souls captive by. They use just enough scripture to cover over what they really are. The harlots organize and set some carnal minded man as head over it all: just like mommy. You have your own creeds and dogmas. Then when the truth is really preached where any of you hear it, you get angry, rather than allow that truth to set you free. Truth will set you free: Jesus said it would. Well let me read some more at this time.
READING FROM “THE PENTECOSTALS” BY WALTER HOLLENWEGER
The writers will say something about what I am trying to get across to you. I am on page 354 in this book. The writer is telling about the Pentecostal route. He is talking about Mr. Dowie, of Zion City, Illinois. Also certain places in South Africa.
Later the Jeffrey’s brothers, Smith Wigglesworth, Douglas Scott and other healing evangelists drew audiences of thousands. After the death of this first generation of evangelists many Pentecostal pastors were seized with fear: Will the same thing happen to us as to other denominations? Will the miracles disappear? This must not and cannot be.
(Now we come through the war years. This picks up the life of Bro. William Branham and tells of his experience.)
On 7 May 1946, at approximately 11 o’clock at night, an angel clad in white visited William Branham, an American Baptist preacher. The angel was clean-shaven, his hair hung down to his shoulders, and he had a friendly, sun-tanned face. He said to Branham: Fear not. I am sent from the presence of Almighty God to tell you that your peculiar life and misunderstood ways have been to indicate that God has sent you to take a gift of divine healing to the peoples of the world. If you will be sincere, and can get the people to believe you, nothing shall stand before your prayer, not even cancer. From then on Branham was never without the guidance of the angel. The angel gave him signs to help him in his task. The most important was Branham’s ability to name with astonishing accuracy the sickness, and often also the hidden sins, of people whom he had never seen. The author, who knew Branham personally and interpreted for him in Zurich, is not aware of any case in which he was mistaken in the often detailed statements he made. I want to emphasize something here, If you hear him on tape, not one time would you ever hear him make a mistake. Of course a lot of people will say, But I know he discerned such and such for a certain person and that person never did get better. That is not Bro. William Branham‘s fault. I had him to tell me this personally, `Bro. Jackson, if you ever hear me say, when that anointing tells the people what is wrong with them, you are healed in the name of Jesus Christ, that is thus saith the Lord, he said that person will get well. But if you ever hear me say, sister or brother, go on your way, believe, and may God bless you and make you ever bit whole, he said, somewhere I had to cut it off there because God lets me see something that I know it is not going to work out that way.’ See, when I say that, people will say, well then this sounds like there is some discrepancy there. No. Not at all. You have to understand, the gift is accurate, but the gift did not say the person was going to get well. How many understand my point? So that is the way we want it worded.)
In the years that followed Branham filled the largest stadiums and meeting halls in the world. He was reported in the newspapers, sometimes favorably, often critically, and in fact in most cases unfavorably. Much that was written about him in Pentecostal journals seems to be exaggerated, but there are a number of well-attested cases of miraculous healings. It has even been asserted that he raised the dead.
(Now this is one part that I have always wondered about; Why do people take for granted anything they hear through the wind and publish it?)
Branham died on Christmas Day in 1965 as a result of a head wound (That is true.) as he had prophesied-which he received when he was putting petrol into his car, and another car full of drunken youths ran into him. (That is not the way it happened. I do not know where they get that version of the accident. That is just another example of how stories get started. That is why I say, None of these people ever bothered to look up the official record of what happened. Nor do they look to the Lord saying, Lord, help me to say it right. If any of them ever want to look us up to confirm anything I say, God give us sense to know how to talk to them and say things in a proper manner.) But he had announced that a great miracle evangelization campaign would begin on 25 January of the following year. (I never did hear anything like that.) His followers had his body embalmed and refrigerated, because they expected him to rise from the dead on 25 January. (I never heard a thing about that either.) When this did not happen, the date was put off until Easter 1966. This postponement of his burial is probably the reason why European Pentecostals heard nothing about Branham’s death. When he did not rise at Easter 1966 either, he was buried. Nevertheless, a profusion of legends had already grown up about his life and death, in which even someone familiar with his life is soon at a loss, and which led the traditional Pentecostal churches to look with disfavor on Branham’s friends.” (That speaks of all of us who believe he was God’s prophet messenger to this age.)
The reason I am doing this is because I want you to see for yourselves some of what others write and how they fail many times to get the true story. I have never bought a history book in my life. It always seems that if there is something coming up the road that will require me to have a source of history, someone, somewhere, will have a history book they do not need and will say, Bro. Jackson, would you have any need for this book? I just take it and put it upstairs or at home in the bookcase and many times forget all about it. Then when I get into a message I will go to that supply of books just to see if there is something in there that will shed more light upon what I am dealing with; and right there is just the very thing I need. Well God knew this move of the Spirit was going to start among our people: so here came Bro. Nelson, with these books. Let us just look at this other one and see what this writer says. The main reason I am doing this, is because in the regions beyond America, not many people have libraries they can go to where they can have access to writings such as this. They do not have Bible book stores to buy books from. You would not even guess how many letters I get, saying, Bro. Jackson, can you get me this certain information and send it? Therefore I am doing this to give them actual history on some of what we are dealing with, as it is written by twentieth century men.
(This book is titled, “Twentieth Century Revival Movements in North America” by Richard M. Riss; and here is some of what it says.)
BEGINNING
The Healing and Latter Rain Revivals were two parallel movements within Pentecostalism during a worldwide evangelical awakening which took place shortly after the Second World War. While the awakening of this era occurred among both Pentecostals and non-Pentecostal Evangelicals, there was still only a limited amount of contact between these two groups at this time. The Healing and Latter Rain movements were therefore restricted, to a certain degree, to those within Pentecostal circles.
Two of the earliest and most influential healing evangelists of the mid-twentieth century were William M. Branham and Oral Roberts. Other important figures included T.L. Osborn, Jack Coe, William Freeman, A.A. Allen, and David Nunn. Gordon Lindsay, who had helped to bring the ministry of William Branham into widespread recognition, used his talents to supply the movement with a degree of cohesiveness.
The healing ministry of William M. Branham began in the spring of 1946. On May 7 of that year, according to Branham, an angel visited him and said to him, “Fear not. I am sent from the presence of Almighty God to tell you that your peculiar life and your misunderstood ways have been to indicate that God has sent you to take a gift of divine healing to the people of the world. IF YOU WILL BE SINCERE, AND CAN GET THE PEOPLE TO BELIEVE YOU, NOTHING SHALL STAND BEFORE YOUR PRAYER, NOT EVEN CANCER.”
Branham said that he was told by the angel that he would be able to detect diseases by vibrations in his left hand.
(Now here is what they write. It is a little bit different here. It is going with the approach in a different way.)
During the Sunday evening service at which he first spoke of what had happened, he received a telegram from a friend, Robert Daugherty, requesting that he come to pray for his sick daughter in St. Louis. Branham went to St. Louis and prayed for her, and her health improved. He returned to Daugherty’s church to conduct a healing revival from June 14 to June 25, 1946. His reputation spread throughout the United Pentecostal Church, and he was soon invited to hold a revival in the Bible Hour Tabernacle in Jonesboro, Arkansas, pastored by Rex Humbard’s father, “Dad” Humbard. Branham was reported to have raised a dead man at these meetings. According to Gordon Lindsay, 25,000 people attended from twenty-eight states. From there W.E. Kidson brought Branham from town to town, attracting enormous crowds.
Branham was invited to a church in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he asked the pastor, Jack Moore, and another man, Young Brown, to help manage his meetings so that W.E. Kidson could return to his pastoral duties in Houston. Accompanied by Moore, Branham held campaigns in the spring of 1947 in San Antonio, Phoenix, and several cities in California, including Oakland. Jack Moore visited his friend, Gordon Lindsay, in Ashland, Oregon, and persuaded him to come to a Branham revival in Sacramento.
Soon afterward, Gordon Lindsay arranged for Branham to hold a series of meetings in Vancouver, B.C. during the fall of 1947. On the first day of this campaign, W.J. Ern Baxter was added to Branham’s team. According to Gordon Lindsay, 70,000 people attended the fourteen-day campaign, which was held in four cities in the Northwest. The meetings were “inter-evangelical” and characterized by many hours of prayer for the sick and supernatural occurrences. The meetings in Vancouver were attended by a few pastors and teachers from North Battleford, Saskatchewan, who returned to supply the spark that ignited the controversial “Latter Rain” movement, which also quickly spread throughout the world, emphasizing the laying on of hands, both for the bestowal of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit and for personal prophecy.”
Now I read right there, you have heard, and I know you can hear it in some of his messages he preached about the dream Bro. Walker came and told him, a dream that he would ride this trail one more time. How many remember? I read right there the general route of how his ministry went. St. Louis Missouri, Jonesboro Arkansas, Shreveport Louisiana, Houston Texas, California. That seemed to be step by step, years on end. That was the route. In 1965 when he was back here, that dream was told to him, the interpretation was, “I’ll ride this trail one more time.” A lot of them interpreted that to mean it was to be another outstanding moving of the Spirit in his ministry; and that is why they say he is going to come back from the dead. But he was here in the summer of 1965. He left later toward the closing of August, went back west and had some meetings in Arizona. But when we come to the fall, here he comes, Shreveport Louisiana, Jack Moore’s church, Glad Tidings Tabernacle. Yuma Arizona, there is where he preached the Rapture message two places in California. Then he came back to Tucson and preached the Communion message. I have to say, He rode that trail one more time. Of course you have to be old enough to understand what that means. It has no future fulfillment whatsoever. He was struck by that car; and he was not putting gas in his car like that one article said. While driving, a car just came over on his side of the road and hit his car head on. That is what happened. I wanted to put some of this in the message, (what various writers have said about Bro. William Branham) to show how most of them will vindicate that his ministry was that which sparked the revival in the 1950’s and on into the beginning of the 1960’s; but then they just leave it like there was no other purpose in his ministry other than just a healing revival. Right there, is where I have to say, (and I pray that God will help me say it in the right way) He came to this generation with more than just a gift of healing. That gift was just a drawing factor: to attract people to his ministry; but his true calling was greater than that. That was the drawing card itself, because somewhere out of the lips of that man was going to come a message that is going to stir the heart’s of people and turn them back to the faith and revelation of their apostolic fathers. That is why I have to say, The message was, Get back to the things that Paul taught, that John taught, and what all the rest of those first age apostles taught.
CLARIFYING CERTAIN TERMINOLOGY
I do not intend to dwell on this point much longer; but we are dealing with the fact that it was necessary for God to send a messenger anointed with that Elijah anointing to this end time generation: to do the reverse of what John the Baptist who had that same anointing did. All of this is tied to this dispensation of Grace: wherein mankind is the beneficiary of a new covenant. That new covenant is, in essence, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, coupled with the gospel of grace which was proclaimed in the great commission: because Jesus said, GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE. That commission was overall. It included both Jews and Gentiles; and as I stated earlier, Gentiles have been the guardians of this New Covenant for over 1900 years now; so whatever God does for the Church to get her ready for the catching away will be done through a Gentile ministry. I just wish everyone could get settled on that fact. That is why I am devoting as much time as I am to what God used Bro. William Branham for; because as I read from the history books, They see Bro. William Branham only as a man who was instrumental in spear heading a new surge of the moving of the Spirit of divine healing, baptism of the Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues, the gifts of the Spirit, and things of that nature: rather than seeing the true purpose of his ministry to this Age. We can see where that entire move of that original hour at Azusa Street has gone to. It went right off into charismatic: right where Bro. William Branham said it would go. He said it would lead these denominations all together and bind them in bundles. The sad part is, That is also where the foolish virgins are caught up at in this hour of time. They are sitting under the teaching of those great doctors of divinity that stand so tall in all of the denominations; and all they have to feed upon is theories. No doctor of divinity will ever admit that he can see from the Bible the necessity of the spirit of Elijah coming to the Gentile Church. I just want to re-emphasize what I said about Isaiah 40:3-5, and Malachi 3:1, definitely dealing exclusively with the first advent of Christ; because He (Jesus) was the messenger of this new covenant that God was to give to the house of Israel after those days, meaning the dispensation of Law. Malachi 4:5-6, in it’s first setting, was John the Baptist. You can read that from the four gospels, especially in the first chapter of Luke. When the angel told Zechariah how Elizabeth would conceive and have a son, and his name was to be called John, the angel also told Zechariah that his son, John, would go before the Lord in the power and spirit of Elias, which is really Elijah, to turn the heart of the fathers to the children. That had its first advent application: the fathers being the Judaistic law fathers whose hearts were to be turned to the children who would be the recipients of the oncoming and new coming covenant Jesus came to establish; and the children were definitely Matthew, John, Peter, and all those disciples, along with Paul who came along in a later period of time. Out of that nucleus of men were the men that gave you and I the gospel, the great commission that Jesus gave, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, was preached by them. Therefore in this light let me ask you, What did this gospel consist of, as the apostles began to preach it? How was it identified? When we read in the four gospels, and then in the epistles, and see what those first age apostles taught, do we not find a great contradiction between it and what is being preached and propagated today in our overall denominational church world? Why is it these men will go off to these seminaries and schools of theological learning and they will go to learn certain things pertaining to their faith, and then read Malachi 4:5-6 and deny there has to be a man sent from God, specifically here in the end time, when God is slowly closing this dispensation of Grace, that would fulfill the rest of those two verses? These men will have to admit we are still living under the benefits of that new covenant: There is no way they can deny that. Surely anyone who is honest will have to admit it was the Gentile church world that has messed up the original gospel preached by the apostles. When the gospel was preached according to what we read in the book of Acts, it was preached without any trinity slant to the Godhead because all those men knew there was only one God; and that He is a sovereign Spirit. I want to say once again to anyone who comes in contact with this message, You will never find anywhere in the book of Acts that those apostles had ever even thought of such a thing as a trinity in connection with the God they served. First of all, they were all Jews; and no true Jew ever believed their God to be anything other than a sovereign SPIRIT. They know there is only one God. They know He is a SPIRIT; and they never think of Him as a person. Those who accepted Jesus the Christ for what He was, also accepted the fact that this God they believed in, also became incarnate in this man Jesus and they understood that Jesus was begotten of Him. GOD, the CREATOR, created a cell of life in a young VIRGIN woman; and that woman gave birth to that little baby knowing that the ARCH ANGEL GABRIEL had already told Joseph, the man she was engaged to, that he should not be suspicious of Mary because that which is conceived in her is of the HOLY GHOST; and that she would bring forth a son, and that they were to call his name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:23, says, “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” He was not “GOD WITH US” when he was a little child growing up; but when Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist at thirty years of age and the SPIRIT (which is God the Father) descended from heaven and became incarnate in Him, from that moment on, GOD was with us to fulfill that prophecy. His abode was in His Son; and let me assure you, That is the only flesh this Father God has ever dwelt in permanently. The Father (SPIRIT) and His Son (A flesh and blood man) became inseparable from that moment on. That did not make the SON (JESUS) GOD; but the SPIRIT which is GOD has been IN HIM ever since then. Jesus is not God; but God is in Him. That should not be hard to understand. That did not do away with the identity of either one. Jesus remained to be the SON of GOD; and that sovereign SPIRIT that took up residence in His body of flesh remained to be the same God every true Jew had always worshiped. Well Bro. Jackson: Which one do we pray to? You should pray exactly as Jesus instructed His disciples to pray when He was preparing to leave them. Look in the 16th chapter of John, verse 23, and that should answer your questions about which one to pray to. You may worship Jesus the Christ; and you may give thanks to Him and express your love to Him and for Him because of what He did at Calvary for you; but when you pray to God for any reason, your prayer should be directed to the FATHER, in the name of JESUS the CHRIST. Open your Bible’s to John 16:23, and read it. “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, HE will give it you. (24) Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. (25) These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father. (26) At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you: (27) For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God.” He most assuredly did come out from the Father but not as a person. He was not with the Father as a person before He came upon the scene almost two thousand years ago. He was in the mind of the Father (the Creator) from before the foundation of the earth and came out from the Father when it was time for the great Creator to overshadow the virgin Mary to create within her womb the cell of life that produced the son they were told to name JESUS. Yes saints, that One God did become manifested in the person of His Son, fulfilling the scripture that says God was manifested in the flesh. Then when Jesus was taken off the scene, He did not go to heaven to sit on the right hand of a person: (the Father) because His Father does not exist in any other form. He is a Spirit. I cannot impress that upon you too much: It is of utmost importance that true saints understand the Godhead in this hour of time. Jesus sits on the right hand of authority: executing the perfect will of His Father as He intercedes for all the predestinated children of God. God, the Father, does not sit in a chair: Heaven itself is His throne. The earth is His footstool. Since He is an invisible Spirit, there is no reason at all for anyone to think Jesus Christ, the Son of God, went into heaven to sit down on the right hand of a form somewhere know as the Father. Let me clear up one other point a lot of people are without understanding of. God (SPIRIT) came down and took up His abode in His Son Jesus; so incarnation, from a theological viewpoint, is not the incarnation of the Son of God, it is the incarnation of God Jehovah, the Elohim of the Old Testament, in the person of His Son. To incarnate, means, to embody. The Son already had a body. Well when the Father incarnated His Son, that makes it God in His second office work. Then when the Son was taken back to glory, that is why Jesus said, He came from God, He goes to God. Then He said the Father would send another Comforter in His name. The Comforter Jesus spoke of is that same Creator Spirit, now in His third office work. He is our Comforter, our guide, our enablement to overcome all the traps and snares of Satan; and He is the SPIRIT OF TRUTH. All of that and a lot more is God at work on our behalf in His third office work; but nowhere in the scriptures can you find anything that should make you believe God is manifested in three persons. God came in His third office work to bring forth the characteristics and attributes that He had invested in the person of His Son; and put them in you and me, His Church; and He does it through the baptism of the Holy Ghost: to make new sons and daughters, begotten of God, through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Ghost is not a person. That is why Jesus says in the 16th chapter of John, When He (the Holy Ghost) comes, He will not speak of Himself. No. Of course not. He is in us to totally reveal His Son Jesus the Christ to us and through us. Jesus revealed the Father to those He ministered to; but the Holy Ghost is in the world to reveal everything Jesus is; and everything Jesus is yet to be; but He (the Holy Ghost) will not be speaking of Himself. That should give you a clue as to how you ought to react to a lot of what you hear in the realm of religion in this hour. That is why I do not want to hear anyone coming around here saying, You treat the person of the Holy Ghost like a stranger: You need to give Him more recognition. No, we do not need to give Him more recognition. We know who He is; and we know what His work is; and we respect that fully; but we do not look to Him as a person. He gives us inspiration and anointing to preach Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world and seeks no recognition for Himself other than that we who are children of God should yield to His leadership. Furthermore you will not find any record in the Bible where water baptism was ever administered to anyone in the titles of Matthew 28:19. Jesus spoke those words to His disciples; but no one with a true revelation of the Godhead will ever be found using those titles in water baptism. You denominational critics can say it is like it exactly like it is written; but when they get finished they have not used a name at all. Jesus knew what He meant when He spoke the words recorded in Matthew 28:19, and so did the disciples; but you modern, twentieth century theologians do not have a clue as to what He meant. That is why you take it verbatim, just the way it is worded without being able to make any connection with what is written in the book of Acts. When you see baptism carried out on the day of Pentecost, and all other occasions thereafter, the disciples, the apostles, wherever they went preaching the gospel, water baptism was always ministered in the name of Jesus the Christ: which actually is the literal fulfillment of Matthew 28:19. If you have any doubt whatsoever about this, open your Bible’s to Colossians 3:14-17, where the apostle Paul was admonishing that Assembly concerning the true walk of Christian people and pay close attention to verse 17. Let us read it. “And above all these things put on charity, (love) which is the bond of perfectness. (15) And let the peace of God rule in your heart’s, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. (16) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (17) And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, DO ALL in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” How do these Trinitarians completely ignore a scripture that is as plain as that? It is because they are spiritually blind.
HOW GOD RESTORED THE APOSTOLIC TEACHINGS TO THE CHURCH
With the things we have just spoken of still fresh in our mind’s, let me continue on with the rest of what needs to be said concerning the spirit of Elijah for our day. The confusion and chaos in religion coming out of the Reformation is what made it necessary for God to send the spirit of Elijah to this last Age just before it closes out. God has no intention whatsoever of taking a Church to glory that is still holding on to the perverted doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. What He closes this Age out with has to be exactly like what the first Age started out with. Jesus made that perfectly clear in the parables He used in His teaching. The apostolic Church is compared to good seed sown by the Lord Himself. He used that parable of the good seed and the tares to describe this condition existing in the realm of religion in the Age of grace; and when His disciples came to Him saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field, here, is how He answered them, in the verses we are going to read. (Matthew 13:37-39) “He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; (38) The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; (39) The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.” What would cause anyone to even think God would reap a crop from the good seed He sowed, that would be inferior to what He started out with? I think the picture is as clear as it need be; so let us get back to what God has done in this Age of Laodicea to bring forth a crop of children (the true Church) that are just like the ones He started the Church out with. Would the Church ever have been restored to apostolic doctrines if God had not sent a prophet messenger to this Age to set the various revelations given to the Reformers in a true light? We all know how every revelation God gave back to the Church, was eventually fenced in and made the main focus for some man-made denomination. That is why there are hundreds of denominations of religion in the world today: Then everyone went to seed on a certain point or two and continued right on in the other doctrines of the old mother church systems the Bible refers to as a whore. Therefore with this in mind, these are things that made it necessary for God to send a prophet messenger to the Age of Laodicea, a man who was anointed with the Spirit of Elijah; and He could not have accomplished His purpose by doing it in the Middle Ages: Not even a hundred years before this Grace Age closes: but right here in the last days of the last Church Age of the Age of Grace. Why? To turn the end time children of God (and that means the end time Gentile, Bible believing, Holy Ghost led believers) back to the faith of their apostolic fathers, which is none other than Peter, Paul, James, John, Jude and the rest of those we are all familiar with. We had to be turned back to the basic doctrinal precepts of what is written in the Bible. With this, I can say, While the critics say the man we know God used, did not even know good English, and that he spoke in hillbilly terminology, that is why, to me, it is that much more enjoyable to hear. You did not have to sit there listening to someone putting more emphasis on theological words than he did on the truth he was sent to deliver. When you know a man, and know how he talks, you wind up knowing what he meant. One thing sure, You did not have to run to a dictionary to figure out what he meant. The man did not know one Hebrew word from another; but he had a revelation of truth that none of your educated doctors of divinity ever even came close to. I can say this, because I was a witness to what the man taught. He was the first man this side of the Dark Ages, going all the way back through the Reformation period, back to the 14th century when various one’s began to rise up and contest the traditional teachings of the old mother church system of Rome, that ever took all the various revelations given to those men, and presented them all together in one complete package to the end time Church of the living God. Furthermore, whether people want to admit it or not, if they will get their nose into the right kind of books and read, they will find out that many of these manifestations we are seeing in our assemblies now, also were a part of what went on at the peak of the various moves whereby God restored a truth to hungry souls. While the systems of the whole thing would usually ignore and condemn it, there are records in history that tell about it. Naturally it is always the simple in heart that are open to God, and that will walk on with God in what He reveals. This man, William Marrion Branham, was the first man this side of the Reformation, that dared to take every doctrinal issue that these men taught, starting with Luther, which was “faith in God;” and going right on through to John Wesley, which was “sanctification, or holy living;” and showed from the Bible that every bit of it belonged to the true Church. It is a shame that modern, twentieth century, educated people have got to, we will say, lower their faith category in God so much, that they think they have to do it through some human man made organizational structure, when the early Church was not that way at all. The early Church was not a human ruled denomination. It was an organism of people that, though they are referred to as the primitive Church and primitive Christianity, they made Christianity such a living reality, that out of that era came the rest of the writings of the epistles. You and I today depend on the accuracy of them as being the basis of our salvation. We all know that most of the doctrines, such as sanctification, what it is, how it is workable in the person’s life, and predestination as a doctrine, which a lot of denominations today that have the same Bible we have denounce, are two of the precious truths of the gospel message. Denominational church people for the most part, treat the doctrine of predestination as though it is straight out of the pit of hell and should never have been included in the writings of the New Testament scriptures. I have to repeat something I have said many times before, It is the only practical thing that makes sense when you think of God’s objective in His plan of redemption. I am sick of this thing these these Trinitarian minded preachers with their Armenian doctrine are always saying, “That anyone can be saved at will.” When you look at it from the standpoint of the universal call, “Whosoever will, let him come,” that carries a certain truth. But please, do not go so far as to say that God, Jehovah, the Elohim, the ONE that knew the end from before the beginning does not know who will or who will not answer that call. He is the only One that knows; but the very fact that He does, certainly vindicates the doctrine of predestination. Since He knew before the foundation of the world that you would accept His plan of salvation, it is scripturally wrong for anyone to feel that their name was written in the Lamb’s book of life the day they accepted the Lord as Savior. I know we hear that terminology a lot; but the truth is, If you name is ever in the book of life, it was written there before the foundation of the world. Do not change the Bible and try to make it say things it does not say. If you want to know how it really is, read Romans 8:28-35, and you will not only see predestination by foreknowledge, but you will also see eternal security for those who are predestinated. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. (29) For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. (30) Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified. (31) What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? (32) He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (33) Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. (34) Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (35) Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” That ought to prove the point to anyone who has proper respect for the scriptures. Right there, is where the true test is: It is having proper respect for the scriptures that really tells the truth about whose child you are. Those whom God foreknew, have respect for His word even before they come to the knowledge of personal salvation through Jesus Christ. Therefore saints, I say to you once again, Yes, Bro. William Branham took predestination and put it right back in the Bible. He took eternal security, which is not a particular doctrine by name, but it is a doctrine and teaching of the Bible when you see it in its true application. Who, or what can separate a true child of God from the love of Christ? When you receive that Holy Ghost seal, you are sealed forever. Satan does not have enough demons to change that scriptural fact. I will say this right in the face of the critics, There is no such thing taught in the Bible: that you are saved one day, then six months later you are lost again and on your road to hell, then along comes another evangelist and you are saved again. That is a lie. Birth does not come and go and come again like that. You are born into this world one time by physical birth. You know good and well many times in the physical process of birth, there are miscarriages and things; but in the final analysis you are only born one time in the natural. If you are ever born again by the Spirit into the family of God, you will only be born again one time. You may go through periods of spiritual sickness. You may go through periods when the devil may ride your back to the point where you will look like you are nothing; but if you were ever truly born again, you are sealed with that Spirit that gave you the new birth, and regardless of how low you may get, you cannot be unborn. Let me say this though, If you think that gives you a license to go out here and live like the devil, you had better check up on your experience; for those who are truly born of the Spirit of God do not go around seeking ways to sin a little here and there. Those who are overtaken in some sin, before God will ever let you leave this world as a no good, rotten rascal, He will take the breath of life right out of you and take you home to glory. That was the law in the first Church Age. Ananias and Sapphira did not go to hell when God took the breath of life out of them for lying. That is exactly why John taught that there is a sin unto death and I do not say that thou shall pray for it. That does not mean anybody can become a believer and go out and do as he pleases and say, I am eternally secure. My point is, You have got to take the scriptures and draw a conclusion. It is a fine line. You and I know this, When any person is truly born of the Spirit of God, (according to the Bible) That person no longer has a desire to sin: Something takes place inside of him, or her. I am sick of this modern church world, they have been saved so many times, the book of life, to them, looks like an ink blotter. That is why God knew that Holy Ghost move would eventually be swallowed up in the Ecumenical spirit and the Charismatic realm, and there the Baptists, the Catholics, and all the rest would jump into the same bed. When the pope reaches out and blesses it and calls it a renewal to the Church, That is all it takes to get a crowd packed together. Now there are several thousand Catholic priests speaking in tongues, leading services of all kinds, and Protestants are going to sit under that spell they are casting out to trap them. All of that ought to indicate to somebody, that parable of Matthew 25 is hanging right over their heads. With all of this fresh in mind, who can deny the fact that it was necessary that God send something to this generation to wake up a few people? I have to say, if time would last another fifteen or twenty years the way it is going, the charismatic church world will be worse than Hollywood. That which you see on TV will be absolute apostasy of the worst order. It becomes a mockery to all that is holy.