I Will Restore Saith The Lord

1 Shall we bow our heads for prayer.

Our kind Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for song. How it thrills our hearts to hear those wonderful, Gospel songs: Only Believe, Then Jesus Came. It inspires us to move on.

We're thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ, the Captain of this great army that's marching on to Calvary, crucifying the old man, the flesh, and being raised, a new person, in His Being.

And I pray today, that You will bless this gathering together, here in the arena. May the Holy Spirit have complete charge of every heart in here, that could lead us, guide us, speak through us, or speak to us, in any way that He desires. We commit ourselves to You, and we pray that You'll use us, this afternoon, for the glory and the up-building of Thy Kingdom.

Forgive us of our sins and trespasses, and deliver unto us, today, the forgiveness of sins, healing of our bodies, salvation of our souls.

And at the end of this journey, we'll bow our head, humbly, giving Thee thanks and praise. We ask it, in Jesus' Name. Amen.

2 You be seated. And the Lord bless each of you.

Good evening to you, this afternoon, of New York and the different places, where you've gathered in this little group. There is perhaps, people represented here from many different places, states, and cities.

And it is indeed, a privilege for me to have you as my audience today; "The cream of the crop," I would say. And I don't say that, boastfully. I don't say that, to make you feel good. I say it, because it comes from my heart. I do love Christian people, my brothers and sisters.

My ministry is such that I can't meet people the way that I like to. I have been called an isolationist, but I'm not. There is no one knows, how I love my brothers and sisters. Yet, I cannot be a servant of mankind, and be a servant of God, at the same time. I must keep myself away, in order to be in prayer, to serve mankind, by God. Visions and so forth: that's the reason they don't permit interviews, and so forth like that, is because the time must be spent in prayer, and alone.

Then, when I come to the audience at night, before, sometimes, runs into thousands and thousands of people. And then the...

Satan is just at every corner, just trying to find one flaw or one slip up, that's all he wants. And then everyone, but, not everyone, Christians wouldn't, but, the unbeliever would point at that as long as you live. He'd keep shoving that back.

3 The Sunday afternoon is usually given to me, to speak. As I am... don't profess to be very much of a speaker, because of the--the lack of eloquence, and my speech is bad, and I--I'm uneducated. And I'm just a Kentucky corn-cracker, with my words of, "hit, hain't, tote, fetch, carry." You just put up with it. That's...

Someone said, not long ago, said, "Brother Branham," said, "we're going to--to give to you..." I was on the West Coast, from a great organization, said, "We want to give you a--an honorary degree." Said, "You've written a couple of books, so we'll give you either a LL.D. or a D.D."

I said, "Oh, my. I don't hardly know what you're talking about, brother."

He said, "Well, don't you think if we would give to you a Doctor's degree...?"

I said, "Huh, and me saying, 'here, 'tis,' and 'hain't,' and 'fetch, and carry,'" I said, "People is too intelligent: know that... they know that I'm not no Doctor of Divinity." I said, "I'd rather just be an old, sassafras preacher, like I am, like this, just the way the Lord wants me, stay just this way." And then, you know what I am, and I'm not putting on nothing, I'm just myself. And that's the way all of us should be, just ourself.

If you got education enough to be a--a doctor, or something another like that, I admire you. But to me, I haven't got it, so there's no need of me trying to say this, that or the other. I'm just not educated. So, if you'd say you was, people would know better than that.

That's the real thing about Divine healing, the people know whether you really mean it, or not. They can tell it. And I have learned that, in my walk of life, to know that you cannot get by, impersonating something. You've got to be just what you are. Now, I have studied that and I...

4 How would you like, just before I start my sermon (I haven't got my watch today. So, I left it.), if I would just give you a little insight of something that's a real secret, just to me, and I... about healing powers, and so forth, like that?

How many Full Gospel people is here? Let's see your hand, Full Gospel people, way up, with your hand. Would you like to know a little secret? Well, if you would, raise your hand again. Just a minute? All right.

Here it is, friend: the secret of the whole thing, is Divine love. That's the secret of every bit of it, is love. If you... You can't make yourself love, you've got to have love. Love is something that, it'll work on animal life, it'll work on human life, it works before God.

I believe Paul said, in First Corinthians 13, "Though I speak with tongue of men and angels, and have not love or charity, it profit me nothing. Though I have all the knowledge to understand all the mysteries of God, and have not love," though he could do it, "it profit me nothing. And though I have faith, to move the mountains, and have not love, it profit me nothing. Where there's tongues, they'll cease; where there's prophecies, it'll vanish; and where there's... These things will all pass away; but when love had come, it endureth forever."

5 Love. I have seen it in its power.

You're reading this little book, I suppose, that we got here. The brother and sister are selling them, not today, because we respect Sunday as the resurrection, and I've never sold on Sunday. I don't believe in it.

Course, it's all right if you do. Many of the brethren sell their books right on, on Sunday. Say, "It's part of the Gospel." That's okay. I have nothing against it. But if... I just can't do it, myself. I just...

When I used to be a trapper, I'd go on Saturday night, after midnight, many times, and throw traps, along, like that. I've took up fishing lines, on trotlines, on the river, and take the bait off of them, keep from fishing on Sunday, and thing: when I was a sinner. And after I become a Christian, I'm sure I'll want, stick with it now.

6 But love... You've noticed in this book. How many has read the book? Let's see your hand. Did you notice when that maniac...? Or, I believe it... Is that the book you have, Brother Wood? It's it, yeah. The--the one where the maniac, up at Oregon, run out on the platform to kill me, that time. You remember that, of reading it in the book?

You know what conquered that fellow? The love of God. I didn't despise that man. There was something happened to me there, that I loved him. I thought, "Poor fellow, bound down with this evil spirit; that's what makes him feel like he wants to kill me. The man wouldn't want to do it, himself, he's a human." That's what it was.

What would you think, if I told you of a fellow I knew, that he used to be a game warden, down in Indiana. And one day he was going over to make a call at a place, and usually, crossing through the field, he... they... usually, he carried a gun, 'cause he had to. That's just like the police on the force or something. It's a--a law, a rule.

And this man, while crossing the field, there was a great big bull over there in that field, that he didn't know was in the field. He knew this fellow had bought it, but he forgot about it.

And going through the field, this big fellow raised up. And he had just killed a colored man about six months before that, down at the Burke's Farm; and he was up here on--on this other farm. And he had long horns, they had the ends of them cut off. But he was an awful... he was a fine specie of an animal, but he was--he was a very bad killer. He had killed this colored man, gored him to death. And they had sold him.

7 And while crossing the field, out, two hundred yards from a fence or a tree or anything else, in a little bunch of cluster of bushes, this big fellow raised up and snorted and took after this minister, who claimed to have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And instead of being... start to run or scream, he loved the animal. He felt sorry, because he disturbed that animal.

And that fellow come right, just as hard as he could come, and his head down, snorting, throwing his horns into the ground. Many of you knows, that's fooled around cattle. And here he come. Well, he got, oh, perhaps, within twenty yards. No need of trying to run. You couldn't run anyhow, no bush, tree to get into. You just have to stand and face it. That's all. He could outrun you, and you had two or three hundred yards to a fence, no trees at all. So, here he come.

And something just happened, and instead of--of hating the bull, or wanting to kill it, a perfect peace settled down. I thought, "I disturbed the poor fellow." And when he got coming to me real close, I said, "Now, I'm sorry I disturbed you. I am the servant of the Lord, and I charge thee, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Creator, that you go over there and lay down."

And here come the bull, coming right on. But somehow, I wasn't a bit more afraid, than I am right here, before lovely Christians. He got within, about, ten feet of where I was standing, and I just stood there, looking at him, not a more afraid than I am of this meek looking little lady, setting here, looking at me.

And he run right to me, and when he got right up close to me, he just throwed his feet out, and stopped. And he looked this way, looked around, so depleted, turned around, walked over, and go lay down under the bush.

8 What did it? See? The trouble of it is, people are scared today.

I remember, here not long ago, mowing my yard, out front; I was mowing, a little mower, and any of you that's been down at my place, I got quite a front yard. And I had put on my old, we call them overalls, I think you all, up here in the North, call them dungarees, or something; I'd get out there and mow the yard, and I'd have these on. A carload of people drive up to be prayed for, and I'd slip around the back, go in, put on my other clothes, and go in, pray for the sick; come back after they'd leave, and put on, maybe make about two rounds, and here come another load, and I'd run in again. And the front yard was grown up before I could get in the back yard. It was growing up ahead of me.

So one day, is in the back yard, I was mowing. They had a little fence runs down, and I put the children up, a little martin box, there. And a big bunch of hornets had inhabited that box. So, I had forgot about it. And I took off, being in the back yard, where no one could see me, just strip down to my waistline, here, with just my overall. And my, oh, it's awfully hot and I was just shoving the lawnmower, you know, a little old putt-putt-putt, and I was hitting, and I hit the fence, and before I knew it, I was covered over with hornets. You know what hornets are, those great big fellows. And they just swarmed all over me.

And something happened, I thought, "That's strange, I..." Now, this sounds like a kiddie story, but it isn't told for that, and Almighty God, who will judge us at the judgment, knows it. I said, "Little fellows, I'm sorry I disturbed you." I said, "I haven't got time to play with you this afternoon. So you hurry back, in the Name of our Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, and run back in your box. I won't hit it no more. I'll get away from there."

Just kept on mowing, and the God of Heaven, Who knows this to be the truth, them fellows circled around me, and took a beeline, and went right straight back in that box, and settled down. That's exactly right.

9 Now, that same thing, brother, you can't fool the animal. You know what I love? I had time this afternoon, I like to preach on nature, because that was my first Bible. How that I love nature, because God is in nature, God is in His flower, God is in His universe, God is everywhere. And just as sure as you can't fool the animal, he knows whether you're afraid of him or not. I'm sure maybe you don't get that.

Look at Saint Paul, when God told him he was going down to Rome, and when he was shipwrecked out there, he picked up some sticks to throw them in a fire, and a great viper bit him through the hand, which would absolutely cause his death within a couple of minutes. And Paul looked at it, not a bit more scared than nothing, walked over, and shook it over the fire, acted as if no harm would ever come, went right ahead. They thought, first, that he--he was going to drop down, dead, but they changed their mind, then, and called him a god. See? He wasn't scared.

The reason it hurts you is because you get scared. Don't be scared. If you can get a perfect love of God in your heart, that knows that this is the truth, and God is your Father, and He's taking care of you, there is nothing can harm you. "I'll give them power, they'll tread on serpents, and so forth: and nothing, in no wise, shall harm them."

10 So, if you want to get close to God, just get close to love. Just love God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, with all your strength; just wrap yourself in a bundle of love. Watch that man that you didn't like, like you.

Did you ever get around anybody... You've seen nice people, that you couldn't hardly stand to--to be around them. Now, you know that's right. Isn't it? And I've seen people that, maybe, that you just love to be in their presence. Haven't you seen people like that?

Do you realize that you're sons of God, the atmosphere and the air that you live in, you create a situation around you, that either draws, or pushes away?

I better leave that subject alone, and read what I was going to, 'cause I'm afraid you're not--not getting that. You see? That's deeper things that the church has, yet, got to learn. That's right, deeper thing. We're taught in this ritualistic, and so forth, and it's set down, and cut and dried for us. But when you come into the real, and it's not something way off, you can't understand, it's just as close as your hand is to you. You just look over the top of it, it's so simple, till you overlook it. See? That's what does it.

Now, in the event of this afternoon, and someone will watch, if you will, some of them, and--and let me know when I've been in here about three-quarters of an hour, or something like that, 'cause we have another service tonight, and we...

This afternoon is always give to me so I can just relax, I can talk, and you're not--not a healing service. It's just a service where you can just talk to the people, and it makes you feel relaxed. And I'm so thankful to have this opportunity.

11 Now, you, in your Bibles, the good ol' blessed Word of the Lord, let's turn to Joel for our subject. Joel the 1st chapter, and begin reading with the 1st verse, and read a little bit of the Word. And then we're going to, also, take a text out of the 2nd chapter of Joel.

How many loves the Word of the Lord? Say, "Amen." [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] That's good. I'm glad you're a lover of the Lord and the Word, because I believe the Word. And now, we read from the 1st verse of Joel 1, this:

The word of the LORD that came unto the... Joel the s-...

Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Has this been in your days, or in even the days of your fathers?

Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and let their children another generation.

That which the palmerworm has left has the locust eaten;... that which the locust has left has the cankerworm eaten;... that which the cankerworm has left has the caterpiller eaten.

12 Now, over in the 2nd chapter of Joel, the 25th verse, we read this:

And I will restore unto you the years that the locust hath eaten,... and the palmerworm,... and the caterpiller,... my great army which I sent among you.

And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the LORD your God, that has dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.

13 Now, there's no man in the world that can open this Word. We might turn the pages back, but there's only One that can open it, that's the Holy Spirit. Is that right? Jesus Christ.

John, when he was in the isle of Patmos, he saw the Book in the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne, and he wept because there was no man in Heaven worthy, no man in the earth, or beneath the earth, was worthy to take the Book, or to open the Book, or to loose the seals.

And a Lamb that had been slain from the foundation of the world, come and took it out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne, and opened it, and loosed the seals, because He was worthy. And that's the Lamb that can open it to us, this afternoon. Is that right?

If you will, with me, bow your heads, and let's speak to Him just a moment, and ask Him to open this Word.

14 Kind Heavenly Father, we approach Thee in the all sufficient Name of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus, the worthy One. And we pray today, that Thy mercies may rest upon us all.

And may that, now, He Who could open the Book, and was worthy to take It, may He come and open the Word to us, that our understandings might be opened and enlightened for the glory of His kingdom, that we might be encouraged to live better Christian lives, and to have a good courage.

Comfort us this afternoon, our Holy Father, out of Thy Word, through the preaching. Now, circumcise the lips that speak, and the ears that hear, and may every heart receive. And may the Holy Spirit take the Word of God now, and deliver it to every heart, as we have need. For we ask it in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.

15 Now, I want to start, and if you'll bear with me, my boy come and laid his watch down here, so I would be sure to understand. And now, listen closely, and try to overlook my grammar, and maybe the Holy Spirit, take It and place It in your heart.

Now, this afternoon, a little subject, if I would call it a text, would be: I Will Restore To You, Saith The Lord. Now to...

He's speaking here of a tree, and God always likens His people to a tree. "As the life of a tree, so will my people be." And the Jews was considered the--the tame olive tree, and the Gentiles, the wild olive tree. And in, I believe, in Zechariah, where they were, they... the wild olive tree was grafted into the tame olive tree. And Paul spoke in Romans, and so forth, about this same thing, of the different olive trees and their work.

Then He speaks here of a army called caterpillers, and cankerworms, and palmerworms, and locusts coming upon the earth, and eating this tree down.

16 Now, in basing this, all things that we have on earth today, come from Genesis. Genesis is the beginning; the very word genesis means "the beginning, the start." And then, in the Book of Genesis, every cult that we have today in the world, every spirit that we have today, originated in Genesis, in the beginning.

Can you hear me way back there? The... My wife tells me it just seems like it rumbles on this. Can you hear all right, way back in the back? If you can, lift your hands. Up in the balconies, can you hear all right? Thank you. Maybe if I stand back a little bit, it'd be better.

Now, God started all things in Genesis. He's... Every cult that we have today, every religion we have today, began in Genesis. Every plant life, tree, everything that we have, began in Genesis. Human life began, animal life began, everything began in Genesis, in the beginning.

We have to take notice of these things. For instance like Babylon. We find out that Babylon appears in the Book of Genesis, in the beginning. Babylon was founded by Nimrod, a son of Ham. And at first, it was called the "Gates of Paradise," after, was called "Confusion." Babylon appears in Genesis, Babylon appears in the middle of the Bible, and Babylon appears over in Revelation. It was the origin and the beginning of idol worship. And it began back there, it's lasted, and ends up in Revelation; Babylon. All these things, due consideration of what they mean.

17 Now, Jesus said that a sower went forth and sowed the seeds, and how they began and sprang up, and through every age.

Someone asked me the other day, he said, "Brother Branham, do you believe that the old-fashioned Methodists and Baptists from the days gone by, before this great light came onto the earth, of the restoration of the gifts, and so forth, do you think they'll go in the resurrection?"

I said, "Amen. Sure they will." When the farmer planted his corn, the first two little leaves that sprung up on the corn, that farmer was just as happy with that corn as he could be. As the corn matured, other leaves sprang; they become old, and withered away. But in the resurrection, when the grain is taken from the corn, them leaves are reproduced. The Lutheran church was the light of the world at the time. Then come the Wesley age, then the Pentecostal age, and if Jesus tarries, it'll go on and on in the other ages.

But it's all made from the same Life; the same Holy Spirit that was in the grain of corn that went into the ground, is the same Holy Spirit today. It goes into tassel, it goes into corn, tassel is about the Pentecostal age, pollen began to send out: now the fruit age is coming in. Amen.

That's where, when we organize our churches, I have nothing against organization, but to organize religion, the first organized religion there ever was, was the Catholic church. Never was organized till that time. Then the Protestant church organized themself a group, and just each group, ought. But out of all of those organization, God takes the pure in heart. Amen.

18 Now, amen means "so be it." Someone said, "Brother Branham when you were preaching," I believe at Denver, said, "how could you make out what you were saying? Everybody hollering, 'Amen.'"

I said, "If they wasn't, I'd be kind of worried." Amen means "so be it." That, there, when someone says, "Oh, amen," it doesn't excite me, it encourages me to know that someone is believing what's being said.

19 Now, as we notice, in the beginning of Genesis, I want to bring a picture to you, if God willing to, and will help us.

After the first sin had been committed from Adam and Eve... We realize that the world was perfect, and then Satan got into the serpent (not a reptile, a beast) and deceived mother Eve. That set in sin, and out of Genesis, begin to spread forth. Let's take at least two spirits out of Genesis, and run the church down, and find it out where we're living today.

The reason I've chose this little thought this afternoon, when God dealt with me yesterday about it, knowing I was to speak, was because of the--of the prestige of the Full Gospel churches, and how easy...

Jesus said, Himself, "That in the last days, the two spirits would be so close together, it would deceive the very Elect, if possible. But by their fruit you shall know them."

20 Now, after Adam and Eve, they brought forth their first son, which was Cain, of the Devil. The second son was Abel. You say, "Brother Branham, do you mean to say that Cain was of the Devil?"

Sure he was, son of the Devil. Notice!

Say, "Well, Eve said, 'I have got a son from the Lord.'"

That's true. Certainly. God is the only Creator. But through the spirit that he let come upon him; you couldn't attach that evil thing of Cain, upon God. Where did he get that nature he had to be jealous? From Satan, his father. Where did he get that spirit of murder, the first murderer? You couldn't say that come out of God, it had to come out of the Devil, he was of the Devil. And Abel was of God, out of Adam.

Notice, when both boys, after coming out of the garden of Eden, they realized that they were mortals, and they must die, because God had already pronounced death on all mortals. They must die.

Oh, I hope you see this picture. And if God willing, I want to make an illustration here, this afternoon. Don't know whether I can do it with that, or not. I'm going to call this, "Cain," and this, "Abel," so that the children will understand.

Cain and Abel, both boys were human beings and had spirits. Now, when both boys realized that they were getting older, and they were mortal, and they had to die, seeing their mother and father withering away, Cain tilled the soil, Abel was a sheep herder.

Then the boy, Cain, with his spirit, and Abel, with his spirit: those two spirits has come from Genesis, and in existence today; the same two spirits living right here in New York, today. I'll prove it by God's Word. That's right. They come up out of...

21 And you can take any of these cults, now, when I return back from overseas, with God's help, and can come here for some teaching times, and so forth, I can prove by God's Word that every cult that you can name, I can show you it, in Genesis. That's right, where it started from.

There's nothing new, it's all been, all the time. It's just been under different names, in disguisement. Like today, a--an epileptic, they call it, "an epileptic," Jesus called it, "a devil." It's the same spirit. The boy fell in the water, and frothed at the mouth, and so forth. Jesus said it was "a devil."

A cancer, in them days, was called, "a devil." The word devil means "a tormentor" and that's what it is, it's a devil. Today, the--the word cancer come from the Greek word, or the Latin, rather, which means, like, "a crab," legs that spread forth; that's the medical name, but God calls it "a devil," yet, and it's still, a devil. "In My Name they shall cast out devils."

22 Now, with Cain and Abel, these two that... we can... could stay on it a week, but just for the high points, notice. This man here, Cain. Now who is this man? Cain. All of you say it together: "Cain." And this is "Abel."

Now, let's watch those spirits. Now, both of those boys (strangely, thinking), they were both religious; both of them were religious. Cain was a long ways from being a communist, or an infidel, he was a believer. This may shock you, so get your vest ready. All right.

23 He was a believer, not a false believer, a true believer in Jehovah God. So if God only requires a man who will make a confession, and a believer, God would be unjust to save this boy, and condemn that boy. Is that true? If--if faith in God is all that a man requires... that God requires, and if this boy had faith in Him and this had faith in Him, God would be unjust to condemn one, accept the other. Certainly they would.

So you say, "I belong to church, Brother Branham. I believe in God."

That don't have one thing to do with whether you're going to home to glory or not.

You say, "Brother Branham, if I openly confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, am I saved?"

"No, sir."

I... if you'll listen close, and don't get up and walk out now, just wait till the end of it, you'll find out why that our dear Brother Billy Graham, and them, are not getting the job done right: is because they're not taking people far enough, they're just getting them to stand up, and say, "I accept Jesus as my Saviour. That settles it."

And a great revival, here, not long ago, up here at one of these eastern states, they was claimed to have thirty thousand converts, and six weeks later they couldn't find thirty people holding out. Why? It was just a cold, dry-eyed confession. God requires death and regeneration. That's what's the matter.

24 This man was a believer. The devil walked right out, and openly confessed Jesus Christ, and said, "We know who You are, the Son of God." They wasn't saved. They were devils.

Oh, how theology has scrupled up the plan of God. It's a disgrace. We're living in the days of evil, and evil usually comes from the pulpit. If the pulpit would have stayed clean and straight, we wouldn't have had all this stuff spread over the world today, and people acting and living the way they're doing, in unbelief.

Some great teacher on the West Coast met me the other day, and he was going on about a certain man over there that's got a big church. He said, "Reverend Branham, do you think that that man is a Christian?"

I said, "I have no other reason than to believe he is a Christian."

He said, "All that Divine healing and stuff you all are talking about," said, "You know, a long time ago," he said, "We..." Great fine church. I won't call its name, 'cause I don't believe in talking about anybody. But he said, "We had the greatest churches on the West Coast." And said, "Along come that cult of Christian Science. And you know what? They stripped our churches."

I said, "If you, great church, would have stayed with the principles of Jesus Christ, and taught Divine healing like the Bible did, they would have had to have no cult to come on the coast."

And these people is hollering about "tearing up churches," and things like that: brother, hungry children will eat out of a garbage can. Feed them the Word of God, and they'll stay where they ought to be. That's the truth. Certainly.

25 Hungry people, every man is trying to look behind the curtain to see where he come from, and where he's going. If you won't teach it in your church, and give him the salvation that he needs to his soul, he's a son of God, in his fallen estate, yet he's a son of God, and he wants to see out yonder, he longs to see it.

God help we ministers to get to the place where we can introduce to them the true and living God, and the thing that their soul hungers for, after they have confessed and become Christians.

26 Now, this man, Cain, was a believer. He believed in God. He honored God. He came to worship and he built a altar, built an altar, perhaps east of the garden, 'cause there's where the Cherubim was put with a flaming sword to guard the Tree of Life.

And, perhaps, they went up to the east side of the garden, from which the Lord will come, the Saviour, the Tree of Life that was in Eden. And then, when they went up to this side of the tree, up to the guard, rather, Cain built an altar just the same as Abel built an altar. In other words, Cain built a church, and Abel built a church.

And if belonging to church, and kneeling at your altar is all God requires, God would be unjust to condemn this man, and receive this man. Both of them was worshippers: Cain knelt down and worshipped God just the same as Abel did. And not only that, but they were both sacrificers: Cain made a sacrifice just the same as Abel made a sacrifice. So if being a believer of God, belonging to a church, praying at the altar, making a sacrifice, becoming religious, if that's all God required, God would be unjust to condemn that man.

So, you see today how theology has twisted it around? They say, "As long as you go to church, belong to some faith, be a member of a church, you're all right."

That's wrong: "Except a man be born again of the Spirit of God, he'll in no wise enter into the kingdom." He's eternally lost. You could hold up your hands, and everything.

27 A man come to me, here on the West Coast, few weeks ago. He said, "Brother Branham, I went... I been trying to seek the Lord for the last five years." He said, "I went to Mr. Graham's meeting. He told me to hold up my hand, accept Jesus." Said, "I did. I went out with the same thing. I went to a Free Methodist church. They told me I had to get happy enough to shout, and I did." And said, "I still went away unsatisfied." Said, "I went to another man's meeting." Now you all know him, Brother Roberts, exactly, my buddy, my friend. Said, "Brother Roberts said, 'Stay in there until you speak with tongues, then you got it.'" So he said, "I went in there and prayed until I did speak with tongues, and still, I haven't got it."

I said, "My brother, what Billy Graham told you is the truth. And what the Free Methodist told you is the truth. And what Oral Roberts told you is the truth. But receiving Christ is not whether you shout, whether you hold up your hand, it's receiving the person, Christ Jesus, in your heart. And these things are attributes that follow it." That's right.

You've got to first get the Tree (I can take the apple, but I haven't got the tree.), Christ, the new birth, then these attributes follow the Tree. The Tree produces that. See what I mean? Receiving Christ is receiving the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ in the human heart. Amen.

28 Notice. Oh, Methodists thought they had it when they shouted. They found out they was wrong. The Pentecostal thought as long as they spoke with tongues, they had it. They found out they were wrong. They spoke with tongues, and lived any kind of a life.

But when you receive the Person, Lord Jesus, in your heart, it makes a new creature out of you, a new being. Then you can shout, and speak with tongues, as you have received Him, the Person of the Lord Jesus.

29 Cain was a worshipper. He paid his vows. He worshipped God, come up and laid his sacrifice down, knelt down on his knees, raised up his hands and said, "Jehovah," and worshipped God, truly, in a form of worship; just as religious and just as sincere, perhaps, as what this man was. But the only, made, difference made, this man had a spiritual revelation of God's requirement.

Hallelujah. You're going to call me a holy-roller after today anyhow, so you might as well get started. Look, sure. I guess I am. I'm a Baptist, that's right. And I'm a Nazarene, that's true. And I'm a Pilgrim Holiness, and I'm a Presbyterian, and I'm a holy-roller. Brother, I believe that every man that's born of the Spirit of God is a child of God. That's right.

Here he is. He had a spiritual revelation that it wasn't by works, it was by grace that he was saved. And that's the only way that you'll ever know the difference, you, my Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist people today, the only way that you'll ever know, is God has got to personally reveal Himself to you in the power of the Holy Ghost, before you'll ever know it. Jesus said Himself, the Scripture teaches, "No man can say Jesus is the Christ, only by the Holy Ghost."

And without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, you're only guessing at it. You're saying what the Word said. You're saying what the pastor says. You're saying what mother said. But when the Holy Spirit comes in, and baptizes you into the Person of the Christ Jesus, then you know by a personal experience, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, raised from the dead, living in you, the Hope of Glory. Amen.

30 Notice. Cain had a spiritual revelation. And that's what's made the difference between them churches today, the same thing.

Jesus when He come down off the mount, Matthew 16, I believe it is, He says, "Who does men say I am?"

"Some say thou art Elias; some say you're Moses."

He said, "But who do you say?"

Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."

He said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for (no seminary has taught this to you; you haven't learned this from some man's theology) flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father which is in Heaven has revealed this to you. And upon this rock I'll build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The whole Church of the living God is based upon spiritual revelation of Jesus Christ.

Amen. That's it. Oh, my. I feel like a shouting Baptist now. I feel kind of religious along about this time of day.

31 Notice, it's enough to make it; it'll make you feel different. This cleans you inside and outside, makes you a new creature in Christ Jesus; as the Greek puts, a new creation.

Now, Cain thought he was right, he thought because he done all of his religion: He went to his church and said his prayers, and paid in his tithes and a few extra dollars, extra. He belonged to the one, a fine church, all beautiful with flowers and everything. That's the way the Devil has got the church today.

And I tell you, brother, I'm not saying this... because behind this pulpit, God is going to make me answer for every word I say, for I have before me the purchase of His Blood. And I've got to not know any church, any creed, I got to preach what the Holy Spirit tells me, 'cause it's not by notes, I never had one in my life, I just have to, it's wherever I see it, I reach and get it, and hand it out. May come rough, but believe it, it'll make you fat, spiritually speaking.

32 Notice, Christ, the Hope of Glory.

Now, when this man, Cain, come up and worshipped the Lord, he worshipped him in beauty. If you'll notice, the very beauty begin in the Devil. He went to the north, and set him up a kingdom to outshine Michael. The Devil has always dealt in beauty.

And today, in some of these great big, fine churches (and some of these little, old preachers standing down on the corner here, in a little mission in the corner), they call them a bunch of nit-wits and holy-rollers; and don't know that that's the Church of the living God, standing down there, and in those little missions and things.

And we set in great, fine, plush seats, and pipe organs, in all of our dignities and put-on, and not realize that the very beginning of that is the Devil. That's right.

That might make you a little bit sick, but it'll do you good. If you, don't make you sick, it don't do you any good.

33 Mama used to... We was raised on a little, old farm, poor. Mom put meat skins in a big old thing, and put it back in the oven, and boil it out, or as, render it out, to make the grease to go in the corn pone, of a morning. I don't guess you New York people know how to eat corn bread and things like that.

But every Saturday night it was a bath in a big ol' cedar tub, pour the hot water in there; well, every one, the same water, every one of us kiddies; and then a big dose of caster oil. I took so much of the stuff, till I can't even smell it today. I used to come to Mama, I'd say, "Oh, Mama, it just gags me to smell it."

She said, "If it don't make you sick, it don't do you any good."

So, that's the way it is with preaching the Gospel: if it don't stir up your religious gastronomics, it don't hurt you, it don't help you very much. Let it squeeze you down a little bit, pinch this corner and that corner.

Amen. All right. I'm not amening myself, but I--I--I believe it, myself, anyhow. That's right.

34 Look, them both religious boys. But the power of God is known by a spiritual revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, not by some works, some other thing, or something another. It's God, Himself, revealing to you His Person, Christ Jesus, in your heart. That's where it's at.

Now, look as they come up. There was nothing more than Judas and Jesus later on. As Cain killed Abel at the altar, so did Judas kill Jesus at the altar. And notice, Abel...

When Cain come, he made it beautiful, probably put the lilies, the fruits, and fixed them all up there. Oh, how beautiful; he had the real ritual. I suppose he'd have a D.D.D., double-L.D. on his name, if he lived in today. He knelt down, and said, "Jehovah, I have did all this for You, because my honor and respects is to You, receive it." And Jehovah turned His back on him.

And here come Abel, from the stockyard, a barnyard. I don't guess they had any hemp in that day, so he had a grapevine wrapped around this little, old lamb's neck, pulled it up, and it bleating, trying to keep away from the cross. But he throwed the lamb up on the rock. He didn't have a lance, so he probably picked up a sharp rock, pulled its little head back, and begin to chop its neck, till its blood... bleated, bleat and dying.

35 Did you ever hear a lamb dying? Why, it's the most pathetic thing you ever heard, is to hear a little lamb dying. And Abel, with his head pulled back, chopping on his little throat, like that, and the blood just spurting out all over the rock and over his hands, his little white wool being bathed. God looked down, He said, "That's it." Hallelujah. "That's it."

What did it speak of? The Lamb of God being led away with a hemp rope around His neck, two, four thousand years later; there on the cross with mockery, spit, as bloody locks dripping around His shoulders, bleeding, bleating, speaking in other tongues, when He was dying, yonder.

Could Abel understand his lamb's voice? No, sir. He knowed his voice, but he didn't know his language. And so, when He was speaking in tongues at the cross, when He was dying, He was God's Lamb slain from the foundation of the world for lost sinners.

Remember, Abel died on the same rock his lamb died on. And every man that comes to Jesus Christ, man or woman, boy or girl, has got to die on the same Calvary that Jesus died on: self sacrifice, laying on that Rock of Ages, sacrificing themselves, their own ideas, their theories, and everything, and giving fully over to the Holy Spirit. Certainly.

36 Notice, as them two spirits come up, I wish we had time to take them, like on the ark, we can bring it through bird life, you can bring it through animal life: the grisled, bay, and the red horse, and so forth. Look in the ark, here setting in the ark, here set a crow and a dove, both of them birds, one could fly where the other one could, could do anything.

But when they turned them loose, the crow was satisfied with eating the dead things, and he could digest them all right. But the dove is one bird who hasn't got a gall, he can't digest that kind of stuff, so he come back to the ark. What was he? He was a crow to begin with, and he was a dove to begin with. And every man that's born of the Spirit of God, hasn't got the gall to digest the world anymore.

It isn't whether we hold on, from one revival to the other one, it's where Christ held on, to Calvary. It ain't what I am, it's what I am in Christ Jesus, as He died for me; not my holiness, not your holiness, it's His holiness we stand in. Yes, sir.

37 Notice, here's another beautiful picture, comes to my mind now, of the children of Israel, when they were brought up out of Egypt, and they crossed over, and into the new land, over into the land that they were going, on the road. Oh, come up, they never was a denomination, they were called the people of God; when they was called out, they were the Church of God.

The very word church means "called out." God, getting His church together, calling out, not... out of every denomination, a people for His Name. Called out, "Come out from among them." Called out, separated, a church for His Name. Listen closely.

Now, we're going along and as Israel, called out: a bunch of holy-rollers. Exactly. What is it? Israel was this group here. Watch them two trees as they come up out of Eden, now. Let's see where we're living on. Here come Cain, with his spirit, here come Abel, from his Spirit; they're moving up. Now, Israel comes out representing this over here. Now, watch them. When they come out...

I said, "Holy-roller," a few minutes ago. That didn't go good. They was holy-rollers. When they crossed the red sea, and got the victory over the enemy: Moses sung in the Spirit and Miriam picked up a tambourine, and run down the bank, dancing, beating the tambourine, the daughters of Israel followed her, beating tambourines, and dancing in the Spirit. If that ain't a holy-roller meeting, I never seen one in my life. They were holy-rollers.

So, holy-roller religion isn't something new. You call it "holy-roller." I never heard of a such a church in my life, but they've branded that: that's the Devil's name, he puts on it.

38 But there they was, holiness people, screaming, shouting, singing in the Spirit. Did you ever see it in the meeting? How many ever seen something like that? Raise up your hand. Why, sure, just the same Spirit. It begin back there in--in the garden of Eden. It's coming on today.

Now watch, here's what'll shock you. When they come on up, there was another group, and when they had to pass through to the promised land, they had to go through, by the way of--of Moab. And as they did...

Now Moab, they were religious people; Moab sprung out of Lot's daughters' children, from the father-daughter.

And Moab was on this side, here is Moab's spirit. Now watch, here comes Israel; and here is Moab. Israel sent and asked if he could go through.

He said, "No, sir." See? He's against this fellow. So then they had a prophet over there, a very religious man; and they went and got him to come down and curse this people.

Now, watch the nature of that, and look, today: The fundamentals versing Full Gospel. Fundamental (Yeah, I don't mean some of the real ritualistics out here, I mean the fundamental church.), Cain was fundamental.

39 Notice, here they come. Moab, a believer in Jehovah God. Israel, a believer in Jehovah God. Here is Israel, camped at the bottom of the mountains, wanting to pass through the land. There is his brother, Moab, says, "You can't do it."

So they sent over, and got an old backslidden preacher, and brought him down there. And on the road down, a mule spoke in tongues to him, and told him not to do it. There you are. But he went on, anyhow. Is that right? And when he got down there to where the fellow was...

Now look: The preacher said, "Build me seven altars." God's perfect number. "And on there make seven sacrifices of ox." Clean sacrifice. And Israel, they had seven altars. God's requirement. They had seven ox. Talk about fundamental, both of them were fundamental.

Then he said, "Put me seven rams on here." What do the rams speak of? Any religious teacher know that the ram spoke of the "coming of the Lord Jesus." So they had the sacrifice; seven rams here, seven rams here.

Now, if I'm going to look at both spirits, if I'm... would be God, in the judgment, who is right? Now, here is a man offering seven rams, seven altars, upon seven altars, and seven clean sacrifices. Seven altars, seven rams, seven bullocks, exactly, both of them the same; just as fundamental, both of them was, as they could be.

All right, Baptists, get your hat set. Don't go out. All right.

If God requires fundamentalism, why didn't he accept them, the same as them? If fundamentalism taught in the church is all God requires, He would be unjust to refuse their sacrifice and accept this one. He would be unjust. See the spirit? Now, who was in the beginning? Cain. Watch the spirit living up.

40 Now, they both had seven altars, both had seven rams, both had seven ox: one, and the other. And both of them kneeling, praying to the same God. That's right. Both of them believed in the same God. A beautiful picture, today, of the fundamental church, and the Full Gospel church. That's exactly.

You say, "What's the difference?" Just a minute. Let the Holy Spirit reveal it. Here He is. They're offering their sacrifice just as fundamental as these are over here.

Now watch. These type, up here, they were a organized group: they had their own nation.

Israel was a bunch of interdenominationals: they didn't belong, they didn't have any country, they were wanderers, pilgrims (Hallelujah!), they didn't have... they wasn't organized.

These people had a nation. They looked there, and said, "Look at those scoundrels: why, there's nothing to them, they're not even a nation, they're a bunch of--of hitchhikers, they're just passing through, and getting what they can." And little did they know it: That was the Church of the living God.

41 Said, "We are a great nation. And who are they? A bunch of backwash, a bunch of holy-rollers." Said, "We know Who Jehovah is. Why, we believe in Him, we've got all the parchments here, we got everything here. We offer the sacrifice, we worship God." Said, "We'll go down there, and curse that bunch of holy-rollers." Said, "Look what they've done: they've lived with their own mothers, they've done all kinds of illiterate things."

You know that's true. But here's what they failed to see, they failed to see the brass serpent, the smitten rock and the Pillar of Fire. That's what they failed to see.

So he come up there. Cause why? Just as long as they was fundamental, that's all they cared about. And that's the way it is today.

Don't never jump on-...(you Pentecostal preachers)...-to a fundamental man. He believes in the birth, the virgin birth; he believes the death, the resurrection, the ascension; he believes in the second coming of Jesus Christ; he's just as fundamental as he can be. Don't try to argue with him on the Scripture. He knows what he's talking about. (I come out of the church, I know.) Yes, sir. Just as fundamental as any Full Gospel could be. But he can't take the full Gospel, he can't stomach it. That's right. His digesting is not right. Amen.

You got a lot of grace to set under all of that, but you're doing it. All right. Notice. May the Holy Spirit, now, settle down, while we drive this down, to the glory of God.

42 Here was a man worshipping. Here was people worshipping. Here was groups of the earth worshipping. Tribes of the earth worshipping here. One of them: down the valley, as a bunch of holy-rollers. The other one: on a hill, as a great dignified nation.

Watch what Balak done: He called out all the dignitary, the men with their great long gowns on, all the princes, they stood around (just exactly what God required, the altars, the sacrifices) and they lit the altars, the fires begin to burn. All the dignitaries with their hands up, saying, "Great Jehovah, Thou knowest us, this great nation. Thou knowest that how we love You, and how we worship You. And now, look at this group coming through down here; we pray that you'll curse that group." Just as religious.

Here is his brother, Israel: down here, unorganized, just a bunch of tent dwellers, down there, a bunch of just crime among them, and everything else, down there, worshipping God over the same sacrifice.

If fundamentalism is all it requires, this man was just as just as Israel was. Do you get it? Here is what made the differen.

Now, God... Balak had ju-... done been refused. God done told him, "Don't you go curse that people, 'cause I blessed them." So he goes down to do it anyhow: bull-headed; wanting money; wanting to have pride; wanting a D.D. to his name, or something; he wanted to be a big fellow, "a big shot," as we call it. (Excuse that expression, 'cause it's used on the street, but you'll understand it plainer.) Notice, he goes down then, and he thought he wanted to be something big; so he goes down to make him a name, a prestige. So he starts forward to meet God. God met him.

43 Now watch what they did. Balak, the king, took him back here, and showed him the utmost parts of Israel, the hinder parts of Israel (Is that true, you Bible readers?), the utmost parts, the worst part. He didn't want him to see this part; he showed him the utmost part.

And I wonder a lot of times, if people who call us "fanatics," and "out of our head," and things, if they're not just trying to point to the worst parts. They say, "I know a holy-roller preacher that run away with another man's wife." Yes, and I know a lot of Baptist and Presbyterians, done the same thing. But you're big enough to keep it hushed up, but God knows all about it. That's right.

Now, they said, "Just look at the utmost part."

And when he went back there, then, and He said, "Now, go back." (He was going back to curse them.) And God said, "You return and go back, and you say just exactly what I put in your mouth." Amen. I like that. Oh, my.

I think of him. He went back there, and he started to put the curse on the people. Instead of, there, he blessed Israel. And He said, "I beheld you from the hilltops, and I don't see any iniquity in you." Hallelujah! There you are. It's election. "I've... I never seen you from a little place like this," God said, "I've looked at him from the hilltop, and I don't see any iniquity at all." Hallelujah. There you are, the true church. Yes, sir.

What made the difference? If they're both fundamental, both Bible churches, both teaching the same doctrine, both the same, what made the difference? God vindicated Israel by signs and wonders.

44 And that's the same thing He's doing today, between the Full Gospel and the fundamentals. He's vindicating His Church with signs and wonders. God has always, when the Church of the living God is moving: there's healing, there's power, there's signs, there's wonders. Hallelujah!

They had a bra-... what they had before, was a brass serpent; they had a--a Christ before them; they say, "We got it, too."

But he didn't a vindicate it. He said, "Here it is."

And today, the difference between fundamentalism and Full Gospelism, God is a vindicating the Full Gospel by giving them signs and wonders and miracles: these, tonight. Hallelujah! Oh my!

When I think of it! That, I stepped off of that tree to get on here, I seen the vision. I'm glad, today, that I'm a holy-roller. I'm glad, today, that I believe God, as the signs and wonders and miracles, and so forth; it's a vindication of the living God. Hallelujah!

That was the difference.

45 They read the same Bible as they read; they made the same sacrifice that they made. But God, looking down, just exactly like He did on Cain and Abel, he refused them, and put His signs over here. Glory!

The Full Gospel preachers may be uneducated, they may be illiterate, but they got sense enough to know what God is, when He comes in their midst, to let Him have His way, and signs and wonders accompany that ministry. Hallelujah! It's the truth. God always vindicates His Church by signs and wonders. It's always been the sign of God: a shout of it in the camp of a king. The king is in the camp today, as a bunch of people.

Looky here in the church today, of a city like New York, of seven million people, and perhaps, a thousand people setting here, in the afternoon meeting. There shows where the hearts is, that shows where the treasures is.

They might bring some fellow in here with a D.D.D. on his name, like that, set up out here, 'cause he come through some great Hartford College, or some, or Oxford out of England, or something; and tens of thousands of people would swarm in.

Ask him, does he, "Believe in Divine healing?"

"Well, I should say not."

"Do you believe in signs and wonders?"

"Oh, that passed away, with the ages gone by."

Jesus Christ said, "A little while and the world will see me no more; yet you'll see me: for I'll be with you, even in you, to the end of the world." Here He is, over here. Hallelujah!

46 Well, say, "They're uneducated."

He said, "Not by power nor by might, but by My Spirit saith the Lord; not by seminary, not by degrees, but by My Spirit will I vindicate My church." Amen.

You say, "Brother Branham..."

It went right on up, look at that climb up. It come into the Pharisees: just as religious as they could be, they had everything fundamental, just as fundamental as Jesus Christ, Who come off of this tree.

But when Jesus was there, He couldn't call a crowd like them Pharisees could. They could call two million Jews at any time. Jesus' little crowd run from a thousand, up to five thousand, something like that, poor Galileans who heard Him.

But what was the differen? Both of them was reading from Isaiah; both of them was reading from Jeremiah. But God vindicated Jesus Christ by signs and wonders. Didn't Peter tell them on the day of Pentecost? Said, "You men of Israel; Jesus of Nazareth, a Man approved of God by you" (How? By His theology? By His great scholarship?) "by signs and wonders and miracles, which He did among you." Amen!

47 Oh, brother, when you'll drop across the sea yonder, into the other countries, they come, say, "I'm a missionary." They're sick and tired of such stuff. That's right. Come over there to teach them some new theology. They knowed the Bible before we ever was a nation. They say, "We don't care for missionaries, and some new theology, what we want, is somebody to make the Word of God alive, and speak it."

That's what the world needs today, is a manifestation of the Holy Ghost, the resurrected Jesus Christ putting His Being into power in the church. That's what the world's wanting to see. Certainly it is.

No matter how fundamental, and how your theology, and how you've trained it through the Bible, if God doesn't vindicate it, it's wrong, and you're wrong. "The letter killeth, the Spirit maketh alive." Amen.

You won't like me after this, but remember, I may never see you again till we see you at judgment. I been honest with you all along, and I'm honest with you now. I've got to answer at the judgment for these things. Looky here.

48 Fundamental: Cain, Abel, Israel, Moab; now look, Jesus come. Where's the tree He come off of? Out of the line of Abel.

There was that religious cult. The very same group, crucified the Lord. They said they'd even kill you, thinking they was doing God service. That's still in the future for us. That's right. There is that group: just as religious, just as fundamental, teaches the Bible. Where did it begin? In Ge-... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]

Remember, God takes His man, but never His Spirit; the Devil takes his man, but never his spirit. The same Spirit, was upon Elijah, come upon Elisha; come out on John the Baptist, hundreds of years later; and prophesied to come again, in the last day. See how fundamental? How would that? But God vindicates with signs and wonders.

Look at the great Saint Paul. (To hurry up with it.) The great Saint Paul, before dying, wrote in Timothy, he said, "In the last days" (This! This day! You believe this is the last days?) "perilous times will come. Men will be lovers of their own selves."

"Now, let me tell you something. I've got a degree."

"Lovers..."

"I belong to the biggest church. We belong..."

"Lovers of their own selves, proud, boasters, blasphemers, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good."

49 "Oh," you say, "Brother Branham, that's sure communism."

No, it ain't. That's fundamentals.

"Oh! What? Them people? Why they'd be devils, they'd be..."

No, no, they're religious. The Bible said, "They would have a form of godliness, but would deny the power thereof." Is that right? How many believes the Holy Ghost said that? That's exactly right. They'd have a form of godliness: just like Cain had with his worship, just like Moab had with his worship, just like Caiaphas had with his worship, and just as the fundamentals has today, with their worship. "Having a form of godliness, but would deny the power thereof," which come from Abel all the way through. Amen!

Don't feel sorry for us, just come on, get on this side, see how it is. When I was a little boy, we used to run, jump in the water. The first one in just hold up... if he was cold he would hold up one finger, ooh, it's cold. If he held up two fingers, the water was warm. Come on, get in. I got two fingers up this afternoon, the water's fine. Come on, get in. See how it is. It's troubled right now: the Holy Spirit, moving. Oh my!

Fundamentalism verses Full Gospel. There's where God's Church is, there's where God lives. Where God is, signs and wonders accommodate Him.

Where this is, has got a form of godliness, but deny this. Now, you can go out to the big churches today: there's a many a man in the Baptist church, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, anywhere you want to go, Catholic, whatever you want, that actually believes this over here. But they can't, unless they leave their church, so they hold on to the church, instead of receiving the Lord Jesus.

50 In the days when Jesus was here on earth, there was a...

Look at little old Jairus. He believed Jesus, so he couldn't come to Him because his church would put Him out. But He got a need one time and had to come for a healing.

There you are. Many of them: borderline preachers, today, secret believers. There you are.

But brother, here is the Church of the living God, where signs and wonders are accommodating, and proving that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead, by signs and wonders. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD. Amen!

Oh, I'd advise you get off, and get on, brother. There they are, from Genesis; we're plum up here in the seed now.

51 Here, not long ago, when Brother Baxter and I, that's here now, with us: we was up in Canada. (I, thinking of this, right here.) I'd been out that day, wandering around. And I been chasing an old bear. And the old fellow, he got away from me. And I was, well, eleven hundred miles, I guess, or something, I'd say, at least seven hundred miles, or more, from a hard-top road. Oh, we was way up in British Columbia, way up in the big mountains, way back, two or three days back, with pack horses.

And I had been up there after some goats on the mountain, and I'd run into an old bear, and I started chasing him. I got kind of lost from the rest of the brethren. And I rode around there a little while, and it kind of got towards dark. And I thought, "Well, which way did I come in, here?" There's no roads, there's no nothing.

So I thought, "Well, I guess I'll have to build me up a fire." And I stopped, and I waited a little while, I thought, "No, them Northern Lights will probably produce enough light that I won't fall through a crevice somewhere. I'll make my way back, 'cause I can see. I come from the North, coming South; I got to go back, North."

52 So I was going along there and I come into an old forest. Looked like it was going to rain, great big, old, white clouds going over, and the moon was shining. And when I stopped there... And that was the spookiest looking place I ever seen in my life. Them great big, old, white, tall trees, just as bleak and bare as they could be, and that moon shining down on them: it looked like a graveyard.

And I stopped. Seemed like the Holy Ghost said, "Get off that horse." And I tied him up to a little limb there, and I got off. And I thought, "Lord, what'd You stop me in this graveyard for?" I looked around there, and them great big, old trees standing there. There'd been an old burn-over years ago, many, many years, forty, fifty years ago; the fire had swept through there, by some unknown reason, and it burned all the bark off the trees. And they were standing there, great pines, maybe three foot thick at the bottom. And then I noticed the wind got to blowing. And every time the wind would blow, they'd go, "Ooooh."

I thought, "Oh, my. Hmm." I looked, that moon was shining, big, old, white, blistered trees. I thought, "What? It looks like a graveyard. This is a spooky place." And the wind blowed again, it went, "Ooooh." I thought, "Oh, what'd You bring me here for, Lord? What are You wanting to show me?"

Then the Holy Spirit begin to reveal this to me: "Do you know, one time they were big trees? Why can't they move now?"

I thought, "Lord, that's exactly what Joel said: 'What the palmerworm left, the caterpiller eaten; what the caterpiller left, the cankerworm eaten.'" I thought, "That's right, Lord. That's exactly! That's the churches of the day: They stand with great big, towering spires, great big names on it; some great big church. But what the Methodists left, the Baptists eaten; what the Baptists left, the Presbyterians eaten; what the Presbyterians left, the Lutherans eaten. And the first thing you know, they got stripped down, to there is nothing but a great big, old tombstone standing there." That's exactly right.

And I thought, "Well, what's that wind blowing for?" And I said, "Lord, that's right! You send the wind from Heaven, that rushing mighty wind, like fell on the day of Pentecost. And when it strikes them old churches, the only thing it can go, is go, 'Ooooh, the days of miracles is past. Ooooh, there's no such a thing as Divine healing. Ooooh, stay away from them people.'" That's just the way it does. And I thought, "Sure, they were trees, one time: but they are dead."

53 When Luther had a revival, he had a revival; and when Wesley had a revival, he had a revival; and both of them had signs and wonders. But the time, and the cankerworms, and the palmerworms, and the ethics, and so forth, of the church has eaten out all the life-giving source out of the church. They've took away miracles.

You Methodists here, that don't believe in Divine healing (Why, I got Wesley's textbook, myself.): When he was here in America, he was riding a horse, to pray for a woman, and the horse fell and broke its leg. He got off, and took his anointing oil, and anointed the horse with oil, and rode it away. Hallelujah! That's when the church was moving.

But what happened? The parasites got into the church. Another new generation had come along, and said, "There's no such a thing as Divine healing. We better stop that nonsense, all these here things, of all this shouting and going on; we better culture the church."

Brother, the Holy Ghost is what leads the church. That's right. Take That out of it, and you take the Life out of it. It'll quit growing. That's right. And when God sends the Holy Ghost down, like He did on the day of Pentecost, the mighty rushing wind: the only thing the church does, is moan and groan and say, "There's no such a thing."

Why can't you bend? Because you're dead. That's exactly. Why? She ain't got no life in it. You just stand there and the wind blows right against you.

And you--you say, "Signs appearing in newspapers: 'This man coming out on the street, he was a cripple last night: he's walking today. Last night there was a blind woman on the platform: she's seeing today.'"

The church, one big fellow at their church: "Oh, that's mental telepathy. The days of miracles is past." And the Holy Ghost sweeping right over them.

54 I thought, "O God, is there hope?"

"Joel said, 'I will restore, saith the Lord.'"

I thought, "Well, why would You ever restore?"

And again, the winds blew real hard. And I looked down here, and coming up, from under all them big, old, dead trees, here comes a new undergrowth. (What they call, "backwash.") A bunch of new trees was coming up, little bitty trees, and they were green. Oh, every time the wind hit them, they were flexible. They were full of life, they could rejoice.

I said, "Hallelujah! There it is, Lord, an old fashioned Holy Ghost meeting is on the road. You've got some undergrowth coming up."

"I will restore, saith the Lord." Hallelujah! "I will restore, saith the Lord."

"You wouldn't send that wind." I thought, "What's the little trees blowing for?" That's... Wind hit them, and they just flew with the wind, every way the wind twisted them, backward, forward, around, upside down, they didn't care, they just frolic with the wind. And that's the way a church that's born again, when the Holy Ghost hits them, they just cut all kinds of shines. Hallelujah! "Why is it?"

God said, "I will restore, saith the Lord. The days that the caterpiller has left, the things that they had eat down, I will restore."

I said, "Well, they're green, O Lord, but they're green enough to know how to give in to the wind." And I thought, "What does the wind blow them for?" It only loosens them up to make another big root, so the root can grow down, loosens the ground, so that the little tree can dig down deeper, and get a better hold. And every time the Holy Ghost blows through, sends a great revival of signs and wonders, it only establishes the human heart in Christ Jesus. There you are, friends. There you are.

55 I'm not condemning other churches; I'm not condemning the people of other churches. I'm condemning that cold, ritualistic, formal things that drags the souls of people to hell, and they don't know it: "Having a form of godliness and denying the power thereof."

In the Methodist church, there's people who believe in Divine healing and the power of God. In the Baptist church, the same way. In the Presbyterian church, and all the other churches, they believe the same thing.

My brother, don't let that church take that life out of you. Here is the place you belong, over here, in Jesus Christ, where you're alive, and God is working signs and wonders and miracles among you. "I will restore, saith the Lord."

56 See those two trees? They come up from Eden. Here they are. They come right on up, them two spirits, come right on up, just as fundamental. Do you see what I mean? They are fundamental: they believe God, they worship God, they go to church, they pay tithes, they sacrifice, they believe the whole Bible. But they deny the power of God: to speak with tongues, to shout, to interpretate, to have signs and wonders and healings. "They have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof:" the Bible said, "from such turn away." That's right.

Here is the church to be in.

"How do you get in it, Brother Branham? Go join the Pentecostal realms?"

No, sir, the Pentecostal realms has no more to do with it than that guy. They're just as organized and just as cold and ritual as they are.

The Church of the living God is made up out of every group of people that's born again of the Holy Ghost. That's the real, true, and living God. They're Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics, and everything else that's born of the Spirit of God. They're in that Church by Holy Ghost baptism. Amen! Not, their denomination tag has nothing to do with it. They are children of God by the election of God, by the power of God, by the resurrected Jesus Christ in them. They believe in the Supernatural, no matter what the church says about it.

I feel pretty religious. Amen. Oh, How I love Him, how I praise Him, how I love to see Him.

57 You say, "Brother Branham, you condemned other churches." No, I'm not--I'm not condemning those people. I'm condemning those organizations for teaching the people a form of godliness, and denying the power: when them people believe this is the truth.

God set an open door before you. You believe in God with all your heart, accept the Lord Jesus in your heart. You cannot believe when you're in a formal; it'd have no life to believe with.

A fine, church man told me, not long ago; he said, "Reverend Branham, I don't care what would happen," he said, "I do not believe in any such."

I said, "Certainly not. It's just for believers. It's not for unbelievers. It's for believers. 'He that believeth and is baptized. And these signs shall.' (Not maybe. For certain.) 'These signs shall follow them that believe.'" That's Jesus' own Words. Is that right?

"Oh," he said, "Brother Branham, just for the apostles."

"Shame on you. I got a girl at home, setting back there in the church, seven years old, knows better than that. Jesus said, 'Go ye into all the world, and preach this Gospel to every creature.' Two-thirds of the world hasn't never heard it yet. 'These signs shall follow them, in all the world, that believe; in my Name they'll cast out devils; speak with new tongues, and so forth; heal the sick. Form of godliness, denying the power thereof: from such turn away.'"

See where it started? In Eden. See where it's winding up? Here. Fundamental? Jesus said they'd be so close it would deceive the very elect, if possible, deceive the very elect.

58 Now, don't go condemning, saying, "Well, I wouldn't be a Methodist. I wouldn't be a Baptist." Brother, if you're a Pentecost, and having a form of godliness, 'cause you're a Pentecostal, you're just as dead as they are. That's right. Pentecostal church don't save you, Jesus Christ saves you. That's right.

"Well," you say, "Brother Branham, I just can't go it."

The worst I ever was treated in all my life, was by a Pentecostal church. The biggest denier of the Faith I ever met in my life, was a Pentecostal preacher. When I was in the South land, I had a great meeting, and the Lord was blessing, a great arena. And he had several hundred seats, belonged to one of the biggest organizations of Pentecost. And I, went over, my managers did, and asked him if they could rent them seats, at fifty cents apiece, a day.

He said, "I wouldn't let a man set in my seats that believed in this Divine healing." Pentecostal.

So don't get your head stuck up, 'cause you're a Pentecostal. You've got to be of Christ or you're lost. That's right.

59 David, in the old Scripture, he said, "It tastes like honey in the rock. Taste and see, the Lord is good." David was a shepherd. On his side, he carried a little scrip bag. When his sheep got sick, he took honey out of this scrip bag, and put it on the rock, and all the sick sheep went to licking on it. And when they went to licking on this rock, they, licking the honey, tasting the honey, they got some of the limestone. And the limestone healed the sick sheep.

Now, brother, I got a whole scrip bag full of it here this afternoon, and I'm going to put it on Christ Jesus, not on a Pentecostal church, or no other church, and you sick sheep go to licking. I'll tell you, if you go to licking on the honey, you're sure to get some of the limestone, and get healed. That's right. Just lick as long as you can lick, and it'll be on Christ Jesus, not on the Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist; it'll be where it belongs, on Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Yes, sir.

Here some time ago, I got a lesson on it: God restoring to His people. He said He'd restore all the former days; He's doing it right now, and the people don't realize it. God is doing this thing, and the people don't realize it.

Now, look. Can you see? If you see what I mean, out of Eden, those two spirits coming, if you see that, say, "Amen."

You see how this is fundamental, all the way through? It goes out fundamental.

And this was fundamental, plus, the vindication of God's power, which was signs and wonders. You see that? There is the Church. See what I mean? It's believers.

60 Now, here some time ago, in Toledo, Ohio (in closing), I had a meeting. And I was eating at a little Dunkard restaurant. Some of the loveliest people, their women was dressed: they had long hair and long dresses; like ladies ought to dress; like you Pentecostal women used to dress. You let down the bar somewhere, didn't you? Uh-huh.

The Pentecostal church: you've become a disgrace. That's right. Long time ago it was wrong for the women to cut off their hair, and wear all this here manicure over their lips, and things; but now it's all right. Brother, the Devil might have went out of fashion; but he didn't go out of business, he's still in business. Yes, sir. Rest... Just like the rest of the world.

61 Here, some time ago, a woman said to me, said, "Brother Branham, do you mean to tell me that you believe it's wrong for a woman to wear some m-...-cure all over her lips?"

And I said, "There was one woman in the Bible that did that. A woman never did paint her face to meet God, she painted her face to meet men. And that was Jezebel. Jezebel painted her face and put a round tire around her head, and went out to meet the... a man."

You know what God did to her? He fed her to the dogs. So when you see a Christian woman saying she's full of the Holy Ghost, and her acting like that, just say, "How do you do, Ms. Dog-meat?" That's what God calls her, "Ms. Dog-meat." He fed her to the dogs. That's exactly right.

I didn't say that for a joke; I don't believe in joking, this is the pulpit. But I'm telling you what, brother, it's a disgrace the way you women...

And they... What did it? Your pastors let down, behind the pulpit, to preach the Truth. The greatest sponsors I got in America is Pentecostal people, but brother, it was like in the time of the revolutionary, in--in Par-... in France. They needed a revolutionary in the time of Joan of Arc. They had a revolution, then they needed a counter revolutionary.

The Full Gospel needs to be preached, then they need a revival. That's right. Clean them up a little bit.

62 An old brother used to sing:

We let down the bars, we let down the bars,

We compromise with sin;

We let down the bars, the sheep got out,

But how did goats get in?

You let down the bars; that's what did it. Exactly.

I was standing in a little place out here, I was eating, this little Dunkard restaurant. These clean looking ladies walking around, just as clean, no stuff over their fingernails and eyes, and so forth, they walk in. Is a pleasure to get to meet, and feel that real, warm Christian Spirit. And we set around there, and eat, Brother Baxter and I. Sunday, closed up; they went to church.

We had to go across, to an ordinary, a--a popular, American place to eat, restaurant. And I went in there, and as soon as I walked in the door, there stood a police, a policeman, playing a slot machine, a man my age, with his arm around a woman, the law of the nation. And it's illegal to gamble in Ohio, and there was the law, itself, breaking the law. Such a corruption.

I'm not afraid of communism taking this country; I'm not afraid of Russia coming over here, take it, or Germany, here; it ain't going to be that. It's our own rottenness, among us, is what's killing us. That's exactly right. I'm not afraid of the robin that pecks on the apple, he ain't going to hurt the apple, it's the worm at the core that kills the apple. Yeah, that's right.

63 Brother, unless this America has a good, old fashion, Holy Ghost revival, she's gone. That's right. And I'm American. I walk over the graves of dead Branhams through Paris, and through Germany, and through there; and if I had to give my life for it, I'd do it yet, it's the greatest nation in the world.

But it's a disgrace the way we're letting down. People, women, come from India, different places, and say they wouldn't even live here, from the disgrace, the way the American women act. What is it? You've let down the bars. When our GIs went oversea, two-thirds of them was divorced the first six years, the first six months they was oversea. Morals of women out in these factories and things, working, it's a disgrace. That's right.

Oh, you don't love me now, but brother, you'll know at the Day of Judgment, I've told you the Truth. That's right.

64 I went over to this place, and there stood that police standing there, playing a slot machine. I thought, "What? The law in our nation?" And I looked back, and there was some boys setting there, and a young lady, immorally dressed; them with their hands on her, around her body, where it oughtn't to be. I thought, "My!" I looked over here, and there set an old woman, about, old enough to be my grandmother, about sixty-five years old, with a little, bitty, tight clothes on her, purple looking stuff on her mouth and fingernails and toenails. And her poor, old skin was so wrinkled up; she had a big flower in her hair, and little gray hair, and it blue looking, and up like that, all shingle bobbed up.

Now, you think I--I'm... I'm not joking. I'm preaching the Gospel, and I want you to understand it. Surely God wouldn't give me power of vision and so forth, if I didn't know what I was talking about. I'm telling you what's the Truth. That's what you need here in New York. Yeah.

And then what happened? I looked at her and I thought, "Oh, goodness." And there, she set there with two old drunkards, and them setting there with a bottle of whiskey between them. And I thought, "Isn't that a disgrace? Some old mother, like that old grandmother," and I thought, "O God, how can you stand it? Why don't you wipe the whole thing off, and forget about it?" And I was condemning the woman with all my heart.

Now, just a minute. I stepped back behind the door to offer prayer, and when I did, I saw a vision: I saw a world, it was revolving out in the air. In the air, I saw, like a rainbow around her. Said, "This is the Blood." And that, "Every sinner in the world would be condemned, and God would take your life this very minute, if it wasn't for the Blood of Jesus holding the wrath of God off of you."

65 Then I noticed, I drawed a little closer, and I seen Someone standing there with perspiration of tears and blood mixing, coming down. It was the Lord Jesus. I seen the mockery spit all over His face. I saw all the Blood on His brow, and His precious hands bleeding. I see Him dodging like that. And I said, "My Lord, what makes You dodge?"

He said, "My Blood has acted as a bumper to your sins, all these years."

I thought, "Has my sins did that, Lord?"

Said, "Yes." I looked laying there, and there was an old book laying there, of sin all over it, and my name was wrote on it.

And I said, "God..." Just like a bumper to the car, keeps the car from getting hurt, the bumper. And the Blood of Jesus Christ, when I was a sinner, was keeping God's wrath off of me, acting like that, as a bumper of the car. I said, "Lord, forgive me. Forgive me, Lord, I didn't mean to do that."

Which, bumping like that, He reached down, took His hand to His side, wrote down with Blood: "Pardoned!" Just closed up the book, put it back behind Him, like that, and He looked me right straight in the face.

He said, "Now, I forgive you, but you're condemning her."

I said, "God, be merciful to me. I don't condemn her. I won't condemn her, Lord, no more."

There it is. It's a love the world's dying for. I'm not condemning your church, brother.

66 I went over to her, and I set down, after the vision was over. The men had got up, and went out to the restroom or somewhere. And I said, "Lady?"

She said, "Hello there, honey." She started to put her arm around me.

I said, "Just a minute, lady." I took her by the hand. I said, "Are you a mother?"

She said, "Oh, yes. How did you know?"

I said, "I want to ask you something." I said, "I'm Reverend Branham. Did you ever hear?"

"Oh," she said, "The man that's down here in this arena. Yeah." Said, "I'm glad to know you."

And I said, "Was you ever a Christian?" And I seen her eyes coloring, in a few moments she was crying.

She said, "Yes, I was, Yes, I was, I was raised a Christian." She said, "But I took the wrong road because of an ill treated hub-... ill treated by a husband." Said, "I took a road. I got daughters in the world today."

And went ahead, begin to talk, I said, "Lady, Jesus still loves you." I told her the vision.

She said, "Do you mean that He would take me now?"

I said, "Just the way you are, He wants you right now." And there, by the side of that booth, amongst all those people, we broke up that slot machine gang, and turned it into a prayer meeting, and the woman got gloriously saved there.

What if I'd have walked away condemning her? Brother, it's not a condemnation that's bringing them into the fold of the living God. And may, if there's a person here today, that's out of God's kingdom, may you come, while we pray.

67 Our Heavenly Father, You said, "I will restore, saith the Lord." That poor, wretched, miserable woman setting there, heaped in sin, drawed down till the dogs would hardly look at her. And yet, now today, she's one of Your children, gloriously saved, because someone spoke to her just a few words of kindness, and directed her thoughts back to the right path.

God, grant today that if there's sinners here, that they will come today, and be saved. If there's any backsliders, and has been going to somewhere that's kind of cold and formal, and they realize that they been out of the will of God, grant that they will come this afternoon, and restore, be restored back to the great powers of the Holy Spirit again. Grant it, Lord Jesus. We pray these blessings for Thy glory.

68 While we have our heads bowed, and everyone in prayer, I wonder if someone would slip up your hand? Say, "Brother Branham, I want to be restored this afternoon." Will you just raise your hand, somewhere in the audience? God bless you, and you, and you. That's right. Up in the balconies? Say, "I want to be restored." God bless you, son. God bless you, buddy. God bless you, sister. God bless you. Over to my left? Somebody over here? Say, "I want to be restored, Brother Branham. I want a living faith, and a living love, and a living God in my heart. I've fooled around long enough, just kind of taking theologies. I want a real experience with God." Would you raise your hand? Say, "Pray for me." If you will.

If God will open the eyes of the blind here, by my prayers, if he'll make the cripples rise up and walk, if He'll make the deaf to hear, the dumb to talk, surely, He will answer my prayer for your soul. Then brother, no matter how... you might be setting, and eaten up with a cancer; you're not in the half of condition that you are if you're setting here just with a formal experience, 'cause your soul means more than your body. Won't you accept Him this afternoon?

All that wants to be remembered in prayer at this time, would you stand up on your feet at this time? Saying, "Brother Branham, even before my neighbors, before this church, I stand today, and ask: 'I want to be restored back to a love in my heart again for God, like I once had.'" Will you stand to your feet, anywhere in the building? God bless you, buddy. God bless you, brother. God bless you, and you. That's right. Stand up, everywhere.

Everybody here without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, that hasn't been restored to the full measure of God, would you stand up? Everyone without the Holy Spirit now, that needs the Holy Spirit, and wants to be restored to God, would you stand to your feet at this time? God bless you. God bless you.

Now do you see what I mean, minister brothers? In this little handful of less than a thousand people, perhaps, look at the people standing. Just remain standing while we pray.

69 Kind Heavenly Father, there is one thing that I cannot do, that's to restore these people. I can only bring them to You. I can only bring them to the foot of the cross now. I can only bring them to the face of the Lord Jesus.

God, while they're standing here, with heads bowed, hearts longing to be right. How do we know? There may not be a tomorrow. This city may be laid to a solid waste by morning. An earthquake could upset it, an atomic bomb could strike it, anything could happen. There may not be a living person on the face of the earth by morning. We don't know. One thing we do know, that we've got to stand before God.

Father, this poor message, chopped up in the way, only way I have of bringing it; I pray that it sunk deep into the hearts of the people, that they'll now step away from their just old, formal, ritual ideas, and come and be born again of the Holy Spirit. May they, each one, receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Grant it, Lord, as they're standing here.

Restore them, place the bark over their burnt bodies, and give life anew to them. And may they frolic, as the winds of God sweep down; and as they hear the winds going, like David did, through the mulberry bush, may they be flexible to the Spirit. Grant it, Father, through Thy Son, the Lord Jesus.

While we remain standing, I'm going to ask that Brother Berg will continue praying here, just a minute. Brother Berg.