Presuming

1 Let us remain standing just a moment for prayer. If there's any requests that you'd raise your hand and in your heart say, "God, You know what's in my heart." Let's bow our heads now.

Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee this morning for the true love of God that's shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that melts us into one (We are one in Christ.), and for this time of fellowship around the Word we're approaching now again this morning.

We want to thank you for what it's meant to us through this past week, for meeting with our precious dear friends, Your children; and for feeling that fine spirit of love and genuineness in their hearts. And we are so grateful, Lord. Truly the Scripture's right when we're assembled together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

2 Bless the further part of the service. Bless our brother, our pastor, Brother Parker Thomas, Thy servant, the Holy Spirit moving upon him and helping him. Lord, he wants to serve You with all of his heart. And I pray that his desires will be fulfilled, and the desire behind every hand that was raised here this morning.

Bless all Your servants throughout the land on this sabbath day. May You anoint Your ministers everywhere that's standing in the pulpit. May the sick be healed, the--the lost saved, and those who are prepared to receive the Holy Spirit. May God be honored today because He has let it be a day. In Jesus' Name. Amen. Be seated.

3 I think of that great old song, "Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take Him at His Word; just to lean upon His promise, just to know THUS SAITH THE LORD." This is... I was telling your precious pastor here, our Brother Parker Thomas, that I believe this has been one of the most spiritual-impact meetings that I've been into in I don't know when. I--I come down... I say, "Now, I'm going down tonight. I'm just going to say a few words, and then I'm going to call the people up on the platform and pray for them. And--and I don't want to say too much." You see?

I said, "Now, Brother Parker is a teacher, and what good's my part going to do down there? And you just get cut off, you--you know. It just--just keeps moving, the Holy Spirit, so... And then, the first thing you know, look down about an hour. "It's nearly nine o'clock, I'm sure." It's almost eleven. So you just... Well, we're... just--just love to fellowship around the Word, and so happy.

4 And I--I know you've had a great time at the school, or the convention up at the Tabernacle. Do you know what, people? If I lived around here, I--I would be a member of that place up there. I would. I sure would. I'd--I'd be right... I am a member of it. I mean, I--I'd be going to it. I was a member of it, because I was baptized into it. That's right. I was baptized into that--that great fellowship.

You know, I come from a Baptist church, and the Baptists believe that when you are--you are baptized with the Holy Spirit when you believe. And they also believe that if you've been in the Christian church, or--or any other church baptizing in the same form of baptism they use, the same ceremony, yet, when you become a Baptist you've got to be rebaptized again. In other words, you're baptized by water into the Baptist fellowship. Well, I'm glad we're baptized by one Spirit into the fellowship of the Lord Jesus. That's the lasting baptism.

5 Coming in there was a brother standing out there, and he had a movie camera, and he was winding it up when we backed in. I thought you was singing "Only Believe," and I started up the steps. And I seen this precious brother. Something just said, "Go out to where he is."

He was taking the movie. And he was giving me a testimony. He said that ten years ago his wife, with a cancer up in Pennsylvania... In one of our meetings, one of our first, she was healed of--of cancer. And here he is way down here today--a Brother Roe, I believe he said his name was. And the little bitty fellow standing there, his hair all combed up--cute little fellow... And I said, "Is this your father, or grandfather?"

He said, "No, sir."

I said, "Do you live around here?"

He said, "I'm from Charlotte." It just creeps over some... I know you're from the south. His speech betrayed him. He was a cute little guy, just a little bitty snickle-fritz about this high, you know. They're cute. I love them little fellows.

6 In here this morning is a little Swedish brother of mine. One time, I... Not knowing him, I stood for him with all that was in me. And I'd just come back from Sweden. Brother Joseph was having a hard pull in Chicago, and they had a lot against him, or, they called it against him just because he wanted to be a brother, and fellowship with anybody that reached out his hand and said, "Shake my hand." Joseph was ready to take a hold of it. To me, that's a Christian. That's right.

But there was a group of ministers said, "He's associated with a certain people. He's had them in his church," latter-day rains, and so forth. And we had a meeting booked in Chicago. I said, "But aren't we supposed to be interdenominational?"

Said, "Yeah, but they'd..." The fellow said, "They'd put me out of my church if I let him come in."

I said, "Then we just won't go, if he can't come in." So he--I bypassed Chicago for that cause. And we have been bosom friends all of our lives. Now, if we'd set down and try to discuss Scriptures, we might miss one another half a mile or more, when it comes to Scriptural. But when it comes to brotherly love, we're one. I know he loves God. He believes the same thing about me, and we've had fellowship around.

7 Now, I'm going into the mission fields of Africa to provide--prepare meetings in where is the big schools are. The little fellow had--just unsponsored, not underwritten by no one, but a vision in his heart to go to Africa. And there he's got thousands. He was at our church in Jeffersonville, showed his film up at school. I want to come over and help him.

8 And this morning I was eating breakfast down here at Howard Johnson's, and seen some of my friends come by. And who came in but Joseph, set down, and had breakfast with us. Went home, and we're living right next door to each other.

I've been all tore up for a few days on account of a vision. I hadn't told it right out to the people, and it's kinda disturbed. And I wondered, "What could that be? How can it be?" I took my wife, and we went aside, and I rehearsed back. "Where down the road, did I... Have I missed the place? What has happened?"

9 And something said while we was just standing in my room, just a moment before I was going to have prayer and come over... And I was going to speak this morning--teach on the "Bride Tree," but my voice had got bad. And I said, "I better bypass that, 'cause it's long."

And I said... Well, I--I walked... Something to me said, "Take Joseph out in the yard." And I just put my arm around him, walked out into the yard.

We walked down through these big, stately, pine trees. And seemed like that wind blowing through there sings, "There's a land beyond the river..." And I, standing there with my little friend, talking, and a certain thing I was talking to him about... which just he and I to know...

And he said, "But, Brother Branham, where the Lord gave you this Scripture thirty years ago, but did you ever read this below it?" It done something to me. I felt the Holy Spirit just come down all around us.

I said, "Thank you, Joseph." I put my arm around him, walked back to the door, went in, picked up my Bible. It was there just exactly where... Why, I never read but just them first few verses, I don't know. Just for this hour, that's all.

You know Jesus picked up the Scriptures one time, and just read so much of it? Just as much as to be fulfilled then and left the rest of it; 'cause that part pertained to Him in that time, and the next part pertains to Him the second time. I may speak on it tonight, Lord willing.

10 I want to go this afternoon, take my Bible and get out into the woods alone, 'cause it's just got me all moved inside. I never thought of it, never tried to read it. About, well, about thirty, thirty-one years ago, and everything that He told me has been fulfilled. And just in the last six months the last part of the vision that morning fulfilled, and here it was. The trouble, I guess (is what I call it then. See?), just didn't know which way to turn. And Joseph said, "But did you ever read the rest of it?" And there it was. Didn't know it. God bless you, Joseph.

I--I--I--is--I love God's people, don't you? Just something real about it. Maybe tonight, the Lord willing... I want to go this afternoon to see what He will tell me. What to do? I feel a lot better about it now, I know that. Just caught two or three verses, and I thought, "Oh, my. That's... Why didn't I read that? Why didn't I think about it?" See? But I just never did notice it. Now... 'cause it wasn't time.

11 Now, Joseph is going to leave us and going to Africa to make arrangements for meetings. Brother Parker Thomas has been so sweet to ask me to come back again next year, in time of the convention. And I trust that that'll be the will of the Lord I can do that, meet with everybody back here again next year. And the fellowship is very sweet.

12 And now, we want to get out of here before noon, and so you can eat, and rest, and so forth, and come back again this evening. Do you have an evening service, or afternoon service, brother? [The brother says, "Perhaps we will have baptismal service this afternoon, Brother Branham."--Ed.]

Now, anybody that's wanting to be baptized in Christian baptism... Where will that be? At your church? ["No. Be behind my house. There's a lake behind there."]

Oh, there you are. "Here is water. What does hinder us?" All right. All you eunuchs come down and enter into the water. And if you haven't had Christian baptism yet by immersing, you come to Brother Parker Thomas' house, parish this afternoon, and there will be water for the baptismal service. And that's a good time to settle it once forever. That's right. "For he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Is that right?

"Repent every one of you and be baptized into the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." If that isn't true, then I don't know what is true.

13 Paul said to those people in Acts, the 19th chapter. Paul, passing through the upper coasts of Ephesus, he finds certain disciples. A great Baptist preacher up there was preaching, proving by the Bible that Jesus was the Christ. He said... Have...

Paul come through, and Aquila and Priscilla, tentmaker friends of Paul's, which absolutely... Aquila and Priscilla was the pastor of the church. Aquila was the pastor of the church, the first church at Rome. And when Claudius had excommunicated all Jews, he come back to Palestine. I'd like to talk to the Catholic church on that one. Yes, sir. Where was Peter over there then? All right. Now, he had been excommunicated from Rome, and then brought over into his homeland, 'cause...

Then Aquila and Priscilla then when they went back then the Roman bishops over there that brought in all the dogma. And there's what started your first Catholic church, right there.

14 And then they established a second Catholic church, which then when Paul came to Rome, he came to the second church. I want somebody to show me where Paul ever went to the first church. He wouldn't believe those dogmas. Could you imagine Peter, a Jew, taught against idols, put idols in the church? Do you remember Peter so strict on the Word, and staying with the Word, could ever accept dogmas? Think... No, no, not that. That's just foolishness. But there it goes, and that's the way it starts.

15 Now. We find out that Paul, passing through the upper coast of Ephesus, he finds certain disciples. They were rejoicing, happy. He said unto them, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?" Wasn't that a knockout to the Baptists? See? The Baptist says you receive the Holy Ghost when you believe, and that's exactly what their first beginners are. That's what Apollos... He said... He thought they already--everything's all right. He said they was shouting and having a great time. Paul said, that's all right."

Aquila and Priscilla had done told them, "We got a little Brother Paul. But when he comes up, he will teach the Word of God to you more plainer."

16 So he passed through the upper coast, and he finds this Baptist theologian: great man, good man. And he said to his congregation, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"

They said, "We know not whether there be a Holy Ghost."

He said, "Then how was you baptized?"

They said, "Oh, we've been baptized."

"How? Unto what?"

Said, "Unto John's baptism."

He said, "He only baptized unto repentance (The Sacrifice hadn't been killed yet. See?), "not for remission of sin." That's right. Acts 2:38 said, "Repent, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin." See?

17 But he said--he said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"

Said, "We know not whether there be any Holy Ghost."

Said, "What was you baptized?" It must be essential.

And he said, "We have not so much as know whether there be a Holy Ghost."

He said, "How was you baptized?", or "to what?" The original says "to how."

And he said, "Unto John's baptism."

He said, "John verily baptized unto repentance, saying unto the people they should believe on Him that was to come, that is Jesus Christ." And when they heard this, they were rebaptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. Paul laid his hands upon them, and they received the Holy Ghost come upon them; and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. See? That's right. Oh, that's good Pentecostal doctrine to me. Sure is all right.

So now, if you haven't had Christian baptism, come down this afternoon.

18 And then here not long ago (just before we start), you know that my precious old mother has just gone up the road. And if I had time I'd tell you how it happened, how the Lord told me... bypassing a hunting trip I had, and sent me to another place; and told me what I would get, and return back; and just exactly where everything was laying perfectly. I told it to the church before I ever left.

I said, "I'm going to kill a nine foot silver-tipped grizzly. I'm going to kill a caribou that his horns measures exactly forty-two inches from the base up, and he will be laying on a little panoramic. Never been in the country." Told the church. Part of the church is setting here this morning. Is that right, church? Raise up your hand, from the Branham Tabernacle.

19 I said just where it'd be. Some of the brethren went with me to find out. We went into a country we'd never seen before, and just perfectly to the dot, where everything was. The--the silver-tip grizzly measured exactly nine feet from tip to tip. And he was killed just in the same place He said.

The caribou, laying, looking right down the mountain at me. And that guide said, "Brother Branham, if that caribou's horns measures forty-two inches, I'm going to faint."

I said, "You might as well drop over, because it's going to measure." When he got his measure out, and there it was at the on-the-spot nose, not a 16th over exactly forty-two inches. I said, "Don't you believe?"

A year before that we was back in a place, and he was just a young convert, and he'd heard about the meetings. His wife is a Pentecostal believer. He's a guide: Brother Southwick. He said, "If anybody ever questions that, let them write and ask me." He said, "Let me tell them." Lives way back. That's the land of the midnight sun in the--in the Yukon there. So he...

20 And we'd been back and the Indians back there, had--had got across the waters. And the waters had cut us off, and we couldn't go back. So we just set around there a few days, just talking, watching the great outdoors, and taking pictures of different things.

And so, he kept... Eddie kept telling one of the ministers about the visions, and he said, "Oh, my. If I could just only... If I could get my brother down there..." And he said, "My brother has had epilepsy, my young brother." Said, "He's had epilepsy since he was about three years old. He has four or five fits a day." So I knowed he was--he was praying to God, but I can't make visions come. They just come. That's the grace of God. I--I don't... So we was back there. I prayed for him two or three times, and him not knowing it. We went around the next day. We had about twenty-one head of horses.

21 And--and down on the trips... Usually I tied tails, toggers, like that. But in the mountains you can't use it that way because you'll lose the whole string of horses. And sometimes they'd fall off a cliff.

And on the road out, we'd turned the horses loose, and these young horses roll with their packs and things. I used to ride a lot, and my father was a rider.

And so we was coming up out of the back a-wrangling. Bud was in front, this Brother Eddie, Brother Bud and I, and another Christian called Chris Berg. And so, Bud was riding on in the front with a bell horse trying to--to lead on; and I was coming in back, Eddie and I, getting these horses out of mesquite. I guess you all know what mesquite is. And they'd get in that, like quicksand.

22 We had a couple down, and, oh, I was mud from head to foot, and along there getting them horses out. And one of them jumped in, and I right jumped in on top of him, held his head up like that. We got a rope around, throwed it onto my saddle horn like that, and took one horse, and cut the other packs off, and got him out of there. And just take mud, and scrape it off of you like that. So oh, my.

Them young horses, you can't... They just go any way. They're two or three years old, and just broke. And they're not trail horses at all.

23 And so, we were going out. And I'd got up, and I was riding along in the saddle, and--and Eddie was there. And I happened to look out across them great big, pretty, pine trees with snow across the top. God, let me live there. If there's a Millennium to come, let me live there.

You can have all your fancy hair-trimmed yards, and your big buildings; and all your Miami palm trees lit up, and all you want. But just let me have it the way God sent it, just...?... I just love it like that. Oh, I can just stand at the top of those hills, go hunting, and climb way up at the top of the hills and set there, and just hold up my hands and cry. Look across there; I think, "God, that must be the way you love it. That's the way You must... That's the way You made it. Why does man have to contaminate it, and make it something else, pervert it?"

"Someday," I thought, "Lord, let me walk down Your big, never-ending game trail." I hope I meet all you hunter brothers down along through there, real... where I was looking at. I'm looking forward to that. 'Course you know that's the Indian's prayer...?...

24 Going down there, I was looking out across like that, and I seen that young fellow in a vision. The horse stopped itself. I didn't have to stop him.

And I watched that vision for a few minutes, and when it left I seen it was for Bud's brother. I only had one spur. I spurred my little horse, and turned him around. I run up to Eddie real quick. I had a horse run out into some brush there. I said, "Eddie, Eddie, brother."

He said, "What's the matter, Brother Branham? You look white as a sheet."

I said, "I've got THUS SAITH THE LORD."

"What is it? For Bud's brother?"

I said, "Yes." I said, "Keep the horses going." And I spurred my horse, and got across and through the mesquite and things. In about fifteen minutes I was just ahead of the string. I rode beside of Bud, and put my hand over on the back of his saddle, and I said, "Bud."

He said, "Yes, Brother Branham."

I said, "I got THUS SAITH THE LORD."

He said, "What do you mean?"

25 I said, "For the last two or three days since we've been back here, you've constantly talked about if you could ever get your brother in one of the meetings."

He said, "Yes, Brother Branham. He's just... he hasn't even received the Holy Ghost as yet." He has now, but he hadn't then. And he said, "I... Yes, that is right."

And I said, "Your brother..." Described him.

He said, "That's exactly right. That's the way he looks."

I said, "Now, this won't work on another person, but it will on your brother." I told him what to do. I said, "You send and get your brother. Bring him up here." It's on the Alaskan highway, lived in an old place where the Americans there, several of them died, putting the road through. And the government had all fell in. And he was guiding. He's got six hundred square miles in there. He's a licensed guide. And so, he said... very primitive, very fine hunting country...

26 And I said, "Bud, look. When that boy comes, and he has a fit again, grab his shirt, and say, 'Brother Branham told me to do this in the Name of the Lord,' and throw that in the salamander." I said, "The fits will leave him. Do you believe me?"

He said, "With all my heart."

He sent and got his brother, brought him up there, and that morning he went to cut trails. His little wife, sweet little Christian, but she... He got violent. He'd get rashal too. So just... He hadn't been out of the house more than about thirty minutes down somewhere, and he fell in one of those fits. Usually the little wife would clear a window, anything, getting away from him. But when she seen him rolling and tumbling, and that devil doing that to him, she happened to remember. And she believed me.

Here she come to him, and straddled him--that little bitty woman on that great big, wide-shouldered man. She straddled him, and jerked that shirt off of him, walked over there to that salamander, tears running down her cheeks. Said, "Dear God, Brother Branham told us to do this. And I throw this in there in the Name of Jesus Christ." He's never had a fit from then on.

27 When I told him about those visions, and what would happen... Coming down the mountain... We shot that caribou on top of the mountain. He said, "Brother Branham, according to that vision..." We was in caribou moss. You know, that you can see for miles and miles, and nothing but just yellow moss. He said, "According to what you told me, now, that man that's going to have the--the shirt on--Eddie down there, that checkered shirt, you're going to kill a nine-foot silver-tipped grizzly?"

I said, "That's THUS SAITH THE LORD."

He said, "Brother Branham, I--I--I'm not doubting your word, brother. How could I doubt your word?" Said, "But look. I can see every speck of the ground and there's nothing. There isn't a bush that high. There's nothing but caribou moss. Where's the bear at?"

I said, "He's Jehovah-jireh. The Lord will provide for Himself." I said, "Did you ever hear the story about the squirrels that time?"

He said, "Eddie told me about it."

And I said, "Well, He's still God. If He says it'll be there..."

28 He said, "Well, Brother Branham, if God's told you that, and this caribou was laying exactly... Why, I never seen one like it." He said, "I don't see how in the world you ever got to it, in fifty yards of it." And said, "Just exactly what you've said." Said, "Told me..." said, "my brother was healed just exactly. That's been over a year ago. He'd had three or four fits a day, and never had one since.

He said, "How could I doubt it?"

But said, "Brother Branham, I've lived in these mountains all of my life, and I never seen a silver-tip in my life." Said, "I've seen regular grizzlies, but not a silver-tip. That's the rare type."

I said, "But there's one here." So I picked up the head, the horns of this... We'd take... I had the rifle, and we'd take turns about, coming down, having to walk this way down the hill, that caribou moss. My, it was about three and a half miles right down before you hit timber. And so... See, that's not even bear country; that's caribou.

29 So we went down foot by foot. We changed... that trophy I was packing weighed... Well, the caribou itself weighed around nine hundred. But we had to leave the meat there, and I just took the cape. And the horns alone weighed about a hundred and fifty pounds. So here I was trying to pull it down the hill, like this, over my shoulders.

And when we got within about... We come over a little glacier, and he said, "Think of it, Brother Branham. We're only about a mile to where... I can see with my natural eyes where them horses are standing. And I see every hill. And you're going to kill a nine foot silver-tipped grizzly?"

I said, "That's according to the Word of God that told me about three months ago, and it's never failed." I said, "You're doubting that, Bud."

He said, "Forgive me, Brother Branham. I'm not doubting." Said, "My heart is so... I--I just can't understand it." Said, "Where's the bear at?"

I said, "I don't know. I said, "God's got him sticking around here somewhere."

He said, "Think of it: a bear that I've never seen, and one that God told you..." He said, "That's the same God that told you about my brother."

I said, "Absolutely."

Said, "Brother Branham, put a shell in your gun."

I said, "I'll have time to do that."

30 We goes on down the hill. We was within about--about a half a mile, and he'd been packing, and I'd had the rifle. So we set down, resting. He said, "Brother Branham, just think. We're only half a mile."

I said, "Bud..." And I said, "He will be there. Don't you worry." And I looked. I said, "Bud, what is that standing right up there, about two miles up, top of the mountain?"

He throwed the glasses on, said, "Brother Branham, looks like a milk cow." He said, "It's a grizzly bear, so help me. And look at that white grizzle a-blowing in that sun setting this afternoon. He's a silver-tip. I never seen it before."

I said, "What are we waiting on?"

He said, "I believe if you'd just shoot him from here; it's two miles away; you will get him."

I said, "But Bud, according to the vision, I was just right close to him."

31 So tired, worn; we'd done been at least twenty miles that day over those mountains. So then, we started right back up again. And I got within about five hundred yards, and Bud said, "Brother Branham," he said, "did you ever shoot a silver-tip before?"

I said, "I've killed many bears, but never a silver-tip."

And he said, "They're the most vicious of all." Said, "They don't know dying."

I said, "No bear does."

So I said... he said, "But the Lord gave you that one, didn't He?"

I said, "Oh, yeah."

32 So I had a little .270; it's a small rifle. And so, then, I went on up just a little farther. He said, "Brother Branham, don't you think you'd better shoot him from here? We better not get too close to him."

I said, "The vision said we was right up on him."

So we went over another little coulee, and come up. And when we did, there, my. Just setting about two hundred and fifty yards there; I could see his big, yellow teeth smacking down like that. He looked like a big hay stack, eighteen inches between the ears. And he was a mammoth: foot about that wide, and claws, you know, and just setting there. Oh, he looked pretty, and mean.

So Bud said, "humph." He said, "Brother Branham, I tell you where to shoot him."

I said, "Yes, brother."

He said, "The back. You see?" Said, "Then they can't get up then. You see?"

I said, "But the vision said shoot him in the heart."

He said, "Then you'd better do it that way."

First shot got him. And as we come down, he said, "Brother Branham..." We was packing them horns, didn't have a measure. He said, "Them horns look about ninety."

I said, "No, they're just forty-two." He said... And I told Eddie, I said, "Now, watch. The little boy's going to put his hands right there and measure."

And when we got down to where the packs was... We couldn't bring the bear. We had to go back the next day. And you can't get a bear... Whew. You can't get a horse near a grizzly bear. You know that. The smell of it, and he's gone. We tore up two or three strings trying to get him out. And so then, all we had was panniers laying all over everything, the pack saddles, and they were scattered. Them horses was scared to death of the grizzly, the smell of them.

33 So we went on down, and when we stopped, the boys was there waiting, Eddie and his son. And he said, "I want to measure those horns."

I pulled back to Eddie, I said, "Eddie, watch the boy put his hands around the bottom of the horns, like I told you before we got here." So he goes down, gets out the tape out of--his little measure. The little boy come around, put his hands on it.

Eddie said, "Praise be to..." Just exactly. Raised right up like that. He just turned white in the face. He said, "Brother Branham, looky here. Not one-sixteenth over, exactly forty-two inches on the dot." Jesus never fails. He said, "Brother Branham, where am I going to be a year from today?"

I said, "Now, Bud, you're just a young convert to Christ. I don't know where you're going to be." I said, "I can only say just as He tells me. That's what I'll say, and that's all I know. And I don't know..."

34 Now, I'm going back into the country, that you might know, when I come back next year. I'm going to get a brown bear that's almost twice that size. You see if it's right or not. I seen it. When we was standing, put my hands on his haunches laying on the ground, like that. And I could put my hands on his hips like that, and him laying down. Now, you find out if that's right or not.

There's a whole lot to that. But I just happened to think, I'm supposed to be teaching Sunday school. See? Oh, friends. You all see these little visions around here? No wonder you minister brothers sometimes get suspicious. "Well, it might be mental telepathy. It might be psychology." Show me somewhere else it's going on. What about these great psychologists, telepathists? They guess. It sometimes happens, sometimes it never. And it's this, that, or the other. But God's perfect and never fails.

35 What is a one of--what is a fortuneteller? Is a perverted servant of Christ. What is any wrong? Is a perverted right. It's exactly right. There's never... It's just now and then. That's the way, taking a chance on Christianity. Don't take chance. Be sure that you're right. Get--just die to yourself and be borned again by the Spirit of God and then you'll know. Then there's no... All the "ifs," and "ands" are gone from it.

I love Him, I love Him (glory),

Because He first loved me;

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's tree.

I seen some--one man that went with me. I just didn't notice him being there. You know it's Brother Fred Sothmann. He's setting there, and he went to Dawson with me. Is that right, Brother Fred?...?... I drawed the picture on my windshield just exactly how (Is that right?), before it happened. Oh, that's happened... How many knows, that travels along (to the strangers here)? Go along the road, and the Lord will say different things that's going to happen, and it'll be just exactly that way, all down. Sure.

[Brother Branham begins humming "I Love Him"--Ed.]

Don't you love Him? Just sing it.

Because He first loved me;

And purchased my salvation

On...

36 No guessing any more. We're in the Ark. The world's shut out. We are in Jesus now. Oh, the fellowship. Now, God, help us to have fellowship around Your Word. When I read it, Lord, I know that Your Words won't fail. Mine does. I'm just a man. All of us are just human beings.

"What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou would visit him?" Surely, Lord, we have nothing that we can offer, because it was given to us at the beginning. We could not be here if it wasn't for You. And to think that the grace of God come down into our midst in this last days... And God, the great Creator, has made Hisself known to us by forgiving our sins, and appearing before us in such marvelous ways, as He promised it would be in the evening time. The evening Lights are shining. Grant it, Father, that we'll fellowship around Thy Word now. We ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.

37 Sorry to have held you like that. Let us read now on a Scripture, just a short one. We're going to be out now, just about thirty-five, forty minutes, Lord willing.

Numbers 14... I said that because I might make a mistake. I--I... See, I don't know what He's going to do. Some... Why, He might get something here in a few minutes, the Holy Spirit might come into this. I'm looking for something to happen. I don't know. So if I don't know, then I'm just going to say "if He is willing," See? Yes, sir.

38 What I know? The Holy Ghost might come up here, and strike one of these brethren setting on the pulpit, and might do something here to just turn the whole thing. There might be a falling of the Holy Ghost in a few minutes, and this--this wouldn't close for two or three more weeks, just day and night constantly going, all the... I don't know what He's going to do. And, you know, again, we might hear the trumpet sound.

39 Numbers 14:41 down to 45, reading the Word of the Lord now.

And Moses said, Wherefore now do you trespass the commandment of the Lord? but it shall not prosper.

Go not up, for the Lord is not among you; that ye may be... smitten before your enemies.

For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before you, and you shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned away from the Lord, therefore the Lord will not be with you.

But they presumed to go up unto the hill top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and Moses, departed not out of the camp.

And the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites that dwelt in the hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto Hormah.

Now, for just a--to draw a little lesson out of here this morning just to talk... Now, I believe that we are here to--in a Sunday School to be taught: to learn. And if we can go back and find out in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament, how people were blessed of God, and how that they were cursed of God, and see what God respected and required, then we'll have some idea of how to maintain the blessings of God. Do you think so?

40 Now, I'm not going to preach. I haven't got enough voice for that, but I... And remember, I've... Constantly will be going till this coming September. I've got about two days between the meetings till September, the Lord willing.

Now, we want to find out... Me say it again now, take our time for these few minutes we have. Now, we've got to go back, and if we can see what God desired, what He required, what He cursed, what He blessed, then let's take them for examples.

I believe in Hebrews the 11th chapter; no, the 12th chapter--said, "Seeing that we are compassed about with such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every sin, or every weight, and the sin that so easily beset us, that we might run with patience the race that's set before us."

41 Now, we got to go back. Paul here, as we believe he was the writer of the Hebrews, was showing back what men of faith and great warriors was. Then we can take the other side. I got a book at home that tells the last words... Brother Nugent, I got it from him many years ago, the last words of great men and women that lived on the earth. And I believe it was Bloody Mary, in England, that her last words, when she was dying said, "I'd give my Kingdom for five minutes more of life." I got Abraham Lincoln's last words. I got Stonewall Jackson's last words.

You know what Jackson's last words was, that great southern general? I join with you rebels in thanksgiving to God for a general like Jackson. He's never been compared anywhere in any other general, as--so far as I'm concerned. He was a great man of God. And Jackson said when he was dying... He was fixing to cross the river. He said, "We'll soon cross the river. Then we'll set under the tree and rest." That's right.

42 I heard Dwight Moody's last words: raised up, and said, "Is this death?" Said, "This is my coronation day."

"Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

With partings leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time. (I like that.)

Footprints, that perhaps another,

While sailing over life's solemn main,

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,

In seeing, shall take heart again."

43 Paul Rader. How many ever heard of Paul Rader? I used to hear him preach when I was a little boy. Little did I know then that I'd take his song, "Only Believe," around the world. When Paul was dying out there, they had the little quartet come down from Moody Bible School. And you know what Paul said to a friend of mine? When he knowed he was dying (had cancer), he said, "If I would've took my message of grace and sowed it to the red hot Pentecostals, instead of come here," (that's what killed him), said, "I'd been better off."

So Moody... Paul had a sense of humor. He and Brother Bosworth, and all of them, were just bosom friends. Billy Sunday... Brother Bosworth had a meeting up there with--one time in Chicago, Rader Tabernacle. And so, Billy Sunday had been there three weeks, and he'd preached out all of his sermons. And Paul had been there about two years, and he was preach on. So Billy said to Paul, he said, "Paul, when do you ever run out of sermons?"

He said, "When I get a kink in the hose...?..."

44 And if anybody ever heard Paul preach... He'd start in Genesis, and wind up in Revelation. He'd--he'd preach the whole Bible through every time he preach. I used to watch him. He'd take a... something in his mind, he'd get way back, great, big man, he'd pull up his trousers, you know. And here, he'd run as hard as he could, almost go over top of the pulpit like a big bear with his hands out.

But when he was dying out there, Moody Bible School had sent down a quartet. They was standing there with the shades all down in the hospital, singing, "Nearer My God to Thee."

Paul raised up and said, "Hey, who's dying, me or you?" Said, "Raise them shades, and sing me some good, Gosp--snappy Gospel songs." Amen. So they begin to sing,

Down at the cross where my Saviour died,

Down where for cleansing from sin I cried;

There to my heart was the blood applied;

Oh, glory to His Name.

He said, "Where is Luke?" That's his brother. Many of you knew Luke, he just recently. Luke and Paul were two brothers that stayed together, something like Billy, my son, and I.

45 Said, "Where's Luke?" Luke was in the next room. He didn't want to see his brother die. He said, "Tell Luke to come over here." They brought Luke in, Luke trying to choke it back. Paul raised up, and took hold of his hand, and said, "Luke, we've been through a many a battle together, haven't we, brother?"

He said, "Yes, Paul."

He said, "Think of it. In five minutes from now I'll be standing in the Presence of Jesus Christ, clothed in His righteousness."

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

With partings leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time.

Let me go like that. Let me go with that testimony, like Moody had. Let me go with the testimony like Paul had. "I've fought a good fight; I've finished the course. Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory? But thanks be to God Who gives us the victory."

46 Therefore, basing back in the Old Testament, I drawed these conclusions for a--a little message now: "Presuming." Webster, I've got wrote out here; Webster says "to presume" is "to venture without actual authority." That's presuming. Or, in parenthesis he's got, Webster, "taking it for granted," just taking it for granted, or, "to venture without authority, or take something just for granted."

Now, that's something that the church must not do. You--you're not sure of yourself if you're just presuming, for you're just taking it for granted. Now, we have... Each year we pass a holiday. The... I'm sorry to say this, but it shows though. The average American Christian, so-called...

47 Billy Graham made the same statement one time, if you read his article about how many drunks there was in so-called Christianity. The average so-called Christian of some church--and a sinner alike, which to me they're all in the same boat... People drink and try to just drowned out past sins, the cheating, lying, and on the weekend they try to get drunk. Just think, "Well, I'll just pass it off."

They're presuming that that's the right way to do it. They feel that that's the way to forget your sins: just drink it out. You don't realize you're only heaping more sins. But they presume that that's the American way to do it. And that may be true. But it isn't the Bible way of doing it. But they presume that that's all right.

48 I said that to--here not long ago I was speaking on a subject where I'd been in Canada with my good Brother Sothmann there, and I come down to a--a great big hotel that he was so generous to put me in. And the Americans was up there in Canada, a certain club of Americans. They was having their convention there.

And I tell you, when I come in that night, well, there was Miss America. We're... Oh, terrible... And whiskey bottles all over everything... And I went on up to the room. I got off, and I looked at that little fellow. There was a couple of people got off, men, holding one another, a club.

Then when I... the little elevator... I said, "My goodness. Whew."

He said, "Oh, they're having a real time."

I said, "They sure look it."

So we went up to the door, and opened the door, and we got out of the elevator, and started down. And there was two young women, both of them wearing wedding bands, pretty little women, just with their underneath garment on, standing up at the end of the hall. And they had a whiskey bottle in their hand. And as they started down through there, trying to hold one another, eyes glassy, starey, and their manicure on their lips had run down, and that black stuff. And them women, putting that ring around here, looked like a monkey, not a human being, like that...?... And all that stuff, and that big water-head haircut, you know... You are pretty. Don't make yourself look like a prehistoric animal. See?...?...the way God made you.

49 And here they--these girls, women, standing up there and they started down through the hall, staggering. And some men come out, drunk, grabbed one around the place of her body he should not have done it, and trying to hold her. And she, staggering around, and he'd come down, and she'd swing a couple punches up. I just stepped back and watched it.

And as they got close, standing there with just a little underneath garment, 'course that's more than some of them wear, and then they had this bottle. One of them give one a drink, and this other one taken a big drink out of this bottle of whiskey. And she pulled up this little skirt as high as she could, and kicked her feet way up in the air, hollered "Whoopie." She said, "This is living it up. This is life."

50 I watched both them fingers. I thought, "Maybe a husband home, baby-setting." What is it? Trying to have a little fun, what they call clean American fun. They'd been washing dishes, working in the office, and they were just--just kinda as I said last night, trying to let off the steam.

And I said, "I beg your pardon. That's not life; that's death."

So she looked around, said, "You want a drink out of my bottle?"

I caught her by the hand. I said, "I'm a Gospel preacher. I'm an American too. But I'm ashamed of you." And the other one started to run, and I caught her by the other hand. I said, "Do you women go to church?" And it seemed to sober them a little.

Held the bottle down, said, "Yes, sir." One of them was a Sunday school teacher.

And I said, "Aren't you ashamed of yourself to call yourself a Christian?"

I tried to hold them, and they was pulling, and jerking, and jumping like that. And down the hall they went. One of them fell and sprawled over the floor, and the other one tried to pick her up feet first, and... The awfullest sight you ever seen. I thought, "God, how can You look upon such?"

51 But they presume that's all right, because they're only a member of an organization. If they were borned again they wouldn't be doing that.

I believe it was Calvin... No, it was John Smith. I'm not sure now, the man. But one day in his mission, one of the early great saints of the last two or three hundred years (I forget who it was.)... I believe it was a Methodist. John Smith it might've been. But however, they was standing at the door, and down the street come a drunk. He fell in the gutter. And there was a man passed by said, "John, there's one of your converts."

He said, "Yep. That's right. If he was the Lord's, he wouldn't be there." That's right. So that's it.

If you're converted to a creed, if you're converted to an organization, if you're converted to a church, you'll do those things. But when you become a convert of Christ, you are borned again, and you're dead to those things, and alive... But people go right on presuming it's all right to do that, venturing out without authority.

52 Preachers, good men, fine men, preach denominational doctrine presuming that's all that's required. And when this Bible says, "Whosoever shall take one word out of it, or add one word to it, the same will be taken out of the Book of Life for him." Saying "You don't need the Holy Spirit today. That was for a day gone by." Why? They can't teach anything different. If they are, they're excommunicated. They say there's no such a thing as healing, the Holy Spirit was only give to the apostles.

Now, they get that because they're taught that in their school, presuming that that's right. But it's wrong. Heavens and earth will pass away, but God's Word will not. And He said, "Let every man's word be a lie and Mine the truth," but they presume that that's all right.

53 Say, "Well, that's all they know." If you went down to a restaurant for your dinner and... I guess it's still dinner here. Up where I come from, up in Indiana, they're trying to get modern American; they're trying to say we have breakfast, and we have lunch and dinner. I'm always left out. Where's my supper come in? See? I said, "Do you take the Lord's dinner, or the Lord's supper?" Nonsense. Putting on the dog, that's all.

"Oh, he's classical; he's educated," presuming that's all right. We don't need that: preaching denominational doctrine presuming that's all right. And people go join that thing, presuming that's all right. That's all they have to do, just presume. "Well, I'm a church member."

54 You know, one day I was in a prayer line. And coming along there was a lady come up on the platform. And well, she's got a right to do anything she wants to, I guess. And she had enough jewelry on to support a missionary ten times around the world. And I said, "Are you a--you a Christian?"

She said, "I am an American. Doesn't that settle it?"

I said, "Not with me, it doesn't." I said, "I asked you if you was a Christian, not a hitchhiker, no, no, but a borned again Christian." She thought because she was an American that settled it. See?

55 Brother Bosworth was having a prayer line over in Detroit one time, and a girl come up on the platform to be prayed for. He said, "Are you a Christian?"

Why, she was shocked. She said, "I give you to understand; I burn a candle every night," presuming that's all they have to do.

Them's honest-hearted people. They're men and women, and they--in their heart they--they--they want to serve God. Those monks go into monasteries, ministers go to seminaries. They get degrees of psychology, how to bow before the people, and how to be, and the psychological effect it has on the people, presuming that that's all they have to do.

Even in some of our great denominations, Pentecostals... Now, I ain't talking about Methodists, and Baptists. I'm talking about Pentecostals.

Here not long ago they got some issues. Each one pulled off to himself with little issues, presuming that's what they ought to have done. That's what they ought not have done. Stay together, all of you. Don't take your issues out like that. Bring it in here and pray it out. You can have your issue and still love your brother, all right. But when you lose respect and fellowship with your brother, your issue's killed you. Right.

56 But there you are. They presume that that's all they have to do, because that's what they're taught. They just go join church. They say, "Are you a Christian?"

"I'm a Methodist."

"Are you a Christian?"

"I'm Presbyterian." Then they join that.

And now, you say, "Are you a believer?"

"I'm Pentecost."

Let me straighten that out for you. There is no such a thing as Pentecostal organization. Pentecost is an experience, not an organization. Catholics has got it. Baptists have it. Presbyterians have it. Anybody can have it. It's an experience, not... You can't organize it. You've got your organization; you've got away from Pentecost then. They never did organize. God never did have an organization, never one time.

57 I challenge you to show me, and I challenge any historian to tell me, and show me in history where any time that God sent a message, and they organized it, it died right then, and never raised again. It's a cursed thing. So just look back in your history and find out if that's right. But they make up their creeds and join it. People think that's right.

Women, you know, I love you, my sister. You know that. I don't stand to hurt you; I love you. But what am I going to do there at that day, when I know the Bible teaches what the women to do? And then, I know it to be the truth. And then, if the watchman sits on the wall and sees the enemy among the people, and don't warn them, God said, "I'll require the blood at the watchman's hand."

When pastors let you cut your hair off, and say that that's right, that pastor is telling you something that's wrong. When he lets you dress in immodest clothes, and tell you that--that that's all right, that's wrong. And it's not... You--you're pretty.

58 You know, everything in there, in the line of female and male, always the male is the most prettiest. Take the rooster and the hen. Take the bird family. Take the elk, the bull, or the cow. Take the deer: the buck or the doe. Everything that's... Always the prettiest in the male line, except the human race... The male is ugly, burly, beard over his face, many times bald-headed and rugged looking, hairs all over him.

But the female is dainty, pretty. There's where Satan lays, right there. That's where he chose in Eden, that's where he got to in Eden; that's what he's used ever since. You tell me any nation in history, some of you school kids... In a fall of a nation, as soon as motherhood was broke and womanhood, that nation's backbone was broke.

Talk about morals in our country, I got a piece out of the paper on the Associated Press, that when our boys went overseas, that four out of every six was divorced by their wife that stayed home before they were over there six months. And there was more illegitimate children born in the State of New York during--in one year before the war, than there was soldiers killed in the entire four years of war: presuming that's all right.

59 Women put on little sexy clothes, and walk out on the street. Say, "Yes, I'm a Christian." They're presuming that's the thing they should do. Now, please, sister. I'm your brother. If your mother was the right kind of a woman, she'd tell you the same, or your daddy, or your husband.

And any man will let his wife get out on the street in them shorts and things like that, it shows how much man's in him. Let his wife set there and smoke a cigarette before him, and know that that thing... What's his children going to be?

Don't worry about communism whipping us. We've done whipped ourselves. It's our own rotten morals. And where did it start from? Because the Gospel was let down at the pulpit, where it began: sissified preachers, with not enough real baptizing of the Holy Spirit in their soul to stand and tell the Word of God. Don't spank the child for juvenile delinquency; spank the parents. It's parent delinquency. They let them get by with it.

60 And that's the reason I rake across that clergy there. How can you read the same Bible I am? So did those four hundred prophets down there in Israel read the same Bible that Micaiah read. But he was willing spiritually to take his stand.

Amos, in his day, that fearless prophet of God, he walked up there to Samaria. He looked over that city, and he seen all the corruption was in it. He said, "The very God that you claim that you love will destroy you." He seen the corruption of it.

They were presuming they were all right. They had their priests, their synagogues. They thought, "Just as long as I'm a Jew, circumcised, that's all I need to be." They claimed that they served God. They--they... What had they done? They'd taken the fashions of the outside nations. They had made an alliance with them. And they thought as long as they had favor with the outside nations, well, that's all they had to do. They made alliance; they stripped their women; they walked through the street; they burlesqued, and everything else.

And that old prophet standing there... And his eyes narrowed over his beard. The tourists come from all over the world around to see this great Samaria, but that prophet seen it through a different eye.

61 Today the people and ministers are looking upon the church as numbers and numbers. But a borned again Christian looks at it through a different eye. He looks at it through the Word of God, and he calls out the corruption in it. The very God that they claim to serve will bring judgment down upon them. His prophecy, it just taken thirteen years to come to pass. Jerome the II, you know how it come to pass, Jeroboam, rather, I believe it was. There you are joined.

62 Sister, 'fore I leave it, did you ever realize, when you dress like that and go out on the street... You may be a little lady; I believe you are, honey. That's right. I believe you're a little lady. I don't believe you're bad. I don't believe you want to be bad. I don't believe a--a Catholic nun goes into a nunnery to be bad. That poor woman goes in there because she wants to get closer to God. I don't believe they want to be bad. I don't believe that you'd be a bad girl. I don't believe you'd be indecent to your husband.

But do you realize... The Catholic nun doesn't realize that the system is sending her in there. And you don't realize the spirit of the day that's making you do those things. You presume it's all right, but it isn't. See?

Now, look. Jesus said, "Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her in his heart." Now, you go out dressed like that, them shorts on, and dressed all sexy, and everything. Sure, you're pretty. But God didn't make you like that. Satan is making a bait out of you, and you don't know it.

63 Now, let a man look at you, a little Christian girl coming down the street, pretty, sweet, innocent little thing, all dressed sexy. And a sinner looks upon her to lust after her. At the day of the judgment, when this man answers for committing adultery, who's guilty? Her. See what I mean? I--I... Maybe someday you will find out it's not me trying to be a smart-aleck. It's with godly love. See? I love you. I don't want you to be like that.

Don't be like the rest of the world. You Pentecostal women, your organization's what invited in, and made themselves an organization. And they're trying to compare their congregation with a well-dressed, groomed, and the best dressed people. That's the devil. Don't you believe that. They're presuming it's all right, but it isn't. God said not to do it. Go ahead, preach it, join. They think it's all right, just presuming.

64 And you know, people's said this, "God is a good God. Oh, Brother Branham," someone said to me, "you try to stay right with that Word, just what it says. Don't you think that it don't make any difference?"

A fellow had been sprinkled not long ago. And he said... I baptized him in, and so another man got after me about it. He said, "Well, he was already baptized."

I said, "No, he wasn't. He was sprinkled. Baptizing, 'baptizo' means cover up, bury." And I said, "I baptized him."

And he said, "Brother Branham, you're radical."

I said, "Maybe I am, but it's for the right cause." And I said, "I'm zealous of God and His Word. I'm zealous of His church."

65 I was an outcast; nobody loved me and cared for me. When I found you Pentecostal people that loved me, and believed this Gospel, I come among you not to be an enemy to you, but to be a brother to you to--to--to show you God's Word. Let some of the pastors come stand by me one time, before you, and say it's wrong. That's the only way to prove it.

Now, here's what happened. I said, "I baptized him over."

He said, "Brother Branham, do you really think it makes a difference?"

I said, "It did to Paul. He said, 'Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?' They said, 'We know not whether there be one.' He said, 'Unto what was you baptized?' Said. 'Unto John.' Said, 'That was only to--unto repentance, not remission of sins.' They were baptized over again."

66 And Paul said in Galatians 1:8, 'If an Angel from heaven--let alone a preacher--if a Angel from heaven would preach any other Gospel than this that I've preached unto you, let him be accursed.' That's right."

Now, you see, you--you don't presume. You got... It's got to be the truth. Stay with it. But just presuming, they...

You hear it so much today, I say again, about God being a good God. There was a teen-age boy said not long ago said, "You know, the Lord just loves me so well He just lets me do anything." My.

Friends, He is a good God. I'll admit that. But He's a God of justice. He's a God that requires justice. How can He be just and--and disobey His own laws? How can He defile His own holy law? If He's just, He has to stick by what He said. If He will require this of you, and you don't come to that point... If He isn't just, then why didn't He let Eve get by with that one little misconstrue of the Word?

67 Why did He let the six thousand years of suffering, and--and perils, and death, and sorrow strike the human race? He could not do nothing else but be that. He's just. And He's a God of anger, and a God of justice. And His holiness, it to be--it behooves Him to be that. Not one iota... It's right on the line. You come to that, or you're on this side or that side. No matter how good you may be, how gentle you may be, how quiet, how sweet.

Who can get any more gentler, and more what they call love than the Christian Science? That's their whole wrap-up, is love. That's not real love. They even deny Jesus being Divine, deny the death, the birth, the--the virgin birth, deny His Blood; and just talk about love.

Could you imagine me, having a little boy saying, "Oh, honey, you just go ahead. If you want to drink that liquor, you little six-year-old boy, go ahead. Daddy won't stop you. I love you too much. Oh, honey, if you want to take my shotgun with two shells in it, and the hammer's back, go ahead. I love you too much to stop you." That ain't love.

68 What if he was out on the street, said, "Daddy, I want to make mud pies out here, where cars are going sixty miles an hour down the street."

"I love you too much, honey, to stop you. You want to do that, I know it. Daddy loves you too well to stop you. Go on out there and get killed." A real daddy will shuck the hide off of him.

That's what's the matter today. You're trying to preach the Gospel with soft gloves on, presuming it's all right. What the church needs today is to be shuck down. Come back to the Gospel. You're presuming it's all right. "I'm a Pentecostal, I'm this, that, or the other. That's all right." It's not all right, not according to the Word. Got to come to the Word.

"Such a good God." They don't presume that He's a God of justice. He's a God that must keep His Word.

69 Now, Israel here presumed that they were all right. (Now, I've got ten minutes to finish to get out on time.) Israel here presumed. They went up. The Bible said they did. "Why," they said, "look. We're the people of God. God come down there in Egypt, and got us, sent His prophet down there with a Pillar of Fire over him. Brought us up there, and slay--slew Pharaoh right before us; smote the land with plagues, fleas, lice, sent fire and hail upon the land. And He protected us. Glory to God. Hallelujah."

"And we come up here to the Red Sea. Here come Pharaoh. God just opened up the Red Sea by His mighty power, and we marched through the Red Sea. God loved us so well He turned, said, 'Look around at your enemy. I'll drown them behind you.' Glory to God. Not only that, but He sent us Angel's food, fell out of heaven every night."

And that prophet said, and the Word of God was with the prophet, he said, "Don't you go up there. And if you do, God won't be with you." Huh. But they presumed they'd go anyhow. "God's too good. He will, you know, won't do nothing to us. God's with us, so what do we care?"

70 Pentecost, don't you never get that in your head. Women, "I can bob my hair, I can do this, I can do that." Men, "I can do this, I can go like this... long as I belong... God healed me one time. God give me the Holy Ghost one time. God did this, God did that." That's right. But don't you trespass across that dividing line.

Moses said, "If you go up there, I'm not going with you. And the Amalekites and Canaanites are up there." I'm going to tell you; sin lays beyond the boundaries of God's Word. To disbelieve one iota of It, God will let you set there.

Oh, I... Such a job, such a terrible thing. I love people. Why do I have to do this?

Join... Just go on like the rest of them. "Just as long as I belong to church, what difference does it make?" It does make a difference.

The old prophet told Israel the same thing. He said, "Did I ever tell you anything in the Name of the Lord but what come to pass?"

They said, "No. All you said, Samuel, it all come to pass."

Said, "Did I ever go out and take up offerings among you to build big buildings," and so on...?...

"No, you never did do that, Samuel."

"Well," said, "then listen to me. You don't want to act like the rest of the nations. God is your King."

71 And I'm saying today, Pentecost, don't try to act like the rest of the churches. God is your Father. The Word is your stay. Have I ever told you anything but what come to pass? Have I ever took your money, and begged you for big programs, and all kinds of things? Tell me one time I ever took an offering. See? Tell me one thing that ever was said in the Name of the Lord but what come to pass.

Now, listen. Stay with the Word, for the Message of the last day has to... The messenger and the Message has to be according to the end time, "restoring the faith of the children back to the faith of the fathers."

Didn't Jude say over there they've already... Said earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints? Just ninety-six years they'd--AD ninety-six, I believe it was--they'd had already gotten away from it. Did not they come in and begin become a thought, then a doctrine, and then it become a issue of the Nicolaitanes?

72 The word "nico" means "to conquer, conquer the lady--laity", instead of the way you all been doing up here--let the Holy Spirit move amongst the people, there's one holy man. Holy man, there's no such a thing. It's the Holy Ghost in the church. "Nico," conquer the laity. And it become a doctrine.

What did the first thing they do? Made an organization. In there they put... And for hundreds of hundreds of years it was a persecution that all that wouldn't bow to that was pulled asunder, burnt, persecuted. Then along come Luther. That tree started to growing. When it did, they organized it. God cut the branch off, and it withered and died. Like Jesus said, He pruned it.

Up come the Wesley, another branch coming out on it. What did they do? Organize. God pruned it and cut it off. Along come the third Message. Just exactly the way the church begin, that Bride Tree at the beginning, it started out.

Who come first? John, preaching justification, repentance. Who come next? Jesus Christ. "Sanctify them, Father, through the truth, thy Word," which was Himself... is the truth, sanctification. What was the next? The baptism of the Holy Ghost. "I send the promise of My Father upon you," and the Bride Tree started growing.

73 But here come the cankerworm, eat off this; the palmerworm, eat off the fruit; next, eat off the leaves; next eat off the bark. And then the caterpillar come, a sucker, and sucked the very life out of it, and made a conquer of the laity. God said, "I'll restore it."

Here it start up in the days of Luther and organized. God pruned it, as He said He would do (John 15). Up come the Wesley. Fine. Got a nice branch started out. What did they do? Organize it after Wesley's death. They cut it off. Up come the Pentecostals, bringing forth the signs of the fruit. What'd they do? Organize it. She's cut off. "But I will restore, saith the Lord." He's going to do it.

What's the matter with these great revivals? Now, let's be sensible. We've had what we've called a revival, but what did we hatch out of it? Members. Why? Why, brethren? The Bible said in Hebrews 6, "The rain cometh oft upon the earth to dress it, water it, prepare it for which it's to be, the fruit. But the thorns and thistles which is nigh unto rejection will be burned."

74 Now, they're--they're bundling them to burn them; that's true. They're getting bundled, all these organizations. Big bundles is coming to one big bundle. That's right. What is that bundle? You know what it is. World Council of Churches, forming the image of the beast. Truly.

And you people that's scared of communism, I want you to show me one place in the Bible where communism will rule the world. Well, I'll tell you the Bible says that Romanism will rule the world. Exactly right. Where does the feet go out in the... That prophet who seen all the Gentile kingdom come right down at the end, it didn't go communism; it went Romanism. Exactly.

Here we are in these days, people presuming, joining right into that thing, say, "That's all right, that's... Sure I belong to church. Oh, yes. I'm So-and-so." See?

75 Now, look. He said there would be Light in the evening time. That's to ripen in the evening. The fruits can only ripen by the light. We know that. And that's the top of the tree, the evening light. All the rest of it...

But way back there, that predestinated Word of God, it stayed there all the time because God spoke it. "I will restore it." He will do it, no matter how many organizations and things He has to prune off. There'll be a church without spot or wrinkle, "For I will restore, saith the Lord." It's got to what? All the years that the cankerworm's eaten, all the years that the caterpillar's eaten, all the years that the denominations and suckers and things on the tree took its fruit away, took its vines away, took its bark away, took the life out of it.

But "I will restore, for the root and offspring of David to get...?... I will restore saith the Lord." What is it? He said so. He predestinated it. His Word lays here. Therefore, look. Just exactly the way He done it the first time... He took John, justification. Jesus sanctified the church with His own Blood, and then the Holy Ghost came.

76 Then along come the church, begin to grow. Then here come these four termites in: one, the same insect, just different stages. Along come the--the palmerworm. What did it do? First thing, it took the fruit, brotherly love, off of it. Next thing come around was the cankerworm. It come another worm come around, and eat off the joy, the leaves, the fellowship. The next come along. What did he do? He eat off the bark, the cankerworm. What next come? The caterpillar, and sucked the life right out of it.

But there was a stump, 'cause Joel said, "I will restore that predestinated root." Hallelujah. And all them names that was before the foundation of the world predestinated, "All that the Father has given Me will come to Me." Yes, sir. "All that He foreknew He called. All that He calls He justifies, and those that He justified, He has glorified."

77 Paul according to Ephesians 1:by--or Ephesians 1:5, He said, "God predestinated us before the foundation of the world to the adoption of sons in Jesus Christ." How you going to stop it? All devils in hell, you might as well quit fussing about it. It's going to be there without a spot or a wrinkle. It's going to be a what? A bride church. Hallelujah. God said, "I will restore." Restore what? One without an organization touch to it, one with the pure unadulterated Word. It has to come.

Why did we get a bunch of denominations this time out of this revival? We sowed denomination seed. What we need today... Brother, you can say what you want to about it, we need the Gospel, pure, holy, unadulterated Word of God, sown. And when this Light comes out it'll bring forth that church, God's predestinated. Amen. Don't presume about nothing. Take God's Word and move right on. He promised He'd be here. He's here. Amen. I'd better stop.

78 Too much good God. "He loves me too much to punish me." He promised it. He loved Adam. He loved Eve. He is love. But He's just. He has to keep His Word. If you believe this to be a Word of God, anything contrary to this... "Any man that'll take out, or add to, the same will be taken out of his part of the Book of Life" preacher, or denomination, or whatever it is.

What about all these creeds and things that's made up amongst men? God never does deal with a group. He deals with an individual. A group has different ideas. Show me one time He ever did it. He deals with a individual. Dealing with you, He deals with me, He deals with the next man. That's right. It's an individual affair.

79 Israel presumed that He was just so good. They'd seen so many things that they could just do anything they wanted to, like that teen-age boy. That's the way the church is today. They feel, "Well, God gave me the Holy Ghost. If I want to do this I can do it. Hallelujah. No condemnation in me. I'm in Christ."

That right there shows that you're not there. If that was... If you was in Christ, you'd hold to His Word regardless of what anybody said, if you had to stand by yourself you'd stand by it, 'cause it's the Spirit of God in you vindicating His Word.

Not one word of it'll ever pass till it's fulfilled, so precious, and so darling. It's just like God. He don't judge it by a church. He don't judge the world by an organization. He judges the church by His, or, judges the world by His Word, like He did Eve and Adam. The way God starts, He cannot finish another way. He's got to finish the same way He started. If He didn't, He done wrong at the first place. See?

80 Don't presume; believe. Don't venture out without authority, without Scriptural authority. Samson presumed. "Oh, well, my. Oh, I know I've... I can't... I ain't got my locks any more, but I presume it's all right. I'm still the same old guy."

No, no, brother. You've crossed the separating line. He presumed he just had as much strength as... Said, "I'll just stretch myself. Oh, whew. Now, I'm just as good a man as I ever was." But he found that his strength was gone.

That's what we did when the revival started about fourteen years ago. Pentecostal found out she couldn't stretch herself no more, because she'd organized in little groups, and hated one another, sowed that discord amongst brethren. And the revival struck it, and the evening Light come in. But what did she do? She couldn't do nothing, because she'd organized. She's lost her strength, her brotherly love, the fruits of the Spirit.

81 Samson thought, "He's still there. I can't..." You better be feeling. He's still there.

Achan thought when he took the wedge, "Oh, it won't be noticed."

Oh, that there preacher said to me, "Oh, Brother Branham, does it make any difference whether it's this way, or that way?" Sure it makes a difference. That's the very lie that Satan told Eve. It does make a difference. "Well, as long as the rest of them does it..."

I don't care who does it, or who doesn't do it. I don't want to do it anyhow. I'm not presuming that that's all right just 'cause the rest of them does it. God requires this, and this is what I've got to have. If the rest of them don't come, I can only say it and just keep on going: no presuming nothing about it.

82 [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... need more men today like Micaiah, who can stand and say just exactly what God said. Don't pull no punches from nowhere. Amen. Yes, weakness...

Achan said, "It won't be noticed. It don't make any difference." But it did make a difference. That one little wedge upset the whole program of God.

"Just be baptized any way. It don't make any difference. Just as long as you're a member of the church, it doesn't hurt." That's what's upset the revival. That's what's the matter. We've got a bunch of denominations, instead of having saints. We've got joiners, decision makers. What good is a stone without a mason to cut it, and shape it, and knock the corners off of it? When you see a sculptor standing, working on a stone, it don't look like very much. But he's got in his mind what he's trying to make. So he rolled the stone up there for a purpose and he's got to shave it, and cut it, and hone it.

83 Stones that professes to be Christians that'll go out here and act any way, and presuming this is all right, presuming that's all right... They stand still, and the Sculptor, the Holy Ghost, cuts them into images of sons and daughters of God. Oh, glory! He's the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley, the Morning Star, the Alpha, Omega, the beginning and the ending, He that was, which is, and shall come, the root and offspring of David. Hallelujah. Yes. Presume it's all right...

The Egyptians, they saw Israel, circumcised, cross the Dead Sea. They presumed that they were just as good a men as they were. They went behind them and drowned in it. They presumed it was all right. (I got to hurry.)

Noah's time, they presumed if it come a flood like Noah said it would do, well, the only thing they'd do, jump in their own boat. But there was only one boat that was God-constructed.

84 That's the way with the people today. They said, "I belong to church. I do this; I do that." But there's only one group that's God constructed, and that's not a denominational construction. It's the Word construction, revelation of His power, God-constructed boat. Don't presume. Just believe God's Word.

Noah constructed that boat out of a certain kind of wood (wish we had time to go into it, but we don't), how he took that shittim wood. Did you ever see it? It's lighter than balsam. Why, if anybody'd see a man trying to build a boat out of that kind of wood, they'd say he's crazy. Why? It's the lightest wood. You throw--you can throw shittim wood out there in the water, it'd go "sh, whew," sink right there.

85 That's the way God does. He just--just pulls it right over them. They set there, ignorant as jack rabbits. Set there... He said... But what'd they do? They don't try to have any wisdom of their own. They can't figure it out. You're not supposed to figure it out. You're supposed to believe it.

Said, "Take shittim wood." It's just--just--just as light, like a sponge. But now, notice. After he got all that shittim wood destructed, constructed rather, He said, "Go and take pitch, and soak it up." Oh, how did they get pitch in them days? They took another kind of tree, pine tree, and they beat it, and beat it until the pitch run out of it.

What's it a type of, the timber God's got today? Empty out all your old fanatic stuff; empty out all your organizations; get real light and just lay before God. Then He beat One of us. "He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquity." He was beat, and wounded, and bruised at Calvary, that His Spirit might pour into you when you have nothing.

86 And then, that boat, that ark... When that set up in there, even a nail couldn't be drove into it. That's the reason the big logs hitting against it wouldn't bust a hole in it. Why, oak, pine or nothing else, would hold like that. See, it was already soaked up. It was pitched inside and out. That's right.

That's the way a Christian is. He empties himself. "I don't want to know what anybody... I want to know... Lord, I want to know You. I want You, Your will, Your Life." Then God just... You just soak up in Christ.

Well, then what was it? It actually would not be shittim wood any more; it would be pine. It's not you no more; it's the Spirit in you. See? Oh, my. God-constructed. So many prophets today, telling so many different things, gets the people confused. Don't presume. Just watch His vindicated promise. Let's see.

87 Deuteronomy 18:22, God said, "If there be one among you spiritual or a prophet, and what he says comes to pass, then you hear him. If it doesn't come to pass, then don't hear him." John 14:12, Jesus said, "He that believeth in Me, the works that I do shall he do also." Mark 16 said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Not to join the church, and put their name on a book, and live a good life. But "In My Name they shall cast out devils, and speak with new tongues." No, sir.

88 John never presumed that he'd go out there. John, you know, he was out of a lineage of a priest. Isn't it strange? John... looked like could actually follow the order of his father, because he was out of a strict priesthood. But you know, the job was too great. John didn't want to get mixed up in any of their theology.

God took him out in the wilderness, alone, and schooled him out there. For He said, "John, they'll be having all kinds of things, and getting you to believe all kinds of unscriptural things. But here it'll be, John. 'Upon Whom thou shall see the Spirit descending and remaining on, He's the One that'll baptize.'"

89 John didn't have to say, "I presume that this is a good man. I presume that that's a good man. I presume He's going to come to you Pharisees, you Oneness, you Trinity, you this, that's who He's going to come to." John said, "Upon whom I see the Spirit descending..." Glory. Brother, not your organization. "These signs shall follow them that believe. The works that I do shall you do also."

You don't have to worry, wonder. God's done said what to look for. Evening fruits, evening Light. He said in the last days it'd be... The devil would send his ministers in angels of light, trying to bring you something new, something more popular, something more educated.

Don't you believe it. That's what Eve done and got in trouble. Stay with the Word. Amen. Don't presume; take God's Word. Eve presumed it was all right. "God's a good God. You know He wouldn't... Surely the Lord will not do this, or do that." But God had promised it. God had to do it. It was God's duty to do it. Now, don't presume; just believe.

90 John said, "I knew Him, 'cause I seen the Messiahic sign on Him, and I know this is Him." He didn't presume.

Nathanael didn't have to presume, not at all, when He told him. He knowed--he knowed what Deuteronomy 18:22 said. So He said, "Thou art an Israelite indeed: no guile."

He said, "When did You know me? When did You ever see me?"

He said, "Before Philip called you." He didn't have to presume.

He said, "Rabbi, Rabbi, Teacher. Although the schools are making fun of Your teaching, they're turning You out on account of Your teaching, but Rabbi, You are the Son of God. You're the King of Israel." He didn't presume; he had a Scriptural evidence of it. That's what the Messiah would do. He didn't presume.

That poor, little, old, dirty, stinking, prostitute, maybe all the organizations in the country maybe had excommunicated her. But she didn't see anything in them to begin with. When she'd see something real, she'd take it. So she seen an ordinary Jew setting over there; she thought. Looked like an ordinary man, He didn't have His collar all turned around, great big turban, Dr. Reverend Holy Father. He was just a man, just like the rest of the men. Sat, leaned back there, probably a little bit gray. He was only thirty-something years old, but the Bible said... You know, He looked fifty. Did you know that?

91 They said, "You say... You're not a man over fifty years old, and say you've seen Abraham? Now, we know that you are--got a devil."

He said, "Before Abraham was I AM."

"Now, we know you got a devil." See, they're blind.

He said, "You blind Pharisees, blind leading the blind." See? That's it.

Now, we see Him setting there. That little woman said to Him, she said, "Well, you want to... You Jews, you want to argue religion." That was the custom of the day, like today. "You Jews saying it's over here, and down here, and all so-and-so; and we say..."

He said, "Go, get your husband, come here."

She said, "I don't have any husband."

Said, "That's right. You've got five; the one you're living with now is not yours."

92 Look! Quickly, that predestinated seed laying there. Glory! My, What? Could not been anything else--that predestinated seed. And when that water begin to fall on that seed, it started blooming. You didn't have to tell her; she knew.

She said, "Sir, I perceive that You're a prophet. We know the Messiah's coming. We're looking for Him. And when He comes, He will tell us these kind of things."

He said, "I'm he."

She said, "That's good enough for me."

No presuming. She didn't come in, say, "Say, you Doctors of Divinity, I would like to take you all in a Scriptural argument." She said, "I'm presuming nothing. Come, see a Man that's told me the things I've done. Isn't this the very Christ?" That's it. She didn't have to presume, venture out without authority. She had authority. She had Scriptural authority to believe it.

"Oh, woman, you don't know. You don't belong to our school. You don't belong to any of these organizations."

She said, "I don't care what you say. I know what THUS SAITH THE LORD is. They said He will be a prophet, and there He is." Amen. She had Scriptural authority. She didn't presume.

"What school did this come from?"

"It come from the Bible." That's right. Oh, sure.

93 The disciples at Pentecost. Now, you Pentecostal people, get your hats on. You can shout with this. Notice. What if the disciples said, "Well, now, listen. I tell you..."

Matthew goes over, and says to Peter, "Peter, I want to ask you something. Did not our Lord tell us to wait up here, come up, and He was going to send the promise of the Father upon us?"

"Oh, sure. Yeah." Peter said, "That's right. What do you think, Mark?"

Mark, "Oh, sure. He said that. Yep. He said He was going to do it."

"Well, brethren, we've been up here nine days. You know, the other day I had a funny feeling. You know, I just kinda believe that... Don't you think that we ought not to wait any longer? I presume we've already got it, 'cause He told us to wait here. Well, here... I believe... We've done been here nine days. So I suppose we might as well go on with our ministry. I presume we've already got it, because we obeyed Him."

94 There's where you Pentecostals missed it by a million miles. You went after sensation, instead of waiting for the Word to be fulfilled. That's right. That's why you organized. That's why you listened to those...

It's always the leaders that gets the people out of the will of God. It was Korah. Not... It was Korah, that uninspired leader, that said, "Hey, Moses tries to think he's the only holy man. Why, we've got as much holy men here; we've got groups out here. Didn't God put the spirit of prophecy upon all these people? Took it off of Moses and put it on here. So we'll just listen to this group. Moses thinks he's something."

God told Moses, "Separate yourself from him. I'll--I'll sink him and his group, his whole organization." Right. Moses was God's leader. Moses was vindicated to be that leader; all didn't listen to him perished.

Jesus was God's Leader. The Holy Ghost is His Leader. And all that don't obey the Holy Ghost, Who wrote this Bible, will perish. Amen.

95 Said, "Wait. We just wait. I believe, I tell you now, we've got it. Let's just go out."

No. They didn't do that. They knowed that Isaiah 28:11 said, "Precept must be upon precept; line upon line; here a little, and there a little. Hold fast to that what's good. For with stammering lips and other tongues will I speak to this people. And this is the sabbath keeping, the rest that cause the weary..."

They knowed that Scripture must be applied no matter how long they waited, or what they did. They wasn't presuming nothing. They was waiting for the Scripture to be fulfilled.

They knowed that Joel said... Listen at Peter jumped right out there--and a few minutes later... Then the very next day he preached on Joel. Joel said, "And it shall come to pass (Joel 2:28) in the last days that I'll pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Upon My handmaids and maidservants will I pour out My Spirit. I'll show signs in the heaven above, and wonders in the earth below, fire and pillars of smoke, and vapor. It shall come to pass before the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come, whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved."

96 They were waiting. They wasn't presuming they had anything. They were waiting until the Scripture was made manifest. Glory. Oh, brother. I wish it wasn't this late. How we'd like to stay there a little while. They waited for Scriptural authority.

Today, we just take the creed, a sensation, a little smoke or fire, or some little sensation. Somebody say, "Glory to God. We got it. Hallelujah. See oil in my hand? Look up here." Oh, goodness. Look at your head, what kind of a shape it is in. I didn't say that to be smart. Excuse me. Forgive me. I didn't mean... I oughtn't to have said that. Something said to me, "Don't you say it." Let it alone. "If the blind leads the blind, they'll fall in the ditch." Oh, yes.

97 Without Scriptural authority, they take it by a creed. "Say this creed." They presume that's all right. They go on, take it by sensations. "Oh, glory to God. I spoke in tongues all night." I've seen devils do the same thing. Sure.

"You don't believe then in speaking in tongues?" Sure, I believe it. That's not it. I'm a missionary. I've seen them drink blood out of a human skull, and speak in tongues, and call on the devil. Certainly. Oh, yeah. My mother... We just buried her recently. She was a half Indian. I've been in the camps, and watched the witch doctors speak in tongues, and lay a pencil down, and it raise up and write in unknown tongues. Certainly. Don't tell me that's it. Oh, no. Mercy, goodness.

Some of the people that speak in tongues claim they got the Holy Ghost, and deny half of His Word, and sometimes all of His power. The Holy Ghost will bear record of His Word. How can the Holy Ghost tell you to do something, then turn back around, say, "Well, it's all right. Just go ahead and do this other." Won't do it. He didn't do that with Eve. He didn't do it at the beginning. If He done it now and didn't do it then, then He's unjust, because of all this suffering, when we'd have been here anyhow.

98 God's a great Contractor. Our bodies was laid out here. But when the world was built, we're calcium, potash, petroleum, cosmic light. Sixteen different elements of the world is in us. And God made the world before he made man. He's a Contractor. He laid it out. He was going to call them out of the dust of the earth. But Eve disbelieved God's Word one little iota and it caused women to bring forth children.

But that predestinated Word of God laying out yonder will bring that predestinated one. When He speaks, he will come from the earth to the glory yonder. Hallelujah. No wonder Job, "I know my Redeemer liveth. Last days He will stand on the earth. Though the skin worms destroy this body, He will speak and I'll answer. He will call, and I'll answer Him." Sure. Amen. (Where can I stop?)

99 Saying you got the Holy Ghost, and spoke in tongues and ask you, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? Well, then, how was you baptized?"

"Don't make any difference." It does.

"Well, I do this. It don't make any difference whether I dress this way or that." The Bible says it does. "It don't make any difference whether I do this, or that." The Bible says it does. There you are. Better leave it off. Let the teachers say that then. All right.

100 Today we just take it for granted, presuming, say we have it. "Yeah, sure. I did this. I--I shook all night. You know what? I got blood in my hands. That shows I got it."

You got blood in your hand? You might have that, and then turn around, and deny the Word of God, and say you got the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost will say "Amen" to every Word, 'cause It wrote the Word. It is the Word. Sure. Stop presuming. Wait till all that temper, sin, and things is gone away from you, so God can fill you up.

101 Moses, one time presumed because, without a witness, or without an experience... He'd heard the Words that he was to be a deliverer, but he didn't have the call. He didn't have the experience. So he presumed that he could go right out and take over.

That's what the people thinks today. "Oh, we're going to have a revival. We want to see a revival in our age. All... You all make your confessions. We want--we want more stones. We want this, that, or the other. We--we want decisions to be made."

What is it? How you going to have a revival upon that, when you're sowing Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Presbyterian seed, and denying the Seed of God, the Word? Jesus said the Word is a Seed, the Bible. God's Word is the Seed. How you going to bring forth a Bible church with a denominational seed?

102 Well, you say, "Bless God, Brother Branham. The Holy Ghost did this. I've shouted and screamed." Did you know the same water that was sent to make the wheat, makes the--makes the stink weed just as happy as it does the wheat? How did it get in there? It makes a creeper. It makes a brier. Why? They're thirsty. It's in the field when the--the rain comes on the just and the unjust.

Say, "I shouted, Brother Branham. I danced in the Spirit. I spoke in tongues." I believe in those things too. But what kind of a fruit is it bearing? "By their fruits you shall know them." The fruit of the Spirit is the Word of God manifesting itself: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, patience, faith. Faith in what? The Word. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing of the Word. Got to do it. Sure.

103 Moses presumed. "Oh, I got a head full of knowledge. I'll do it." But he didn't have the call. He didn't have the experience. Sure. He went out presuming, presuming on something he ought not to. But after he met the burning bush up there one day, oh, brother. When he heard the voice of God, He give him a Scriptural base, not what his mammy told him; but what God told him.

"I am the God of Abraham. I'm the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (called him his prince name, renamed him). I have heard the cries of my people. I've seen their afflictions by the taskmasters. I remember My promised Word." Hallelujah. There you are. Glory. He still remembers His promised Word. "I will restore, saith the Lord, all that the denominational bugs, and crickets, and palmerworms and cankerworms and caterpillars has eat up--all their denominational isms and creeds and things that they've eat up. I remember My Word, and I'm come down amidst the people. I will restore, saith the Lord."

104 Don't presume it's right. The Bible tells you what's right and wrong. Whew. We just better quit. I've kept you an hour or more. "I will restore." Don't presume. The Holy Ghost is here. The Bible's here. The Holy Ghost bears record of the Word of God. Every promise and iota, It says "Amen" to it.

Don't presume it's all right because you had a sensation. Take inventory of ourself this morning. Look around and see what we believe. See if we... If God said a certain thing if we'd tally with it. "Well," you say, "I'll be put out of my church if I did this or did that." Well, which is more to you? Your God or your church? Don't presume without an experience.

Someone said to me not long ago, said, "Brother Branham, don't you believe in purgatory?

I said, "Sure."

"Oh, I see you're Catholic."

I said, "Yeah." "Catholic" means "universal." I'm a great Pentecostal Catholic of the original church.

105 Somebody said they got a proclamation out now. Pope John the XXII or LII, or something or other, he said--he said, "All the people come back to the original church. The original church begin in Rome."

That's a lie. Notice. The church never begin at Rome. I'll sanction with the man: let the church go back where it started from: Pentecost. Glory. Go back to where you started from. That's the right...?... for He's going to restore it. Sure, your denominations are going back to Rome where they come from. But hallelujah. God's going to restore Pentecost, back to the faith of the--of the fathers. Hallelujah.

106 I will praise Him, I will praise Him,

Praise the Lamb for sinners slain;

Give Him glory all ye people,

For His Blood has washed away each stain.

Each stain of unbelief. Sitting together in heavenly places the Holy Spirit through a person wouldn't harm you for nothing. How could I harm God's children? But yield yourself and see the Word come forth. It's the Circumciser, cuts to the heart, knows exactly what you're thinking of, and produces it right through the same vessels. Amen.

I will praise Him, I will praise Him,

Praise the Lamb for unbelievers slain;

Give Him glory all ye people,

For His Blood has washed away each stain.

107 Don't you love that? You think I love you? I sure do. You're God's heritage. I've often thought, "What would I do if I had two drops of the literal Blood of Jesus in a glass, holding it, the Blood that dropped off the veins, off the cross, and I had it. How I would hold it to my heart, and walk, watch every step. While we may be cherishing that Blood, just two drops of the literal Blood, how I would hold it.

But you know what? According to God, I've got under my holding this morning--this morning, in His sight a greater than that. I've got the purchase of His Blood. That's what He shed His Blood for, to purchase you. How much the hand that can I see sin begin creeping in and--and contaminate. Oh, no, no, I can't do it. I've got to shove them things away. Cut it away. This is it. Stay with the Word, brother. You love Him?

108 Thank you for staying with me, helping. It's twelve-thirty, and I'm sorry. I... No, I'm not. God forgive me. It's wrong to say that. I had nothing to do with it. He did it Himself. And I--And I--I just love you, I believe in you.

I believe that God's going to have a church, and believe you're part of that church. And I love you with godly love. And I pray that the Holy Spirit will let that Word be interpreted in the Spirit that it was meant for, as it goes out to you.

Now, I give you your pastor. Now, if you can, you come back tonight, and be with us again tonight. Be at the baptism this afternoon over at brother's house. Come here, Brother Parker. Excuse me for calling your first name, but they said Peter, James, John, so forth. God bless you, Brother Parker.