Contenders/E Contenders/Rev. Raymond Jackson

Evidence: What Is It?, Part 2

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Rev. Raymond M. Jackson
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STRAIGHT TALK

You can find various opinions about the right and wrong of some worship practices, so I want to help you look at time. I want to remind some of the Pentecostal’s who think speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost, that it was not always like that. I am going to bring you through the time just before the Reformation started. I have read in history of the 14th century, when there was a minority type of people in Europe, the Huguenots and Waldenses, which were not of the elite, wealthy people of Europe. They all belonged to the system, but the Catholic system was out to get rid of everything they considered to be heresy. These Huguenots and Waldenses began to feel that because of the things they believed in, sooner or later the Catholic Church would round them up and martyr them. That did happen to some of them. In some of the histories I have read, a manifestation of prophecy was given in the midst of some of those groups. God used this as a means to verbally tell these people where to go and what to do. I would have to ask, was that a mistake on God’s part? Do you think it was? No. It was not, and to me, that was just as much evidence as anything else, when you are looking for evidence. That was how those people managed to escape the clutches of that terrible tyranny the Catholic Church brought against them, coming on through time, just before 1900. I remember the testimony of a man named Demas Shekarian (spelling ?) He used to be the president of the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Association. We went down to Alabama one time to be in a meeting where Bro. William Branham was speaking. Demas Shekarian was a descendant of some of the Armenian Christians that had been filled with the Holy Ghost back before the turn of the century. In that period of time, just before the dawning of 1900, the Holy Ghost moved on these Armenian people also. They not only began to prophesy, they were also having visions. Nothing was said about them speaking in tongues, but there was a fourteen year old boy among them, the Holy Ghost came upon that boy, and for hours he sat under the influence of this vision. He wrote a prophecy, and drew a picture. In this prophecy it told there would come a certain time when these people would be persecuted. When this time comes, you will flee this area and make your way across the continent of Europe to the western side of the coast. There you will board a ship and sail into the new world. Once in the new world, you will eventually make your way across land and settle in the western part of the new world. After the prophecy had been given by that young boy, that group of Armenian Christians, filled with the Holy Spirit, remembered this. Then one day here came the Muslim army right into Armenia. That was before the Russians took over. A lot of the other Christians had been slaughtered by them. If I remember the testimony right, the group his mother was in, some of the relatives, they were all in the middle of a street, as a group, kneeling down, expecting to be killed. They were praying. The commander of the group of Muslims, came riding up on horseback, looking at them. They were weeping and praying with their hands in the air. The commander motioned to the men, leave them alone. When they all rode off, this group remembered that prophecy that had been given a few years prior, so very slowly, they made their way across Europe. They all eventually made it to the new world, made their way to California and his relatives were in the Azuza Street meeting when the Holy Ghost was poured out upon them. I want to say this to the Pentecostal people, knowing that many of them came out of the Nazarene’s, that at one time used to speak in tongues. The original place at Azuza Street was the beginning of a Nazareen revival. Many of them were Methodists, Baptists, and so forth that came there. Then the Nazarene’s dropped it, they wanted nothing to do with an element of people that was going to speak in tongues. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit was poured out, and many of them did speak in tongues. I met some men who knew some of the old timers, and they said there was a lot of fanatical things that went on there just as well. Some people who were supposed to be running in the Spirit fell and broke their wrists, or a finger, or an arm, trying to walk the backs of benches. Some were in the Spirit and some were not in the Spirit. So I have to say, there is nothing wrong with running in the spirit, if you are in the Spirit. I heard Perry Green say one time, I was running, but when I turned the corner I slipped and went down on my side, it knocked the breath out of me, and I have never run since then. Well that is why I have to say, know that you are in the Spirit and you will never have to say you will never run again. I hope you everyone understand what I am saying? Is that putting a damper on anybody? No. It only means I am putting the truth out here to guide you. I am saying to you, The Holy Spirit, down through time has manifested Himself in many different ways. Back in the time of the Methodists and Baptists, back about 1825, in eastern Kentucky, there was a group of Methodists and Baptists that got together to have a community revival. They did not know what God was going to do. No sooner had they started, that the power of God began to slay the people, they would lay on the floor for hours, then someone would haul them home while they were like that. This went on in John Wesley’s meetings. I am asking the Pentecostal’s today, who hold to this evidence thing, what was that, that made them lay on the floor for hours, so they had to haul them home? Some will say, Yes, but they did not receive the Holy Ghost. How do you know they didn’t? The Holy Spirit has got to be in there first. The Bible says in Acts 2, they heard a sound like the sound of a rushing mighty wind. They heard that first. Have you heard that? I have. Then they saw cloven tongues like fire sitting on then. Well I have not seen anything like that, but I have felt it come inside. They were all filled first, and, is a conjunction, then they began to speak in tongues. So I am saying, when we are living after a thousand years of Dark Ages of Christendom, and Christianity going through all that turmoil and confusion, God has His own way to restore His Church. You and I are not going to set the pattern, the time, the place, when, what or where. He has already determined what He is going to do. I have read of a man who was before John Wesley, George Whitfield was his name. Some of the same manifestations went on in his revival meetings all over England and Europe. Then came John Wesley. These manifestations did go on in John Wesley’s ministry. They would just fall out on the floor in the Spirit, and later, someone would pick them up and haul them home. I have ask, what was wrong with them? Some would say, well it could be the Spirit of God, but they didn’t get filled. Well I have to say they got filled with something. William Cary followed along after that, and then George Mueller, Charles Finney and Dwight L. Moody. You read the records of those men. There was a constant manifestation of the Holy Ghost in their meetings, where people were slain in the Spirit. Even the sick were prayed for and were healed. I am just saying today, when God starts restoring His Church, He has already restored manifestations of His Spirit, which bear witness of what He is going to do, and when He does it, He will do it the way that pleases Him and never will He ask me, can I do this, or not? He will do what He wants to do, with whoever He wants to. When time did move into the 20th century and God gave the Pentecostal experience, that was God restoring the manifestation of gifts. I will say to the Pentecostal systems today, on either side of the fence, you cannot say that they baptized at that time in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I know they did not. They were all Trinitarians. As they received these experiences, speaking in tongues and things like that, they started going out to different parts of the world preaching this experience instead of the Gospel. All of a sudden, and I have read the testimonies, God was going to begin to restore baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, but there was no man coming across the country with this revelation. I have read the testimony of men, how they could be sitting at a breakfast table with their Bible open, meditating, praying before they go to work. Maybe an audible voice, or maybe God would just cause them to open up to Acts the 2nd chapter, and when they would see how the early Church baptized, either that would come right out at them and they would look at it and see it so vividly, or at other times, I have read the testimonies of different persons, an audible voice would say, will you take my name? When they would hear that, they knew that meant they had to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many times they would go to a friend and relate it to that brother. That brother would see it, and they would baptize each other. Brother Spoehr who lives in Wisconsin, has an old magazine that the oneness people had put out there in the beginning of their meetings. I have read the story. Up in a certain place in eastern Indiana, this man from out west was called to be in their meeting. He too was a Trinitarian. The pastor had asked him to come. The meeting had lasted about three weeks. A lot had received this experience. But at that time, they were all Trinitarians. On the day they were going to have the baptism, they were all down at the river. The pastor and the evangelist are standing, getting ready to baptize a certain person. A supernatural voice spoke to this evangelist, bury that person in my name. The pastor heard something, but he did not distinguish what it really was. He looked at the evangelist, what was that? The evangelist said, nothing. Again the voice said, bury that person in my name. Then the pastor heard it and asked, what did He say? The evangelist said, I will tell you when we get back to the house. He went ahead and buried all of them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. That was recorded in this article in the oneness magazine. When they went back to the house, sitting around the table, then the pastor asked the evangelist, what did He say down at the river? The evangelist replied, He said to bury them in His name. The pastor said, then let us study this. They went to the book of Acts, and every place they saw baptism performed by the early Church, it was done in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the pastor said to the evangelist, then you will re-baptize every one of us. I have read many testimonies of that hour of time, around about 1908 into 1912, among the Trinitarians, God would speak to a man, or a family, that would cause them to follow water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. What was God doing? He was restoring the proper way of baptism. Listen carefully, they still do not yet have a true picture of the godhead, but they do have a picture of water baptism. Out of that change, came mainly the old oneness teaching, that Jesus was God. Well that was good for its day, at least He was not the third person of a trinity, nor the second, but the only person of the godhead. As time passed, the Trinitarian side stayed trinity. Let us look at this now, both sides had an evidence experience, but only one group received a revelation of proper baptism, not necessarily of the full godhead, but at least on the part of baptism. All this time, each group has sat on their side of the denominational barrier, or the fence. The oneness say of the others, oh they are going to hell. I Just have to say, the trinity are not going to hell any quicker than the oneness are. The oneness have got to the place you can not teach them anything. They have no further insight into what the Holy Spirit is given for than the other faction has. They denominate and form their organization, they have written their bylaws, and there they sit. They will not budge, they will not change, I know what I believe, they will say. I have to say, yes, you believe just like the Baptists, not the same things, but you are just as stubborn as the Baptists or the Methodists. When the time came for God to raise up a man to fulfill that spirit of Elijah, I can see a little man, he was a Baptist, but God gave him an experience. Through his younger life, I read the story of how God would speak to him from the trees, and bushes, and the Pentecostals think it is crazy, just nonsense. Well, it was a bush on fire that God spoke to Moses from, but they think God does not work that way any more. I have to say one thing, you are not going to find him speaking from the top of the Statue of Liberty, I would rather think He would speak from the roof of a barn somewhere, than from some elite kind of setting. He did manifest in both ranks of Pentecost, speaking in tongues, some of them did, some of them prophesied. I am saying this, when you see each denomination in their particular setup, they have not come to the fulness of the truth? They have not allowed anything beyond what they already have. When God used that little man, and gave him an unusual gift of divine healing, wherever he went, there sat the Trinitarians and also the Jesus name people. One time when Bro. William Branham was in Topeka, Kansas, we went to the meeting. They had a Jesus name pastor, he was one of the pastors of the Topeka group that helped sponsor his meeting. He knew this Trinitarian Assembly of God man, they both lived there in the same city. One night this Jesus name pastor got up and said, I told my friend, I believe in one God so much, I use three in one oil to anoint. That is the way some of those denominational characters are. Nevertheless, I have to say, they have themselves all hemmed in, locked in, and you cannot budge them. Then here came this little man, (Bro. Branham) I never did hear him stand and say, yea I say unto thee, I am Malachi 4, come quickly. Never were any words said like that. It seemed like God manifested His power in and through the man in such a simple way, people that really did have the Holy Spirit leading them, working in them, began to study this man. They could not help but see something unusual going on and thought, I need to take hold of some of the things he has taught. So I can say this, down the road of life he came, finally he began to touch a little on the godhead, and on water baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus.

PERSONAL TESTIMONY
OF BROTHER JACKSON

I was sitting there in Bro. William Branham’s meetings, just a little old Methodist from down in Harrison County, God had already showed me in 1952 that the spirit of Elijah is coming again, and I was a Methodist. The first time I went to hear that man, oh my, it just changed my whole perspective about how I looked at things. After I was introduced to him, he started coming down home to rabbit hunt and squirrel hunt. I thought, if I could get this man in Rogers Campground Methodist Church, we would have a real revival, we would turn the old church upside down. That is the way I looked at it. So I would ask him, but he would just say, Bro. Junie, I will pray about it, if God leads, I will come. One Sunday morning, I was sitting about the third seat back from the front, and in his message, he brought in the Holy Spirit, and said, it is for every one of you, even you Methodists, and he looked right at me. Now some people would take offense at that. I didn’t, I just thought, I want everything God will give me. It was not long until I could be found in the barn praying, in a cow stable. I will say this for the sake of the evidence people. I went with Bro. Glenn across the river to a high school building in Louisville, that was in the early spring of 1953, in the month of April. When I heard that evangelist say, I am going to be praying for those that really want more of God in their lives. If you are here and you want more of God in your life, you fast a meal the day you come. Well, I thought if one meal would do good a whole day would be better, just like the old Indian, all three will do better. So when I got in that line, I didn’t know what to expect. I was a Methodist. But I expected something to happen. I was about the third one up in the line, I heard the words come out of his mouth, Lord, you have your hand upon this young man’s life. He just touched me on the top of my head. Something came into my head, it went right down through my feet and I just fell at his feet. Here I was, laying on the floor. That old Methodist thought came to me, now you don’t look right laying here like this. I thought, I will get up, but when I put my elbow under me, I just strained and pushed, I couldn’t move. The thought came to me, if God has his hand on me, then Lord have your way. About that time the power of God began to surge through me, it felt like I had been hooked up to a huge electric current, that is the best I can describe it. It was going through my whole being, I thought, if I could just die like this. I am ready to go to glory. I tried to open my eyes and all I could see was one great big light. Laying there on the floor, I felt so helpless. Finally someone said, you can get up. I thought, get up, I can’t even move. Bro. Glenn took hold of my arms and helped me to my feet. I stood there wobbling. I can say to the Pentecostal evidence people, no, I didn’t speak in tongues, but I am going to tell you, if you had been standing there with your fingers pointing to me, well you haven’t received the Holy Ghost, I would have felt like saying, you go jump in the creek, because something has sure set me on fire. I say that only for the sake of saying, the Spirit of God is the power of God, it is God Himself. He can come to you any way, in any form He sees fit, to meet your need. I began to pray, Lord, just let me speak in tongues, somewhere, somehow, and I promise I will never preach it as evidence, because I could see the falsehood of it. It went on until the fall when I was in another meeting. I went on Saturday night just to be prayed for, my prayer was Lord, you do something for me, let me speak in tongues or something. I will say to those who believe in the evidence of speaking in tongues, when I got in that line, there was a line of preachers on each side. By the time I got up where the preachers were, that drunken feeling started taking hold of me, I began to stagger, I had no control, I fell forward. To big arms grabbed me and drug me, with my head hanging down, and laid me down in the straw. This was in a tent meeting. The thought came to me, I will feel like I did that other night. No, I did not, but when I had laid there about a minute, it felt like something began to swell up in my stomach. I thought, what is this, it was like a rock coming down a tube. When it came out my mouth, it was a word. Those rocks just kept flowing and those words just kept flowing. Here I am laying face down in the straw, talking in another language. I never felt like I was electrified or anything. I lay there probably about seven or eight minutes, talking in another language, when I got up from there, I did not stagger back to my feet, I walked back to my seat. I came home thinking, God, you have let me speak in another language. I sure didn’t feel like I did that other night when I was over there in the high school. But I know now, so I can say this, from that experience, I began to pray Lord, if this is to be followed, let it be a gift in my life. There is an old barn down in Harrison County, at a place where we lived for nine years, and there was an old oats bin in there. Some wonderful experiences happened to me in that old oats bin. Remember, it is not how pretty the place is, it is the condition of your heart. In that oats bin, I have said this, if the neighbors would have come into that barn at any time, they would probably have run off in fright, thinking some guy has got out of jail and is carrying on in there. I liked to pray in the oats bin because there was liberty in there. When you get the Holy Ghost, why shut Him up in your life, why don’t you let Him lead you? Stop this thing of saying, I have it all. It is only a beginning in your life. He wants to show you something, while He is perfecting His Church, pulling it out of systems, giving them their individual experiences, He is going to have a Church here in the end time that will look just exactly like the first one. But He is going to leave some Pentecostal tongue talking, Charismatic tongue talking, denominational people sitting where they are. They don’t even care where they are, just as long as they can speak in tongues. That is why I say, we have looked back at the foolish virgins and said, that is the Methodists, the Baptists and Presbyterians. But now, this late in the day, look at them, they are out there in the Pentecostal groups just as blind as blind can be. You cannot teach them anything. They don’t want any more. Anything that goes beyond their denomination, is of the devil. Thank God for what He has done for His Bride and for how He is going to put it together. Everything that is going to be, will be exactly the way He wants it. But there is one thing sure, our mind is not going to be twisted up, distorted with all kinds of evidence, this and that, trying to argue with somebody. I am not belittling anyone’s experience, please do not think that. When you look and see an element of people scattered all over the world today, they are the product of a hundred years of Pentecostal teaching. In the last number of years when God had sent a messenger to help us get our belief, our faith straightened up, many times I have heard that man say, the Church will have every gift in it, He will restore all things. When people will insist, you have to speak in tongues as proof that you have the Holy Spirit, then I have to say here in the end time, especially you that are in this message, believing this message, if you want to insist that tongues is the initial evidence of the Holy Spirit in your life, what is your explanation of all these elements of people out here in the Pentecostal circles, trinity, oneness, and so forth, as well as in the charismatic circles, who do not claim to belong to any particular organization, but they are claiming that they have received the Holy Spirit? They have been blessed by speaking in tongues and so forth, but if you talk to them about other things of truth, they are ready to hang their head and say that is not so, I don’t see it, don’t tell me it is necessary. That is how that denominational spirit has totally convinced them that they have all they need.

WHAT THE THRESHING
IS TO ACCOMPLISH

Saints I have to believe, that we are in the day and hour when God will soon begin fulfilling what we read in Jesus’ seventh parable of Matthew, chapter 13, that in this end time, just before Jesus comes to take His Bride, it will be just as that parable shows. He will separate the true grain, which is His seed, His Church, His body, His Bride, from the tares (the make-believers). Let us come to a realization, tares are not beer drinkers, dance hall, honky-tonk runabout kind of people. We are going to find out that some of these tares are professors, they claim to believe and have everything they need. That is not the gospel St. Paul preached, you know it. Before I bring this message to a climax, I want to ask, Are any of you sure that the apostle Paul taught the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost was speaking in tongues? They will say, oh yes. Well I am looking at the 14th chapter as he wrote to the Corinthian church. When we read in the book of Acts how Paul spent several months there establishing this church, there is nothing said in the book of Acts, how many of these people received the Holy Ghost while he was there. But when reports came to him later, there were problems, how the Corinthian saints wanted to mis-use the gifts and so forth, which was the only church that compelled Paul to write an article dealing with these things. Paul did establish the fact that the manifestation of the Spirit of God has been given to every man, we are going to find that in the end time Church, every person in it, the Holy Spirit is going to manifest Himself in and through that person in some manner. We are going to find out that dreams and visions, prophecies and those things are going to begin to become more important. Let me read a few verses in this 14th chapter. Verse 1, Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men. He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but he who prophesies edifies the Church. That should be enough to convince any true believer. Bro. Allen gave me an article this morning from the newspaper. I mentioned Thursday night, President Bush, along with Blair of England, Putin of Russia, and the world leaders, as well as the U.N., are all behind this thing called the Roadmap of Peace for the Palestinians and the Jews. But in this article it plainly states, Arial Sharon and some of the higher officials in the Israeli government has found twelve things in this roadmap that they disagree with. If their disagreement with this does not please the ones who wrote it, they have already said they will walk out of the negotiation process. I have to believe we are approaching an era of time, that once it is set in motion, you or I are not going to change the agenda of anything. God is going to fulfill something in His word. We have got to be wise enough to know what we are looking at, what is going on and how to prepare ourselves for the event of our catching away. I believe there are some things God is going to do for His Church, and in His Church. But we have to have an understanding as an individual, what our place is in it, what part am I to function in all of it? God is not going to leave you here, ignorant. Sooner or later you are going to know. He is not going to whip you and compel you to do something. You are going to want to be something in His hands that He can use. Sooner or later that Holy Spirit in your life is going to be allowed to manifest in a way that you will recognize. Situations will necessitate it to be that way. It is the way each member begins to minister their little part to the overall body of Christ. When the apostle Paul was seeking to correct the misusage of some things we are looking at in this message, he laid it out exactly as it should be. I have thought a long time about this, so I ask the critics, are you sure that the apostle Paul taught an evidence of the Holy Ghost? Did he? Did he really say they all had to speak in tongues first, before anything else could be added? I can say this, I have already seen some things manifested by the Spirit of God, and they did not come through people that spoke in tongues. In this 14th chapter of 1st Corinthians, did you catch what Paul wrote? “Follow after charity, (which is love. Because love is absolutely the peak of your character, and without that, all these other things amount to very little. You are just a tinkling cymbal and a has-been. Paul spoke of that.) and desire spiritual gifts, but rather (Look that word up in the dictionary and see what it implies.) that ye may prophesy. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue (Paul is not belittling it: he is just putting it in its proper perspective.) speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him.” On the day of Pentecost, that one hundred and twenty talking in other languages were understood. That is why those devout Jews from every nation under heaven, with about sixteen different dialects asked, what is this? We hear the wonderful words of God, or works of God, in the language wherein we were born. They understood it. That is why Peter, we could say, had the proper revelation of Isaiah 28:8-9, that with stammering lips and men of other tongues, other languages, He would speak to this people, and yet they would still not believe, That is the home bunch, but those from other nations did believe. Out of that element from other nations that came there on that feast day of Pentecost, there were three thousand of them that rushed forward. They had seen, and they had heard the power of God in action. God had, through these different dialects spoken unto them, and opened their eyes, but the local bunch did not see anything. That is why it was just stammering lips to some of them. Others just said, they are drunk. The prophecy in Joel did speak of that, hear ye this, ye drinkers of wine, and you old men, for the new wine is cut off from your mouth. The new wine was the Holy Ghost. I will finish reading the rest of that scripture. “But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the Church. (He is not doing away with tongues: but rather putting everything in its proper understanding. I am looking seriously at this other scripture. I am asking you evidence people, why don’t you read this. If the apostle Paul is a man that really believes in the evidence, what you believe is the initial evidence of the Holy Ghost, the speaking in tongues, there is no way he could have gotten around it in all these three chapters. He could have said, you did well when you received the Holy Spirit, by speaking in tongues. He could have said something like that. But let us listen to what he did say.) I would that ye all spake with tongues, (Think of that, I would that you all, (Did you catch that?) he knows that some of them have not.) but rather that ye prophesied: (But some would say, yes, but he has to speak in tongues first before he can prophesy. Paul would have taught it like that if that is so, if that was a fact. Paul would never have gone around the initial evidence, if he had believed like that. He would have put the evidence first and then all these other things secondary.) for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the Church may receive edifying.” That satisfies me, but there are always going to be some that will say, but I still believe you have to speak in tongues. That is one thing Paul dealt with in the first church age. That puts a question on the fact, did he ever teach an evidence? I do not believe he did, because he is the one that really laid the foundation for the Gentile Church. I grant you, Peter, at Cornelius’ house, is the first Jew that brought the gospel to the Gentiles. But that was just a household, but what we have been looking at, is a church that Paul established by being there for several months. When he first went to Corinth, he went into the Jewish synagogues. When he got permission to speak and say something, he did. He began to testify and witness about Jesus Christ. Some of the elders said they wanted nothing to do with that. Paul, when he walked out, just wiped the dirt off his feet. He was going to leave there, but the Lord gave him a vision and said, you stay here. I have many people in this place. So he went right next door and acquired the use of a building. Just imagine. Paul stayed there for several months and preached. There were Jews that became converted and there were Gentiles that were converted. That is why we have to believe Paul was there long enough to teach everything that was foundational, doctrine, conduct and character to an element of people that knew how to entertain the Holy Spirit in their lives. I am using that in the light of what I have already said in these messages. We do know this, the godhead was one of the first major doctrines, or revelations that the Church lost. It was replaced by a trinity, three gods. Then baptism in the name of Jesus Christ was replaced by baptizing according to Matthew 28:19, using three titles instead of the only name ever used by the early apostles. As time went on, by the time you come to the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, the devil had stripped the Church of the experience of the Holy Spirit dwelling inside the believers. The gifts are gone, and the major revelations and doctrines and the foundation of the faith of the person, is gone. By the time you get to the middle of the Dark Ages, the Roman Catholic system began to change. The overall picture of what the gospel was to produce, when you begin to study backward in the history of what happened, by the Catholic system of teaching, they wound up teaching, there is no salvation outside of the Roman Catholic Church. That is in their written creeds. Faith was gone. Not only faith in the Lord for salvation, but the world was plunged into utter spiritual darkness. They believed the Roman Catholic Church was the only system a person had to belong to, and that you had to believe what they taught in order to be saved. That is the way it went for the remainder of that long period called, the dark ages.

COMING INTO THE
REFORMATION

Coming into the time just before 1500, there were people that began to have a hunger and a thirst for something more. As they would endeavor to look into the scriptures, the Catholic system tried everything they could, to take the written Word of God from them. They compelled them to bring their Bibles, and pile them in the streets and burn them. They said the scriptures were only for the priests to read and learn from. Nevertheless, there was still an element of people that inwardly, something kept burning in their heart’s. That is why I mentioned the Huguenots and Waldenses. There were also the Moravians, then came the Mennonites and the Amish. Do you want to know why they still dress like they did in the 1400’s? That is the way they did in the old country, Europe. Their idea is, they want their homes to be just like they were then. It is a pitiful shame. They have the same lifestyle, they believe they have done it in order to serve the Lord. But they are as blind and ignorant of truth in other things, as anyone can be. It is a shame. Well coming on through time, you come to Martin Luther. When God began to deal with Martin Luther that day, he was climbing the steps of an old building, to kiss the statue of Mary up there. That statue had been kissed so many times, they say the imprints of the feet were almost wiped away. However while he was crawling up there in an act of penance, he heard an audible voice, like it came down through the corridor of heaven, Martin Luther, the just shall live by faith. That echoed into his soul. It startled him. That is why he went back to the place where he dwelled, and locked himself away for many days. The people that had admired him before, wondered what was wrong with him. One day when he came out of his dwelling. He had a long sheet of paper with ninety five things written on it. He walked down the street toward the old church at Wittenberg Germany. A crowd of people followed him. What was he up to? He went to the front of the church building and tacked this piece of paper on the church door. He turned and looked to the people and said, look, see what I have done, here I stand. When they began to read, there were ninety five things listed, that he had found wrong with the Roman Catholic Church. The people at that time, thought Martin Luther would be excommunicated or martyred. But at that time the king of Germany said to Luther, don’t worry, I will protect you. He protected him, threatening to use military force to defend him. That was the beginning of what we call “The Reformation.” From Marin Luther we come to John Knox, then George Fox. Each one of those men were feeding into this faith in God, a doctrine of the New Testament. The history declares how these men would go to extremes, but we have to understand, God was interested in restoring a truth in each case. If the Holy Spirit is going to deal in your life, and if you had lived then, whatever the hunger in your heart was, God would deal with you on the basis of that. God honored those men. Those movements spread across Europe into England. These revivals were what set off several years of contrary bickering back and forth. There was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the leadership of those men’s lives. All you have to read is some of the autobiographies of those men. God had to give them an experience, which gave them boldness inside to stand up against the pressure of the hour. That is why those reformers were not hillbilly preachers. They were educated men. Many of them had already learned to be priests, but when the Reformation started, they came out from that. That is why it is pictured like that in the book of Revelation. When you come to that beast, which had the face of a man, it is the wisdom of men that God puts in men down here, to combat the wisdom or the intellectual learning of political men. Those men had to constantly contest the power of the political structures and the system of the nations of that hour. The Holy Spirit moves on, but some people who profess to be believers, do not. They are satisfied with what they have already.

DOCTRINES DIVIDE

During the time we were talking about, eternal security came into the topic of argument, so you could take the Armenian people, the Methodists, the Nazarenes, all them out of that, because they said, doctrine is out of the pit of hell. We know it is in the Bible, but they will not accept it. I will say to you, how many times do you think, physically, you will ever be born into this world? You were conceived in your mother’s womb by your father, nine months later you were born. You are destined to live a quality of life, it is up to you to make out of it what you will. Do you understand my point? Many times you can be sick, break your leg, you can be handicapped, you can lay in bed, but you are still alive, you are breathing. Do you understand why I am saying this? If you have truly been born again by the Spirit of God, the old devil can hit you with a lot of disappointments and discouragement, causing you to stumble. That is his business. But if you have the Holy Spirit working in your heart, greater is He that is in you, than He that is in the world. You don’t just go to church somewhere to have it said, well I am a believer and get on the bandwagon, ride six months, then the first trial that comes along, it blows you off. There you are, right back with the same old crowd. You haven’t been born again. Don’t tell me you have. You might have had your mind changed for awhile. When something comes along that really convicts you of your rotten sins, it makes you begin to feel like you want to get somewhere to get this burden lifted. From then on, you want to begin to grow and find out, how can I serve the Lord more willingly. When God dealt with me like He did, to get me saved, I will never forget it. Sure, there have been disappointments, but there has never been a disappointment where I wanted to hang my head and walk away, and say, I leave it all, I don’t want anything to do with it. I have always known this world has nothing to make me feel happy, only disappointments, disillusionment. You will find out the same thing. The point is, when we come to John Wesley’s hour, John Wesley was out of the church of England. He began to pick up, more or less, the Armenian type belief, because he saw the extremism in the Knox teaching and George Fox teaching. Finally John Wesley came along with sanctification. Because up until that time, these men had established a doctrine and faith in the Lord, bypassing the system of the church. When we come to John Wesley’s hour, he capped this with the fact, we are going to leave the beer alone now, we are going to watch where we go, what kind of attendance we give to other places of meeting and such. That is why his major teaching was sanctification. Keep in mind, there was an experience in the Holy Spirit that went right along with John Wesley. I have a book at home that tells of some of the things that took place among the people were brought there in wagons, buggies and so forth. In those meetings, people would just be sitting there and the power of God would come on them, they would roll out in the floor, on the ground, whichever the case might be. John Wesley kept on preaching. Don’t tell me the Holy Spirit was not working, because some of those people had to be hauled home while they were like that. That is written. They did not come there drunk on alcohol. I don’t think they had taken an overdose of dope either, because they didn’t have such stuff back then. I have to say, there was a manifestation of the Holy Ghost that worked right along with those men. That is why I read those men’s names this morning. As we come out of the closing of the 1700’s, we come all through 1800, every one of those men that picked up the message kept the torch light burning. The power of God, the Holy Spirit, made His way into those groups of people. I know how the denominational system that had come out of those backgrounds are today. They don’t think that is necessary. That is exactly where they missed it. They no longer live a sanctified life, they are just as worldly and conformed to the world patterns as can be. That is why, down in Elizabeth, they built a brand new building. My wife was reading the paper the other day, they are going to have dances on Saturday night in that new church building. They need a dance about as bad as I need a possum to play with. Now that is just a figure of speech, if you understand what I mean by that. That is the modern church world today, their way of keeping their young people, by keeping them entertained. If the Holy Spirit cannot entertain you, then I have nothing left to entertain you with. You go on and get drunk, you go on and get intoxicated on dope. Real soon, you will be staggering around and you will wind up in a hospital somewhere, beating the walls. I hope the politicians are listening tonight. If the politicians in America, after WW2, would have thought the same about the things that were beginning to creep into America then, that the predecessors before them did, they would have shot every one of the dope peddlers as they entered the United States’ border. They would have gone looking for them, they would have shot their boats out from under them, they would have shot their planes out of the air. But no, some of these politicians and even police officers, played the game with them, a two handed system. So between the politicians and the law officials in high places, they are guilty of allowing this devilish thing to get into America to the degree it is, and now you have a dreaded disease and wondering how you are going to get rid of it. You are not going to get rid of it. You don’t want to get rid of it, you just want to make it look like you are getting rid of it. I will tell you one thing, when Jesus Christ comes, He is going to get rid of all that mess. Out of His mouth will come a sharp, two-edged sword. He will whack you everyone dead. That is what the Bible declares. He will slay the wicked. Their dead bodies shall lie from one end of the earth to the other. I saw today on the News, more cases have occurred in China of this dreaded disease that is running rampant. They don’t know what to do or how to control it. Well the Bible speaks of that, pestilence in diverse places, these are the beginning of sorrows, heartaches, frustration, things that make people want to pull their hair out, all because they want to out smart God. God is not going to let them outsmart Him. When we come to a time between 1800 and 1900, across this nation there were little revivals springing up among groups of Baptists and Methodists. We have the family tree of my wife’s background. One of those old timers, back in 1800 and something, received the Holy Ghost. They said, at times you could go where he was, whether it was in the cornfield, or outside working, you could hear him having a shouting spell. When he did, he would dance, going in circles, slinging his hands. They gave the nick name to those people, fire baptized Baptists, baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire. They would tell how their hands felt like they were on fire. They were made fun of by the nominal believer. But if in their midst, someone got sick, it was not long until they would make their way to that old fire baptized Baptist and ask him to pray for their loved one that was sick. That is the way it is today. They like to sit in those cold, dead systems, content with Sunday school and all their decorative pins, until they look like a soldier that has come home from a war. The only thing is, those war hero’s have purple hearts, but these in those systems, have a heart for anything the devil introduces, if you can understand my explanation. Nevertheless, the religious world today is sick. If you turn on TBN, you see modern evangelists standing there, having a group prayer over some TV satellite they want to get in operation, and that is supposed to be the angels that fly through the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel. I would rather see a man on a bicycle, riding thorough the heavens, than to believe a thing like that. Do you understand what I mean? That is the way they hoodwink people. The reason I am bringing these things out is, when we try to pin God down to one little thing, you are trying to tell me God has done such and such, and He cannot change His way of accomplishing His ultimate goal. That is why I said last Sunday, yes I believe what happened in the Upper Room and in the streets later, was exactly the way God wanted to manifest Himself two thousand years ago. He was fulfilling Isaiah 28:8-9, as well as Joel. The two were together. When He came to the Gentiles, He gave them the same experience. But by the time the Church has been stripped of all its major framework of faith and doctrine, God is not ignorant of where the Church is today. He sees the sincere heart of many. He knows exactly what He is going to do when He starts restoring what has been lost. I just ask you to take a look tonight, at all the Lutherans all over the world today, they are still Lutherans, they have faith in God and that is all they have. They are just as dead as the old system of Catholicism they came out of. Then when we look at the Baptists, and the Presbyterians, they are the same way. Each generation had a few people that moved on with God. That is why, when we come to the dawn of 1900, here came the baptism of the Holy Spirit or a Pentecostal experience of speaking in tongues, the gifts of the Spirit, along with divine healing. Now people are saying, He is restoring the evidence. I have to say to that, if you have the evidence, you will not stay away from Malachi 4. They can chain you to a stake, but you will bust loose some way to get to Malachi 4, because He that is in you, is greater than he that is in the world. He will lead you into all truth. He will bring to your remembrance all things, whatsoever I have spoken unto you, said Jesus. He is not going to let you sit there in that dead system, ignorant of His purpose in your life. This is a fact, this is truth, come and walk in it. But no, I have all I need, some say. That is why we move from 1901 to about 1908, when God came on the scene and began to deal with individuals about taking on the name of Jesus in water baptism. My, the arguments, the conflict they received from the trinity Pentecostal people, that they were beginning to move out of. What a battle was setting up. Nevertheless, God spoke to them supernaturally. They accepted it. As they did, more people came to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. But still the old trinity side just sat there pointing their fingers and saying, this is of the devil. Well it was not long until they became quite a few in number, and they began to say, no they are going to hell, because they have been baptized the wrong way. Now we have come through a hundred years of both sides of this Pentecostal experience with the evidence. Can you look at them tonight and prove to me that they have the Holy Spirit leading them? You will have to agree, they received something. I have to say, they just received an anointing, a touch of the real thing. But they did not receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit in them with His many attributes. What they have does not mold character in them. They have a few doctrines they go by, and just look past all the rest. Then when those things they have, begin to get old, they begin to slip and slide away from them. I can say for sure, when God sent a messenger to this age, he came at a strategic time, to lay down a truth, and those that have been foreknown and predestinated by God, He deals with their hearts. He has given His own experience to them. First He puts a hunger there. They do not just stop with Acts 2:4, or Acts 2:38, and they certainly do not stop with John 3:16 or John 5:24. The deeper they go, the deeper they want to go. There is something inside of them, teaching them, drawing them, pulling them. They want to know the perfect will of God for their life, bypassing anything and everything else, knowing they are not in this race to please a bunch of others, but to please God, by following the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is why I would have to say tonight, when God, from around this world, has this little Bride Church weeded out of all the systems, He leads them into a true revelation of His Word. Some have come out of the Catholic Church, they have seen the light. They have let God transform them into a new faith and a new understanding of what true faith is. They have come out of the Baptists, they have come out of the Lutherans, they have come out of Pentecost, out of this and that, because they see a truth in the scriptures. They want that to be alive in their lives. When they do, they do not want you to call them a Methodist or Baptist, or anything like that any longer. We just want to be called born again, Holy Ghost filled believers. We make up the body of Christ around the world. We don’t have an organizational headquarters. Our headquarters is in heaven. That is why I can say, saints, hold fast to that which God has given you, because there is a crown up ahead, in time. We are going to receive it one of these days. When that day comes, when the Lord is ready to come for you, to catch you away in that glorious event of the rapture, there is going to be tongue talking Pentecostal, Trinitarians, Jesus only, Jesus name, charismatic, all left here looking at the TV, preaching the second coming of Christ, and don’t even know the event of the rapture is near at hand. When Bro. William Branham preached the seals in 1963, can you mention to me any preacher in the denominational circle that has ever touched them. I am sure they heard about it. I had a man to tell me several years ago, after Bro. William Branham’s death, Tommy Osborne, a man that had an experience. After having seen Bro. William Branham pray for the sick and seeing how God healed the sick, he went to prayer and fasting. God gave him a gift of faith. He went to India and different places in Indonesia. Miracles after miracles were done in Tommy Osborne’s meetings. When Bro. William Branham died, the seals had already been preached, somebody gave Osborne a copy of the seals tapes and told him he should listen to them. Here was the report, he went on a fast and played these messages. When he came off the fast he gave these messages back to the person and said, I don’t want anything to do with them. He is still a Trinitarian Pentecostal today, just like he was then. Yet he has taken up along with the charismatic element. I say these things tonight, not condemning the man, but knowing he is not leading the Bride of Christ. He is just another person used by the angels of heaven to help bind the tares. Don’t forget it. A lot of these religious people today that you see out there, are not seed of God. Some of them are tares. It is not for you and me to go around lifting up their skull to see if they are a tare or a true seed. Time and conditions will prove exactly what they are. That is why He said in that seventh parable, He will send forth His angels in the end time and will separate the tares from the true seed. First He will bind the tares in bundles. That is why today, they are not ashamed to belong to a system. We know it is unscriptural, because early Christendom did not start out as a bound together organization. This is the only book that contains our articles of faith and as far as I am concerned, it is the only book we need. I have to believe those that really are foolish virgins, that tribulation period will prove exactly who they are. They will accept martyrdom rather than to deny their faith in God. Don’t sit there saying, well they are all good people. Why did Jesus not say so? Why did He make such a boisterous statement? He will send forth His angels and gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and will bind them in bundles. (Not foolish virgins, but tares)For what purpose? To be burned. I did not write it. Jesus said it. You and I should not try to pick out and judge the end results of who we think is a good one or not. If they have no revelation leading them, if they have no hunger or thirst in them to draw them closer to God, I have to say something is wrong. A lot of people will say, oh but they are good people. That is the human way of looking at it. I would like to think our standard could be good. I have to say also, this don’t mean, if you think they could be tares, that you go down the road of life snubbing your nose at them. They are human beings just like you are. You treat them like you want yourself to be treated. Did not Jesus say make friends of the unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail somehow, you may have a refuge to go to. I have seen a lot of supposed to be Holy Ghost filled people, snub their nose and say, who wants to talk to that old sinner. Don’t act like that. You could be in his shape if it was not for the mercy of God. No matter what his lifestyle is, don’t treat him like you are making fun of him, treat him like a human being. I know this to be a fact, I have seen a lot of people who have come into this message, and to hear them talk, they were better than anybody else, they would not even speak to anybody who was not of them, but when they would get in need, they would want somebody to help them. I have heard them say, I am living by faith. That kind do not want to work, so they stay at your house as long as they can, until finally you say, maybe you had better get going. Years ago there were two guys that came into this area teaching like that, talking like that, they were living by faith, believing the message. They were not teaching things that Bro. William Branham said. They were just traveling. One of the last places they went to, this man lived out in the country on a farm. They went to his house. He asked them in and gave them a meal and a bed to sleep in. The next morning at breakfast, he was ready to go out and dig fence post holes. He asked them, I have to do some work today, I have to dig some fence post holes, would you help me? Well, we are just waiting on the Lord, we are living by faith. Well that taught him enough, he let them know they had better hit the road. I am thankful to God, there is a right way to look at this book, and there is a right way to look at the life God has helped you live. While you are in this world, don’t snub your nose at everybody in the world. That does not mean you have to have a twenty four hour conversation with them, but if necessity does come along, you can treat them like a human being. You can be out on a highway and have a flat tire. You might be in a situation where you would not have a jack or anything to fix it. One of these worldly men can come along, who has just been drinking beer, but he sees you sitting by the roadside, so he pulls over and says, let me help you. Don’t it make you feel good when somebody comes along and sees you in your predicament and helps you? He goes back to his car, pulls out a jack, and here he comes, jacks the car up, it isn’t long until he has the spare on and you are on your way. But he was nothing but an old worldly man. How many understand my point? I just think I will let you go home and think about that. I will leave you with the thought, some out there, will always say, tongues is the initial evidence, but I have to say, the Bride of Christ is going to have every gift, every attribute and quality that is of the Holy Spirit in that body of believers. It is going to build character, it is going to be by a revelation and an understanding of God’s Word. That is why Ephesians 4 says, God has set the ministry of five in the body to minister until we all come together in the unity of the faith. Isaiah 52:8 does not sound like a bunch of men going this way and that way agreeing on nothing. They will lift up the voice together and sing, because they will all see eye to eye. It is going to really take the Holy Spirit and not some kind of evidence to make that happen. There is a bunch out there claiming to be of that ministry, but you and I know tonight, they do not see eye to eye. They will argue with you. They have their bandwagons that they ride, but they are not going to agree with you. If the Holy Spirit is in you, leading you, He is going to cause you to say yes and Amen to every scripture in the Word of God. May God bless all of you. Amen.