Several weeks ago I was asked this question in a letter from overseas; and it falls right in line as a stepping stone to what will be brought out in our convention this coming week. (September 2004) I just pray that everyone will remember this in your prayers. This subject is on the foolish virgins. I might hit the highlight of this letter as the question is asked. I realize you have heard me preach it before, but many have not. This young man is a preacher in the mountains of the Philippines. I am not going to read all of his letter, only the questions that he asks about the foolish virgins. “You said that the midnight cry of Matthew 25 was Bro. William Branham’s message. If that is so, then who are these that are identified as wise and foolish virgins, who both started out their journey from a certain point of time, then at midnight they were awakened by the midnight cry of Bro. William Branham’s message to trim their lamps. Is it not Bro. William Branham’s message that formed these wise virgins? Why does Bro. William Branham’s message need to be cried at midnight? What did midnight portray when Bro. William Branham revealed his message? If the midnight cry was Bro. William Branham’s message, when did the bridegroom come and when did the marriage take place before the rapture? It says in verse 10, And while the foolish virgins went to buy oil the Bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with Him to the marriage and the door was shut. I have a speculation that the message of Bro. William Branham was the shout of 1st Thessalonians but not the midnight cry of Matthew 25.”
Now naturally that is his way of looking at it. When we look into the book of Revelation, we get the answer of a lot of things that theologians and historians have speculated on. I hold in my hand the King James version of the Bible. The apostle Paul wrote no less than fourteen of the epistles in here. When the apostle Paul wrote these epistles he had nothing in mind about a foolish virgin or white robed saints or anything like that. Think it over. He was looking forward to every believer being in the Bride. No matter what epistle you read, he is always dealing with the fact that the body of Christ, the mystical body which is the Church, is to be none other than the fulness of Christ manifested in and through the Church, so that is what unity here in these last days has got to consist of. We can no longer be a bunch of people running here and there, Well I believe this, and another believes that, and another something else, but we all love Jesus. There has to be an answer to all of this and there is, if we will look at it from a sensible standpoint. We realize this, that when the apostle Paul died, he was beheaded, in 66 A.D. It was not until John, on the Isle of Patmos, being an old man in 96 A.D. which was thirty years after Paul’s death, when God showed him things that none of the apostles in the beginning ever saw or even wrote anything about. This is why I want to remind you this morning, when we start out in the book of Revelation it is all dealing with prophecy. It deals with the Church and it is from its beginning and onward as it progressed up through time until that point. Then it takes it on through time to the very end itself. When we look at the Bride there is one scripture in the book of Revelation that portrays the Bride, that is in the 19th chapter. John did not see her raptured, but he did see her assembled there, the marriage supper ended, and she is returning to earth with Jesus. She had made herself ready. Where? Not there, but down here in her every day walk of life. He portrayed her as being clothed in fine linen, white and clean. We all know this fine linen is white. A lot of people have assumed that when they read about white robes, it is always talking about the Bride. It is not talking about the Bride at all, unless it is fine linen. You do not say Bride in white linen one time, and the Bride another time with white robes. That is not the way it is. If you go back into the types of the Old Testament, when the Tabernacle in the wilderness was made, when the Holy Place and the Ark of the Covenant sat in there, you read that the Holy Place was surrounded by fine linen. That just goes to show God would not dwell behind just any type of material. It had to be linen. We are not here to speculate on the types, but we do want to get the identity of the bride, and also why this other group are called foolish virgins. Number one, the apostle Paul wrote no gospel about the foolish virgins. When we start in time, the gospel brings out the potentials that every person has access to the saving grace of God and being filled with the Holy Spirit; and also to be a part of the Bride of Christ. On the other hand we have to realize, God Himself is the only one that controls the lifespan we are going to have. Man can write of the potential that is before all of us, but he cannot write the end. That is what we have got to understand. Here in the book of Revelation we have one group of people, that is the primary people the gospel is written for. That is the Bride of Jesus Christ. Here she is seen in the 19th chapter, coming back to earth with Jesus. She has made herself ready in this life, or she would not be seen there. John that saw all the various things which are recorded in the book of Revelation, also saw other people besides the bride. When he sees the week of time coming up and the two prophets going to Israel to seal the 144,000, then to awaken that remnant of the Israeli woman, so that she can go and hide when the time comes, John also saw at that time a great multitude in heaven. Doctors of divinity and historians have always pictured this as those coming out of great tribulation which is in the last half of the week of Daniel, just because tribulation is mentioned. However when we look at that great multitude in chapter 7, it says they stood before the throne of God clothed in white raiment, not fine linen. When it tells you there, where they came from, they have come out of every kindred, race, and nation on the face of the earth. History and time proves that the gospel has not always run primarily universally at the same time. There have been times it has been predominant here. Other places it was not. We can see as John is seeing this picture, that he is looking at multitudes that no man could number or count, of people that have also lived through time, but the reason they were not clothed in fine linen, the greater percent of them never lived long enough to have access to the experience that bride people would have. You have got to begin to realize, some of these would be children growing up and suddenly falling sick and die, and yes, they believe, but they, as many others, never lived long enough to bear fruit of the Spirit, which is what is required of the bride. Some of these are people that were martyred soon after believing. All through those early years there was martyrdom by the hundreds and thousands. Then there were wars that many were forced to go fight in. You have to realize, when you compare it with other things, some of these people never did get to live long enough to cultivate a real fruitful life like Paul writes about, which we are all to bear as children of God. We do not blame that on Paul. We have to say it is God Himself that knows the conditions that are coming and the trials, the conflicts and persecutions. What did John say when he was asked the question, Who are these? He said, Sir, thou knowest. The angel then said to him, These are they that have come out of great tribulation. Doctors of divinity and historians have always pointed that to the end of the week of Daniel, the great tribulation period because it says tribulation. That is not the case at all: there has been many times of great tribulation through the years of Christianity. To prove to you that this great multitude, did not face the great tribulation here at the end of the age, I will ask you to notice that they came out of all nations, kindreds, people and tongues, which makes it a universal picture that manifested through the years. On the other hand, the tribulation of the week of Daniel, is only for three and a half years; and it is not a universal, global thing. You have to realize, there is not going to be foolish virgins in China, that communist nation, in that period of time. With this in mind, that great multitude that no man could number, that have come out of every nation, race, kindred, and tongue, believed at a time when the gospel was being preached in every nation, but not every nation at the same time. People of every nation were affected eventually. The gospel started out in the Middle East, then gradually came westward. It shined back eastward, but predominantly it moved westward. As it did, the predominant aim was to select a Bride from among the various peoples. We have to think of the other numbers of those people right in that same generation of time, that when the Bride people were being selected, there were others that accepted the Lord, but they were also martyred immediately thereafter. Now please do not think that they were the only martyrs. There have been Bride people that have been martyred as well. How many realize that? Time itself has divided the two categories of people, and it is only God Himself that brought about conditions that made the separation, not Paul nor James nor Peter. They all heard the same words spoken, but the parable of the sower sheds light upon the results. Even those who brought forth fruit, were in three categories, 30, 60 and 100 fold. God already knew the category each and every believer will fall into; and where every other individual will end up.
A LOOK AT THE GREAT TRIBULATION IN THE LAST OF THE WEEK
Let us take a look at the tribulation period that is to unfold in the last half of the 70th week of Daniel. What does the 12th chapter of Revelation portray? When the woman element of the Jewish people are told to flee into the wilderness where she is protected, this goes to show that during that three and one half years when the devil is going to do his best to get rid of every Christian believing person, there is an element of Jewish people in society that God has determined to protect, so He has them leave the land of Israel to keep them from being exposed to the Beast that would martyr every one of them. This remnant is going to be a part of the Jewish society that God is going to preserve somewhere in this world so they can go back there in the Millennium and help procreate (repopulate) the nation of Jewish people. With that in mind, we have to realize as we come on down through that 12th chapter, that scattered throughout the earth there is this other category. There are these Jews who believe the word of God, the commandments of God. Then there are others, by their faith they have overcome, by their faith in the blood of the Lamb. Now you follow that right on straight through the 14th chapter; and then in the 15th chapter you see where it says in the 2nd verse, John saw a sea of glass, and standing on the sea of glass were those that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name; and they were singing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb. These are Jews and Gentile Christians that are martyred in the last half of that week when the antichrist forces are determined to rid the world of anyone who believes in God. They are slaughtered in that last three and one half year period. They do not change that multitude of chapter 7 one bit. Those seen in that multitude are from various periods of tribulation right on through the centuries of Christianity. This group on the sea of glass are separated for a specific reason, and I have to bring it out like this because those Gentiles that are left here and have overcome by their faith in the blood of the Lamb, are the foolish virgins. I will say also, They are not made to be Christians after the week of time has started. This is the picture of the last one hundred years from the beginning of the twentieth century. When we come on over here (chart) this is to mark the beginning of the week of Daniel. The rapture of the Bride Church is here, after the week has become active. She is then seen in Revelation 19 in fine linen. Over here though, is this great white robed multitude. They have come out of great tribulation, but they are not to be included with the martyred saints in the time of the great tribulation in the last half of the seventieth week of Daniel. This great multitude and the Bride saints have lived in the same societies right on down through the history of the Christian Church: They each one have fulfilled their lot in life in the time they lived on earth, coming right on down together. In 96AD, God let John divide them and right on through every generation, every professing individual has fallen into one of the two groups until the era of the foolish virgins opened up after the midnight cry. Over here, we see these that have been killed in that last part of the 12th chapter of Revelation. They have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. This includes both Jews and Gentiles. Those that have overcome by the blood of the Lamb, are the foolish virgins. Therefore they are slaughtered. Not here, but over here in the last half of that week. God keeps them separate from the great multitude, and there is a specific reason that they stand out that way. The foolish virgins are going to have white robes also, but the reason I bring this out like this is to show you why these foolish virgins are called foolish virgins. They are foolish, because they did not accept and walk in all the truth the Spirit of God had restored to the Church. That is why they are only going to be given a white robe. Now because these that have come down through time received white robes, and white robes were given to the ones killed in that week of time, questions arise in the mind of some: Why do these only have white robes and not white linen? They are given a white robe, because white linen is only for the bride. Some also ask, Why were there not some of those in the great multitude called foolish virgins? Let me say this, When the gospel started, no matter which one of these two there were at the end, when we read in Paul’s writings, they all are given the same picture. The Apostles did not preach one message for the wise virgins and another for the foolish. All believers back then believed the gospel the same way right on through that era. Do you everyone understand me? We have to realize, as we come from the beginning down through time, we finally come into an era of time where the whole thing went off into what was called Roman Catholicism. Then when that happened, think of the tradition that the minds of people were bombarded with. They came through one thousand years of Catholicism and their theology to the point the original revelation that the Christian Church, the Bride started out with, many of them had lost that revelation. Therefore we have to see, that slowly it was taken away from them. Let us now watch what happens later, when time starts coming out of the Dark Ages to give way for the Reformation.
COMING OUT OF THE DARK AGES
Martin Luther 
John Calvin 
John Knox 
John Wesley
It was about five hundred years that the Church, in those generations lost the true revelation of God’s word. It has taken about five hundred years for it to gradually be restored back. With this in mind, when we come to 1500 A.D., and Martin Luther rose up with the revelation, the just shall live by faith, did all the Catholics believe that? No. I can say this, Those that were predestined to receive Luther’s message believed it. That was all God required, because faith in God alone was enough to give them an experience that many of them did face death to stand true to. We just have to say, When they came out to follow Luther, they were wise in doing that, would you not say so? Then as that movement began to get to a certain point, here came Calvin and Knox with a message of truth. They began to see the doctrinal framework of the faith, predestination and eternal security. They preached both in the same hour. This adds to the faith that the Lutherans had come out with. This all began to build a framework around which the experience in the mind and heart of the person, could anchor their experience to. God sees that and gives them a little more wisdom and a greater measure of light. Nevertheless the entire revelation the gospel was founded upon was not yet restored. Therefore we come from that to John Wesley, in the later part of the 16th century. In John Wesley’s ministry we can see that it was a greater experience which was to be added to what believers already had. We can plainly see that God was adding a little more truth all the time. When we come to John Wesley’s message, we can see that it did reach the new world, which had already been discovered by then. We can see, looking back from the beginning of the Reformation to this point, the major framework of the word of God has been restored; and God had purposed that the individual believer build his or her complete experience around all of that. It is right for us to ask this, Were they all wise? No. They were wise in the fact that they had accepted what God had given to them to that point: that is what you have to look at. At the beginning of the 19th century, out in California you have Presbyterians, Methodists and Nazarenes, which was a representation of nearly all the denominational movements, and now, on the west coast in California, God selects the presence of a Nazarene congregation because they have believed in sanctification. Therefore when the baptism of the Holy Spirit began to drop, (I have the history of it.) the Nazarene movement at that time, many of them had experienced speaking in tongues. When this new move of the Spirit of God came among them, here came Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians, into their midst, because God let it begin to be noised around. The Nazarene movement as a whole, then stopped calling their movement the Pentecostal Church of the Nazarenes. They cut the Pentecostal part off. That brought a split. However we can say this, The experience God had dropped, eventually began to be noised all over this world. People from different nations began to come inquiring, asking questions about what they had heard. The truth is, They had come to seek this blessing. I am taking my time in bringing this out, because it was God’s way of visibly, and publicly restoring the manifestation of the power of God with gifts of the Spirit. Did all these movements that God had moved on with a revelation of truth up until this time, move on with the Spirit of God in it? They did not. They should have, but they did not. So when out of their groups many of them came and received this blessing, for a few years, that Pentecostal baptism with the experience of speaking in tongues and many times divine healing was all manifested, because it was God’s way of making visible and demonstrating that this is the next stage of a walk with God. You have to move on from that initial experience, to the next thing God opens up to you, because it is going to take this to make it all a living reality. When we look back, these movements did not move with the Spirit of God, but rather began to withdraw. As this movement began to have new ones added, then we move from 1903 and 1906 to about 1908 and up to 1912. Then God saw the necessity to drop down the revelation of the one God, to get them away from the trinity of gods and the baptism in titles, and get them restored to baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. When that was restored into this Pentecostal movement, it split them into two parts. It was at that time that we can say, Many people began to rebel against the leadership of the Spirit of God and refuse to go further, because that was what the Reformation was all about, God restoring, reforming the truth, so that the Church collectively could come up and be right on the line. It was then, and still is today an individual thing. When we come to the Pentecostal movement, then we see how one God and baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ split that original fellowship. That was the picture of things when we come to the later part of the 1940’s.
A PROPHET IN OUR DAY AND HOUR
God knew exactly, that He would have a prophet messenger on the earth at the time when this Pentecostal division was ready for it. He had schooled him and trained him for what was ahead. He had allowed him to see the necessity of what he was to do. When he first came on the scene, sure his message was very simple and seemingly small at first, but as time came and went, more and more he would bring out of the scriptures the deep things God was showing him. At that time I was in a Methodist church system, but after having heard the things this brother taught, I could not help but realize, I cannot sit there in that denominational system any more and just hold on to what Methodism stood for. It caused me to begin to seek the word of God and study. The more I read, the more I became convinced, God’s Church as a whole should have never organized. It should always have been a free element of people to move every time God showed something to move with. Instead of moving on with God, they would draw back. When God began to send this messenger forth, He did not send him right at the beginning of this Pentecostal move. That Pentecostal move was God’s way of giving the whole thing up until that hour of time, to renew themselves, bring themselves to that point. What did his message do at first? It only caused those of those systems to draw back into their shells and really embrace their systems. There was the nucleus that came out, but as a whole there were many that just drew back into their shells. Then when it began to split the trinity from the oneness side of Pentecost, more and more we can begin to see how some of these are going to wind up as very foolish. Actually, what does the word foolish mean? It certainly does not just apply to someone who is totally ignorant. It literally applies to someone that has thrown their time away, thrown their opportunities away, or as the old saying is, missed the boat. They had an opportunity to see this or that, but they did not. That is why I want to say to this brother who wrote me, When Jesus, back here before there ever was a Paul on the scene, in Matthew 13, gives you seven parables, they meant something. That is the stages of Christendom through the seven stages of time, coming right on into this last one. We can say, This is the Laodicean Age, this last one hundred years has really brought it all into focus. Here, is when everything has been dumped into the picture, prophecies and everything. When that which has been dumped into this age does its intended work the age will be over, but this age does not close until everything is completed. We can say this, The seven parables of Matthew 13, pictured not only the first age, what it was like, but the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh. Then in Matthew 24, verse 45, Jesus is telling the believers some of what the wise men, wise servants will be giving out to the Bride, which is meat in due season. In verse 46, He says this, “Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when He cometh shall find so doing.” You will notice the word then, in these scriptures in Matthew 24 and 25, as a subject is opened up. Everybody knows that the word then, in those scriptures is not a past tense word: It is pointing ahead. Then, shall be so and so. This is Jesus’ way of saying, After everything has gone through these different stages and God has restored accessibility to truth, THEN, not here at the start, but somewhere over here when all of this that is now been made accessible has had a chance to do its work, then shall the kingdom of heaven, the whole thing, be like unto ten virgins and so forth. In the parable of the virgins, that does not mean there is just going to be ten, five wise and five foolish. He gives you a figure to represent something. He could have used ten thousand, but He just used ten, because it is a more simple way of getting His point across. Five were wise and five were foolish. In other words, when the virgins are affected by these different things, the wise have grasped the truth, they have grasped the experience, so they have done what the Lord required in all they have had access to. They were wise because of that. They knew nothing else. I have read article after article, of what was written about the Pentecostal move at Azusa Street. I have two books by different writers, so I know what they say. The Nazarene movement at that time, withdrew completely, cut themselves off from all of it, still claiming to be holy. So did the Methodists. Then when the baptism in the name of Jesus Christ came about in 1912, from then on as we hit the 1920’s, and even into the 1930’s the controversy continued; and when WW2, broke out attention was drawn to something else and it caused all this whole thing to begin to go to sleep. All the virgins went to sleep. Do you understand? So while the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. Those that had accepted proper baptism and received an experience, were all content with just what they have received to that point. Also, those that rejected baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ, all seemed to be content with what they had. Little did any of them ever realize that Malachi 4:5-6 was pointing right down to their very hour. You have heard my testimony many times, how I was in the Methodist system when God let that terrible wreck almost take my life, and how it shook me and brought me to my senses. Having been brought up in that system of religion, what they taught was the only thing I knew. After God saved my soul, I began to read the Bible. For some reason I could begin to read and see things that the Methodist Church did not teach. I began to send for sermons from different radio preachers, doctors of divinity and such. I sent to Dr. Dehon and got some of his sermons on predestination. Well I can assure you, Methodists are not about to believe in predestination. Nevertheless when I saw predestination in the Bible, I thought, That is beautiful, how God foreknew everything and everyone. Therefore He did not have to wait for the day that you and I would get on our knees and start crying out to Him. He had already seen in advance what you would do, even before you were born, He saw that day when His call would change your life. Therefore He knew exactly what time in your life He would visit you. When I began to see these things, I began to say, That is so wonderful. I was tasting some things I felt were beautiful, but I also knew that for some reason the system I was in at that time, would not stand for any of that. Then one day later on, my wife’s cousin, Bro. Glenn Funk, came down home squirrel hunting and when he came out of the woods from hunting, I had just finished my dinner and stepped outside. For some reason he started talking to me in a different way than ever before. All of a sudden he started talking about Bro. William Branham. This was in 1952. Bro. William Branham had come back from a trip to Africa. I was very eager to listen to what he was saying. When he told me about what happened down at the Ohio River, when Bro. William Branham was baptizing some converts, I really began to think about it. When he told about the words that were said when the supernatural appeared, I thought, If this is true, then we must be living in the days just before the coming of Christ.
WHAT GOD IS WORKING TOWARD IN OUR DAY
My mind goes back to that February morning I have told about in my testimony, so I must bring it into the message. For some reason, that morning before I was to go out to do any work on the farm I sat down and picked up the Bible. It just fell open to the 1st chapter of Luke. When I read those verses and saw how that angel of the Lord spoke to Zechariah, who was to be the father of John the Baptist, and told him how his wife would bear a son and his name was to be John, and how he would go before the coming of the Lord in the power and spirit of Elijah to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and when the angel stopped quoting Malachi, right there, that got my attention. When I saw that, the thought came to me, Why did he stop, why did he not finish it like it is written in Malachi? Well we now know that it was because the later part of it was not for that day. That is when in my heart I began to say, If we are living in the days just before the second coming of Christ, He will send that spirit of Elijah again. As brother Glenn was telling me about all those things, he also told me about the meetings that were to start in just a few days. I was privileged to go and sit in that little Tabernacle and listen to Brother Branham preach for the very first time. When that little man came out on the platform and took a text, he started preaching; and when he was finished, he had preached a message from Genesis to Revelation. I said, That man has made Jesus of the Bible stand head and shoulders taller than any doctor of divinity I have ever seen. I said also, That is the man I want to listen to. To me, his message was a loud cry at a time when Christendom had gone to sleep. The Pentecostal move caused men to began to say, Jesus is coming soon, Jesus is coming soon, Jesus is coming soon, but then the war years began to push things off and that cry died down. They all began to sit down and slumber. When you are slumbering in sleep, you are hard to wake up. After I had heard Bro. William Branham preach, when I would read in Matthew 25, I could see that as Bro. William Branham began to come on the scene, he was uttering a cry. At times he would say, We are living in the days just before the coming of Jesus Christ the second time. Oral Roberts, A.A. Allen, and you could go on and on, naming them by the dozens, that were praying for the sick also, but not one thing in their teachings made you sit up on the edge of your seat and begin to realize, we are living at the threshold of the coming of Christ. That little man, in an hour when Christendom had gone to sleep, was sounding a cry. The reason it is called that, is because it is like a man in the dark hour of the night, when people are laying asleep, starts trying to wake everyone. Everyone that has been in the army, knows when they blow reveille in the morning, not everyone is instantly awake. I have heard them still snoring when the last note is dying off in the distance. We can say this, That was the beginning of a gradual awakening. As the men begin to roll out of their bunks, that is what begins the process. Somebody will roll over and ask, Did somebody say something? It is reveille time, wake up. The point is this, Many people are awakened first, but it is the noise they begin to make and the movement they express, that ultimately wakes up others that are slumbering, sound asleep. Come on Jim, George, it is time to get up. We can say this man’s message was the beginning of a gradual awakening as the WW2 era closed. Across America and in the world, many homes had lost sons on the battlefield of conflict and oh how they had prayed, God, do something. In this case his message was an awakening message. The man in the mountains could ask, Well if it was an awakening message, where does Paul’s message come into the picture? We will come to that, but let us be sure we understand what this man’s message was. It was God’s way of awakening Protestantism, Pentecostalism, the whole living thing, not all but some. It was displayed in various ways. I have seen people sitting on the edge of their seats with tears in their eyes as they were permitted to see the power of God at work, as God discerned the condition and diseases and things that affected people. We can say this, Gradually his message began to be an awakening factor as it was cultivated and spread, because it began to go completely around the world. Now let us go to something else. We will go to 1st Thessalonians, and read something that should answer many questions. Let me say first, When Jesus spoke in Matthew 25, He was speaking in a parabolic form. Always remember, a parable is not the actual image of the thing itself: it is just something to illustrate, if you can understand. It is not the actual shape, but it gives you an overall picture. When we go to Paul’s writing, that man was not speaking in a parable: he was giving us a detailed illustration of how this thing is all going to come about. In the days of Paul, (This writing was in 54 A.D.) a short time after the gospel had began to come among the Gentiles, some had questions. In 1st Thessalonians chapter 4, Paul has heard that some of the Thessalonian Christians, when their loved ones have died, were believing that Jesus would come instantly, almost right away after they became believers, but in the meantime some have died. This created a question. Up to a certain point they all believed that Jesus is coming soon and they are all going to be alive to see Him, but now, as some of the older ones have began to die off, the others are worried, asking, What is going to happen to them, where do they come into the picture? Paul has heard of this, so he is writing to correct their thinking. He is not speaking by a parable, he is using an actual demonstration, breaking the whole time frame down. It starts out in the 13th verse of the 4th chapter. “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, (In other words, unlearned, living in fear and doubt) concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. (He is talking about the unbeliever that dies, having no hope) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.” That is a promise, and I like the way Paul brings it out. It does not matter how many years it covers, when the time comes for all this to come to fulfillment, He will start with them that have been dead for many years. They will come up at the same time as the later ones. “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive (Now he puts himself in the end time.) and remain unto the coming (the visible appearance) of the Lord shall not prevent (hinder) them which are asleep. (It does not matter how long they have been dead. That means nothing to God. Right here, he puts it in its dimensional setting.) For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout.” I have to say, That is exactly what Bro. William Branham’s message was, to the end affect. Not only did he awaken people, but it begins to go from that to something else back in Matthew 25. He awakens those that were wise, as you read about in Matthew 25, and they began to go in. Is that not right? Was Jesus physically on earth? He was not. Neither was He still on earth at the beginning of the gospel era. We can say this, When He sent Bro. William Branham out with a message that was going to stir and wake people up, many people began to awaken with an understanding that something was about to take place. As that begins to come into focus, Jesus begins to reveal Himself through His word to those that are alive and that are wise and have a mind to understand. It tells you in Matthew 25, that they began to go in, those that were ready. When we go back there to study this, we find in the parable, that the foolish were coming to the wise and saying, Give us of your oil, I have said many times, It just goes to show, when the time came for this whole religious world to be affected and split, the wise could not be instruments to preach to them any new revelation. They were cut out. It says in Matthew 25, that they were awakened, but they could also recognize the revelation of Jesus Christ from His word. They began to go in. When they began to go in, look at the things in the later years that Bro. William Branham began to preach. He preached the Church Ages. Then in 1963, he preached the six seals. What was that? That was deeper revelation. On the face of this earth, there were people by the hundreds that became so eager to hear what that man was saying. Nothing could keep them away from the meetings. They were going in, but watch, as we continue. They were going in, seeking to understand or get a revelation because Jesus was portraying Himself from His word by divine revelation, not from His physical presence. Do you understand? This began to separate them more and more from the overall denominational world. What began to happen in the denominational world? As those seals were preached in 1963, there was also another move in this world, the charismatic move. There began to be a charismatic spirit move out of the Pentecost, out of the Catholic and others. You can say Bro. Jackson, How can it be from the Catholic? Did you ever hear of the Toronto blessing? That was a bunch of Catholics running that show. All over this country there were denominational people, even Catholic nuns, peaching the baptism of the Holy Ghost with speaking in tongues. There were many of these people that received an experience of speaking in tongues, but what they received was short of something they all still needed. I am going to look at you and say, This is why I have said in these last days, that speaking in tongues is not the initial evidence of the Holy Spirit, because when the Holy Spirit was first given, it came with a revelation to acquaint the ones who received the experience with an understanding of truth. On the other hand, if all you want is to talk in tongues and never learn anything, you have not yet got the essential ingredient. That is exactly what the charismatics have come to. I have article after article that I have read on all of that, because there are thousands of them. That does not mean, just because they have talked in tongues, that they have received the filling of the Holy Spirit. They have a measure of something, so do not try to take that away from them, but they have no revelation of truth to produce any spiritual growth. When the Bride is clothed in fine linen, she has a revelation instilled by the Holy Ghost. You show me someone that can say, Oh I have spoken in tongues, and then listen to them. They never talk about anything from the standpoint of a deeper revelation of the word of God. If they never speak of anything that came out of the Bible to give them any further revelation of the word of God, they still do not know their name from Adam. That is exactly what God has done to this whole foolish, denominational, shallow living bunch of religious people of the world today. He has given them access to this precious truth, and they come out knowing nothing beyond what they went in with. The point is, they are still foolish. I said, They are still foolish! There was a period of time when God moved by His Spirit, and to those that received the Spirit, (not just an anointing) there was a revelation that came with it, because deep down inside it stirred their hearts and made them hungry for more. In process of time, when the Spirit has moved on others, only God Himself knows how foolish they have lived. I have seen many of them speak in tongues and prophesy, and two years later they are smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol and going right back to the world they came out of. The point is, if they are foolish to start with, they are going to wind up foolish in the end, because foolish virgins do not graduate and become wise virgins. It does not matter how much God has poured out upon them, nor what they were given access to, they still remain to be foolish. I realize that it may not sound that way as you read the parable. That is why I say, when Jesus spoke it, it was a parable, and not to be applied literally word for word. A parable is using a natural picture just to illustrate a point, but you do not take that parable and try to follow it all the way through and watch the Church, that is why you have to come to Paul’s writing in Thessalonians, For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, first with a shout. What is a shout for? It is to awaken something, like, Hey, wake up, I am coming soon. That shout has sounded and was brought by a little man that was called of God according to the scriptures. Out of the mouth of that man, a revelation of truth began to cause people to look at their robes, trim their lamps and expect something. Look which way the charismatic went with theirs. You can see it right in the parable. The charismatic people are no more ready for the coming of Christ than a jack rabbit. How many times have I turned the TV on and seen big meetings with thousands in an auditorium, still where they were twenty years ago. They know nothing about holy living, holy dress, or anything except a good time. They come out of the bleachers with tattoos on their arms, long hair on men, jeans or something worse, looking like they are ready to go anywhere else but to a wedding supper. As you watch them, they can sing with crocodile tears pouring from their eyes, but they know no more about the coming of Christ and getting ready for the wedding supper, than anything in the world. You have both pictures being fulfilled, but remember, what Jesus said was a parable. I just want to say this morning, When Paul said in Thessalonians, that the Lord will come first with a shout, you must take notice that Bro. William Branham’s message began to wake up the wise, those that were truly the wise, but it also woke up a lot of foolish at the same time. I will say again, Do not try to make everything fit the parable. The parable is only to illustrate something, and I happen to know first hand, that as the parable was set in motion to fulfill the picture, you cannot let it end there, because I think how many little children have been born since that man has been gone from us; and they never heard him, but they have heard his message and know what it was designed to do. This is where we have to come to the point of realizing he left a message in the earth; and that message has been embraced in the heart of some people that knew exactly what it was for; and has been accepted by many others that never had the opportunity to hear it from him. God has used those first ones to be the framework around which is designed to bring some of these younger ones to where they can hear, see and accept this. When we go back to that parable, where the two groups split, the foolish were going one way to buy oil, and that is the to the charismatic movement that has specialized in the oil part ever since 1964, and it has all had its day. What we really must see also, is that the wise went in, (into the revelation and remained where they could be taught even more. What did they go into? Do you think it was a building somewhere? No. That is not the picture. They began to go into a revelation. That man brought the revelation of those six seals and they are so beautiful, but only the wise virgins really appreciate the revelation that came out of them. I realize we have people on earth today that say all seven seals were revealed, but I say, No. The seventh was not revealed. There are others that will tell you that these foolish virgins were sealed in by the seventh seal. That is not so either. I want to say this, Those first six seals that were brought, and their revelation made known by Bro. William Branham, were so beautiful. I have never heard one doctor of divinity out of any denominational church even touch on them. Do you know why they will not touch on them? Because they are not wise virgins. They are not even interested. Those seals were revealed to bride saints. Others cannot understand them and therefore have no interest in them. If you walk up to some Methodists or Pentecostals and say something to them about the seals of Revelation, chapter 6, you will probably hear this, Oh, I don’t believe that: I don’t think we have any need to know about them. I will tell you this, Everything that is written in the scripture, especially from a prophetic standpoint, was written specifically for a certain type of people at the end time; and that is going to be the true Bride of Christ, redeemed out of the masses of society, changed, transformed, made new and ready to leave here with Jesus. There are thousands out there today that profess to be wise, but they are not wise, they are foolish. They will continue on to the end, still believing they are Bride saints
THE SHOUT/MIDNIGHT CRY
Let us take another look at this shout. I just want to say, The midnight cry by Bro. William Branham and the shout are one and the selfsame thing. When you read of the shout, it is how Paul used it to start the illustration of how this will all break down. First the shout. He didn’t tell you there would be an interval of time. When I look back I remember when I sat there in 1963, the time when Bro. William Branham was bringing the revelation of those seals and how he made it sound so close to the coming of Christ, you just felt like He could come any time. Then we come to 1965 in the month of December, I was there at the funeral and I thought Oh Lord, you are coming soon. But look how many have been born since then. I can point to a lot of you that were not alive in 1965. Like one man I heard say, nobody can be saved after 1965, it is all over. I am sorry, there have been more people saved and filled with the Holy Spirit since then that have more sense than all the rest before that. We are living past the shout now, we are living past the midnight cry. He has taught us a lot of things because we have been going into a divine revelation. No we did not go into a rapture. You are not going into a rapture until first you go into a revelation and get yourself clothed with fine linen. Because linen is the product and material the Holy Spirit will clothe you with. I am not content with a piece of old white cotton. Do you understand me? It has to be linen. In the Law, that holy of holies was separated by curtains of fine linen. In behind them the ark of the covenant rested. Foolish virgins that are caught up in this racket of today, I am going to say, they have a measure of the Spirit, but not a revelatory portion. If they are truly foolish virgins, they have a measure of something that gives them hope. One person wrote me a letter, Bro. Jackson, what do you mean by a measure of the Spirit? We are living in an hour of time when people have access to the greatest capacity of education there has ever been on the face of this earth and they will still ask, what do you mean? There are some people so narrow minded, they cannot see anything. Poor Paul spent the last number of his days in jail. I wonder how many letters he got, Paul: you didn’t explain this right, please Paul, help us understand. Therefore I have to say, If you are depending only on Raymond Jackson to explain the difference to you, that gives me occasion to ask, Where is the Holy Spirit in your life? Did not Jesus say, When the Comforter has come, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things whatsoever I have told you? That is what you need to be concerned about, because, if you have been filled with the Holy Spirit, you have that Spirit of comfort and revelation abiding in you at all times. We are living in that era of time after the shout or the cry, until one of these days there will be the voice of the arch angel. Until the arch angel sounds, we are still living off the effect of the shout and or the cry. When that sound of the arch angel comes, seven thunders will utter their voices and their words shall be heard around this world, by those who have that Spirit of revelation. I am waiting for that: that is a good thing to be looking for. When that voice of the arch angel does come, do you know where that puts you? It puts you right in Revelation 10. Let us go there and look at that. We are living right now on the effects of a shout. It has awakened us and we have come into a revelation and understanding of more of the deeper things of the word of God. This is what prepares us to begin to put on the fine linen. That voice of the arch angel is not going to come until the wise really are fully clothed in the linen revelation, knowing where they are, and waiting for the next step. When we come to Revelation 10, we have to read verse 1 of chapter 8 right in front of verse 1, of chapter 10. “And when He (Jesus) had opened the seventh seal, (The seventh seal has not been opened: only six of them have. I want to ask you a simple question, Tell me how the revelation of the first six has affected people of the denominational realm of professing Christianity? It has not done one thing for any of them. They are not even interested. In fact, they are hardly interested in anything in the book of Revelation. That lets me know God has split something. He sent some one way and some are going another way. Those that are going in, are coming out of denominational confusion and going into a deeper experience and understanding of the word of God. It is to make us more Christlike. When we reach a certain point in time and our hearts and lives begin to reflect back to God, then is when we come to the time that the seventh seal is broken and Jesus is seen on earth in angelic form in Chapter 10. Jesus is no longer on the mercy seat when we reach that point in time. There is no more need for it, because, when He has broken that last seal, there will never be another gentile saved. All those whom He has been interceding for, their names are recorded in the little scroll that is open in His hand) there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” Ever since Bro. William Branham preached that, there are some that will ask, What does a half hour mean? Oh please, what does the half hour mean? Two thousand years ago Jesus rose from the Mt. of Olives and ascended into heaven, and God placed Him upon a throne, His Throne, in a position of interceding for all those that the Father had given Him, of which, it is written, that He will lose none. This was the first time that picture had ever been seen in heaven. There was placed in His hand a scroll. That is a scroll of redemption, not a book. For two thousand years He has been interceding for the names written therein. We must all understand one thing, that it is just not only the Bride that is in that book of life. This great multitude is in there also, as are these that stand on the sea of glass, martyred saints in the last half of that last week, when the antichrist is ruling.
ABOUT THE RESURRECTION
Those resurrected saints on the sea of glass are going to be the first ones resurrected over here at the end. They will have part in the events of Matthew 25, when the Lord starts the judgment of the nations. He uses them as witnesses for or against the mortal realm of mankind left alive down here of the nations that are to be judged to determine whether they will be allowed to pass into the Millennium to repopulate the earth. They are going to testify of those being judged, based upon the treatment they showed toward those who were eventually slaughtered. He is going to use that to separate the worthy mortals from the unworthy mortals. Therefore all the names of those groups are in the scroll of redemption. Now somebody will say, Now Bro. Jackson, what about the book of life? Go to Revelation, over in the latter part of the 20th chapter, after the thousand years are finished, there is going to be a resurrection of all the wicked of the ages. It plainly tells you, and the books were opened and also the book of life, but the scroll is not opened there. Why? There was no need to, because this last act at the end finished redemption. That finished the redemption process for all those categories that are recorded right in there. Now why was the book of life opened? Well before you get to this New Testament age, you have four thousand years that mankind lived on this earth. You had a flood where thousands perished. The book of life covers all that God has granted eternal life to, in every period of time. And the books which are opened, are the books of deeds of all the wicked, for that is how they will be judged, according to what is recorded in those books. And whosoever’s name was not found written, (not in these books), but the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire. Their torture will be determined by what is recorded in the BOOKS of their deeds. In that one thousand years, there is going to be a lot of people born and grow up when the devil is not loose to tempt and lead them into acts of ungodliness. They will be tested when the devil is loosed for a little season at the end of the Millennium. Those that he is able to deceive will be judged, and all the rest will be allowed to live on. I had a man question me one time, (Perry Green’s dad) he said, I heard that you believe there will be babies born in the Millennium. When he called me, this is how he went about it. Bro. Jackson, what is this I hear about you saying there are going to be children born in the Millennium? I said, That is right; I do believe that. Well where do you get that from? I said, I get it from Isaiah 65. Well Bro. Jackson, here is the way I look at that. I said, Well how is it? Well, you know, it is like when Bro. William Branham lost that little girl, she died during that serious flood, I believe God could leave many of them as little babies to fulfill that. Then I said, That is not according to the picture God showed Bro. William Branham. He went to bed one night so discouraged and heartbroken. God gave him this dream, in which he was riding across the prairie and all of a sudden saw a little log cabin. As he got closer to it a beautiful young lady came rushing out of the cabin, waving her hand. That was not Bro. William Branham’s little baby, she was a grown, young woman. There are some things in which people have just lost all reason, in trying to understand the word of God. I say to you this morning, These foolish virgins are in that scroll of redemption, not because they were in there by any one seal. In our convention, I am going to set that record straight. Nobody in this (chart) is in there because they were under the first seal, the second seal or the third seal. I want to show you something to set the record straight. The first seal begins with the beginning of this dispensation, and the fourth seal takes you straight through to the end. All four seals are types of the spirit of antichrist in certain eras of time. Right? Therefore whether it is the Bride, or here, or whether it is the great multitude over here, they have been atoned for through the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus has interceded to the Father for every name written therein. That is why it is called the scroll of redemption. It is not a particular seal, it is because their names are already in there. The reason I am saying that, is because the four seals are the types of the spirit of antichrist, and the only reason the fifth seal speaks of Jews, is because the Gentile Church, after 69 an 70 A.D. when the Jewish nation was cut off and the Jews were scattered, did not go very long until the true revelation began to be compromised, and the Gentile Church eventually lost the revelation that any Jews would ever be saved. I hope you everyone understand that. I was that way myself, right up until the time Bro. William Branham was preaching the seals. A sister came to my home one day and asked, Bro. Jackson, is it possible that a Jew could be saved, having never accepted the Lord Jesus Christ? I said, No. Just a flat no, because that was what I believed. That night I went to church and sitting there, I heard Bro. William Branham come out with the revelation of that fifth seal and say, That is those Jews that have been martyred under Hitler’s purge and goes way on back down through time. I thought, Look what I have done. I have made a fool of myself. Well saints, that is why that seal is like that, because it is a seal of identity. It identifies Jews that God has granted life to. The Church needed to know that at that time, because Gentile Christendom was ignorant to a lot of things that had been going on through the centuries. I wanted to deal with this subject on the foolish virgins and set some things straight in the mind of many. Then the Lord willing, we will be saying a lot in the coming services about unity. If ever there was an occasion and hour of time that unity could be a reality, it is now. This world is going to be shaken real soon. I was watching the News this evening, and this last hurricane that came through Florida, it told how many miles of road that have been washed out, landslides, property washed away from hillsides and so forth. I have a feeling in my heart, that this is only the beginning of a lot of tragedies and disasters that are coming to a modern society that all they think about is the dollar, materialism and security for tomorrow, having no time for God. When we see the things going on right now, and an election coming up in about six weeks, from state to state, there are those crying out, We want same sex marriages, while others are rising up wanting to ban it. I have to say to the atheists and those that say the Bible is nothing but a myth, How come Jesus said two thousand years ago, As it was in the days of Noah, so would it be also in the time of the coming of the Lord. It is here already. Is that a myth? There is only one book in the world that speaks of these sure signs of the end time. There is distress of nations tonight, all over the world. One element of society is crying against the other element because they have been mistreated. Politicians are saying we are going to rid the world of terrorism. No, you are not: you cannot. You have big ideas and big plans, but you have left God out of your plans, so your efforts are vain. I have to say this, God has a plan, and when He sets His plan in motion, this planet will reel and rock. I have to say to all the saints, Our natural eyes are probably not going to enjoy seeing what we might see, but when we look at it from the standpoint how God looks at it, I would have to say, Praise God! All of this shows how accurate the word of prophecy in the Bible is, so the sooner the better. The sooner it is all over, the sooner we all get to go home and be with the Lord. I want to try and end this message on the wise and foolish virgins having satisfied every sincere person that has had a question about what has been taught. As I began this morning, endeavoring to answer this letter from the Philippines, I want to be sure everyone has a chance to understand what is written. This thing that was asked about Bro. William Branham, I had said in a Contender that Bro. William Branham’s message in the hour that he came, was the midnight cry of Matthew 25, verse 6, according to the parable of Jesus. Then later we bring out that it is also the shout of 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Well this person could not understand how to relate the two together. Therefore I want us to go back tonight into Matthew at this time. In the beginning of Matthew 25, He brings this in as something of the future tense, because He started out by saying, THEN, which is future tense, and not in the first age. He is pushing this on into the ending of time, so that is why we have this chart showing the last one hundred years. The last one hundred years covers this twentieth century. In 1902 or 1903 there was the beginning of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Azusa Street meetings in California. It was the beginning of the Laodicean Age being ushered in.
THE WAKING UP PROCESS
Many people received a supernatural experience. But the denominational world as a whole did not move along with it. As we came on through time into the middle of the century, into the 1940’s, WW2 brought a disaster that involved many nations. The war itself caused a lot of people to forget about the Lord. Yet on the other side, families that had lost sons were seen on their knees praying, Oh God, send us a revival. From out of nowhere, not a doctor of divinity, not an educated theologian, but a little man that lived just a few miles from here, came upon the scene. He had an unusual birth down in Kentucky and later moved just a few miles from here as a young child with his parents. God had been speaking to him throughout his childhood. Then in 1933, when he was baptizing down in the Ohio River, a supernatural light of God came down and a voice spoke out, As I was with John the Baptist who was sent to forerun my first coming, thou will take a message that will go around the world to prepare the way for my second coming. Actually his message became the cry in the middle of the night. It began to wake up Christendom from the church world. As it reached a certain point, I would say to the man that wrote the questions, the cry was not just somebody making a loud scream: It was an unusual message that was different than the ordinary. That message became an alarming thing that began to register in minds of people. People began to wake up out in the denominations and began to say, Something about that man makes me feel like we are on the verge of the Lord doing something. That is why I am saying tonight, It was the means and beginning of an awakening process. As I brought in this morning, when you have a large element of people that are sleeping and slumbering, you have different people in different stages of sleep. Let a certain noise or sound be made for the purpose of waking everybody up, not every person reacts the same way. We can say the same thing here, As this man’s message began to go around the world, people began to respond, people began to have questions that needed answers. Some people were just, Oh well, and then went right back to sleep. I am just saying this because there is more in this 25th chapter that describes it. This cry began to lead to the following of something. When we read here about the kingdom of God then, that would be referring to this age, because it is when a number of people were awakened. We see also, that the foolish were told, Go to them that sell and buy for yourselves. At the same time, the wise began to gather together where they could hear more. We have got to come to an understanding of this next part. It tells us in the 10th verse, that while they, the foolish, went to buy, the bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with Him. Where did the foolish go to buy oil? They went to the meetings that preached the Holy Ghost. That came to be known as the charismatic move starting somewhere about 1963 and 1964. It came out of the basements of the little house meetings and began to hit the front row of a lot of churches. The further it went the louder it got, because it was the charismatic move. Catholics became involved. The point of it was, it had no revelation. That is the thing we have got to catch. There was definitely a move of the Spirit of God, but to that element, there was no revelation of the word of God, because those who were involved were just enjoying the Spirit and wanted nothing more. Over here where the wise were gathering, not only did they began to wake up and trim their lamps, something began to say to them, God is moving by His Spirit. There is something deep to be heard and accepted. We see here, that while the foolish went to buy, wherever they were, the Bridegroom came and the wise went in with Him to the wedding. I will say to you, The Bridegroom did not come in person, physically, It is Jesus in a revelation of Himself by the Holy Spirit. He began to move on the hearts of those that you would consider wise. This began to get them to come together. They began to seek God and pray for a deeper walk with Him. They realize something is going on and they do not want to miss out on it. As this period of time comes about, we, for a long period of time, looked at that going in as the rapture. It is not the rapture. Keep in mind, the rapture does not take place until the wise have made themselves ready. That is an interval of time after the cry, but it can also become the shout in 1st Thessalonians 4. The two are one and the self same thing. That is because an interval of time follows. In that interval of time the wise begin to go into a revelation that amounts to dressing themselves in white linen. What they are going into, is a spiritual realm, not into a room, not into a tent. These groups of people who are truly seeking a deeper walk with the Lord began to separate themselves from those who were just seeking a good time, and they are no longer mixing with the denominations. They realize the Spirit of God is on the move to get them separated, to get them in a state of unity, where the wedding garment now becomes more and more cleansed, and we begin to see the quality of it. It is not just a white robe, it is white, fine linen garments. Then when we do see in Revelation 19, the bride coming back to earth with Jesus, we realize John did not see the rapture actually taking her up, he just looked up and saw the Bride already there at the marriage supper and coming back to earth. He described it and said, She hath made herself ready. Hath is past tense. So she did not make herself ready in heaven. She made herself ready down here while the foolish were running here and there enjoying themselves. In this interval of time the foolish are going here and playing church, talking about the Holy Spirit and having a good time. There has been several years they have shouted and spread it all over the world. The move of the Spirit, the move of the Spirit, but you never hear them say God showed me that there is a deeper understanding of His word, and we have to move with it. It all boils down to the fact that we have seen the division of the wise and the foolish, and the foolish are still out there buying what they think they need. We are not making fun of them, because they are actually going to wind up in the kingdom of God. Let us continue to look at the wise, because that is why I said this morning, When these began to go in, we have young people sitting here today that had not even been born then. The young people sitting in here had not been born when this division started back in the early 1960’s, but they have the same potential as anyone else. I am saying this to the one who asked the questions. The parable is only Jesus’ means of saying then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. He uses the natural illustration to illustrate the overall picture, and Jesus is not meaning to limit it to just a five or ten year period of time. What we really need to understand, is that once it starts, it will not be done until He has finished His product. As we get back to our point, this interval of time, as it starts way back here at the beginning of the 1940’s, as the messenger comes on the scene, and by the time we come to 1963, from this point to here, the wise are going in. New ones were born during the time since then, they grow up, they begin to react, and they also begin to come in. By this time Bro. William Branham was anointed of God to preach the six seals of the 6th chapter of the book of Revelation. To every person who hears my voice, there was a people that was following him that was playing the part of the wise. This was not something strange to them, they could see it in the book of Revelation. They knew they were in for something, but the church world in general, had foolish virgins sleeping right on, going on with their little programs. You would have thought that somehow or other, they should have reacted in some way, but when that man, for one solid week, preached from the first, the second, the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth seals, only the wise reacted in a positive way. He brought out the simple meaning of each; and I tried my best this morning to illustrate the wonderful revelation, taking this envelope, rolling it up, to show that it was not a book in the hands of Jesus sitting on the throne in heaven. How many realize that? It was a scroll. You only write on one side of a scroll, the face side. When you close it up, what do you do? You roll it inward with what is written on the inside. Do you follow me? It leaves the back side exposed, but here is a prevailing edge. Well when Jesus, two thousand years ago, led the disciples out over on the Mt. of Olives and ascended into heaven, He was positioned on that throne as High Priest and Mediator of our faith. Written in that scroll is the names of everyone who will have eternal life, as we brought out this morning. There will be Bride saints seen in the great multitude that have been killed in all kinds of ways, as well as others. It is also found here, what was seen by John in that fifth seal. Let me say this, The fifth seal did not save anyone. The fifth seal is what gave a revelation of who it was that had been saved and preserved from among those who were slaughtered. There is no salvation in any of the seals because the one, two, three and four are all pointing to the spirit of antichrist, how the antichrist worked against what God was doing, by deceiving and killing. As Jesus is sitting on the intercessory throne, He took that position two thousand years ago, He did not know who’s names where in there, only the Father knew that, and the Father is not a person, He is a Spirit. For two thousand years He has been interceding between man and God on behalf of the names that the Father alone has put in this scroll. We call it the scroll of redemption. There is a Bride in there; and there are also Jews in there that are not figured with the Bride. There is also another multitude from out of every nation. If you know anything about church history, the gospel did not come and reign predominantly in every nation at the same time. It started in the Middle East, and slowly came from the Middle East, into central Asia, and had its impact there among the Gentiles. That is where the seven churches of Asia were lit. In 69 and 70 A.D. when God cut the Jewish nation off, the gospel began to move from central, then slowly toward the west. As the sun moves from east to west, so did the light of the gospel begin move from east to west. By the time the gospel arrived in Europe in preeminence, it was no longer the major subject in the Middle East, if you understand my point. We can say this, That great multitude you see there in chapter 7, that John saw and said, These are they that have come out of great tribulation, has been misrepresented by doctors of divinity, that used to think, just because of great tribulation, that they are those of the great tribulation in the last half of the week. However when you go back and look at it carefully, it is those that have come out of great tribulation of all times, right on through the grace age. History will confirm that, because it is a great multitude of people that no man could number. I just want to say, Their names were in that scroll from creation, and Jesus had been interceding for every one of them. Let me say this, because on the last Sunday morning of our convention, I am going to be preaching on this seventh seal scroll. I am going to show you by the grace of God, that nobody is saved because of a certain seal. He or she is saved by the grace of God, because the name has been interceded for by Jesus. Jesus did not know who of the number of those in the scroll, would actually be in the Bride. He did not know who the foolish virgins would be either. He did not know who is in the great multitude: He just interceded for all the names. Brothers and sisters, when 1963 came, there was that little man that had already become the cry that had people awakening. The parable brings out, that the minute the cry was made, it all drops out of the picture. Well saints, that is only when things really began. What I want to say now, is what follows that cry, because that is when the wise virgins began to go into a revelation, and it is the Spirit of God dealing with them, enlightening them and causing an even deeper hunger for God’s word. This is where they began to really clean up their garments. Here in the 24th chapter, Jesus tells in the 28th verse, because He said in the 25th and 26th verses, that in these days there would be those that would say, Oh He is in the desert, He is here or there, and Jesus said, Believe it not. “For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” By that, He is saying it is not going to be some hidden thing. But watch. “For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.” You know many years ago it was hard for the natural church goer to understand, what He mean by that? Since the cry came and it separated the foolish from the wise, we can clearly see what He meant. The wise are gathered together wherever the fresh revelation is being taught. Wheresoever the carcase is, some wonder What was He talking about? It is wherever the fresh revelation is, there, will the wise virgins be gathered together. This is written in a parabolic form, so the meaning only comes by revelation. Wise saints that are waiting for the coming of the Lord and the revelation to know how to get ready, that they be clothed properly, do not want to go to church and just hear John 3:16 preached over and over again. Somewhere along the line they are looking for some fresh revelation. Putting it in the natural illustration, eaglets will not eat off an old dead rabbit laying on the roadside somewhere. Only buzzards eat like that. We are not compared buzzards: We are compared to eagles or eaglets. We are looking for fresh meat. Just as an eagle could smell that fresh kill, so is it with a wise saint of God when he or she begins to hear about truth. Where did you hear that, I want to go there. That is because we are looking for truth, and not some church creed. The foolish are not going to where there is a fresh carcase. They are going right back to that old bread box or that old cracker barrel they were eating from before the cry came. What they heard last year, they are going to hear it again this year, next year the same thing all over again. Just remember, when it says here in Matthew, they went in to the marriage, that covers a period of time while the wise are going into a fresh revelation. They not only wake up, they also began to separate themselves from where the foolish are, and began to assemble where the wise are gathering for the fresh meat of the word. Therefore all over this globe the spiritual nostrils of the little eaglets are sniffing out their next meal: they can sense that fresh revelation; and that is all they want to feed upon. That is what we have to get out of that parable. That little period of time does not stop: It just keeps going on, so we keep on. Notice here though, when we come over to verse 44. He gives a warning, and this is to the wise. “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.” He is talking about the time when He is coming for His church. When Jesus said, THEN, in a parable back two thousand years ago, He was pointing right down here to the day we are living in. “Who then (that is future tense) is a faithful and wise servant, (It is a question. Who then, at that time?) whom his Lord hath made ruler over His household, to give them meat in due season?” If we look at it right, this follows that parable about the eagles that smell the fresh killed carcase, but in this instance, He is talking about the minister of that hour. When God used Bro. William Branham to bring the midnight cry, and he began to preach a message to set in motion the process of the wise being brought in where they began not only trim their lamps, they also began to get their revelation scripturally set in order. From that time onward, there has been that period of time going in, but it is going into a revelation, into an understanding, getting deeper and deeper in the knowledge of the Lord. The Holy Spirit has a way of leading those people. Young ones can be born that never heard Bro. William Branham, but when they grow up, if they have been raised up under the influence of parents that have been affected by the gospel on the wise side, we trust and pray that every last one of them begin to have that hunger, like, I want to see what daddy saw, I want to see what mommy saw. I am thankful to God, I have been privileged to stand here in this church and dedicate little babies brought by their parents years ago, and been privileged to watch those little babies grow up and then I have had the opportunity to marry many of them, and they have fallen right into the footsteps of the wise to embrace this truth. That is what every wise parent prays for. Once the cry was made, Behold the Bridegroom cometh, it created an awakening process that will stay right there in the hearts of the wise until we do reach that point in time where Jesus changes the order of events. That is when we are ready to hear the voice of the arch angel. How many understand that? At that time different ministers begin to awaken. They begin to see the responsibility of this message that was brought, and how it is to be used, and what it is to produce.
SOME THINGS I HAVE SEEN DEVELOP
As I look back through the years when Bro. William Branham was alive. There were men that came to this part of the country and also got a lot of attention. One man I think of was Paul Lawry from India. He had an outstanding, miraculous ministry among the Indian people, but when he heard about Bro. William Branham, he came all the way to America to meet the man. Once he had met the man and witnessed his ministry, he decided to go to the Tabernacle and get re-baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, because he was a trinitarian. That was what Bro. William Branham’s message was, among the wise, Get out of those denominations and get out of our mind all those old traditions we have held on to, and get back on a biblical pathway. Then I think of Ewald Frank of Germany, and other men from different parts of the world that began to hear about Bro. William Branham and come to investigate. They came, and some might have seen him a couple times, been in a couple of meetings, but then they would go back to their part of the world. When the time came that God took Bro. William Branham off the scene, many of them felt that it was their responsibility to pick up then and carry on to feed the wise. Naturally that was a work that was needed, but the shame of it all, was that it eventually turned out, all the way from Africa to Europe, India and wherever those men rose up from, they sooner or later had their own independent message, and their attitude was as though they were the only one that had the message for the wise virgins of the hour. It was not long until something would happen in their life that would begin to cause them to deviate from the true path and begin to make a change. The point is, in that period of time of the wise going in, a lot of things did take place that caused an upset. Remember, this going in process is taking a bath, it was absolutely allowing our garments to be cleansed and pressed. By other parables, we realized all along the way among the wise, that Jesus was looking on.
MAN WITHOUT A WEDDING GARMENT
When Jesus used the parable like, The king came in and looked at all the guests that had been invited, they had all taken their baths, they have on their robes, but when the king came in to take a look at all the guests before the doors are opened for all the guests to go into the banquet hall, which would mean actually going into the rapture, to the marriage supper of the Lamb, What does it say in that parable? When the king came in and took a look, he saw one there that He questioned, How come you are in here not having on the wedding garment? What did he say? Now be real gentle and take him by the hand and kindly lead him out and give him a cup of coffee or lemonade, or something and say, Now you sit there? No. He said, Throw him out!. Not only that, He also said, “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” That certainly goes to show, that among the wise there has to be every person, not only baptized by the Holy Spirit, but besides the Holy Spirit baptism, it has to be with a revelation of truth, because that is what identifies you from just a white robed saint, and shows that you are in fine linen. How many catch the point? The revelation and washing is the part of going in. When we look over into that same period of time where they have been going in, then there comes a time, that finally the foolish begin to hear what is going on among the wise. I have likened this many times, One of these days when this little church that the Lord has been working on for several years now, to get all their theology straightened out, and we have all the wrinkles out and we are sitting together with the same understanding and we are in unity, I feel like wherever those people are in their small assemblies, we are going to see how the Spirit of God really moves and uses those people. Every gift will be back in operation just like it was in the apostolic hour, whether it is where there are a dozen or a hundred. The main thing is, they will all be alike in their spiritual makeup. They will all look alike and reflect the same image to the Lord. It is in that final state, that the foolish from out of that realm begin to hear about what is going on; and as you see in Matthew, after awhile some of them begin to return and they begin to knock. That goes to show there has not been a rapture, because you cannot knock on any door and say, Lord, take me up too. We can say this, The knocking is only symbolic of the fact that they will begin to come around where you are and say, What is it you all believe? The more you try to explain it, the more puzzled they are. They can sit and listen and it sounds good, but if the Holy Spirit has not anointed their spiritual minds to take the words you are saying and break it down and give them a quickening understanding, you could spend the next ten years trying your best to get them to see some little thing, but when they leave they just scratch their head and say, I Just don’t understand. That is what is meant, in the 11th verse of the 25th chapter, “Afterward came also the other virgins, (this is the foolish ones, along toward the last, just before the rapture does take place) saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.” They are not standing before a door, nor a tent. They are standing in the presence of a group of wise people that are happy they know what they believe, and they know why, because the Lord has taught them. He has washed them. As for the foolish, no matter how hard they try to listen, they cannot understand what they are hearing. That is what the true picture is, so it is like a natural man or woman standing outside a natural door and knocking, saying, Lord, open to us. Just then the voice within says, I never knew you, Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. It may sound strange, but that is His response. “But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.” From within the revelation of the wise that comes, and it means the time has come, just before the end and just before the rapture, that the foolish will want what the wise have, but they cannot obtain the understanding. It will be utterly impossible for anybody out of that realm to really understand any of it. How many understand me now? No matter how much you try to teach them, they still cannot see it, because they were foreknown of the Father to be foolish virgins; and besides that, they have stayed out there in that charismatic group too long to even have time to understand what the bride knows. It just goes to show, once the little Bride really begins to take on unity, (and I have to say that is what we are all gathered here for.) all that are of the bride will be included in the number. The days of people sitting together discussing scripture and some saying, Well I don’t think we have to see eye to eye, is past. I believe we do all have to see eye to eye, if we are of the chosen bride of Christ. I believe what Paul wrote about it in Ephesians 4, and what we see in the prophecy of Isaiah 52:8, the time is coming, when they all continue steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine. That is what it says about the early Church in the book of acts, they also went from house to house, breaking bread. That is the way the early church was, and I believe the end time Church is going to return to just exactly that way. That is why it says there would be a message, a message of unification, purification, a coming together. It does not matter what race we are: it is a matter of what we have inside of us. I look out over you who are gathered here tonight from different places, and when you all get here, we all together become a pretty good representation of what the picture in the Bible is about. What if they get up here and sing in Norwegian, or they get up here and sing in an African dialect, or they get up here sing in Spanish? It doesn’t matter, because it is coming from a heart that is united behind one thought, we are all here because we are looking at one finished product. I want to be part of that Church that is made ready for the soon coming of the Bridegroom. We are in that state, we are in that period of time. That is why we are not in here to go to sleep and wrinkle our garments. We are in here to bring our testimony and our experience in line with everything that is in the scriptures. You everyone know, you cannot say anything that changes that religious world out there. Tonight, no doubt there are many thousands of people gathered in meetings somewhere, where ever charismatic preachers are preaching. Oh the beautiful songs they can sing, with tears flowing from their eyes, but those poor people know no more when they leave than they did when they came in. I saw on TV one night, it looked like there were ten thousand people in that auditorium. When you looked at them, you saw women in jeans with tattoos on their ankles and much, much worse. My, the tears in their eyes looked like streams flowing. I just thought, Get in that pulpit and preach some truth, and they will run you off. How many understand what I mean? They do not want a revelation: They want you to entertain them. That is what it is all about. I have to say, The Lord is not in the process of entertaining us: He is in the process of giving us a revelation. That revelation is what makes you take on more of His likeness. Paul wrote in the Colossian letter, that as Jesus is the head of the Church and He is the fulness of all the attributes of God in that physical body, then Paul brings out that the Church is also to be the fulness of Christ demonstrated. The true Church has got to stop being Methodist or Baptist, and be a holy body of people that all think and believe alike. When you get around where they are gathered, everything is in the scriptures, so when you talk about it, it is an Amen, Amen, Praise the Lord. I have to feel like we are moving right on toward unity tonight. Everybody is wanting it, saying, Lord I want to be part of this. Some might ask, Well how can you learn all of this so fast? Just open your heart, you will find it is surprising what the Lord can do for you. Some people have been sitting in a cold church somewhere, believing in a trinity for so long, it is hard for them to imagine anything else. The truth is, there never was a trinity from God’s standpoint, but the professing world of religion has believed it for so long people just lived in that. People will say, I have been a trinitarian all my life and I will die that way. Don’t say that! You have been deceived, but the Spirit of God is awakening some to a true revelation of the godhead.
WHAT IS GOD?
The Bible only speaks of one God and He is not a person. He is a Spirit. If you think the Father is a person sitting somewhere, and Jesus, which is a person, sitting somewhere else, then it is easy for you to say the Holy Spirit is another person. The Holy Spirit is not a person: He is that same sovereign Spirit that created the universe. He has no shape nor anything the natural eye can see. Neither does the Father, because He is that same Spirit that is everywhere. He is all wisdom, He is the life of everything, He is Creator of everything. When the time came that God wanted to send forth His only begotten Son, He did not reach over to the Son that had always been sitting there, waiting, as some believe, and say, Now Son, are you ready to go down? He did not say that at all. The Son was already the preconceived word thought in the mind of the Father. That is why the prophets of old spoke of Him, the Messiah, the anointed one that was to come. When the time came, the Father sent an angel down that spoke with a young woman in the city of Nazareth. He began to tell her how she was to conceive and bear a Son, and His name would be called JESUS. When He told what the name would be, she asked, How can this be, seeing I know not man? He said, the Holy Ghost shall come upon you and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; and he went on to tell her the holy thing that would be born of her would be called the Son of God. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God because He is the Creator, He is the Father of everything. When we refer to Him as the Holy Spirit, we are speaking of Him in His redemptive role of redeeming something. He created in that virgin womb the nucleus of the very thing that would become the embryo from which the Son would be born and walk on earth in human flesh. The thought of God was removed from His mind and planted in a virgin womb, so God had embodied in that little fetus the very beginning of redemption. We can say, Two thousand years ago the Son of God was born, yet He had been in the mind of God through all of the ages past. Because the trinitarians do not have a revealtion of the godhead, they believe Jesus, when He was born, was that Son that was already there involved in creation with the Father. No brothers and sisters, He was not anywhere except in the mind of the Creator until the Creator was ready for Him to be born. Jesus the Son of God, had a beginning two thousand years ago. The word (thought) that was in the mind of the Father, was made flesh. It is hard to put this in understandable words at times, but we just have to see that it was the Word of the Father that made Jesus be born into this world in a body of human flesh. The Father just waited for the time to come, to separate that from His mind and put it in action. One day, in a little cave, a stable in Bethlehem, Jesus was born. That is when He had His literal beginning. When Mary left Nazareth with Joseph, they went down there to pay taxes. The thing is, because Mary did not conceive like every other woman did, she did not know exactly when she should expect to deliver. They did not know when they left home that she was that close. That explains why they did not have proper swaddling cloths with them. Nevertheless in that little cave, which was really a stable, she gave birth to her little baby. That was the Son of God. Now may I say this, Jesus was not God. I want every one of you to realize that. He was and is the Son of God. You cannot find anywhere in the New Testament that Jesus, being the Son of God, and born that way, was God in flesh. From His birth until He was thirty years of age, which was when He was baptized in water, He had never preached a sermon, He had never performed a miracle, nor had He ever claimed to be what many denominational people believe He was. He grew up like any other boy would. We do have to realize that He came to know His role from the scriptures, so that He knew exactly what He was to do at age thirty. Nobody had to say to Him, Jesus, don’t you think it is time you were going to the river to get baptized? Neither did He go ask the rabbis. He knew what the scriptures said and He waited until the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God in His redemptive role, inspired Him. Then one day when John the Baptist was down at the Jordan river preaching and baptizing, here came this one little fellow to be baptized. He came walking down the river bank; and when John looked up, he did not have to say, Who are you? He just suddenly proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” John knew Him, because he saw the sign of the Father resting upon Him. When Jesus came to John to be baptized, John said, “I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” Jesus said, “Suffer it to be so, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness” Right there, when Jesus began his thirtieth year of life, John immersed Him in water. When he lifted Him up out of that water the Bible says “The heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him.” Then God, not a person in any form, spoke audibly from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” From then on this boy that had grown up into manhood, which the Catholics say even when He was a little boy He was creating birds. That is plain nonsense. He never preached a sermon or created anything while growing up. He grew up in statue. I believe I can say this, Many times He probably followed Joseph to where he was working on a house. He probably had to bring Joseph who was recognized as his daddy a board, or some tool he needed. Keep in mind, that from twelve years of age when He was at the temple and the Pharisees marveled at His wisdom and began to say, How come He knows so much, having never learned letters, never having gone to school? During that time from twelve to His baptism, we find very little that we can say about him. There are a lot of things in the Bible, if we will let it talk to us the right way, that we can learn from. Jesus, at twelve years of age, was occupied in talking to those elders, then when his mother and Joseph did leave, they thought He was somewhere around with the other kids, but when the end of the day came, where was Jesus, they did not seen Him anywhere. Joseph and Mary turned and went back to Jerusalem looking for Him. After three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors and listening to them and then asking questions. When Mary asked Him, Why have you caused us to worry? He replied, Don’t you know I must be about my Father’s business? Nevertheless He left and the Bible says in the writings of Luke, He went back to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph and became subject to them and grew in statue and wisdom, and found favor with God and Man. He was not out as a little boy, always throwing rocks at the neighbor’s cat. He was a little boy growing up to learn more and more about the Father. That is why He grew in stature, and in wisdom. That is why, from twelve years of age until thirty years of age, there was that silent period that we know very little of what Jesus did or what He did not do. When He was thirty years of age, He becomes a public figure. He was not born God, He was born the Son of God, but when that Holy Spirit which is God, came down and dwelled in Him, the Father saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased or pleased to dwell in, from then onward God had His abode in Him, and all of God’s divine attributes were expressed in and through the person of His Son. That is why some call Him (Jesus) God, because all that God is, was expressed through Him for three and one half years. In three and one half years, the life of Jesus changed the whole picture for humanity. Then one day He died on the cross as a means of atonement for you and me. When He arose from the dead and went into heaven, and picked up that scroll, He started interceding for the names of those that are written therein and at no time did He know who was or was not written therein: that was all in the mind of the Father. God was in Jesus reconciling lost mankind to Himself. Let me say also, Not one of those written in that scroll will be lost, because it contains the names of those that will be redeemed, all according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. Having said all of that, let me try to get back to where I was before.
THAT WHICH FOLLOWED THE DEATH, BURIAL AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS
After the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, all things began to be a changed picture. The Church was born on the day of Pentecost and the Church grew from that time on down through time. In 96 A.D. the book of Revelation became a recorded prophecy, but so much of it was misunderstood and the church world knew very little of what it all was talking about. Then, a few years ago, there was a little man that had an unusual birth down in the state of Kentucky. He moved to southern Indiana and grew up just a few miles from here. Little did the world know what this little man would one day become, an instrument in the hands of God. When the time was right, God brought him out of obscurity, anointed him and he began to preach. Out of the ordinary, things began to happen and people began to sit up and take notice. It was not long until he began to preach some things out of the scriptures that made church going people say, Now that is not what I believe. That is why Malachi said that spirit of Elijah would come again, and to do what? To turn the heart of the children, (Who are the children?) That is you and me.) back to the faith of our fathers. (Who were our fathers?) That turns our faith back to Peter, Paul, James and John, and all those who preached and wrote what is recorded in this New Testament. Just look what carnal mankind has done with this wonderful revelation that God has been so gracious to entrust to us. They have changed this, they have changed that, they have adulterated this wonderful truth, until the earth is filled with carnal minded people that will believe any old thing that does not require much from them. Many of them will say, It doesn’t matter what you believe, just as long as you believe in Jesus. That is like trying to tell a rabbit dog to stop chasing rabbits and chase the cat. He does not want to chase the cat, he only wants to chase rabbits. For all that number of years, that little man brought an understanding of things out of the Bible in a way that was so simple. What was his main theme? Let’s get back to the doctrines and teachings of the apostles. That means one God instead of three. It also means believers must be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ instead of the titles of Matthew 28:19. That is the only way the apostles baptized from the day of Pentecost and onward. Is the baptism of the Holy Ghost for us? Yes. He said everybody has to have it because it is only through the baptism of the Holy Ghost that you are sealed away into the body of Christ, never to be separated from God again. He also said this, that the gifts of the Spirit will be restored to the true body of Christ just like it was in the apostolic days. If you do not believe that, when the Bible itself tells you in Ephesians 4, that God set a certain type of ministry in the Church, that was to be the ministry that will perfect the Church, to get it ready for the rapture, then what are you using for a Bible? What did the prophet say about that? I have it right here, just bear with me a moment. When he was asked the question, Would the Church have a revival in the end time, Here is his words, “Sure, that is what is going on right now, the Bride of Christ certainly. It is the message of the hour. The Bride of Christ, sure, she consists of apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists and pastors. Is that right? (That is a question he asks.) That is the Bride of Christ. Sure, she has a ministry, a great ministry, the ministry of the hour. It will be so humble.” It won’t be Dr. This and Professor This. It will be humble men that have deep in their heart an understanding of these scriptures and they will know exactly how to take it and feed it to the wise children of God. As they feed it to the wise children of God, it helps them put on this robe of fine linen, which is the righteousness of saints. That is why we are in that process right now, but that process is getting short, because time is running out. That is exactly why, when John saw the Bride in the 19th chapter of Revelation, already raptured and returning to earth with King Jesus, that is the only time John saw it. When he looked up, what did he see? She was dressed in fine linen. He heard it said, This is His wife, she hath, past tense, made herself ready. She did not do that up there, but down here. Down here, in that period of time she has slowly been going into a revelation, which is where she is perfected. I will say this again, The Bride was not saved under any particular seal, because those seals are all symbols of the antichrist. How can you be sealed under the symbol of an antichrist? No matter how much the devil worked to defeat God’s purpose, Jesus’ interceding for the names in that scroll kept everyone the Father had given Him, The Holy Spirit which is God, identified the antichrist in those seals.Then in heaven, around the throne of God, what was seen? First the lion, second the calf, third the head of a man and last was the eagle. Right? As Bro. William Branham illustrated this, When the Holy Ghost fell on the day of Pentecost, for many years every person that believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, though the antichrist did everything he could to deceive, and to mislead and confuse them, the Spirit of God first represented by the spirit of that lion, was always there to preserve. The nature of a lion is never to give up. How many understand that? That is how the Spirit of God was projected to the saints of God. The more the devil rose to criticize, to make life terrible, the Spirit of that lion was right there to encourage and make strong. I have used this many times to illustrate God’s delivering grace. Here is Peter and them locked up in jail. When you put a lion in prison, what does it do? Does he go off to the corner and sleep? No. He is walking the cage back and forth. When he sees an opportunity to get out, he is absolutely going to get out of there. That is why God would send an earthquake and open the jail doors and out they would go. Now as we are living under that fourth seal which is the gray horse period, this is the most deceptive time in the entire Christian dispensation, when you consider what is being propagated. Let us look up to the throne of God. What is that last head? The eagle. That goes to show, no matter how deceptive the devil is down here, working in the natural realm to deceive, mislead and confuse, there is an eagle up there with an all seeing eye. The spirit of God is being projected in that for the benefit of true believers. I will just say, If you are a wise saint, somewhere that eagle is watching over you. The more the devil tries to deceive you, the more that eagle flies higher, and he can see ahead. That is why, in 1963 when God showed Bro. William Branham the revelation of these seals, that eagle began to show its characteristics. Though God took the prophet from the scene, the eagle is still on top of the situation. I have to believe he is going to stay on the situation to guide us, to alert us and direct us until He is ready to take us out of this world. I realize there are a lot of other things I could say, but I have said enough to let you know the foolish virgins are not saved because of any particular seal. The first four seals speak of the different dispensations the antichrist is portrayed in. Regardless of his deceiving tactics, every name that Jesus has been interceding for, is kept from the lake of fire to enjoy eternal life. The Spirit that was projected from one of those heads has worked down here on behalf of all of them. Regardless of all else, we have to realize there are different groups in there. That is why I said this morning, When we come to the end of this Grace Age, which ends right here, when the wise Church is raptured and that week of Daniel starts, the foolish virgins that are left alive here, will go into this period where Satan will seek to get them. He can slaughter them, but he cannot have them: they belong to God. There is still another element of those Jews that have been killed back through here, like under Hitler and on back, when we get over here, right here, is where that antichrist in his final work, is going to kill these foolish virgins. The foolish virgins are not saved by being over here, they are saved back here while Jesus is still on the mercy seat (chart) because they are a product of what is in this redemptive scroll. Therefore once that seventh seal is broken and the seven thunders sound to the Bride, that eventually takes the Bride in the rapture, and all you have left then is the foolish virgins and those Jews that are ordained to go through this period of tribulation and give their life, rather than deny God. That is why, just before the resurrection over here at the coming of Christ, there is their spirits up there in heaven in the 15th chapter. When John looked up there he saw standing on that sea of glass, those that sung the song of Moses. Only the Jews sing that. But there were the others that sung the song of the Lamb, which goes to show that both Jew and Gentile, had been martyred here in the last half of the week of Daniel. Therefore Jesus had interceded for them because they are a part of this scroll. They were not saved because of a seal: They were saved because they had been interceded for. The seal only identified certain things that these different groups were saved from, as the devil in a certain time frame tried his best to get them. That is why I say this covers everything from the beginning of Grace until we come over here to the end of the week. When Jesus comes again, with His wsife, He is setting up the Millennial reign. He is going to first raise these that have been slaughtered as that week closed out. Then according to Matthew 25, Jesus is going to gather all the mortals of every nation and they will be judged as to whether they will be allowed to pass on into the Millennium to repopulate, or be condemned to the lake of fire. The Bride of Christ will be the judges, and those martyred saints from the tribulation of the last half of that week will be the witnesses. They will be raised first and seen standing on the sea of glass, and their testimony will be based upon how those mortals treated them during that perilous time. Every name in that scroll has been interceded for, and is going to all be resurrected by the time the first resurrection is completed. You have the Bride, the great multitude, the foolish virgins, the believing Jews and everything that will be given eternal life all resurrected, but the rest of the dead live not again until the thousand years are over. That is why I said this morning, Once the thousand years are over and Jesus is ready to set up the great white throne judgment, you do not read anywhere, that this scroll is opened there. It has already fulfilled its purpose. What does it tell you? The books were opened, the books of deeds, and the book of life. That takes you all the way back to Adam. There are a lot of things in the word of God, that the greater majority of mortal mankind does not even want to think about. They will be quick to tell you, I am not interested in those things. Well, I am. This part they do not want to hear about, is what puts us spiritually, ready to meet the Bridegroom. Amen