The Ten Virgins, And The Hundred And Forty-Four Thousand Jews

1Good morning. So happy to be here again this morning in the service of the Lord. Bad weather on the outside, but, oh, it's real good on the inside. This is one time we can say it's good to be on the inside looking out (isn't it?)... to be on the outside looking in.

Had a good night's rest last night and feel lots better this morning. And we had a wonderful time last night, didn't we? Just a wonderful time! And I appreciate that. We've had... the service looked like that has been in one like was down at Shreveport, almost just a--a continuation of the following of the Spirit going right along. Uh-hum. So we are very happy and so thankful to God for His goodness and mercy, and for your... you people giving your spirit over to Him in cooperation so that He can lead us and guide us.

3See, if you got a resenting audience, the Holy Spirit won't even reveal. You got to have something, that working together. "They were in one place and in one accord," and then there came a sound from Heaven rushing. See. But when you got... No matter how much I'd pray, and lay day and night studying and praying before the Lord, walk down here, maybe the anointing on me, walk up here and feel that resentment, see, He--He just... it just grieves Him right away, He won't reveal nothing. But when you walk down here in under the anointing and feel your audience under the anointing, that's when the Holy Spirit begins to work then, and He begins to move and do great things for us. So, you see?

4Haven't talked to the pastor yet about... I heard Only Believe and so I just run in and see--see what he was... he had figured out for this morning. Now, Brother Neville, I'll tell you what, I'll start on this little class and if I get through about eleven o'clock, okay, you take over and start preaching. How's that? [Brother Neville says, "Yes, don't disturb the anointing any, just go on ahead."--Ed.] Oh, I believe the anointing back here, too, anointing back here also. He's a...

5Brother Neville has always... To the strangers here who may not have been here before, he's a (not saying it to his face, but) a gracious person, always been that way. He always reads that--that... lives that Scripture, "preferring one another," always in Christ and always preferring. And ever since I've knowed him he's been that way; not since he's just been here at tabernacle, but ever since I knew him and that's been many years ago. First time I believe I ever remember of seeing Brother Neville, to know him, I went to hear him preach one time down at the Methodist church, he... down in Howard Park, many, many years ago. Been, I guess, twenty years (I guess) ago or more since I knew him. Then he... and he was a... he's worked, too, he's... Oh, I guess, till recently, he's always worked there in the forestry and things up at Henryville where he's from; and worked for his living, preach on the side. The way I done my life, too, till recently, and then we got started out where we couldn't do nothing else but this. So I'm glad of it. I'm glad of our new Boss, aren't you, Brother Neville? Yes, sir! I sure like It. Yes, sir. I'm just so satisfied with Him!

6And now I believe they're going to omit the Sunday school classes. Yes. The children's Sunday school class, they're going to omit it because of the room is... took the partitions out, so it just lets the church go right on back.

7Now, tonight we're going to have the final great age of this, Laodicean. And last night we took the Philadelphian age and come over into the beginning of the Laodicean age and the lapover. And then them great mysteries that God begin to reveal to us between those ages, "the open Door," and "a little strength," "held My Word," "got My Name." All those little things in there, how God did so marvelously make them real to us, to which we are very, very thankful.

8And don't forget, if there's any visitors among us that have sick people, we'll be having prayer for the sick next Sunday, a week from today. And that'll... if the Lord willing. And that'll be... Do you always notice how I like to put that, "The Lord willing"? The Bible says to do that, "if the Lord is willing." We don't know yet; He has never told me that I'd be here, and the church would be here, and we'd all be here, or what more. Then if it's His will, we'll be here, you see. If it isn't His will, course, we won't.

9Brother Neville will be continually announcing it on his broadcast, and different ones, I guess, the brother here and the ones that has the broadcast. And then come in early as you can Sunday morning, 'cause we're looking for a goodly crowd here to be prayed for, and we want to come in. We'll... well, let's see, I... If there's a big crowd like this, it's always best to have prayer cards because they're so jammed together, you just... one pushing around the other one and things like that. I think if you just have it orderly so they just come one by one it makes... keeps the confusion down amongst the people, you know.

And--and then just... And you don't even have to get up till your card's called. Just sit right where you are if you're sick and feeling bad, and you won't have to stand in a long line. Just when your card's called, just come right on up and be prayed for and go down, and another one come up, like that. I like that a whole lot better. I usually have the boys to set some chair, if somebody feels bad while they're waiting, call up a few at a time; they feel bad, why, just let them--let them wait there in their chair until... or sit in the chair until their number's called, till they can be prayed for.

11And I do believe in Divine healing; it's one of the great doctrines of the Bible. But Divine healing has more to it than just Divine healing. Divine healing only says that "there is a God who's coming again." What does Divine healing speak of? It's the earnest of our resurrection. If there's no Divine healing then there is no resurrection, see. And if there is no Holy Spirit now to baptize us, there is no Eternal Life in the world to come. The Bible said, "This is the earnest of our salvation." And you know what the earnest is? Is the "down payment," see. If you go down and pay... Say you bought a farm, they wanted ten thousand dollars for it, and you paid two thousand, that's your "earnest" money, they call it the earnest of it. Now, if this baptism of the Holy Spirit is just the earnest on what's coming, oh, what will it be when we--when we get the full price? It'll be glorious!

12Now, this morning we're going to try to tie, the Lord willing, some of those things in, of the... between the church ages (these right in here) there's something goes in. The Hundred and Forty-four Thousand, The Remnant, The Sleeping Virgin, The Wise Virgin, and The Sealing of the Holy Ghost, Marking of the Beast, all those things just... It's the end of the age, and everything falls right in here in one place, so that therefore we ought to have just the rest of the winter to take this out, but we... to get the Book of Revelation, see how It ties together.

13Did you ever notice? Civilization's traveled the same way, Mr. Wood. It's a... This, man has got his same senses, he's got six senses, or five senses, rather, that he's had since he--since he come on the earth six thousand years ago. But right here in the last, just the last little bit, last hundred years... My! He come, back there, moving slow in an ox cart. But from that ox cart, in the past hundred years, he's went from a ox cart to a--a rocket that'll fly nearly two thousand miles an hour. That's how fast he's picked up, from the ox cart to the rocket. And, look, it's just only been the last few years, why, I'd say not much over fifty years ago.

14When I was a little boy up here on the Utica Pike, they had an old... there was a fellow named Elmer Frank used to live over here. He's kind of a attorney at law. He married a young lady up there on the road that my father worked for her--for her father, her name was Lusher. And they... and he had a, some kind of a automobile; it had a crank, you get out on the side of it and cranked it like this, and it only had one gear. And you had a--a big rubber thing for a horn, and you'd blow it like that. And they said, "That thing would go the terrific speed of nineteen miles an hour." Now, Papa went down and got some sand down in the wagon, and to--and to bring up there and put in sacks so he could hold it down, to see if it would actually go nineteen miles an hour. See? But you ought to have seen the roads, uh-huh; it would only go about ten this way, and nine up-and-down this way. See? So you get it together, you got nineteen miles an hour.

15I remember all of us kids, Mom would wash us all up, about five of us then, we'd hang on that fence to hear it. We'd hear it coming, miles away, way down here, a roar, roar, roar, roar. Everybody'd stop and get their horses, and all get out, the buggy, and hold them like this, you know. That thing coming up the road, my, it was a terrific thing. And--and I just think, that was back, I was about seven years old, see. How... That was about 1914, and just think of how that things has changed since then. And see, and it's just been the last forty years or something. And, look, he had six thousand years to do all that with right here, because the Bible said that he would do it that way, "The last days, they would run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."

16Did you ever think of Nahum, when he--he saw Outer Drive in Chicago, four thousand years ago? Did... He said, "They would jostle through the broad ways." Now the... I've been in the old countries where they had the... their streets like in Oslo and different places, there hardly is room to walk, it's just big enough for a--a chariot to go through in their cities. But probably the distance would be about from here to that wall, is all the wider their streets was, just wide enough for a chariot to go through the street. Well, see, Nahum said, "They were broad ways." And said, "They would run like lightning," these carriages. "And they would seem like torches," that's the lights on them. And said, "They would jostle one against another," the wrecks. That prophet raised up above the time and looked way in there, for four thousand years, and saw that coming. Think of that! Uh-hum. Inspiration.

17But we're at the end time, friends. It's just... And so is the Scripture, being that all these things is happening, all the Scriptures are laying right in here in this end time right here. And I thought, this morning, if God would help us, we'd tie these, some of these things in, as many as we could. And then tonight that great last age, of the Laodicean church, how it receives its Message and then goes on off and ignores its Message, right straight into a lukewarm condition that God spues from His mouth. See, in other words, It makes Him sick at His stomach even to think of it. "I'll spue thee from My mouth," He said.

18Now, I've got some Scriptures written down here that I'd like to refer to this morning. But I wonder if it'd be too hard on us, just for a moment, to stand for a word of prayer:

Our gracious Heavenly Father, as we come again this morning on this Sabbath day. And outside, the rains have begin trickling down, and the icy cold wind blowing; but we're so glad that we have a roof over our head today, that we have a little place, and still a nation to where we can come and worship God any way that our conscience tells us to worship.

Then we see in Thy Word that this isn't going to last very long, so, Father, we pray that You'll anoint us especially today that we might get the best out of this that there is for us to get, and be prepared for the hours that lay ahead when we'll not be able to do this. We don't know how much longer, it may be in weeks, months, or years, we do not know, but sometime we'll not be able to do this. So we pray, Father, that You'll keep us under Thy Divine directing, and may our thoughts be upon Thee, and the meditations of our heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord.

Forgive our sins. We ask that as we confess them to Thee, that we have sinned and erred from the Way. And we're not worthy to be called Yours, only make us Your hired servants, Lord. And we'll be willing to do anything that You tell us to do, any task that's laid upon us. We're willing to do it, only receive us into Thy Kingdom, Lord; that we can work in this, the great terrific hour that faces the world.

Bless us now with Thy Presence, teach us by Thy Holy Spirit, and get glory from our being here together. For we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.

23Now I would like to, first, I would like to recognize every one of my friends in here, I been noticing around this morning. It's so hard here in the nighttime, our lighting's back in behind those hanging down places and it doesn't show the people. And it's kind of hard to see off this pulpit at night here, and it is also in daytime. I see many of our friends that's out from different parts of the country, that I can recognize them better today than I could at nighttime. And it'd be too many to try to call them all, but I want you to know that I certainly appreciate you. And after all this hard cutting and so forth, as I've had to do in the Scriptures, to make... to bring out the Truth. Not what I wanted to do, but what God has got written here to do, you see. And then that's It. And yet I see many of my brethren who belong to organizations and so forth, setting right with me yet, so I appreciate you very, very much. You... God ever bless you and help you is my prayer.

24And now... [Brother Stricker says, "Brother Branham?"--Ed.] Yes, brother. ["If I might have the permission of the church to speak in behalf of all the people here, we want you to know that we appreciate you."] Thank you, Brother Stricker. ["And we love you."] Thank you, Brother Stricker. ["And we're praying for the grace to go through the things that you might have to go through, that we might stand by your side."] Thank you, Brother Stricker. [Congregation says, "Amen!"] Thank you, church, that's mighty nice of you to say that. I appreciate that very highly.

25Someone was saying last night about... I believe it was Brother Fred that called me up and said about the vision or the dream that some brother had, that told it just before leaving last night, seen standing on the arch of the earth and a black cloud rolling after. I know he's after me. But that... just as long... he--he won't be able to do it until God is finished, and then--then I--I... it's time for me to go then. So...

But I--I think of this, to "never be great." No, I don't want to be, see. But I think of The Psalm of Life:

Lives of great men all remind us (See, what Paul did, what Irenaeus did, what Luther did, what Wesley did, or what Saint Martin did, and what they did.)

And lives of great men all remind us

That we can make our lives sublime,

With partings, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,

While sailing over life's solemn main,

(For after I'm gone, see, and gone on.) Some forlorn and shipwrecked brother (pick up one of these books and reads it),

In seeing, shall take heart again. (That's it.)

Let us be up, then, and doing;

With a heart for any... strife, (I like that, don't you?)

Be not like dumb, driven cattle (have to be drove to it);

But be a hero in the strife! (I--I like that.)

27Now, our little brother, George, used to have that one he liked; I had it at his funeral service. We've used... I'd sit and quote The Psalm of Life, you know, and he'd sit and quote Crossing the Bar. See? And you've heard that:

Sunset and evening star,

And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning at the bar,

When I put out to sea. (You've heard it many time.)

For all without is moved with time and space,

The floods may bear me far,

But I hope to see my Pilot face to face

When I've crossed the bar. (I'm sure he did when he crossed the bar.)

And so... and then mine is:

Partings leave behind me

Footprints on the sands of time,

So others, seeing, can come along,

Take heart and keep going.

For, some great day Jesus will come (and that's what we're going to study about this morning), it'll all be over then.

30Now, I thought this morning, in order that we're not going to be able in these church messages... Now, maybe, if the Lord willing, soon, I might have another little series of meetings upon The True and False Church, all the way from Genesis, take it through the Bible and we'll sweep it right down through Revelation. The both churches, just what they're going to do. And then maybe someday when we... if the Lord willing, we get the church built so you can have a little more seating room... You'd be surprised how many has called in and said like that; they just drive by and see it's all filled up, so they just go on, see. And so they... we don't have the room.

And maybe like sum-... in the summertime when it's hot weather or something, where we get the high school gym or something, be nice, take the Book of Revelation then, or something, or Book of Daniel and Revelation, and tie it together so we could have it.

32Now, we never got to deal with the Jewish people. The Jews were...

Now, as I said, in the--in the Dark Age of 1500, the Catholic hierarchy, when they was establishing, united church and state together, that was the "post-millennium." They thought that they were--they were absolutely in the Millennium because the church had received its vicar, one like Christ to sit on a throne. And it was united with the church and state, all had become well, that "The great Millennium was on." They still believe that. But that's an error. Because the Millennium can't come, can't be issued in, without the coming of Christ.

Christ brings in the Millennium, He's the Son of prosperity; and when He comes, then will be a thousand years. And when it is, there'll be the Rapture of the Church will go up, and then the return of Christ. And remember now, when... For what's the next thing we're looking for? The Rapture of the Church.

35Now, don't get the Rapture of the Church and the White Throne Judgment mixed up. Because, the Rapture of the Church, there is no judgment, see, you done met it right down here. That's right, "For they which are in Christ are free from judgment." Jesus said, "He that heareth My Words and believeth on Him that sent Me has Eternal Life and shall never come into the judgment, but has passed from death unto Life."

How do we do that? We come into Christ and are baptized into one Body, First Corinthians 12, "One Body." We're baptized into the Body of Jesus Christ, and God has already judged that Body. He could not stand us in judgment again, because He's already judged that Body. And by the permission and grace of Christ He brings us into Himself, First Corinthians 12, "By one Spirit we're all baptized into that one Body, and free from all judgments 'cause He's done stood the judgments." Oh, aren't you so thankful for Him! He took the judgments for us. No more judgment! But those who refuse to come into Him, that Body, the mystical Body... How do we get into It? By shaking hands? No. By letter? No. By some sort of baptism, water? No. "By one Spirit, Holy Spirit, we are all baptized into that Body!"

37Now remember, we're going to deal on that sharply this morning. You're either in that Body or out of that Body, no halfway between It. There's no pretty-good Christians. And--and there... you're either Christians or you're not Christian. There's no black-white bird, no drunk-sober man. You can't have it. You're either a Christian or not a Christian. You're either in Christ or out of Christ.

38Now, these may seem teaching, I'm not... I'm a long ways from being a teacher. But teaching is cutting, that's a special gift in the--in the Body of Christ. First there's apostles, and then prophets, then teachers, and evangelists, pastors; five ministerial gifts in the Body. And teaching is one of the gifts of the Spirit. Now, I just have to plug along what I see that's right and try to bring it to the people, and study and bring the Scriptures together. Now, but it's only in Christ, the Body of Christ is to be recognized.

39Now, the first three chapters of Revelation deals with the Church. The Gentile, Jewish, Ethiopian, Afrikaans, every type of people in the world goes to the Gentiles to make up this Body; black, white, brown, everything, it's a bouquet of flowers, and that's right, that God puts on His altar; and that's made up of all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people.

But, now, after you leave the 3rd chapter (the Church Ages here), God comes back and picks up the Jews, the Church never appears no more during that age. It's the Jews. And God don't deal with the Jews as individuals, He deals with Israel as a nation, always as a nation.

41That's how someone got it the other day. I've--I've got a lot of letters on that, Hybrid Religion, that I made a remark over in... The Bible said that a illegitimate, called "bastard child," could not enter the congregation of the Lord for ten generations, which would be four hundred years that a illegitimate child could not come into the congregation of the Lord. That's how bad that hybreeding was; that was a woman that let another man live with her in order to bring forth a child, that that child was hybrid, not by its father but by some other man. See? And that was so evil before God, it taken ten generations to ever breed that out again, before God.

But that doesn't apply to this age. You have a new Birth now. They don't... They had just one birth back there, that was the actual sexual breeding. We have this new Birth now which is the spiritual, that breeds out all the cull. And we are new creatures in Christ Jesus, born again of the Spirit of God. New creatures! On the word creature, if some of you good scholars here that understand (If you don't, you might look it up.), the creature comes from the Greek word of "a new creation." Oh, the same as you are a creature here, born sexually; you are then a new creation, born Heavenly. Of... in God's new creation of a new man. New creation, at the Birth. But it has to be a birth, just the same as the natural birth is necessary; the spiritual Birth is just as necessary as the natural birth.

43Young couple might get married and say, "Our first little boy, we're going to call 'John.'" If he's never born, John's never here. That's all. Same thing, you might... how many mythical ideas you build up about Heaven, how great it is, if you're not born again you'll not be there. That's all, see. It's just got to be that way, 'cause it's got to be a Birth. God has laid His laws down and everything works according to His laws. See?

44Now, in these, there is a remnant of Jews to be saved. And we're going to take them first, because it places... Now, there's always three classes of people all the time, constantly. And keep... bear them in mind, that is: the--the believer, make-believer, and unbeliever. All those three. And there is a Jew, which is a cast-off because giving us a chance; there is a lukewarm church; and there is a Spirit-filled Church.

45One time, Charlie Bohanon was president of the... or superintendent of the southern districts of the Public Service Company, when I worked for them. I was just studying then the Scriptures, as a boy. And he said, "Billy, anybody... " Said, "John must have eat some red pepper and had a nightmare out there on the--on the isle of Patmos."

I said, "Mr. Bohanon, you shouldn't have said that." He was my boss, supervisor.

He said, "Well, who in the world could understand That?"

I said, "It's understood. It'll be understood when the Holy Spirit's ready to reveal It." That's right.

And he said, "Oh, my!" Said, "I tried to read It and my pastor tried to read It," said, "we got in such an awful fix." Said, "We had the--the Bride standing on Mount Sinai." See? And said, "Then we had the Bride with the dragon spurting water out of his mouth, to make war with the remnant of the woman's seed. We had the Bride up in Heaven. All three, the same time."

I said, "That's without spiritual understanding." See?

He said, "Well, there they are, all at... the three at the same time."

I said, "Yes, sir, but that's not the way they were placed. See, you called the hundred and forty-four thousand the 'Bride,' which they wasn't; they was the Jews. And the one that the dragon spurted water out of his mouth to make war with was the remnant, the leftovers of the woman's seed that kept the commandments and had, testimony of Jesus. And the Bride was in Glory." See?

The hundred and forty-four thousand, 14th chapter of Revelation, was standing there on Mount Sinai, (That's exactly true.) having their Father's Name in their forehead. That is exactly right. The Jew, the remnant of the Jew.

53And then here come the dragon, the Roman hierarchy. (Which, the Church Itself had been raptured, was in Glory at the Wedding Supper for three and a half years.) Then the dragon, see, the dragon is always "Rome," the red dragon. Now to make that sure to you, in--in Revelation 12, the dragon was wroth with the woman that was to bring forth the man Child that's to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and he spurted water out of his mouth and... or--or to make war with the remnant of the seed. But the red dragon, first, he stood before this woman. As soon as the woman was to deliver this Child, he was to devour that Child as soon as He brought It forth. Now, who stood before the Israelite church (the woman Israel), to devour her Child (Jesus) as soon as It was born? Rome! Herod issued a proclamation that--that everybody was to kill every child from two-year-old down, there went a slaughter through that killed all the Hebrew children throughout the country. Very same thing that Pharaoh done to catch Moses, which was the type of Him, slaughtered all the children and missed him. Oh--oh--oh--oh, God knows how to hide them.

54Oh, aren't you glad you're hid? Oh, a hiding place! The Bible said, "For you must reckon yourself dead and your life in Christ, hid in Christ and sealed away by the Holy Ghost." The Devil couldn't find you if he had to. He just couldn't do it, you see. You're hid in Christ! Reckon yourself dead! And your lives are hid in Christ, hid in God through Christ, and sealed by the Holy Ghost.

55Now, now, this remnant was the sleeping virgin; that he spurted the water from his mouth to make war with the remnant of the woman's seed. Now, what is a remnant? Now, there you--you have to get these types together now. There is a church which is church natural.

I'm going to... Maybe I can draw it here and make it a little bit plainer. Now, Brother Neville, if I take up some of your time, you please forgive me. [Brother Neville says, "Amen. I don't have any."--Ed.]

57Now, there is the... Now remember that there is the what? The unbeliever, I'll put that "UB," unbeliever, and that's the sinner. And here is another one which is a formal, I'll put "FO," formal church. And then here is the other one which is the saved church, "SA," the saved church. Now, keep them in mind all the time.

Now, in this saved church there's two classes, in this church right here and right here, which was typed by Christ: one of them was a sleeping virgin, and the other one had Oil in the lamp. Now, you--you all... How many remembers the story? We're going to get to it just in a minute.

59Now, first, before we do that, we're going to the hundred and forty-four thousand, of Revelation 7, so that it can really be understood. Now, you must remember this. And you that's marking it down, Revelation 7.

Let's just kind of take our time. (And--and you--you're not going to baptize till--till... After service this morning, all right.) We'll... I'll try to lay my watch up here and watch what time it is so we can get out. Now we got--we got around almost two hours now, and the Lord help us to give us this study.

.. after these things...

61Now, we... The 6th chapter deals with the--with the white horse, which was the Holy Spirit went forth conquering, to conquer. Then come the pale horse, Death, and Hell followed it. And each one of those riders on the horses.

Now, "after these things," after this great destruction. First went forth was the Holy Ghost across the earth, "conquering and to conquer"; then come the one in the great famine time, "a measure of wheat for a penny, two measures of barley for a penny, and so forth, but don't hurt My Oil and Wine"; and then on down till He opened these--these seals.

63... after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds... that they should not blow upon the earth, nor on the sea, or... any tree.

And I saw another angel descending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was... hurt... it was given to hurt the sea and the earth,

Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, or... tree, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their forehead.

Now, remember, the servants has always been... God's servants is the Jew. Abraham was His servant. The Gentile is not a servant, it's a Bride, it's a son. This is the son, the Church is. The Jews are the servants. Oh, if you could just... if we just had time to comb them words out. A lot of times I do in the room there, run it all the way through the references and get it up. The Jews are a servant. If I stand here and take up all that time on "a servant," I don't hit the other spots, you see. So just remember, trace that through the Bible, and you'll find that the Jew is God's servant.

64What a beautiful parallel here we could run, if we want to get back to Ezekiel 4, and find out there that He said, "Has anything like this happened before?" He looked at the high walls, and when he did, he seen abominations done in the city. And there went... come forth four men with slaughtering weapons. And they went forth to slaughter everything through the city of Jerusalem.

And before he... they went to slaughter, they held, stopped them, for there was another One came dressed in white, with a writer's inkhorn (How many ever read that?) at his side, Ezekiel 4. Then had this writer's inkhorn at His side, dressed in white, He said, "Don't go into the city, don't slaughter anything until first you have sealed the servants of God in their forehead." And He went forth and He sealed, even said, to the little children and everything, sealing them.

66And then the ones with the slaughtering weapons, four of them coming, went in and absolutely demolished everything, had no pity. They slaughtered men, women, children, and everything that had not this seal of this first Man with the inkhorn writer that sealed away. And the great...

Now, that was in the days after our Lord, when He warned them of it in Matthew 24, how that "When you see Jerusalem compassed about with armies, don't let... don't come down off the housetop, or let him that's in the field come not back and get his coat, but go into Judaea." Josephus gives the writing of it there, and how they fled. And only those escaped was those who taken the Words of the Lord Jesus. And when they seen the armies compassed, and Titus, in A.D. 96, when they seen Titus compass the walls of Jerusalem and hemmed them all in there; they eat the grass off the tree... they eat the bark--bark off the trees, they eat the grass off the ground, they absolutely boiled one another's children and eat it. They starved them, just set them in there, and finally they run in there and slaughtered them till the blood run out the gate like a--like a pool was coming down, streams of blood flowing out the gate. They burnt the temple, tore down the walls, and it stands there till this day.

68And the Moslem of Omar was erected where the temple stood. And Jesus spoke of that in Matthew 24, He said, "When you see the abomination that maketh desolation standing in the holy place, where the prophet Daniel spoke, said about it," then it's in parenthesis, said, "(he that readeth, let him understand:)" See, "When you see this abomination, the filthiness of the Moslem of Omar standing there where the holy place once stood." And today the Moslem stands there exactly where the holy place, right on the temple site. The Mohammedan Moslem stands as Jesus said it would do, yeah, as Daniel said it would do, and Jesus verified it that it would do.

69Watch them prophets and God there foretelling those things, brother, it ought to raise the hair on the back of our necks to know that we're in the end time. We're at the end! There's nothing left. All these things happening just as He said they would, why, it ought to encourage us, make us get ready. He said, Jesus warned us, said, "When you see these things coming to pass," like we're talking about, said, "lift up your head, your redemption's drawing nigh."

And what would it do us any good if we gained the whole world? We're going to lose it, anyhow. We--we can't win like that. There's only one winning, that's through Christ. Take Christ, then you're bound to win. You've got to leave here; you may leave before this service is over, you may leave before the sun sets tonight, you may ri-... go before it rises in the morning, before next Sunday you may be gone, all of us. We don't know when we're going, but you know you got to go. So isn't it a foolish thing to put it off? You're--you're tramping, you're--you're flirting with death.

71Like the old toboggan slide. They used to get on a toboggan and go around this thing, see how close they'd come; and all at once, before they know it, down the slide they went. And that's just the way you're doing, just sliding right around. You don't know what minute something's going to upset you, and you're gone; heart stop, automobile accident, just anything happen, and you die. And then your Eternal destination lays right ahead of you. Think of that, friend.

72"Now, when you see the abomination that maketh desolation standing in the holy place." Now, then, in the days of the coming of Titus after Jesus had left, the Holy Spirit was that man with the inkhorn at His side. And He went through Jerusalem and set a mark upon the people. And now I want you to notice something, church member. And you claim to have the Holy Spirit? He said, "Don't seal any of them but them that sigh and cry for the abominations that's done in the city." Now, where's anybody so burdened about the world now and their conditions?

Well, "I'm Methodist, I'm Baptist, Presbyterian, so what difference does it make?" they say.

Oh, not that constant burden for the lost, that sweetness. Don't never let anything rise up and put bitterness in your soul. No matter how bad anyone ever treats you or anything, don't never! Don't be guilty of letting that thing anchor in your soul. It'll grieve the Holy Spirit away from you. It certainly will.

75I remember saying something here two or three years ago that was wrong. It was attorneys that called me, and I went and... My wife sitting there. I'd... my head, sent... feel like it's coming off, and I--I went back. And they--they called on the phone and said, "Tell him come down this afternoon."

And Meda said, "It's the attorneys."

I slipped outside the door, I said, "Tell him I'm not even here."

She said, "Bill!"

And I said, "Tell him I'm not in here right now." And I went out.Then I got out there and felt real bad, and come back. And she told him; I seen it hurt her.

I went out to pray for... there was a man come in here, had a little sick baby. And just as I started to put my hand on that baby and pray for it, Something said to me, "You're a hypocrite." See? "You know what you did."

And I said, "Sir, I'm not worthy to pray for your baby. See, the Holy Spirit's grieved in me and there's no need in me putting my hands on the baby. You just wait till I go make something right."

I went down and told the... told my attorney, I said, "I--I did wrong."

He said, "I thought you was gone."

I said, "No." I said, "That was a... I caused my wife to say something that was wrong." I said, "I'm--I'm sorry, I--I didn't--I didn't mean to do that." I said, "Will you forgive me for it?"

And asked the wife to forgive me for it.

83Then I went back up there at Green's Mill, it was in July. Oh, it was real still in the woods, and I had been in the cave all afternoon, praying. And I went and stood on the rock out there and I could look way across the hills, and so pretty, and leaves and everything, just quiet; along about five o'clock, six, in the afternoon, the summertime. Nothing, been real still, hot day. And I said, "Heavenly Father, Moses, You stood him in the rock one time and You passed by." I said, "If You forgive me for that evil that I done, could You just pass by again and let me see You?" And just over to my left on the side of the hill there was a little whirlwind begin to blow real easy in the leaves, it come right down along side of me like that and passed right down through the woods. I just cried like a baby.

I went back down, I said, "I know my sin's forgiven me now." See?

See, always keep all roots of bitterness out of you. See? No matter what anyone does to you, let... just have God in there that'll keep all evil away from you.

86Now, these Christians that had the warning of Christ, now watch, a type of the thing we're talking about this morning. These Christians that had that warning, they got out of Jerusalem for they know it was fixing to happen.

Now watch the church members, the type of the people who went to church, just join church, they all said, "Why, there's armies coming, there's war coming, now let us go into the house of the Lord and pray." But they're too late. Didn't do a bit of good, see.

88But they was watching the warning, these disciples, knowing what Jesus said, and they escaped. (The historians said that "The ones who was called 'cannibals,'" they said, "they eat the body of--of this man called 'Jesus' who used to heal them." See, they was taking the communion. They didn't... he didn't know what it was, see, 'cause he was a carnal man, not a believer, and just a historian. And he... ) And they escaped the wrath that come upon the earth.

89Now, you see, and then all of Jerusalem was destroyed. Now that... Now this here is perfectly a parallel, Revelation 7. Now watch! From the time of Titus' besieging Jerusalem, within the world, there hasn't been a time down through history that all the world went to war until 1914. Now listen close! Now here's where Mr. Rutherford got off the wrong foot on, I'm sure, right here. Now watch:

And after these things I saw another angel stand-... four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, (That's standing like this, on the four corners of the earth.) holding the four winds of the earth, (Now, anybody knows what winds means in the Bible, winds is "war, strife," the Devil is the power, the prince of the air, you see.)... and holding the four winds... that they shall not blow upon the earth, or... the sea,...

And... another angel descending from the east (from which Jesus will come), having the seal of the living God: in his forehand, in his hand: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, that was going to destroy the world, saying, who... was given to hurt the sea and the earth,

Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor... trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their forehead.

90Now, God don't have time, His is Eternity. We measure by times, the only thing we know is inches and squares, and miles, and so forth. God is Eternity, no beginning or end. See, He's--He's Eternal.

Now, in 1914 the whole world was marching into Germany for a world war, that's right, all the world to a world war. And did you notice? Sure was a strange thing.

I want my good friend sitting here, Brother Wood's father, to get this clear. See, they was... he's a converted Jehovah Witness, you see.

93And so then this, all of them was marching to war. You well remember it, in 1914. Now, isn't it strange (right in The Decline of the World's War, I have the volumes of it, in volume two, about page forty-four) that they do not know to this day who stopped that war. Kaiser Wilhelm said he never issued no such a thing. But, all of a sudden, it stopped and nobody knows why. They were fighting, here come the... up front, and the... all come: "It was all over, the war was over." And they had already signed a treaty of peace, knowing not what happened.

Now, of course, that would take a day or two to bring all that out. They didn't know; but let's bottle it and hit the high spots. It was God that stopped it, to fulfill His Word! There's that Angel that stopped it. Those Angels went forth with a slaughtering weapon (What?) to destroy the whole world, and another Angel said, "Wait a minute! Don't do that, we've got to seal these servants of our God in their forehead, first."

95That was just at the breaking of Pentecost, back in 1906, 1914, down in there. How many of you know? Is there any old-timer Pentecost in here, remembers them days back in there? Sure. When that, in that early times, that when the Holy Spirit just begin to fall and people begin to receive the Holy Ghost and speak in tongues and pray for the sick and so forth, just begin happening, or just in between these two ages here; just as it issued in, the Church was real. Then the Pentecostal begin to take denomination, Assemblies of God, and Church of God, and so forth, and went off into their isms just like they are now. So it's... We're at the end of the age, you see. All bottling down to the end, everything runs right down here to the end.

96Now, on these, the four... You notice, it stopped on--on November the eleventh, at eleven o'clock in the day; the eleventh month in the year, the eleventh day in the month, and the eleventh hour in the day. You remember then what Jesus said about that? "One went into the vineyard to work at one time, one got a penny, and the next one went," them was the eleventh-hour people. Was that right? There they are, the eleventh-hour people; it's been held back. Now it's getting time for them to come in, and they are gathering out of those Jews, for a nation. They were scattered all over the world, way down in Iran and different places where they'd never even knowed that Jesus was on the earth, never knowed nothing about a New Testament or anything.

97And now you can look in the Look magazine, and Life and them, showing the pictures of them returning back. Didn't Jesus say it, "When you see the fig tree putting forth its buds"? Jews has always been the fig tree. "This generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled." And now they're already back, already a nation, already got their own money and their own flag, and everything, and is recognized in the U.N., they are a nation. She's settled! She's ready! Now, ready for what? The sealing of the hundred and forty-four thousand (Now, we'll get to that just in a minute.) of Israel; them Jews, not the Wall Street bunch that's always cheated and stole and everything else, I mean real Jews, clear, true Jews that keep the commandments of God down there.

98Now, the real Jews are gathering into Palestine again, and just exactly what the prophet said; as Ishmael and Isaac were at one another's throats, always fighting, predicted they'd be there in the last day, and there they set. Ishmael right here, and about a city block here and there's Isaac, and both of them (Mohammedans and Jews) fighting one another in a no-man's-land.

99Now to see whether this Message that we got is connected with it or not. The very hour that Israel was signed in to be a nation, it was the very same hour, very same day, very same month, everything else: I was at Green's Mill, Indiana, when that Angel there appeared to me and sent me out on the field with This; after He had met me down on the river and told me what would take place, then commissioned me eleven years later at the same hour that Israel was signed in as a nation. It's all connected together.

100See, the Angel of the Lord is on earth now, see, He's moving around fixing everything for the coming of the Lord. And it's the same Angels that's heard the sin when they went down to Sodom and they had found... said, "We have come down to see if these things are so, what We've heard."

You remember that? And one Angel went down in... (One stayed with Abraham the Elect.) Sodom was down here, and Lot was in Sodom, and two Angels went down there and preached to them and brought that little, bitty group out, sleeping virgin. See? All right. (But the one Angel stayed with Abraham.) This Angels preached down here, a modern Billy Graham and them, pulled them out.

102But the Angel that stood with Abraham had His back to the tent, and He said, "Abraham, where is your wife, Sarah?" How'd He know she was married, he was married? And how'd He know he had a wife? And how'd He know his name, her name was Sarah? Said, "She's in the tent behind you."

He said, "Well, I've made you a promise." "I" You see who the Angel was. "I made you a promise. I'm going to visit you according to the time of life, Sarah's going to have this baby."

And Sarah, in the tent behind Him, laughed within herself. And the Angel, with His back turned, said, "Why did Sarah laugh?" See the sign He give the Elect Church?

See the sign they got in Sodom?

There's your three classes again right back, we're right straight back to them again.

107We've got a... these great ministers that's covering that world out there. After Billy Graham received the Holy Ghost, he could not come out into here. That's his field down there and he recognizes it, and God is hold him there. See? With that intellectual preaching, the thing that he hears here, but he's trying to jerk out Sodom, trying to jerk out, or give grace to that sleeping virgin. See?

But here was Abraham and his class, and Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man."

See, those angels will be here on earth doing the same thing. See, that's the reason Billy goes to the Baptist and so forth like that. Has to! See, Jack Shuler and all those great men--men out there that's going... the revivalists, they have to because they're--they're jerking out. They never done miracles down there; a few, like people smote blind. But preaching the Gospel smites them blind, see, the Bible says so.

But this fellow out here done these signs, supernatural signs, to Abraham and his bunch, which is Church-Elect.

111Now, 1914, the world went to a war, and they have never been at peace since; constantly swinging in, swinging in, swinging in, and they're doing the very same thing yet. And what was they doing? "Holding!" O God, have mercy! Holding that great thing that I saw in the vision (the whole thing become to destruction), holding the atomic, holding the wars that they don't destroy themselves until the thing comes to destroy it; until Israel returns back and gets herself together, and then the Message will go to Israel and she'll be sealed with that seal of the Holy Ghost. See, after the Gentiles is called out; the people for His name's sake will be called out, which in this age right here they're called. Then Israel only receives a three-year-and-six-month's Message.

Daniel said so, said they'll be, there would, "There was seventy... or--or seven years prophesied to them, yet left for salvation for the Jews." He said, "Messiah, the Prince, which is Christ, will come and prophesy in the midst of that seventy years... or seven years, He'll be cut off." Jesus preached three and one half years and was cut off, and the daily sacrifice was taken away which Daniel said. All right.

113And then there was a space given then for the Gentiles, and they come down to this age. Then there's three and a half years left yet for the Jews. Now if we get over in Revelation 11, we'll pick up exactly at the end (The Church don't appear till the 19th chapter of Revelation.), but the end of that, Elijah and Moses returns again and preach to the Jews. Two men anointed with that Spirit, or maybe them theirself, they never died. So they kill them and they lay in the street called Sodom where our Lord was crucified, "Jerusalem." And after three days, why, the life (Spirit of Life) came into them and they went up, raised up. And then about a third of the earth was blowed to pieces at that time. They done miracles and signs with the Jews.

114Now here's that Jews that they're coming to preach to. The world's... cannot... could not blow one another up or kill one another, or destruction come, until those Jews come back down on that place; here sets the Bible saying so, he saw the four Angels. And watch what they got to receive; they've got to receive the Holy Ghost just like they did.

If that Man with the inkhorn writer was the Holy Ghost, (We realize that, everybody, reads the Bible.) well, so is this the same Angel coming again with the Holy Ghost, "the seal of the living God." Ephesians 4:30: "... the holy Spirit of God... sealed until the day of your redemption."

And they cannot do nothing now until those Jews return. And just a few weeks ago they classed the whole thing together and become in the U.N. It's ready! We're at the end, everything's sealed up now.

117Now, now watch, to prove that they are Jews, now, I'm going to take the:

Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, or any tree, until we have sealed the servants of our God in their forehead.

Now, to prove that this revelation is right, watch this, the 4th verse:

And I heard the number of them... were sealed: and there were sealed a hundred and forty and four thousand all of the tribes of the children of Israel.

"Israelites." Where they at? They just now gathered. They're up there ready, waiting for the sealing time to come. "Of the tribe of Juda was sealed twelve thousand. Tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand. Tribe of Gad, twelve thousand. Aser, twelve thousand. Nepthalim, twelve thousand." And on and on, Simeon and oh, the... on down to Benjamin, the twelve tribes. And twelve times twelve is a hundred and forty-four thousand. See? Now that's the one...

120Now if you look in the 14th chapter, just a moment, here you see:

And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on... mount Sinai, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having his Father's name written in their forehead.

"Mount Sinai." The Lamb had come back from the Rapture. And come back, as we took the other night, as Joseph dismissed all the Gentiles when he stood by his brethren, said "I'm Joseph, your brother!" And then they were scared.

You remember in the church age there where we had it, when He would return back? Even those who had pierced His hands, and they'll say, "Where did You get those nail scars?"

He said, "In the hands of My friends." And they lamented. And each family separated one from the other one, and wept and wept and wept, because that they had did this evil. Their very Messiah, the very God. And He'll say to them just exactly like He said to--to... Joseph said to Israel, he said, "Don't be angry with yourself, for God did this to preserve life."

"And God... " The Bible says that "God blinded the eyes of the Jews that the Gentile might have a chance (we, ourselves), to take a people for His Name's sake, His Bride out of the Gentiles." Oh, it's beautiful! Isn't it? There you are.

125There's your hundred and forty-... Now if you want to see the Bride come up after that, to show that the hundred and forty-four thousand is not the Bride, just continue to read now on down from the 8th chapter on; or, yes, the 8th chapter; or the 8th verse, I mean, from the 7th chapter. Let's start at the 9th--9th verse, 'cause the 8--8th verse is the sealing of Benjamin, twelve thousand.

After--After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, (Here comes the Bride.) of all nations,... kindreds,... people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robe, and palms in their hands;

And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb.

.. all the angels stood around about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts,... fell--fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,

Saying, Amen: Blessings,... glory,... wisdom,... thanksgiving,... honour,... power,... might, be to our God for ever and ever. Amen.

And one of the elders which answered, and said unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence cometh they?

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which have come up out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in the temple:...

[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]

[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] See?

126What does your wife do? She serves you in the house. You sit down, she gives you your food, she fixes the clothing. See, she serves you day and night in the house. See? And this one, these of all nations, the Gentiles, which is the Bride, are before the throne of God, with Him day and night. All remember what we said, last night and talked on it?

.. and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

They shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst any more; neither shall the sun light--light on them, or any heat.

For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and... lead them into living fountains of water: and God shall wipe... all tears from their eyes.

127Now, there's your hundred and forty-four thousand (Israel) that's waiting for the coming of the Lord and cannot go in until first the Gentiles are finished, got to be finished.

Now, I might say just a little personal something, I hope, trust that you'll understand it. When Lewi Pethrus of Stockholm, Sweden, the general overseer, head of the Filadelfian churches, he sent down a million Bibles to these Jews, little Testaments. I got one of them up there, a little souvenir from him. The Jew always reads from the back to the front, and so you know how their--their language is. And they would read these books, and they said, "Well, if this Jesus is the Messiah, and He's dead and His Spirit is back in the form of the Spirit, let us see Him do the sign of the prophet, then we'll believe Him."

What a perfect setup! I thought, "Lord, here's the time now. Now's the time, here it is." So on a airplane I go, Billy, and I, Loyce, and took off.

130I was going on up into India, and I said, "Now, on my road back, I'll slip right over here and I'll bring the Message to the Jews, and get them out there and say, 'Is it true?'"

The Jews always believe their prophets, we all know that. 'Cause God told them that the Messiah would be a prophet, and they believe their prophets, and God said, "If there be among you a man who is a prophet, a seer, and if he... I'll deal with him in visions and so forth. And--and if what he says come to pass, then you hear him, for I am with him." See? "But if it don't come to pass, then don't have nothing to do with that prophet, 'cause I--I--I ain't with him. But if it does come to pass, what he says, then you hear him, 'cause I'm with him." And the Jews know that.

132And I thought, "Oh, my! Wouldn't it be wonderful! I'll just get me about four or five thousand of them and stand out there, and let them--let them just read that Bible and say, 'If this be the Messiah, let's see Him do the sign of the prophet.'" I said, "What a setup it'll be!" Had my ticket in my hand, just about thirty minutes before calling time on the Arabian plane's line. So I was standing out there at Cairo, Egypt, and I thought, "Praise God! In two more hours the Jews will receive the same thing that they did at Pentecost, just as sure as anything." I thought, "If I stand there and can tell them, 'Go pick yourself out a bunch of men out there among you, and bring them here, see if He's still Messiah.' See, and then I'll say, 'Now, upon the same grounds that your forefathers rejected this Messiah, you receive Him. Raise up your hands and He'll... you'll receive the Holy Ghost right now.' And then they'll evangelize the world in their part of the world once they... when they receive It. Get the leaders, don't... Just hit the main nerve center, the leaders, let them start it."

133And Something struck me and said, "Do not go now, for the hour is not yet." Uh-hum. The Gentile's isn't fulfilled yet, see, day isn't finished.

"Oh," I thought, "that was just me."

So I started again, and it got so bad till I just couldn't stand it. And I went out behind a hangar and I bowed my head, I said, "Father, is that You speaking to me?"

He said, "Do not go to Israel now, the hour is not yet." I just went in, changed my ticket, routed it again, went the other way. See, 'cause the hour is not yet.

But one of these days the Message will go to Israel, and what'll break for... God will send unto them Moses and Elijah, in Revelation 11, and they'll do signs and wonders and Jehovah's sign; while the Gentiles is finished, the grace of... day of grace will leave the Gentile church, the Pentecostal age will leave. The denominations will continue on because they come up here with the sleeping virgin (We'll go into that just in a moment.), but they'll come up in that class.

137But then when they do, when they do that, the Jews will receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost and there'll be a revival there that'll stop the heavens in the days of the, "Don't rain!" They'll do all kinds of signs and miracles. And finally the Roman hierarchy... The Jews has the wealth of the world, and--and so the Roman Catholic Church will break his agreement with the Jews after this thing is over and then there will... (the treaty that they got signed between them), he'll go down there, and then's when God will stand like He did in the--the old days there, and fight for Israel. They'll finally kill these two prophets, and they'll lay in the street, and spit on them.

Like they did these Pentecostal minister and his wife and children here a few weeks ago down there, and the little belly swelled up that big, of the children, where they walked by and spit on them, let them lay there in the hot sun for three or four days without burying them.

They'll do the same thing! The Bible said so! They'll do the same thing right there. And when they do that, after three days, laying dead, the Spirit of Life will come into those two prophets and they'll rise up and ascend into Glory. And, about that time, the fireworks starts then. That's the end time. That's when she's over.

140But before that happens, the Gentile, elected Bride... There'll be some of you sitting at a table, one of these mornings, one will be taken, the other left. You'll finally wonder, "What's the matter?" Be riding right along in a car, talking to somebody, wife or hubby sitting at the seat; they won't answer, they won't be there. You'll run to the graveyard, there'll be some graves open, the other ones still closed, "For the rest of the dead lived not for the space of a thousand years." Just remember, it's over then!

141It'll be a secret coming, no one will know when it's going to happen. We're commanded to be ready and watching. We don't know what hour. But, whatever it is, we'll not prevent any of these back in here; for, just as soon as Jesus appears, the whole watch rises. Dead or alive, doesn't matter!

We don't--we don't meet Him first, we meet one another first. The Bible said, Ephesians, 5th chapter, It said, "For we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, down here, shall not prevent or hinder those which are asleep." Them precious ones that sealed their blood... sealed their testimony with their blood. "Not prevent or hinder those that are asleep, for the trumpet will sound." Something will take place, "the Gospel something will sound," the announcing of His coming. "And the dead in Christ shall rise first. And we which are alive and remain shall be changed." Standing, and feel a change come on: the gray hair go out, the wrinkles fall away, be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. And we shall meet our loved ones first: "There's Mama, Papa, there's my buddy. Oh, Hallelujah, we're ready! And then, together with them that were dead," says the Scripture, "we'll be caught up in the air to meet the Lord." The order of the Coming.

143Oh, to see that old daddy of mine! Oh, my! See them old loved ones that's went down in the Faith yonder, to meet them. See the sweetness of God, knowing if we met Him first we'd wonder, "Was Mama in it? Did--did Mama finally make it? We've preached so hard, we--we tried. Was she here? Is Uncle Joe here? Is--is the brother here? Is So-and-so?" See? "Lord, we love You, we love You, but... " First we're going to meet one another! Oh--oh--oh! No wondering about it, we're all there.

No wonder they stood and said, "Amen, glory, and wisdom, and honour, and power, and might."

The twenty and four elders took off their crowns and fell on the ground like that, all of them lay down on the ground and worship Him.

146One of these days we'll stand out beyond the earth, yonder, the ring of the earth, out yonder somewhere in space; and we won't be in Heaven yet, we'll be caught up to meet Him in the air.

When Rebekah decided, quick, deciding that she would go with Eliezer upon the camel to meet Jacob... or meet Isaac which was her to-be husband, she had never seen him, know that God was leading her. Jacob's son, or... Isaac was on his way out into the field at the cool of the evening. Remember, it was in the evening time. And Rebekah riding on the camel. Eliezer said, "There he comes now." And Rebekah jumped off the camel, pulled the veil from her face. She had never seen him. Didn't know... That was her husband, but she had never seen him. She was going to meet him by faith. (I don't know what He looks like, but, oh, when I see Him!) Out there when she seen him, it was love at the first sight. And he had never seen her, so he seen her, love at the first sight. And here they come to meet one another in the fields. And he took her in to be his father's kingdom over here and married her.

148That's the way the Church will be caught up in the air, in the middle of the air, and meet the Lord on His road down. Oh, what an affair it will be, love at the first sight! And when we stand there upon the rings of this earth and sing them songs of redemption, oh, my! How we'll sing and praise Him for our... the redeeming grace that He's give us. When Angels will cover the sides of the--the circle of the earth with bowed heads, not knowing what we're talking about. Them Angels wasn't lost, they won't know what it means to be saved. We was the ones who was lost, we were the one. We'll understand then what a horrible thing laid ahead of us, and He redeemed us by His Blood, out of every kindred, tongue, and nation. What a day of rejoicing that will be!

149I like that song, said:

There's going to be a meeting in the air,

In the sweet, sweet by and by;

I'm going to meet you and greet you over there

In that home beyond the sky;

Such singing ever heard, ever heard by mortal ears,

It'll be glorious, I do declare!

When God's own Son, He'll be the leading One

At that meeting in the air. (Oh!)

You heard of little Moses in the bulrush,

You have heard of fearless David and his sling;

You heard the story told of dreaming Joseph,

And of Daniel and the lions we often sing.

Oh, but there's many, many others in the Bible,

And I long to meet them all, I do declare! (That's right!)

And what a joy it'll be when we meet them

At that meeting in the air. (Waiting for that day!)

150There comes your hundred and forty-four thousand, will receive the Gospel after we... can't receive It the same time the Light is on the Gentiles. The Jews are denying It and hiding It. Now, when the Light... the Gentiles is taken up, then the Spirit comes upon two to give witness to them, then the Jews receive It, which is one hundred and forty-four thousand of the lost tribes of Israel will receive the Gospel; and the Bride is taken away.

151Now, there's "ten virgins." Let's strike Matthew 21, right away. See, we still got quite a little time. Oh, I love the Bible.

When I take my vacation in Heaven,

What a wonderful trip that will be;

Hearing concerts by the heavenly Chorus,

And the gates of my... the face of my Saviour I'll see;

Sitting down on the banks of the river,

Beneath the shade of the evergreen Tree;

I want to spend my vacation in Heaven,

Won't you come take yours with me?

152Now, in the--the Book of--of Saint Matthew, I believe the 25th chapter, I believe. I said 21, didn't I? I had it marked down here 21, but that's wrong. It's 25. I had to hurry this morning, I was... got up tired, and late and--and I--I was hurrying. I was jotting down some Scriptures, and I put 21 when it's--it's 25.

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

Now:

And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

And they that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

While the bridegroom tarried (that's through these church ages), they... slumbered and slept.

154All the way down through, both all died, slumbered and slept, see, as they went down through. Now, they're not lost, but they're just "slumbered and slept." They're waiting, see. They didn't say they was dead, but they're "slumbering and sleeping." See?

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.

And all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said--said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.

But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. (Pardon me.)

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

Afterwards came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. (Now, see, they wasn't unbelievers, they was good people.)... open to us.

But the answer... But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour whence the Son of man shall come.

155Now the five "wise" virgins. Now, oil in the Bible symbolizes the "Holy Spirit." We all know that. That's why we anoint the sick with oil, and oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit. So the wise had Oil in their lamps, which was the Holy Spirit, so they were ready to go in at the Wedding Supper. And we could go back in--in--in Ezekiel 9, and so forth, and pull out and show, but I got about fifteen more Scriptures wrote out here. So oil sym-... I believe we've already had it in our class this week, that oil is, symbolizes the "Holy Spirit." We all know that.

156Now watch, they... both of them were "virgins." Now let me get this. Here, let's takes these two right here. This is a virgin and this is a virgin, this was a foolish virgin and this was a wise virgin, but both of them are virgins.

Now if you'll take that name virgin and run it down, it means--it means "holy, clean, sanctified." The word sanctified comes from the word "sainted," which mean, "clean." Like the Hebrew word... Now, that's a Greek word, sanctify means "clean." Now, the Hebrew word is make "holy." See? And ours is "clean." Now, they take the three words, like each word has the same meaning but it's spoke different, like the--the word "clean, holy, sanctified," all three the same word.

158Like we was going to speak the word like dog. I'd say, "dog," that's English. If I'd say dog in German, Fred, it's "hund." Is that right? Brother Norman, if I say dog in Spanish, it's "ajo." "Ajo, Hund, and dog" is all dog to us, see. See, it's--it's just so, an expression.

So, the Greek word for clean is "sanctify," the Hebrew word is "holy." Holy, clean, and sanctify, is all the same word. So this was not a filthy, dirty church; it was a sanctified, clean church, "ten virgins went out to meet the Bridegroom." What does it mean? All these churches. Not... now, not down here in the Roman; but down into the denominationals, the Nicolaitanes. Baptist preach on the Second Coming of Christ; Methodist preach the Second Coming of Christ; Presbyterian preach the Second Coming of Christ; Nazarenes preach the Second Coming of Christ; Pilgrim Holiness preach the Second Coming of Christ. That right? "All of them went out to meet the Bridegroom."

159Now you--you remember that they every one was on their road to meet the--the Bridegroom. Now, if God only respects that, then He have, take them too.

But you remember the same thing, how the parable the other night, when God spoke up to us in the church age and said that "Balaam, the doctrine of Balaam." Now, here stood Balaam, which was a fine, great big organized nation. And they were believers in God, because look what Balac done when he come down... Balaam, rather. He offered the very same sacrifice to the very same God that Israel had, Israel's God, Jehovah. And he made seven altars. Seven is God's complete number.

161"Six days He labored, and seventh He restest," that's complete, see, seven. Six days He has labored in the world. First two thousand years, it was destroyed by water; second two thousand years, Christ come; and this is the third two thousand now. At the end of every two thousand, something happens, the world is shook back again. In six thousand years, He built the world; six thousand years the church labors against the world; and the seventh thousand is that thousand years Millennium reign. Understand it now?

Now, the church has Seven Church Ages, also. God... And that's the complete number of the church age, that's all, seven. Seven is God's completed number. Seven Church Ages, seven thousand years of creation, everything deals in the seven.

163Now, there was the virgins went out to meet Him. And the "foolish" virgins, now, did not have Oil in their lamp, but they had everything else: they were clean, they believed in Christ; they preached the Word that they believed, their denomination would let them preach, they preached that, the Second Coming, the Sacrifice, the Atonement. They believe. You ever tie up with a good Baptist scholar one time, (huh) you better know what you're talking about, uh-huh, sure had.

164But, you see, "So close," said Matthew 24, Matthew 24:24; read it right away and you'll see. Jesus said that in this last days the two spirits would be so close together till it would deceive the very Elected if it was possible. It'll be so close it'll swing them Pentecostals like nobody's business. Sure! Now, Matthew 24:24, does anybody have it? I didn't get it right there. You got it there, sister, or some of you? Matthew 24. Got it, Ben? All right, read it.

[A sister reads: For there shall arise false Christians, false--false Christs,--Ed.] False Christs! [and false prophets,] False prophets! [and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.]

There you are. Now, what will rise? There will rise false Christs, false people saying, "I am of Christ." False prophets, saying, "I am this and I am that." And they'll almost deceive the very Elected if it was possible. And there's only one way that you can ever be saved, that's when you was chosen before the foundation of the world; that is, the Elected, by foreknowledge, your name was put on the Book back there. "Great signs!"

166Now watch these two churches. Oh, if I could... if there was some way I could just make the people see It. Just burns in my soul! This... these churches are just as clean and holy as this one; if they're all virgins, they're all virgins, just as clean. The only difference was--was the Oil in the lamp, the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Ghost, if It's in there, It produces the very same kind of fire It did on Pentecost. But they don't have no fire, no Oil in their lamp. They have church ritual, church just as ritual as--as it can be, fine ceremonies (nothing against it), creeds that would shake your conscience, and songs like Angels singing. And they're... you'll... put your finger on your... their life, you couldn't do it. But still that's wrong! It's not... it's--it's part of It, but not all of It. That's the kind that misses the Rapture. See? They're just...

167Now watch. Here was Moab come down. I'll take it right here so if you can see it. Here's Moab, a great organization, I'll put here "for" organization; here is Israel, with "no" organization. Here's Moab, put up one, two, three, four, five, six, seven altars; Israel had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven altars. All right. Moab up here put one, two, three, four, five, six, seven bullocks; Israel, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven bullocks. All right. Moab said, "There'll come a time when there'll be a man (Christ) come on earth, so He'll be the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, we'll put seven" (what?) "lambs on this altar"; Israel said, "That's exactly right, seven lambs on the altar." See?

168Now, in the very beginning, Cain put a altar, made a sacrifice, worshipped, done everything that Abel done, without... (Oh, receive It!)... without the revelation of God, when, the whole Church is built on that revelation. Jesus said so, "Upon this rock I'll build My Church." Spiritual revealed Truth of the supreme Deity of Jesus Christ, "On this rock I'll build My Church."

Now, if God only respects your rituals, your rites, as Methodists, Baptists, Pentecostals, and so forth, if He only expects that for you to do, preach the Second Coming and all these other things (that, it's absolutely Scriptural), like Baptist, Presbyterian, and so forth does, then God is obligated to take both of them 'cause that's all He required. But, you see, without the revelation, there's the sleeping virgin; here's the wise virgin. They was a organization, a great nation.

170We read the other night, where It said, "These people will not be an organization, they'll be wanderers around in the land, dwelling in tents, poor, humble." But said, "Don't you try to curse them, 'cause I'm with them." Now watch! These people believe in the same ritual that they believed in, and worshipped the same God. See? But they didn't have signs and wonders following them! Israel had a Brass Serpent, a smitten Rock, the joy of the King, Divine healing, prophets, everything right down here. And they did not, they had the ritual without--without the blessing, the Oil.

171The same thing with the sleeping virgin and the wise virgin, they were both sanctified people. But this one had Oil. And this one did not have Oil, so they said, "We're as good as you are." That's... There's none of us good, as far as that concern. "Why, you're a bunch of holy-rollers!" Well, that's okay, uh-huh, that's all right. There's none of us good, we all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But the only way you'll ever know It, is not by joining church, not by trying to live good, but while receiving Christ. It ain't what I live; it's what He was. It ain't what I am; it's what He is. He become me that I might, through His grace, become Him, the son of God. You see it?

172Now, a sleeping virgin, and a wise virgin with Oil in her lamp. Now, all of a sudden, there came a sound, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him!" And they wakened. But when they did, this one could go in 'cause they had Oil in the lamp. That was the difference.

This one could not go in, where there was no Oil in the lamp; they went back to pray up, to receive the Holy Ghost. But, while they were gone, it was all over. The denominations say, "Well, maybe we been wrong. Maybe we better go back, seek for the baptism of the Holy Ghost." That's what they're trying to do now. Did you notice that? The Presbyterians... Hold your tape a minute, I don't want to call this name. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]...?... the Bridegroom come. And, well, how close is His coming then, when they're going now to try to buy! All right, turn your tape on, Gene. Now, you get it? "While they went to buy," they're trying to buy now, all the churches trying to have a revival, revival; it's trying to go back.

174Now, even to Dr. Billy Graham, wrote in the Herald of Faith, you seen it, from Chicago, and said that "We cannot disregard the Pentecostal move." See? "We cannot ... -regard them, because they had more converts in a year's time than all the other churches put together."

That's exactly that fire burning, shaking it, culling, throwing the net in and pulling. And when you throw a net... Jesus said, "The Kingdom of God is like a man went and throwed a net into a sea, and when he pulled, he had turtles, snakes, frogs, serpents, everything else, but he had some fish, too." That's what the Pentecostal message is doing, it's sweeping the earth; throwing it in and pull, we're getting turtles, crawfish, crawdads, tadpoles, waterdogs, helldivers, and everything else in there. But what it is, there's some fish in there, too. That's the ones that's the Master's.

All right, to some of you legalist-believing brethren on this tape, would like to burn it: When do they become fish? When the net went over them? They were fish in the beginning! That's right. Elected from the foundation of the world! They just never come into the Master's use.

177That's your frog. You take an old frog and throw him up on the bank, just "whop, whop" right back to the water.

And the ol' crawfish sitting there, say, "Aha, that's a bunch of holy-rollers." There he goes back, "Ah--ah--ah--ah--ah. Oh, no!" Right back to the mud as hard as he can go. That's right.

The ol' snake hissing along a little bit, "I believe the days of miracles is past, Doctor So-and-so and So-and-so told me." Said, "Ah--ah--ah--ah--ah--ah--ah, you can't fool me!" There she goes, right over there again, you see.

Snake, to begin with! Frog, to begin with! Paul said in the Bible, them kind, he said, "They went out from us because they wasn't of us to start with." See? Uhm! All right, the foolish virgin.

181The wise virgin with Oil in her lamp, she made ready.

Now, "while she was gone to get some Oil," that's what they're trying to do right now. These great evangelical churches, trying to find these great things, you know, and do... go back to the Bible, back, "we need the Pentecostal Blessing." Why, you can imagine what kind of a service they're going to have, see. They ain't going to get down there and spoil all that manicure on them, and all of that. Oh, no. They ain't going to give up them sororities and societies and things like that. Holding on to the world like Esau, in one hand, try to catch God with the other one. You can't do it. You can't be a cross-eyed Christian, you know, looking at God and the world too. You got to center yourself in Calvary, stay right there with That.

183Now, but there they go, and they're trying to go back. And remember how close we are! The very time that they went to buy, that's when the Bridegroom come.

Oh, Brother Stricker, we're near there! We're pretty near Home. Oh, one of these mornings:

The trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and time shall be no more,

And morning breaks Eternal, bright and fair;

When His saved on earth shall gather to their Home beyond the sky,(What a time that'll be!)

185Yeah, the sleeping virgin. Will... This sleeping virgin now, you want to know what will become of her. Is that it? One thing I want to explain. What will happen to these churches? What will happen to these people who come part of the way with Christ, and didn't come, or did not go all the way with Christ?

Now in Romans, I believe, 2:22, the Bible said, Paul said, "If the Spirit of God is not in you, you are none of God's." You belong to the organization but not to God. If the Spirit of God isn't in you, you're not of God. See. You have to have the Spirit of God to be of God. Certainly!

187All right, sir, "the Great Tribulation." Now, now if you... They'll have to go through... Now, you remember, He said... Now let me get the rest of that, "They were cast into outer darkness, and there would be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth." All right, that's the Great Tribulation. Isn't it? The Great Tribulation! Now, after this Tribulation, those people...

Now, let me catch it again here, it is the remnant. Now look! Here is a piece of goods. All right, the lady lays it out like this. Now she's going to make herself something, you know, some kind of a garment. Now, this is all of the--of the goods she's got. Now, every bit of it is the same kind of goods. That right?

Both of them were virgins. See? All right. They had faith in Christ, form of godliness, went to church, done good things, charity, nothing could be said against their works and things. "I know thy works," He said in every age. "I know thy works, but yet thou lackest." See?

190Now, when the woman... she makes up in her mind which way she has a pattern here, and she makes up in her mind which way she is going to cut this pattern, what it's going to be cut from. Is that right? Well, she gets what she thinks is the sufficient and best part of the--of the pattern. Is that right? 'Cause it's all the same goods, but she lays it like this maybe or like that, she lays it down. Then she takes her scissors and she cuts it out. Now, what's left over is called "remnant." All right. Now, what is this pattern? How was it known? By the one... the place that the lady elected to cut it from.

191God, before the foundation of the world, Who knew the end from the beginning by foreknowledge, He elected where to cut. He knowed the difference between Esau and Jacob. He knowed the difference between sinner and saint. He knowed difference. He knows the motive of every heart, so He elected us before the foundation of the world and put our names on the Lamb's Book of Life; and also the Lamb that was to be slain (and put our names on before He was slain), and the Bible said that Christ was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And our names were put on the Book when He--when He was elected back there to be the Lamb to be slain, we were elected to be the one that He was slain for. See it?

192Now, it's all virgin. Now, here's the little remnant, not throwed away. Oh, no. She keeps it, but lays it back, she can use it for something else. See? But it's not going to be used there, that's the Church cut out. Now, they'll have to stand the judgment (because they go through the Tribulation), that is the remnant. Now you get it?

Here goes the Church, Home, it goes Home. Here is the remnant that's left over. And here is the hundred and forty-four thousand on Mount Sinai, the Jews. It's not three different brides. Huh! It's the Bride; the remnant; and the hundred and forty-four thousand. Exactly. He wasn't eating nothing but Holy Ghost Food out there, I suppose, so he was all right, wasn't nothing wrong with John. See? And there--there they are.

194Now, at the end of the time, how many knows that the Bible says that "the saints shall judge the earth"? Paul said so. Let's turn now to--to the Book of Daniel and get the White Throne. We could get it out of Revelation but I like to take it out of Daniel, it's same thing. Daniel 7, and we'll catch the--the great White Throne Judgment here. Let's begin at the 8th verse of the 7th chapter of Daniel:

And I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them a little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: (Now, we know we're in Rome there, now. See?) and, behold, in this horn were eyes... of a man, (Now, remember, this horn did not receive a crown, it was a cunning thing. The other horns turned to beasts. This was a cunning, it was a man, pope instead of pagan, you see.) and a mouth speaking great things.

195Now watch, 9th verse:

I beheld until the thrones were cast down, (That's all the Gentile kingdoms over. This prophet's speaking. Now remember, every one of those things he said has happened right down to this last thing, we know that by our history that we're taking.)... whose... was--was cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garments was white as snow, (You know who that was the other night in that vision? Jesus.) and the hair of his head was like... pure wool: and his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.

And a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousands times thousands ministered unto him, (There's the Church coming back with Him, see.) and tens of thousands times tens of thousands stood before him: (That's the Bride coming up, and the rest of the world.) and judgment was set, and the books were opened.

..the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

And I beheld them because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: and I beheld even until the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given unto the burning fire.

And concerning the rest of the dead, they that have their dominion taken aw-... (I mean)... the rest of the beasts (I mean), had their dominion taken away from them: and yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.

196Now, the judgment was set and the Books were opened. That's when the Bride comes back and sets the judgment, and the elected Church... The Church that's been taken up will return after those three and a half years, and after the time... And over in Revelation it gives it, said that the--that the--the "rest of the dead lived not again for a thousand years." You, how many's read it? Many, many times. "Lived not for a thousand years." Jesus returns with the Bride, with the Bride.

197Now remember, as I've said, everything's in a three. His Coming is in a three: the first time, He came to redeem His Bride; the second time, He comes to catch away His Bride. Like a love affair, comes around and steals her out at nighttime, takes her away from the world, "meet Him in the air." The secret Coming of the Lord, see. The second time He come, is to receive His Bride. First time, to redeem Her; second time, to receive Her; and the third time, with Her, King and Queen!

198And here He comes back for the judgment upon the nations. Paul said, "Dare any of you all go to court that has a matter against one another? Can't take care of these little things, know ye not that the saints shall judge the earth?" Here's the judgment that had been given over to Christ and His side; they're the attorneys in the box, and there He sits at the Throne. Here's the Bride, the attorney.

And here comes these up. The Books were opened, and another Book which is the Book of Life.

Now, the first Book was the Book of the sinner, that was cast away. All right. He's condemned to begin with. There's the--there's the goats. He don't even have a chance, see, he's a sinner to begin with. All right, now, he's cast away.

201And to the sheep, they stood the judgment. They had to be judged, and the saints had to judge them. God is not unjust. If a heathens yonder in the land, and we are building eight- and ten-million-dollar gold shrines here in America instead of taking the Message to them over there, God is going to hold us responsible, but spare them. Sure! God is not unjust.

You--you here, if you never seen This before, you--you may not be held responsible, but you're responsible now! You see? You're all responsible... And we're responsible for taking the Message, you're responsible whether you hear It or not.

203Now, the heathens will rise, them people who's out there worshipping a shrine. They don't know no better. They don't know nothing about It. God is not unjust, He would not condemn them unless they'd have had a chance. And they will be allotted a place.

And so in the Church, that each age down through this church age, from--from Ephesus on down to down here, the Message, the true Message of Christ like It was at the beginning (the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the power, the resurrection, speaking with tongues, interpretation of tongues, gifts of healing, baptism in the Name of the Lord Jesus, all those things that He taught), each one that's in that Bride will stand as an attorney.

205Here comes somebody's case up: "You had a meeting at So-and-so, did you tell him?"

Now the attorney: "Yes, I told him." There it is on the Book, you can't deny it, even our thoughts are on That. See? You can't deny it. "Yes, I told him that he must be baptized."

"In Jeffersonville, there in the tabernacle, there?"

"Yes, Sir, I--I... You... "

"Yeah, here it is on the Book, you told them that they must do it. They even searched the Scripture and found out It was right, but didn't do it."

"Depart from Me, you worker of iniquity, I didn't even know you." See?There's where He separates the goats from the sheep, you see, casts some on the right side and some on the left side. There brings your three classes back again.

210But, this class will never be with that class, that's the Bride. And, you notice, the Bride is with Him in the Temple. The others labor and bring their glory into the Kingdom, but the Bride is with the Bridegroom continually. The others will never be allotted; like these down here, they'll serve, they'll not be cast away, because He separated them as sheep from goats. But he...

But the goat had no understanding of It, he didn't care about It. He was a goat, and satisfied as a goat, and so he just died as a goat and that was the end of him. That was all, see.

But the sheep, if he... if God hold it that I was standing there with the heathen that never heard a thing. So if you preach this Gospel to the people...

213And I have to stand. Don't you remember in the great translation that He gave me not long ago, that I have to stand there with those people and--and I'd be responsible for them? And I seen those millions standing there, I said, "Are they all Branham's?"

Said, "No." Said, "They're your converts."

And I said, I--I said, "I want to see Jesus."

He said, "Not yet. It'll be a time before He comes yet. But He'll come to you first and you'll be judged by the Word that you preached, and they are resting upon That."

I said, "Will all have to be done that? Will Paul have to stand?"

He said, "Yes, Paul stands too, with his group that he preached to."

I said, "I've preached the same Message he did."

And them millions raised their hands and said, "We are resting on that!" There you are, you see, right there! Yes. Said, "Then together we'll go back to the earth for a body that can eat, and we drink, and live together through all the ceaseless ages there." That's the coming of the Lord. All right.

Now, just a minute. Now, at the... Getting a little close now, 'cause it's getting almost on the... our brother's time here for the baptismal service or whatever he's going to use.

220All right, now, during this church age. Oh, here's something so beautiful. I like this so well. During these church ages, there is two spirits working almost alike right down through here; one is the denomination, the other one is the Holy Ghost. And Jesus said, "They were so close that they would deceive the very Elected if it was possible." These two spirits are marking their people for future judgment. Satan promised that his... that he would have more than Christ, and he has. Now, watch this real, real close now as we get to this: more than It--It would be, marking the people.

221Many are like Eve. Eve just stopped long enough to be deceived. If she hadn't have stopped, there'd have never been no deceiving. But Eve stopped, and when she stopped, there's where she got her deceiving. Instead of pressing on and... Do you--do you follow--follow me close now? Listen! The reason that Eve was deceived... Let's say it together, so I'll be sure you got it. [Brother Branham and congregation speak in unison--Ed.]: "The reason Eve was deceived, she never kept the full Word of God." Satan quoted It to her, but he never told her all the Truth. Neither does his denomination. See? But she stayed long enough to get part of the Word, and didn't take all the Word.

222And that's what's the matter today, the sleeping virgin stayed long enough to get part of the Word but not all the Word. The deceived church stays long enough to get part of the Word but not all the Word, and they were sincere and honest about it. Eve was deceived! The Bible said, "She was deceived."

Adam was not deceived. Adam knowed exactly he was doing wrong; but his wife, doing the things that she was doing, persuading him to--to partake of the forbidden. Why, he was a man, see, and it--it was so to him that he... You understand, see. He knowed he was doing wrong, but Eve thought she was doing right.

224Oh, don't you see? That's why Paul said a woman should never preach the Gospel. Uh-hum. She was--she was in the... She was the one that was deceived. "I suffer not a woman to teach, or to usurp any authority, but to be in silence." See? "For--for Adam was first formed, and then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived, her being in the transgression." Said, "Notwithstanding, now, she's not lost; she shall be saved in childbearing (if she's got a husband), and so forth, she continues on, faith and sobriety and all holiness with such, she'll be saved. But never permit one to teach or to usurp authority!" See? Paul said, "Don't you do it!" Said, "Now, I think I have the mind of the Lord," he said.

225They said, "Why, the... Why, the prophets over there prophesied and told us that we 'should preach.'"

He said, "What? Came the Word of God out of you, and came it from you only? If any man thinks himself to be a spiritual or a prophet, let him acknowledge that what I say is the Commandments of the Lord." See? That's right. He knowed what he was talking about.

But said, "If he be ignorant, just let him be ignorant. That's all. He--he won't listen to It, well, just let him go on, he's headed right straight down to the gully. See, but just go ahead." But there, them two spirits.

228Reason. Like they got women on the police forces, out on the streets. That's a disgrace to the American flag, to put them mothers out there on the street. And tens of thousands of men without a job! Why, it's a woman's nation, it's a woman's place, a woman will take over. It's woman-worship. It's that Catholic dogmatic spirit, worshipping a woman for a god. Here's that just... It's just sitting right, don't you see the setup?

There's nothing that God could have give a man any sweeter than a wife, a real wife. But when she gets anything beyond that, she's--she's out. That's exactly right. God never intend women to work in any of these places and to do them kind of things like that. These women, you're... they're to have children and raise their children. They're all little preachers, every one of them, but they have their own pastoral at home with their kiddies, bringing up their children. All right.

230Now, two spirits, almost alike. Just like Eve, almost to... Why, Satan, he said, "God has said... "

"Uh-hum."

"God has said... "

"Uh-hum, that's right."

"God has said... "

"Uh-huh."

"God has said, but, oh, surely He wouldn't condemn us if we're baptized in the name, 'Father, Son, Holy Ghost.' Wouldn't that be just as well?" You slimy hypocrite! Yes, sir. God never said that!

There's no such a thing, anyhow. It's dead! There is no such a thing! Tell me where the name of "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" is. There's no such a name, then it's dead! Where'd it come out? In Sardis, the "dead" church. No such a thing! "You got a name that you're 'living,' and you say you're a 'Christian church,' but you're dead!"

233That's right, there's no such a thing as name of the "Father, Son, Holy Ghost."

"Oh, well, won't that be just as good?"

And it won't, Paul said it wouldn't; said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"

"We don't know whether there be... "

Said, "Then how was you baptized?" Said, "Come and be baptized over again in the Name of Jesus Christ!" Said, "If a angel comes from Heaven, teaching anything else, let him be cursed!"

That's the Truth! I'm only responsible for saying It. You understand, it's not you so much, it's these tapes that I'm bawling out at, see, 'cause I know where they're going (everywhere), and so that's what it is. All right. It's not...

236Eve was deceived, she saw part of the Word. Moab was deceived. The sleeping virgin was deceived. The church is deceived. The denominations are deceived. See?

Stay with the Word! That's the only way. Stay right with It, don't move from any of It. Stay right with It, go right on what God said do. No matter what anybody else says, keep God's lines.

238Now, the sleeping virgin, she lost her place, we know that. She comes up in the judgment. And if she's ever heard the Truth, she's condemned. That's right. You'll never find Jesus any place but where you leave Him at.

Judas could come up... Remember! "'The sleeping virgins' you say, 'could be inspired by the Devil'?" Absolutely! "Still living clean?" Yes, sir. Judas did; saved, sanctified, preached Divine healing, cast out devils. Why, he's just right straight up, almost the same thing that the rest of them was. But when it come to Pentecost, that's where he showed his colors. He did not receive the Holy Ghost, and turned his heels up and denied the Lord Jesus. That's exactly what the churches did. When it come to the Pentecostal Blessing, they got away from It. Oh, don't you see it, class?

240Oh, now tonight the great Capstone. But just a moment, I think we got a little bit more time here, I'd like to get to some other thing. I want to sh-... you the--the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast, let's take Revelation 13, just a minute. Revelation 13:15, and just read what the... what he's going to do. Revelation 13:15:

And he had power to give life unto the image... (now, that is, "unto the Protestant churches, the Protestant churches.")

He had power, because they made a image: the Protestant churches. Through the--the Council of Churches, is making a place where that all Protestant fellowship will have to be united. How many knows or read of the great United building they got for the churches of the world? Sure. See? Up in... up there now, just like the U.N. nations. And all of them are there, every one of them, even to the Assemblies of God. They're there! They're there, see. It's dog-eat-dog. "As a hog goes to its wallow, and a dog to its vomit," right back the same thing (Absolutely!), almost denying their evangelical stand. And there you are, want to be big, want to act like the rest of the world, like Israel did when they seen the kings and said "make us a king." See?

242And he... made a image unto the beast, and the image of the beast should both speak, and cause... as many as would not worship the image of the beast...

The image of the beast, the "Protestant denomination," not the Catholic. This is America He's speaking of here, you see, 'cause this 13th chapter is on the American, the beast that come up out of the... See, all the other beasts come up out of water, which means "thickness and multitudes of people." But the beast here, it come up like a lamb, out of the ground where there was no people; had two horns, and then it spoke like a dragon. And they made a image of the beast that was in Europe, and made this over here a image to it. A cons-... uniting the churches together and making this Protestant fellowship, and then they forced all the other churches, that they couldn't even buy or sell or anything else without they got this image for the beast.

243Now watch what takes place here:

And he caused all, both... great, rich... poor, free... bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their forehead:

And that no man might buy or sell, till he... had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding count the numbers of the beast: for it is... number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (Which we know who that is; it's the hierarchy of Rome: pope.)

I been right there and seen it myself, would know, up over his place (his throne, as it was) like they set the first Boniface up, the III, up at the beginning of the Catholic age here. And up over there it's Vicarivs Filii Dei, which means "a vicar of the Son of God." Dei, Dei, "Deity," see. See, "The vicar of the Son of God." In other words, "Just like the Son of God sitting here on earth," see, "all powers to change the Bible," change anything he wants to. Therefore, "Say 'Hail Mary'!" What does the pope say? "We'll have 'Hail Mary'!" That settles it. Uh-huh, uh-hum. "Well, we'll do so-and-so." What the pope says, that's it, that's it. "A vicar instead of the Son of God."

Just recently they had that dogma out that "Mary was not buried," (And they got her grave and everything marked where she was buried.) said, "No, she rose again and resurrected." The pope said, "That's it!" and that's just it. "It's infallible, see," the pope said so. See, "Vicar of the Son of God."

246And said, "Now, anybody that wants to know who the beast is, where this power comes from," It said, "count the numbers there and let him that has wisdom... " There, that's one of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, is wisdom. See? Let he that has wisdom count the numbers of man, for it... count the numbers of the beast, for it's the number of man, and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. Now, you take the... and spell that name out, V-i-c-o, and--and just according to the words, and draw a line down here and... or add up the Roman numerals, and you'll find here you got six hundred and sixty-six. That's right.

247"And now let's make a image unto that beast." And over in this country they made a image: a confederation of denominations together, the Nicolaitanes getting together and denominated themselves. And finally will unite this brotherhood, not come in as Catholic, but they'll be united as a brotherhood to try to stamp out Communism.

And the Bible said that God raised up Communism to get revenge upon the nations for what they've done to the children of God. That's exactly right. He said, "And they--they--they give their power and everything to the beast for one hour, and to revenge the people, the... of the blood that they had shed." And when that atomic bomb or whatever it is will strike that Vatican City, and the Roman hierarchy will be no more, It said, "And in her was found the blood of every martyr that ever was killed in the world." And there she is. And here's the image to it, a confederation of churches.

Won't be long till we'll have to close them doors out yonder, that's right, or either take a denominational mark. And we'll close the doors, that's right, we'll... we know better than that.

250Now, now, I want, just for the squeezing down part, before we leave in the next few minutes. Now, the seal of God is the "Holy Spirit." All know that, don't you? All right, we all know that, that the seal of God is the Holy Spirit. Now that's found... You take Revelation 9--9:1 to 4, you'll find that they all had the seal in their forehead. First Corinthians 1:22, Paul said, "Whereby He has sealed us by His Holy Spirit until the day... " Ephesians 4:30, says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit," that's that Angel that come forth sealing upon their forehead. Now, that doesn't mean you... He takes and puts a spot up there; your forehead is your revelation, see, and your hand is the thing you do about it. See, it's a spiritual mark. See? He don't take a big stamp and stamp you like that. Oh, no.

251Like here a few years ago they said, when the N.R.A. come out, it was this, that or... Don't look for that, it's already. The Bible said it begin plumb back there, it's about run out now. See? That's right.

But He marked the Sealed. See? Now, how was the--how was the first seal, what did it look like? They were filled with the Holy Ghost, that's right, and their works was the works of Christ. They laid hands on the sick and they recovered, they done all kinds of signs and miracles and wonder. And in their forehead, was sealed by the revelation that He was the Son of God, and they were--they were working with Him (the--the Deity of Christ), there's the mark.

253You say, "Well, now, He's the third person, or the second per-... " You ain't got no seal yet, so just--just leave It alone. See, you done out, done off the paper there, so then there's no such a thing as that in the Bible. "We bless... We believe in the holy trinity." You're way... You're not even over on the paper now, see, 'cause there's no such a thing as trinity ever mentioned in the Bible. Find the word trinity in the Bible and come.

254[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]...?... in the Son, called the sonship; now He's in you, the baptism of the Holy Ghost; the same God. The Holy Ghost was the Father of Jesus Christ. "A little while and the world won't see Me no more," said Jesus, "I come from God, and I go back to God (the Holy Spirit again). And I'll be with you, even in you, to the end (at the consummation). Through all the way down, I'll be right on through you right like that where... And the very works that I do shall you do also. The things that I been doing will be right along, that'll be the sign of the believer all the way. Go and preach, and baptize them in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and they'd be filled with My Spirit; and if they are, these signs will follow them that believe, to the end of the world. I'm with you always, even to the end of the world." He was received up into Glory. That's it, and we're expecting Him to come someday.

255Now, that's the seal of God, we know that.And remember, there's only one hundred and forty-four thousand of the Jews sealed, which was the remnant of the Jews left over. But in this, in the Gentile Bride, in the Gentile Bride, there was tens of thousands times thousands, of those that's sealed in there, 'cause that's them martyrs and things that come down through the ages there; they'll rise in the day of the judgment.

What do you think will happen when that brassy judgment feet stands there at that day and them martyrs stand up there before them Romans (perhaps Nicolaitanes back there that had them burnt to stakes and throwed to lions' dens and things like that), and they stand there as their attorney in the ju-... in the jury box here? And the Judge sitting there on the seat, "Did you preach the Gospel to them?"

"I sealed my life away yonder in a lion's mouth for them."

Ooh, brother! Talk about "depart from Me," hell will be too good for them! That's exactly right.

259"Hold fast. I know them which call themselves... (Nicolaitanes), and call themselves 'Spirit-filled' and they're not." There, see, there you are. Oh! What a hour is coming, what a dreadful time. God will revenge! "I will revenge," saith the Lord, "I will recompense!" And every evil deed will see a just... Everything that you ever done or thought in your life will be held against you there, on that great magnetics thing with every evil thought that passed through your mind. Repent, children!

There's only one way to get away from it, come into Christ, and when you go into His lovely five-wounded side there, the five precious wounds in His body, when you see that bleeding yonder and will hide in that, say, "Rock of Ages, I am no good. Hide me over, Rock of Ages." Feel the precious Holy Spirit, just die out and sail into the body of Christ; rise, to wake to new things, it's a new world around you. The sins that you once loved is behind you. Oh, there's nothing future, nothing present, death, nothing else will ever separate you from That. You're sealed until the day of your redemption, by the Holy Spirit. You got the revelation of Who He is. You know in your heart you've passed from death unto Life.

261Watch your works with your hands then, you see. You no more steal, you no more do evil. Your hands are clean from all blood. And you stand, preach the Gospel, say what's right, and live what's right, and do what's right, and the Holy Spirit with you showing signs and wonders every day; God letting you know how, "You're my blessed child and I'm with you, I--I'm right with you. No matter where you're at, I'm with you. I'll go with you through the dark hours and everywhere." Oh, what a--what a Anchor!

I've anchored my soul in the haven of Rest,

To sail the wild seas no more;

Oh, the tempest may sweep o'er the wild, stormy deep,

But in Jesus I'm safe evermore.

262Even death comes singing up around some of these days, and flying like a bee around your head like that, you can say, "O death, where is your stinger?"

As little Sarah wrote the other morning, my little girl sitting back there. She was taking notes, her and Brother Collins' little girl, I believe, on what I was going to say. So I was reading the paper, her mother and I, and she said, "The book of revolutions." Amen. She said... And you know the little story I told at the end about death, you know. You've heard it, having no stinger. Was you here then when that was told? See, death once had a stinger in it, but when...

264Satan wasn't too sure whether that Man was the Son of God or not. You'd see him standing there when... Satan come to Him said, "Well, if You can perform miracles, if You're a miracle-working fellow, You're that Son of God. I'll tell You, it's written in the Bible, see, that... And--and if--if You are, let me see You perform a miracle. Now, You're hungry, You haven't eat for forty days, why don't You take that stone and make bread out of it and sit down and eat? Let me see You do it and I'll believe You're the Son of God."

Said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word." Oh, my! He knowed he didn't meet Moses there, didn't he? Moses throwed down the commandments and broke them; but he knowed he hit more than Moses.

266Then he took Him up, and he said, "See all the kingdoms of the world? There's the United States, there's Great Britain, there's all of them coming up here in years to come." Said, "They'll every one belong to me, You know that." (That's who rules them.) Said, "They're mine and I'll do with them, I send them to war, I do anything I want to with them. They're mine." Said, "I'll give them to You if You'll just worship me."

Said, "Get behind Me, Satan." He knowed He was going to fall heir to them anyhow, in the end, so He said, "Get thee behind Me, Satan."

268Finally when they got Him down there one day, and they--they took a rag and put around His face like this, I imagine an old dirty scarf, and got... fold it around His head. And sitting there, bleeding and hurt. Morning, cold wind blowing. They already whipped Him, and blood running over His shoulders, they throwed something around Him like that; and that blood sticking to His back, and sitting there, and a crown of thorns pulled down over His face like that. And blood, and spit from the soldiers, all over His face, sitting there. Wasn't that an awful-looking sight? (O God!)

You say, "Well, if I'd have been there, I'd done something about it." Well, why don't you do something about It now? 'Cause if you... You'd have done the same thing that you do now.

270There He was, sitting there, mocked and spit on. There's the disciples standing back, saying, "Oh, my, could It have been? That Man, Who could call a dead man out of the grave, and look at Him there." But they failed to know the Scriptures. That's what it is, see.

And so, blood and spit on His face. They put a rag around His eyes, and said, "You know, they tell me 'He had spiritual discernment, you know. He's a prophet, He could tell the people. He told the woman at the well of her sins. And He told Simon that his father's name was Jonas, and all about that.' Let's see if He can, what He can do now."

They said, "We'll give Him a little trial." That was the Devil working in them people. They put the rag over His eyes like that, they got a stick and hit Him on top of the head with it, said, "If You're a prophet, tell us who hit You." He never even opened His mouth, He just set there.

Satan said, "You know that can't be the... that--that can't be God."

That's the same thing that old denomination says today, "That bunch of holy-rollers, that can't be God." But they don't know. They don't know. "That can't be God doing them things, that's mental telepathy. They're--they're fortunetellers." They just didn't get It, that's all.

275So they started--started up the hill, put that robe around Him. The only clothes He ever had, I guess, when He was a man, Mary and Martha fixed Him a little robe; robe throughout, without seam. They put it over His back. And there was them little spots on His coat as He went up the hill; dragging, bumping that old cross. And His little, frail body going along; and them whipping Him, and everything else, getting Him to go on like that. That old cross, "bumpity-bump," and His shoulders rubbing, and He'd stagger, and He'd go on.

And them little spots got bigger and bigger, till after a while they all come to one big spot. Old Satan come up, you know, in the form of a "bee," that death, you know, and said, "Ah, ah, ah! That? God wouldn't do that." Said, "He's just a man, He was putting on." He still thinks that. "He's just putting on, so I'll just sting Him. If He was God He couldn't die. So I'll--I'll sting Him and see about it, like that. I'll--I'll give Him a try."

277So when he got Him on the cross, he socked that stinger in Him; but when he did, he lost his stinger. That was more than a man, he stung God that time!

And that's the reason he said, "O death,... " when Paul... You--you know, a bee, after it once stings deep, it can't sting no more. Bee's finished then. He can buzz and make a noise, but he--he--he can't sting, 'cause he ain't got no stinger. So death don't have any stinger anymore. Paul, when they was building a place to chop his head off, death was sting-... buzzing around him, he said, "O death, where is your sting?"

The grave said, "I'll get you, Paul. I'm going to wallow you." (I went there where they chopped his head off and throwed him over in the sewer there.) The grave said, "I--I--I will canker your body, I'll rot you away."

And he said, "Oh--oh, O grave, where is your victory?" See? "But thanks be to God Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" Death lost its sting for him. Said, "I've fought a good fight, I've finished my course, I've kept the Faith. And henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness that the Lord the righteous Judge will give me at that day. And not only me, but all those who love His appearing." Amen! "Chop now if you want to." Huh! Oh, that's--that's it. That's the way, brother. That's--that's the real Christian Spirit.

281Now--now, if you receive the opportunity, how do you get the mark of the beast? I'd just like to say this just because I thought I'd close in saying this. How do you get the mark of the beast? Would you like to know? What is the results? What is the mark of the beast?

We know what the seal of God is. What is the seal of God? Well, let's just turn over to Ephesians 4:30, and then--then you get it, then you read it yourself there. Or--or either some of you can get Revelation--Revelation 9:1 to 4. And the other, Second Corinthians 1:22. There's many places. I marked off a few there. But let's get Ephesians 4:30, and then you can see what the seal of God is; and these others, or anywhere. You just take the word seal in your concordance, and run it everywhere you want to. All right, Ephesians 4:30, listen to this:

And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed until the day of your redemption.

283What is the seal of God? Holy Ghost. Sure. All right, now, "He that has not the Spirit of God is none of Mine." If you have the Holy Spirit, you're part of God because you're His. He's--He's sealed you and He's in you, working in you, and the signs that He does you do also. Now, does everybody understand that, you class? It takes the Holy Spirit to be God's; Holy Spirit. And if you are of the Holy Spirit, you do the works that Jesus did. See? Your love...

When them spit in Your face and beat You around like that, there was no root of bitterness. He looked down at them, He said, "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing." See, they didn't.

285Could you imagine that? His Own children crying out for His Blood! The Creator of heavens and earth hanging on a cross that He made Himself, growed it out of the ground. And His Own children! (Think of your children, fathers, your own children.) Crying out for Him, "Away with Him! Give us Barabbas, the thief out yonder."

Oh, I was that Barabbas, I was the one that deserved to die and He took my place. How ol' Barabbas must've feeled that morning when the clumping of this centurion coming down through there, and opened up the door. And ol' Barabbas saying, "Oh, my! Just a little bit and I'll be gone. I'm a murderer, I'm--I'm a thief. They're going to kill me today, I know they are. It's the day of the passover, so I--I really... I know I'm going to die today." Nervous, all night, walking around just like any other sinner. First thing you know, here comes the guard. He said, "Oh, oh, here he is. I got to go, I got to go." And the key went in and clicked.

The guard stood, attention, "Come out, Barabbas!"

"Uh-huh, yes. Yes, I know I'm going, I'm going."

"Nah, go on and do what you want to."

"What?"

"Go do what you want to. Go on out, you're free."

"I'm free? Why, you sentenced me to death." That's right, God sentences all sinners to death. "You sentenced me to death, how do I go free?"

"Come here, Barabbas. Look, going up the hill yonder, listen at that cross bumping on the ground. Hear the nails when they're drove into His hands. Look at Him crying there, salty tears and blood mixed through His face. He took your place, Barabbas, He died for you."

"You mean He died that I could be free?"

"Yes."

"Well, all right, I'll start murdering again then." Oh, what an ungrateful; you deserve to die.

290When--when I survey the wondrous Cross,

Whereon the Prince of Glory died,

All my fame is but vain loss.

Oh, my! No wonder the poet said:

Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me;

Buried, He carried my sins far away;

Rising, He justified freely forever:

Someday He's coming, oh, glorious day!

291How could I ever turn Him down when I see what He done for me? How would I? I'd be willing to lose every friend I got on earth. How, when I... I'd be ready to be kicked out by organizations and kicked about, when everything else. When I look yonder, when I was condemned to death, and He took my place! Sure, Lord. Everything, I count everything else vain loss. Oh, let me embrace the Cross, O Lord.

Mid rending rocks and darkening skies

My Saviour bowed His head and died,

The opening veil revealed the way

To Heaven's joys and endless day.

292Oh, let me--let me stay close to Thee, Jesus. Don't turn me from Thy dear side, seeing Thy five wounds bleeding. O Prince of Heaven, how He died, died for me! Died that I might... A condemned... in the chains of sin, in the prison house of hell, condemned, guilty, going away to be destroyed forever, and Somebody took my place. And then they... Plowing out here when I was a kid; it was about eighteen, twenty years old, one day the Holy Spirit... I said, "Well, who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?"

He said, "He took your place, you were going there. He took your place, there He is."

I said, "O Lamb of God! O Lamb of God, I come! I come! Nothing in my arms I bring, I have nothing to offer You, Lord, just simply to Thy cross I cling; that's all I got." And He took me in. He clothed me like the father with the prodigal son, put a new garment upon me, the garment not of mine, His garment of His righteousness He put upon me; and a wedding ring upon my finger, that I'll be with the Bride that day. Now the fatted calf has been killed, and we're rejoicing because I was once dead and now I'm alive, I was once lost and now I'm found.

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,

That saved a wretch like me! (A worse than Barabbas.)

I once was lost, but now I'm found,

I was blind, but now I see.

It was grace that taught my heart to fear,

It was grace my fears relieved;

How precious did that grace appear

The hour I first believed!

When we've been there ten thousand years,

Bright shining as the sun; (No more stars, the Sun.)

We'll have no less days to sing His praise

Than when we first begun. (We're in Eternity then.)

Oh, how I love Jesus, because He first loved me. Oh, how wonderful!

296Turn with me now to Exodus, will you, 21st chapter.

The exhortations of His "Spirit," now we're going to speak now of how to receive... I showed you, and telling you the results, "there He is."

Now, how do you receive the mark of the "beast"? And I'll show you what your doom is there. Now, mark of the beast, Exodus the 21st chapter. Taking it out of the Old Testament so that you can see over here. Also in the New Testament I have plenty Scriptures laying here that we all know. Now let's read:

Now these are the judgments which thou shall set before them.

If thou buy a Hebrew servant, (Now, remember now, it's a Hebrew, that's a believer, see.)... a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.

If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself: if he was married, then his wife shall go out with him.

If his master... give him a wife,... she have born him sons or daughters; the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out... himself.

299I'm not going to... I--I--I--I know my time is gone. Excuse me, Brother Neville, but I--I got to sink this in, brother.

Look here. It ain't what your mother is, what your father is, it's you! Not your wife, see; his wife didn't count, his children didn't count. It's him! No matter... Your mother might have been a saint, your father might have been a saint; so was Esau's father and mother, but he was a roustabout. See? But, he... but it's an individual affair with you.

Say, "My father's a preacher." That don't have nothing to do with you. "My mother's a godly woman. Oh, she's in Heaven." That might be right, but what about you? It's you!

302And if the servant...

Now, here's where he... Now watch this mark of the beast now. Now, I--I haven't got time to go back in order, 'cause it's twenty minutes till. But I want to tell you.

Now, there come a time that was called every seventh year. That was six years. On the seventh year (Bible students, ministers, and things sitting around here, knows this to be true.) it was called... the seventh year was called the jubilee year; everything rested. There's no crops planted on the seventh year, the land rested, everything. They just gleaned, see. Everything rested on the seventh year. And on the seventh year there was a--a priest that sounded a trumpet. And if a man had been a slave, I don't care what his debts was, he was free.

304Now, that's a type of the Gospel Trumpet. You might have served the Devil all these years, in chains, with drinking, smoking, gambling, and sin, dirty things, no matter what you've done, but when you hear the Gospel Trumpet sound, it's a sign that you can go free. You can go! "Faith cometh by, hearing of the, Word of God." Now you've heard the full Gospel, you don't have to stay bound any longer.

Now, if you just set and say, "Oh, I listened to It, but I didn't hear It." See? All right, then It ain't for you. Huh-uh. It's for those who hear It. All right, if you can hear.

306Now watch what He said here. Now to prove this, now watch real close and keep your thinking on now for the next two or three minutes.

And if the servant (That's the man that was to--to be set free.) shall plainly say, I love my master,...

"Oh, I like to go to dances. I ain't giving up my dances for nobody. I ain't giving up this, that, or the other, for nobody; my wife, my children, the things of this earth that I love. Now, look here, Brother Branham, I'm going to tell you, do you mean I have to... ?" You don't have to stop nothing. You just come in, it stops itself. But--but you say, "Well, I wouldn't do that. I don't have to do that, I belong to church and I'm just as good as you or anybody else." All right, brother. That's all right, you hear what's the Truth. "Well, now, listen here, ain't 'Father, Son, Holy Ghost'... ?" Well, if you want to keep to that way, just go right ahead.

You've heard what the Trumpet sounded, and you heard the note It give. And the Bible said... (O God!) Look at that! Wouldn't that make me a text right now for the next hour? "If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound." If your denomination says "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," that don't sound like the Trumpet. "If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for war?"

309... the servant shall plainly say, I love my master,...

"I--I love the Devil that--that's making me to do these things, that's all right. And I don't think... I think you're just too narrow-minded up there--there. I just think you're too narrow." All right. "I love the things. I--I think we ought to have these big things like this, and do this, world... And we have dances, we have bunco in our church, and things like that, and we all have a good time, and they're just as good as any of that bunch you got up there." Okay, that's all right. All right.

.. and I will not go out in this freedom of the Spirit you talk about:

Then his master (the Devil) shall bring him to the judges; and shall also bring him to the door,...

Hmm! The what? Who is the Door? [Congregation says, "Jesus Christ."--Ed.] "I set before you a Door." When did that mark of the beast come? In this age where the Door was set. This mar-... final marking of the beast.

.. bring him to the door, or to the... post; (that's the--the Calvary, all right)... and his master shall bore his ear... will bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.

"What do you mean, Brother Branham?" If you hear the Gospel Truth and you refuse to walk in It, then God marks your ear where you'll never hear It no more. You've crossed the line between Life and death. Then you'll go on with your organization, denomination, the rest of your li-... days, forever. (Walk in the Light, children, That's right.) You'll serve that master forever.

311Let it... You don't want to... See, the Trumpet sounded and he can go free, it's God's grace. It's the year of jubilee, the completion. The day of sin is over, brother. I tell every one of you serving sin (tape, or visible audience), you're... every one that's serving sin, the day of sin is over! Jesus died, you don't have to serve sin no more. You don't have to be bowed down to creeds and denominations. "He who the Son has made free is free indeed." If you want to go free and be free in the Son, cut loose from all things and serve Him. Come on! Amen.

But if you don't want to, then your organization, your master, whoever you're serving, will put a mark on your ear and you won't be able to hear It anymore. If God ever speaks to your heart to "Come, this is the time," and you refuse It, then you receive his mark, hardened from the Truth. There's the seal of the Devil, the mark of the beast. You see? What does the mark of the beast do? Go put you right back to Romanism, denominationalism, and you'll never come in and be free; serve that forever. There's the mark of the beast.

That's hard, friends, that's cutting, but that's what the... I'm not responsible for... just what the Bible says.

314Now, that was a type in the Old Testament that foreshadowed the hearing of the Gospel of good news that "You are free!" You don't have to be bound down anymore, you are absolutely free in Christ Jesus. No more sins and things. You don't...

You that love the world, the Bible said, "If you love the world or the things of the world, the love of God is not even in you." That true? If you love the world or the things of the world, the love of God is not in you. Then what about all these big things that's going on in the world today under the name of religion? The things of the world! And people just gulp it right down like a pig in a pig pen, see, "Oh, this is fine. Nothing about That!" See, they're sealed and marked away. See?

316Now do you understand what the remnant of the Jews is, the hundred and forty-four thousand? Where they're setting, waiting? Right at the hour. Can you see now that the foolish virgin that won't take the... wouldn't take the Oil, and will have to rise and be separated, the rights and wrongs at the day of the judgment? Do you understand that when the--the foolish virgin begin to receive, just like now, that she needed This, she went after It; it was that very minute that the Bridegroom came?

Then how close are we? Right now! We have now in just a short time, I don't know how much longer it might be. I couldn't say when, I--I don't know. Might be another year, it might be another ten years, forty years, might be forty minutes. I--I don't know, I can't say. But I know it's near, it's real near. And the Spirit of the Lord...

318Now, it'll come a time where, first thing you know, the church will just start cooling. Now, how many people that--that's noticed the cooling off of the church in the last few years? Sure. What's it going into? Laodicea. Where, we'll pick up tonight and bring the angel of the Laodicean church out, bring it out there so you can see it, and see his Message and what It will be, and at the end of the Laodicean Church Age when she laps over in and spreads out into Eternity then.

319Oh, I just love Him. Don't you? Yes, sir. Oh, the... What is the--what is the Seal of God? Holy Ghost. What is the mark of the beast? Reject It. That's the two. One is to see, and...

Well, they're... And how many was on earth that didn't get It? "All that was not sealed took the mark of the beast." All, that had not the Spirit of God, had the mark of the beast. The Seal of God is the Holy Spirit. The Bible said so. Every place in the Scripture speaks of It, says It's the mark of God, "the seal of God." And all that did not have It, was the one who reject It. And how did they reject It? By refusing to hear It. Is that right?

321Now remember, how do you get faith? "Hearing." Where was it marked? In the hand? No. In the head? No. In the ear, see. In the ear, "hearing." What did it do? Scarred over the hearing. "And no more," you say, "no more of That for me. I want nothing else to do with It. I don't want nothing to do with That." It's just like them...

Brother Neville, I--I--I'll--I'll just let that go till some...

I was going to tell you about that "impossible for them which were once enlightened," you see, "to get to--to come into the Kingdom," you see. It's like them borderline believers:

Look, it is impossible for those which were once enlightened,... been made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

.. tasted the power of the world--world to come,

If they should fall away, to renew themselves again to repentance; seeing that they would crucify to themself the Son of God... and bring him to an open shame.

and... count the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified with, an unholy thing,...

See, for the Elect to do that, it's absolutely, totally impossible. He could not do it, see. Because what would he do? See? "But counting the Blood of the Covenant... " Now, you see, if he's elected and in the group, he cannot do it. It's impossible for him to do it.

325Now, we've taken, bored it right on down:.

.for the rain... cometh oft upon the earth, to dress it...

.. and thorns and thistles which... is nigh unto rejection; whose end is to be burned. (The Wheat's to be taken Home to the garner.)

But this life-giving rain falls on both weeds and wheat. Both of them rejoice and feel the same way about it when the... glad to see the rain come. But by their fruits you shall know them, whether they got their fruits of a weed or the fruits of the grain (now, of the wheat).

327Now, here's what to make it. Now to show where this border line, where this... I'm trying to bring this virgin up to you, you see, so you'll--you'll understand. Now in the borderline believer, watch what taken place when they come to Kadesh-barnea, the children of Israel. I just took it back and forth in Genesis, and back and forth to Exodus, and everywhere else, trying to type it for you, you see, so that the class won't miss it.

328Now, when these people in--in this... in the exodus, when they come to Kadesh-barnea. Kadesh-barnea was the judgment seat of the world, at that time. There's where Israel received her judgment seat. That they had just... It was just eleven days from the mount where they received the commandments till they hit the judgment, "eleven days' journey by the sea coast," the Bible said. Eleven days' journey, and they came to Kadesh and there they were judged. After God would've took them over, in about four days, they went plumb back over here in the wilderness there and wandered around; and got the--the commandments and things like that, and come back, and how, what taken place. Then they come over here... And eleven days from there, they come to their judgment at Kadesh-barnea.

329What happened? He taken one out of each tribe and said, "Go over and spy out the land, and see what kind of a land it is." Well, they all went over and looked.

Two of them went in and got a great big bunch of grapes. Oh, a great big bunch, it taken two men to pack out.

Now, what did they do when they come back and seen what kind of a land it was? They seen the--the--the Amorites and the--and the--the different ones in there, and they said, "Why, they're giants!" (That was, course, the sons of Cain that had finally got up there in that--that country.) He said, "They're--they're--they're giants!" And said, "We're--we're--we're not able to--to take it. Their--their--their--their lands are all fenced in, and great big walls. And, why, we look like grasshoppers, side of them."

332What had they done? Why, they had--they had absolutely seen the land. They tasted the fruit of it. See, Caleb and Joshua went over and got the--got the evidence and brought it back, had it on their shoulder. They tasted the fruit! That's right. They never been over there, but Caleb and Joshua went over, brought the evidence back. Caleb and Joshua said, "We are able to take it!" See? Why? Because Caleb and Joshua was looking to the Word.

God said, "The land is yours. It's all full of Amorites and the Hivites and all kind of -lites over there, but" said "it's yours. And every place your foot sets upon, I'll give it to you." That's right. "Just keep walking, see, it's yours."

But they said, "Oh, no! We couldn't have a revival like that. Oh! Oh, oh, why, you know what? The archbishop, or the bishop, or the presbyters, or someone come around; kick us all out." Huh! Go ahead, that's right, we'll have it.

335Now, and then these two came back there and said, "We're more than able to take it, for God said so! Let's go get it!"

But, see, these borderline believers, they come up far enough to--to taste It. "It tastes fine, yes. But, oh, we can't do it."

Now, what is that? Here's the believer today. Now, watch this guy right here. God gives him a call. Uh-huh. All right, now he gets saved. His mother washes over a board, and sends him away to some college to get his education how to preach. Well, he gets out there, he still thinks he... every time he sees women that's immorally dressed, that gets... tears him up; every time he--he smells cigarettes, he just can't keep from smoking one. He knows that's wrong. He don't want to do that. So he said, "Lord, sanctify me, take that stuff away from me."

God said, "All right, I'll do that for you, son, take it all away from you."

339One night he staggers into a little mission somewhere, and he hears the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Said, "Say!"

He's got up on the first step, justification; got up on the second step, sanctification; now he's ready for the Baptism. See: one, two, three. He's ready for the Baptism. When he gets up there, he reads down in the Bible, he said, "That's exactly what they done. Yeah, that's exactly. That baptism in the Name of Jesus, that's what they done. That's right. He said to 'read that over,' I read it all through the Bible and he's exactly right on That."

"Bishop, what do you... "

"None of that nonsense!"

"Oh, I see."

"They got the Holy Ghost, they spoke in tongues, they done these things, they healed the sick. Oh, yeah, that's exactly." He was looking over, you see, he looking in the border land.

"Oh, if I'd teach That to my church... Oh! I'm Presbyterian, Methodist, Bapt-... you know. Oh, the bishop will throw me out. Well, we just can't do that. We can't have a meeting like that in our church, every one of them would get up and walk out."

343"He who was once enlightened in This and have tasted of the heavenly Gifts, if he shall fall away from that walk he's taken, go back to renew himself again unto repentance because he's sinned against God... " What is--what is sin? Unbelief! He's sinned against God. And what's he done? He's counted the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, as if It was an unholy thing, and done despite to the works of grace that's brought him up there. There remaineth no more sacrifice for him, but a fearful looking for the fiery judgment and the indignation which shall devour the adversary. "For vengeance belong unto Me," saith the Lord.

"For the Word of God is sharper, more powerful than a twoedged sword, cutting even to the asunder of the bone, and a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the mind." There you are, there you are. When you see the Light, walk in It! Walk! You don't know where you're going, but keep walking. Walking towards Calvary, keeping a sensible look at Calvary. Walking! Walking!

345O God, may someday... the Church, which is a type of Enoch. Five hundred years he walked before God. Walking! Walking in the Light, with a testimony that "Everything God said, he did it." He didn't displease Him. What the Lord said do, Enoch done it.

Now, he was a type, remember. The ark is a type of the Jews, the hundred and forty-four thousand that's carried over, which is Noah and his bunch; but Enoch went Home just a little bit before the flood. You know that. So Enoch just kept walking in the Light. So one day he felt his feet getting off the ground, he just kept walking, and he walked on into Glory without even dying. That's right. God took him away because he was walking in the Light, with a testimony that "he walked in the Light of God." Kept walking, walking.

346Let's get on our walking shoes, Church:

Keep walking in the Light, beautiful Light,

Comes where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;

Shine all around us by day and by night,

Jesus, the Light of the world.

Let's sing it now:

We'll walk in the Light, beautiful Light,

Oh, come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;

Shine all around us by day and by night,

Jesus, the Light of the world.

All ye saints of Light proclaim,

Jesus, the Light of the world;

Then the bells of Heaven will ring,

Jesus, the Light of the world.

We'll walk in the Light, such a beautiful Light,

Oh, come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;

Shine all around us by day and by night,

Oh Jesus, the Light of the world.

348Let's bow our heads, and just--just a moment now. I wonder if there's some in here would like to have the experience of being filled with the Holy Spirit, say, "Remember me, Brother Branham. Remember me, church. I want to walk in the Light. I want that sweetness, no root of bitterness in me, I want to be just God's servant." Raise your hand, saying, "Remember me, O Lord." Yeah, twenty hands or more, up.

Now just keep your heads bowed while we sing softly together:

O Jesus, the Light of the world.

We'll walk in this Light, it's such a beautiful Light,

It comes where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;

Shine all around us by day and by night,

Jesus, the Light of the world.

Come, all ye saints of Light, proclaim,

O Jesus, He's the Light of the world;

Then the bells of Heaven will ring,

O Jesus, He's the Light of the world.

Oh, we'll walk in this Light, it's such a beautiful Light,

It comes where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;

Shine all around us by day and by night,

O Jesus, the Light of the world.

350[Brother Branham begins humming Jesus, The Light Of The World--Ed.] Lord Jesus, while they're humming this song, wanting to walk in the Light of the Gospel, take those precious hearts, Lord. They're Yours, cleanse them, take all evil, all unbelief out, may Jesus the Light of the world come in. Handkerchiefs are laying here, Lord, for the sick and the afflicted. Come to them, Lord Jesus, and heal them so that they can walk in the Light. Grant it, Lord.

We thank You for our lesson, for the presence of the Holy Spirit, been here with us and kept us, hours, sitting here. People sitting in this hot room, waiting. They're expecting and waiting and wondering, Lord. For they realize, as they hear the Word read, that we're at the end time. Nothing left, just the frolic of the world. And one of these days the mimics will have to cease.

And I pray, God, that You'll save every person that's in Divine Presence, save them by Your Spirit. And may the Holy Ghost come upon each one of them and fill their hearts with goodness and peace, that they'll bring forth the fruit of the Spirit, which is, long-suffering, gentleness, peace, patience, meekness, faith, in the Holy Ghost. Grant it, Lord. I'll commit them to Thee now for Your service, in the Name of Jesus Christ, Your Son. Amen.

352We'll walk in the Light,... (Let's raise our hands when we sing.)... beautiful Light,

Come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;

Shine all around us by day and by night,

O Jesus, the Light of the world.

I love Him, I love Him

Because He first loved me

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

353Oh, isn't He wonderful? We'll have the baptismal service for about ten minutes now, fifteen, whatever. There... I think there's a young lady here to be baptized. Is that right? [Brother Neville says, "There's several."--Ed.] All right, how many's to be baptized this morning that can't come back tonight for the baptismal service this evening? One, two, three, three that can't come in this afternoon or before the evening service to be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. God bless you, children. I'm glad that God has set before you the open Door. And you're ready to walk in now, you're going into the grave, that all the old things are dead and buried. Now, you remember, your baptism only is an outward expression that something has happened down here.

And then we'll walk in this Light, (getting ready) beautiful Light,

Oh, shine all around us by day and by night,

O Jesus, the Light of the world.

354Oh, this great fellowship! Don't you feel good? Oh, I just feel so good. Seem like something I been in with this, one of these old-fashioned scrub brush, and you just scrub me out with lye soap.

My brother said maybe you all that want to be baptized this morning, make ready. The suits and things will be wet tonight, but it's all right if you want to do that. But if you're ready to be baptized this morning, all right.

I believe we'll have to move this, won't we, Brother Neville? All right, sir. Now, how many wants to stay and see the baptizing? Just take a few minutes and, my, maybe you've never seen one go on. If you can't stay, well, then you be sure to get back tonight. But I wish you could, and stay a few minutes to watch the baptismal service. We'll move this and there's a big glass up behind here that shows every person going in. It'll be striking to you, I'm sure. We are buried with the Lord in baptism. Amen. As He died, we are buried unto His death; raised to His resurrection, to walk in newness of life. The Lord bless you.

357How many knows what the lesson tonight is? Laodicean, the last, and the climax of the Church Ages.

All right, we'll have the baptismal service. Teddy, if you will...

You want to be bap-... ? [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... already been baptized. There's some of them got to leave for Chicago right now, see.

Let's pray:

Lord Jesus, they have set and listened the services through. We commit them to You now, Lord, as they go to Chicago. Go with them, Lord, and may each one take this wonderful Light and scatter It, Lord, across the city of Chicago, everywhere that they go. Be with them. Until we meet, may their spirits be anchored in You. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

361[Brother Neville prophesies--Ed.] Let's raise up our hands and say, "Thank You, Lord Jesus, praise Your Name." Thank You, Lord. We recognize that, Lord, that You... one day the Spirit fell upon a man, in the Bible, and just told all the secret of God, what was to take place. Father, we know that You're still the same God. And here You fall upon this humble little pastor here, Lord, this morning, that was once back there in the Nicolaitane; but You shook him; he saw the Light and walked out. And here his heart's so open till You'll speak to him, till he don't even know what he's going to say, and stand up and let the Holy Spirit move through him in a voice of prophecy to us. Thank You, Father. And I'll--I'll look for You for my itineraries. Amen.

362[A sister speaks in another tongue. Blank.spot.on.tape. Another sister gives an interpretation--Ed.] Amen. You got that, did you? See what that was? Watch the tone of that one woman's voice speaking, and watch the interpretation come back the same tone. See? There is two different women, doubt whether they even know one another or not. They don't--they don't know one another. There's the Holy Spirit, watch of the tune of the voice like that. Don't you realize that that's Christ in the midst of the people here? That's right.

363You have something you want to read, Brother Pat? Go ahead, see.

[Brother Pat says, "22:16 of Revelation I read in the Name of the Lord Jesus: I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches."--Ed.] Amen.

Now, that's spiritual, Divine leading. See, the Holy Spirit moving through the laity, going out there, speaking. Oh, isn't He wonderful? To think, friends, that's the same thing the Bible spoke of. And it's here today, we don't have to wonder about it no more. Oh, come receive Him, my precious people. Come, receive Him.

Teddy, while we're making ready for the baptism, (and I pray God will make your hearts ready) Where He Leads Me I Will Follow.

Can I help you here my brethren? Well, you have--have to cut those mikes off. Uh-hum. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]

I adjure thee by the Living God and by the exhortation of His Word that you come and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Remember I do that because that the Bible constrains us to do that. And--and Paul said to do it; and if an angel taught anything else, let him be accursed. And I--I want to just declare this at the end of my road like he did: I have not shunned to declare to you the whole council of God as I know it, exactly. No man's blood upon us.

Oh, don't you love him? Oh, how I love him. All right, let's stand while we sing our dismissing song. All right, until that time we'll:

Take the name of Jesus with you,

Child of sorrow and of woe.

It will joy and comfort give you,

Take it everywhere you go.

Precious name (Precious name), O how sw-... (O how sweet),

Hope of earth and joy of Heaven.

Precious name (Precious name), O how swee-... (O how sweet),

Hope of earth and joy of...

Now as we bow our heads we sing:

At the name of Jesus bowing,

Falling prostrate at His feet,

King of kings in Heaven we'll crown Him,

When our journey is complete...