I AM FORCED BY CIRCUMSTANCES MANY TIMES, TO GO AHEAD AND DO OR SAY SOMETHING I HAD NOT PREVIOUSLY PLANNED TO. SUCH IS THE CASE WITH THE MESSAGE WE WILL BE DEALING WITH TODAY. I HAVE TWO LETTERS HERE, THAT I WANT YOU TO HEAR READ, BECAUSE IT IS THESE TWO LETTERS THAT SET THE STAGE FOR THE MESSAGE I AM GOING TO PRESENT TO YOU. I HAVE PREACHED IT BEFORE; AND THE LAST TIME, I SAID I WOULD NEVER PREACH ON IT AGAIN, BUT I JUST FEEL LIKE I SHOULD SHOW YOU WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON IN OTHER AREAS OF THE EARTH. I AM GOING TO ASK BROTHER THOMPSON TO READ THEM IN YOUR HEARING BEFORE I SAY VERY MUCH. WE RECEIVED THE ONE YESTERDAY, FROM SIS. VILLAGONZA, THE WIFE OF BRO. VILLAGONZA IN THE PHILIPPINES. HE HAS STOOD WITH US IN THIS TRUTH THROUGH THE YEARS; AND HE IS STILL STANDING FOR THE TRUTH. ANYHOW, AFTER READING THESE LETTERS I THOUGHT, TRUTH IS REALLY IN A GREAT CONFLICT. THERE IS WARFARE RAGING EVERYWHERE TRUTH IS UPHELD TODAY; AND IT FORCES US TO TAKE A STAND IN DEFENSE OF THE TRUTH WE STAND FOR.
A man from Indiana went over to the Philippines years ago, back when we first went there ourselves. His name was Larry Hart. I can mention his name now, even though there might have been a time when I would have refrained from doing so. I have always tried to respect the other man in his position, even through the opposition and criticism he has had against us. After the things he did, there is no reason to refrain from mentioning his name any longer. He left his first wife, sent her and the children home; and then took a young Filipino girl to be his wife. Well before very long, that was known all over the Philippines. Now he is back in the states with his Filipino wife. I have said through the years of time, as certain preachers in different parts of the world would rise up to contest certain things we believe, You always need to put forth an effort to give people an opportunity to understand what truth is, and how to look at it and understand it. Yet for some reason, usually because they are trying to push for recognition in the world, some reject all your efforts. Those who do respond like that usually go from one extreme to another. God may allow a man to be in error once, but if he goes from that error to another error, changing doctrines, and projecting things that are contrary to a true revelation, it usually ends up with a final departure before very long. Usually then the last thing they do is a misdemeanor of some nature, either in immorality or some type of big lie that sooner or later catches up with them. This letter is written by Sis. Villagonza. I can say this because I want to put it on tape. This video will go to different parts of the world and many will see it. Therefore as these letters are read, I want the brothers in other parts of the world to realize, The time has come for those that have an understanding of what truth is, to stand for it. You might feel you are standing alone. You might feel at times, that you are all by yourself, but remember, If you are standing for the right thing, there is a reward; and there is something that God will vindicate for you in your life. On the other hand, if for some reason you are wrong and you insist on staying wrong, yet you keep trying to make people believe you are right, the wrong you are in will only become multiplied many times over, and in the end, it will destroy you. That is why we have written in the Bible by the apostle Paul, about men like Hermoneges and other men of that caliber that withstood the truth. He mentions what they taught. This age and hour we are living in, as time closes out and we are coming to the end, the conflict that has raged through the ages is not over, and it will not be over until the whole thing consummates under the antichrist and goes right on out through the week of Daniel and forces the coming of the Lord, with His Bride, in the final judgment. That will put an end to it all. I want Bro. Thompson to read this first letter at this time.
FIRST LETTER
Dear Brother and Sister Jackson: Christian greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope and pray you reached your home safely. Until now, we still feel the revival we had during our Christian fellowship when you were here with us. I write this letter to express my thanks for the spiritual blessing that God has give us through your ministry. We appreciate your love and concern for us Filipino people. Bro. Jackson: Thank you very much for praying for my father with an ear problem. My father testified that after you had prayed for his ears, he feels something hot on his ears and his ears were opened and he was healed. Before that, he could hardly hear, but now my father can hear clearly. Praise God! To God be the glory. There are other brethren in the church that were healed after you prayed and laid hands on them. I want to let you know that a certain person, (I can’t pronounce the name.) attacked Bro. Rudy on his radio program again and again, but there were pastors who were unbelievers and confused before, but now are enlightened after the ministerial meeting with you. Bro. Jackson: I will wait for the tape message about the hair and the book of original translation on the Bible and also about your teaching about the manifestation of the spirit of the Holy Ghost and how to correct those who use the gift disorderly in the church. Well this is all for now. I hope and pray I will receive it soon because we need it much in the church. Thank you very much for the Bible and the accordion. We hope and pray that you will visit us again in the near future. God bless you and your ministry. Your sister in Christ, Sister Villagonza.
BRO. JACKSON SPEAKING
The name Bro. Thompson did not pronounce, is the author of the next letter. We no sooner got home and the man that had been attacking Bro. Villagonza, wrote this letter. He attacks Bro. Villagonza, because Bro. Villagonza kept the ministerial meeting secret from him, the meeting we had the last two days, where the ministers were allowed to come together and ask questions and be allowed to listen to Bro. Strommen and myself explain some things. They did not let this man know where we were and it set him off. Bro. Villagonza said that every time they had ever had a meeting when it was just the Filipino people, all he wanted to do was ask question and create an argument. Bro. Strommen and I myself, were afraid at first, that this is what the whole thing would be like, but we went ahead with it and it turned out very well. There were about thirty preachers from different parts of the Philippines in attendance. Their lives had been affected by this man you are going to hear from next. I had never met the man, but some 12 or 13 years back when we had been in the Philippines the last time, we no sooner got home than this man began writing to us. He wanted me to sponsor him. He wanted me to send him a Bible. Well we tried to send a Bible now and then for some friends of his, but I never would commit myself to sponsor him until I found out how truthful he was going to bo. Well after a while, when it became apparent I was not going to sponsor him, he began to write some very negative letters. What kind of brother are you, to treat me like this? I would have to read those letters to you, to let you know what type of man he showed himself to be. IT hurt my wife; and she even wrote him a letter. Then he wrote back to her, How can you treat me so? He made it look like he was a poor victimized soul. Saints, you just have to realize, He was a man that already had his mind made up: If you do not agree with me, I will destroy you. He is the type of man that is shrewd enough to do it if you do not see through what he is saying. I am saying these things on this video, because I want my brothers and sisters in the Philippines to realize, You do have a problem. He will not listen to me. He will not listen to anyone. He is a man with his mind made up: I am either going to be recognized, I am going to be seen as the main man in the Philippines that has the truth, or I am going to expose everyone else as liars and hypocrites. On and on the story goes, but God is the vindicator. I am saying these things to let you other brothers and sisters know, It is one thing to stand for truth, but it is another thing to know how to represent that truth and defend it in the light that will allow people to see the sincerity of a Christian life. I absolutely refuse to argue with any one. I will not waste five minutes of good time arguing with someone who just wants to argue. IF all a man has in his bosom is an argument, then I am afraid that character is looking at truth in the wrong way. That is why we titled this message, “TRUTH IN CONFLICT.” It is a shame when the godhead becomes an object of so much controversy among people who claim to be following truth. When your ranks are filled with individuals who want to argue and debate the issues, the interpretation of certain passages of scripture, what they mean and so forth, it just causes a lot of confusion. Therefore I want all of you to listen to the reading of this letter that man wrote. As far as I am concerned, the man can say anything about me he wants to. I have better preachers than he will ever be, all over the world, that write and correspond in other ways, and let me know that what we have stood for through the years, they are thankful to God for it. I am sorry this man has to feel the way he does about things, but we must maintain our stand for truth.
THE LETTER
Dear Bro. Jackson: Greetings to you and your family in the most precious name of the Lord Jesus. Yesterday we went to the church of Bro. Rudy Villagonza, as he announced over the radio broadcast to attend your ministerial meeting. But to our surprise, according to our informant, he immediately changed the venue of your meeting into a secret place, just to hide from us your meeting. How stupid it would be for a man, supposedly, who claimed to be in the truth, but his work is not of the truth. It is hypocrisy, whited wall. Sorry to say these words, but you were not discerning the things happening in your relationship with Rudy. It is because you were looking perhaps at your own group, like the Pharisees, instead to look at the shed blood of the Lamb of the God Jehovah who made us perfect by His grace. A selfish motive was exactly manifested in your ministry, trying to monopolize the free salvation of God and say you are the only child of God in the message. What a great stumbling block to a simple soul who has been longing to see you and have fellowship with you because be believe that you are anointed with a certain portion, not all of the truth, but you were put into an earthen vessel of selfishness, until you can’t be seen or touched by other brethren. What a shame it is. When certain Greeks wanted to see Jesus, John 12:20-22, those faithful apostles brought them before the word in that day. And do you know my brother, that there are so many churches today that have a wish to meet you because we believe truth is truth. The elect cannot persecute the elect. But our hope that Villagonza would bring us before you, was become in vain. He actually marred your image before our eyes, although I know that you are innocent, but my brother, please don’t be deceived in believing that only Villagonza was the one believing the stand of the Contender. A man of God should be open to everybody’s comments. I am not criticizing your ministry because I am a part of it. I was just hurt because of the way they entreated us. I don’t care how many things we couldn’t agree, yet in the message you are still our brother. God is the one giving the increase. Hope this letter will give you insight of what really happened surrounding us. I love you my brother, though you fail me many times, but God didn’t fail me. I am not looking at your mistakes, at Villagonza’s mistakes, but of the blood shed for us. I am looking upon the basis of the word in 1st John 1:6-7, and I hope you do likewise. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, your unworthy brother, Bro. Franco.
END OF LETTER
I had that letter read because I want all of you overseas, to know I have nothing to hide. My conduct and behavior over there, and my stand for the word of God is the same as it is at home. When you have observed through the years, how certain men rise within a certain realm of teaching, and they begin to try to project themselves and present certain things, after so long you begin to see how that all comes together and the basic thing in it is, they are trying to use certain essences of truth to portray themselves as the predominant administrator of it. Any one else that seems to have anything, they will do everything in their power to put him down. This man’s name is Franco Togonon. I realize this video will go to the Philippines; and I do not know whether the people that get it will play it for him to hear or not. In case they do, I just have to say, Bro. Togonon, you have created an argument over the godhead, which was very evident to me when I was there. I would not waste five seconds with you in an argument. I am old enough to be your father, and you are young enough and stupid enough to think you know enough to be a supreme mouthpiece in the Philippines. You did not know the man you talk so much about, namely William Branham. You did not know why he said certain things the way he did. You wrote a letter to me once, asking, Why did Bro. William Branham say that Jesus was God? I will turn around and ask you this, Why did William Branham say Jesus the Christ was the Son of God? It is in one of his messages. Why did he turn around and say also that Jesus, the Son of God, was not an eternal being? He was born. There was a time when He came into existence. He had a beginning; and we both know that God, the Creator, He that was called Jehovah by the Jews, the Elohim of the Old Testament, was not created. He has always been that same omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient Spirit being that He is today. All other things had their existence through Him, from Him, or however it should be said. Because of your lack of revelation, you have invoked the idea that we are teaching that there is a senior God and a junior God. I found this out when we were over there. You go ahead and teach what you want to, but remember, you do not change the issue that is worldwide. I do not just stand for you: I stand for the body of Christ. You claim the same, but the hour will be, when the God of heaven that you presume to serve, will vindicate to an element of people, who is right and who is wrong. I am not saying these things to put you down, but to let you know you are not big enough yet to be known to the world that you have a great revelation. As far as I am concerned, you are a number one trouble maker in the Philippine Islands. You are like some of those that Paul wrote about in the epistles to the Galatians and Thessalonians. The day has come, that if you keep on talking like this, and your name does go around the world, you could have much to answer for one day. What you have said, and what you have done, is causing me to come home and put together a message about this God in His oneness and manifestations. I want every young person to realize, I am not an educated man as far as the world is concerned, so you are not going to hear words from an educated mind. I utterly depend upon the God that called me to this work, to give me the words I should speak. As for Bro. Villagonza, I did not choose him: God led him into my life, long before I knew there was a Franco Togonon. I have seen how ministers from the states came over there and worked behind his back with their cutthroat schemes, so I told him, Get away from those men and go somewhere else; and that is what he did. I found out later it was not only men from the states and Canada that worked behind his back, but he also had men in the Philippines who began to rise in the message, and they worked behind his back with their ideas. Now it is evident that you are one of them.
WHAT INFLUENCES GOD CONSCIOUS GENTILE PEOPLE
I will say no more about the man we were speaking of at this time, so let us now go to the word of God and see what He has for us. Let us first pray though, and seek the will of God in what He would have presented in this message.
Heavenly Father, I pray today knowing that you see exactly what is going on in the world. We are all human. We are all subject to mistakes. Some will learn by their mistakes, but others will fail. Others will be driven to further jealousy, further hatred, when they are rebuked, when they are told of the wrong they are doing. I pray for this man, that you will deal with him in your own way. I am not trying to out run anybody, Lord, only to fulfill what you put in my heart and soul to do. Help me to go about this message in a proper and wise way. I am not trying to make friendship with anybody, but Lord I want you to be my friend. I know Lord, if my lips can be sanctified, and my mind dedicated to you for this purpose, then I know you will cause these lips to say things in the right way for the benefit of your people throughout the world. Lord, bless your servants everywhere, that they may have a spiritual mind to understand what their ears hear, and to allow their understanding to be fruitful. Lord, I know you have a ministry, and you have a body of people that sit under them. It is my prayer that they will all be brought together in the unity of the faith and made to be one in the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray in Jesus Christ name. Amen.
As we start this message, I want to take time to do it justice. We will not rush through it, because there is much to look at. I received a letter upon arriving home, from a man in India, a man named Thomas. He had a picture of William Branham. He advertised it to let you know, this is the church that believes that the name, William Marrion Branham, is the Messianic name of Jesus. On and on the controversy goes: It seems to get worse instead of better. It is sad when we see how people, so intelligent, living in the most intelligent age of time the human race has ever lived in, yet the more intelligent we get with our intellectual abilities and things to learn in the natural realm, our minds get so destitute and so far from God. We are Gentiles, so our natural mind’s are prone to be given over to a plurality of ideas. Therefore as I present this message, I want to break it down and make it simple enough that any teenager, if they are ever questioned in school about what we believe, could take it and explain it according to a true revelation. You do not have to use my exact words to explain it. If you can get the picture and the thought in your mind that I want to show you, you ought to be able to put it together in your own words, in your own vocabulary, your own speech terms, so that those who have a desire may know the truth that you believe. Turn in your Bible’s with me, for our first scripture reading. I am going to use this passage of scripture, because no doubt this is what the apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote 1st Timothy 3:16. When Paul wrote this, he was looking at the total picture, so we need to be mindful of that. He does not go into specifics. He is not breaking down any point of belief into the actual specifics of an explanation. He is just giving them a general, overall picture. “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” Notice the first three words as he starts out. “And without controversy.” What does that word mean? You cannot mention the subject of God in His oneness without upsetting someone, somewhere. IN the days of Paul, it was the Greeks. They were looked upon as the most intellectual Gentiles of the hour. That is why the apostle Paul would write scriptures like this, The Jews seek after a sign, but the Greeks after wisdom, mainly intellectual wisdom. They wanted to understand every thought, every object of every subject. The Greeks, in the period of three hundred years, before the Roman era started, were the educators of the Middle East. That is why when Alexander the Great conquered Egypt, there was an institution established there. That is why the city of Alexandria at the mouth of the Nile River, was named after Alexander the Great. In your secular histories that followed that episode, that city became known as an intellectual center, much like our cities today that have their universities, that people from all over the world can go to. The Greeks were known for their poets, their lecturers, and their play writers. Now though, the whole Gentile world today has been exposed to this era of intellectual learning, and it has awakened their minds. Every Gentile mind is running wild. He gets hold of something new, he has to play with it. Nine times out of ten, the original writer of certain things, by the time Gentiles who read it and diagnose it, get done with it, it has already been translated into a dozen different thoughts. That is just the makeup of Gentile people. That is why God did not give Himself in His full revelation to any Gentile people. He gave it to only one people. That Is why He started with Abraham. He saw in the man Abraham, the ability, and the quality, so that from him He might project and propagate a race of people which would embrace this revelation of God in His oneness. All through the history of Israel, the various times they were exposed to pagan, heathen nations, many times much of the society was prone to give over to heathen worship. That is why the tribe of Dan in the north, when they came back from Egypt and settled in the land of promise, turned out like they did. Dan was in the north portion of the land. This was the tribe that was exposed to the ancient trade routes, where those coming out of the Lebanese valley would pass through. Some few miles north in that Lebanese valley, was a city called Baalbek. It was a city of ancient Baal worship. No doubt all the camel caravans and traders that came passing through there, caused the tribe of Dan to be so over exposed to the commerce and things people had to talk about, including religion, so Dan was overcome by it. Dan was the first tribe that began to be influenced by Baal worship. I just put that in for the sake of history, to let you know the oneness of God has always been a matter for consideration. His being, His eternal existence, how He has manifested Himself through time, is not without controversy. When Paul said, Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness, he meant, It is an absolute fact that true godliness remains to be very controversial, a great mystery. Every individual has his own ideas about it, what it involves. God gave this true revelation to the Jewish people. That is why He brought them through different episodes. He did it in order to set a type, how He somewhere in the process of time, would deal with the whole human race the world over and show how merciful and longsuffering HE wants to be, not only to the Jewish people, but to the Gentile people who believe as well. Remember, when God gave Abraham the call to leave thy kindred and thy land and come down unto a land that I will show you, no sooner did he come into this land, than God began to speak to him at intervals and tell him, All this land I will give you, from such and such a place, and to your seed after you. We can read a couple of scriptures where God spoke to him. (Genesis 12:7) “and the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.” (Genesis 13:14-18) “And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward: (15) For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. (160 And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. (17) Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. (18) then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Madre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord.” Now go to Genesis 28:13-15, and notice how God reaffirmed the same covenant to Jacob, after he had dreamed a certain dream. “And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou lied, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; (14) And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. (15) And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou doest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.” And in thee and thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. It was never known to Abraham what all of that meant. We know this though, Had it not been for that promise that God gave to Abraham, and the seed that was promised was not to the Jews that was born from him later, the promised seed was Jesus Christ, because since Sarah at the time had no child, and God, in Abraham’s old age, gave him a promised son who was named Isaac, then just as sure as there was an Isaac by promise, then there would be a promised son of Abraham in which the covenant God gave to Abraham and through Abraham that all the families, all the nations, Gentiles, would eventually be blessed, would be just as sure. I am thankful that one day God brought that seed, Jesus Christ, who is of the seed of David, also the seed of Abraham, and in Him we have the promise of eternal life. I am using this 16th verse of 1st Timothy as a text to go along with the title we are giving this message, “Truth in Conflict.” Notice as we read it again, “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, (See, he did not go into details explaining it.) justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” That is just a general, overall picture of the subject. However if we were to take that and go into greater depth, and bring that more and more into a specific meaning, we will see how the same man, who was a Jew, writes here in 1st timothy the 6th chapter. We will read scripture that expands the thought considerably. Paul is saying this to Timothy in respect to this revelation; and he is saying it like this, (1st Timothy 6:12-16) “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. (13) I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; (14) That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: (Which has not happened yet, but is just ahead for us) (15) Which in His times He shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of Lords: (Now he goes into specifics) (16) Who only hat immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; (Here, Paul is talking about the eternal Spirit, the eternal God who always was, the God that created all things. I have to say things as we go along, in respect to how the oneness have preached certain things through the years. Jesus the Christ that was born of woman, and born of virgin birth, did not create anything. Many of you have preached all through this 20th century, that Jesus was the word, and that all things were created by the word. That is the way you throw it out there; and in doing so, you make the translation of scriptures speak that all things were created by Jesus the Son of God. That is not the way it is at all. Let me finish this verse.) whom no man hath seen, (That is true, because God, Jehovah, the Elohim, who had no beginning or ending, who was not born, neither did He die, the God who always was, and always will be, Him who is always omnipresent, He is the one that is an eternal light and He cannot be seen, because He does not live in a form. No one has ever seen Him at any time, regardless of what you may think when you read certain scriptures. He has manifested Himself in certain forms that have been seen in ages past, but those forms were not Him, because He is a Spirit and spirits cannot be seen. Those forms were only manifestations for a temporary period of time, that God, the invisible one, might convey to human beings, human frail minds, a little insight of what He is planning to do for mankind, because of the fact that he is lost and needs to be redeemed. Only God can redeem that which He has created.) nor can see: (You never will see God in an actual form, because He does not live or exist in a form that can be seen.) to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” Yes saints, Jesus was dwelling in that light that no man can approach unto.
MELCHIZEDEK MEETS ABRAHAM
I had hardly arrived in the Philippines when a young man wanted to talk to me, so turn with me now, to Genesis 14, so we can look at the scripture we are going to talk about. God has brought Abraham into the land of Canaan. (That is what it was called back then. The Philistines call it the land of Palestine because that term was in reference to the Philistine people, but in Abraham’s day it was called Canaan land because it was mainly peopled by the Canaanite people. As Abraham had been brought into this land, God periodically began to speak to him. In some of these other instances where God spoke to Abraham, it does not tell you in what fashion or form God appeared. WE do not even have to understand in what way God appeared to him. We ought not allow our minds to go groping for some mysterious idea, like, Well what form do you think he was in? That is none of your business. If God did not explain it in every detail, and yet allowed it to be written, then it is none of your business. That is just the way I have to say it to make some understand that God saw no reason to explain some things. We have people today that want to understand everything down to the minutest detail before they will take hold of it. That is not faith. That becomes intellectual learning when it is like that. When you see an overall profile of something regardless of whether you see an object in it or not, and you can say Amen to that, it is because your faith gets a profile that is sufficient. It is the way it strikes your mind, it becomes a thought. That is how faith, many times, is going to move you and me along the pathway of life. There are times when God will use the visible or the audible in those things. God has specific reasons to manifest in that manner, but that does not mean everyone has to have a visible form or an object to look at, or to hear an audible voice, in order to be found living and walking by faith. What we see here, is that Lot and Abraham have separated. Lot chose the area of Sodom and Gomorrah, but the kings of Chedorlaomer have invaded the land that Abraham was brought into. They have captured the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, and they captured Lot and his household, and his servants. When word reached Abraham of what had happened, to show you Abraham was not a coward, he took his three hundred servants to set those captives free. These were men that knew how to drive cattle, sheep, camels, oxen, as well as handle a sword. Abraham went after those kings. You can read the first part of the chapter. He defeated them. He got Lot and the other captives back from them. He took a great substance of the kings spoil and brought it back. He is on his way back to meet the king of Sodom and Gomorrah, when he is intercepted by a man, a form that looked like a man. I am saying this on the tape because no doubt the young man will be able to view the video. Therefore I will say to him, Young man, you had a thought, you were playing with an idea: Could not this have been just an ordinary man? If you catch the revelation right, no, this was not an ordinary man; and that thought should never have entered your mind to start with. Yes, he was near the ancient Jebusite city called Salem, and the word Salem, does not appear many times in the scripture. WE will see that God somehow or other, choosing to bring Abraham into this land, it is right near this city that was filled with pagans, and a pagan priest, which we must understand that nowhere does it write that either one worshiped the true God of Abraham. However Abraham is intercepted by what looked like a man, but it gives his name as Melchizedek. That word means King Priest. It is a dual title, King and Priest of the Most High. That ought to tell people no pagan man out of a pagan city is going to be brought out to intercept a righteous man who is walking with God by faith, and have God give him a name that implies something that is going to pertain to the Christ to come. Even God did not deal with those people until many years later. That was after the twelve tribes had come into the land from Egyptian bondage. When God did deal with them, it was King David himself that took this city. For a long time it was called the city of David. That is why many Jews still refer to Jerusalem as the city of David. That is because, when David conquered it he set up his household there. It was mainly his kindred, all his relatives that wanted to live around there. All of David’s household, his relatives, his in-laws, they began to want to live in this ancient Jebusite city, which later became known as Jerusalem. Anyhow this man that met Abraham was called Melchizedek. This was the first time that God appeared to Abraham in a visible bodily form, a form that exemplifies through the name what this representation implies. The truth is, This man, as was seen here, did not actually exist. We can say this, This is definitely a theophany of God, or it is God working through the office of an angelic being and the angelic being is speaking all these words in the authority of the first person, which is God Himself. He is being allowed to project Himself as a Priest and King. You see that in the 14th chapter, in the 17th, 18th, and 19th verses, all about this being. It was a manifestation of the supernatural God that intercepted Abraham, a natural man, with natural spoil. Probably some of the spoil was gold, some valuable garments, maybe some decorated swords. All of it was spoil from those he had defeated. As for the young man that talked with me, his idea was, Well we know he brought bread and wine. Now it was very easy to see that this could have been brought into existence supernaturally, the bread and wine; but he said to me, But the spoil, Abraham gave Him one tenth. He said, It is hard to conceive what a supernatural being would do with natural, carnal substance. Young people, do not ever try to prove a revelation like that. Let me take you on through the years of time, when the man who Melchizedek typed was actually here, Jesus the Christ. He is the actual focal point. When Jesus rose from the dead, when He appeared to the living, which was the disciples, they were frightened. But did He not say, be not afraid, it is I? To prove his resurrection He said, have you anything to eat? They were to furnish the natural things for Him; and He wanted to prove His supernatural resurrection. They furnished some fish meat and honeycomb and He ate it. Do you catch the point? When we start to play with issues, there stood a man raised from the dead. Why does He need to eat? We are not telling you He had to. He did it to prove that He was not just a myth. He was in reality the man they had walked with in days prior to that. When He ate, they were not taking x-rays to see where the food went. When you start things like that, that is when the devil has your mind on the end of a string. He is going to sling you somewhere. The point is, I go back to Melchizedek, God the Elohim, wanted to project something into the record of His dealing with this man Abraham. Here is a visible object that Abraham was intercepted by. He did not go beyond that being. He carried on a conversation with him. But that being brought bread and wine. All of that typed what the Lord Jesus Christ Himself would do the night He was betrayed at the Last Supper, which was the Jewish Passover supper. It plainly tell you in the New Testament scriptures that Jesus took bread and wine, which were the two natural elements of the Jewish Passover supper, which was normally a feast type supper, yet commemorating their departure out of Egypt. But all that commemoration was pointing forward to a Passover Lamb that would not be just a natural Passover lamb like they killed, but was going to be the spiritual Passover Lamb that God offered. Therefore Melchizedek did not go to this Jebusite city and bring out of some wine cellar a bottle of wine. This was supernaturally created wine. Now imagine, Abraham, a man of faith, he is accepting what he has been intercepted by. Well who are you? Explain this to me. Are you real? I put these things in here to try to take out some of this childish nonsense that people want to play with. This is an era of time when people in the scientific world like to argue like that. Well there are certain things God is not going to explain, things like why a cat likes to eat mice. He just gave him a stomach and an appetite for them. That is why it is hard for a mouse to live around where a cat is. That is his instinct. But with you and I, our understanding ought to go further than that. As for this Melchizedek, there is very little said about him. It was Abraham who has the memory of all that. Well it says that Abraham gave Him one tenth of all the spoil. Did Abraham go back the next day and say, Now that was a supernatural being and I am sure He did not take that gold with Him, so where is it? No he did not. That just lets you see how the carnal mind wants to play around. We find no evidence in the scriptures that Abraham never went back to that spot again. To him it was a finished thing. God, through this Melchizedek manifestation, revealed the name of a two fold office work that would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That would all be executed when time came for the Messiah, the Son of God, who was born of virgin birth, to be arrested in the city of Jerusalem where He would be crucified as the Passover Lamb. It would be outside the confines of Jerusalem that Jesus would ascend into heaven to fulfill first His priestly work, as it says in Hebrews, that He has been made a Priest forever. It says forever, after the order or the type of Melchizedek; but we do know His priesthood is not an eternal priesthood. Forever does not mean endless ages. It only means for a period of time. We can see that two thousand years begins to bring us very close tot he point where His priestly work will end. When He steps out of that role, He will never return to any priestly work ever again. When He leaves the throne to come to earth again, He is coming to earth to be King of kings and Lord of lords. We know this, That it says in Isaiah, and of His government there shall be no end, but again we have to realize, Jesus is not going to rule and reign on this earth for millions and billions of years, as the earth’s King. How many realize that? It is promised for one thousand years. Then the kingdom is going to be turned back over to God the Father, that God may be all in all. I am saying all these things and trying to go slow, to give people an opportunity to think on them. The Bible is written in such a way that these intellectual minds, these carnal minds that want to show their expertise and intelligence cannot even put the picture together. God hates that type of stuff. You will never out smart God. There is no way you or I can set up an argument with Him. God wants us to be simple enough to accept Him on the terms He extends to us. So we can say this, Melchizedek exemplified two future offices that one day would be fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That is what is exemplified here. The only other time we read of it is in Hebrews 7:2, where Paul is speaking of Melchizedek. He spoke of Melchizedek as having no gather, and no mother. Therefore I have to go back to the young man in the Philippines and say, Any man, whether he was a Jebusite or whoever he might have been, that God might have used, Paul would never have said what he did in Hebrews 7, if that had been a natural man of a natural earthly origin. Such a natural man would have to have a daddy and mother somewhere. He had to have brothers and sisters, cousins, and such. But when Paul wrote of Melchizedek in Hebrews 7, He had no father, He had no mother, He had no beginning nor ending of years. He left no descent, meaning there was no offspring. That should be enough to close the case and go on.
ABRAHAM EXHIBITS A REVELATION
The next manifestation of the invisible God in a visible form is found in the 18th chapter of Genesis. It is very strange how some people, when you cross their line of thought and they want to hold on to an old religious traditional thought, and you try to stick to the Biblical terminology, oh they like to play with things, they try their best to make you look like you are completely stupid. I can see why they would say in the Philippines, according to the way you teach, you say there is a senior God and a junior God. I do not teach that, but if I did, I would be more right by doing that than you are by saying that Jesus is God. When you deny the Son of God to actually scripturally be the Son of God, and you make Him the Father, you are completely off course. You can use Isaiah 7:9 all you want to, it will never support such a revelation. You just simply do not know what the name implies. You are trying to look at the flesh side of the thing. You look at the name, because the name had a dual application. Just notice, as we read the first three verses of chapter 18, how Abraham related to those three men. This was the next time God, the Elohim, the Jehovah, the Father, the Creator of everything, appeared to Abraham in bodily form; and Jesus was definitely not present here. This is a manifestation of God the Elohim. The same God that called Abraham from the land of the Chaldeans, the same God that manifested Himself to Abraham in the 14th chapter as Melchizedek, comes up the road with two angelic beings. This establishes the fact, that God can either project Himself to the human race either in His own theophany likeness, or He will use angelic beings. IN this instance He personally took on the form of theophany and came to Abraham as a man, on man’s level, walking on a dusty trail, in the company of two angels, which were ministering spirits, always ministering in the presence of that eternal Spirit which is God. This is characterized throughout the whole history of the Bible. God and angels. The last thing God made was man. That is the three levels, God first, angels next, and then man. What we see here, Abraham is sitting in the door of his tent, it is getting high noon time, and here came three men. We will read it. “And the Lord appeared unto him (Abraham) in the plains of Madre: as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; (2) And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, (No sooner did he get into their presence, he began to recognize what this was. His actions portray what he saw. He bowed himself to the ground. This action shows he recognized something standing before him that needs recognition as superior to man.) (3) And said, My Lord, (what a greeting) if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, (I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.” Abraham saw three men but he only addressed one of them as MY LORD. Abraham had spiritual vision. Is this not like God though? Here He speaks to Abraham, the same person, in a form and manifestation that characterizes two offices and Abraham recognizes these offices. That is why he took of the bread and wine, but then he gives the tithe of his spoil. That is all earthly. All this goes to show recognition, transition, and respect, but Abraham did not return back to repeat the story again. This other encounter happened some time later. He did not see a man to be recognized as Melchizedek. He saw a man on his level, yet he is begging Him, Please don’t pass your servant by. Stay, wash your feet, refresh yourselves. He told Sarah, Knead some bread quickly. He told his servant, Go kill a fatted calf. Notice saints, This man that came up the trail who is God Elohim in a theophany form, conveyed Himself strictly on a man’s level. It is noon time, it is eating time, and Abraham furnished every bit of the substance that this man, this supernatural being was going to eat. All of this shows that when God did come in the office of a man, which was His Son, Jesus, there was a time that He took the five loaves and two fishes and fed them; but on all other occasions man furnished the substance that was eaten by Jesus and the disciples that were with Him. This man came as a prophet. That goes to show the first time God would come on man’s level to begin this process of types and foreshadowing His plan of redemption to the human race, He would come in this fashion and He would come on man’s level, and man would open his home. That is why you read about Mary and Martha. That is why you read about the man Simeon that invited Jesus and His disciples into his house.