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O Lord, Just Once More (63-0628A)










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This Message by Brother William Marrion Branham
called O Lord, Just Once More
was delivered on Friday afternoon, 28th June 1963 at the Associated
Brotherhood of Christians Campground in Hot Springs, Arkansas, U.S.A.
The tape, number 63-0628A,
is 1 hour and 33 minutes, and consists of 1 cassette. This message is available in book format (Volume 20, Number 10).

The text is provided courtesy of Voice of God Recordings, Jeffersonville Indiana
Voice Of God Recordings
P.O. Box 950, Jeffersonville, Indiana 47131 U.S.A.
Phone (812) 256-1177
Fax (812) 256-6187

The tape in RealAudio and MP3 (as linked above) is supplied by
Cloverdale Bibleway.




1 Good morning, friends, or good afternoon. I broke my watch; I can’t tell what time it is. [A brother says, “Still morning, brother.”–Ed.] Still morning, is it? All right. I…
Besides, we are living in eternity. We have no time. Time limit stopped
when Jesus Christ gave me His Life inside of me to live by, so we are
eternal creatures right now, setting together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. What a time.
Now, this is just my second day here with you, but, my, it’s like cold
molasses on a morning; it’s so thick and wonderful. I have never
enjoyed myself any more in any meeting. And I’m looking around now at
night, they’re so crowded I can’t see nobody, but today I can look
around. I had the privilege of shaking hands with this fine bunch of
ministers in this group here.

4
I remember an old man used to come to our church, by the name of John
Ryan, Elder Ryan, they called him. He was from Dowagiac, Michigan. And
he used to preach a little bit, and then run back and shake my hand.
And then he’d preach a little bit, and run back and shake my hand. I
said, “Brother Ryan, I–I appreciate that, but I–I don’t get the
meaning of why you do it.”
He said, “When the battery gets low, I need a charge, so I just got all charged up.”
I just seen a–a Methodist minister from up in my country, that just
received the Holy Ghost, and I baptized him. Setting over here to my
left, Brother Junior Jackson. I seen him shaking his hands like that,
kind of reminded me of–of Brother Ryan. How many thinks that the
Methodists can’t receive the Holy Ghost? You’re mistaken. Stand up,
Brother Junior Jackson. Him and his lovely wife there, they’re from
down in Indiana there, a Methodist minister.

7
Where is Wilbur Collins? Is he in the building this morning? Where you
at, Brother Wilbur? I thought he was around here. Another Methodist
minister standing over here, if you don’t think Methodists can receive
the Holy Ghost, be rebaptized. Stand up, Brother Collins. There’s
another one. The brother was up to Asbury College at Wilmore, Kentucky,
out of a fine Methodist background.
Now, there’s some more people with me here, that’s–that’s come down. I
heard them say “amen,” and I know they’re here, but I can’t see them.
Brother–Brother Fred Sothmann from the Tabernacle at Jeffersonville…
Fred, are you and Brother Tom here? I been hear him say, “Here.” Over
here in the corner, yeah.
We are very happy to introduce these men. I don’t exactly see at this
time; there’s perhaps more here that I don’t know. I think Brother Jack
Moore just got through speaking. And–and so these are fine men, and we
love them.

10
And now, it’s been such a wonderful time of being here. I said to our
wife, my wife, I said, “You–you should have come down in this
meeting.” We believe in a nice old fashion Pentecostal meeting. We
believe that where the liberty in the Spirit of God, that all different
phases of denominations can come together and set together in heavenly
places, as a church. Our differences makes no difference there; when
we’re in Christ, we’re under the Blood and in the fellowship of His
love.
And I want to say this to this group of ministers. I–I come into
Pentecost from a Missionary Baptist, and I have admired Pentecost.
They’re my people. I love them. If I thought there’s any church any
more right than that, I’d be at the other church. But I’m with
Pentecost, because I think that it’s the closest thing that I see to
the Scripture. If I knowed something else, I’d be with them; and so,
not disregarding any other belief, not at all… But the reason I think
of Pentecost, because it’s closer to what I think is Scriptural, than
what anything that I know of.

12
And there’s one outstanding thing in this convention, that I have
notice, that’s clean-face women, none of that manicure, you know, or
ever what you call that stuff. I don’t like that. That ain’t becoming
to Christians. No. That’s right. I–I like that. I’m the old fashion
school that–that likes cleanness. You see? I like to see women… You
know, I don’t mean…
This is no place to say anything, jokes and sacrilegious, to say so.
But I don’t say this for that meaning. This is no place for that.
By the way, when did you all get this thing? This come from my
Tabernacle, it looks like. It sure does. Is that right, church? Doesn’t
that look like the old pulpit? Well, then I’m–I think the same old
message we preach there goes across it anyhow, so…

15
You know, there’s only one woman in the Bible that ever painted her
face. And she never painted her face to meet God. She painted her face
to meet men. That’s right. You know what God did for her? Fed her to
the dogs. So when you see a woman wearing paint, you just say, “Good
morning, Miss Dog Meat.” That’s exactly what it is. That’s awful, isn’t
it? But that’s what God thinks about it. She’s just made common dog
meat for wild dogs. That’s about what she is. Some of these wild wolves
that goes around, whistling, you know; what they call wolfing, you
know. That’s what it is, just dog meat again.
I’m thankful for you women. God grant the grace to hold you in the
sight of the cross, get away from these things of the earth. After all,
we’re on our road to glory. We’re citizens of another Kingdom.

17
Long time ago… I was just looking around over the audience to see if
I could see one of the people, and that’s some of our colored friends,
the Negro. You know, a long time ago, down here in the south, they used
to make slaves out of them. Now, I’m a southerner. And there’s one
thing I’d like to say about them; I wish I could talk to Martin Luther
King. That man, being a Christian, don’t know he’s leading his people
right into a death trap, where there’s going to be millions of them
killed. See? He’s wrong.
I love my brethren, my colored brethren. I wouldn’t be in Africa and
around preaching to them, if I didn’t love them. They’re God’s people,
the same as we are. But I don’t believe that that man under this, is
only going to cause many, many, many more of them to be killed. Then
it’ll start a revolutionary again, that’ll never wade out of the people
down here. So they’re not slaves. They have as much freedom as anybody
else. They… If they were slaves, I’d be on that side. But they’re not
slaves.

19 It’s just because they want to go to school. They got schools. Let them go to school. That’s right.
Was
there… Remember that old colored brother standing up, that morning,
in that riot. He asked the militia if he could speak. He said, “I never
was ashamed of being a black man. My Maker made me a black man. But
this morning, I’m ashamed the way my race is acting. And what’s them
people doing to us? Only been good to us.”
“The white woman,” raised up and said, “I don’t want my children
schooled by a white woman,” said, “because they… she won’t pay
the–the interest, take interest in my children like a colored woman
was in my own race.” Said, “They’re… Just to look at our schools.
They got swimming pools. They got better schools and everything. Why do
we want to go to their schools?” That’s right.

22
I believe God is a God of–of, well, I’d say He’s a God of variety. He
makes big mountains and little mountains. He makes deserts. He makes
forests. He makes white men, black men, red men. We should never cross
that up. It becomes a hybrid. And anything hybrid cannot rebreed
itself. You’re ruining the race of people. There’s some things about a
colored man that a white man don’t even possess them traits. A white
man’s always stewing and worrying; a colored man’s satisfied in the
state he’s in, so they don’t need those things.

23
But back in the slave time, they were selling slaves, human beings,
like an auction block, like they would a used car lot. There’s a buyer
come forth through the country, and he’d buy them up, and go sell them,
and make money on them, just like you would on a used car or something.
Never was God’s program, God made man; man made slaves. One’s not to
rule over the other one. We’re to live together in unity and peace.

25 And this man come to an old plantation. He–he wants. “How many slaves you got?”
Said, “A hundred or more.”
He looked them over, and he happened to notice, there was one slave among those people…
The
slaves were sad. The Boers of Africa had caught the slaves, brought
them over here, and made, and sold them. And they knowed they’d never
go back to the homeland. They knowed they were here for the rest their
life. They’d never see their children again. They’d never see papa and
mama. They were here for all the time, and they were sad. And they’d
even carry whips, and whip them, to make them work. And so they had to
make them work, because they didn’t want to work. They were just all
broke down.

28
This slave buyer looked over there, and he found among these slaves,
there was one young fellow. They didn’t have to whip him: chest up,
chin up, right on the job. And the broker said to the owner of the
slaves, said, “I want to buy that slave.”
Said, “He’s not for sale.”
He said, “He seems to be different from the other slaves.”
Said, “He is.”
Said, “What makes the difference? Is he a boss over the rest of them?”
He said, “No, no. He’s just a slave.”
Said, “Maybe you feed him different than you do the rest of them.”
He said, “No, he eats in the galley with the rest of the slaves.”
Said, “What makes him so much different?”
He said, “I always wondered that myself, till I found out. Over in the
homeland in Africa where he come from, his father is the king of the
tribe. And regardless of where he’s at, he still knows he’s the son of
a king, and he acts like one.”
Hallelujah. If you’re a daughter of a King, then don’t act like the
world. If you’re a son of the King, don’t act like the world. We are…
We know that we are sons and daughters of God. Though we’re here in a
dark world of death and sorrow, yet we know where our heritage is. We
are sons and daughters of a King; not a king, but the King. Let’s act
like it.

34
A few moments ago, reason I was late, a little Ethiopian girl making up
the room, and I noticed she was doing something. I was trying to write
out some Scripture text for something I wanted to speak on. Don’t come
to speak just to be heard; I come to say something that’ll help the
church to do some help. And then I studying, and this little lady kept
kind of holding around. Directly she said, “Would you pardon me, sir?”
And I said, “Yes, ma’am.”
And she said, “They tell me that you is the man who did got favor
before God, that when you pray for the sick, that God answers your
prayer.”
I said, “He don’t only answer mine, but He answers anybody that’ll believe Him.”
She said, “I’m sick, sir. Would it be out of the way that if I ask you to have a little prayer for me?”
Said, “Not at all.”
I stepped up to her. I prayed something like this. “Lord Jesus, many
years ago, when You were dragging an old rugged cross up a sandy hill,
and dragging out the footprints of the Blood that was trailing down off
Your back, Your little, frail body got so weak that a–You fell beneath
the load. There was one standing by, by the name of Simon, a Negro; he
picked up the cross and help You bear it. Here’s one of his children
this morning, sick.” About that time, it happened. He’s God of the
whole human race.

39
Now, friends, you’re such a nice audience. And me being come in off the
field of missions out yonder, before devils and witch doctors, and so
forth. Don’t you think they won’t challenge you. You’d better know what
you’re talking about when you come before them. But under such as that,
and then coming here where the home fires are burning amongst
Christians, and so forth, you don’t know what a release it is for a man
to stand like this. I wish that I could just set back there in the
audience and hear these fine anointed brethren preach the Word, and I
could just raise up my hands and cry, and shout, and pray. And
how–what a–what a–what a thing it is to warm by the Fire. It–it’s
such a wonderful thing. But usually…

40
My brethren, I’ve got so many brethren that love me, and they ask me to
speak. And therefore, I know, that called to the service of the King, I
must try to work the best I can; but I always overdo it by staying too
long. I know you’re waiting for your dinner, been in here since eight
o’clock this morning, or something, in this group of people. But I
thought that, coming this afternoon to speak to you for just a short
time, I wrote out some notes here and some Scriptures, that I’d like to
refer to. And in doing this, thinking that you got men here who’s far
more eligible, and a calling of God to take this place than me. But
mine is prayer for the sick, and seeing visions, and so forth.

41
And I was talking to someone a few minutes ago. If you look in “Life”
magazine, last month, you’ll see there. And you got that tape. I’m not
a tape salesman. But if you ever believed the Words that I preach, and
you can afford it, get “The Seven Seals,” and first get “What Time Is
It, Sirs?” Listen to that spoke of, six months before it happened. And
science is baffled. Standing right under where it was happening there.
And told them, six months before, how that there’d be seven Angels in a
form of a constellation, and look like a pyramid, would drop down. And
I’d be standing north of Tucson, Arizona, and there would be a roar
that would even shake the rocks from the mountains. Brother Fred
Sothmann setting there, who was standing with us, many of them, when it
happened.

42
Now, science took the picture of It, you seen It, went on Associated
Press. They didn’t know what It was. There’s a Cloud hanging,
twenty-six miles high. That’s fifteen miles, or twenty, above even
where vapor’s at. They don’t know what it’s all going about, and
they’re trying to investigate It. And there, right under It, I was
standing. And those seven Angels roaring out their voices, of those
Seven Seals, standing there. And the witness, three of us, as a witness
of the things that was prophesied on the tape, “Sirs, What Time Is It?”
And there now they’re trying to find out. It’s a mystery to them.
Some of them said, “Go, go… Why don’t you go tell them?”
It’d be just like when the Angel of the Lord appeared here at Houston,
Texas, in that Light. I told the people all my life I seen that Light.
The church knows it. Science knows it. It’s… Everything has to
testify when Jesus Christ makes a move. There it is. The magazine, if
you want to look in it, it’s the one that’s got Rockefeller and his new
wife on the back. I think it’s May’s issue of the “Life” magazine. He’s
God. We’re living in the last days.

45
Now, I’ve come this morning to try to pick out a few notes here and
things to speak on something that would help the church, would help
with these minister brothers to put my shoulders to the wheel with
these men. We are brothers, and they bring me here because they believe
in the same ministry. You’ve been saved during this meeting, why don’t
you take your membership up with some of these fine churches here that
believes this type of ministry. They–they believe it; they stand
behind it. And I–I come that we might lay down the Scripture and for
something that might help the church.
And my subject like this morning, is to what state that I think the
Pentecostal church is of this day. What stand, what hour are we
standing in, and what’s the possibility? Now, let me quote that again.
What state the church is standing in now, and what possibilities lies
ahead for it?

47
I want to read from the Scripture for a text, and I want to read from
the Book of Judges the 16th chapter, 27th and 28th verses.

And the house was filled with men and women;
and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon
the roof about three thousand men and women, and beheld while Samson
made sport.


And Samson called unto the LORD, and said, O
Lord GOD, remember me, I pray thee,… strengthen me, I pray thee, only
this once, O LORD, that I may be… once avenged of the Philistines for
my two eyes.


I would like to take the text out of that, from that: “O Lord, Just Once More.” May the Lord bless the reading of His Word.

49
It must’ve been a–a lovely afternoon, something like we’re enjoying
today here on this campgrounds, here in Hot Springs, Arkansas. And
there was a great celebration going on, but very much contrary than
what the celebration is today. There was about three thousand
Philistines looking down from the galleries to a strange pair that
entered the great arena, and highly honored warlords and their fancy
jewel-decked ladies was all setting in position.
And as it was then, there was a, oh, something like a mushroom that
there was, the building setting upon pillars that went out, something
like maybe a modernistic type of architect, arch–architecture. And all
these Philistines gathered up there, and had placed themselves up for
this great event. And they were in this great celebration, and all eyes
were centered to the middle of the arena. They must’ve stood up, to get
a–a better look at the event was just about to take place.

51
And now, as we set here this afternoon, let’s see if we can, with
imaginary mind, place ourself in that position, to look at this scene.
What do we see?
Coming, moving out to the center of the arena, come a little boy,
holding the hand of a blind man, stumbling, staggering along. They’d
had many monkey shows, and–and little tricks, and so forth; but now
has arrived the time for the main event, the thing that they had waited
on so long, the main event of the day. The preliminaries were over, the
halls that echoed all afternoon with drunken revelry. For they were
celebrating the victory of Dagon, their fish god, over the ark and the
promise of Jehovah.

53
What a disgraceful sight it is, as we can imagine such a thing taking
place, of the fish god of a heathen nation, celebrating the victory
over the servants of Jehovah, all because of the failure of the man to
carry out the things that he’d been ordained to do. And here was a
heathen, drunken, brawling-out, jeweled women, painted faces, a modern
Hollywood celebration, bringing the servant of the Lord God bound in
shackles for the main event of the afternoon.
The lad must’ve drug along there, stumbling, come this great mass of
human flesh, both eyes out, hair hanging down his back, tied and bound,
to make entertainment for a drunken, brawling bunch of unbelievers. He
must’ve stumbled to the post to where they were going to make the fun
start from.

55
When I think of that, I think about a church that was ordained of God
to do something for God. And it suffered the enemy to blind its eyes
from the Word of the living God and the commandment of God, and to the
task that it was ordained of God to do; only to be sport in a hiding
place for drunken, painted-face, jewel-decked, short-wearing,
bobbed-haired women and men of the world. A church that ought to be
shining in the power and the strength of the Lord, what a disgrace.
How humiliating it must’ve been for Samson. With all of his framework
made up, that was more than able, and had proved God had His strength
through his framework, and every muscle that he ever had, still was in
his body, but the blessings of the Lord had left him.

57
We may have all of our framework. We may have our denominational
rituals. We may have our names in the papers and on the ledgers. But I
wonder today, if the Pentecostal church isn’t standing about the same
place, with its eyes poked out from the Word of God, and for the
purpose that Jesus died, that we together could fellowship around the
Word and the things of God.
Humiliated, he was, in the midst of the time that he lived… As I see
Samson stand there, it’s a symbol, a symbol of a fallen, morally
corrupted nation, and a morally fallen, corrupted church. ‘Cause he
both symbolized Israel as a nation, and the power of God, which belongs
in the church. It was certainly a pathetic sight, as we see him stand
there. After all, his bringing out there, and this lad leading him, and
no eyes…
If the enemy can only blind your eyes from the real thing of God,
you’ll walk right over the top of it and not know it. No matter what
God does, and vindicates it by His Scripture, and proves it by His
power, if your eyes are not open to the things of God, you’ll walk
right over it as blind as you can be.

60
And there he stands. So it must’ve been a breathtaking time, as these
drunken soldiers and women with their cocktail glasses in their hand. I
can hear it echo across the halls, “So this is Samson, the mighty man
of God, the mighty man of valor, the great warrior?” standing in that
condition. I’d imagine, through those warriors as they stood with their
arms around their modern Hollywood sweethearts, and their fine tinsel
jewelry dingling, the members of this great church of Dagon, I imagine
some of them could remember, that by the name of Samson, his very name
shook them. His very name brought–brought fear upon them, for he was
anointed of God. Many of them remembered it.
Many of them soldiers standing there, could remember of see him
standing with the jawbone of a mule in his hand, a thousand dead
Philistines laying there. How could it happen, when the jawbone of a
mule hit one of those helmets, that practically an inch-and-a-half
thick of solid brass, why, you strike that helmet with a jawbone of a
mule, that mule’s jaw would fly to thousands of pieces. But Samson with
the power of God upon him, beat down a thousand Philistines, breaking
down their shields and laying them at the–his feet. I’d imagine many
of those warriors had fled during that time, stood back up there and
remembered. “And that is Samson?”

62
They remembered of seeing the jawbone in his hands, and saying, “Who
else wants some of this?” He was a man who could speak. He’s a man who
was anointed of God. God promised to bless him. He was in the strength
of Jehovah.
Oh, no doubt there’s many here can remember back when the church stood
in that kind of strength, but now all broke up, all kinds of
denominations, one fighting the other one. The old all night prayer
meetings is not heard of no more. Street meetings is absolutely gone.
They’re obsolete. Yet we got our structure; we got the framework, but
where is the God of miracles? Frankly, many deny it, even denying
Divine healing, many.

64
Right here in this state, I had a–a church man with a great church,
said, I wanted to get some seats to put here in Hot Springs, at the
Armory when I was here, me and Brother Moore. And a Pentecostal man
said, “I wouldn’t even let…” He wouldn’t let me have the seats. He
said, “I wouldn’t let anybody set on my seats that believed in Divine
healing.'” That’s not only here; it’s everywhere. What’s the matter?
Prejudice, because of sponsorships and other organizations, forgetting
that we are God’s people by birth. Samson had forgot that also. I’d
remember…

65
I guess, while he was standing there, there was some of them remembered
that night at Gaza, how that the man could pick up the gates of Gaza,
lay them upon his shoulders, when they tried to fence him in.
You can’t fence the anointing of God in. No organization can hold it.
Amen. God saves those who He’s called. “All the Father’s given Me will
come.”
Well, they thought they had him fenced in. And he picked up the gates
and put them upon his shoulders, and walked away, went up the top of
the hill, and set down. Big brass gates that would weigh up to tons,
and a–a little man pull them out of the rocks, fold them up and lay
them on his shoulder, and walk up the hill with them; when anything
that stood in the way of God…

68
Many of them in that drunken brawl could remember that of Samson. But
what was the matter today, he didn’t… There stood Samson, but the
Spirit of the Lord didn’t come on him no more. He wasn’t anointed. He
had been stripped of this power by a woman that lured him away from the
commandments of the Lord.
I wonder today if that isn’t something like our churches. See? Woman,
in the Bible, represents “church.” And wonder if we haven’t listened to
the lure of other denominations, tried to educate our ministers into
a–a Bachelor of Arts degree, that our congregation could say, “Our
pastor has a B.A., D.D., or L.D.” Wonder if we haven’t went off on some
great wild tantrum to try to build a church that’s a little better than
the Methodists or the Presbyterian? We’d be better off in some mission
with the Spirit of God upon us, than we would be in this condition.
Wonder if we haven’t proselyted and pulled from one to the other to try
to make our organizations grow? And we’ve got great structure, but
where is the Spirit of the Lord?

70 There he stood, stripped by a woman. What must’ve went through that man’s mind as he stood there? He had time to think it over.
I
hope the church gets that much time. Which is more to you, a million
more or a deeper blessing of God in your soul? We have searched…
And could have many more things that I have jotted here, about those lords and what Samson did, what they were thinking.
Now, let’s go down to Samson. And what do you think was going through
his mind of the many victories that he had had, the many great things
that he had done when the Spirit of the Lord was on him? But he was
conscious that he had every muscle, but the Spirit of the Lord was
missing.
Let me tell you something, church. Don’t try to join the most fancy
church, the most eloquent bunch. You stay with Christ, where the Spirit
of the Lord is.

75
Then he must’ve thought of the great victories that God had give him,
and of the times that when his eyes were open, that he could see the
promises of God. But now, since he’s been caught up into this thing,
his eyes has been put out.
So many people today gets caught away in mental illusions, never think
to search the Scripture, see whether it’s right or not. Others try to
say, “It doesn’t make any difference.”
Paul, in Acts 19, thought it made a difference. And he said, “If an
Angel from heaven preached any other thing, let him be cursed.” See? It
does make a difference.

78
Now, we see Samson standing there, how he’s thinking of the things that
he once did with the Kingdom of God. And of how God… He had failed
God, and he had failed God’s people. Yes, sir. Now, he’s a prisoner of
the very nation that God raised him up to destroy.
I want to coast here a minute. Pentecost, you know I love you. When I
come to you, Jack Moore, Richard T. Reed, Brother G. H. Brown, Brother
Ben Pemberman, and other great men, to find out the things that you
had, it seemed that we had so much in common till we was like a glove
that fit on a hand; I fit right with you. For the Message, not knowing
there was such a church, that I believed in, here was a group of people
already to receive it. I’m still Brother Branham. I’m still your
brother, and I love you.
But do you realize, the very thing that God raised you up for, you have
surrendered to it. God brought you out of them organizations years ago
to make a people out of you, and you turned around and organized the
thing just of what God brought you out to defy.

81
I challenge any persons to show me any place in history, since the
church first organized, which was the Roman Catholic church at the
Laodicea–or Nicaea, rather, Rome, or when the Catholic church was
organized and made an organization. And has any church from Martin
Luther, this side…
When God gave Martin Luther the revelation of justification, and as
soon as Luther was gone, they made an organization out of it, and it
fell. Along come Wesley; after him and Asbury, and so forth left, they
made an organization out of it and it fell. Along come Alexander
Campbell, and it–it fell, with the organization. Along come John Smith
for the Baptists, and it fell. And every time that man has tried to
organize something, of a manmade system, it fell and never did rise
again. There’s not no history nowhere, where any church that ever
organized, but what did fall, and every one fell, never rose again.

83
The children of Israel in type, was to follow the Pillar of Fire. And
every night they must be ready, not to organize and set down here, but
to move with the Fire. That’s what God wants His people to do: move
with the Spirit, move with the time.
You say, “Well, Brother Branham, we’ve had all kinds of rains, and
inner rains and outer rain.” You’re intelligent. I don’t care what kind
of a revelation it is, and how good it looks, if it’s not according to
God’s Word, then leave it alone. This is the Blueprint through the
wilderness, the Word of the Lord.

86
But here stands the church today, the Pentecostal church, in about
twenty or thirty different organizations, each one calling the other
one, this, that, and the other, “buzzard roost,” and so forth. What a
disgrace, when the very thing that God pulled you out of them
denominations for, you turned around and done the very same things that
they did. That’s exactly what Samson done. God raised up Samson to
destroy the nation. And God raised you up for a people, not an
organization.

87
But when God started Israel from the–from Egypt, they were only about
ten day’s journey from the promised land, about forty miles. But they
stayed in the wilderness for forty years. Why? Grace had furnished them
a lamb for their sins, a circumcision of a sign, a Pillar of Fire as a
witness, Moses as a prophet. Grace had provided everything they had
need of, but they wanted something to do themselves.
Little did they know, when Miriam was dancing with the tambourine, and
the children of Israel dancing with her, and Moses singing in the
Spirit, they were only ten days from the full promise land. Little did
they know, forty years, and their carcass would rot in the wilderness.
What did it? Israel made its most rashal decision it ever made, when it
accepted law instead of grace, when they wanted to make some bishops
and something of their own, something they had to do into it. God was
in the midst of them, leading them.

89
And that’s exactly what Pentecost did. When God revealed some new
something in the Scripture, instead they called it new issues or
whatever you want to do about it. But when God revealed something,
instead of accepting Truth and test It with the Bible, they pulled out
and made an organization and separated themselves. And then along come
this, that, and the other, and now you stand corrupted, the Pentecostal
church, bound in the fetters of organization, the thing that God raised
you up to destroy, and now you’re just as organized as they are: godly
men in every one of them, and women; that’s true, every one of them.
And we’re every one guilty. Pot cannot call kettle black. We are all
guilty, every one of us, you oneness, twoness, threeness, and–and
whatever you might be. What a disgrace, what a reproach that you
brought upon Jesus Christ. What a reproach to the name of Pentecost.
They’ve brought so much reproach till it become a disgraceful name
almost. The people hardly want to associate themself with such a name.
It’s because that you did what you was supposed not to do. And going on
and following the commandments of the Lord, should be one great unit of
God marching on to victory today.

91 He let a woman lure him away from the Word of God; now he stands doing tricks for the devil. That’s right, just exactly.
Same
thing is taking place today, let Jezebel, the mother of harlots…
Revelations 17 says that she was the mother of harlots. Now, if she’s a
whore, that’s a–that’s a woman that lives untrue to her husband. She
claims Christ her Husband, and don’t live by His commandment.
And what are the other churches doing? What is a harlot? Is the same
thing as the other. What is it? Prostitution to God’s Word. And she was
the mother of harlots. And let that Jezebel doctrine, and so forth,
because a bunch of intellectual men, that wants to get together and
organize something so they can have big names themselves. And there
stands the church, divided brotherhood. Oh, my, what, what a disgrace
in doing it.
What a terrible thing it is, spiritually blind. “Oh,” you say, “well,
I’m not spiritually blind.” Actions speaks louder than words; prove
you’re blind by the way you stumble over things. See?

95
Now, remember, this tape’s being made and will be sent around the
world. See, and I’m not so much speaking right here, but this goes to
about seventeen different nations, out into jungles and everywhere.
Spiritually blind, blind to what? The Word of God, the truth of God.
Your organization won’t let… Fine ministers that comes to me, and
say, “I believe that to be the truth, Brother Branham, but if I
preached that…” Now, there you are. “If I believed that, well, the
people would…”
I don’t care what the people says; I don’t care what the organization
says; it’s what God said to be the truth. And if it’s the truth of God,
God will back it up. How can you expect to have faith when you have
desires to honor one from another? See, it takes faith away from you.

99
Went back to the denominations, Pentecost that was born out of
denomination… Pentecost was not born in a denomination; it was borned
out of a denomination. And the cunningness of Satan pulled you right
back into it, where you come out of, “As a hog went to its wallow, and
the dog goes to its wallow…” Now, look at them, defeated.
We ought to already be over in the promised land. Jesus Christ ought to
be so eminent among us, till there wouldn’t be any sickness. Oh, it
would be glorious.
There shouldn’t be bobbed-haired women, short-wearing dresses. And–and
it shouldn’t be men that’s married three or four times, deacons in our
church. And don’t tell me it’s not in Pentecost; it sure is. But it’s
because of social prestige. It oughtn’t to be, but it is. Why? Because
denominational pull, political, money, instead of coping with the Word.
Brush out some precious brother, and put somebody on because he’s got a
big social standing in the town.
I want a man that’s got social standing in glory. If he don’t know his
abc’s, what difference does it make? You know what ABC stands for?
Always Believe Christ. Uh-huh. That’s right. You learn that.

103
Some man come to me, not long ago, and said, “Brother Branham,” a
very–one of the best known Pentecostal ministers in the land. He took
me up in his room; he said, “I want to pray for you.”
I said, “I’m not sick.”
He said, “I–I love you.”
I said, “That’s mutually felt.”
He said, told me, said, “Why don’t you leave off of telling them women
about their bobbed hair and all this kind of stuff, and about the
church?” Said, “That’s not your business.”
I said, “Whose is it then?”
He said, “It’ll come to pass that you won’t have nothing but a bunch of posts to preach to.”
I said, “I’d rather do that and preach the truth, than compromise with the Devil.” See, see?
He said… I said… Said I–said, “Brother Branham, didn’t God call you to pray for the sick?”
And I said, “Yes, sir.”
He said, “The people believe you to be a prophet.”
And I said, “Well, that–that, I never said that.”
He said, “But they believe you that way.” And said, “If you’re a
prophet, why don’t you spend your time to teaching people how spiritual
gifts, and how to heal the sick, and–and how to do these, get these
spiritual gifts, and help the church instead of standing constantly
bawling the women out, and bawling the men out, and things like that?”
Said, “Well, why don’t you leave them alone?” Said, “Why don’t you
teach them something greater than bobbed hair and stuff, and let that
alone?
I said, “How can I teach them algebra when they don’t even know their abc’s?” That’s right. “Let them learn their abc’s first.”

110
An old minister went and preached justification at a revival, second
night, third night, fourth night, fifth night. The deacons called him
out and said, “Reverend, don’t you know no more than the sermon on
justification?”
“Oh, sure. But let them all get justified first, and then we’ll preach something else.” That’s right.
Oh, if you could only get back to the foundation… There stood Samson, defeated.
Now, look, we might be prettier; that might be so. But it’s just like I
was coming down the road the other day; I seen a big sign, said,
“Funk’s, a hybrid corn,” how great it was. But it ain’t no good. It’s
just as no good as it can be, and it’s killing the nation. You read
about it in “Reader’s Digest.” If women keep on eating hybrid beef, and
corn, and things, they can’t have a baby in twenty years from now.
There’s no good in it.

114
What is a hybrid, hotbed plant? If it isn’t original plant, you have to
keep spraying it all the time to keep the bugs off of it. The bugs will
eat it up. But if it’s original plant, you don’t have to spray it. A
good healthy plant, a bug won’t crawl on it.
That’s what’s the matter; you have to keep babying people in the
church, “Glory to God, sister.” See? You’re a hybrid; you’re brought in
by some other way.
You take that hybrid corn and plant it back, and what you got? Nothing. It won’t even make nothing.
The church is pretty today; that’s true: bigger buildings than you ever
had, the greatest congregations you ever preached to, the better
intellected ministers than you used to have. You used to have men out
of cornfields somewhere, that God called out there on the broom-sage
patch. But now you sent your children to school, and made grandchildren
out of them, and come back with all the Ph.D’s, and LL.D. And even one
of the great Pentecostal churches today, before they send a man to the
mission fields, he has to stand before a psychiatrist to see if he’s
mentally intellected enough. Think of it.

118
In Pentecost, the requirement was not a mental test; it was a test of
the Holy Spirit that fell down on the day of Pentecost. That’s out of
the question to the people today.
Did you know the Roman Catholic church was first the original
Pentecostal church? It taken it two thousand years to get in the
condition it’s got today. If this Pentecostal organization keeps on
another fifty years, it’ll be worse than the Catholic church. That’s
right. Sin heaping on every side… Now, you might not think that I…
You might think I’m crazy, but I know where I’m at. See? It’s true. You
just wait; you’ll find out. Yes.

120 The hybrid, hybrid corn causing women to narrow in their hips and widen in the shoulders, and so forth…
Evolution
used to tell us that in evolution, that certain animals got together
and bred something different, and something different, it come on out
to a man. They kept searching around till they disproved their own
theory.
Let me tell you something, you farmers here. What makes a mule? He is
the awfullest animal in the world. He’s a hybrid. He ain’t got no sense
to begin with: can’t teach him nothing. He’ll wait all of his life, get
to kick you just ‘fore he dies. You can’t tell him nothing. What is it?
Because he’s a hybrid.

123
Just reminds me of some hybrid Christians, so called. You can try to
tell an old mule something, he’ll stand with his ears up and go “Haw.
Haw. Haw.” See? All he knows is bray and carry on. You can’t tell him
truth and teach him nothing. That’s the way these people: tell them
about Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, “Haw. Haw. The
days of miracles is passed,” a braying of some seminary that we
learned. It’s a hybrid.
The Holy Spirit will punctuate every commandment of God with an “amen.”
That’s a seminary-something spirit breathing out of him. Not braying
against the Word of God, if it’s the Holy Spirit. It’ll punctuate it,
“amen.” See?

125
You know, I think a mule is ignorance. But you know what? He can’t tell
who his papa was or his mama was. See, his father was a little jack;
his mother was a mare, but he can’t breed back. He’s finished.
A plant can’t breed itself back. Take a white violet and a blue violet,
bring out your pink violet; plant it two or three times, it’ll come
back either white or pink. See?
That proves (See?) they never come like that. God said, “Let everything
bring forth of its own seed,” and that’s the way it remains. Man was
made in the image of God, not a monkey. See? That crazy stuff…
Notice, you know, the ignorance of the mule. But you know what, I–I… You can’t tell him nothing. He’s hardheaded.
But I think a real thoroughbred horse, oh, my, he knows who his mama
was, who his papa was. He’s pedigreed. He knows all of his grandparents
and everything, because he’s got a pedigree.

129
That’s the way it is with these hybrid, so-called Christians. “Days of
miracles is passed. Well, we Presbyterians, we Methodists, we
so-and-so, don’t believe this. We Trinitarians, we so-and-so, we don’t.
We don’t do this.” See, you don’t know where you do stand.
But a genuine borned again pedigreed Christian from the Book of Acts,
knows exactly where he stands. He’s borned of the Spirit, and here’s
his pedigree: come from the branch of God. It’ll produce the same thing
each time.
No wonder the church is more prettier. But what’s the matter? It’s run
out of Spirit. It’s bred itself out with the world: let the women wear
shorts, play the piano, let them wear makeup. Let the men get married
four or five times and hold their place, position. All these forms of
things that they go through, just exactly what the Scripture said,
she’s just as much defeated as Samson was. Just exactly. Yes, sir.

132
Oh, as Samson thought… I may… I don’t want to hold you too long;
I’ll skip some of these texts here. As Samson must’ve stood there and
thought of his error, and where he could be…
Remember Israel. Can I… Will you pardon me a minute, to go back to
Israel? Do you know what, what did they do those forty years when they
made their organization out there? Instead of going on through, led by
the Pillar of Fire, the Angel of the Lord, which was Christ, instead of
going on through and following Him, in about ten days, they’d been in
the full promise. But you know what, they wandered in the wilderness,
the Bible said.

134
They come to Kadesh-barnea, which was the judgment seat, and there when
the spies come back and talked about the land, they said, “We can’t do
it.”
Caleb and Joshua said, “We are more than able to do it,” for they was looking to God’s promise, not what the circumstance was.
“We can’t have a church without having a organization.” Well, you don’t see what God said. That’s right.
What did they do? Did God bless them? Sure, sure. They wandered about.
They married wives. They planted vineyards. And they had babies, and
they increased. And they done good in the wilderness. That’s right. But
they still wasn’t in full blessing.

138
So when all these who made this great big group of organization, “old
fighters” it was called like, God let them stay there till every one of
them died. And then He started with the new generation under the
leadership of Joshua, who believed the Word (Amen.), and he took them
to the promised land.
O God, may this young generation of Pentecostals get the–get the
vision. See? They went on to the promised land. We ought to be where we
have all kinds of the gifts of God.
We did speak with tongues. That’s right. That’s fine. Nothing against
that. Moses crossed the Red Sea; the enemy was killed behind him.
We–we–we appreciate that. But that’s still not all of it.
How little did your fathers and mothers think when they was standing
out there and shooting pistols through the windows at them, and them
dancing in the Spirit, that their children would ever come to this? But
it did.
But there’s a new generation coming on now. Samson’s hair has growed out…?…

143
Watch. Don’t never let Delilah ever weave you back into something like
that. Uh-huh. Stay away from them. That’s the thing that’s cursed you.
You was raised up to condemn it. And I’ve tried my best to do it,
though I’ve stood alone. But I’ve tried my best to stand to the
commandments of God. I see the church stand there, stripped of the
power of God, stripped of the blessings, stripped of the gifts.
And God will pour His gift down. They simply say, “That’s mind reading,
mental telepathy,” when they ought to be embracing it. See? “Well, he’s
over at the Oneness now. No, that’s–that may be for the… Oh, they
were this, that, or the other.” See? Oh, if you’d only knowed your day.
Don’t let it pass you. This is the hour, uniting in Christ. Notice.

145
Samson standing there, thinking of his error, the things that he had
done… Finally he realized what caused him to be that way? The enemy
put his eyes out.
And that’s the first thing that an organization will do, will put your
eyes out to any other fellowship but them of your own. Amen. I could
say a whole lot of things right there, but I–I won’t do it. But you,
if you are spiritual-minded, you know what I’m talking about. It’ll put
your eyes out. Just you and your group… If you’re a Methodist, you’re
only Methodist; if you’re a Baptist, you’re only Baptist. If you’re a
Presbyterian, you’re… If you’re Oneness, if you’re twoness, if you’re
the threeness, or how many more they got (See?) you’re just that. “The
rest of them’s no good.”

147
The Baptist had a slogan in the days of Billy Graham’s early days,
forty… “In ’44, a million more.” What did you get? A bunch of
cigarette-smoking, church-joining hypocrites.
When Billy himself, when I was at his breakfast, he said, “You know
what’s the matter?” Said, “Here’s the example.” He said, “I’ll go
in…” Said, “Saint Paul went into a city, he had one convert. And he
went back a year from then,” and said, “that one convert produced
thirty more.” He said, “I’ll go into a city for six weeks and have
thirty thousand decisions, and I can come back in six months and can’t
find thirty.” [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.]
Well now, I admired the man for his courage, but I’d like to ask him
one question. “Who took Paul’s convert? What lazy pastor about him?”
What was it? Paul stayed with him until he was thoroughly a child of
God, borned of the Spirit. He took him so far in Christ till he
couldn’t even look back.

150
They just walk up and maybe join the church, or even speak with
tongues. I believe in speaking in tongues. I believe the Holy Ghost
speaks in tongues. But I know that all that speak with tongues don’t
have the Holy Ghost. Yeah. I’ve seen witch doctors speak in tongues,
and drink blood out of a human skull, and call on the devil, speak in
tongues and interpret it. That–that ain’t no sound proof. No, no. The
Life of Christ in you, the fruit bearing itself record, that’s it. But
we settle down on that; if a man spoke with tongues, that’s all, let
him come in. Look what you got today. That’s true speaking in tongues,
but not all the truth.
Like the colored man eating a slice of watermelon. He said, “How’d you
like it, Mose?” He said, “That was good, boss, but there’s surely some
more of it.”
If I can speak with tongues, surely there’s some more of It. See? But
what do we do? Just like Israel: settled on that one thing, and
wandered in the wilderness now for forty years, still without the rest
of it over in the promised land. That’s exactly what we’ve done.

153
Samson standing there (I must hurry.), must’ve looked back, thought of
all those things. And here he was, the very reason he was raised up, he
was blinded. His… And there his great structure, his great
organization of a human body, a mountain of flesh standing there, his
great big huge muscles, but no strength.
Here we stand today. Back in when Pentecost used to rank just so many,
maybe four or five hundred people across the whole nation, today it’s
the fastest growing church in the world. What are we getting in? A
bunch of members. With our great framework, we ought to be ten thousand
times stouter than we was when we started. And we’re ten thousand times
weaker that we was when we started, because we’re building it upon a–a
bottomless foundation, upon organization, something that God has
cursed. And how can we build a–a church upon the chars of a Sodom and
Gomorrah?
I hope you don’t hate me, but you just set still a minute and listen. See?
He can’t do it. What God’s cursed, He’s cursed. Then keep me away from
anything that God cursed. I’m wanting what He’s blessing. That’s right.

157
Notice. As he stood there, thinking, the warlords, half drunk, standing
there, “I remember that great person. I remember when he stood with a
jawbone of a–of a mule in his hand. I remember when he folded up the
gates of Gaza and walked to the top of the hill. I remember all these
things. When that lion roared after him, that little bitty fellow, the
Spirit come upon him, and he just tore that lion in two with his hand.
And here he stands, bound, by a little kid leading him around. And our
god, the fish-god Dagon has won the victory over him.”

158
There you are. The world has creeped into the church, and has won the
victory. It’s undressed our women. It’s put a desire in the people’s
heart to stay home and watch television instead of going to the church
and the prayer meeting. The love of the world has creeped in and took
our Pentecostal church for a hell-bound ride.
The desire and the faith… Run a person through a prayer line and let
him see whatever takes place; the next night, there they are right back
again. Abraham’s Seed? The faith isn’t there. It should be there, but
it isn’t. When you…

160
God told Abraham once, and twenty-five years he looked for it. No
matter how far back it got, I can hear him say to Sarah, “Go out there;
you’re sixty-five years old. Go buy some Birdeye, and get some pins and
make some booties. We’re going to have the baby.”
“How do you know you’re going to have it?”
“God said so.” That settled it.
The first… See? She was about twenty years past menopause. He’d lived
with her since she was about sixteen years old, as a young man. Didn’t
make any difference; didn’t look at that; didn’t consider that. He
considered what God said, separated himself from all unbelief, went out
into the wilderness.
That’s what’s the trouble today. You want to make yourself with an
organization of unbelief, instead of separating yourself from the
things of the world; you want to see how close you can ride to the end
of sin. See how far back you can stay away from it.

163
But here they was. The first thirty days or twenty-eight days passed.
Mixed audience now, and you adults know what I’m speaking of. “Sarah,
honey, how you feel?”
“No difference at all, Abraham.”
“Glory to God, we’re going to have it anyhow.”
“How do you know?”
“God said so.”
Ten years passed. “Keep them pins laying there and all the Birdeye.”
Some of his friends come by, “Abraham, father of nations, how many children do you have?”
“Glory to God. At this time, none, but I’m going to have them.”
“How do you… Why, you’re ninety years old.”
“Don’t make a bit of difference. It’ll be a greater miracle now than it was if it had happened back there twenty years ago.”
But, today, “I was prayed for last night. I don’t feel any better today.” Abraham’s Seed?
What’s the matter? You’ve been stripped. Your fibers of church is still
there; your organization is as great as the Methodist’s or the
Baptist’s. You’re building to this fiber all the time, but where is
that genuine faith? Oh, you clap your hands; you shout and sing songs,
and dance. My, I’ve seen that happen in many doctors’–witch doctors’
meetings, see them clap their hands, and speak in tongues, and
interpret, and jump up-and-down. Father Divine has the same thing. That
ain’t what I’m talking about.
I’m talking about a genuine faith that can unfold the promise of God, and stand there and make it live, a Scriptural thing.

171
The Mohammedans, I’ve seen them fall on the street and holler, “Allah,
Allah, Allah,” until they become so conscious. I… Me and Billy Paul
stood there and seen a man take a sword and punch it just under his
heart, and a doctor pour water through this side and come out the other
side. See him take a–a piece, as a lance, and run it through his lip
and up through his nose, and won’t even bleed a drop. Run splinters
under his fingernails, hollering, “Allah, Allah, Allah. Allah, Allah,
Allah. Allah, Allah,” like that. A Mohammedan, and despises the
thoughts of Jesus Christ. He didn’t have no Holy Spirit. No, but he had
emotion. That’s right. We’re…
Christianity is not exactly an emotion. Heathenism can produce just as
much psychology as–as–as Christianity can; but that’s not Truth. We
want Truth. Christ is Truth.
What do we do? We fixed ourself so we stand like Samson, now, as he
stood there thinking what he could’ve been. I think, today, the church
ought to stand and think with me a few minutes, what we could’ve been
if these things hadn’t have done this, what we could have been.

174
Then it comes to his mind, something arised. I believe God did it. Oh,
if it could only happen on this campground. “There’s a possibility.”
There is a possibility God is forgiving. There is a possibility.
We ain’t got long to stay here. Our time’s running out. The
confederation of churches is taking the country. It’ll unite with
Catholicism. We got the man in there just exactly.
Wished I had time to go into it, to show you that this nation is just
exactly like Israel. They come into a strange land, drove out the
occupant, and inherited the land. That’s what we did. Israel, they had
the first man, great men, such men like Joshua, such men like David,
like Solomon; but finally there come a man on the–on the kingship, a
Ahab, a renegade. We had great men, a Washington, a Lincoln; but now
what you done? The very thing that we come here for freedom for, you’ve
put it in the White House, because you think more of your politics than
you do about Christ. Exactly right.

177
And remember, in that time all the ministers give in. Jezebel was the
leader. Listen, Ahab himself was a pretty nice guy, but Jezebel was the
neck behind the head. She was the one who did it. She was the renegade.
I ain’t got nothing against that man as a president, but it’s that
Jezebel system that’s behind it. Can’t you see these popes and things
coming in now; one’s raising that don’t know Joseph. And the first
thing you know, we are right now asking the Protestant church to
consolidate with it, and every organization will go right into the
federation of churches, and there you’re trapped.
We are living off of tax money that’ll be paid in forty years from
today. The nation’s broke. Where’s it at? Who’s got the money? We
haven’t got it. Our–our bonds are no good. We’ve got to have gold.
Who’s got it? The Catholic church. What will they do? Before these
whiskey men and all these great holders and stockholders will ever give
it up, they’ll absolutely sell out, and the church will loan the nation
the money. And what it will do, it’ll sell its birthrights right
straight into Catholicism. Then what are you going to do? Amen. That’s
the gold of the world, them and the Jews, and that’s the covenant that
he makes with Israel.
See, you Bible readers can teach that in your church. You see, I’m just showing you I believe the same thing.

180
That’s how it’ll have to come to pass, and we got it right there now.
And here we are, organizations, with the mark of the beast upon us,
just exactly like the first beast, an image unto it, a federation of
churches joining of power. And they made a image unto the beast, that
he could both speak, and it done the same thing the first beast did
before it. Right in our clutches… Oh, children.
What time is it? “Is there a possibility?” Samson stood there and said.
What time? Just… “Is there a possibility?” Samson happened to think,
“That great God, He’s omnipresent. He’s everlasting God. I see my
mistake. I’m going to repent.” And he cried out.
There is a possibility that we could do the same thing. They of that
day… This day don’t see the vision like Samson. If we could only see
the vision of a possibility, start right here, right now: a
possibility. See?

183
They sit tight, and clap their hands, and wonder what it’s going to
come out to be. You’re going to find out someday, you’re going to come
out the little end of the horn (See?) that time. Have great gatherings
and glittering, worldly things, “Oh, we think, well, you know what? We
got more members than we ever had. And we can build billions of dollars
of buildings, got more money than we ever had, better churches maybe
than some of the Protestants or some of the others has got. Oh, man.
Scholarship, well, we take our children to school, and building new
seminaries for them to go into.”
Let me tell you right now. A man with an education, without the Holy
Spirit, takes hisself, every degree he gets, farther away from God.
That’s right. You say, “I got a Bachelor of Art.” Then you’re just a
little bit farther away than you was: split an egg and atom and stumble
over a blade of grass that they don’t know nothing about. You’ve heard
the old saying, “Fools will walk with hobnailed shoes, where Angels
fear to trod.” That’s right. Scholarship, but it don’t bring the
Spirit. It don’t bring the works and Life of Jesus Christ.

185
The trouble of it is, the church today is not like Samson. They’re not
willing to pay the price. Samson prayed right when he prayed, “Lord,
let me die with the enemy.” He knowed it was going to cost him
something. He knowed it was going to cost something. It’s going to cost
you something. It’s going to cost me something: your social prestige,
your place and position in the denomination. “Lord, let me die then. I
see Your purpose.” He knowed it was going to cost him something. You
must be ready to die out to your enemy to get in the blessings of God.
Samson was willing to pay the price to get the power of God again upon
him. He’s willing to do it. Are you?
Are you willing to sacrifice your television programs? And, you know,
it used to be as wrong for us to go to the movies. But now the Devil
put one over on you, he brought it right in the house with you. That’s
right. See?

187 I used to go around to an old Methodist preacher who used to sing a song:

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


We compromised with sin;


We let down the bars, the sheep got out,


But how did the goats get in? See?


You let down the bars; that’s all.
Oh,
I hear someone say, “Now, wait a minute, Brother Branham, we have
revivals.” Yeah, what is it? A denominational revival. That’s right.
Look at your morals and your differences. Is it a revival? Is there a
breaking-up time? Is there time that everybody can associate together
and have fellowship? If your organization’s in it, it’s all right.
Getting farther away from the Word all the time (That’s right.), making
new bishops and everything. See?

189 Samson knew that his present backslidden condition could not produce the strength of the challenge of the hour.
Men,
women, my brothers, and sisters, let me say this. The church in its
present denominational condition cannot produce the strength to
challenge the time to call it a time. Men and women wants God, honest
hearts. And you might leave the–the oneness and go to the twoness; you
might leave the twoness and go to the threeness; and you might do all
this, that, or the other; you’re only pulling a paper, or–or
mission-trotting, or–or acting like I don’t know what: a juvenile kid.
That’s right. You don’t get it like that. Our backslidden strength, it
cannot meet the challenge of this hour. The denominations will not take
the a-vindication of the Word.

191
When, Jesus Christ, as I tried to tell you last night, promised this in
the last days… He promised to have it here, and you know that by the
Bible. And for fifteen years, back and forth across the nation, and
they’re getting worse all the time. That’s right. See, they don’t want
it.
They say, “Well, now, he associates with oneness,” or, “He associates
with trinity. He does this, that, or the other.” We associate with
Christ, out in every organization, trying…
But God sees to that, that they see it. And the real believers are like
the little prostitute, last night; as soon as It flashed across her
path, and that seed of Life laying there, she believed It. That was
all; it struck fire right now, when there was thousands standing there,
making fun of It, but not her. She knew that that was Messiah. She knew
that that was the promise, that when He come He would do that.

194
Wonder if we only knew the same thing, or have we got so wrapped up in
our organization that we’re forbidden to even look at it? Wonder if you
look at the–the magazines and pictures, and old dirty filth of the
world instead of reading your Bible like you should be? “Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes out of the mouth of
God.”
Our children, our boys has become a bunch of little Rickies and
Rickettas (You know that’s right.), a bunch of hot-rod drags and
everything like that. And where you find a Pentecostal boy? With his
hot-rod, on the street. Where do you find sister? Down at the canteen
somewhere, doing a rock-and-roll? Where do you find pop and mom? Pop,
out playing golf, or out somewhere like that, and mom out in some
stitch-and-sew party of some lodge she belongs to, or something. When,
it ought to be a home gathered together under the leadership of the
Holy Spirit with the Bible back again. There’s where we’ve drifted to.
Not criticizing, but just shaking you a little (See?) that you’ll
understand.

196
All the time, and (Oh, I got to close.) the Philistines never noticed
what was going on. There was something going on, because something
begin to move in Samson’s heart, “There’s a possibility.” He felt back
to see if it was still there.
Some women have a hard time now, you know, it was supposed to have it.
But see if His promise is still there, see if He still made… Just
feel back and see if He ain’t the same yesterday, today, and forever.
He felt it. He knew there was something. He raised his head. He had no
eyes. They didn’t notice the tears coming down out of them empty
sockets, where the glands was letting the tears drop down. His head up,
his lips moving slowly, tears falling from them blinded sockets, he was
repenting. He knowed that Jehovah still lived. Though he had wronged,
he knowed He was still God, the tears dropping off of his cheeks, as he
stood there. The Philistines was too drunk to notice that.

199
If your church members, your colleagues in church don’t notice it, you
just keep on praying. He wanted to see one more time, God’s Word made
manifest before that blinded, drunken bunch of heathens, unbelievers.
If that’s the hungering of the church today, to see once more the old
fashion, God-sent revival from the pulpit plumb to the janitor, an old
fashion cleaning up, an old fashion revival with the power of God, a–a
Gospel that cleans a man throughly from the inside out: gun-barrel
straight, old fashion, back-woods, sky-blue, killing, sin-killing
religion that takes all the Hollywood out of you, them that’s
interested.
There he was, praying. Not a new denomination now, a new creed; but a
vindication of the Word. “Lord, You were once upon me, You once give me
strength. If I only had that strength, I’ve got the muscles, but
they’re weak.”

201
We’ve got the members, but they’re weak. They love things of the world
better than they do the things… You say, “No.” Oh? Look upon the
churches and find out. Don’t try to deny it. Your actions speaks more
than your words does. Oh, yeah, got more members, bigger muscles, but
where is the strength of the Lord? Your big muscles won’t meet the
challenge of this hour, the rapturing faith to take the Church out of
this thing before judgment strikes the earth.
And judgment’s fixing to strike, I’ll say, as my friend Jack Moore
said; if God lets America get by with the things it’s doing now, He’ll
be morally obligated to raise up Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize to it
for burning her up. Right. Judgment is next.

203
God, take all the world out of me. Give me faith, O Lord, for a
rapture. For, there will be two in the bed, and one will be taken, one
left. Two will be in the–in the automobile seat, and one will be taken
and the other one be left. It’s going to happen in a moment.
You say, “Brother Branham, when will it be?”
You might criticize this. If it’s all right to say it? [Minister says, “Go ahead and say it, brother.”–Ed.]
Let me drop a little something here. One day you’re going to find out.
You’re going to say there, “Oh, I been taught that there’s this, that,
and the other, going to happen before the Lord comes. There’ll be a
great tribulation period, and we’ll go through it.” See, see?

206 You know, one time Jesus was asked a question. He said, “Why does the scribes say that Elias must first come?”
And Jesus said, “I say unto you, He’s already come and you didn’t know it.”
One
of these days you’re going to say, “Well, I thought the Church was
going, had to do this, that, and the other. I thought there’d be a
rapture. I thought…”
See, it’ll be a secret catching away. If He took one here in Hot
Springs, and one somewhere else, and one down there, one there, will
make up literally millions of those that come up out of the ground. And
there’s at least five hundred people, every day missed in the world,
and we don’t even know where they went to. See, the rapture’s going to
make up of all those who sleep in the dust of the earth, that’s right
with God.
They’ll say, “Well, I thought a rapture’s take place.”
“It’s already passed, and you knew it not. You’re left.” See?
“Well, everything’s going…” Yes, sir.
It’s a secret coming, the rapture is, comes to steal away. Like that
book I read that time of (What was it?), Juliet and Romeo. He come at
nighttime, when the people were sleeping in worldliness, and the church
all in worldliness. And all of a sudden, the cry come, and away they
went.

211
And listen, you’ve heard so much in the Christian Business Men, the
Full Gospel Men, saying, “Oh, you know, Reverend Holy Father
So-and-so… The Presbyterians are beginning to receive the Holy Ghost.
The Lutherans are beginning to receive the Holy Ghost.”
You sleeping bunch of people, don’t you know Jesus said when that
sleeping virgin come to buy Oil, it was that very time that the
Bridegroom come and she went in? Remember, they did not get It. Is that
right? As Booth-Clibborn said, “Huh? “They might went through some
emotions, but they really didn’t get It. When they come to buy Oil, it
was too late.

213
And here they are now, the Presbyterian, the Lutheran; look at that
Full Gospel Business Men’s “Voice,” and that bunch of Pentecostal
grandchildren with these denominational brethren, thinking that that’s
something great. You might ask someday, “Well, I thought this.”
“It’s already passed, and you knew it not.” Let me stop there, because I–I’m not here to preach doctrine.
But the possibilities… Don’t you take that chance. This is the day.
This is the hour. There’s a possibility right now, maybe not at five
o’clock. There’s a possibility. “Lord, I know You’re God. I know You
are. I am away from You. But I know that these fibers of mine once
buzzed with the power of God. I know the things that I care for today,
I claim to be Pentecostal; the women, “I cut my hair”; the men, “I do
this, that, or the other.”
And you men that will let your wives wear them shorts and do them things, and then call yourself a son of God, shame on you.

217
I went to a certain great denominational church, not long ago, to a…
They had a meeting, and I went out to visit them. And the pastor taken
me out, and he was going to introduce me to his wife. She was the
pianist. And that woman had on a dress so tight that the skin was
almost on the outside. She had makeup on, and wore all kinds of things
in her ears.
And I said, “Brother, do you mean to say that your–your wife is a saint?”
Said, “Yes, sir.”
I said, “She looks like a hain’t.” I said, “I never seen such in the name of Pentecost and holiness.”
Oh, brother, we need a house-cleaning from the pulpit to the basement.
And one of these days… You say, “I’m Pentecostal.” That don’t mean no
more than being a pig, to God. That has nothing to do with Christ.
That’s just a name. You got to be Pentecost in your heart, the fruits
of the Spirit. Notice. Oh, my.

221
He was aware what would happen if God answered his prayer. Are you
aware? Are you aware that organization’s going to excommunicate you? Do
you realize you’re going right now to federation of churches, and
things that you’re going right into? Do you realize what it’s going to
cost you? You know them women you play cards with are going to call you
old fashion and all that kind of stuff? ‘Cause you won’t let your
children wear shorts, and you’re doing these things, you know what it’s
going to cost you? You better count it before you start. See? You
better think about it. Yeah. You better–you better talk it over with
God first before you make the start.
He knowed, if his prayer was answered; but he was ready, and he was sincere.
If the church can only get in that condition. If you’re ready right
now, if you’re sincere, if you really mean business, if your eyes are
open to what I’m trying to tell you in a roundabout way, if you’re
sincere, then say, “Lord, I don’t care what it is, I’m ready. I see the
sign. I know that it’s later than we think. It’s time to come.”

225
Then Samson cried out, “Lord, they poked my eyes out. I know that
You’re God. I know that You have power to do it. I know You can set me
free from these fetters. Just once more, Lord, just once more.”
Just once more, Lord, just once more. Let there be a camp meeting on
the side of a hill, like there was on the hill at the upper room. Let
there come a sound from heaven, like a rushing mighty wind, fill all
the house, visible evidence of the resurrected Christ.
“Just once more, Lord, just once more,” he cried. As he cried out in
sincerity, standing there, and his blinded eyes. “I know the price,
Lord, but just once more.”
The God answers prayer. He felt the fibers tightening. His muscles
begin to take hold. His leg strength begin to come back. He said to the
little boy, “Lead me to the post now.”
“Lead me, Lord, lead me. Lead me to the post, to Calvary. Lead me to
the post where I can be crucified, till my old worldly life dies out
here, and all that I am. Lead me to the post, Lord.”

230
When he begin to feel them muscles tighten with the power of God, he
didn’t have to see what was taking place, he felt what was taking
place. He begin to twist his shoulders, and when he did, down went the
building. That day he conquered; he killed more Philistines than he did
all the days of his life.
Friends, there’s a possibility that this church in this state… Now, I
got about three or four pages of notes there I’m going to let go.
There’s a possibility. There’s a possibility right here in this camp
meeting. There’s a possibility right here at this hour. There’s a
possibility, if we’re ready to pay the price, we can see another Acts 2
take place.

232
“Once more, Lord. We’ve messed it up. We’ve organized. We’ve broke up
our brotherhood. We separated our fellowship. We’ve took a little group
over here. We’re fighting with one another, and the devil’s setting
back watching us whip one another down. Lord, is it possible that once
more that all hundred and twenty of us can be in one accord in one
place? Is it possible that there come a sound from heaven as a rushing
mighty wind? Once more, Lord, once more.”
Let’s stand to our feet, and say, “Once more, Lord. Once more, Lord.”
O Lord God, hear me, Lord. Once more, Lord. Once more send the Spirit upon this camp meeting in power and in glory.


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