A Paradox

1 The Lord bless you. It's certainly deemed to me a--a grand privilege to be here this morning. I was... It's an unexpected blessing, because I, to think I'd have this privilege to get to speak especially to just you, what we would think, we'd call, "a selected group," the ministers and my brethren here who are cooperating in this meeting and making it possible. I wanted this opportunity. This way, I get a chance sometime to explain things that I--that I don't do at the platform, 'cause you're in a mixed audience there.

2 And I met an attorney here this morning, one of the brethren, the Christian Business Men. And last night I was speaking on Zacchaeus. Once there, you know, when he... Jesus was in the... He hardly believed; as the little drama was, that, "He wasn't a prophet." But when Jesus stopped under the tree, and looked up and called him by name, and come down. I never did tell just what happened to Zacchaeus. You know what happened to that fellow? He become a member of the Full Gospel Business Men's, and charter member there, is right. Of course, Jesus wouldn't have nothing else but a full Gospel, you know. So, him being a businessman, that was part of your... So, you could remember that, then.

3And so I--I was speaking the other day on... up at the last meeting, on having a court trial. And Jesus brought, or God brought in, about His Word, for a breach of promise. Many of you has heard it. And so I was thinking about maybe giving that, Sunday afternoon, this court trial. Then this attorney here, he might be able to correct me on some of the procedure that I go about.

4 So, but setting here this morning, it's certainly a--a privilege. I was looking around, different friends, as a little boy here, a little friend here, just called me over there. And he was crippled. He said, "Brother Branham, if you'll just tell me that I can walk out of here, that's all I want you to do." See?

And I just thought, "How--how lovely!" See?

5But, see, these things are a little different than what we... you think they are. See? See? Now, that's where I think many of the brethren gets off of the track. See? See? God will let them do something with a little faith. Then they feel that everything they bounce into, they just say it, and that's all.

6But, you see, how can I say THUS SAITH THE LORD until He tells me first? I've got to have it first. If it didn't, I'd say, "Thus saith William Branham," but that wouldn't do any good. But, see, now, He's got to tell me first.

7 A man drove up in a ambulance, with the babies. And I was real busy. He said, "Well, I... If you'll just tell me; come here and say my baby will be all right. That's all I want to know." Well, that, how lovely. But how can I say that until I know it? See? If I...

8Some people just go on impression, "The Lord told me to do this." Well, that's--that's yourself, many times. See? You've got to actually see it and know it.

9How could--could I... Brother Fox here say something unless if he's honest? He said, "Brother Branham said so-and-so." And if I didn't say that, he--he's--he's falsely accusing me of saying something that I didn't say. But if I really said it, then I've got to stand behind it.

So, when the Lord says anything, that does it.

10 I met a little Baptist here a while ago. And he isn't Baptist. I think he's a Pentecostal Baptist like me. And--and he's another good old southerner. I watch him eating this Georgia ice cream this morning here, that, the grits. And so he--he was one of those persistent type, you know. And he smoked cigarettes, and a very good Baptist, and yet... So he--he... and he had a lot of things that he was going on. And he kept on.

11Now, out here in the meeting, it's those, you--you people. The people, they are doing that, themselves. See? And it's Christ coming to His Body. See?

12 Now, let me get that right now, just stop with you just a moment. See? Christ coming to His Body, that don't mean just me. I'm not the Body. I'm just a member of that Body. See? You're part of that Body, too, "By one Spirit." First Corinthians 15... First Corinthians 12, "By one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body." We are members of that Body, every one of us, whether you are Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, oneness, twoness, fiveness, or whatever you got. See? "By that one Spirit we're all in one Body." If God accepts the oneness in, with his peculiar idea; the church of God in, with his peculiar idea; the Methodist in, with his peculiar idea; the Assemblies in, with his peculiar idea; that's up to Him.

13I got nine brothers, and every one of us different from another, but we all got the same parent. See? We're, every one, Branhams. Now, my brothers... I'm the hunter. I like to hunt and fish. The rest of them don't care for it. They like to play golf and things like that, but not me. See, that's my peculiarity. But yet their father is my father. See? But we all agree, when it comes to daddy, that's all our daddy.

14 And that's the way we do, too. Now look. The church has become, see, just growing up.

15Just like I was going to speak tonight, upon, "The unveiling of the one true God," but I think it'll take a little too long. I notice the people, after about nine o'clock, they get restless. I thought I'd just wait till sometime at tabernacle. I got something else on my mind maybe for tonight, to bring a message of salvation. That's what we're trying. That's our... what we're trying to do here.

16Now, you minister brothers, we missed Divine healing. As old Doctor Bosworth, who just went Home, to Glory, down here, recently. He used to say, "Divine healing is a bait that you put on the hook. You never show the fish the hook. You show him the bait. He--he hits the bait and gets the hook." So, that's the way it is. We... Divine healing just draws the attention. See?

17And, then, salvation is what we're after. We're after the strength of the Body of Christ. You see?

18And every one of your different organizations, some... I'm not too much on the organization, just saying, "I belong to this."

19I--I was ordained, a Baptist. And then when I heard about Pentecostals, I thought, "My! What's this?" I thought, "That's what I'm going to join up with." I come over here. They're as broke up as the Baptists is, and just all different types of things. And they was all... I thought, "Well, now, I'm not going to join any of them. I'm going to stand right between them and put my arms around all of them, and say, 'We're brothers.'" And, see, the system that keeps us from being that, that's what I'm against, the system, that. See?

20And that's the reason I'm with one group, and that's the Full Gospel Business Men. See? We want to stretch our tent so far, it'll take everything, all of them, see, everybody. We're all brothers. See, we're every one brothers, in Christ. Now, one of my--my great sponsors is Assemblies, and United, and the Foursquare, and the Church of God. And all those brethren, they panned out to be real men.

21 Now, what is it? Christ coming to His Body. Christ is the Word. We all know the anointing is Christ, that comes on the Word, that makes the Word live. Is that right? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] That is the anointing. Christ is the anointing, the Spirit that comes upon the Word, that quickens the Word, to make it live. Now, the Word is in your heart. You believe in Divine healing, whatevermore. See? And Christ, the anointing, coming to His Body. See the--the connection there? Just like husband and wife to become one. Now, the church has got to get to the ministry, until the church and Christ become one. He can anoint you for every blessing that's in the Bible. All of it is yours. Everything is promised at this age is yours. When we leave anything out... See? Then, if anointing strikes that, it will--it will anoint it. It's just here.

22 Like, I--I use this for an illustration. There's a doctrine called pyramid doctrine. But don't never get that in your idea, that I--that I--I believe in pyramid doctrines. I believe in the Bible? See? And, although, I believe the pyramid part played something in it.

I believe God wrote three Bibles.

23He wrote one in the skies, which is the zodiac. Anybody knows that. Job spoke of it. What? Look at the zodiac. It starts off with the--with the virgin. It ends up with Leo the lion. That's how He come, first with a virgin. His last, next coming, will be Leo the lion, see, coming as the Lion of the tribe of Juda. And all, then, the crossed fishes, of what we're in now, the cancer age, and everything, it all speaks. But, forget it. See? That ain't your Bible.

24Then, the pyramids, exactly how they were drawed, the headstone was rejected. Still, that's not your Bible.

Then, God wrote It on Words.

25 Jesus comes three times. One time, He come to redeem His Wife. Next time, He comes to catch Her away. The next time, He comes with Her. Three comings. See?

26Everything, like, "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," see, all, everything is in a three.

27The mathematics of the Bible is perfect. If you keep them mathematics right, you can keep your story right. See? But if you get off the mathematics, you'll have, in your picture, a cow picking grass in top of a tree. So, it won't--it won't look right. See? Stay in the mathematics, you see, of the Bible, then you place it out right.

28 Now, was telling about this here young, fine-looking fellow setting here. He, he kept coming. Every time, he would put his name on for a private interview. Well, when he would do that, then it wait a long time, till finally his time come up. Here he come.

29Now, in private interview it isn't like this, see, it isn't setting in a meeting like we do here. You'll wait until the Lord speaks and shows you what to do.

30Well, it never... He never could... His time would run out. Well, he wouldn't be discouraged. He just put his name down for another one. So it finally worked down through a few hundred till it got to him again. Then, one day, setting at the place... He would try, he would take all the psychological ideas that he could, to lay them cigarettes down, and he couldn't do it. But one day it come, THUS SAITH THE LORD. That was it. That was the last of it. And so here he sets this morning. Yes. So we're thankful for that.

31 Now, let me just give a little exclamation a minute, if it's all right to take this--this time. I think...

32I'm watching the clock there. Ten o'clock, we're supposed to be out, I understood. I heard through the grapevine, just a few minutes ago. And I'm just like a freight train; I'm long-winded.

33And--and I remember first time, when I started to preach. And I was a little, Baptist preacher. I'd carry that Bible under my arm, and I thought I was just the real preacher. Somebody say, "Are you a preacher?"

I'd say, "Sure. Yes, sir, really am."

34 And reminds me when I was a boy, out on the farm. My--my father was a rider. And he break horses and follow the rodeo, to break the horses, and so forth. He was really a good rider. Well, I thought, being his son, surely I was a rider, too. So I'd... daddy would be way out the back of the farm, with his horses, you know. And I'd take out the old plow horse, you know, old and stoved-up, stiff and tired.

35And we had an old water trough hewed out of a log. How many ever seen one of that? Well, what part of Kentucky you from, anyhow? And so... And we used to go down there and get stung with the honey bees, you know, come and get their water and things.

36So, I'd look and see daddy make his round, through the cornfield, way back at the back. I'd go in and get his saddle, and a handful of cockleburs, you know, and slip it up under the saddle, pull up the cinch, and climb up in it. And that poor old horse! My little brothers setting all around there, holler, "Ride him, Billy! Ride him!" You know, and the poor horse, so tired, he couldn't even get his feet off the ground, you know, "clump, clump." I thought, "Man, am I a rider!" I had read too many Western stories. That was it. So I--I thought, maybe, you know, well... You know, I got...

37 One day I decided that they needed me out in the West, to break their horses, you know. And, I, about eighteen years old. They had to have me. My--my services was needed, so I slipped right out and went out West.

38And I tried to buy me a pair of chaps. I was a little bitty fellow, you know. And I thought it had pretty... had A-r-i-z-o-n-a and a steer's head on it. Now, "Oh, my! That's beautiful." When I put them on, I looked like one of these little game chickens, you know, with them feathers all. I couldn't walk with the things, so I just got me a pair of--of Levis.

39I thought, "Well, I'll ride the silver saddle. I'll go out and get me some... I'll set out there and wait till they bring them bucking horses out. There is some of them guys get throwed; I'll show them how to ride them. My daddy is a rider."

40 So, I climbed up on the fence. They was having to break in some horses. And I looked over there in the pen, and I seen them outlaws in there, that, my, that you couldn't even throw fodder in to him. They was so wild, they wouldn't eat it. So, I thought, "Say, I don't know. That don't look like that old plow horse I rode." So looked at him for a while.

41After while, they had one there they called, "the Kansas outlaw." So they brought him out, a great big heavy horse, about seventeen hands in it. He was really a horse. So they put a...

42Had a fine man there, with all of his great uniform on, and everything; the girls all waving at him. He was quite a star. I looked at him as he come out of his automobile. They said, "This man can ride this horse." So, they put him in the chute. And he got up on there, and got him saddled up, got set in his saddle.

43They opened the gate. My! Oh, my! About two twists and a sunfish, and he looked like he could throw the saddle over the moon. I never seen such! Well, the pickups got the horse and the ambulance got the rider.

44Here come the caller around, you know. He said, "I'll give any man here, five hundred dollars, that can stay on him sixty seconds."

45He come right down the line. I don't know how it ever was, he picked me right out. Set there, just setting up there with all these old disfigured cowboy, you know. My legs wasn't bowed, or nothing. But I--I thought I was a real rider, I could set there with them. I was fellowshipping with them, you know, my hat setting on the back of my head. Was about seventeen years old, I guess, looking around like that. He come, said, "Are you a rider?"

And I said, "No, sir."

46 I was a little Baptist preacher, I used to think God called me to be the defender of the Word. See? He was defend the--the faith. One day I was over in St. Louis, Missouri, and I went into a tent meeting, and I run into a Robert Daugherty. He's a Pentecostal preacher. I set up on the platform with him. Man, that man preached till he'd get blue in the face, and buckle his knees together, and catch his breath. You could hear him for two city blocks. And come back up preaching. Then somebody say, "Are you a preacher?"

47I said "No. sir." I get amongst the Pentecostal people; I don't say much about being a preacher. I was with that like it was with the horse. See? I just say, "No. The Lord called me to pray for His sick children." So I... See?

So we are--we are happy to be here this morning, in this.

48 While we're on the thought of riding; I love outdoors. That's where I found God. And I used to herd quite a bit, Colorado, go up there. Now, I usually ride the roundups, and so forth. We had the... up on Troublesome River. Now, many time I've stood there by the side of the gate, when we was having the roundup, spring roundup send the cattle up. The Hereford Association grazes the valley. Raise two ton of hay; you have a right, or your ranch, to put a cow on the forest. And some of them has hundreds of head, 'cause they got where they can irrigate down there. They have that wild meadow. And then of a...

49Every spring, when they run them cattle up on the forest up there, the--the ranger stands there and counts those cattle, and watches the brands. They're, each one, branded. The little group that I worked for didn't have too many, about hundred and fifty, two hundred head, a little tripod brand. And Grimes, the Bar, Diamond Bar, had about fifteen hundred head.

50 But there's one thing I always noticed, when standing there. After we got the cattle up there, and the ranger stood in the drift fence. That's to keep the cattle from getting on private property again. I used to set there and put my leg around the horn of the saddle and watch that ranger. And he'd watch them cattle coming through, stand there. Every cow went through, you had to inspect. You notice, he didn't pay much attention to the brand that was on them. But there's one thing he really watched, that was for the blood tag. See? Because, you can't put nothing in there on account of the breed, keep the--the line of breed right. See? Nothing but a genuine Hereford could enter that park; that park, nothing but a Hereford. Had to have a blood tag, to show that it was examined. And it had the blood tag, to show it was a Hereford.

51I think that's the way the great roundup will be. He won't ask us whether we were Assemblies, or whether we were Foursquare. He's going to look for that Blood tag, no matter about our brand. We'll watch for the Blood tag. "I see the Blood."

52I, I'm so glad to be associated with such people as that this morning. The Lord bless you real richly now. I set and talk to you; my time would get away.

53 I want to read a Word of the Lord, because no service is complete without the reading of the Word. Now let's turn over in the Scriptures here with just a few thoughts I had lined out.

54Used to be, I could think of the things that I was going to say, without even writing a note. But since I've passed twenty-five, the second time, I can't think of it like I used to. So I have to kind of make a note, write down my text, what I'm going to say, and think of it. Then I think too, little more.

55I was a kid then. I just splattered, like shooting a shotgun. See? But now you got to zero it. People come to hear me because I was just a boy preacher. This is thirty-three years behind the pulpit for me. But now I meet great men, like I'm setting before this morning. You've got to hit the target. It's got to be the Word.

56 Remember the old Baptist preacher that ordained me. I remember my first time up to preach. I just cried and beat on the desk, and everything like that. And some of the elderly women come by and patted me on the back, said, "Oh, honey," and crying. "You're going to be a great servant to Christ."

57Old Dr. Davis set there, was looking me right in the eye. I said, "How did I do, Dr. Davis?"

58Said, "The worst I ever heard in my life." He upbraided me. So he was an attorney. So he--he said to me, afterwards, said, "Come over to the study, Billy." He said, "Billy, all your emotion, and all that you went through," said, "you was just trying to act like a preacher." He said, "I--I got the same thing when I become an attorney." Said, "I... My first case was a divorce case, and," said, "really it didn't have no grounds at all. But," said, "I said to this poor woman... I cried, and I run with my eyes." And he said, "I... This poor little woman, her husband did so-and-so and things."

59 And said, "I got the same thing I give you, and I thought it'd be a good thing." Said, "The first thing you know, the... So the other attorney struck the desk and said, 'Judge, your honor, sir, how much more of this nonsense will your court stand?'" See? Said, "'He hasn't said one thing to defend the person, yet, not one part of the law. He's just crying and jumping up-and-down.'" He said, "You know what? That deflated me and put me back where I can." Said, "Now, Billy, you was doing all the emotions, crying and jumping up-and-down, but you never brought one thing of the Scripture that really gives the basic things, for it." That's right.

60 Now we're shooting a rifle. It's got to be zeroed. It's got to hit the spot. Lord help us now as we read It! From Joshua, the 10th chapter. And I'm going to begin at the 12th verse, and read Joshua 10:12 down to the 14th or 15th verse.

Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand... still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemy. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hastened not to go down about a whole day.

And there was no day like that before... or after... that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.

61 Now, if you will pardon me for a minute, I want to take a text here this morning, on the subject of one word.

62Now, you say, "Brother Branham, that's not--that's not too much for audience here, hundred and fifty people or so. That's--that's not enough." Oh, yes, it is. It's--it's enough. It's the Word of God. See? No matter, it--it--it's... It's not the quality; it's the quantity.

63Like here, not long ago, in Louisville, Kentucky, I was thinking of a little boy that climbed up in the attic, was searching around, one day. And he found in an old garret, in the little trunk he found a postage stamp. And he thought, "You know, this might be worth something." So he took off and found a collector. And, course, he had ice cream in his mind. Said, "What will you give me for this stamp?"

64He said, "Well, I'll--I'll give you a dollar for it." Oh, my, that was about ten cones there, you know, so he--he had thought he made a bargain.

65That man sold it, a little later, for five hundred dollars. And I forget now, it goes into the thousands, what that stamp is worth. See, as far as the paper, it wasn't worth nothing. But it's what's wrote on it, what makes the difference.

66 This is just ordinary Indian paper. But is what is on it. It's God in letter form. See? Yes. Sometimes it's a... No matter how little it is...

67That's where we people make our mistake. We're always wanting to do something big. Maybe wasn't ordained to do something big. Maybe it's the little things that we're leaving undone is what's hurting us.

68Like in Canada, I was standing there with my good friend, Dr. Ern Baxter, who used to be my platform man; very fine, eloquent man. And when... King George, who I had the privilege of praying for, you know, when he was healed with the multiple sclerosis. When he and his wife passed down the street that day in Vancouver there, as they went down the street there. She was in her beautiful blue dress. And the king himself setting up there, trying to set straight, hurting and sick, his ulcers bothering him. But yet he knowed he was the king, so he bowed to the people. And when he went by, Ern and I listened to it. He... Ern just turned his head and started crying. He couldn't hold it. He said, "Brother Branham, my king is passing by."

69I thought, "If it'll make a Canadian feel like that, what will it do when we see our King go by."

70 They turned out, all the children, the church, or the schools did, to see the king. They give them little British flags, to wave. When they returned back to the school, after their regular procedure, they found out that one little fellow didn't come back. And the teacher got alarmed, so she went out to look for the little fellow. And it was standing, the little girl was standing behind a post, crying her little heart out. Teacher picked her up and said, "What's the matter, sweetheart?" Said, "Didn't you see the king?"

She said, "Yes, I saw the king."

And said, "Did you wave your little flag?"

Said, "Yes, I waved the little flag."

Said, "What you crying about?"

71She said, "You know," she said, "I'm too little." She said, "I--I saw the king, and I waved my flag, but the king didn't see me." See? And her little heart was broken.

72That's different from our King. You can't be too little; you can't do anything. He--He sees every little move that you make. He knows all about you.

73 Now, my subject this morning, I'm going to speak on for a few minutes, the Lord willing, is: A Paradox.

74What is a paradox? According to Webster here, it means, "something that's incredible but true." I think we've witnessed that, last few days, this minor stage. But, a paradox, an "incredible, but yet it's true." That makes a paradox.

75In Hebrews, the 11th chapter and the 3rd verse, we see that the world was made and framed together by the Word of God.

76 A few weeks ago, I was in New York City at the Morris Auditorium. I heard this tape of--of Einstein talking of that galaxy, of how many... If we left here and went, I think, a hundred and fifty million light years, traveling at the speed of light, take us a hundred and fifty million light years to get over there, and then a hundred and fifty million light years to get back. Now, you know how fast light travels. See? And, just think, a hundred and fifty million light years. Well, if you'd run a row of nines around, around, around the world, you'd never break it down in years. Just nine, nine, nine, close together, around the world, you couldn't break it down in years. For, just think, light travels... What is it? Eight hundred, eight... a hundred and eighty-six... hundred--hundred eighty-six thousand miles per second. And a--a light year? In three hundred million light years, try to figure it up. And you know how long then, we'd been gone from the earth? Fifty years. That's right. See?

77They broke in, to find out, Eternity. They say that John Glenn, the astronaut that went around, it never taken one second off of his life, even the speed that he was traveling, about seventeen hundred miles. See? So then, see, we broke into Eternity. We're an earthbound people that knows just inches and so forth. When you break into that unknown, you--you can't fathom that. Our minds are not comprehensive. We, we couldn't. We couldn't fathom what it means to get into that, but we know that it's true.

78 And Einstein said, "There's only one sensible thing to say about the world. By faith we understand that God framed the world together." See?

79And the world, standing there in space, it had to come from somewhere. The science says it's a piece of the sun. Then where did the sun come? See, you keep breaking it down, till finally you come to a place that you have to find out, it had to have a beginning. See? "God created the heavens and the earth," we're taught in the Bible. And how does it stand there in its space? It never moves. You ain't...

80You can't take an instrument... I have wore, from my Finnish, my meetings overseas, and Switzerland, one of their best watches that was give me, while I was there. It's a really... I think, in American money, it costs a hundred-fifty, two hundred dollars, maybe more. And yet that watch will gain and lose, just in a few days. I took it to a jeweler. He said, "Well, we have nothing that keeps perfect." See?

81 But the world does, perfectly, at its time. They can tell the eclipse of the sun and the moon, many, many years apart, just to the minute. How it turns, and yet nothing holding it up.

82Which is up and which is down? We don't know. Is the North Pole up, or the South Pole up? We're in space. That's a paradox, isn't it? It cannot be explained. Anything that--that cannot be explained like that, is simply a paradox. So we find out that it was a paradox for the world to--to be in space. All right.

83And time and seasons, how does it cross its seasons just the same time? How that, summer and winter... How it leans, it's leaning backward. If it was up straight...

84 Now, we proved that, one time, it was up straight, as God said it was. Up, the British ice fields, they can blast five-hundred-foot through that ice, there is palms, ferns, that showed it was once a tropic. And now, see, it leans back. From the antediluvian destruction, it leaned it back. And I believe, the very thing that they throwed it out of its cycle then, is ready to throw it back in its cycle now.

85 Man destroys himself by his knowledge. See? He never... God destroys nothing. Man... And you... We can't. No matter what we--we can liquidate, we cannot annihilate. There's nothing. And even fire is the closest we have to annihilation, but you can't annihilate. When fires are burning, that's gases breaking apart. It goes right back to its original condition again. You can't annihilate nothing. Some people get so guilty till they want to--to take their body and have it burned, and blow it to the seven winds of the seas. But that doesn't make any difference. Your... It isn't annihilated. You can't annihilate. God created it. You can't tear down... You can--you can pervert or carry on, or do other things, but you can't annihilate. God's the only One Who can annihilate. He's the creator. He's the only One has a right to do it.

86 How it stands in space! So much we could say to that, take hours upon it. But we find out here that Joshua, stopping the sun, now, that's a paradox.

87I remember the time that my old father, he had no education, and I... He could just hardly sign his name. But he used to say to me, he said, "You know, I never could believe that--that, but what the sun turns, to the world."

And I said, "Well, I don't know, dad."

88One day in high school, I know I was talking to the high school teacher there, of--of the Bible, and--and I asked him this question about Joshua. He said, "The turning of the earth made the gravitation, and the gravitation held the--the world up."

89And I said, "Then, why then, (you teach the Bible), did Joshua command the--the sun to stand still?"

90He said, "God winked at his ignorance, see, and stopped the world."

91I said, "You just got through telling me..." Now, he didn't believe in the miracles of God. See? And he said... "You just got through telling me, 'If the world ever stopped, it would stop its gravitation, then it would shoot like a comet through the air.' I said, "The Bible said that the world stood still here for twenty-four hours." See? See?

92 It's a paradox. But, God did it, anyhow, (what?) by a man; not a god, not some great Angel coming down from Heaven; a man, with faith in the mission that he was given, to take that land. The Word of God was behind it, "I give you this land. And everywhere the soles of your foot shall set upon, that I give you. It's yours." Footsteps meant possession. And the sun is what...

93The--the achievement he was trying to do! See? His enemy was routed, and he knew, if the sun ever set, them kings would get together and they'd come back upon him with double forces. So, the sun was going down, and Joshua, a man, commanded to do this. Said, "Sun, stand still."

94 Whatever God did, I don't know. But the sun stood still, the moon over Ajalon, because a man, a human being, a human being was in the line of duty. In the line of duty, he commanded the sun to stand still. And if we're Christians, we have to believe This to be the infallible Word of God, everywhere. He stopped the world, stopped the sun. Whatever He did, it stood still for twenty-four hours. I believe it.

95Jesus said, in Saint Mark 11:22, "If you say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you said will come to pass, you can have what you said."

96 But that takes motive and objective. Of course, you got to have a reason for it. You can't have faith unless you got some reason. As I tried to say last night, some people's faith is in their textbook, some people's faith is in something else, but depends on where your faith is. I want to believe God's Word, what He says is true. Then I've got to see whether it's His will or not. Then, if His will, I got to check out my objective to it, and then my motive in doing it.

97If I do it because I say, "Well, I'm going over the mountain here. There's a mountain before me. There's a million people on that side, perishing. I got a hundred million over here I'm preaching to." Well, if I can't get over, around, or under the mountain, or nothing, and yet something in my heart keep telling me, "Go over the mountain. Go to them. Go to them," and I can't get over it. Now, Jesus said, "They shall move this mountain." See? If...

98 Now, the thing of it is, is first, what if I say... Now, first, I never--I never created that in there. Something created that. It's for a good cause. Because, why would I go to one million, when a hundred million here, perishing on this side? But it's something in my heart, saying "Go over on that side."

99Now, the first thing, I'll have to say, "Well, if I go over there, this side can only pay me so much a month. And over there, they..." See, my motive is not right. My objective is not right. No.

100Well, what if I say, "No, I don't care about the money. But when I get over there, someday, the--the ages to come, they'll put up a great big monument, say, 'Brother Branham, the great missionary'"? Then, still, my motive is not right.

101But when I don't care if they ever know who went over there, "He's just in my heart," then I'll speak to that mountain. It'll happen. See? It's got to.

102But, see, your motive and your objective depends on who you are and what business. What your... What? That's where the church misses it, so far. They get worked up in an emotion, and, first thing you know, in enthusiasm, you don't stop to check it back Here again. Check There, for sure, then it's THUS SAITH THE LORD. See whether it's right.

103 Joshua had a commission to go over and to take that land, and God caused a great paradox. Even science can prove, today, the scar is still in the sky, where that absolutely happened. I heard in Chicago, not long ago, a scientist talking, that was showing it on a little chart, where it happened.

104 Now we find out, again, Moses was in the line of duty, too. And there was the Red Sea.

105Did you see that rashal article that some of them people are trying to make now, that Moses went through a--a bunch of reeds, a sea of reeds? Wasn't that horrible? Just trying... The devil inspiring those people to take away the Truth of the Word. How could the waters... And then did the reeds drown up Pharaoh then when he come? It's crazy. See?

106Then we find out that Moses had a commission to bring those people out of Egypt, to that mountain. And there it was, in the line of duty. And Moses begin to cry unto God, when he saw the Pillar of Fire hanging up here. And there come Pharaoh's chariots. And he cried. The--the Pillar of Fire come down, was light to them, and darkness to them. And God said, "Why you crying to Me? I commissioned you to do it. Speak and go forward." Oh, my!

107 The trouble of it is, today, the churches speak, look like, say, "What did Moody say? What did Sankey say?"

108Speak and say what God said. Let's go forward, not look back. Go this a way.

109It's hard on these, turning corners. Church don't want to believe that, you see. They're always referring back from where their educational standpoint. Course, that's a school, in itself. See? They learn that through book learning. We know That through experience, of trusting God, see, and knowing that He does do this.

110It was a paradox, that God opened up that Dead Sea and did that great thing.

111 Noah, in his time. Remember, Noah preached in an intellectual... to an intellectual world like we're list-... preaching to now, a day when they were farther advanced in science than we are now. We could never build a pyramid. There's no way for us to do it. We haven't got the machinery to do it with. Some of them--them... If you was ever there, why, them--them boulders weighed tons, hundreds of tons, way up in the air. We have no machinery to lift it up there. Nothing at all to do it with, no power that would lift it up there. They did it.

112 I remember in school, we had a debate on that. I took the--the side to say that they had some secret. They didn't know... And my opponent, he took the side to say that, why, they got enough men around it, and they made a--a level of dirt like this, and then they rolled it up. I said... I--I working in a section gang, I said, "Why, we can't... You take a box car with wheels, and them greased, and put them on the railroad track, and you can't put enough men along there to push that box car, and it empty. That's right. You just get one layer of men, and then the next man is--is pushing against that man. See? You couldn't move it if you had to.

113 They had the secret. They knowed how to do it. They had a greater, a greater instrument. That pyramid set so perfectly in the center of the earth, pointing, that there's not a... There's--there's not a shadow around it, no matter where the sun is. It's never got a shadow around it. See? It's a--it's a perfect thing that they did. And their instruments was far beyond what we have now.

114And Noah preached in that great intellectual age. And Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah," another great intellectual age. See?

115Now, remember, Noah had a message from God, "It was going to rain." Well, there never... See, the world set up straight in them days. See? They never had rain. But Noah said, "It's going to rain." The water was on the earth, not in the skies. They could take an instrument and prove there was no water there. But Noah said, "It's going to happen, anyhow." See? And it rained. That was a paradox, see, something that could not be explained. But God shook the earth around, just in condition so it would rain. So, you see, it was a paradox for Noah to do that.

116 Also, it was a paradox when Israel stood on one side of the hill, and Goliath on the other side of the hill. They had a great challenger over there. He was a great scientist. He--he knew all the ins-and-outs. And when the enemy thinks he's got you to the wall, that's when he likes to bark the loudest.

117I remember, I first started out in this ministry, oh, that pastor, Davis, said to me. He said, "Billy, what in the world did you eat that night for supper?" See? He couldn't understand it.

118I got a group of ministers together with me. They said, "What's the matter with you? You think that that..."

I said, "I don't care."

119"In the day of this scientific age that we're living in, and you mean to tell me that God..."

120I said, "I don't care what you say. That Man, that Angel of the Lord, has never told me anything wrong." I said, "If He sends me out there, there'll be somebody that'll listen to it. If the Baptist church don't want to, then here is my fellowship card." That's all. I knew God said so, and that settled it. Right.

Said, "You can't do it."

121 That's that giant standing yonder, saying, "If you'll come over here, send one of your men and fight me, then we won't have no bloodshed." Oh, my, how easy! How they like to bark when they got it like that. Said, "You let one of your greatest men..." Course, Saul was head and shoulders above his army, and he knowed better than to go out and meet that fellow on his grounds.

122He said, "Now, we won't kill anybody. We'll just let--let two of us; one of us die. Just one man die instead of the whole armies here die." He had a--a psychological point. And you notice he said...

123And Israel was scared to death. They wouldn't want to meet the challenge.

124 But one day a little, old ruddy fellow come up, piece of sheepskin wrapped around his shoulders, bent down, his hair in his face, come up there to bring his brothers some raisin cakes, that the father sent him up there. His name was David; little bitty, old scrawny fellow stand around there.

125But, you know, there had been, a few days before that, a prophet had anointed him.

126They wanted to put it upon his bigger brother's head, 'cause he looked better, you know, that make impression to the--the people he's going to stand before. He looks like a king.

127Oh, that's what the world has still got, their eyes full of Hollywood. Ought to be full of Christ. See? That's the reason it's so hard to get the program over to the people, the Message. They want to be Hollywood. Hollywood shines. Well, it's shining. Now, I live...

128 I'm a--I'm a prospector. You know, fool's gold shines brighter than real gold. Anything glitters, everything glitters is not gold. After all, gold doesn't glitter. It glows.

129And Hollywood shines with glitter, while the Gospel glows with humility. Hollywood shines with its great fine churches, its psychological, educated ministers who can speak and use their nouns and pronouns and everything just right. While, in humility, the Gospel of Jesus Christ glows to the glory of God. Where, they know no more about It than a rabbit would know about snowshoes. They just... It's just as far... Excuse that expression. This is no place for that. See? And, but that's what I--I try to mean, you know. They don't, they don't understand It. They think it's got to be all polished up in a scholarship. And--and our Pentecostal people is getting like that. Their ministers has got to go away and have so many degrees of psychology, know just how to say "amen" just right. That's right. Oh, it's a disgrace, friends. It's a disgrace among us.

130 Now, it isn't that I'm against the church. I'm against that system that's taking godly men and doing that. We need not to shine. We'll never get the enemy over on our ground. Oh, we can never go over on the enemy's ground and try to have fine and glitter, well-dressed and clergy collars, and everything, and our choir all robed and everything like them. Don't go on their ground. We can never compare with them.

131Let them, if they're hungry, come over to us. We're full Gospel. Amen. Let's stay that way. "The Gospel came not in Word only, but through power and manifestation of the Word." That's what the writer said, "Power and manifestation." In other words, "The Word, vindicated, is the Gospel," see, Mark 16.

132 Notice now, we find that in the days of Noah, that, while he preached, they could hardly believe such a thing as that. They... Noah believing for such a thing. But finally the paradox came, and it happened. It actually rained.

133Then in the days of David, we find out that when Saul was up there with all of his great army, and this little ruddy-looking fellow come up there, and--and come to bring some cakes to his brother, from his father. And this giant come out and made his boast one time too many. There was a real man of God heard that boast. And he turned around, he said, "You mean to tell me that you, the armies of the living God, will let that uncircumcised Philistine, out there, stand and tell you the days of miracles is past?" Or, well, same principle, see. "Let that uncircumcised scientist tell you, defy the armies of the living God?" Said, "I'm ashamed of you, and you supposed to be trained men." Said, "I'll go fight him." Oh, I admire his courage. He knowed what he believed.

134 So, Saul took him up there, said, "Son, now, I admire your courage. But, remember, you're nothing but a youth, see, and he is a warrior from his youth. See? And you know nothing about a sword and things. Now how you going to meet that fellow, meet his challenge?"

135He said, "Saul, I was herding your servant's sheep, and a bear come in and got one of them. And he run with it. I went and took it away from him. A lion come in and got one, and I run out after him. I took a slingshot and knocked him down. When he rose up, I slew him." He said, "The Lord God that give me the victory over the lion and the bear, how much more will He give me the victory over this uncircumcised Philistine?"

136 You know, I think about that when I'm praying for you. See? See, a lion called "cancer" come in and got one of his sheep. I ain't got no medicine. I have no shots. I don't know what radium is. I don't know nothing about theologies and these man-made things. But I know what is this little Slingshot. I come here after you now. I want to bring you back. It's my Father's sheep. Sometime I have to scold you, fuss at you, but it's because I love you. Always, always, always bear this in mind, that love is corrective.

137If your boy is setting out here in the street, and you say, "Junior, dear, you shouldn't set there. But bless your little heart, if you want..." That's not a real mother or dad. You'll go get him and turn him over his arm, and give him a little posterior protoplasm stimulation. He'll--he'll fix him up just right, see, if you bring him in. But you ain't going to stay down there, say, "Now, Junior, dear," when you know the little fellow can get hurt. You love him.

That's the reason I'm fussing. It's not trying to hurt some organization. It's, wake him up, "That's the Truth."

138 So we find out that David said... Saul said, "Well, I'll tell you, if you're going to fight him..." He put his armor on him. Huh! I imagine little David, probably about five-foot tall, and stooped shoulders; and this shoulder pads out about like this, and this steel. Saul found...

139He said, "Take the thing off of me." Said, "I never proved this. I don't know nothing about your ethics and your... all your pulpit manners and things you're supposed to have." See? He found out that his ecclesiastical vest didn't fit a man of God. So he said, "Take the thing off of me. I know nothing about it." Said, "Let me go with what I know is the Truth, where God has blessed me." That's right.

140Let me go with the Word, not with some educational program, or something somebody has crooked up somewhere. I know God's Word will never fail. Other men's word will fail. And God is His own Interpreter. Said, "Let's go like that. Let's believe It."

141 Doctor, no doubt, has give you the best examination he can, and helped you every way he can. But that's the best he knows. We know something different. When all hopes is gone, then He's the one that comes to help us.

142We see this, then, David, not with a bow and arrow. Not with a... Cause, you couldn't hit the giant nowhere. He just had one place across his eyes.

143Just think, his--his--his big spear he had, why, it would probably weighed four hundred pounds. His fingers was fourteen inches long. And just think of the helmet was over top of his head, and all of his breastplate.

144And David had a little bitty rock. That's all he had. He had four more in his sling. You know what them five rocks meant? F-a-i-t-h in J-e-s-u-s. That did it. See? He had faith, you see, faith, grace. He was the grace of God. And then he went to meet the giant. He only had one place, and God directed that rock.

145And when he slew that giant, to show that it could be done, then the rest of the armies grabbed their swords and away they went. They fought them to the bottom.

146 Now, a few years ago, they said there's no such a thing as Divine healing. But when we stepped out to prove that there was, then the fire caught in the Pentecostal church, and we've had a fifteen-year revival. Brother, them critics that wanted to give a thousand dollars for any proof, they--they shut up now, 'cause it's proven. Doctors' statements and everything; cancer, blind, deaf, dumb; even to them that's dead, has been raised up. Because, you just receive faith, by seeing one thing done. God is. The whole thing is based upon that. Believe every Word that He said; for healing. I believe in the Rapture. I believe in everything that He said, is going to take place. It caused a paradox, something that was unscientifically, but it happened, anyhow. It was a paradox.

147 Now, my next thought was Samson, with his jawbone of the mule. Very, very strange, to see this guy, Samson. A lot of people try to think that he--he was a... I seen the psychological effect, or a picture of Samson with shoulders as big as a barn door. Well, now, that would be no--no strange thing, to see that man pick up a lion and tear him apart. But Samson was a little bitty, curly-headed shrimp, as we'd call him; little bitty old guy, mommy's little boy, long curls hanging down his back. And when you see...

148Now, remember, when the lion run out, to roar upon him, notice what happened. See? What happened? The Spirit of the Lord came on him. That's what made the difference. That's the reason they could bind him one time when the Spirit of the Lord didn't come to him; his Nazarite sign wasn't there. But as long as he could feel that Nazarite sign, let anything come what wanted to.

149 And that's the way it is with you Pentecostals. When you get to that ethical's part, when you get to that spot to where you want to listen to the creed and so forth like that, I don't know about you then. But if you'll just come back to this Nazarite sign, the Holy Ghost working in you, everything is all right then. Don't be afraid of nothing. As long as the Holy Ghost is there to identify that Word, let them say what they want to. Yes, sir. God still performs paradox.

150And we find out that Samson, think of that, with an old brittle jawbone of a mule, that had been laying out on that prairie there for many years. And anyone knows you could hit it against a rock, it'd fly to pieces. And the... "Samson, the Philistines is upon thee." And he looked around. He had nothing in his hand. And here was a thousand Philistines standing there. So he just reached down, picked up this old jawbone.

151 And you think of those helmets, was sometimes an inch-and-a-half thick, over the top of their heads. And he took that mule's jawbone and beat down a thousand Philistines. Hum! Them sticking up in the rocks, hiding; said, "You want some of it? Come on down." It was a paradox. But the Spirit of the Lord was upon him. That's what made the difference. It was a paradox to see a man with well-armed men, trained men to fight, with long spears, and knives and so forth, helmets and armors, and this one man standing alone out in the field with the jawbone of a mule, and beat down a thousand of them. But it's the truth. The Bible said it was.

152A man that could take the gates of Gaza, that weighed down there probably eight tons apiece, big brass gates. And they fenced him in, one night. Said, "We'll get him." Said, "We'll comb every hair in here till we find him, and we'll get him." But this little shrimp come out about midnight, looked out there, and the gates was in his way. So he just picked them up and put them upon his shoulders, walked up the top of the hill and set down on them. It was a paradox.

153 You can't fence God in. You can't tie Him in nowhere. He is God. Sure. Great victories that he won! Samson, God used him and made paradox. He used anybody, as long as you'll take His Word, if you're ordained for the Cause. If you're not, well, then just stay with the ones... Listen to the Message then.

Now we'll hurry. I see I got about ten minutes left.

The virgin birth was a paradox.

154[Someone says, "You got till ten-thirty."--Ed.] Ten-thirty. I'll try not take all that. You been such a nice audience, everywhere. And I--I--I know I'm supposed to stand here and make a speech to these Business Men, and so forth, but I--I can't make speeches. I don't know anything about it.

155 Only, I remember here not long ago, Billy, just before his conversion, he was with me. And he said, "Daddy." We was in a place, eating. There was a song going on, you know, like that. He said, "Ain't that a pretty song?"

And I said, "What song?"

156And he said, "Daddy, you know there's only one thing about you that's wrong?"

And I said, "What's that, Billy?"

He said, "The only thing you think about is Christ. That's all."

157I said, "That's a compliment, son." Yes, sir. He thought he'd get next to me, you see. But, that, that's... That did. That's what.

158I--I--I just know Him. That's all I want. "And to know Him is Life." Know these other things I don't know about, it might--might identify as a smart man. And I don't want to be a smart man; I just want to know Him. "I know Him," as Paul said, "In the power of His resurrection, that when He calls I'll come out from among the dead." That's all. That's all. And I want Him. I want Him. I want my name on the right place.

159 Now, it was a paradox when God caused a woman to conceive. It was a paradox that how God, the Eternal that fills all time and Eternity, could come down, become one little Baby crying in a manger. That was a paradox.

160It was a paradox when He died at the cross. That was a paradox, to think that God would come human, so He could die as a human, to redeem His own creation. He had to do that. There's nobody else. If that was anybody else besides God, see, if that was anybody else besides God, we're lost.

161 For instance, what if I had the jurisdiction over you as God had over everything, and I'd say, "Well, I'll tell you what, anybody looks at that light is going to die, like take the tree"? And the first thing you know, this brother setting here, this would look at that. I feel sorry for him. I--I don't want him to die. So I'll have Terry here, to... That wouldn't be right. No. Well, if I'd have my own son to do it? That wouldn't be right. There's only one way I can be just, and that's take his place.

162And God could not take a human's place, being He is Spirit. So God created a Blood cell, which was His own Son, Jesus Christ. And God came in and lived in there, and lived, identified Himself in Christ. That was God, Emmanuel. Jesus said, "I and My Father are One. My Father dwells in Me." See? "God in Christ, reconciling the world." Jesus was the body, the tabernacle, God was the Spirit that lived in Him.

163 Now, for instance, we have the Spirit by portion. He had It without measure. He was the fullness of the Godhead bodily, God. But we have It by measure.

164Now, for instance, like the little gift that we have among us now. Now, that's like taking a spoonful of water out of the ocean. Jesus was the whole Ocean, but this is just a spoonful. But remember, the same chemicals that's in the whole ocean is in this spoonful; only it's more of it out there. See?

165 He was God. We are not God. We are not God. But, together... If you notice, it's so beautiful, illustrated. When that great Pillar of Fire that followed the children of Israel through the wilderness, It appeared to Saint Paul. When It come down on the Day of Pentecost, It broke up, and tongues of Fire set upon each of them. It was God in this Pillar of Fire, the Logos, separating Himself among His people, showing that Christ and the Bride, see, God and His church, are becoming one. Why, it's just the most beautiful thing you ever seen. Then, together, brother; not in different organizations, we'll never stand.

I'm a Kentuckian. "Together we stand, and divided we'll fall."

166Why did the Indians lose this country to the white people? Is because they was--they was divided among themselves.

167How are we going to lose this great race? Is because we're divided. How we going to do it? We got to stay together. We're all believers in God. The Holy Ghost takes us all in. It'll be a paradox if God ever gets us together, but He will. Just trust Him. The virgin birth... He knows how to send the persecution that will run us together. Now, the virgin birth was...

168 Now, Pentecost was a paradox, how that God chose a bunch of illiterate fishermen that didn't even know their--their ABC's. There is told that Peter couldn't even sign his own name. The Bible said that he and John, Acts 4, was ignorant and unlearned, but yet they taken notice that they had been with Jesus. That's the main thing. And how God chose...

169Now, the--the church had trained up a bunch of men for that, thousands of fine, intellectual priests who knowed that Word, they said, from all the meanings of it, and everything, studied it day and night, just had it in their heart, and failed to see It. And God chose a bunch of men that didn't even know there how to sign their name. That was a paradox. From taking a man who was trained for the Word, and by the Word; and take a man knowed nothing about the Word, and confirming the Word through him. That was a paradox, certainly was.

170 It was a paradox, how that them people up in that upper room there, afraid of the Jews, and had walked with Jesus, but when the Holy Ghost came, they wasn't afraid no more. Out into the street they went, screaming, and falling, and acting like a bunch of drunk people. That was a paradox. The Holy Ghost came upon them, women and all. They wasn't ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It certainly was a paradox.

171The old prophets' visions was a paradox. We can't explain a vision. How are you going to explain a vision? It's something that happens to the person, that he foresees things for years to come. It happens exactly on the dot. That cannot be explained. There's no scientific way of doing it.

172 Here some time ago, in--in a fuss with a doctor, when I was at a Kiwanis meeting. He said, "Mr. Branham, I don't want... I--I like to hear you talk," he said, "but--but, I tell you," said, "I--I can't believe anything but what it's scientifically proved."

I said, "You claim to be a Christian?"

He said, "Yes. Some of It's puzzling to me."

I said, "Then you can't be. You must believe all of it. See?"

He said, "I--I can't believe the virgin birth."

173And I said, "Well, I can believe--I can believe the virgin birth better than I can believe the natural birth." Certainly can.

174 How, if you would ever see the natural birth, how that sperm from male, and female. And where is... Who determines what it's going to be? Here is the sperm from the male, with the--the hemoglobin, the blood in it. And here is the woman, which is the egg, up here. Now, the first two that meets, the germ crawls into the egg, and the rest of them die. And there's tens of thousands times thousands of those germs.

And you say, "Well, the first in front." No, no. They stop.

175And maybe it'll be a germ come up from the middle of the germs, and the egg come from the very back end, and they'll come across one another and meet. It's determined whether It's going to be boy or girl, whether it's going to be a red-headed or black-headed, what disposition it's going to be. Something, unknown to science, determines it. That ain't a paradox, what is? Point-to-point is the closest way around, we--we understand, but not that time. God determines it. Why, the natural birth, if we had time to break it down, even to the chemistry of the blood and so forth, and prove that out, my, it's a great mystery. How we--we take it commonly!

176 And that's the trouble, we Pentecostals, we're taking God too commonly. The whole thing, we just let it pass by. Don't do that. That's not right. Don't do that. Look at it and praise God for it. Every little thing that takes place, give God praise. That's what He shows, you appreciate. What if somebody keeps doing things for you, you don't even thank them, or nothing, see? Then, after while, they get tired of doing that. See? So, now, God will too. Now, remember, He's able of the stones to rise children to Abraham.

177Now, them visions of the old prophets were certainly paradox. We cannot explain them. They're without explain, explaining, but every one of them happened just according to the way that they said.

178 Listen. Right now, in our midst, Jesus Christ is here. That's a paradox, how that He's alive after two thousand years. Who can explain that? How that He, that Spirit, unseen, can come among us, and take an individual, and identify Himself exactly, impersonate Himself in an individual; as you, as a believer, and to a gift. That's a paradox. Nobody can understand that. Nobody can know. How perfectly He can just say to each person, what it is, and what's this, and where is this, and what's that, and never be mistaken. Because, He's God. He can't mistake. That's a paradox.

179How is it now? As I come in last night, and hearing my brother, my field manager here, Mr. Borders, speaking (I just got the last part of it), about George J. Lacy taking a picture of that Angel of the Lord. Search it. If that isn't the same Pillar of Fire that followed the children of Israel! See? How do you know? It's got the same nature.

180 When Jesus was on earth, He said, "I come from God, and I go to God." And we know that He was the I AM. And the I AM was that Logos, that Pillar of Fire. And then when He went back to God, and ascended up on high, Saul of Tarsus was on his road down to Damascus, one day, and that same Light fell in before him, and blinded him.

181Now, look, it's possible that one can see It, and the other one can't. Tens of thousands have seen It. When I used to tell about It, they say, "Oh, that's psychology. He just imagined That. Them people, just so under emotion."

182But when George J. Lacy took that picture, he said to me that day, over at--at Houston there, in the--in the building, before all that Times, Life, and Collier's, and all them there, the magazines. He said, "Mr. Branham, I'm one of your critics, too." He said, "But I want to tell you. I said it was psychology, but," said, "the mechanical eye of this camera won't take psychology." [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] "... the testator is dead." See? He said, "But someday after you're gone, it'll be on ten cent stores." Said, "I'm in position to know there's never been a supernatural Being that's been scientifically proven. But," said, "This is scientifically proven. The Light struck the lens." Then, you see, the testimony that I given since a little bitty boy, that I've seen that Light before me always. And you know, you read the books and seen the documented statements. See? It's the truth. I'm not here to deceive you.

183 I got a wife. I got a little boy, called me the other night, on the phone, crying, "Daddy, come home." How he'll cry and go on, when he sees me leaving, because so many accidents in planes, and things like that. My little girls and them, why, they're daddy's girls. See?

184I get paid from my church. I never took an offering in my life. I don't ask people. When people gives me money, I put it in foreign missions. See? Some of my trustees are setting present right now, knows that's true. I don't spend one cent of it. I take the Gospel, myself. I get enough built in there, I take off, overseas, and preach to the people. That, that you--that you--you... You're sponsoring them. They don't have one penny of money. And then when I go over there, then I go over there and preach the Gospel over there. The way is already paid by you Americans. You're building your home; you know nothing about it, but, that Day, you'll understand. See? It's you doing that. I get a hundred dollars a week from my church, and that's right.

185 I don't have no reasons to be out here, no other way. But it's--it's something in me. I can't curse it or bless it. It's, it, it's a pulsation. It--it drives me to it. You think it's easy, stand here and speak against organizations, and see these brothers setting here, brothers who stuck their neck right out, to have me to come here?

186Even our Christian Business Men, brethren, when I had to tell Demos about, THUS SAITH THE LORD, what was going to take place in that organization. Which did, a few weeks ago, by Brother Ford and them. Told them, two years ago, to watch what would happen. See? You're getting it into you, going to make it an organization. When it does, then I'm through with it, that minute. It's been an oasis, because the people, the ministers, will come in, 'cause that's their support. See? And then I get to bring the Message and plant the Seed, everything I can.

187 It's not because I want to be different. If I'm that way, then I'm a hypocrite. Then, God will never work them things through a hypocrite. God identifying a hypocrite? And far be it from God.

188It has to be Truth. But if we could just shake ourself a minute and realize. Don't think it's some man. Some man has got nothing... some... God has to choose somebody.

189Now, you historians here, did God ever use an organization? [Several say, "No."--Ed.] Never. Now I want to ask you something else. When a man raised up with a message, and that organization organized an organization behind that message, it died right there. And God put it on the shelf, and it never did come to life. ["Right."] Now just ask, ask yourself that question. Now, see, now that's not talk against...

190 Now, there's Catholics. All my people are Catholic. I'm an Irishman. And all my people are Irish-Catholic, and they're fine people. And I'm not against the Catholic people. It's the system! I'm not against the Methodists. I'm not against the Pentecostals. It's that system that bars us out. "We're that," see, you're working for one achievement here. And we are trying to produce God, the Bible. And they've already got their documents drawed, their--their form of religion, what they believe; and outside of that, you can't cross it.

191 And you think it's an easy thing for me to stand here and say that to brothers who love me? You think it's easy for me to bawl you sisters out, with short hair? You think it's easy for me to bawl you men out, for letting your women wear shorts and things like that; when them women put money in, to support me, missionary, over the seas? If there was no money went in the church, I could... my children couldn't live. And somebody who is nice to you and kind to you, you think it's an easy thing for me to stand there, when I love people?

192 When I was a little boy, my father being a bootlegger, I was hated. Anybody... Go downtown, I start to talk to somebody, nobody would have nothing to do with me. They, they'd see somebody else come along, they could talk to, they'd walk away and leave me. And I--I always loved people.

193When I was a little boy I set in, in reading my--my--my history book. I was reading one day, and seen there where Abraham Lincoln got off of a train down here in New Orleans. And there was auctioning off a big colored slave down there, and--and to breed him over to some bigger women, to make better slaves. Abraham Lincoln took his hat off, and twist his fist. He was a Kentuckian, too. He said, "That's wrong. That's wrong." I still say it's wrong. God made man. Man made slaves.

194God makes us our color, just like He does the flowers. He has a white flower, a blue flower, a red flower. Let them alone. Don't hybreed it. Leave them alone. Let them the way they are. They're all God's flowers. It's His bouquet. God made man, and man made slaves. We don't need to be slaves.

195 Like I said, this Martin Luther King is leading his people to a crucifixion. It's communistic. Sure, it is. If them people were slaves, then I'd be down here fighting for them. Right. But they're not slaves. It's an argument, where they go to school or not. Won't go to talking about that. I just thought I'd express it. See? All right. Notice. It's just the Devil. Certainly.

196We're all human beings. We all come from God. God by one blood made all nations. A colored man can give me a blood transfusion. His blood is just the same as mine is. Mine is, I can give him one. Who am I to argue? He is my brother.

197 But I don't believe in marrying, intermarrying like that. I don't believe in a white... What--what business would a beautiful, young, intelligent colored girl want to marry a white man for, and have mulatto children? What would a fine, intelligent colored girl want to do a thing like that for? I can't understand it. And what would a white woman want to marry a colored man, with mulatto children? Why don't you stay the way God made you? "Be content with such as you have." See?

Now notice the virgin birth, and the prophets. All right.

198 Now, today, He is still alive. He is still here. He is proving Hisself by His Word. This Word is God. You believe it? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] And then this Word is allotted here for this day, there's got to be somebody come by, that that Word can become quickened and make that Word live.

199That's when He was born, a virgin birth, it was unusual, out of the ordinary. These things are out of the ordinary, and He couldn't help it.

200 No more than Joseph could help being who he was. Look at those four patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Abraham, calling; Isaac, election; or, vice versa. Abraham, election; and Isaac, calling; Jacob, grace; Joseph, perfection, nothing against him. That was God, working its way out.

201What? Luther; Wesley; Pentecost; the capstone, and the Church and the Word becomes the same, same thing exactly, perfectly. Everything in the mathematics in the Bible, perfectly sets us.

202I wish I had a month here with you nice people. We could set down and talk that over, and see. See? We just run him out. Looks spooky, till you walk away and say, "I wonder," many of them. Not you, but many of them, say, "I wonder." You see, you just have to hit the end of it and walk away, just enough that you can see. See? And that's the way God calls His people. He always does it that way. Notice now.

203 Now, He's still alive today, a paradox, the Pillar of Fire identified among us, scientifically. And It's still here, since plumb back in the wilderness with Moses. He is still the I AM. Not "I was," or "I will be." I AM, present tense, scientifically. And by the...

204Notice this Pillar that put the eyes of Paul out, Saul, and them men standing there didn't even see nothing about It. They didn't see It. But It was so bright, to Paul, It put his eyes out. He always was bothered with his eyes, from then on. See? He, they put it... Now, look, that being a Hebrew.

205And he said, "Lord, Who are You?" Now, would that Hebrew have called some kind of a spirit, "Lord," that staunch man who was taught under Gamaliel, renowned teacher? And he knew the reason It was Lord, It was the Lord that led His people out of Egypt. There was that Pillar of Fire standing there, saying, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"

Said, "Lord, Who are You?"

He said, "I am Jesus."

206 Now here He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. See? He returned, and promised It to return in the last days. There He is, the Holy Spirit, see, returning in the last days, to bring a people. Now look.

207Right at the end of the Jew and the Samaritan, this manifestation of the Word of God, knowing the thoughts that's in the heart, He showed that to them before they were taken away. And the veil over their face (that I was going to preach about tonight) had--had blinded them. See? They didn't see It. Now, if He--if He done that before, on them two races of people... Which, I say there's three: Ham, Shem, and Japheth. If He did that, and He lets this church here go in on intellectual conceptions, then He did wrong. But He's the same yesterday, to Ham, Shem; Japheth, the same; yesterday, today, and forever. And He promised to do it. So He's no respecter of person.

208 And watch how Abraham come up through his signs and things. And the last sign that he saw done by God, was God Himself. He saw Him in Lights and everything else; but God Himself was manifested in a human Being that eat and drink.

209Some man said to me one time, a minister, Brother Foss. He said, "Brother Branham, do you mean to tell me, you think that One that eat was, that that Man stood there eating that calf, and eating cornbread, and the milk, do you think that that was God?"

210I said, "Certainly. Abraham said it was. He was the one talked to Him. He ought to know. He said He was Elohim." I said, "You..."

211See, He come down to make an investigation, as He is now in the investigation judgment, see who is believers. We been hollering so much about it. Just investigate, see who really is believers. See? And He made Hisself manifest.

212He sent the little wheat type down in there, like in the modern messages we hear in Babylon.

213 But watch what He done there to that church elect. He give it a chance, too. See? See what I mean? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] And he's bought... My God, what did He do? You know, we're made out of sixteen different elements of the earth; potash, and--and petroleum, and cosmic light, and whatmore. He just reached over and got a handful of atoms, and cosmic light, petroleum, said, "Whew! Step into it, Gabriel." And made one to step into it, Himself. That's our God.

214And when He give His message to Abraham, He vanished and turned right back to God again. All them atoms and things just broke up. Like a fire breaks up the acids and--and chemicals in the wood or coal, or whatever you're burning, turned back to the unseen. I'm so glad my Father is like that.

215See, I know, after this body has become nothing, but you can't see no more, just the chemicals where it was; someday He'll call, and I'll answer Him. Yes, sir.

216 My wife said, here not long ago. I was combing these two or three hairs I got left. And she said, "Billy, you know what? You're getting completely baldheaded."

I said, "I haven't lost a one of them."

She said, "Pray, tell me where they're at."

217I said, "All right, sweetheart, I will, when you do this: tell me where they was before I got them; I'll agree with you. See? Wherever they was before I got them, they're there waiting for me to come to them." Amen. Hallelujah!

218That's my God. That's our God. Sure. If we're Abraham's children, we believe it. Yes, sir. He is our God.

I got to hurry.

219 The Pillar of Fire is identified scientifically, and by the reaction, by Its character and everything else, just the same. As It was when It was dwelling in the body of God's only begotten Son, so does It dwell in the Body of His adopted sons for the last day.

220 Now, I know, brethren, we've had a lot of this impersonation. But the Bible said it would happen, you know that, "As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses." See? It's just got to happen. But don't let that--don't let that blind you. When You see a bogus dollar, remember it was made off of a real one. See? If it isn't, it's the--it's the original.

221But there is original Holy Ghost, original Christ, certainly. He is the Holy Ghost. Notice now, and the Pillar of Fire still alive today, among us. After all these thousands of years, and still It's here. It's a paradox.

222 The seed in the ground is a paradox. I'm going to close, about twelve minutes. The seed in the ground is a paradox. How that that little seed will go in the ground and die. And then when that little seed dies in the ground, then you might take a handful of the dirt and take it to the laboratory and examine it, you couldn't find that germ of life if you had to. There is nothing scientifically there, show it's there. But just let the sun rock around in its right position. Watch what happens. It comes from somewhere. It ri-... That's a paradox. They can't explain it. See, everything in it dies but the life, and the life is unseen. And wherever the little life is, it is supernatural. And the natural body is completely gone, but the supernatural still lives.

223 Now, that little seed can be buried. Now listen to me, friends. That little seed can be buried in the ground. And if that seed hasn't become germitized with the mate, I don't care how pretty the seed is, it'll never live. See?

224I don't care how pretty our churches get, how nice we try to dress, how fine and intellectual we become, unless we become in contact with the Mate (and the Mate is the Word), see, you can't rise. There's no way for you to do it. See?

225 You know, we take corn. We're living in a day of hybrid. Everything is hybrid, till they've even hybrid the church. That's right. They've hybrid the church, from the Word, to intellectual creed, denomination. Jesus never did say, "Go make denominations." He never did say, "Go build schools." Said, "Preach the Gospel, demonstrate the power of the Word of promise for the day." See? But we've hybrid it. Now we got a prettier church.

226You Pentecostal women, your mothers used to stand on the corner, no stockings on; little, old wore out shoes, them tennis, beating a tambourine. The denominations laughed at her and made fun of her. Dad stood there, with needing a hair cut, and picking up corn on the road somewhere, feed you kids. It's too bad you got away from it.

227 Now, you got a bunch of Rickys in there that wants to come like the rest of them, like Israel did, wanted a--wanted a king of their own. You want to make your own. See? And now what you got? A bunch of educated Rickys. That's right. They got this intellectual. They want to be like the rest of them, Dr. So-and-so, and Dr. So-and-so. See? And where has it got you to? You're more prettier. That's right. They're better churches. But where is that Spirit was in there? Where is them all-night prayer meetings, "Them sin of the city"?

228Remember, the Holy Spirit said, "In the last days, go seal those only who cry and sigh for the abominations did in the city."

229I want you ministers to lay your hands upon that member of your church, you Pentecostal ministers. Then, when you find this, then you come and I'll apologize to you. You find that member of yours that can't rest day and night, for crying for the abomination of sins done in the city. Ninety percent of them stay home and see We Love Susie, instead. Oh, you speak with tongues, sure, jump up-and-down and shout. That's all right, nothing against that; nothing against your organization, either. But I'm trying to talk about Life. Where is It at?

230 Now you show me that member. Look how worldly, how indifferent. Always the outside expresses what's on the inside. "By their fruits they're known." Where's It at? I just ask. Just answer your question, 'fore you condemn. See? Just ask that question. Fine. See? I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm trying to help you. See? I'm trying to help you.

231That seed must die. When the Jew... These Greeks come to Jesus and said, "We would see Jesus." Jesus, what did He say? The first thing He said, "Except a corn of wheat falls into the ground, dies, it abides alone." He showed them how to see Him: die to yourself, die to your ethics, your creeds, and all this. Just be born in the Word, into Christ. That's a paradox, to see it come forth. Yes.

232 I remember, here not long ago, I was down, a little place called Acton, Kentucky, way back in the mountains, never been there before. A fellow named Mr. Woods, and I... He was a Jehovah Witness. And he was at one of the meetings, and the Holy Spirit spoke. He had a boy with a crippled leg drawed up under him like that. I was standing on the platform, just preaching. And I looked. I said, "I see a man setting way in the back of the building." Three times as long as this is here, a big tent. And I said... And we was up around, oh, it's up on the Great Lakes. "And--and this man," I said, "He's got a boy. The man comes from Kentucky, way down in Kentucky. He's a contractor. His name is Banks Woods. He's got a boy that's got polio. His leg is drawed up under him." I said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, he's healed." So, the woman stood there.

233Now, there's just many people standing right here this morning, my people, that knows David Woods. How many knows David Woods, know? That's right.

234Right then he raised up, and his leg perfectly normal. That settled the Jehovah Witness problem. And besides that, by them same visions, has led his whole people.

235 His brother come in to make fun of him and just tear him apart, said, "What are you doing, following some kind of a fanatic like that, some of these modern day cults?" A reader in the Jehovah Witness.

236He said, "Well, the man is out there cutting grass." I had on a big old straw hat, and out in the field, mowing. I come in, set down. He said, Brother Banks said, "This is my brother, Lyle."

I said, "How do you do, Mr. Wood?"

Said, "How do you do?" Oh, real arrogant.

237I set there a little bit, and the Lord gave a vision. I said, "Mr. Wood," I said, "I suppose you don't believe this?"

238He said, "I certainly don't." And he said, "There's no such a thing as things like that." Said, "It's just a bunch of makeup that you got my brother all mixed up in."

239I said, "You know, the Bible said, 'One word against the Holy Ghost will never be forgiven.'" I said, "What? And Jesus was doing the same thing."

240See, he had never seen it yet. See? So he--he said, "I don't believe in no such."

241I said, "All right. If you would believe in such, you'd go back to your wife that you've left." He looked around at me. He looked over. Now, he didn't know that I was catching his thoughts.

242 How strange, people come around, see that on the platform, and think that you don't know just exactly. Why, He reveals things right around you. See? But you can't say it. Jesus knowed Judas was with Him all the time, but yet, see, let it alone, 'cause there's a purpose of it. See? And just...

243So, he set there. And he said... Looked around to Banks, as if Banks told him. That's his brother. I said, "You got two children, two little, blond-headed boys." He looked back to Banks again. I said, "What are you thinking, that Banks told me that?" I said, "How about this? Night before last, you were running with a woman that's got auburn hair, and you was in a room. And in this room, there is somebody knocked on the door, and you sent her to the door because you was afraid. It's a good thing. You got your head blowed off; another one of her lovers was standing there with a pistol in his hand."

He said, "God, be merciful to me."

244God knows how. Now he's a sweet, staunch Christian. His father came the same way, his sisters and all of them.

245 We were down in Kentucky, squirrel hunting, between one of my meetings. I had two weeks. Got real dry. How many ever hunted squirrels? Oh, my brethren, there's nothing like it. So, give me a .22 rifle, the middle of August, and I'm at home. How the Lord speaks out there, and know things! How He... oh, so forth. Notice. Then we...

246Got real dry, up on the ridges where we were at. He said, "I know an old man is an infidel." Said, "He's got five hundred acres of just hills like this, and down in the valleys, hollows," we call them there, "that you can walk, 'cause it's wet." Said, "We might get to some squirrels." Said, "But he's a rough old fellow."

I said, "Well, let's go down and see him."

247 So about a couple months before that, how we know the place was there, I had a meeting on the Methodist campgrounds at Acton, Kentucky. And that night, while the Holy Spirit was making discernment, there was a woman setting way back in the back of the grounds. And It called her name, and said, "You got a sister that's dying with cancer of the stomach. She's just been to Louisville, and they opened her up. The cancer was wrapped so around her, that you... They couldn't operate. And it's Mrs. So-and-so." She raised up and started crying.

248I said, "When you left home tonight, on a marble top dresser you taken a little handkerchief and you put it in your purse. It's got a little, blue figure in the corner." See?

249 You say, "How? That sounds very..." Well, how about Jesus telling where that fish had the coin in his mouth? How about the prophet telling the man that the mules had returned back? Just, see, you just... The Devil has an impersonation, yes. But you never hear of one of them preaching the Gospel and getting souls saved, see, by it. See? See? You ought to know better.

250So then we find out, told her that, said, "Take that handkerchief and lay it upon your sister, for, THUS SAITH THE LORD, she'll live."

251 Well, I don't know, any of you know Brother Ben? I forget what his last name. [Someone says, "Bryant."--Ed.] Bryant, that's right, Ben Bryant. Oh, my! You'll never... You'll always know him, if you ever see him once. If he had been here, he'd been screaming, throwing hands and feet in the air like that, screaming. So one time...

252Then he went with this woman, to put it on her handkerchief, and--and put the handkerchief upon her up there.

253And about two years later is when we went squirrel hunting. He said, "Let's go down into that." Yeah. I didn't know it was that same country. Was about twenty miles from where we were. So we went down there, and drawed way back over the hills and down the hollows, and up though a broom-sedge patch, and over this way, till we come to a big old house. And there set two old men, setting under an apple tree. Their old slouch hats pulled down. He said, "That's him. And, boy, he's a rough one." Said, "He's a trouble, an infidel."

254 So, we stopped. I said, "You better go talk to him, then. He know I'm a preacher, he wouldn't let us hunt at all." So he--he said... Walked up there and stopped.

255He was standing there, big chew, tobacco in his mouth, and it running all down through his beard, standing there. So he got around. He said, "Why," he said, "hello! Come in."

256So, he got up there. And he said--he said, "My name is Woods." He said, "I'm Banks Wood." Said, "I... we been... Me and my friend has been hunting over here," said, "for a few days, up here around Acton," he said. And said, "I--I..." Or, "It's so--so dry," said, "we can't get into the woods. The squirrels are so scarce." Said, "I know your place is posted, but I thought maybe I'd come ask you, you'd let me hunt."

Said, "What Woods are you?"

257He said, "I'm Jim Wood's boy." That was the Jehovah Reader, Witness Reader. See?

258 He said, "Old Jim Woods is one of the most honest men there." They lived in Indiana then. Said, "Most honest man that there ever was in this country." Said, "I can certainly trust you to not kill one of my cows or start a fire." He said, "Just help yourself." Said, "Go ahead and hunt in it." Said, "I got five hundred acres here. Make yourself at home."

259"All right." Said, "Thank you." He said, "I guess it's all right for my pastor to come too."

He said, "Your what?"

Said, "My pastor."

Am I taking too long? [Someone says, "No, sir."--Ed.] All right.

He said, "My pastor."

260And he said, "Woods, you don't mean to tell me you got so lowdown till you have to carry a preacher with you wherever you go," he said.

261I thought it was about time for me to get out then, so I got out of the car and walked around. I said, "How do you do?"

262 Looked at me, and washed his tobacco around, you know, and spit down like that. He said, "And you're a preacher, huh?" I said... Looked, squirrel blood all over me, and whiskers. I hadn't had a bath for two weeks, you know. And--and laying in the woods, sleeping, you know.

And--and so I said, "Might not look like one, but," I said, "I am."

263And he said, "Well," he said, "at least I can respect you looking like a human being." He said, "You look none like preachers I..."

So I said, "Well, thank you, sir."

He said, "I'm kind of against you fellows."

I said, "I--I understood, from Mr. Woods, you was."

He said, "You know, I'm an infidel. I'm supposed to be."

264And I said, "Yes, but I don't think that's anything to brag about, do you?"

265And he said, "Well," he said, "I don't know." He said, "I think you fellows are barking up the wrong bush." And you know what that means? "A lying dog." See, the coon ain't up there. See? So he said, "I think you are barking up the wrong bush. There's nothing up there, and you all are just lying about it."

I said, "Course, that's to opinion."

266And he said, "Yes, I guess that's the way you think it." He said, "Looky here, mister." Said, "See that old chimney up there? That's where the old house. I was born up there. My pappy built this house down here," he said, "about seventy-five years ago." Said, "I was raised right here. I've walked over these hills. I've looked everywhere, up in the skies, all around. I ain't seen no God, no Angels, or nothing else."

I said, "Well, that's to opinion."

267And he said, "I never seen one of you but what I thought was lying." He said, "I don't want to hurt your feelings, mister. I..."

268Well, is... Well, am I going to go hunting, or am I going to really trim him down? So I thought I'll just give him... Mama always said, "You give a cow enough rope, it'll hang itself." See? So, I thought, just go.

I said, "Yes, sir. That's right."

269He said, "I--I met... I heard of one preacher one time, that, if I ever meet the guy, I'm going to talk to him." Said, "He might have had something." And he...

We talked a little while, you know. And I said, "Who was that?"

270Said, "There was a fellow..." Said, "What was his name? He was up here at Acton. I believe they called him... I forget what his name was. Branham."

I looked over to Woods. And Brother Woods said, "Huh-uh."

271 He said, "You know," said, "old lady Casmo lives up here on top the hill." And said, "We--we taken her to the doctor in Louisville, and said she had cancer. And they just sewed her back up." Said, "The doctor give them medicine to give her, and keep her quiet till she died. And she was then just about time for her to be gone." Said, "She couldn't even raise in the bed." Said, "We had to pull a bed sheet out from under her. She... We couldn't put her on the bedpan, see, right from under her." Said, "Wife and I'd go up and clean up her bed, every morning."

272And said, "There was a preacher from way out yonder, somewhere in Indiana-er." Said, "He--he come down here, and he had a meeting up there." Said, "That man stood there that night and told her sister, So-and-so, of a handkerchief she had in her pocket." Said, "Coming on..."

273And said, "They brought a bunch of them holy-rollers over there." And said, "I thought they had the Salvation Army up on top the hill that night." That was old Ben crying out like that, you know.

274So he said--he said, "I said, 'Well, you know, she died.' Said, 'That's her family.'"

275 Oh, you know how it is back in the country. They just have one another, and they love and live for one another. It's too bad we don't do that around the big cities.

276"So they--they said we... And they was going, to die." And said, "I thought, 'Well, that's her.' Said, 'Well, it's late. We can't get her body out, till morning.' Said, 'I'll get my wagon. I'll go up there and get her, and haul her out, so we can take her to the... over to Campbellsville, Kentucky, about forty miles from there, to the undertaker.' Said the undertaker had to come to the main road, which is about eight miles, ten miles, out. Said, 'He can pick her body up from there.' Said, 'No need of going over there tonight. They'll just be crying.' Said, 'We'll just wait till daylight.'"

277Said, "You know, the next morning when I went up there, that woman had cooked some fried apple pies, and her and her husband set at the table eating them. And she was living on barley water."

278(I thought, "Uh-oh.") I said, "Oh, now, now, wait a minute." I said, "You don't believe that."

Said, "And you don't believe it?"

279And I said,... "Well, you was the one that said it." I thought, "Old boy, you're going to preach to me now, see."

He said, "You don't believe it?"

280I said, "Man, do you mean to tell me that such a thing as that could happen in all these scientific age where we have the best doctor?"

281He said, "If you don't believe it, I'll take you up there and prove it to you." Now the infidel is preaching to me about God. See?

I said, "Well, you, you mean that?"

He said, "Yes."

I said, "Well, what was it?"

282He said, "I want to... If I ever meet that man, I'm going to ask him what in the world it was that told him about that, and how he knowed that woman would be well. See?" Said, "I'm going to ask him about that."

283 I said, "Uh-huh." I said, "Well, that'd be a good thing." And I said, "Say, do you mind if I have one of them apples?"

284And it was laying on the ground. Fall of the year, you know, it was second week in August, and the leaves was dropping off the tree. And the apples were there, and they was nice apples. I picked it up and rubbed it on these old dirty pants, and went to eating it, you know, like that.

285He said, "Yeah, help yourself. The yellow jackets are eating them." How many knows what a yellow jacket is? So he said, "The yellow jackets eating them up. You can help yourself."

286So I said, "All right." So, I went to eating. I said, "Boy, it's a fine apple."

287He said, "Oh, yes. I planted that tree there myself, fifty years ago, by that stream." I said, "Hey, you know, we're going to have an early fall." I said, "You looky there." I said, "Wonder why that them leaves are dropping off that tree before we even have a cool night? August, the hottest."

"Oh," he said, "the life left it."

"Oh, is that what does that?"

He said, "Yeah, they're turning yellow and dropping off."

I said, "Where'd the life go?"

He said, "It went down into the root."

I said, "Well, what'd it do that for?" See?

288 He said, "Well, it's because if it don't, if it don't go down in the root," he said, "the winter will kill the tree. The germ of life is in the--in the--the sap that's in the tree, and it goes down at the root." And what a beautiful testimony there, see, of death, burial, and resurrection, again. See?

I said, "Then, what happens then? Does it stay down there?"

Said, "No. No."

289I said, "Comes back the next spring and brings you another bunch of apples."

"Yeah."

"And you set here and eat them."

"Yeah."

"And then you say you never seen God."

He said, "Well, that's just nature."

I said, "That right?"

"Yes, sir."

290I said, "I want to ask you something. If it's just nature, tell me what intelligence that warns that tree, that sap in the tree? It has no intelligence of its own. But what intelligence runs that sap down at the root, say, 'Get down here and hide in the depths of the earth now, till all the troubles past, then I'll bring you back up again'? See? Tell me. The life that was in the leaf, just the body died. The leaf dropped off. The life itself went down, coming back with a new leaf. See?" I said, "The life hid, went down in the ground."

291 Job, as I said last night, "Oh, hide me in the grave, see, till Thy wrath be past." He seen the tribulation coming, of course. See? Notice, he said, "Hide me."

He said, "Well, that's just nature."

292And I said, "Mister," I said, "if I put a bucket of water out here on the post, and then every August that water run down at the bottom the post, and then in spring of the year it'll come back up in a bucket again?"

He said, "Oh, oh, no. It don't have any life."

293I said, "There you are. Now you got it. See, it's life." I said, "See, that's God."

He said, "You know, I never thought of that."

I said, "Tell me what does that?"

294He said, "I don't know. I don't know what does it. I said, 'It's nature.'"

I said, "Well, Who controls nature? Is nature an intelligence? No."

He said, "Well, I never had thought of it just like that."

295 I said, "I'll tell you, I'm going out here, squirrel hunting, if it's all right."

Said, "Help yourself."

296I said, "When I come back, when I come back... You study real hard now. And when I come back, you tell me what Intelligence that tells that life in that tree to go down in the root and come back next spring, and I'll tell you What, the same Thing that told me that woman was going to live up there, that had the cancer."

Said, "Told you?"

I said, "Yes, sir."

He said, "Are you that preacher?"

I said, "Yes, sir. I'm Brother Branham."

297And there under that tree, that afternoon, by a simple little thing like that, I led him to Christ, tears running down his cheeks.

298A year later, I went down. I pulled my truck up in the yard. They had moved away. He was gone. He'd died. And when I come back, the lady was standing there, to give me a bawling out, for hunting on posted ground. He had told me, hunt any time I wanted to. She wasn't... didn't hear him say that.

299So I come up, I said, "I--I'm sorry." Said, "I come here early this morning, and parked the car here where you could see it."

Said, "Them Indiana license on there?"

I said, "Yes, ma'am." I said, "Your husband..."

300Said, "My husband has been dead almost a year." She set, peeling apples on the back porch, off that same tree. I said, "Well, he told me before he died."

Said, "I don't believe it."

301I said, "I was setting right out there one day." And I said, "I come up and I was talking to him. They said he was an infidel."

302She dropped that apple and looked around at me. Said, "Are you Brother Branham?"

Said, "Yes, ma'am."

303She said, "Forgive me." She said, "Forgive me." She said, "He died, shouting, both hands up in the air, praising God; knowing, as that leaf come back, he'd come back again."

See, a paradox, unexplainable.

304 Setting, eating some ice cream, just... (I'm closing.) Setting, eating some ice cream, not long ago. An old druggist told me, he said, "You know, Brother Branham, I got... You believe in paradox?"

And I said, "Yes."

305Said, "I heard your message one time on a tape, 'A Paradox.'" He said, "Many years ago, during the depression," said, "people on county, on relief, had to come get an order," and said, "to get their medicine." And said, "They have to stand in long lines." And said, "One day, a strange thing." He said, "I was setting back here reading a paper, and my young boy," said, "he was up there."

306 And said, "A little woman been standing in the line out there. She was to be mother, you know, any time. She had to get some medicine. The doctor prescribed it. Had to get the prescription filled." So, said, "The boy... The mother just couldn't stand up no longer. He brought her up there. Said, 'Sir, I'm going to stand in line. Got to take my wife home.' See? Said, 'Can I take her home? The doctor said to have this medicine this afternoon, and she can't stand any longer.' Said, 'Can I--can I get this prescription filled? See, I got the order here. I got to just get a note to say that I can do it.' And said, 'I'll bring it right back to you.'"

307"And the young boy, course, in time of depression, you know, he said, 'I--I'm sorry.' Said, 'I--I can't do that.' Said, 'We--we got orders not to do that.' Said, 'I can't do that.'"

308And said he just happened to turn around and listen to what it was. He looked up there. And that poor little woman, her mouth white, and holding against the side of the wall, like that. And her husband standing there, just as nice as he could be. He said, "Wait a minute, son."

309 Said, "I went and got the prescription, filled it, brought it back." Said, "Brother Branham, when I went to hand it out," he said, "I looked. I put it in the hands of the Lord Jesus." He said, "I rubbed my eyes. I looked again." Said, "He was the One reached out and got that prescription." Said, "Do you think I'm beside myself, Brother Branham?"

310I said, "No, no. 'Insomuch as you have done unto the least of these My little ones, you have done it unto Me.' A paradox, sure, it was. It fulfilled the Word."

311 There's many, big paradox we could talk about. But, dear friends, as we close, let's think of this. There's one great one coming, the Rapture. Let's all be ready for that one there. Let's condition our souls now before God, that when that time comes, that we'll go.

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

The morning breaks Eternal, bright and fair;

And when our chosen ones are gathered to their Home beyond the sky,

When the roll is called up yonder, let's all be there.

312 I set at this table this morning, looking at you. You know, we may never eat another breakfast together. You know that? This may be the last time we'll ever eat breakfast together. But there's one thing sure, by the grace of God, we're going to be at supper together, one of these days. I'll look across the table there and see you. I'll say, "Remember when we was down at Tampa?"

"Yeah. That's--that's when I made my full surrender." My!

313Course, tears will run down our cheeks. Then the King will come out, His beauty, wipe all tears from our eyes, say, "Don't cry anymore, children. It's all over. Enter into the joys of the Lord, that's prepared for you since the foundation of the world."

Let us bow our heads.

314 Heavenly Father, our time element means so much, Lord. We're just earthbound. And just a few minutes here and there, and it just runs out on us. And when we talk with You, we believe that we are risen with You now, "setting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." And You're with us this morning. We're conscious of that. We know that You're here.

315And we're speaking on the subject of paradox. That's the supernatural. It's a paradox that You ever saved a wretch like me. How that all my people, sinners, raised, the backwoods, a cocklebur, how'd You ever make a grain of wheat out of it, Lord? Paradox. Most of my people dying with their boots on, fighting, guns. O God! But Your grace saved me. I'm ever grateful, God. I'm ever grateful.

316I--I pray for others, Lord. If I could... If they could just know this wonderful Person, Christ. And I see them, Lord, as they set back with an intellectual conception of it, and really don't know what the Person, Christ, is. Lord, make it real to them.

317Help these, these fine bunch of men, Lord, my brothers. These ministers and business men who, in this great hour of darkness, they've identified themselves, Lord, their convictions. Even sometimes against the better thinking of their organizations, they want It anyhow. Bless them, Father. Bless each one.

318 Now, while we have our heads bowed. I wonder, this morning, if there's any here that's not sure that the little leaf, that you're making shade for somebody else, if the life should leave it, to go back to the ground, would it rise again? Is the seed germitized with the Mate, that would make it come back again? If you're not absolutely sure of it, friend, let us pray about it now.

319You know what the Life is? It's the Holy Spirit. If you haven't received that Holy Spirit in you, which is Life that was in the first Plant that raised up, see, Christ, firstfruit of those that slept. Now, if that Life that was in Him, that same Spirit, is not in you, no matter how nice you try to be, you can't come forth. There's nothing there to raise you up. You can take corn, hybreed it with something else, it won't bear no more. It's finished. If you just belong to church, and you're really not filled with the Spirit of God.

320 I know it's hard to make a stand now, 'cause they call you everything. That don't matter. They called Him the same thing. "And all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecutions." "They persecuted the prophets which were before you." They're doing it today. "They persecuted those who believed the prophets that was before them, so will they do to you."

321If you're not sure of it, with your head bowed and your eyes closed, I'm going to ask you one more thing to do. Please understand me. Bow your heart, will you? Just bow your heart for a minute. And you'd say, "Brother Branham..." Nobody looking but God and I. "I--I, truly, I'm a little in doubt whether I'd come up again. Will you remember me in prayer?" Now, we can't make no altar call, no more than you just raise your hand. Just raise your hand, say, "Remember me, Brother Branham." God bless you, you, you, you, you, you. Yes, all over. Thank God. Thank you.

322 Heavenly Father, little, simple words, but yet the great Holy Spirit is near, He Who knows the secret of the heart. And they've raised their hands that they're not sure about it. But, yet, they--they--they believe You. They, they want to. And they--they just... They haven't got That. They just don't know how that road will be, down the limb; out of the branch, into the limb; out of the limb, down into the trunk, back up again.

323You're the Guide, Lord. Like on a hunting trip, if you don't call ahead and make arrangements for the guide, you can get lost. And we're calling ahead now to the Guide of Life Who said, "I am the resurrection and the Life." You know the way, Lord. I'm writing You this little letter, in a form of prayer. And they're writing the same thing. Receive them, Lord.

324 They want to make reservations for the Rapture, that great paradox. They've been in the meeting this week, and they have seen Your Presence, and they know You're here. They're not that starchy, to think that... Men who bring Messages are not Angels; they're men. And we know that You work through men. And I pray now that their reservations will be made this morning. You said, "He that will confess Me before men, him will I confess before My Father and holy Angels." When that Day comes, then You'll guide them over the river; out of the branch, down into the vine, into the root of the tree, if You tarry; then bring them back up again, in that great paradox at the end of the road. They're Yours, Lord. It's between You and them.

325I pray, Lord, if they've never been baptized with Christian baptism, that they'll do that. Then they'll be filled with the Holy Ghost, the Life that will guide them. For it's in the Name of Jesus Christ we ask this. Amen.

326 Thank you, for your kindness, way over time. And I feel that I'm responsible. If there's any difference to be paid than what there was for the hall this morning, I'll pay it myself. We'll will make it right.

I love Him (Him!), I love Him

Because He first loved me

And purchased my salvation

On Calvary's...

327Notice the form of the Rapture, how it will be. We meet one another before we meet Him, 'cause, He knowed that when we got there, I'd be wondering if you were there, you wondering if I were there. "But," the Bible said, "we which are alive and remain to the Coming of the Lord shall not prevent or hinder those which asleep. For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which alive and remain shall be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, and be caught up together with them." Oh, what a worship it'll be that time. Now, "Caught up together with them." Now, we become part of that before that time comes, catching up into the Rapture.

328 Let's just shake hands, just for a moment. Then we be dismissed, officially, just in a moment. While we sing I Love Him, let's just shake hands with one another, say, "God bless you, brother. God bless you, sister."

329"I..." God bless you. "... Him." God bless you, brother.

[Brother Branham speaks to someone--Ed.] While they are dismissing, I'll follow, you know, keep from getting caught in the crowd, you understand.

"Be-..." Why, God bless you, brother!...?...

He first loved me

And purchased my salvation on...

God bless you, brother.

330Now let's just raise up our hands and close our eyes. Now, real sweetly.

I love Him, I...