WE ARE GOING TO PICK UP RIGHT WHERE THE LAST ISSUE ENDED, DEALING WITH THE WOMAN OF REVELATION 12:6, THAT FLEES INTO THE WILDERNESS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTIETH WEEK OF DANIEL.

When we see this woman in Revelation 12, and the time comes that she flees into the wilderness, it will be where she hath, past tense, a place already prepared there by God. (Rev 12:6) “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” God is not going to feed them with quail from above, like He did Israel long ago. People here on earth are going to feed them. The Bride is going to be with Christ when all of this is going on. Somewhere on this planet, there will be prepared a place and a people that will take care of the woman that flees from Jerusalem in the middle of the week. Let me go to Revelation 20, now, where we find Christ back on earth. The Bride is with Him. He has the spirits of all those martyred saints, and all those that died by disease, and whatever else, with Him. He is ready to set up His government. The Bride is positioned on thrones. That is according to the 20th chapter. Verse 4, which says, “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them,” which means the right to pass sentence and to execute judgment thereby. Right here, we see the first part of that resurrection that is going to follow. This tells you why these people that have died in here, (chart, last part of the seventieth week of Daniel) have to come up first. Saints: I did not sleep much last night. About six this morning, I woke up from a little nap, and immediately these two scriptures dropped right down before me, and I knew those great tribulation, martyred people have to be brought up first. When you go to the 25th chapter of Matthew, where Jesus has set up His government and He is ready to bring all the nations before Him, these are the living elements of mortal people that have heard the 144,000 preaching to them and some believe it and others did not. That is just like we have in the world today. You could blow them over with ten tons of dynamite and six weeks later they have forgotten all about it. It will be the same way when this happens in the Middle East. When God does display His miraculous power in the Middle East, watch what I tell you, Every word in Isaiah 60 will come to pass. There will be people from the ends of this earth begin to say, I have never in my life seen anything like it. I can see young Hindus, Buddhists, who have been that all their lifetime, but when they look through that TV tube and see what the power of God does in the Middle East, I believe they will say, I am no longer going to believe in Buddha: he is a dead god: I believe in the God of Israel, and I am going there: I want to dedicate my experience to help them build up their temple. How else would Isaiah 60 apply, And the sons of strangers shall come and help build up thy walls?. That is going to be a temple for the whole world to play a part in. I can hardly wait until it takes place. Does that mean everybody in the world is going to repent? Absolutely not. But there will be enough change their attitudes, to fulfill these scriptures. The resurrection starts and the first ones that come up with glorified bodies to meet the spirits that He has brought with Him, will be those martyred, tribulation saints, Gentiles and Jews. Why? Because God is going to use them when He brings this living, mortal realm before His throne for judgment. They can testify against those who did evil. What does it say? And He will separate them as sheep from the goats? This is not the great white throne judgment. This is the judgment of nations, when He shall choose His subjects to be used to repopulate the earth in the Millennium reign. He will say to the sheep, Come and stand on my right hand. To the others He will say, Come and stand on my left hand. Then He is going to say to those sheep, This first group of resurrected saints will be standing there, as he speaks to the mortals. He will say to the mortal sheep people, I was naked and you clothed me, I was in prison and you visited me. I was hungry and you fed me. I was lonely, you visited me. They will say to the Master, When did we see you this way? He is going to point to those resurrected saints and say, Mat 25:40 “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” He will say to the sheep, Come, inherit the kingdom that was prepared for thee from the foundation of the world. Then He looks at the goats, arrogant and contrary, who could not share with anybody. The world is full of them. They are only for self. They will say, When did we see you like this? He will say to them, Mat 25:45 “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” That is when He judges the nations. That is why those martyred saints of their generation had to come up first. Keep in mind, here will come the fifth seal. I see those Jews coming up. I see these other tribulation saints coming up. All those saints will be reunited with their bodies. Now that everybody is in their glorified bodies, that completes the whole first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. Here is the first part. Here is the second part. And there is the third part. That ends it. That takes out of the ground all the bodies of righteous people. God is redeeming the earth. A thousand years later He will take out of hell, and out of death, all those evil spirits and bodies. That is why, when the spirits of them are reunited in their bodies, they are going to be judged and then cast into the lake of fire. That makes the earth clean again. There are no more graves, and there is nothing left in hell. The earth has been completely redeemed by the rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ with His Bride.

EXPLAINING CHART

I want to take a minute to explain some things on our chart. Since we are using this chart to make our words more understandable, I want to explain a little more about it before going on. This green line represents total time from the Garden of Eden right on through to the end. As we look at time, we will say we are going from the beginning, moving through time and the different changes and dispensations. Naturally it goes on through into the Millennium and off into eternity. This red line represents the righteous that have met death in one way or the other. Abel was killed by Cain, so he is the first one to take a place in the red line. We will say it is the line of white robes. The white robes are always significant of life, eternal life. Back in the beginning, mankind lived almost a thousand years, but even though they lived almost a thousand years, when they began to die they took their place along with Abel in the red line representation. The wicked ones who died, those who never believed anything acceptable to God, are represented by the black line on our chart. The black line represents the twice dead, dead spiritually and physically. Then we have another element that are represented by the blue line. They are the revelated Bride Church element of the believers, those who sought truth and walked in it. Those others that did live and walk as believers, but just somehow never did move into the bride realm, also take their place in the red line representation. They will have eternal life, but will not be a part of the ruling bride. They have white robes, but the true bride, those represented by the blue line are arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. The righteous and the unrighteous move through time together, but on our chart they have their separate identification, hopefully for better clarification of their position with God. Where did the blue line representation start? It started with the advent of Christ. What He accomplished at Calvary paid the sin debt for all believers of all of time, and from that time, 33 A.D., there began to be an element of believers that would be known as the Bride of Christ. The advent of Christ is where B.C. ends, and A.D. begins, right at the birth of Christ. He was crucified, and the gospel has now been set in motion, and the purpose of the Creator, is that through the gospel He may call out of the nations a people that will be the wife of His Son Jesus. That is what the blue line represents. This is the highest calling. Through the dispensation of Grace, from here to here, this is the blue line that the Bride will be represented by, those that purpose in their hearts to live obedient to all that is revealed to them. That automatically places them in this position. What we have to realize, is that there are many other believers that have to fall into this element represented by the red line. They receive life, but they do not measure up to the potential that these blue line saints measure up to. Right along with that, is the death line, representing the unbelieving wicked of all ages, continuing right on out to the end, when the great white throne judgment is completed. The seventieth week of Daniel and the rapture of the bride saints, are represented over here close to the far right on our chart. The week is divided into two parts, three and one half years to each, and the second half is the time of the great tribulation, the time when Gentile foolish virgins and a believing element of Jews will give their lives in martyrdom, sealing their testimony of faith in God. Then right here, (pointing to the chart showing the completion of the first resurrection) is the terminating point of all those represented in the various colors on the chart who have life. Here is where all things, that which is moving from left to right, begins to come toward its climax. Here, is where, in the middle of the week and onward, God begins to change the order of things. That is why that sixth seal covers all of this, where these like the 144,000, the fleeing woman, and those that believe the everlasting gospel proclaimed by the 144,000 servants of God, enter into a new order. God is changing the order for all that remain alive at the end of the week of Daniel. They are not changed into immortality like the other saints: They are just given longevity of life. It is very possible that a young person alive right now, and that would be carried over into that hour of time, would live the entire one thousand years. After Christ has returned to earth, having all those dead saints that correspond to this red line with him, plus His wife, His Bride, and they all take their positions on earth, Then He is going to bring this final phase of the first resurrection up. However I am going to leave that point right there for now, because I want to come back to the talents and explain something further. It is hard to explain these talents and get the right thought, so that everyone catches the intended point. What was Jesus using? He was using a natural means to illustrate something, but we cannot allow ourselves to take what He says to extremes.

EXPLAINING TALENTS

I am going to use some natural talents we have right here among us today, to try to explain what I want you to see. First, I am going to use it in the natural setting, and then bring it into a spiritual setting. Then we will look at the fruit, how they correlate along with all of this. I have seen a lot of young men in life, like some that used to fill the Branham Tabernacle, young men that thought they knew everything, but I ask you, Where are they today? They did not have patience enough to wait upon God. God can invest in you great potential, but if you do not have the wisdom, the patience and longsuffering to deal with people, and you are only in it for a show, there is a pattern of elimination. You bring it on yourself. We have had some like that, come through Faith Assembly. If they were not asked to preach, they let you know how they felt about it, But God called me to be a preacher. How do you know He did? Where is your vindication? Would God call a man to preach, and never open up a way for him to fulfill that calling? If a man feels the call to preach, then he should just sit still: God will make a way for it to be manifested. On the other hand, if He does not make a way and you try it anyhow, you will wind up in a ditch, like so many have already. Now, having read these talents, let us try and look at what Jesus was talking about. These talents, up to a point, are applicable for all the generations of time in both lines on our chart. It is not that the talents start here and over here is where he brings the reckoning, No, because he deals with it on the individual basis. Therefore as we look at this, I am going to read this parable again. Matthew 25:14, so notice “For the kingdom of heaven (the dispensation of time) is as (As, does not make it the literal point, but it is an illustrative point.) a man traveling into a far country, (Jesus knew He was going away, but He puts it in a natural, earthly setting.) who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods. (15) And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; (or individual ability) and straightway took his journey. (16) Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents. (17) And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two. (He went out and invested them.) (18) But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord’s money. (19) After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them. (20)And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. (21) His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: (Notice, ruler, is not pointing to this present life: it is pointing to ruling in the Millennium.) enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (22) He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. (23) His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (24) Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed: (25) And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth; lo, there thou hast that is thine. (26) His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed: (27) Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury. (28) Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents. (29) For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but form him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. (30) And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Since Jesus used a natural setting that was practical in His day, I am likewise going to use a natural setting of our day, then transpose that to a spiritual likeness. We have some brethren here in our congregation that have their own places of business. We have one brother, Steve Yahrus, and also Bro. Kaiser. They both have their individual businesses. They started years ago. So I am using this natural setting for the purpose at hand. I remember when Bro. Yahrus used to work for a machine shop in Louisville, but there came a time when he felt like he wanted to have his own shop. He rented a building in Corydon for that purpose. Sometime after that, we had a little instrument that needed to be worked on. I took it down to his shop, and I believe he had two or three men at that time, so my point is, It was a very small beginning, but it has grown into quite a large place. First you have to have a little bit of knowledge, and you have to have a will to press on. When the Lord calls you to be His child, whether it is a preacher or whatever, you have to have a desire to make something out of your life of being a Christian. You just do not get on a bandwagon and sit there twiddling your fingers, thinking, I have it made. No, you are only in a beginning position. Your attitude, your motive and ability to move ahead is what helps to determine whether you will make a success of your Christian life or not. You either reach a place that you are determined to go on with the Lord no matter what, or time itself eliminates you. Conditions set in around you and gnaws at you, and you either grow spiritually or retreat. That is why many times you can have a revival in the church, and certain young people can be so happy and blessed, and you think they are really on the road to spiritual growth. They can jump, leap and shout, speak in tongues and lay on the floor under the power of the Spirit, but if they do not have something inside them after the emotions are ceased, that wants them to take that potential and do something with it in a wise way, conditions of life, sooner or later, will bring about an elimination. All you have to do is watch the person: If they do not make a wise investment with the potential they received, before very long they lose interest, and away they go, dabbling in those things of the world once again, that they could have kept completely free from. Getting back to Bro. Yahraus though, in a few months God had blessed his work. Many times you have to borrow money to do the things you need to do. There again, you can use wisdom, or you can be careless and very foolish. You have to have a little knowledge along with some common sense about what you are desiring to do, and know something about how to go about it. There have been many young men that have said, I would like to have my own business just like So and So. They borrow money, buy a bunch of machinery and material, thinking that success is a sure thing, but if such a person does not have the potential of wisdom and knowledge about what he is trying to do, nine times out of ten he will wind up a wreck. On the other hand, Bro. Yahrus, through the months and years that followed, went from a basement shop into another building. Before very long, the business began to grow even more, and he began to plan another step of growth. Over the years, he finally built a larger building, putting in more modern equipment with a vision of future growth. I have noticed how he has grown through the years, and I have also noticed how he has served the Lord during that time. Today, he has many employees. This is an illustration I am using that to show you what the fruit of the spirit, in relationship to these talents, can produce in a dedicated Christian. If you do not have a certain potential of temperance and self control, along with patience and long suffering, when you get under pressure because of some adverse condition, you can blow your lid in front of the wrong person and you have already advertised your business, because you yourself are your business. After a while, your potential customers will lose interest in you. When you bring that over here to a spiritual relationship, God is watching over you all the time. He wants you to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. It is not just a matter of joining the church fellowship and being part of the crowd, and then just coasting along. No. You do not gain anything like that. You only become a number in a category of people. On the other hand, investing talents is how you take time, energy, mentality, and invest yourself as a Christian. A farmer can do the same thing. A young man raised in the country, if he has watched his dad and learned from watching him, certain principles and examples of living will be instilled in him. He will realize there are times when seasons will come along and test you to the core. You have got to be willing to accept that for what it is and just carry on. Any kind of business will have it bad at times. The Christian life likewise, is not a matter of always walking on cloud nine. There are days it seems like the sun refuses to shine. When we take an example like this and begin to put it into a spiritual relationship, here is one young person, it could be a girl. The Holy Spirit can come upon that person, and in the beginning there can be a gift manifested. That girl or young man can grow. As they grow in the grace of God, along with these abilities a gift can be used, manifested through the leadership of the spirit, but there are certain qualities within the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. If these things are not accompanying that person, then just watch where such a person can wind up. If we do not know how to be gentle, longsuffering, meek and temperate in all things, after a while we can become very impatient and hard to get along with. If we do not have the fruit of the Spirit being manifested, and our attractiveness is just that of the natural person, that good nature that some have will not hold up under pressure. Even though some are just naturally that way from birth, that is not the way you judge whether they are a Christian or not. The true test of genuine Christianity is that character of Christ that is allowed to be cultivated and manifested in our lives. These, along with any other spiritual capabilities or qualifications, if they are not there, it isn’t long until people will say, Well I just simply do not understand. They may use some gift, but when you try to talk to them, they act like they are too good. They act like they do not want to talk with you. All this goes together in determining whether the true gifts of the Spirit are being manifested in such an one. As we put it in the natural, take a business man, If he has not the ability to know how to negotiate, how to talk with his business associates, those through which he carries on a business, though he may be a nice man to talk with, he may not be a reasonable man to deal with. On the other side, if he is reasonable, and he is not hard to deal with in business transactions, that brings more business. Put that over on the spiritual side now. You like to be around people that know how to communicate with you. Sometimes you will hear people of the world say, I like to be around that sister, because she makes you feel at ease. I will use Bro. William Branham for instance. To the world, he was a well known preacher. I remember after I got acquainted with him and he used to come down to the farm hunting, my father-in-law who did not profess a lot, but went to church all the time, seemed to enjoy being around Bro. William Branham. The one thing I noticed in particular, was that Bro. William Branham was not a man that was always preaching to those he would be with in some natural activity. If he came around where you were, he would notice what kind of business you were in. He was always ready to talk to anyone on their particular level. He made you feel at ease. I thought at first my father-in-law would not like to be around this preacher. After he had been there one time, my father-in-law looked forward to him coming back again. He would say to my father-in-law, Mr. Funk, I understand you have some nice cattle. Then the next time he came he might ask, How are your crops doing, or how are your cattle doing and so forth? He seemed to be a man that could talk on your level. He made you feel comfortable. When you become a Christian, if you grew up in life to be proud, always esteeming yourself to be a little above the other person, get rid of that. You have to come down on God’s level, because, regardless of what we are, if we are worth anything at all, we are what we are by the grace and mercy of God. When I see these world renown evangelists, and watch the crowds that associate with them, they always like to elevate themselves above the every-day kind of people. They seem like they do not want, or even know how to talk on your level, yet they are men of God. They are fulfilling a job, but it is sure not a ministry to the Bride of Christ. I am going to put this into a spiritual application.

SPIRITUAL APPLICATION

In 1972, I was privileged to go to Norway and I took a few Contenders with me: There was a man there, Levi Larsen, who had spent some years here going to the Tabernacle. I got acquainted with him. He used to come to our church for prayer meeting on Thursday night. We had become friends. After Bro. William Branham’s death, he and his wife went back to Norway. He took Bro. William Branham’s film and traveled through the areas of Norway showing the film about Bro. William Branham. Then he invited me to come to Norway in 1972, and minister in a convention. In that meeting, I was privileged to meet a wonderful bunch of people. Of the Contenders I took, there was one, and I do not remember exactly what the title was, but it was one that explained a lot of the things going on in the Branham movement. Bro. Larsen examined it and said, I don’t feel led to give that one out just yet: I don’t want that stuff to get into Norway. I said, Bro. Larsen, you cannot keep it out. It will follow this message wherever it goes. Little did I realize it then, when he said, I don’t want that kind of stuff to get into Norway, but things were on the move already. I had hardly gotten out of Norway, when there was a man from that crowd that took a notion to come to the States. He linked up with Dr. Lee Vayle, and he took him to Tucson to meet Perry Green. He stayed for a few weeks, while Perry Green loaded him down with tapes, books and things designed to win him over to their way of thinking. He finally went back to Norway and said, Jackson is not in the message. That was the beginning of chaos. I went back in 1973, but I went reluctantly, suspecting what might be ahead. I did not really want to go back: I had met up with so much of that negative stuff that this certain element is always shoving down the throat of all they come in contact with, it was plain sickening to me. I went ahead anyhow, to another convention. In that meeting, some of the same brothers that were in the first meeting, were in this one also, but I knew they were entertaining that other spirit. I did my best to hold myself in certain areas and just tried to make the best of it. That year, I was privileged to baptize a young man and his wife, Bro. and Sis. Strommen. Little did I realize at that time, the potential that God had invested in them. There were 17 people baptized at that time, but there was trouble ahead: In 1974, what that man had taken back there from his visit with Perry Green, began to spread over the area. I was so discouraged I said I would not go back again, but in 1975, I did go back again. I got to speak one time in the presence of some of those brothers: I just preached a message giving my defense, according to how God had led me. Then we were invited to go over into Sweden. Bro. Strommen took me and my wife to Sweden. The next year we went back. From then on I could see how God was leading Bro. Strommen. About three years after that we went to northern Norway and met some more wonderful people and had some good meetings. At the airport, getting ready to come home, I had a talk with Bro. Strommen. I related some spiritual things. At that time I could see by the way Bro. Strommen talked, that he was not like many of the others we had met there, and in my heart I said, He is the man for Norway. Yet this stuff had already been spread and who knew what the result would be?. I will say this, Here, is a young man that has his own experience of how God has dealt with him, coming out of the Salvation Army. As God led him into this message, I could see by his motive, his attitude and objective that he could see something that to him was worthwhile. He wanted to invest his time and His life so his life became dedicated to understanding the truth of what Bro. William Branham preached and taught. Instead of being like a lot of the other characters that have come along and heard about Bro. William Branham, picked up a hand full of tapes and hit the road testifying of something they had no understanding of, he has dedicated his life to learning the truth. Most of the others that have jumped on the popular bandwagon have no more wisdom, no more patience, no more temperance, godliness and gentleness than a wild rabbit. They are ready to send him to hell, just because he does not join up with them. I have seen how God blessed Bro. Strommen, and how He has used him to influence, and to reach out to some of the Norwegian people. Sure, it looked like as many as were going in the way he did, there were that many or more going the opposite direction, but God knows how to glean from them, those whom He has chosen. I have to say, When God sent His prophet messenger to this age, He (God) allowed certain statements to be made by the man, and incorporated within the structure of the things he taught from the word of God, that when those things are put together they become a means that God uses in His law of elimination. If you give yourself over to any such, the rule of human flesh will follow it. That is just the way human nature is. My point is, Here was a man that had no theological training, but he had some Holy Ghost schooling. When he began to recognize truth, that truth began to cultivate within him a knowledge, a determination, and a willingness to invest his energy and mentality to it. He did not have a lot of money, but he was willing to take chances, face obstacles of travel through mountains, bad roads and so forth, all of which God honored. Therefore, Today I say, Just look what that effort has grown into. There is not another man in all of Norway that has reached as many human lives as Bro. Strommen has. He could have been like a lot of others and thought, Well there is just too much opposition, and too much discouragement, trying to follow a course like this. Instead of that, he took their abuse and continued on in the way God was leading him and allowed God to make something worthwhile come out of his dedication to truth. Well Bro. Jackson, that is a ministry, that is a preacher. Well we will put it on your own level. God never asked you to be a preacher. A young man can start out, God will invest in him a certain spiritual endowment. He may work in a factory somewhere: Here comes a bunch of fellows along the assembly line, pretty soon they find out you are a preacher, they begin to ask questions. Right there is your test: If you do not ask God for wisdom and allow Him to direct your answers, after awhile you will become aggravated at some of their ridiculous questions and blow your lid. The minute you start doing that, instead of growing in the grace and knowledge of God, you will be sliding backwards. Then they will be laughing at you, and once they know how to make you mad, they will never let up. Once they know how to tip you off balance, they will try their very best to keep you that way. In a situation like that, you are not growing in the grace of God, no matter what God has invested in you at a prior time. I have had many things told on me, but I made up my mind, that no matter what they call me, a dog or whatever, it does not matter, because after all, If you are one of them, you are the one that said it, not me. I have picked up men walking along the roadside, (This was years ago: I will think twice before I will pick one up today.) They would get in my car; and God had already delivered me from cigarettes, and they would take out a pack of cigarettes and light up one, not even thinking twice about it. Well I was never like a lot of people I know, saying, Hey, put that thing out, I don’t smoke in this car. I never did tell a man that. I did not have to: If you use wisdom and ask God to give you wisdom and grace, such a fellow may take two or three puffs, then ask, Do you smoke? No. Oh, I’m sorry! I have never had to say anything. On the other hand, if you start trying to show people how much you know, you will wind up not knowing anything, but if you will conduct yourself like someone who has something from God, God will never fail you. I hope what I am saying makes sense to you, because I am convinced God expects us to conduct ourselves in a way that is consistent with what we are trying to stand for, and what we stand for, is God’s truth and God’s ways. Using talents, was Jesus’ way of taking a natural setting and expressing a spiritual truth. He did not invest you with money, savings bonds, nor any of the natural things men trade with today, but there is an anointing, and there is the fruit of the Spirit, that He did invest us with, and that is what He expects us to be faithful with. The anointing and the fruit of the Spirit have to go together. If they do not go together, you will absolutely wind up a complete failure, no matter how much you have trembled, and jumped, and done everything you felt like doing. When you have done all of that and then come down to level ground, you have to show some patience, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness and all of that, in order for other people to want to be around you. They want to be around you because you are good company: not because of all the manifestations you experience. In your old life before becoming a Christian, you were hot headed, always ready to knock a block off of somebody, but now it is just the opposite of that: They can see the grace of God in your life. An awful lot of people can just go so far, they can just take so much pressure, then after they reach that point they begin to smite back, saying, I don’t have to take this, I don’t have to do this, I don’t have to do that. No, you do not have to, but when you do not you are not going to gain anything in your spiritual growth, because the Lord will just leave you to fight your battles. We must remember, these talents are not something that was distributed over here in the beginning of Christianity, and then He comes back, over here at the end to do the reckoning. No. They evolve from time to time and fit into every generation. I am going to go back a few years for an illustration. My wife and I were both raised up under the Methodist influence. In 1952, the Lord showed me one morning, (because I had a habit of reading some scripture before I went out to do any kind of work) when I read in the 1st chapter of Luke, how God sent the angel to Zechariah the priest, and told him that his wife, in her old age would have a son. The angel quoted parts of Malachi 4:5 to him. I saw how much that angel had quoted and something hit me, that the angel only quoted part of it. If those words were true, then that other part has to be fulfilled before the second coming of Christ. I closed the Bible and carried that in my heart for a long time, thinking, God will send that spirit of Elijah again. I did not know where, when, how, or what all would be involved, but I believed that much. Later on that year we met Bro. William Branham.

AFTER MEETING BROTHER BRANHAM

When we met Bro. William Branham, it was the beginning of a change in my life, as well as my wife. It was almost like we had been walking through a huge, dark woods that had no beautiful scenery in it, and then we came out into an opening and saw beauty all around us. You just enjoyed hearing that man talk. The first time I ever heard him preach, as I walked away going to my car, I said to myself, If any man is that man, he has got to be the one. He made Jesus of the Bible stand head and shoulders taller than any other preacher I had heard. At that time, I had heard a lot of these big name radio evangelists, but this little man, without an earthly education to his credit, preached in a way that I had never heard before: It was the way he exalted Jesus, the way he took the various settings and made them come alive to you, that caused me to say, He has got to be the man that fulfills that scripture. I also noticed as time went on, that he was a man that was kind. He was so comfortable to be around. I have to say, That is what the Christian life is all about. Whether it be the smallest person in the body of Christ, or the biggest preacher in the body of Christ, you just like to be around them. You like to talk with them because they like to share themselves. They are not just a lot of talk: They also like to listen to you tell your testimony. Your testimony can make them feel good many times. These things have all got to be mutual, when the entire picture is right. That is the way the Lord works within His body of believers. I will say this, We are actually a family. We are not just a nucleus of people being brought together by some man’s system: We are a family of believers. There is a noticeable kindred spirit in all of us. We speak the same language. Some speak Norwegian, others English, but when we get together, we have harmony, if we have to use sign language instead of words. By the time we get through rubbing elbows and shoulders together, you pretty well know what everyone is talking about. We all have a mutual feeling about what is going on. Yes Saints: it is very simple: We do not have to be highly educated in order to be a part of this sweet fellowship. I hope I have made these talents sound like something you can reach out to and find, because it is just a matter of being able to look at the simplicity of the entire picture. Jesus was using this way to illustrate faithfulness and dependability. I am going to use my own experience again, in illustrating this particular thing. Because I was privileged to sit under Bro. William Branham’s ministry from1952 until his passing, I do not want anyone to think that makes me feel like I know so much more than anyone else: I do not feel like that. I know what I know, because of the grace of God. All I really know, is, I heard what he said, I know when he said it; and I did not have to hear it twice to eventually learn what he meant by it. After hearing this man the first time, I began to realize I had heard something that was going to change my life. I was content to have a little congregation of people down here in New Albany, about thirty, in a little concrete block building. I was not anxious to hit the road and do a lot of traveling. However, after having the horse dream which some of you have heard many times, and when I told Bro. William Branham the dream on August 1, 1965, he said to me, Bro. Jackson, something is about to happen: When it does, you will have a work to do. It went on like that until God began to lead my wife and I a certain way. First, we went to North Carolina, but everywhere we went in 1965, 1966, and 1967, we were faced with that spirit of opposition. Bro. William Branham had made a church order, to try to correct some things that were going on in the Tabernacle at that time, and because I would not put it in effect in my own congregation, like other preachers across the nation were doing, many of them just turned thumbs down on me. Nevertheless I was convinced that he did not make that order for any other preacher or pastor to put it into their congregation: He made it strictly to correct the almost uncontrollable situation there at the Branham Tabernacle. After God led Bro Branham to deal with the Seven Church Ages in that series of messages in 1960, and then with the Seven Seals messages in March and April of 1963, gifts of the Spirit were beginning to operate in the meetings: I heard different young people from different parts of the country say, Oh I will be so glad when God puts a gift in me. You never heard such hunger in their talk, as we began to hear. Like a lot of other things though, as the gifts began to be manifested , there was such misuse of them, he was forced to put an order in place, to try and correct the misuse and bring things back into a balance. Then, here were these same individuals, that at one time were saying, Oh I will be so glad when God does something with me, all of a sudden we are hearing from them, We don’t need the gifts anymore. They just cut off every manifestation of any gift. Then they began to zero in on everyone else that had the idea that gifts are still for our day. God was in the process of cultivating, stimulating, bringing these things into activity, but because something was said and they did not understand it, yet they thought they did, they reached out and cut everything off. No, they did not defeat the purpose of God, but I will have to say, When they did that they killed the potential of some talents that could have grown and developed into something that would have made a lot of those people different than what they are today. No sooner did they take the negative side of thinking, did things get out of hand in another way: That is why I have said many times, If you take something someone says, and interpret it to the wrong end, you are already traveling on a derailing track. When you do not understand something that is spoken or taught, you do not know where to stop. One error leads to another; and the whole thing gets out of control. On and on you go, until after a while you are so far out from where God is dealing, you are left to your own devices. Before long, character becomes a distorted image. I realize there is the possibility that this tape could fall into the hands of some that I have in mind, so allow me to say this, I like people, I like being around people, but a know-it-all blabber mouth, especially when it is all negative, I would rather be around my horses, simply because they know their place and do not spend time contending with me. There are a lot of these know-it-all Branham followers today, that have never taken anything whatsoever and invested it the correct biblical way. They can say this, they can quote that, and they are ready to judge everyone who does not go along with them, and are always saying, We are in the message, we follow the prophet. Well I just want to say to all who are of this sort, You are on a one way rail heading for a wreck, because sooner or later, for the very fact that you have not cultivated any Christ-like nature, you are bound to reach the end of your allowance. Why would God want that kind of people to rule the world in the Millennium? No such thing is even found in the Bible, that rulership should be granted to anyone without a Christ-like nature. I am not saying that somewhere down the line God cannot be merciful to some of them, but I have to say, No such will be in the Bride. They might attain unto life as we have illustrated and shown on the red line on our chart, but none of those are bride saints. I hope all of you understand my point? It is not for me to personally say what will happen to them, but it is for me to say what the Bible says, so I will preach the truth and leave the rest to God. All through 1965, 1966, 1967, coming on into 1968, I heard so much negative talk all across this country, that in 1968 I reached the place that I was mentally tired. Nevertheless I wanted to go on and preach the truth, regardless of who set up against it. In 1967, we had built this building, but it was in 1968 I preached the message, “My Defense.” I had reached a place that I thought to myself, Oh God, what can I do? I cannot say anything without hearing a big fuss about it: There seems to be an element at every crossroads, standing there to warn everyone, He is not in the message. What made the difference, was, I could see the truth in the scriptures. I preached that message, “My Defense,” because in my heart I had made up my mind, From now on I am going to stay right here, mind my own business, and do what I feel like I am supposed to do, and that will be to preach what God gives me in my own confines.

DREAM

Brothers and Sisters: I just have to say, Be thankful for the grace of God, because He knows how to encourage you. I went to bed many nights thinking, I like people, but I don’t like for people to always be talking about me in a negative way. Well I went to bed on this particular night after that and had the dream I am going to tell now: I dreamed I was traveling on a super highway, about like the one that passes by our place here, but this highway went straight across country. I am sitting behind the wheel of my car driving. The car is headed west. It seemed like I had traveled for days, always on a westward course. After a while I began to overtake a car I had seen in the distance. I could see the silhouette of it. The car was black. As I got closer to this car, I began to wonder, Who could that be? When I did get close to the back, I could see the profile of the little man, William Branham. I thought, This is strange, he is dead, but here I am, following his car. I could see him looking at me through his rear view mirror. He was motioning like he wanted me to pass him. I thought, He is wanting me to pass. Then I thought, It wouldn’t look right for me to pass him, so I will fall in behind. Here I am then, just cruising along behind him, but he kept looking back, motioning, like, Go on, go on. All of a sudden it was like a big weight hit my foot and pressed the accelerator to the floor: My car began to accelerate forward, so I had to get out into the passing lane. I thought, What am I going to do? This don’t look right. My car was gaining speed. I am soon right beside him and he is looking at me, motioning, Go on, go on. I thought, Oh, this is terrible. As my car moved on up the road, I was looking back, and the last time I saw him, he was still motioning for me to go on. That is when I began to relax. It seemed like I kept traveling westward for two or three more days after that. Then I saw that the highway made a big turn. As it made that turn, now I am heading back east, and I drove for days, heading east. I could see myself come back through this part of the country, and finally, through the Blue Ridge mountains. Then I noticed a little car coming up behind me: (I know you have probably heard this dream on a tape. I am not saying anything, because I realize a lot of people have said things, trying to help bring this to fulfillment.) But that red car was driven by Billy Paul Branham. It fell right in behind me, then it fell back. As I traveled on east, I saw the highway began to lift from the earth. When it got so high, I could see the eastern coastline and I thought, Oh the end of the world is here. When I saw that coastline, and I was about to pass over that point, I looked and saw that little red car right on my bumper and he was yelling, Go on, go on, go on. I then woke up. Something came over me and I realized, I can’t stop, I don’t care what they say, I will preach the truth from now. That was in 1968. I soon had the privilege of going to Arkansas and Missouri. I was always meeting that same kind of negative opposition though, everywhere I would go, but something said, Go on! Then in August 1969, a little sister from Canada came down here to be in a convention we were having: She was here for the June meeting and said to me one night, Bro. Jackson, I represent a group of brothers and sisters in Canada. Will you come to Canada and preach for us? Well in August 1969, my wife and I were privileged to go there. Sitting in our midst was Bro. and Sis. Connally. I have to say, Through the years since 1969, which is thirty some years now, I have seen the ministry grow. I first had to reach the place that regardless of what the devil said through all those negative people, I had a job to do. It is you people that I have met, from Africa to the Philippines, that has made up for all our uneasiness in the past. The talent is only a ministry on my part, but I have stood for the gifts and I have seen it pay off. Nevertheless I do not really know what I would have to do, to stand here and explain to you what talents are. It is how you use that potential that God has given to you. You can either use it or ignore it. With whatever capability there is in you, and whatever potential you might have laying there in your life, it will always depend on whether you have a will to carry out what that potential requires. Do you have a determination to follow the leading of the Spirit of God? Do you have a desire that the fruit of the Spirit be manifested and cultivated in your life? If you are always short tempered, or if you become a person hard to get along with, and you are easy to get upset if somebody rubs you the wrong way, and you think, Well I don’t have to take this! Without the fruit of the Spirit, all other efforts are worthless. Why would Paul write to the Corinthians, saying, Though we speak with tongues of men and angels and have not love, thus and so? It is wonderful to be around where the gifts are in operation, but if you meet a bunch of smart aleck, know-it-all, hard to get along with kind of people, sooner or later it will turn you the other way. All of this together, is how God cultivates within us a Christ like nature, so that God can use us at His will. As for the man that went and hid his talent, how are we going to describe it? I am going to illustrate it like this, Let us just say, Here is a young man that was down on skid row before he came in here. The Holy Ghost gets hold of him and it isn’t long until he is up front crying. A little later he is laying on the floor under the power of God. After a while you are amazed at how the Holy Spirit begins to work in that young life, but listen carefully. A lot is determined upon something inside the person. Many times, such a person has no patience; and very little wisdom. The first time he faces a little opposition that person really begins to show himself or herself the wrong way. Pretty soon you begin to notice that the person little by little, begins to draw back. Where at one time there was enthusiasm and excitement, now you begin to see the smile fading from the countenance and irregular attendance of the services. In a few short months they are right back on the streets drifting. It has happened right here. Every one of them had a potential. I thank God, for allowing us to see the potential, but in my heart I have recognized what was up ahead for some of them. I have looked at some of those who went that way and thought to myself, That young person could have been sitting right here, along with the rest of these young people, but adverse circumstances just seemed to cause them to bury everything. Where are they today? They have hid the potential God allowed them to have, and now the cares of life, the pressures of responsibility, the bills to pay, the problems of life from day to day were just too much and the person was just swallowed up. If you say something to such a person you hear, Well, I tried it once, but I just couldn’t seem to make it work. Well I always have to look back to those that did make it work.

DOING THINGS THE RIGHT WAY

I am going to use the testimony of a black man I met several years ago. We are living in a modern age; and the average outlook is, We are going to make technicians out of everyone. No, you are never going to be able to do that. The Creator that created you, if you will look at yourself, you will find that He created you with a certain natural, human instinct. Back in the 1960’s, I was taking my father-in-law to the old Baptist hospital for cancer treatment: They removed his left kidney and were giving him radium treatments. One morning sitting in the lobby of the hospital, (It had hexagon shaped marble stones on the floor. The floor had been that way for years. I noticed that one stone was cracked.) I saw a black man which looked like he was in his 50’s, that had removed the original stone and put a new one in its place. He had a grinder, and was grinding the new one down and polishing it. I began talking with him and said, It looks like you are doing a wonderful work. His machine kept running, as he told me how he had learned this trade. He did not go to high school and college to learn how to lay marble stone. He got a job with a construction outfit and made the mortar for others and carried it to them. He watched the laborers as they laid the stone blocks and such, until he learned the details. Eventually he began to lay stone himself. He learned to lay stone, then brick, and then marble. He learned how to polish the marble after it was laid. He said, I have laid marble all over the United States. I have also laid marble in Europe. I just thought to myself, There, is a man that knew how to invest the potential the Lord endowed him with. Saints: I do not think like a lot of people today: I have to believe every person is born with a potential for something worthwhile, but it is up to each one to make something out of it. I could not help but admire his testimony. He came up the hard way, but by applying himself he had learned a profession through which he was known the world over for his work. He said his profession kept him very busy. In other words, once your profession is made known, it speaks for itself. Once your Christian calling, and your Christian life and character is known, your testimony is made known to others constantly: it speaks for itself. It pays off in many ways. People enjoy being around a person who applies himself doing something worthwhile. As for me, I could have said to myself years ago, It is just not worth all this pressure, to take the stand I have. Regardless of whether I had the dream or not, I could have said, No, I am just not going any more. I could have been sitting down there in Harrison county minding my own business all this time, but where would my testimony be? It would be nothing of any interest to anyone. Knowing that, I just want to say to all of you, If you miss it, it is not God’s fault. You have to look at it the right way, and with the right motive, in order to walk with God in what you are doing. It will take every bit of the energy you have, and every bit of the mentality you can muster up at times, but the rewards are worth it all. Sometimes you might feel like you are sliding in gravel, but if you can keep your wits together, by the grace of God, somewhere down the road He will lift you up again. He will cause your testimony to shine. The potential He put in you is none other than the talent or the ability to live a true Christian life, always conducting yourselves so that people like to be around you. If you are living that kind of life, you will always be hungry for more revelation, because revelation is fresh food that is filled with energy. It gives you excitement. It gives you joy. It is like eating a big, freshly grilled steak: It is not warmed over. Nor is it like soda crackers and water. It is something that keeps you motivated. As I look out over this congregation I have to realize, if I had not fulfilled what God gave me to do, I would not know most of you today. I would probably only know just my own family in Harrison County, and maybe a few local people. I feel like all of you should know by now, what I am talking about concerning talents, so I am going to take this thought on further and show you how and why, in this red line, these people that come up first right here, are the ones that die in this tribulation hour just ahead. They are the first, because they are what He judges these people who are going to live in the Millennium by. After that, all these others will come up, the fifth seal and all those others that have died down through here. I want to deal with all those in the red line. I see a soldier on a battle field: He was raised up in life the right way, but somehow he never thought he needed the grace of God in a personal relationship. Only the Lord knows how many times he had been talked to, but he did not pay attention. However lying somewhere on a battlefield, with a leg blown off and bleeding to death, he is crying out, O God, save me. His life slips out of his body, but that is not the end of the story: He wakes up in glory. The pain is gone, never to hurt again. He is in that great multitude: He did not live long enough to bear any fruit. He did not live long enough to invest any talents. He is like that man that hung on the cross beside Jesus and said, Lord, remember me. There are thousands in that red line for one reason or another. Down through time, some were martyred, even before they got a chance to start living for God. Some were beheaded, and some were burned at the stake: They died by the thousands; and they were believers, but their life as a Christian was very short in some cases. We just do not know what the Middle Ages were like. Those martyred saints of the situations we described are all in that red line. They have white robes given to them. I am going to take you to the battlefields of human suffering, and describe situations where people did not live long enough to know what a talent was, or to be invested with it. However regardless of whatever kind of death took them, they come up on the other side, thanking God they could wake up in the presence of the Lord. They are in heaven: That is the important thing to understand.

FURTHER EXPLANATION OF MARTYRED SAINTS

I hope everybody understands what we have already brought out in this message about the talents. There can be a question in people’s minds, like What about a person that has had a talent, but just haphazardly drifted along without investing it and the rapture takes place? I think if we will look at this message in a simple way, God is going to give mankind his last warning. They are going to have a chance to wake up and prove themselves, that they really do have something, or that they do not. When this thing in the Middle East does explode, all those out there that have been associated with the family of God, yet cares of life has caused them to stay away from the house of worship, and right now they just do not care about hearing anything from the word of God, will suddenly become very interested in coming to church. If there is any reality in them at all, they are not going to ask you, Should I come to church? They are going to run in here every time the doors are opened. I have been very concerned about this message, because, when I preached it a few services back, I said I would preach it again during the meetings, and I realized God would deal with me in a way, that I would have to construct everything into a precise picture that people can simply see and understand what is being dealt with. I came to church Thursday night, and then when I went to bed, I never slept. Along toward morning I dozed for about an hour. Somewhere around 6:30 I was wide awake and two scriptures were in my mind, and I could absolutely see the end picture. I have been asked, What about the great multitude John saw in chapter 7, starting in verse 9? The rapture has taken place right here, (Chart) and that is when John saw this multitude. He was asked the question, What are these? He told the elder, Sir, you know. The answer was, These are they that have come out of great tribulation. (Not THE GREAT tribulation that is still ahead.) Everybody thinks this is the only tribulation that has ever been. If you think that, then you do not know history. All the martyred people right on through time, are represented in the red line. Notice, they have all made their robes white in the blood of the lamb. It lets me know they are Gentile believers from all ages of time. We have assumed that everybody had to be in the Bride. You are not looking at the parables right, nor time, nor conditions. There has always been the kind that just want to drift along, hanging on the edge of the wagon. If nothing comes along to shake them, they just want to get in by the skin of their teeth. That kind of attitude is not going to put them in the bride. God is merciful though, so we have to leave their place up to Him. He knows where to put them.

SORTING BY CLUES

As for the great multitude of chapter 7, in the book of Revelation, I have been asked, Are these the foolish virgins of our century, that go into the great tribulation and are martyred? No, they are not. I used to think they were, all because of the white robes, but keep in mind, the Jews under the fifth seal, they have white robes also. This great multitude washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb, so they have white robes. Thursday morning when I awakened, in my mind I said, I have got to be able to prove to the people where the Gentile foolish virgins of this century appear. Going into the scriptures, (Revelation 15:1-3) they are now dead. They have been martyred. The tribulation is now coming to an end. The 144,000 have already preached their three messages. One, Get back to God, warning against the beast system, the mark and the number. Then they condemn the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore when chaos in Europe sets in, those foolish virgins are killed. You would think that they are put in that great multitude back there, but when these two passages of scripture came to me, and I could see the true picture, also of the Jews that are martyred with them. When we see in Revelation 15:1-3, that they were not with the great multitude standing before the throne, praising God, and they are not under the altar as the fifth seal Jews were, but rather, that they are standing on a sea of glass, that shows the separation. Those three positions in heaven give you the right to interpret where they are and at what time. Yes, they have the same quality of life, but they are the ones that suffered in this final hour of great tribulation. We also have a living element of mortal people that will be given longevity of life and pass right on into the Millennium to re-populate the earth, and if we are as close to this period of time as it looks like we are, there are many out there today that are going to pass right through this time and see all that takes place. That is why the 144,000 have to preach to them. It is not a gospel of salvation as we know it: But it is a message of respecting God and His laws, worship Him, and a warning not to worship the beast nor take his mark, which is to challenge them to get away from this antichrist, godless system. Then it condemns the Catholic Church because the Catholic Church is getting ready for judgment. Those mortals hear that. That does not mean they all will believe it, but it is the last good news they will ever hear and they will be separated accordingly. Therefore we have to look at it like this, When Christ has come with His Bride, (Revelation 19) He will execute the wrath of God on earth. Just think, the heavens can be on fire, and shall melt with fervent heat, and islands will sink away, and mountains will go tumbling into the sea, continental coastlines will disappear, then new land with rise in other places, tidal waves will come inland, take coastal cities and flush them into the ocean. Millions will be destroyed in a moment’s time. Volcanoes will erupt for hours on end, burying villages, contaminating crop lands and so forth, but God knows exactly when to cut it short. If He did not, there would be no flesh saved, including the animal kingdom. He knows exactly when to shut the current off. Gas wells will erupt. Natural gas lines will burst, flames will be leaping into the air. Where are the technicians who will put it out? God will have to put it out. I wish these environmentalists would realize, there is still a God who controls all of this. Let us take a look at this multitude now: I want to prove something to you. From the time of the onset of the Church, Christendom has gone through terrible periods of persecution, genocide. If it was not the Roman world, then in the seventh century when Mohammad came in and brought in his diabolical teachings, Christendom at that time, had already grown cold, and gone into apostasy. The fourth century in Egypt is now under a Catholic dogma. The great landmarks of Egyptian culture, the pyramids had been open for centuries of time. The corridors of this passageway into the pyramid Cheops, was marked with the many initials of countless tourists from the B.C. period, that had come to see these huge things. By the fourth century A.D., that spirit of Roman Catholicism had closed in. They had shut down the historical landmarks. Therefore from the fourth century, they were not opened again until the eighth century, by Mohammad the Great. They burned the libraries of Egypt. That is why there are no ancient writings of that culture today. They put together hypothetical stories from the remnants of other nations’ cultures and writings, those that were associated close by. The Catholic Church did that. They have done the truth of the Bible the same way, just changed it to fit into their rituals and creeds observed in what is supposed to be worship of God. When you examine Catholic dogma in the light of the scriptures, you will see why God condemns the entire system.

THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY AND THE FATE OF IT

At this time, I want to go back to the rise of Christianity and look at a few ways the Spirit of God led certain ones. We are all familiar with the account of the Jew from Ethiopia. He was a servant of the kings palace. He came to Jerusalem to worship the Lord at a certain feast time. Philip was told to go to the desert. God led him to a place where he met this eunuch coming along in a chariot. He heard the Eunuch reading from the book of Isaiah and asked him, Do you understand what you are reading? The Jew from Ethiopia said, How can I without someone helping me? Then he invited Philip to come up and sit with him in the chariot. The place of the scripture which he was reading was where Isaiah wrote, “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.” That gave Philip an opportunity to preach Jesus Christ to him as they rode along, so when they came to a certain place where there was water, the eunuch said to Philip, Here is water: what doth hinder me from being baptized? (Please keep in mind, this eunuch was a servant in the kings palace of Ethiopia. At that time the royal family of Ethiopia claimed to be descendants of King Solomon. When the queen of Sheba came to visit King Solomon, the story from the Ethiopian royal family was, he took her as a concubine wife. She conceived, and bore a son. This began the genealogy of Halle Salasse who was killed in the closing of the 1950’s, or l960’s, I do not remember exactly when it was.) Philip took the eunuch down into the water and baptized him and he went on his way rejoicing. The Spirit of God caught Philip away and led him on a missionary tour which ended at Caesarea. Let me further explain about Ethiopia. The Communistic spirit rose up in Ethiopia. They tracked down every member of that royal family, because Ethiopia, all through the Grace Age period, had remained to be Christian in belief. Halle Salasse claimed that. He came to America saying that, but when the Communistic spirit rose up, again it was a situation of genicide, and that is why Ethiopia today, has joined the ranks of the Communist world. By the time we come to the third century, all over the known biblical world, the gospel had gone forth, from Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya, Tunesia, Algiers, Morocco, so that in all of these, the people had been led into Christianity. Also Syria, and even to the borders of Iraq. It was Paul, who taught the gospel in the country called Turkey, which was called Asia at that time. From there, it went into the regions of Bohemia, Yugoslavia and Greece. So by the closing of the third century, Christendom had covered the whole ancient Middle East. Yes, through that period of time there was martyrdom. Even the Jews killed Christian Jews. Stephen was the first. The apostle James was taken up on the pinnacle of a temple and thrown off. When we come to the seventh century and Mohammad was born, he later in life introduced teachings that were contrary to Christianity into the Arab world. By the time we come to the eighth century A.D., out of Saudi Arabia comes a man by the name of Mohammad the Great, the most blood thirsty, ruthless instrument that ever walked on the face of the earth. He came out of Saudi Arabia, and as he entered Egypt, he said, I will put every Christian to death. By God’s grace and mercy a few were protected, but church houses were ripped to pieces, or the beautiful ones were changed into prayer places, called mosque’s in the Islamic religion. From that period on, across North Africa, through the decades that followed, one by one those Christian communities became ravaged by this invasion of the Islamic spirit. By the time we reach Morocco, all of north Africa had been rid of the Christian faith and influence. Most of you know the history: they were called “The Moors,”and when they decided to invade Spain, they crossed the straits of Gibraltar, invading southern Spain. They succeeded. They not only got a foothold, it looked like they were going to swallow up Spain completely, but out of France and northern Spain, these people were very friendly and cooperated. They were able to set up a defense and keep the moors in the southern regions of Spain. That is why the ancient capital was in Toledo. I have been there. After the great conflict was over, they had ravaged every place they had been and genicide ran rampant. Their objective was to get rid of this Christian faith. Do not ever think they did not do a good job of it. That is exactly why, outside of about ten percent of the Egyptian population, that are still referred to today as Christians, the rest are Islamic. When you go to Libya, you find no Christians. Tunesia, Algiers, Morocco, are all Islamic. Then there seemed to be an arm of this move toward the Holy Land and into Syria. They desecrated churches. Some of the church buildings of that hour were beautifully constructed. The Islamic invasion was on. It never stopped. They swept into the Holy Land, into the regions of Turkey. All this began to build up a picture. What do we see around the tenth century, out of Europe? The pope gets the idea, We need to liberate the Holy Land, so volunteer families, scattered all over Europe took part, and there were three thrusts of the Crusaders. I do not have the time to tell you the whole history, but as they made their route around through land, by Turkey, and then into northern Syria, they fought the Islamic defense systems. Eventually they gained a foothold in the Holy Land, in Jerusalem. They drove many Muslims back into the other territories. For over a hundred years, the Catholic religion, under the Crusaders of Europe, made a very strong foothold. They rebuilt Caesarea. They rebuilt many places in Jerusalem. That is when a lot of the churches that had been built in the first, second, and third centuries, were re-dedicated and renovated and such. For over a hundred years, the Crusaders controlled the land, but after that, the Islamic faith began to rise up with greater enlistments. When they did, they had the last conflict: They drove the Crusaders out at a great cost. From there on, the Islamic arm began to reach eastward. It went into India, across Burma, and on into the Orients. Wherever it went, wherever there were Christian colonies, off goes the head of many. Hundreds and thousands of Gentile Christians, in all walks and levels of life, were beheaded. I saw one artist’ picture, in one of the ancient cities of the middle east, where that army came into the city, rounded up the people, beheaded them and stacked their heads in the middle of the street. I say that today, only to give you a little picture to look at: God remembers every bit of that. We have these educated people today that say, What we need to do is forget the past. Well you might, but I assure you, God has not forgotten. He will avenge the blood shed by every one of those that were martyred.

JOHN SAW A GREAT MULTITUDE

After having given you a little history of some things that have transpired through the grace age period, I believe you can better understand where some of that great multitude John wrote about in Revelation 7:9 came from: He wrote, “After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes.” When John was shown that great multitude he was asked, Who are these? (That is how they look right now.) All of the believers martyred in those conflicts are represented in that red line on our chart. The Church has already been raptured, when this scene is a reality. The Church, are all those people that make up the Bride, and they are clothed in fine linen, clean and white, as we see in Revelation, chapter 19. Yes, many of them came out of the same generations of the people that are in the red line, but we have to leave all of that up to God, He knows who to put in the red line and who to put in the blue line. You and I have not a theological right to determine where Uncle John goes. Well my brother-in-law is a good man, he has a good spirit. I have heard that so much, as though we are the ones going to do the deciding. We are not. God is the one that has determined who goes where. He knows the standards each one is to be judged by. Therefore knowing that He makes no mistakes, let us learn to be grateful, believing that God has put a lot of our loved ones that are already gone on, at least in the red line, so that they will have life. He knows who goes where. As I said, I have not time enough to take you through each chapter in history, but hundreds of thousands of people through the first thousand years of Christendom, suffered and died, if not by the pagan, Roman state, or by the Roman Church in Europe, they were executed by the Muslims, in the Middle East and the Bible lands. All through that period, blood was spilled, heads were lobbed off, and bodies ripped apart. As I said earlier, a lot of people cannot see, that under the fifth seal there were any Jews that would come from as far back as the Spanish Inquisition, because it was not part of that tribulation. You would have to know what the Spanish Inquisition consisted of, in order to understand. After we were first married, my wife and I lived in a house not far from where we live now, and the people that owned the property had left an old history book in a large bookcase in the living room. (The two men that owned the house were Masons.) Most of you know what a Mason is? He has studied Catholicism. A Mason in Protestantism, is the same as a Knights of Columbus in the Catholic Church. You would have to read the oath of the Masons to understand. Well, this book tells about the Spanish Inquisition. It lasted over a hundred years. It was executed by the power of the Catholic Church. Though those eras of time, the Catholic Church was a blood thirsty system. They entertained throngs of spectators in the arenas back then. They would use anyone that dared to protest the hierarchy or traditions of the church: they would bring them in for special occasions. There were times, when they were put on the torture table and tied there. (I have my doubts you would find this in a history book in libraries today, that would deal with these atrocities.) They would also take men and cut their body open from the rectum, sharpen a post, like a fence post, start it up into the body and pull the body down over the post, then set it up in a hole, out in the sun, for everybody to look at while that poor body twitched and agonized, and a few hours later, died. They would also take the women and cut their body openings, and pull them down over the same kind of stakes and set them up as a public display. All this was done to put a fear in the population. They took other women that were pregnant, cut their stomach’s open, took out the unborn infant and feed it to hogs. That is why I say, Do not tell me those people did not die in great tribulation. Death to one group can be just as torturous and diabolical as another. I will say this, In Hitler’s holocaust, many of those Jews were skinned alive, then they took those human skins and made lampshades. I would have to say that the poor Jew lying there and being skinned alive, except for the grace of God, suffered as much as anyone anywhere. At least those that were led to the gas chambers, just a few breaths of that and they are gone. There was not the prolonged suffering like many of these others had to face. All over the Middle East, as time came on, untold numbers of people were tortured and butchered. Many times used to entertain spectators. God remembers every bit of it. That great multitude is a collection of their spirits. John was allowed to look at them. There was not a Jew in that bunch: they came out of every nation, every tongue and race. Any Jew that was assassinated or done away with, here is where he was. (Pointing to 5th seal on chart) There is a reason for him being under the fifth seal. There is a reason for God giving Bro. William Branham the interpretation of that also. I have to say, Bride of Christ, had that revelation not come in 1963, when the seals were preached, we would still be projecting our ideas. They were given white robes in heaven, because they had a testimony, and that was of the Word of God. That is why they were seen under the altar. The altar is relative to the Old Testament method of worship. They did not go into the temple to worship Jehovah. They stood in the outer court. There is where the great altar of sacrifice was. They watched as animals were slain and placed upon the altar in observance of certain occasions. They could see the lay priests doing the slaughtering work. Only the high priest went into the temple building, into the holy of holies. That is why those Jewish souls were seen under an altar in heaven. That speaks of the law they came from. This great multitude that represents all those that have been beheaded, tortured by different means and so forth, were seen standing before the throne, because they knew their salvation was not under the Law. They knew it came through the work on the cross of Calvary, by the One who is now the immortal Christ, the One who is positioned on the throne, for God Himself has invested Himself in the person of His Son. Therefore this great multitude knows how to stand before the throne and worship the Lord and His Lamb. They are made up of the generations through time. Then there are still yet those of our century, of our generation, that are still out there today. We are close to the beginning of the seventieth week of Daniel. We are not far away from the time of another great slaughter. Situations as they are in the Middle East, to me, is God’s way of putting the children of Israel in a position for what is ahead. We are getting ready to watch one of the greatest shows that has ever been demonstrated on the face of this earth. God is the director. If you want to see the play, it is all written in the scriptures. He is positioning the actors. These are not imitators: they are participators. They are going to fulfill the word of God to the letter. God is directing the scene, the setting, and everything that is written, and every concerned party will play his part. Some by submitting to death, and others who will eventually sell themselves out to the devil. As for my last comments about this multitude, I have to say, How many of them had been tortured? I remember Demas Shekarian (spelling?) telling years ago, back in the 1950’s and 1960’s, (He was known as one of the big shots of the Full Gospel Businessmen in California.) when Bro. William Branham was in a meeting in Alabama and Demas Shekarian was there, of something that happened years ago. I heard him tell this testimony. He was an Armenian. Just before the turn of the century there was a Holy Ghost revival among the Christians in Armenia. In that period of time, there was a little fourteen year old boy, that the Holy Ghost came upon and he was under this anointing for several hours. He saw vision, after vision, after vision. He kept writing them. Finally he drew some maps. When the anointing lifted off the little boy, they began to read what he had written, and it told that the time would come, when Armenia would be invaded and the Christians slaughtered, giving the Christians that had read this, a chance to flee the land. The people were told to journey across Europe from eastern Europe to the west coast of Europe, and there they would board ships and make their way to the new world. Upon landing in the new world, they were told to eventually work their way westward and settle in the western part of this new world country. All that was done. I understand Demas Shekarian was born in California. His mother told him how, when the Muslims came in to do away with the Christian people in that area of Armenia, she was in a group that had been forced out into the street. They had huddled together in the street praying, like many of the other groups had done. The Muslims rode along, and with their swords they were cutting, slashing and trampling them under the horses’ feet. His mother told him later, We were kneeling in the street with our heads bowed, praying, when the Muslim troops came on horseback. The leader of the troops got off his horse and walked around them. He looked at his men and said, Leave them alone. He got on his horse and rode away. That group of Christians, when they knew they were spared, also knew by the prophecy that had been given to the little boy, they were to believe it and put it into practice. They made their way to California. Demas Shekarian was a young boy when the Holy Ghost fell at the turn of the century. In the Jewish history, I have read a story, that there was a large colony of Jews in Egypt. For some reason the leader of Egypt at that time, took the idea he would get rid of all these Jews: They were arrested and confined. He advertised, that on a certain day he would put on a big show. He would bring all these Jewish people into the arena, and there he would turn wild elephants loose on them. All the Egyptians are in the bleachers waiting: It was a packed arena. The Egyptian herdsmen were driving the herd of wild elephants. As the elephants entered the arena, instead of them looking at those Jews tied there, for some reason one of the big male elephants let out a big roar and looked at all those spectators; and then he went right through the retaining fence. Those elephants went wild, screaming, roaring, and through the fence they went, trampling and picking people up and throwing them. When it was done, God had done the slaughtering. He used the animal kingdom. I remember a little book I have, on Rome. Several years ago two men went to Rome: They wanted to study some of the torture methods that had been used. It tells in this little book, that there came a day when a certain element of Jews were going to be brought into the arena and tied there. They were going to turn some wild animals loose. They were going to turn a bear and a cougar into the arena. Here stands Jewish families tied, with little children. When they turned the bear loose, he came into the arena, but he stopped and looked around. Then, here came the cougar. Instead of the bear going after the people, he was hungry, so was the cougar, the bear stood before that cougar and smacked it down. The cougar ran back into the tunnel. I say those things because we need to realize God still controls the nature of animals. He can use them any time He has a reason to. He has the whole world in His hands. We are yet to see what He will do. Those people in that great multitude John was permitted to see, were not out of our century: They were out of the centuries leading up to this one. That is why those Jews killed in Hitler’s holocaust, was the great number. That was the number that would cause God to give identity as to who they were. The point is, the interpretation had to be given, and you had to see Hitler’s holocaust, because that brought you within eighteen years of 1963. Therefore when we got that revelation, that let us know, if from that time, for them to be quiet until a few more of their brethren and fellow servants were to be killed in like manner, they were told to rest a little season. Now if the complete interpretation had been pointing them back to the many killed in the Spanish Inquisition, it would not have been as shocking, but the fact it had them in the forefront, that lets you know, behind them and on down through the Spanish Inquisition, all the way into the second century, everywhere the Romans would execute Christians by the multitudes, there always seemed to be an element of Jews brought into the same crowds. I have to say, out of those same years of time, there were many Christians that had lived a life of a few years: They had lived faithfully, doing everything they knew to do to live a life of respect for God and to exemplify Christ. God is looking at the person all the time, from birth to death, while there are others in the same era of time, just taking life easy, never concerned about what God might require of them. We just have to leave the judgment up to the Lord. He knows exactly what category to put each one in. All through these eras of time when there have been wars between nations, out of these European nations have come young men that belonged to Christian families. Young men on both sides of the conflict were injured, lying on fields of battle, torn to pieces. Think of those that lived in the Dark Ages, a time when they used horse drawn chariots. Those chariots were heavy. The wheels were solid. Hanging under the axles were long knife blades. In the center, if this chariot was pulled by four horses, there was a cross arm in front. Under that, was hooks. On the end of the cross arm were little spears. Four charging horses were driving this monster. Out on each side were large knife blades. If you happened to fall in the pathway of it, something would get you. Something would hook and drag you until it has cut you into a thousand pieces. If you were standing up and they charge and hit you, you are going to be hooked by one of those things. You will hang there until your clothes are ripped off and you drop under their feet, then you are caught by knife blades as the chariot drives over you. Imagine a young man laying on the battle field, bleeding. He knows enough about the grace of God that he says, Lord, I am dying, have mercy on me. Now let God be the final judge. If Jesus that day, hanging there on the cross where He died, to make this era of grace available to you and me, so we could inherited eternal life through what He did, and there beside Him hung a Jew on another cross, one that had been a robber, could say to him, Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise, what can we say? Will we judge others, not even knowing what God knows about them? That man had never thought too much about the future, but there he was facing death. All the one robber could do was curse. Then when he belittled the other, Why don’t you say something? What he said was, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Both are hanging on the cross beside Jesus. I can see Jesus as he slowly moves his head, “This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.” God is a God of mercy. The mercy of the Lord endureth forever, so we must let God put in that red line what He wants there from every century of time. The bride comes up here, and the white robed come up here (see chart). The bride is raised here and the marriage is in heaven. While John was looking at the great multitude here, those in the red line, John saw the bride in heaven, (19th chapter). She is dressed in fine linen, clean and white: she is in glorified bodies because she has already been taken up. There was rejoicing in heaven. I have to say, Saints, I want to be in that living element with that Bride of Christ. I have to believe that is why God is allowing us to get a clear picture of this, as time is getting ready to close out. I want to look at it right: I used to think, Well that had to be all the tribulation saints, including the foolish virgins, but they all have their allotted place: Those foolish virgins that are martyred in this final hour of great tribulation are standing on a sea of glass. They are not in that multitude. There is a reason they have to be standing on that sea of glass. When I went to bed Thursday night, I rolled and tossed: These scriptures were going through my mind. I said, There has to be an answer that is perfect. There has to be a picture that is conclusive. I lay there, and these scriptures just kept going over in my mind. I may have dozed for about an hour, but I came awake with these scriptures, Revelation 15:1-3. It all started, when the woman, along with the 144,000 that had been sealed away by the ministry of the prophets, when the antichrist enters Israel and kills the two prophets, that was the cue, the 144,000 are gone. Where are they going? They are going to the various Gentile nations to preach the everlasting gospel. It is not a gospel of salvation. It is a gospel on how to escape the wrath of God because they are going to be spared mortally. As the 144,000 do that through this period, there is a place the prophets had told the woman element about, ( which is the rest of that believing, Jewish society, old and young) a place where she would be hidden away and cared for. They are still mortal. Why must they hide? Because that is an element of Jewish, mortal flesh that God will preserve to repopulate the nation of Israel in the Millennium. In the middle of the week, the antichrist kills the two prophets, and the believing Jews flee to a place of safety. The antichrist is no longer that baby kissing pope: he is now a Satanist. He has the power to kill the two prophets, the men of God that have been prophesying in the streets of Israel for 3 ½ years. He wants to show he is boss. He brings in the European police force, not NATO’s police force, but the European police force. They will tromp Jerusalem under their feet for that three and one half years. They will not be able to harm the woman element of the Jewish society though, because she will be gone. The political Jew will sell out to the devil, but there are still Jews scattered out there, and there are still foolish virgins, so the idea is to stamp the name of Christianity from the face of this earth. That is why the 19th chapter of Revelation shows the false prophet and the beast system and the kings of the earth in the final conquest, gathered somewhere, and they are getting ready to make war against Him that is coming from heaven on a white horse; and His Bride is coming with Him on white horses. Only a fool would do such a stupid thing. Their minds have been programmed to it, so they have to think like that. It will not matter how many laser beams and this or that, that they may have, here comes an army of immortal saints with swords ready to execute wrath. Those tribulation saints have been martyred and they are seen standing on a sea of glass, while the Jews are under that altar, and the great multitude of chapter 7, are before the throne. Heaven is a big place. There is plenty of room up there. It is not crowded. These three positions have a definite meaning in the total setting of the scriptures. I will say this, By the time the beast has killed these people, time on earth is running out. The 144,000 servants of God will have delivered their message, and it will have had its effect. Bro. Jackson: will the 144,000 be killed? No. The woman flees, and they are not killed either. Jesus is seen coming back to earth with His Bride. Please do not ask me why the 144,000 are not killed? You must think God is some helpless little kitten. He can do anything He wants to. If people can be held in hiding in Europe, during Hitler’s hour, and come out later, this setting is a lot bigger than that, but God is in control. God has to keep alive a certain element of every race and that is why that 144,000 has to carry their message to the nations. Everyone out there, still alive in that era, are going to hear something. That is not to say they all believe it, but some will. After Jesus has executed His wrath, cities are demolished and made ruins. Millions have been slaughtered in the wrath of God, but there is still going to be a small remnant of people from all nations left alive to repopulate the earth. Finally, when Jesus has things settled down, the Bride takes her position over the nations out of which she came. That is why it is pictured in the twentieth chapter like it is, “And I saw thrones, plural, and they sat on them,” Who is they? That is His wife. That is His Queen. They are going to sit on those thrones. One translation says, and authority is given unto them, that they should have the right to execute and pass sentence. When I woke up Friday morning, with that 15th chapter and those three verses on my mind, I could see this tribulation, the foolish virgins, and the spiritual Jews. Let me describe them: John saw a great marvel in heaven. There was a sea of glass. What do you make glass out of? Sand. You melt it through fires. All of that speaks of the dark tribulation hour they had just been martyred in. That was the time factor, but on that sea of glass mingled with fire, still leaping and burning, John saw one element of them singing the song of Moses. Only a Jew can sing that. The others were singing the song of the Lamb. Only Gentile virgins can sing that. Well Jesus is now on earth, the smoke is dying down, all the volcanoes have stopped erupting, and in places of the earth it looks like a junk yard. It looks like a terrible fire has taken place. Out of the forests and jungles, here and there, a remnant of mortal people begin to creep and crawl, coming to the surface. The last part of the 25th chapter of Matthew, is now ready to be fulfilled. It says this, Mat 25:31 “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of his glory: Mat 25:32 And before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.” That is the mortal subjects that are left alive after all other judgments are over. They have made it through the great tribulation and the wrath of God. Of course He knows exactly who the sheep are. He will not have to go around asking questions: He knows them. He will separate the sheep, putting them on His right hand, and out of the same society, He separates the goats and puts them on His left hand. Then He will start judging His national subjects that are going to live in that glorious Millennium reign of a thousand years. Here stands the sheep on one hand. They are mortal. They have survived this terrible hour. Here also, are the goat like people. They have survived it as well. When that separation is made, He then starts the operation of resurrection. “And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.” That takes them off the sea of glass and brings them to earth, and they are put in resurrected bodies. Then He spoke like this, to the sheep, I was hungry, you fed me. I was naked, you clothed me. I was sick, you visited me. Whatever the need was that He mentioned, they had ministered to it out of humility and honesty. They are mortal. They reply, When saw we thee like this? Some people like to brag about what they have done, but they did not. He answered them, “Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” There stands all those resurrected, tribulation saints, Jews and Gentiles, from the very hour you and I are living in, so He has a counterpart to judge them by, those who have witnessed the behavior and actions of all these mortals. It is not their faith that merits longevity of life, it is their works of principals, morality and social behavior. He says to the sheep, Inherit the kingdom that was prepared for thee from the foundation of the world. The Millennium is ahead. Then He turns to the goats. I was hungry, you didn’t feed me. I was naked, you didn’t clothe me. I was in prison, you didn’t visit me. He describes all the same needs and says, You never paid any attention: You didn’t care. Well they begin to ask, When saw we you like that? Do you see them? There is the resurrected glorified tribulation and Jewish saints, and they can all testify of their deeds. You might hear, I remember him: he cared only for himself. It is going to be a just judgment. When I woke up that morning I could see those people, so I said, This proves it. Those on the sea of glass were not in the great multitude of chapter 7. All of those were from other centuries, other generations, other eras of time. Let us go ahead and finish that resurrection. After those seen on the sea of glass, next comes the different generations from the red line, white robed saints, from the different hours of time, all those in the fifth seal, and all those of that great multitude. Yes, generation after generation, they will come and stand in their lot. When it is completed, John finishes his writing like this, Blessed and holy is he that hath part, (or a place) in the first resurrection: On such, the second death hath no power. You will die one time in this line (chart) but over here at the end of that, you will be resurrected. That concludes then, Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection. Here, was the beginning of it, back here in Matthew 27:51-53, and Paul confirmed it in Ephesians 4. Here, is Paul’s revelation, and here is where the Bride goes up, but what passage of scripture is Jesus going to read in that resurrection? He is already on earth, because He has the power to say, Come forth! Now I know some may say, Bro. Jackson, you have made us believe for a long time, that the foolish virgins were in that great multitude. Yes, that is the way it looked, because of the white robes they were given, but do not get uneasy: Daniel 12 said things like this, And in that day, there will be a time of trouble such as there never was before and never shall be hereafter. And in that day Michael will stand up. (I have to say, he is standing in heaven today.) And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth will come forth, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and damnation. It sounds like a general resurrection, doesn’t it. What did Jesus say in St. John 5? Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall come forth. That sounds like a general resurrection when you put the two together, doesn’t it That is why today the Jews believe there is a general resurrection. It is not a general resurrection. It took the apostle Paul to divide the two resurrections, along with what John wrote in the book of Revelation, first the righteous and at the great white throne, the wicked and ungodly, and by a careful comparison of the scriptures, we know that there are three phases of the first resurrection. Some came up when Jesus was resurrected, the bride goes up somewhere around the beginning of the seventieth week of Daniel, and all the rest of the righteous at the end of the week. That completes the first resurrection. All of these are resurrected to life, but in their categories: The bride is the highest. Then there is a thousand years between the finishing of the first resurrection and the second one, which takes place over here at the end of the Millennium: The last one has no life at all, because they are all cast alive into the lake of fire. There are times when we want to do our best to try to help people: I remember, in 1955, Bro. William Branham was going to start a series of meetings on the book of Revelation. He preached on Monday night, he preached on Tuesday night. He started in the 1st chapter. At that time, he talked about seeing Him that was girt about the paps and he said, That is the Church. Then in 1960, when he preached the Church Ages it changed the picture. Do you understand my point? Let us look at the apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians, when he is explaining marriage and divorce. At that time, he said to young people, Because of the shortness of time, it is better that the young girls not marry, and the young boys not marry. He explained why he said it. But in 66 A.D. he wrote to Timothy, I would therefore that young women marry and bear children. There are times that God is not going to drop a full picture to you and let you play with it. He is going to give you just so much, and He wants you to cherish that. Regardless of how much looks like it is not there, leave it alone. Take what you have and cherish it. Pray about it. Walk with God. I promise you, when you prove yourself, that you will not play with this and speculate, further on down the road He will put the picture together for you. You can rejoice in His goodness.

HOW GOD CHANGES ATTITUDES

There is something I want to go into right now, because we are standing close to a drastic change: There is not much time left between where we are now and the beginning of this great event that is just ahead. The scenes in the Middle East let us know God is slowly letting His actors begin to move into their positions. This present conflict is causing the younger Jews, the educated ones to begin to re-analyze their mental attitude. I have read the Jerusalem Post, how college professors are teaching the Jewish people in Israel, we do not need this biblical state of Israel. What we need to do is change our attitude and motives and learn to be nonviolent, to co-exist with the Palestinians. Let them have the state, we will just live in peace with them. That is what they are teaching in Hebrew colleges. That is why Barak thinks the same thing. He has tried to prove he wants to be like these western politicians. It is a historical fact, that the children of Israel have always suffered more at the hand of their own leaders. Their own leaders sell out to a dictatorial power for strictly social and political reasons and the constituents suffer the consequences. With that in mind please remember, God is allowing this, because now, in the independent news sources, are coming the testimonies of Jewish citizens, and Jewish religious leaders are saying, I have changed my mind: I live beside some Palestinians, and I thought they were good neighbors, my friends, but I realize now, that we cannot co-exist, because they are actually my enemies. It takes so much of this for God to change the mentality of the Jewish people. He is getting them ready to play their part. I have to say, That part was characterized some 3400 years ago at Jericho. There was a type set in motion there. They were a natural people that had survived forty years in the desert. They knew what it was to eat quail meat at night and heavenly manna at morning. No matter where they made camp, it wasn’t just trickles of water, there were pools of water running for their cattle to drink, their sheep to drink, as well as plenty for all of them. There was always water, because that rock went wherever they went. They did not come over here to camp, and then have to go back fifty miles to where the rock was: It was always in their camp. Now they have crossed Jordan. The water is heaped up. That bunch of Canaanites were the most armed, cultured class there was in the whole land of Canaan. The largest city, the biggest bulwark of armament, walls and battle towers. I can just see the soldiers on guard, walking the top of the walls. All night long, Hey watchman, how does it look in your direction? It is O.K. over here. The next morning, as the sun was coming up, it was a different story. As they looked out toward the Jordan River, just about two miles away, Hey! Look across the river! Here came the front ranks of this people that had been wandering for forty years. They have heard about them, but here they are coming into their view. They crossed when the Jordan was at high banks. The snow waters in Mt. Hebron were melting and flowing down, but God made the waters stand in a heap while they crossed. When that word reached the camp at Jericho, fear gripped their hearts. When the two spies went in and asked Rahab, How did you all feel when you looked out and saw us? She said, Our hearts did melt within us. I read this morning, Jericho was shut up, nobody went out, and they weren’t going to let anyone come in. Then God told the leadership after they had all got across, now you will take seven priests and with the ark of the covenant, each priest will carry a trumpet of a ram’s horn. You will go before the people. The armed men will follow. The first day you will go around one time and the priest will sound the horn, then go back. It looks silly. The guards on the wall were as nervous as could be, but when they all went back to camp you could have probably heard, Hey Joe, what do you think they are up to? It is hard to tell right now. I imagine there was a lot of conversation going on, speculation as to what kind of battle tactics those people were exercising. They had defense problems, because they did not know what to expect. The next day, here came that same bunch again and around the walls they went. Their instructions were, ”Go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. Josh 6:4 And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams’ horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. Josh 6:5 And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.” They blew the horns. Seven priests, seven trips around, all signifying seven Gentile Church Ages, and seven Gentile messengers. Each message was a trumpet to his particular hour of time in the Gentile world. Paul, a Jew, was one. Iraneas was another. St. Martin of the Pergamos church, Colombo was the Dark Ages, Luther of the Sardis age. I realize the Jews today, think it could not be, but I say to the Messianic Jews as they hear this, Remember my friends, he was not a messenger to the Jewish people: He was a messenger to the Gentiles, because he was a Gentile. Regardless of his attitude about the Jews, keep in mind, practically every priest in his hour was anti-Semetic, because that has been taught to them by the power of that mother church. Luther was the quality of man it took, to resist the power of that Catholic Church, to restore a faith in individual people. For hundreds of years they were taught, there is no salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church. But when Martin Luther was anointed by God, he said, Salvation is by faith: By grace you are saved and not by your works. By faith only, are we saved. Then we come to John Wesley. Then we come to the Laodicean Age, and God called a man by the name of William Marrion Branham and anointed him to fulfill the office of messenger to this age. I realize the Jewish people have been told all kinds of lies about this man, but I sat under his ministry and can testify to you, He was not a fake. He was not out here trying to see how much money he could collect from the people who came to hear him. He had love and compassion for people, especially those who had been held in spiritual captivity all their life. Let us go back to Jericho, the largest fortified, Gentile city there was in all of Canaan land, and God was going to prove to His people, you will conquer it, not because you have sharper swords, but because my power is going to work with you. I have to say, the type we have just read here, is getting ready to be set again in the Middle East, because we are the generation that has heard the restored message of the gospel, the message of all seven messengers. The third day was the same thing. The fourth day was the same thing, one time around. Each time was a message going around the Gentile world. The fifth day, the same thing. Now those guards are saying, They must be crazy. That is what the political world thinks about believers today. That bunch of Jews came back over there fifty years ago, and now they think they ought to have their way about everything. We are not going to let them have that land. They are going to learn to coexist, or they will have to leave. Oh! We will soon see who leaves. Sure the political Jew, and the intellectual Jew, yes, we will agree to that: We will say yes, and co-exist with them: We see no problem with an agreement like that. Maybe not, but God does. On the walls of Jericho, all the soldiers are now beginning to twiddle their fingers, getting sleepy, thinking, Oh, it is the same old bunch, why get excited? That is what the politicians are saying today. Oh that bunch of Jews, they are always causing trouble: why don’t they get try to get along with the Palestinians? Think of Jericho, and what happened the seventh day. We are right at the ending of the Seventh Church Age. Each messenger delivered his message, and his message has been re-confirmed. It has been sounded. Brothers, I have to say, We are the priests that are carrying this around the world of political and military opposition. That seventh day, they went around one time. Everything was like it was yesterday. But when they got around on the back side, they didn’t go back to camp. They started around again. Now one watchman is saying to another, Hey, I wonder what they are up to now? I don’t know. He gets his sword out. My sword is good and sharp, my spear is O.K. The seventh trip around, this is the age we are living in. Thank God we have had Paul’s message, we have had Iraneas’, all of them put fragments of the gospel of Christ back together into one gospel, while God has been bringing Israel back out of all the nations she had been scattered into, and at a time when the Gentile world is at its high peak of technology, laser weaponry and atomic energy, with enough weapons to kill many times over. How can the world think that they can put Israel in a quart jar and keep her there? Now these priest are blowing the horns. Three times, four times, five times. The watchmen are getting nervous. I don’t know what to think now! The sixth time. Hey, tell me if you see anything happening over there! The seventh time around, in the heart of every Israelite, he knew exactly what was about to happen. When they made that complete circumference, they all turned and looked at the wall, Hallelujah! Boom, the walls came tumbling down. Now go on in. Kill everything. I tell you saints, There is going to be a war in the Middle East very soon now. It is a war God has planned, to re-instate His people of Israel to what they have been robbed of. You read the 137th Psalm, the sixth century B.C. when those Jews had been carried away by the Babylonian army, here they are out along the river Euphrates, they are cutting weeds, they are servants of the Babylonians, they are cleaning things up for these Babylonians. I can see an old Babylonian soldier, Hey, you Jews, sing us a song of Zion. No sooner did he say that, some poor Jew, with his head hanging down and tears streaming from his eyes, answered, How can we sing the songs of Zion in a strange land? Oh Lord, remember Jerusalem, remember Edom in the day of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem is on the international table of negotiation. Zechariah 12, is hanging right before the Gentile world. In that day, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling. When all those heads of state met last week in Cairo, they were all there passing the cup of negotiation. They all condemned Israel. The lady in Tiberias said to me, Bro. Jackson, read the 83rd Psalm, where it tells how the whole world is confederated as one, to do away with the whole nation of Israel. Saints: It is not going to be that way. While this trembling thing is going to go on, it is pressing the Jews together. Somewhere in front of us, we are going to hear of Barak, (because he is just like our Clinton) that God is going to remove him and put some Jews in there with some backbone, because it says in Jeremiah 30, (when this time of trouble is approaching) Jer 30:20 “Their children also shall be as aforetime, and their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them. Jer 30:21 And their nobles shall be of themselves, and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? saith the LORD.” God says, In that day I will cause the governors of Judah, their hearts to be inclined toward me. I have to say, When God gets the right kind of leaders in there, then He can start speaking to them in supernatural ways. Therefore as we see this sellout by the United Nations. Do you know what it says in Zechariah 12? Notice what it says about the governors of Judah. Zec. 12:5 “And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God. Zec. 12:6 In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.” This cup that the Arabs have all drunk of, and yet they have not succeeded in obtaining their goal, then you are looking at Zephaniah 2, when Israel has finally reached the hour that she realizes she has got to put that Islamic, Arab spirit to sleep, every tank will come rolling out one morning. Every jet fighter plane will be armed with rockets. The reserve troops will all be called in. I will have to say, There will be some leaders that God can begin to talk with in a supernatural way. They will plan their strategy. When they do, they are going to cross that bridge into Jordan to the capital of Jordan. They will lay every bridge open. They will shut Ammon in, because she has got Edom, the ancient territory of Esau. Here, is part of what it says, Zep 2:8 “I have heard the reproach of Moab, and the revilings of the children of Ammon, whereby they have reproached my people, and magnified themselves against their border. Zep 2:9 Therefore as I live, saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Surely Moab shall be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, even the breeding of nettles, and saltpits, and a perpetual desolation: the residue of my people shall spoil them, and the remnant of my people shall possess them. Zep 2:10 This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of hosts. Zep 2:11 The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.” We are just about finished with this, but you should read Obadiah, written 600 years before Christ, when the Edomites, which were of Esau, and the Moabites, knew what the Babylonians were doing at Jerusalem, there they stood on the high spots across the Jordan River, and though they could not see each individual, they could see the dust and the smoke and all the after effects of what was taking place, and they were rejoicing and saying, Raze it to the ground. (Tear it down) When the Babylonians had succeeded in taking the prisoners away, then they all crossed the river and pillaged every house saying, The land that was theirs shall be ours. Brothers and Sisters, that is why that Jew there in Babylon said, Lord, in the day of Jerusalem, remember Edom. God has their number. Read the 27th chapter of Isaiah. That young Israeli soldier today does not know what is heading his way. Allow me to say this though, Gentile Church, we have heard the message for this end time, but I have to say, There is yet one more seal to be opened, and there are seven voices out of that seal that are going to put the Bride right in position for the windup. Israel getting ready to fight this war, is one of the key points that puts an interest, or maybe we should say, it puts an understanding, that it cannot be long. It will soon be over. I will say also, About the time God turns that Israeli army loose to fulfill their part, God is going to begin to show Himself among the Gentile Bride in a greater way: The days of visions and dreams are not over: The greatest of it is just ahead.

SHOWDOWN AT SUNDOWN

 

OR

 

ISRAEL V/S WORLD POWER

Allow me to say this, A year ago, in the summer convention, when I preached that message, “Showdown at Sundown”, I preached it using a man named Wyatt Earp, from around 1878 AD, when he came into the town of Abilene Texas, which was a railroad town. I read the story: It was about all the cattle herds that had been brought into this great shipping center, in the fall of the year and the men that brought them there. There were about 500 drunk cowboys in that town at that time. Among them were two brothers by the name of Ben and Bill Johnson. They seemed to be ring leaders. They were drinking and whooping it up and all the law enforcement they had in the town was one old man as sheriff. One of the men came running out of the saloon and shot him, while he was sitting there in a chair. This was not Hollywood. Wyatt Earp had just rode into town and taken a room in the hotel. All night long that bunch of cowboys had roamed the streets. They shot up the town. The people were scared half to death. Wyatt Earp looked out the window and saw all this shooting and commotion and knew it was keeping the citizens awake. He waited until morning, then went downstairs, and there in the lobby of the hotel was the mayor. He was talking to the proprietor and they were wondering, What are we going to do? Wyatt Earp stood there, listening to them, while out in the street was the main leader of that rowdy bunch, one of the brothers, Ben Johnson. He was standing in the street with a double barrel shotgun, yelling, daring anybody to come into the street. This man dressed in a white shirt, having no gun, walked up to the mayor and said, Why don’t you do something with that smart aleck out there? The mayor asked, Who are you? My name is Wyatt Earp. Well, what would you do? He said, if I was sheriff I would go out there and arrest him, or kill him, one or the other. Will you accept a badge? I don’t have a gun. I’ll get you a gun. They brought him a gun. The mayor pined a badge on him. He went to the window in the lobby, looked out, and noticed the position of all those outside. He knew if he would kill that ring leader, they would all stop their frolicking and go home. So after awhile, when he saw what position Ben Johnson was standing in, he was ready to make his move: He was standing with the barrel of his shotgun pointing to the ground. Wyatt Earp appeared in the door of that hotel wearing a white shirt, and the sunlight hit that badge. He started walking out into the street. Ben Johnson said, Who are you? My name is Wyatt Earp. Ben Johnson replied, I don’t want any problem with you. Then throw your gun down. He walked right up to him without even drawing his gun and said, I want that shotgun. He took the shotgun away from him and took him back to the hotel. When he took him to the hotel lobby, to later be locked up, the mayor said, Weren’t you afraid? No. What did you plan on doing? He said, I saw the position he was standing in, and I knew he couldn’t shoot me in that position, and the minute he would have turned his wrist and moved his foot, I had every intention of killing him. (Saints: I am just using that as a setting for what I am about to say.) Israel is not Wyatt Earp, but there is a God of Israel that is greater than all. Right now, Israel is studying her enemies, and taking note of their every position. She knows their every tactic, and she knows exactly how to approach them. I have to say, Somewhere up ahead, when the last straw has been drawn and the Jews realize the world is against them, they will know they are going to have to fight. That is when God will anoint those young Jewish men and their leaders with an intelligence they have not known before. There is going to be airplanes appear in the sky that do not even exist. There will be tanks appear on the horizon that do not even exist, but there is going to be angelic beings sitting in there, and if F-15’s come over, there will be twenty five or thirty others following. It will be so confusing to the enemy, they will not know what to do. Of Egypt, it says, In that day, one city shall be called the city of destruction. When it is all over, those Egyptians will be like a bunch of women. When it is all over, five cities in the land of Egypt will say, I want to speak Hebrew. Allah don’t exist anymore. I believe in Elohim. They will build an altar in the middle of the land of Egypt, and a memorial on the border. It is too far, to go up there to worship Him, so we will do this right here. Those tanks will turn. They will come back through Jordan. They will lay that camp of Edomites low. Moabites and the Ammonites will serve them. They won’t stop there. Through Syria they will go. Read in Kings, how David went through there, all the way to the river Euphrates. There will be planes appear for Israel where there are no planes. The enemy will be so confused they will shoot up their ammunition and be defenseless. They will no longer be able to shoot anything down. I hope you everyone can see a picture of this in your mind. We are at the closing hour of Gentile time. I believe we are getting close to going home, but we will not go before we see this great display of the power of God on behalf of Israel. God bless you. Amen.