¹
Privileged to be back here at the pulpit again after about, I guess,
almost three months absence. The squirrels has had a hard time, so have
I. Oh, it's relaxed though now, and you feel more like entering into
the service again. And expecting now to start this coming week, this
coming Wednesday night, for a–a revival right here in the Tabernacle.
And if God's willing, I have kind of, the Lord has promised me a
different and new type of ministry. And if He pleased to do so, I hope
to begin that–that new type of service this coming week here at the
Tabernacle for the first place.
And then I have no scheduled meetings, but just Australia and New
Zealand for this coming January. And then Brother Osborn is calling for
a joint meeting that I kind of promised him here sometime ago in Tulsa,
but a little later on, but we're not sure of that yet.

³
It was certainly good, Brother Jeffreys, to get to shake your hand back
here, and also to hear your boy sing that song, and you play. I kind of
like that, father and son. Don't you like that? "Bring up a child in
the way that it should go." That's right, Mr. Guenther, you–you know
that that's right, both of you. "Bring up a child in the way that it
should go, and when he gets old it'll not depart." And that's true.
There may be some times that he may depart from it, but it won't depart
from him. See? It'll–it'll always stay with him. That early training
and whatever he's been brought up to do, it'll–it'll certainly stay
with him. Now, this is…

⁴
I met Brother Jeffreys out there, and I said, "Brother Jeffreys…" I
thought, you know, I'm always glad to see any of my visiting brethren
in, but such a night for a visiting brother to come… This is the
night of just the folks that comes to the Tabernacle, just prayer, this
revival, this is the night. We want to take tonight, and tomorrow
morning, and tomorrow night, just on what we believe here at the
Tabernacle, to–to rehearse it over again. We have some awful odd
beliefs, very strange, but somehow or another we find them in this
Bible. They seem to be there all right.

⁵
And now if there would be a strange brother or sister in, that belongs
to a–a certain denomination, or–or disagrees, just setting in on this
for tonight, we want you to know that you're perfectly welcome. See,
you're just as welcome as you can be. But now, I hope… And we make
this pretty rough. So if–if it seems that you don't agree with it,
well, now, and you do that like I do when I'm eating cherry pie. And
when I'm eating cherry pie, which is my favorite, I always, when
I'm–when I eat the pie, if I run into a seed, I don't throw the pie
away; I–I just throw the seed away and–and just keep on eating pie.
So, or like eating chicken, now, all of you all like chicken. See? And
when you hit the bone, you don't quit; you just go around the bone and
keep eating chicken. Well, that's the way you do tonight, what I'm
saying here; you just–when you eat something, you say, "Now, I–I just
don't… I'm just setting in this as a little church doctrine for these
next three meetings; they're just kind of rehearsing what they–what
they believe, and going over it."

⁶
And the only way you can nearly make a person believe It, is drive it
home so hard till they'll have to know that that's the thing that's
right. That's the only way you can make it stick. And just like a
friend of mine, Mr. Woods I've been with, if–if you just drive a nail
halfway in, and the board's all loose, the wind will blow it down
pretty soon, but you got to drive her in and make it stick hard. So
now, if I just make this real rude on some of these places, to you
visitors tonight that's setting on, I'm not–I'm not trying to throw
you off; I'm just trying to drive home to this church what we believe.
All understands that now real good, say "amen." [Congregation says "Amen!"–Ed.]
All right, that's–that's okay. And I'll get this off of my hands. And
then–then the–the… They're recording it, and so forth, that later
on if they wanted to find out then what we really stand for, and what
the grounds that we stand on, these recordings will tell it. And then
we do this every so often, 'cause there's new people comes in and–and
we go ahead. And now we won't be able to go over all the church
doctrines, but just some of them that we want to–to speak on. And now
Wednesday night though, starts…

⁷
Now, Monday and Tuesday, I'm going away to pray, get ready for healing
service. And you can get on the phones, or wherever you wish to, and
bring in anybody that you want to for this coming revival. And tell
them not to come in a hurry now, not come, say, "Well, now I'm going to
run in and be prayed for tonight, and tomorrow night it's all…" You
don't do that. You come in and listen awhile, 'cause we want to take
our time and lay that Word out so close that the Devil won't even have
one little speck of room to ever move.
And then when you let your faith run out to its end, till you begin to
believe, then let your subconscious go to acting, then the faith of God
will back it up; then you'll go right on out. See? 'Cause your faith
won't do too much; your subconscious has to move in the direction that
your faith is moving, and then God's faith moves in behind and confirms
it all. See? But if it's your faith, "Oh, yes, I got it right now"; and
even your subconscious rolling back here, saying, "I wonder if it'll
work on me." It–it won't do it right then. See? So we want this to be
a real healing service. And before I get anyone into the rooms and so
forth for the healing, or this new services, I want them to really
understand what they're coming there for.
So just remember, and come and visit us, and we'd be glad to have you.

⁸
Now, remember now, in the morning we're going to continue on with the
church doctrine, and tomorrow night the same way. Now, you're welcome
to come, and anybody can come. We're always glad to see anybody. But
now this tonight is just directed home to the people that's of the
Tabernacle here, that–that's raised up in this doctrine. For, out in
the fields, the evangelistic fields, we just take the real fundamental
evangelical doctrines of the Scriptures. But here at the Tabernacle, we
got our own thoughts and our own beliefs, as a–as a–as a church, and
that's what we're to go over tonight.
And before we open His blessed Word, then can't we just bow our heads for a moment of prayer.

¹⁰
Almighty and powerful God, Who, before the world ever started whirling
on the first atom, You were God. You haven't changed a bit. And when
there is no more atoms to hold it up, and there's no more world to be
held up, You'll still be God. You're for everlasting, and from
everlasting Thou art God. You never had a beginning of days nor ending
of life; You'll always be.
And, Father, You being infinite, and we finite, then we ask for Your
Divine mercy, God, realizing that this spirit of ours is to blend into
the eternity out of this time element into eternity. Therefore, Lord,
we're here to check up on our salvation, to see how we're standing in
the sight of Thy Word, and to see how we are situated in our
experiences. Are we living that which is pleasing to Thee? Does our
spirits bear record with Your Spirit? And does our teaching bear record
with this Bible? And, Father, may we examine both closely in these next
three coming services. Grant it, Lord.

¹¹
Bless the pastor here, the deacons, the trustees, and all the laity,
the people who come to this church. Since my days here, Lord, there's
many, many that I don't even know their names or where they come from,
but I'm sure that You know all about them. And we're here for that one
purpose tonight, Lord, to fellowship around the written Word. And give
us the Holy Spirit in our lives, that we can set peacefully and soberly
and in the fear of God, and examine our lives by His Word. Grant it,
Lord.
And in this building tonight, Lord, there is my brethren of different
phases of the–of the church. And, Lord, I'm so thankful that they are
here to fellowship. Maybe we might disagree upon little principles of
doctrines. But in that one great major principle, we're standing as
united brethren in a front that, O God, may it strengthen our–our
fellowships, and our–and the bonds of God's grace and love rest upon
us richly.
Now, realizing, Lord, that this is too much of a job for a man to do,
because we have here under consideration tonight the destination of
souls that's eternity bound. So we pray that the Holy Spirit will get
right into the Word, and will lay It out, and explain It in His Own way
to us, the things that He would have us to know. Grant it, Lord. And
when the three–the times of service is over, may we go as a
strengthened church, as a united together to put our hearts and our
aims all together, with our fellow citizens of the Kingdom of God, and
move forward like never before.

¹³
I want to thank You, Lord, here in the Presence of the church and–and
of the peoples that's here, that You gave me now several weeks of good
rest. I feel wonderful tonight because of Your Presence and Your
blessing. And, O God, we pray for brother here, our brother that's
going overseas, way down into those dark, dingy countries, where his
very life lays as–as a target. And, O Lord, bless our Brother Jeffreys
as he goes, and his son, and his wife, and give him great increase. May
he cut holes through the darkness until the Gospel Light will shine far
and wide. Hear us, Father, for we ask this petition in the Name of the
Lord Jesus, Thy Son. Amen.

¹⁴
Now, tonight reading in my small Scofield Bible… I've just passed
twenty-five years old recently. And I can still read it, but it gets
pretty dim, so I've got me a pair of reading glasses when I study. And
I'm going to see how it works tonight for my first time. Now, I have
subjects like this, that, "Must the Church…" Oh, many things, if we
can get to them. One of them, Why are we called the church? Why are we
not a denomination? Why–why do we believe in the eternal security of
the soul of the believer? Why do we condemn women preachers? Why do we
baptize by immersing? And will the church go through the tribulation?
And many of those subjects here, I guess I got fifteen or eighteen of
them for the next few nights.

¹⁵
So I'm thinking tonight to begin with, to start with, it seems to be
the Lord lays upon my heart just for this subject, the–"Why Are We Not
A Denomination?" The reason that… Now, we have nothing against other
people who are denomination. We have nothing against them, but I want
to explain why that we never went in with any denomination. I was
ordained in a little Baptist church, as you know. And the Baptist is
not a denomination, wasn't till just recently, and now it's becoming
just as much denomination as the rest of them. But the reason that we
never become a denomination…

¹⁶
Now, we are an organization. We are an organization, recorded here in
the–in the courts as an organization, a group of people that's
organized together to worship Christ, but we're not in a denomination.
No one is going to dominate over us. You see? It's not a denomination.
It's–it's just an organization of fellowship amongst Christian
believers. People come here to the church, and this becomes their home
church, if they wish to come as long as they live.

¹⁷
And they can come here and disagree with everything that we preach.
That's perfectly all right. You still, as long as you are a Christian,
you've got fellowship and a hand out just the same as the rest of them.
See? If I said I believe in baptizing by immersing by water, and you
believed in sprinkling, and stayed right on it, we'd still be just the
same as we was if we both agreed. We might not be able to see eye to
eye alike, but as long as you are a Christian brother or sister, you're
perfectly welcome (See?), everybody.

¹⁸
So we don't have any denominations, because I think that denomination
separates brotherhood. Some of them say, "Well, we ain't got nothing to
do in that revival; that's a Methodist revival. Well, that's Baptist;
we ain't got… We're Methodists; we ain't got nothing to do with
that." Brother, if Christ is in it, we got–we got all to do with it.
We got to put our… It–it's the body of Christ that is–is suffering.
And I see that so much in the lands today, to how that we have…
Now, Christ never did at any time ever organize any denominational church. Now, just let that be well assured.

¹⁹
Now, now, I'm going to ask you tomorrow night, if any of these things
you want to know, like some history that I'm quoting, or something
another, I don't have time just to drain that through, I won't get to
another subject, 'cause you could spend weeks on that very same
subject… But if you want to know the place, anything, just ask me and
lay it up here on the–on the desk, and I'll get it, answer it for you.

²⁰
Now, the oldest denomination, and the first denomination church that we
ever had, is the Catholic church. And it was organized three hundred
and something years after the death of the last apostle. And that's
right. You get it in the early Nicene Fathers, and you get it in this
writings of Josephus, and, oh, many of the–of the great historians.
See? And as far as in the–the–any of the church ages, down through
until the death of the last apostle, and three hundred years the other
side of the apostles, there was no denominational churches. And the
Catholic was the first denomination of a church.
And the Protestant church are the denominations who has pulled out of a
denomination. The first reformation come was Luther; after Luther come
Zwingli; after Zwingli come Calvin, and just on down like that. And
down to the Wesleyan revival, and on down to Alexander Campbell, John
Smith, and whatmore (See?), on down. And the last movement that we have
up now is the different phases of the Pentecostal age.

²²
And I believe that God has dealt in each age. But did you ever notice
that every time a church ever fails, and as soon as they denominate
they start failing right then? And whenever they fail, God never raises
that church again. It goes right straight to seed. Now, you just… If
you want to know the history on that, we–we can produce it, that–that
no church, not ever in the history of churches, has any denomination
ever fell that ever rose again. Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian,
Luther, and whatever it may be, when they fell, they are gone. Now,
that's right. Now, this, I–I told you now, put on the jackets, 'cause
we're going to make this stick. See?
There has never, at one time, when a man come out as an individual and organized a church, it started…

²³
God deals with individuals, not with denomination. God in no age ever
dealt with a denomination. He's always dealt with an individual. In the
Old Testament He dealt with individual. In the New Testament He dealt
with individual. In any age He's always dealt with individuals and not
denominations. So therefore, if God isn't in the denomination, what's
the use of me having anything to do with it as a denomination? Now, I'm
not talking about the people in that denomination; I'm talking about
the denomination itself, 'cause God's people's in all those
denominations.

²⁴ Now, God never lets anything happen unless He gives a warning to it. I don't believe there's anything that…
Now,
like we have issues that comes out of the churches, such as we've had
one recently about blood and oil, and so forth, and you know the "Dear
Brother Branham" letter, and so forth. But the reason that I stood
against that, because it's not in the Word. And that's the reason that
I'm against denomination, because it's not in the Word. And it has to
have something we have to base our faith upon. And if we can't base it
upon some denomination, we've got to base it upon God's Word. For That
is the only Foundation, is God's Word.

²⁶
And then if God's Word doesn't speak of a denomination, but speaks
against the denomination, then we must speak with the Word. Regardless
of what bishop, what anyone says, what anyone thinks, what a good man
says, what anything says, if it's not according to God's Word, then
it's wrong. See, it must be; the Word must be the last thing. God's
Word must be the final Amen.
Now remember, I'm not unchristianizing anyone (you understand that) in
denominations. There's tens of thousands of precious souls in all those
denominations, who are God's children. But to separate them and
segregate them, I'm against it. And God's Word's against it.

²⁸
And I believe that there isn't an "ism" that's in the land today, there
isn't an "ism" that's ever been in the land, but what that it was
foretold coming by God's Word. I believe that God's Word supplies
everything that we have need of, right here in the Word. From the–our
beginning to the end, it's found right in God's Word. And then I–I
believe that if it's in God's Word, then we should… It foretells. And
God's Word is a warning.

²⁹
Now, you don't read God's Word just like you read a newspaper. You read
God's Word by the Holy Spirit (See?), because the Holy Spirit Itself
speaking through Christ… Christ thanking God that He'd hid these
things from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and would reveal them to
babes such as would learn. So, you see, there's no way of ever being
educated; there's no way of ever denominating; there's only one way to
get right, that's be led by the Spirit of God, and that experience you
had must cope with this Word (See?), then you got it. See?

³⁰
Like when we get down here in a few minutes now, we're dealing with
people who are–are–some of them are radical Calvinists, some of them
are radical Arminians, and–and different ways. Now, there's always, no
matter how thin you slice it, it's got two sides to it. That's exactly
right. And they've both got arguing points. But the thing of it is,
where lays the truth of it? That's where we're coming to, where we
think, by the grace of God, we can show you the truth of it. Now, let's
just take… And this is just where I got some of these church
doctrines wrote out.

³¹
Let's turn in your Bibles just a few minutes, all of you now, and let's
get over to Revelations the 1st chapter, or Revelations the 17th
Chapter to start with. And let's just start reading and find out now
where these churches begin at and what–what started it.
Now, the Bible forewarns everything. It forewarns the days that
we're–we're living in. And now, Revelations the 17th chapter, if you
will. I said 13th; I didn't mean that, that's on the… We get that
after while too, that's in the prophecy of the United States. But
listen real close now.

Now remember, this sounds mysterious. Now, this ill-famed woman… Now,
if we're going to teach this, you got to find out first what these
symbols mean. Now, a woman, in the Bible, represents "church." How many
knows that? We are a Bride; the Church is a Bride.

³³
"Come here and I'll show you the judgment." Now, there's going to be a
judgment spoke upon the great whore, the unclean woman that sets upon
many waters. Now, the woman symbolizing, a "church," and water
symbolizes "people." Now, if you'll notice it, also look at the 15th
verse while you're there, 15th verse, the same chapter.

Now, this great church, great woman, now remember she is an ill-famed
woman. And if woman represents the church (and Christ's Church is a
Bride, a holy Bride), then here is an unholy woman. Then it would have
to be an unholy, pretended to be, bride. See? Now, and what does she
do? "She sets upon," or, "to be above" means "to have the governing
over many waters." In other words, she's got power through all the
nations and tongues and people. She's a great person, this woman is.

³⁵

"For
the kings of the earth have committed fornications," rich men, great
men have. How would you commit–how would a king commit fornications
with a church? It's spiritual fornication: spiritual. What is
fornication? It's, well, it's like a woman living untrue to her
husband; she's living with another man while she's got a husband. And
this church then is–is pretending to be the Bride of Christ, while
she's committing fornication with the kings of the world, with her
unclean living, unclean profession. Oh, it's deep and it's rich; I just
love the Word.

³⁶ Now, notice.

Her wine is what she was giving out, her stimulation: "We are the
church. We're the one that's got it." See? Now, just draw that in your
mind now. All right. So he carried…
Like the angel told John, "I will show you this judgment that's coming to this great church." Now, watch.

"Scarlet," in the Bible, represents "royal." The color "scarlet" means
"red." And "beast" represents "power." Did you notice the beast come up
out of the sea; that was in the Revelation the 13th. And when you see
the beast coming up out of the sea, it's meant that this power was
raising up among the people. But in Revelation 13, when this lamb came
up, he came up out of the earth, no people: United States. But then
after he had two little horns: civil and ecclesiastical powers. And
then he received power and spoke like the dragon did before him. So you
just got to mark it down; we are coming into a religious persecution
with the same things that they did in pagan Rome many years ago, for
it's THUS SAITH THE LORD. Now, what is it, "setting upon a beast, a
power."

³⁹
Did you notice Rebekah, when Eliezer found her, it was in the evening
time, and she watered the camel. 'Cause Eliezer said, "If the damsel
that comes and waters this camel, that will be the–and gives me, a
drink, that will be the one that You have chosen, Lord, to be the bride
of Your servant, Isaac." And while he was yet in prayer, Rebekah come
and drawed water and give him a drink, and watered the camel. Notice,
the camel was a beast. And that same beast that she was watering was
the one who packed her to her bride, Isaac.

⁴⁰
And today, the power of the Holy Ghost, that the church is watering and
worshipping, is the thing that'll pack it from this earth to meet the
Bride. Sure, Isaac was out in the field in the evening. We don't meet
the Lord up in glory. Ephesians the 5th chapter said that we shall meet
Him in the air. Oh, that makes the Methodists get ready to shout. Think
of it. See? The Lord…
Isaac had come out from his father's house, and was out in the field
when he saw Rebekah coming on the camel. And she loved him at first
sight, and jumped off the camel, and run to meet him. That's right.
That's where we meet the Lord. And the very camel that she watered,
packed her to her husband. And the very power that the church is
worshipping, that the world's calling fanaticism, that the church is
worshipping, will be the same power that'll take the church up in the
air to meet the Lord in the air: the Holy Spirit. See? There it… And,
look, Rebekah was a virgin.

⁴¹
And this woman is a prostitute, we're speaking of here. Now, you get
what the power is now? The–the power, what the–means that the beast,
she was on a scarlet. Now, what kind of a beast would it be? Scarlet,
that would be a "rich power." What kind of a church is this she's going
to be now? She's a rich church, and she's a great church, and she's a
powerful church, and she–influence sweeps the multitudes and people.
And the kings of the earth have committed spiritual fornications with
her; that's the great men of the earth. Now we're going to find out who
she is just in a minute, and find out about these denominations.

What'd she have in her hand? Her doctrine, what she was holding out to
the people, "We are the church. We are this." And she's made the kings
of the earth become drunk with her like that. "We are this. We're the
great powers. We sweep every nation. We're the greatest church there
is. Come on, drink of our… Here, pour out a little bit of it; you
take it; you take it." There it is (See?), "and she had in her hand a
cup."

⁴³ Look.

Now, friends, we're not reading a daily newspaper; we're reading God's
eternal and blessed Word. All heavens and earth will pass, but that
Word will remain. That's right.

⁴⁴
Now, here sometime ago, I don't think to the church here, but I
preached on a subject, "Handwriting On The Wall," and give the
historical standing of Babylon. Now, every "ism" that's ever come up,
every religion and every "ism" that there is in the world today begin
in Genesis. Now, if you'll get Hislop's "Two Babylons," if you want to
chase it in history, or some of those fine books, you can even find
every "ism" that you want to find. I'm going to take you back there in
a few minutes on women preachers (See?), and show you just where it
first started from (See?), back in Genesis. And on these different
things, just how they come up out of Genesis. "Genesis" means "the
beginning." How many knows that that's right? Genesis is the beginning.
So everything that is, had to have a beginning.

⁴⁵
When I look at a tree. I've been in the woods for a couple, three,
about two months. I see a tree, how pretty it is. I see it, it goes
down; another one comes up in its place, perpetual life. And I think of
that. But somewhere that tree had a beginning. It had to have a
beginning. And the only way it could be designated to be a tree, or to
be an oak, or a beech, or a poplar, or a palm, or whatever it was,
there had to be a Master Intelligence behind it. Or if there just one,
been one oak tree, everything in the world been all oak tree. But
Something great Master Intelligence had to set it in order. Blessed be
His holy Name. He's the One Who sets the moon and the stars in the
solar system. He set everything in its order. And He'll set His church
in order. It'll turn just like He wants her to turn, east, west, north,
or south, or whatever it is, when we can get these denominational ideas
out of our mind and throw ourself wholly into Calvary. He'll set it in
order if we are just as submissive as the trees and His other creation.
You never see the moon saying, "I ain't going to shine tonight; some of
you stars shine in my place." But we, no, we're different. You see?

⁴⁶
Now, Babylon, watch how Babylon appeared. It appears in the first of
the Bible. It appears in the middle of the Bible. And it appears in the
last of the Bible. Now, there's something… Now, it begin with Nimrod.
Nimrod founded Babylon in the Shinar valley, right close between the
Tigris River and the Euphrates, and the Euphrates passed through.
And–and how that every road through all that country led straight to
Babylon. And each one of those gates were about two hundred feet
across, those gates made out of brass. And when you got inside of the
city of Babylon, every street led straight to the throne.

⁴⁷
Now, you can go to Rome today, and every road will lead to Rome. And
there's a little virgin Mary setting on every corner, in the turn of
the road, with a Christ child in her hand, pointing that way towards
Rome. See? It appears in the first of the Bible; it appears in the
middle of the Bible; and here it is in the last of the Bible. Now, I
just want to read on just for a few minutes, so you get the background
of this. See? All right.

Now, where does the word "saint" comes from? The word "saint" comes from "sainted one" or "sanctified one," sainted. All right.

⁴⁹ I saw her drunk with the blood of the saints,…
Now, if this woman is the church, she's persecuted the saints. And
she's the greatest church; she has power all over the earth. She's over
many waters, and she… The kings of the earth commit fornications with
her. Well, who is she? Kind of a mystery. Now the Spirit's going to…
You know, there's supposed to be nine spiritual gifts in the church, to
wisdom, and one to understanding, and one for healing, and one for so
forth.

Looked like they didn't care much what Jesus said; it was what the church said. That's right. And that's correct too.

⁵¹

"I wondered with admiration. I… It was a–a marvel thing about her,
how that I wondered how that she…" Now, let me take John's place and
try to open that up a little bit. See? John said, "There she sets.
She's pretending to be a Christian church. She's got all the access to
the moneys of the world. She's got the kings of the earth in at her
feet. She's a rich and colorful thing, and how can she be drunk with
the martyrs of Jesus? How can she persecute the saints? How can she
kill those martyrs of Christ, and yet she's claiming to be a Christian
herself, a Christian church?"

⁵² Now, watch.

Now, this is just common reading here now. You catch this, this'll be very easy.

Now, now, this has got to pinch, so here it is. He said, now notice,
that when all, not just a few, but all that dwell upon the earth shall
wonder, all of them will wonder. The whole world will wonder about this
woman. There's just one group that won't be wondering about it, and
that's those who had their name in the Lamb's Book of Life.

⁵⁴
Now, I just might as well squeeze this in right here, 'cause we're
going to get into it in a few minutes. See? When was their names put on
the Lamb's Book of Life? From when? The last revival they attended? The
night they went to the altar? The night they joined the church? I'm not
trying to hurt you, but I'm telling you, the Bible said their names
were put on the Lamb's Book of Life since the foundation of the world.
It's exactly. When God, in the beginning saw that He'd send His Son,
and He'd take a sinners place, when God's Son's Blood was shed, the
Bible said His Blood was shed before the foundation of the world. How
many knows the Bible says that, that the Blood of Christ was shed
before the foundation of the world? When that Blood was shed, every
member of the Body, whose names was written with that Blood on the
Lamb's Book of Life at the foundation of the world. What you so scared
about? Oh, brother. That unlocks the doors, doesn't it?

⁵⁵
Well now, let's just read this right here and see if what if that says
right. See? "And the angel said unto me, 'Wherefore didst…'" I
believe it's the 8th verse.

There's going to be a bunch on the earth, in other words, that's going
to be deceived, for he deceived them. And there was only one group that
was not deceived, and that was the one that had their name on the Book
of Life since the foundation of the world. We get in that a little
later.

⁵⁷
Now, notice the woman, the church; she was Mystery Babylon. We see her
appear by Nimrod. What was Nimrod's purpose? Nimrod founded a city and
caused all of the other cities to pay tribute to this city. Could we
see such a thing today? Is there such a place today? Is there a church
that has domination over every nation in the world? Certainly. Is there
a place today that makes every nation pay tribute to it? Is there a
place? Let's go ahead and read the rest of this, just a little bit, so
you get the whole picture of it. All right.

Now, how many knows that wisdom is one of the gifts of the Spirit? Now,
what kind of a group's He talking to then? He must be talking to a
group of people that has the–the gifts of the Spirit operating in this
church.

⁵⁹
Now, you stop, find that all through these church ages here, pulling
out. The Holy Spirit speaking out how those gifts would be working in
the last days. Now, we've got gifts of healing working. Oh, it's–it's
going good. Well, brother, there's other gifts. That's just one of
them. That's just a little minor thing. Why, here's a far greater gift
right here. Which would be the best, the gift of the Holy Ghost of
wisdom to put the Word of God together and to show the church where
we're standing, than just to get somebody healed? We all want to be
well; but I'd rather have my soul well, than my body well anytime. Oh,
my. Hear the Holy Spirit speaking through John on Patmos, said, "Here's
to the wisdom, let him listen to This." Now, we're getting a picture
drawed out here.

⁶⁰

There
is only one city that I know of in the world, there's two cities that I
know of, that has seven or more mountains in it. Cincinnati is one of
them, which is supposed to be the fiction story of Cincinnati, some
other wolf, you know that, so forth. But it has more than that in it.
But there's no one church dominates Cincinnati. There's only one place
in the whole world that has a church setting on seven hills, that
dominates the entire world. Now, I've just come from there. All those
things… And I seen there where it said, "Here's to wisdom."
Revelations 13, "Let him that has wisdom count the numbers of the
beast, for it's the number of a man." Not a bunch of men, a group of
men, but a man. "And his number is six hundred and sixty-six."

⁶¹
I've often heard that over the throne of the pope of Rome, it's wrote,
"Vicarius Filii Dei." I often wondered if that was true. Draw a line,
and draw it up in figures in Roman numerals, and see if it is. It's
exactly the truth. I stood that close to the triple crown of the pope
in a glass: Jurisdiction of hell, heaven, and purgatory. See? So, those
things, I've just come from there, just come from Rome and know it's
the truth. Now, we know it's pictured out.

Now watch, watch how perfect it is.

Does anybody know how long Herod reigned? Six months. Pulled his mother
through the street on a single tree of a horse, and burnt the city, and
laid it onto the Christians, and fiddled on the hillside while they
were–while they were burning the city. Six–six months. And see, "And
the beast…" Now watch, look what a rascal that he was. See?

⁶⁴ Now, watch.

Anyone
knows what "perdition" means, is "hell." And watch where he ascended
out of: hell. What is it? The bottomless pit. There's no foundation for
a Catholic doctrine. There's no Bible for Catholic doctrine. There's no
such a thing as any Bible for any Catholic doctrine, not at all. They
don't claim to be. The priest said up there, this little priest up here
at Sacred Heart Church come over there, he said, "Oh, he…" I was
telling him about baptizing Mary Elizabeth Frazier. He said, "Oh, you
baptized her according to the way the early Catholic church baptized."
I said, "When was that?"
He said, "In the Bible, your Bible."
I said, "Did the Catholic church baptize that? Is that the teaching of the Catholic church?"
"Yeah.
I said, "In the infallibility of the Catholic church, why has it changed so much?" See?
He said, "Well, you see, you all believe the Bible. We believe the
church. (See?) We don't care what the Bible says; it's what the church
says." That's exactly right. If you ever come to a showdown to it, try
it once. You see? They don't care what the Bible says. That has nothing
to do with it; they care what the church says. See?
But we don't care what the church says. We believe what God says. For
the Bible, it's written, "Let every man's word be a lie, and Mine be
the Truth." That's why we're not denominations.

⁶⁹
Now watch, listen to this just a minute. "Five kings, which it was
fallen, five kings." If you want that on–on–from the history, I'll
show it to you. "And one is, and one's to come." Now watch, "the
beast." Now, the beast wasn't a king. He was one which is, which is
not; and yet he is, and is not; yet he is, and is not. What is it?
Succession of the popes, a power, a beast ruling. That's when pagan
Rome was converted to make papal Rome. Pagan Rome was converted, and
then it become the papacy, which, they had a pope in the stead of a
king, and the pope is the spiritual king. That's the reason he's a
crowned spiritual king, claims to be the vicar of Jesus Christ. There
you are.

⁷⁰
Now, notice. And we're going to bring that Catholic doctrine out of
there and show you how it's weeded right down into the Protestant
churches (See?), how she's still laying right in the Protestant church,
lot of it, contrary, exactly, to the Bible, absolutely contrary.
Now, "a beast which was, which is not." Now remember, all of them will
be deceived upon the earth, whose name was not written from the
foundation of the world.

⁷¹ Let's see.

They're
not crowned kings; they're dictators. See, they never was crowned king,
but they received power as kings one hour in the reign of the beast.
That's just in this little shadowy time right now where dictators are
rising up (See?), "Received power as king one hour with the beast."
Now, all right.

⁷²

Wish
I could preach a sermon right now on that, the chosen before the
foundation of the world, and abiding faithful in their calling.
Hallelujah. That's it. They are called the chosen and the faithful.
"And's" is a conjunction. See? The chosen and faithful, they shall
overcome him, no matter how great they get.

⁷³
And this great communism–communism move we got today, don't worry
about that. That's working exactly into the hands of God. I can prove
it by this Bible. He's going to make her suffer for every martyr she
ever killed. Yes, sir. You watch these kings all agree together and
will hate her. And the whole nation, the whole world sweeping
communism. Why, it's got to be a move of God to punish it. You say,
"Wait a minute, Brother Branham, communism a move of God?" Absolutely,
certainly, it is a move of God. The Bible said so. But it's moving in
to pronounce judgment upon a ungodly and disgracefully illegitimate
people. What's left in this world? What have we got?

⁷⁴
Here the other day… I'll stop on my subject just a minute if it's
possible. I was reading in a piece of Scripture where that a
illegitimate child will not enter the congregation of the Lord for
fourteen generations. How many knows that? That's right, Deuteronomy
23, an illegitimate child. If a woman is caught in the field, that's
away from the protection of man, and a man overcomes that woman, that
man will have to marry her. And regardless if she becomes a prostitute,
he has to live with her till he dies. And if this woman marries him,
pretending that she is a virgin, and she isn't, then she can be killed
for it. And if a man and a woman which are married, and they bring
forth a illegitimate child, that–the congregation of the Lord he'll
not enter to fourteen generations; and forty years is a generation,
it'd be four hundred years before that seed ever gets out of Israel.

⁷⁵
God hates sin. How do you expect to wade over the holy Blood of the
Lord Jesus, just because you belong to a certain denomination and
expect to go in? You're going to come God's grounds or you're not
coming at all. That's right. Deacon, preacher, whatever we may be, has
nothing to do with it. You come on God's term.
Fourteen generations… The person is setting present now who was
discussing that with me. Said, "How do we know who would ever be saved
then?"
I said, "There's where you ought to be a good Calvinist." Your name was
put in the Book before the foundation of the world. God takes that
blood stream; that's up to Him. See?
"Well, what's that got…"

⁷⁸
Listen, you young people today. I don't know whether you come to this
church, or where you come, you young boys and girls. Did you realize,
the things that you're doing, if there is another generation, your
children will be judged for what you do? Haven't you no respect or
decency? You girls that's out here wearing these little old shorts and
things around, you know, that's reflecting on your daughter. Did you
know your grandmammy was a–a flapper, and your mammy a chorus girl,
and that's the reason you're a striptease today? It's certainly. What
will your children be? Yes, sir. God said He'd visit the iniquity of
the parents upon the children and their children, to three and four
generations.

⁷⁹ And did you realize, my brother, every time you do that which is right, that'll be visited on your children?
Look
here, let's take Hebrews the 7th chapter. The Bible said, when–when
Melchisedec met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the king, and
blessed him, and said… Now, Levi, is talking about paying tithes.
Said, "Levi had an order from the Lord to receive tithes from his
brethren." And Levi who received tithe paid tithe, for he was yet in
the loins of Abraham when he met Melchisedec. And Abraham was his
great-grandfather. Abraham begot Isaac, Isaac begot Jacob, Jacob begot
Levi; Levi, father, grandfather, great-grandfather. And while Levi was
in the loins of Abraham, the Bible said he paid tithes to Melchisedec.
Hallelujah.
Don't let nobody tell you that any kind of a move in the world can ever
interfere with God's great cog; she's moving right on. It was planned
back there in the beginning. There ain't a devils or enough devils can
interfere with His program.

⁸²
Now, the Bible didn't say potentially he paid it; the Bible said he
paid tithes when he was in his great-grandfather's loins. Glory. That's
my Lord. Oh, He knowed it even before the world was ever formed. He
knowed everything. And in Abraham he paid tithes.
And sister, brother, how can you run out here, and people live and run
around with men's wives, and wives breaking up homes, and–and living
the way you do, what do you expect another generation to be? Here's
what it is: it's become now nothing but just a bunch of illegitimate,
messed-up-born bunch of corruption. And there's one thing left for it,
and that's the atomic day that we're living in. That's exactly right.
We're at the end time.

⁸⁴
Setting this morning, way back yonder in the hills of Kentucky, a
little old boy, you couldn't hardly get in ten foot of him, making
sorghum molasses, probably didn't know hardly which was right hand or
left, when he heard… I had got over on a posted grounds. I didn't
know where I was at; I was just in some of the hollows. And I–I was
just go to go squirrel hunting. And when I set down up there, got
talking to him, and this boy said he was going in the Army. And come to
find out, we got to talking about the Lord, and he said, "Preacher,
don't you believe that we're at the end time?" Way back up there in
them mountains…
I said, "Sure, we are. Sure, son, we're at the end time."

⁸⁶
Here we are. This is the hour that we're living, brother. We're in the
place. Can't you see how that mothers back yonder, and daddies, how
they lived, and grandpa and grandma? Can't you see how papa and mama
has lived? No wonder we're in the corruption today. No wonder you could
preach your head off; they'll wear shorts just the same and spit in
your face. They'll smoke cigarettes, and blow it right at you, and say,
"Tend to your own business." Why? Because that's the tribe they come
out of. I'm going to get to that directly. The seed of the serpent
we'll find out where she moves in, see why they act like that. They're
the Devil's children since the foundation of the world. That's right.
And we're nothing in, left for it; just–just judgment's the only thing
is left. Can't have nothing else but judgment. God will just wipe the
whole thing out, and man has done it themselves. God didn't intend it
to be that way, but He knew it would be that way. That's the reason he
said He would deceive all that lived upon the face of the earth, except
those whose names were put in the Lamb's Book of Life before the
foundation of the world.

⁸⁷ Let's what–read a little further now. Now, I believe we're on the 12th.

⁸⁸
Watch that now, these ten horns, these ten kingdoms. See, that's
everything falling in, what these dictators are. Watch the way
dictators lean to. Where's it leaning to? Just–just look–tell me a
dictator that doesn't lean towards communism. See? And they shall what?
"Hate the whore," the woman, the church. But watch. Watch what's going
to do it.

⁸⁹
They'll blow that thing off the map, just as certain as I'm standing
here. We just had time to take up that subject there of that church,
and run it on down through the Scripture, where It said, read, "all the
kings of this earth, and all the shipmasters, and all wail, for great
Babylon met her desolation in an hour." One hour, her time had come.
And, oh, how he said, "Rejoice, you saints, and all you holy prophets,
for God has revenged the blood of the saints and your brethren upon
her." See, that's right.
Sure, communism playing right into the hands of God. Just like King
Nebuchadnezzar played right in the hands, to come take them Jews when
they walked away naked.

⁹⁰
And sin can kept corrupting, righteous seed can remain in there and
seed can keep corruption, and corrupting and corrupting till after
while it runs out. It gets to a place because their mothers and daddies
and so forth has lived so before us, and by–and that, until there's
nothing left for us. And you know what Jesus said? If He didn't cut the
work short, there'd be not even any flesh saved.

⁹¹
Can you see? Can you see why we got these (I'm not making remarks.)
Arthur Godfrey's and everybody, you know, being Elvis Presley's,
and–and hips down with overalls and hair hanging down their neck, and
all these way the teen-agers are acting? What does it? What is it?
Because it's coming out of a bunch of 'fore-lived, illegitimate people,
nothing less Oh, they'll stand up and sing "Nearer, my God to Thee,"
like pea-picker Ernie and all those others like that, sing some kind of
a hymn, and so forth like that. Brother, you know what? That, that's
absolutely a hypocrisy. Yes, sir.

⁹²
Man has got no business in this pulpit that gets out there and
rock-and-roll and booglie-wooglie and all that kind of stuff. He hasn't
got one speck of business behind here. This is to the priesthood, the
called of God. God's called ministers belong behind here, and don't
belong back here for such as that. That's what's the matter with it
today, they've made the church no more than some lodge. Lodge is all
right, if you want to do that, that's up to you. But let me tell you;
there's a lot difference betrying–between a lodge and a church. Yes,
sir. You want to do those things in a lodge, and have all them kind of
parties and so forth, that's up to you. But, brother, the church ought
to be swept from the pulpit all the way to the basement. That's right.
I don't mean swept by the new windows and so forth. I mean with an old
fashion, God-sent revival that'll scatter the thing from one side to
the other. Yes, sir. Like turning a light, electric light on a bunch of
roaches around a cob of an apple. Yes, sir, they'll scatter when the
light flies.

⁹³ Now watch, "They have one mind, give their power." I'm below that now. "The ten horns…" Yes, now.

Now,

Now,
there's not no need of pushing around; we know that is the Catholic
hierarchy. There's no need of anybody… I–I believe that just as firm
as I believe that I have receive the Holy Spirit. I believe that just
as good as I believe that I'm a Christian standing here today, that
that Catholic hierarchy is the–the… The Vatican city is the–the
city that sets on the seven hills. The hierarchy of the church is the
beast which was, which is not, and she's Babylon. It's everything
pictured just exactly, just perfectly all the way through the
Scriptures [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.]… the Catholic church.

⁹⁵
Now, now here's your shocking point. You say, "Well, you ain't hitting
me, Brother Branham." But let me just ask you something. Let's go right
back now to the 5th verse.

What was she? W-h-o-r-e. And she was a m-o-t-h-e-r. What? M-o-t-h-e-r,
she had begotten something. A mother of sons? Of harlots. What is a
harlot? Same thing as a–as a whore: immoral woman. What made her
immoral? Her doctrine. She was pretending to be a Christian church, but
was giving out manmade dogma. And here she said that she had… If she
was the first organization, then seems like there's some organizations
come out of her. She was the mother of harlots. Is that right? A mother
of harlots. Couldn't be a mother now of boys. Couldn't be a mother
of… It had to be mother of women. And if they were women, they were
churches. Now, let's find out. What come out of the…

⁹⁷
What was the first organization? Catholic church. What was the second
organization? Luther. What was the third organization? Zwingli. What'd
it come on down to? Calvin. And then it come into Anglican, and the
Anglican on down into Methodist. The Methodists, what'd the Methodists
produce? Out of there come Alexander Campbell. And out of Alexander
Campbell come John Smith; out of Alexander Campbell was the Christian
church, then they had four or five Church of Christ and all those other
little isms run out. Then here come the Baptist church, it had a lot of
little pull outs. And out of the Methodist church come–out of the
Methodist church come, first come, the Wesleyan Methodist, then they
broke off four or five times. Then they come to another type of
Methodist, and then they come off again, then they come to the Free
Methodist. And–and then they come from that to the Nazarene. And from
the Nazarene to the Pilgrim Holiness, and the Pilgrim Holiness on down.
Just little "isms" running out like that, keep running on down, each
one of them little–little starters back there, come right on down. And
what did every one of them do? They finally wounded up in Pentecost.

⁹⁸
And what did Pentecost do? The same thing their mammy did; they went
right back and organized. And what'd it become? A–a denomination. Walk
into one; the first thing, "What's your doctrine?" Boy, they comb you
with a fine-tooth comb (See?), to find out what you are, what you
believe. And if you don't just tally right up with them, brother,
you're excommunicated right now. And that's right.
And don't think just because you say you're Pentecostal that you're
secured. Brother, there'd be just as many Pentecosts off the road as
there is on the road, I'm sure. See?

¹⁰⁰
Now, all those organizations, if they'd just left the Pentecostal
blessings go, not organize it, just keep it in a brotherhood and let
the Holy Spirit do the segregation. The Holy Spirit segregates.
Ananias, Sapphira come in one time said so-and-so, and the Holy Spirit
said, "Why did you lie?"
But we say, "Now, that's Brother Jones, don't you say nothing bad about
him now, he's the best payer we got in church. I know he got the Holy
Ghost; I heard him speak in tongues and I've seen him shout in the
Spirit." That don't have no more than pouring peas on a dry cowhide.
See? Not a thing to do with it. God does the say. He's got to say
whether he is or is not. Absolutely. "But we took it over to our
denomination. Well, we kicked him out of the–out of the Assemblies,
the Oneness picked him up." The Oneness carries him awhile, and then
they kicked him out because… They carry him over there and the Jesus
Only picks him up. Jesus Only packs him awhile, and then the next thing
picks him up is Church of God, picks him up. Church of God of Prophecy
picks him up, and the Tomlinson move gets him. Oh, my. Brother, if we
haven't got run out. That's in Pentecost, the last revival. And now,
they got the blue fame, and they got the oil worshippers, and the–and
the blood in the face. And, oh, mercy, I don't know where they gone to
now. Just one thing after…

¹⁰²
The whole thing has become corrupted. Did you know the Bible said it
would come corrupted? Did you know the–the Bible speaks that this day
will be here, when even the tables of the Lord will be full of vomit?
And said, "Who can I teach doctrine? Who can I make understand it? For
precept must be upon precept upon precept, upon line upon line." Who
can He teach doctrine? Those that are weaned from the breast, the
mammy. See?

¹⁰³
Now, there isn't–there isn't a woman, a ornery woman in this town but
what could bring forth a virgin daughter. She is when she's born. Now,
and she can go good. But if you don't notice that her mother has been
of that nature, that girl, nine times out of ten will act just exactly
like her mother does. Now, you know that's right.
An old woman that runs a house of ill fame, could bring forth a little
girl, and she could be sixteen years old, just as clean and moral as
any living, but if she remains that way… But the thing of it is, she
goes right back and acts like her mother.

¹⁰⁴
Now, the Catholic church was the first old prostitute that's come up
with doctrines that she made up of herself, superstitions, which, the
Bible said, "She come out of the bottomless pits and will go back to
perdition." The Bible said that. Now, they teach that it's wrong. It's
wrong according to God's Word. And then here comes the Methodist church
which was borned out of her, a beautiful young lady, but what did she
do? She turned right back around and do the same things that her mammy
does: Lets her congregation wear shorts; let them smoke cigarettes; let
them carry on and act just like they should. There ain't nothing said
about it. The little old half baked pastor back behind there, the
pulpit back there, is afraid he'll run out of salary someday, or a pan
of biscuits.
Let me tell you, brother; I'd rather preach the Gospel and eat soda
crackers and drink branch water, and tell the Truth about it. If every
one of my congregation got up and walked out, I'd tell them the Truth.
Yes, indeed.

¹⁰⁶
What's the matter? Oh, it's a meal ticket, "Well, you know, I'm the
pastor of the biggest church there is in the city." You Baptists and
Methodists, listening to a false prophet. Now, that's rough, but
anything that teaches contrary to this Bible is a false prophet. I
don't care how polished it may be, it's false prophecy. That's right.
"Oh, everything's all right as long as you got your name on the book."
You might have your name on a dozen books; if it ain't on the Book of
Life, you're lost. You can be ever so good; you can be just as loyal
and clean and moral as you can be; that won't have one thing to do with
it.

¹⁰⁸
Esau was twice the guy that Jacob was when it come to being a man,
taking care of his old blind daddy and everything else. And Jacob was a
little shyster hung around his mother's apron, little old sissy boy.
But God said, "I love Jacob and refuse Esau," before either boy was
borned. Romans 8 says so. That's exactly right.
God knows what's in man. And He knows what's in the church too. We live
by the Bread of Life, the Bread of the Word of God. Now, that's why
we're not a denomination.

¹¹⁰
Now, I want to give you another little… I want to give you a little
illustration I had wrote out here. "The great…" Now, in Revelation
19:2, I got something marked out here, I want to look and see what it
is now.

That's the ending of the Catholic church.

¹¹¹
Now, we also want you to notice, also here, that a denomination, that a
denomination is also found out in the Scriptures here, that the… And
the Bible never speaks of a denomination. The denominations come from
the Catholic church. She is the first mother of denomination and each
denomination has come right down.
Now, this is going to be just a little pinchy; it's going to get a
little pinchier all the time. See? But I–I want you to see that
denominations wasn't borned or ordained of God; it was ordained of the
Devil.
God's church is a… We are not divided; all one body we. One hope and
doctrine, one in charity. That's the Church of the living God.
Regardless of what they, them things, we're one together. That's right.
Whether he's Methodist or Baptist, brother, if he's borned again and
filled with the Holy Ghost, he's my brother, we're walking shoulder to
shoulder. Right. Yes, sir. Don't make any difference.

¹¹³
Moses… Sometime might look around and say, "You know that bunch of
fanatic Pentecostals, Brother Branham, why'd you ever go out of a bunch
like that for?" You know what? Moses looked upon the children of
Israel, he looked out of the same window that Pharaoh looked out of.
Pharaoh looked at them as a bunch of mud-daubers, but Moses looked out
upon them as the chosen of God. He knowed they had the promise. Why? He
knowed it by the Word. And by faith with his foot on the throne to be
Pharaoh, with all the world laying at his feet, set there and pour wine
in his mouth, and beautiful women to fan him, as the emperor, or the
dictator, or king of the world, young Moses at forty years old had in
his hand, when he looked out upon that bunch of mud-daubers; but he
knowed he was one of them. Hallelujah. That's it. He knew he was one of
them. And by faith alone he chose…

¹¹⁴
Everybody's got to make a choice. You got to make a choice. You're
going to make a choice now. You're going to make a choice in the
morning. You're going to make a choosing tomorrow night, if you live.
You've got to choose sometime. Brother, a long time ago I chose this
Bible was my dictionary; this Bible was my Book of Life; this Bible was
the Word of God. The Bible is what I live by. This Bible is what I'll
stand by.

¹¹⁵
Therefore Moses looked out upon the children of Israel, and not only
did he say, "Oh, they're wonderful people. I have nothing against them.
Oh, no, I wouldn't speak one word against them." That's the way a lot
of people do today. "Oh, those Pentecostals and those people that's got
the Holy Ghost, and those people who believe in Divine healing, oh,
I–I–I ain't got nothing against it." But that wasn't Moses. He
forsook Egypt and became one of them, he went out among his brethren.
He was one of them.

¹¹⁶
Brother, that's where I take my way. I'll take the way with the Lord's
despised few, if it's a handful or whatever it is. They got a promise,
and I see their names in the Lamb's Book of Life. They're my brethren.
That's right. Take your choice and stand with them. Right or wrong,
stand there anyhow. If they're wrong help them to the right. That's
right. You never make them any better by kicking them around. See, try
to pull them out.

¹¹⁷
Charlie, like they said about Brother Allen about the fire they–the
blood in the hands. I said, "Never, never did I disregard A. A. Allen."
I said, "If I could preach like A. A. Allen, I'd never even have a
healing service." Now, when it comes to disagreeing upon blood as being
the evidence of the Holy Ghost in your hands, I'll disagree with that.
But when it comes to brotherhood, he's my brother. I stand shoulder to
shoulder with him in the battle. That's right. If he's wrong, I'll try
to help him. And if he's not wrong, if I'm wrong, I want him to help
me. And that's the way we'll get it–get along.

¹¹⁸ Now, watch here.

Now
do you see how the church today, friends, can you see how these
churches today just live any way they want to live? "Perfectly all
right, go right ahead," hog eat hog, pay no attention. "Why, there's no
harm in doing that. Why, you just try to be old fashion." Now watch,
their doctrine. Now, I want… Now, now watch. That's their habit. Do
you see that a few years ago that the Catholic church was the only one
who was permitted to go to a picture show? The Methodist church
wouldn't think of such a thing, all them denominations, "No, that's the
works of the Devil." Well, I–I wonder what happened. Yes, sir.

¹¹⁹
And you know, you'd take them young Catholic girls, they come out with
these little… (Now, some of you old boys is as old as I am.)… come
out and go to this little thing where they had the knee-high. That guy,
I guess, is in hell tonight. I don't know, I'm not his judge. But when
he made that first little dirty song that slipped out on radio, without
being censored, that "Roll 'em, girlies, roll 'em; roll 'em down and
show your pretty knees." How many remembers that when that first come
out years ago? That was the first slip-up right there. That's right.
And when they got this fellow from Texas, and take them women out there
and use them underneath clothes to make them look like they were
something that they wasn't, and such things as that, and let them get
by with it… And now what do they do? It went to creeping in. It's a
spirit.

¹²⁰
A man was talking to me the other day; said, "I don't know what I'm
going to do. I had a good honest boy, and that boy's getting so he
takes what he put his hands on."
I said, "Why?"
"He's associating with a thief."
You hang around with somebody that's a thief, you'll be a thief
yourself. My old Kentucky mammy used to say, "If you lay down with a
dog that's got fleas, you'll get up with fleas too." You take a–you
take a woman that's no good, and let a girl, and put her with a–a good
decent boy, and the first thing you know he's as ornery as a pup. Turn
it right vice versa. You're knowed by your company. Separate yourself.
"Come out from among them," said the Bible, "be ye separated." That's
right.

¹²²
If their denominations go back to such corruption as letting their
people… Well, here the other day, a big fine Baptist church, they had
to dismiss. Only could to preach twenty minutes, the man could, 'cause
the pastor had to smoke. The congregation all went outside. All of them
stood out there and smoking in chains, and come back again, pastor and
all of them. I went to a Congregationist Church, there a man set, a big
long robe on, standing there, said, leaned on the pulpit like this,
talking about some kind of a flower he found up on the hill. That's
about all there was to it. And went back down, and his fingers was
yellow with cigarette smoke. Yes.
And talking about that the women, that the man was going to play…
What's this German game they play with that, so much you–you deal out
cards, you know? It had… Oh, I thought I'd remember it. Pinochle,
they was going to have a pinochle game. I think that–that it's where
you deal, it's regular playing cards. A pinochle game in the
basement… My, goodness. That's where its foundation is. No wonder.
What do they do that, and then holler about the Catholic church out
here at these rotary places and playing lottery. Why, you Protestants
are just as filthy as they are, so what can you say about it? Pot can't
call kettle dirty. Certainly not. And you do, and that, they'd say,
"Well, I'm a Presbyterian. I'm a Methodist." You're nothing till you're
born again. That's right. And when you do that, you know there's
something within you tells you those things are wrong, and you'll come
out of it just as sure as you're knee high to a duck. You know that's
the truth. Certainly. Yes, sir. That stuff go along that, why?

¹²³
One of these days old mother is going to say, "You know what? After
all, honey, we're both the same." And you know what it is then? The
Confederation of Churches are going to all unite together as they are
now. And you know what's going to happen to a little group like this?
You're going to pay for it, boys. That's exactly right.
But don't worry, the Lamb shall overcome him. For He's the Lord of lord
and a King of kings, and God will go to leading His church, instead of
a denomination. He'll pour out that golden Oil of the Holy Ghost upon
that church, brother, Fire will fall from Heaven, with signs and
wonders will take place like you've never seen before. Yes, sir. "Fear
not, little flock, it's your Father's good will to give you the
Kingdom." Yes, sir. "He that endures to the end…" There you go. Keep
right down the road; keep your head towards Calvary. This Bible's
right. Don't worry.

¹²⁵
Now watch, there's some of the habits they have. Some of the morals
that they have. We could just go on. First thing you know, it leaked
into the Protestant churches. Then the Catholic women begin to… "Why,
it wasn't no harm to put on little shorts, as long as you went to
church and put a little handkerchief over their head," some kind of
tradition. "Don't eat any meat on Friday." And, oh, where'd you ever
find putting a handkerchief on your head to enter church? I want you to
show me the Scripture. It's false prophecy. Where is it in the church
you're supposed to wear a hat in the church? When you wear a hat on
your head, you dishonor Christ, that's right; man, I'm speaking of.
Women, you do have a covering, but I'll challenge anybody to show me
where it's a hat or a handkerchief. It's your hair. And you've cut it
all off. Now, what about that? Oh, they say, "That's old fashion." If
it is, it's the Bible. God's Word's right.

¹²⁶
Speaking here not long ago of the woman that washed Jesus' feet, and
took her hair, you know, and–and wiped it with it. I said, "The only
way a woman could do that, is stand on her head to get enough hair down
there to wash His feet and to wipe it." That's right. Oh,
it–it's–it's a disgrace to see the way you… Here, freezing weather,
walking around with a little chubby coat on like that, and their naked
body showing.
Why, say, "Why you picking on women?" You need to be picked on.
And you men that let your women do that, brother, I–I don't know what to think about you. Now, that's right.
And you pastors, I don't guess you're here. But if you see the guy, you
tell him to come tell–see me. See? If he's got no more respect for
Christ than to let his congregation get by with that without… Now,
he… They might do it out there behind him, but if he don't tell them
about it, he's not a fit servant for Jesus Christ. That's exactly
right. He is not fit to be a servant of Christ. A servant of Christ
should be fearless; it's a cause that comes to the Bible. Certainly.
But there they are; they go out and they do it anyhow.

¹³⁰
And then, the first thing you know, the Protestants had to pick it up.
You good Methodist, and you Baptist, and you Presbyterian and Nazarene,
Pilgrim Holiness, and all of you. Same thing, got right out, six of
one, and half a dozen of the other. There you are, "mother of harlots."
Your denomination, "As long as they started at headquarters, what
difference did it make?" See? Makes a whole lot of difference. They
never started at that Headquarters. Might start at your headquarters
down here, but not that One up there. Depends on where you're from.
That's true.

¹³¹
Now, I don't think we have time to get this other one, maybe I better
leave it for in the morning. All right, let's just take this little
short one. We got here baptism in water; we also got predestination,
and, oh, many things. So let's just take this– this little short one
of women preachers, and get this one.
Now, now, lady preacher, I don't want to hurt your feeling, but I want
to tell you something. You haven't got one speck of Scripture, not one
in the Bible. Yeah, I know where you're going to, and I've done had all
your… Yeah, "And your sons and daughters shall prophesy." Now, if
your pastor don't know what the name "prophesy" means, he–he don't
know, ain't got very much business behind the pulpit, trying to tell
you to be a preacher. See? 'Cause it absolutely, it's condemned from
Genesis to Revelation. Now, let me show you here. See?

¹³³
Now I want you to turn with me to I Timothy 2:11. Just turn over here
and we'll find out it's the Scriptures. Now, and we'll get that here,
also your Acts 2. And just–just listen here what the Scripture has to
say about this subject.
Now, somebody kept saying, "Well, Brother Branham, you're just an old
woman hater." I'm not no woman hater. I'm a… I just don't like to see
women trying to take a place that they don't belong in. You remember at
Howard Shipyard over here, one of the most successful shipyards there
is on the Ohio River, they put a woman over it, look what happened.
They give the woman a right to vote; look what happened.

¹³⁵
Let me tell you right now. Not just skinning women; I'm wanting man to
understand you're in on this too. But let me tell you something,
brother; this nation is a woman's nation. I'll prove that by you, by
the Scripture, by anything that you want to prove it by. This is…
What appears on our money? A woman. Where's she found out in Revelation
here, you see her? She's number thirteen, also, everything she started.
Thirteen stars, thirteen stripes, thirteen colonies, thirteen,
everything was thirteen to begin with. She appears in the 13th chapter
of Revelation, a woman, thirteen.

¹³⁶
And in 1933 when the Lord, when we was having meetings over here where
that Church of Christ is standing now, the old Masonic home, the vision
of the Lord came to me up here and predicted that, Germany would rise
up and have put that Maginot Line there. Many of you remember. And how
they'd be all fortified in there, and the Americans would take a great
beating right there at that line. It also said what would take place,
and about Roosevelt and them things, how he would run and make that
fourth term. Perfectly, just exactly the way it come to pass. And also
said that cars would keep getting more like an egg, until the last days
they'd be just in the shape of an egg.
Now, I said, "It'll come to pass that those cars will not be run by a
steering wheel; it'll be something another run." It's them cars they're
bringing out right now, remote control, for safety. Correct. You won't
be able to enter into a city then, a twenty-mile zone, you can just go
twenty mile. You can't hit another car, because it's remote control.
See, it's going like that right now.
And I said, "Remember, in that day, before the end time comes, before
the end time comes, that a woman… Now, you all keep this wrote down.
There'll be a great powerful woman raise up, either be President, or
dictator, or some great powerful woman in this United States. And
she'll sink under the influence of women. Now, you remember; that's
THUS SAITH THE LORD."

¹³⁷
See, and she's wrong. And what is it given away to? Let me tell you. Be
spiritual; let's open up, look. Why is it doing that? To give the
Catholic church a place to come in. See? You worship these movies stars
and all these other different things out here. Remember the sermon I
preached (Margie, you remember it.) years ago on the–the invasion of
the United States and overthrow the American Government? And how that I
said he raised up in Paris after we saved them over there from that
women, wine, and big time, and he lit right down in Hollywood. Now,
instead of us sending to Paris to get models, they send here to get
models. What did it do? It got…
We–you wouldn't let your children go to the picture show, but it got
right into the television, moved right on out and contaminated the
whole thing, run her right on out. And here we are today, all the
little girls and boys all like some kind of these television actors.
What is it? It's making a way.
Boy, one ill-famed woman can send more people to hell than all the
bootleg joints you could put in a city. That's right. Watch her go down
the street with her clothes all stripped down, don't care who the man
is, if he's a healthy normal man, when he looks at the woman he's bound
to have something to pass over him. Now, just be honest.

¹³⁸
I don't care. I've had the Holy Ghost for years. You can't look at a
woman and her half dressed… I–I carry a little cross in my car; many
of you seen it. Somebody said to me, "Are you a Catholic?" Where did
the Catholics ever get an option on the cross? The cross means
"Christian."
Them little old Saint Cecilia's and things is the mark of Catholicism.
We don't believe in such stuff as that. We believe in Christ. They have
all kinds of dead people they worship. It's a high form of
spiritualism. It's all it is, worshipping the dead. No such a thing,
no.

¹⁴⁰ I asked that priest, I said, "Why did any… If Peter was the first pope?"
He said, "That's right."
I
said, "Then why did Peter say, 'There's no other mediator between God
and man but that Man Christ Jesus.' And you've got five thousand dead
women and everything else you're making mediators. Now, what's
happened?" There you are. They ain't got an answer for that. That's
right.

¹⁴²
And now some of their doctrine, their false doctrine, a bunch of false
Protestant prophets has come around and teaching that, and you
Protestant people are swallowing it. That's exactly right.
Denominations, and forms of baptisms, and different orders and things
that you're going through, which is absolutely not Scriptural, it's
against it in the Scripture, yet you knuck right down to it. It's the
truth.

¹⁴³
Now listen to this about the women preachers. All right, first thing
would be, I want the–the I Timothy 2:11. Now, listen what it says here.

I'm not responsible for putting it in there. I'm responsible for telling you it's in there. See, see?

If you ever went into an Orthodox church and watch them… See, see?

¹⁴⁵
Did you know… Now listen, women. You good righteous Christian women
are the best thing that God could give a man or He'd give him something
different. Yes, sir. See? A woman was not even in the original
creation. The woman is not a created product of God. She's a byproduct
of a man. God made the man both man and woman. And He separated them.
After the man had already lived on the earth and named the beasts and
lived here a long time, He took a rib out of Adam's side as a byproduct
and made a woman to it. "Adam was first formed, and then Eve." Now,
watch.

¹⁴⁶
God took the man; the Devil took the woman. Look at it right straight
in the face. What's doing it today? Look at the real Church of God,
will say, "Jesus!"
The antichrist will say, "Mary!" Watch them spirits (See?), there they
are. "Hail, Mary, mother of God, blessed art thou among women, and pray
for us sinners now in the day of our death. Amen." Mary prays? Oh, my,
goodness. See, there you go, "Woman," the Devil's subject. Christ, the
object of worship, and the only One… There you are; there you are.

¹⁴⁷
Adam was first formed, and then Eve. Adam was not deceived. And how
could you have a woman pastor, deacon? Adam was not deceived, but the
woman was deceived. She was actually… She didn't think she was wrong,
but she was. The woman being deceived was in the transgression. Because
they're… Every time that a–a funeral goes down the street, a woman
caused it. Every time a baby screamed out, a woman caused it. Every
time someone died, a woman caused it. Every gray hair, a woman caused
it. Everything, and death, a woman caused it. Everything that's wrong,
a woman caused it. And then put her head of the church, pastor, oh,
bishop sometimes. Shame on us.

¹⁴⁸
Now, let me turn you in just another one, just in a minute. See? Now,
let's turn to I Corinthians 14:32 there, and see what Paul says over
here, and then we're going right over to some more just in a minute.
And then we don't want to keep you too long, so you'll be so tired in
the morning you can't come back. All right, I want to read. How many
believes that Paul was an inspired teacher? Now, remember, Paul wrote
this to Timothy also. See? That's… Now, I Corinthians 14:32. Now
let's start right in here and start reading here, 14:34, I believe.

Did you hear what he said?

Have you got a marginal reading on that? If you are, run it back and
see if it don't take Genesis 3:16, when God told Eve, because that she
had listened to the serpent instead of her husband, that he'd rule over
her all the days of her life. How can the woman come and rule over a
man, be pastor or deacon, when the Bible said let her be obedient just
like it was in the beginning when God… God can't change. You can't
make the Word say one thing here and another thing over here. It don't
do it. It's the same thing all the time. So in the beginning, that's
where…

¹⁵¹
Before this is over, if I get a chance, I want to straighten out that
marriage and divorce case for you. I've never done it in this church
yet. Watch this double covenant. One says she can marry, and the other
said he can't marry, and this one say this, that, or the other. Just
wait a minute and see what the Bible says when we get to that. See? All
right.

¹⁵²

Then in the Old Testament they wasn't allowed to speak, 'cause Paul
said here they wasn't. Is that right? "Let your women keep silent, it's
obedience." Now, if you want to run your margin reading there, it'll
take you back to Genesis 3:16. See? All right. "Under, as under the
law…"

¹⁵³
Now, look at that question mark on each one of your Bibles, on that
"What?" What caused Paul to say that and to act it like that? Now, if
you'll ever get the letters that the Corinthians wrote to Paul (Now,
you can get them in any good library. See?)–that the Corinthians wrote
to Paul, they wrote and told him. After these women who was
converted… They had a–a goddess over there was called Diana, and she
was of Ephesus also. And the Corinthians worshipped the same, 'cause it
was a heathen worship. And they found a rock out in the field one day;
it looked like a shape of a woman. They said, "God is a woman, and she
dropped her image down to us." And their temple was far beyond the
Solomon temple, they said, the historians. Oh, it was all marble,
inlaid with gold; where, Solomon's temple was made of cedar and inlaid
with gold. See? And it was far beyond it. And that, then, if God was
a–a woman, why, sure, she could have women priests. Sure, if God is a
woman, then the woman preacher's right. But God is a Man, the Bible
said He was a Man. He is a Man. See? And if God was a Man, then it
should be men.

¹⁵⁴
Now notice here, "What?" Now, some of them women priests, when they was
converted from paganism into Christianity, they thought they could
maintain their office as a preacher, just come right on over. If they
preached over there about Diana, they come over here and preach about
Christ.
He said, "What? Came the Word of God out…" Just listen to this. Brother, how can ministers do that? 36th verse.

Now, that's just as flat as I know to put it. See? He said, "If a man
is a spiritual man, or a prophet, he'll acknowledge that what I write
here is the commandments of the Lord." But said, "If he–if he's going
to be ignorant, just let him be ignorant." See, it's the only thing you
can do. If they want to go on to it, you just have to let them go,
'cause he seen it starting there.

¹⁵⁷ And some woman told me, she said, "Oh, Paul was just an old woman hater."
He
was no woman hater. You know, Paul was the apostle, and to the Gentile
church. Look here. Did you know Paul… How many believes that's what
Paul preached? Is that what he–he said here? And Paul said…
You say, "Well, wait a minute now, Brother Branham. Just a minute. Now,
our bishop says that's all right. The general overseer, the assembly
says it's all right. The oneness bishop says it's all right."
I don't care what they say, it's false! And I told you we was going to
stick this hard. And false prophets would say so. For the Bible said,
"If any man thinks himself to be a spiritual, or a prophet, let him
acknowledge that what I say is the commandments of the Lord." And if
his spirit don't bear record with that Word, he's a false prophet to
begin with. I'd rather be a woman hater than a woman lover to go such
stuff as that, to put up with such stuff as that in the Church of God
contrary to the ordinances of God. And Paul said, get Galatians 1:8;
Paul said, "If an angel from heaven would preach any other Gospel than
that what I preached unto you, let him be accursed." Now, what are you
going to do about that?

¹⁶¹
Now you say, "What about where It said, 'Your sons and daughters shall
prophesy,' in Joel, and–and where Peter quoted on the day of
Pentecost?" That's exactly right.
Did you know, in the Old Testament that the only way, and the only way
now, that anybody can come into the covenant through, by… Abraham was
the one was given the promise, and the–the seal of the promise was by
circumcision. How many knows that? That was God confirming.

¹⁶³ Like a Baptist brother, he said, "Brother Branham, why, we Baptists have received the Holy Ghost."
I said, "When did you get It?"
Said, "The hour we believed."
I
said, "Paul said, 'Have you received the Holy Ghost since you
believed?'" See? I said, "Now, you Baptists come get some of That, and
we'll talk some eternal security with you," I said.
"But, well, where do you get it like that?" See?
He said, "Have you received It since you have believed?" They were
believers, and having shouting and joy and everything else. They hadn't
received the Holy Ghost yet; Paul said they hadn't. See? "Have you
received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"
They said, "We know not whether there be any Holy Ghost."
Said, "Then how was you baptized?"
They said, "We been baptized." But falsely (See?), so he had to be baptized over again. All right.

¹⁶⁷
Now, notice this now, that these women preachers, when they come in,
they thought they'd take their authority. But it's absolutely not
permitted by God to do so. And let… Just while we're right on this
subject here, this women… (See?), And he… Now, It said, "If there
be any man among you who's spiritual, or a prophet, let him acknowledge
that what I write is the commandments of the Lord. But if he's
ignorant, just let him be ignorant." And that's why the–this
Tabernacle does not stand and ordain women preachers, women deacons, or
anything for a woman to do as an office of this church is because this
Scripture lays here and it's naked.

¹⁶⁸
Now, the Bible did say, "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy."
Now, what does the word "prophesy" mean? Look it up. It's to "tell
something, under inspiration," or "foretell something." It's a compound
word.
Just like "sanctify" means to be "cleaned, and set aside for service."
See? Or, it's not… It's a compound word meaning more than one thing,
like we got so much of it in the English here.
Like we say the word "board." Well, what would board mean? You say,
"Well, he means he paid his board." "No, he never, he meant he bored a
hole." "No, he never, he meant he bored him." Or, you see, just a word,
and you have to know what you're talking about. See?
And that's the way it is this, this compound word, where, "Your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy." Now, the only way that God…

¹⁷²
This Baptist said, "Well, we have received the Holy Ghost." I said…
"then when we believed it." I said… Now (See?), he said, "God give
Abraham the…" He said, "Abraham believed God." That's the way he put
it. He said, "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness." How many knows that's the truth? Now, watch how–how
easy Satan can slip that on a brother. See, just as easy… Now, that's
Scripture.
Brother, I'm telling you, in this, in up here, you should be anointed
before you enter this. You should enter into a secret place and pray.
People say, "Why don't you go out and see the people?" Brother, if
you're going to talk to the people, or teach them, you'd better stay to
yourself with God for a while 'fore you enter that pulpit. Certainly
(See?), 'cause Satan is shrewd, very shrewd.

¹⁷⁴
He said now, notice, he said, "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness." That's right. He said, "Now, what more can
Abraham do but believe?"
I said, "That's all he could do."
He said, "How much more can you do or anybody else do but believe?"
I said, "That's all we can do. But look, brother, then God reconciled,
or recognized Abraham's faith. He give him the seal, a sign of
circumcision as a seal of the covenant. See, He give him… He said,
'Now, Abraham, I recognize your faith, so I'm going to give you a sign
now that I have received you.'" So he circumcised Abraham, and that was
a seal of the covenant. And now in this day…
Now, a woman could not be in that covenant: only a married woman. Find
out, couldn't circumcise a female; so it had to come in, so her and her
husband are one. They're not no more two; they're one. How many knows
that? The Scripture says so. So her being married, then she–she become
one. And go on down here and look over here in Timothy, said the same
thing, said, "Now withstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if
she continues in faith and holiness with all sobriety."

¹⁷⁸
Now, but then, the circumcision of the Old Testament was in the flesh,
but in this New Testament, Joel said, "I'll pour out My Spirit upon all
flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." Now, the word
"prophesy" does not mean to teach. The "prophesy" means to either "tell
an experience, under inspiration," or "foretell something that's fixing
to take place." And we know that there was prophetess in the Old
Testament. They never could speak out in the building, speak out in the
church, in the congregation, as a teacher. But, see, Anna and many of
them in the temple, they were prophetesses, and Miriam was a prophetess
or something like that. She had the Spirit on her; that's true; but she
had her limitations of place.
Women can be prophetess today, absolutely; but not teachers, and so
forth, behind the platform here. If you do, you make–you make the
Bible contradict Itself. The Bible can't say one thing here and another
thing over here. It's got to say the same thing all the time or It
isn't the Word of God. See? So, "Your sons and your daughters shall
prophesy," means that they shall either "foretell" or "testify." Now,
you look that up, and you get the Bible dictionary and see if that
isn't right. "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy."

¹⁷⁹
Now, the Bible also speaks of a woman who pretended her, or–or claimed
that she… This would work both for the Catholic church, and would
work also with the–with this little subject we're going to speak of
now. Let's turn over to the Book of–of Revelations, and let's get
about the–the 2nd chapter and the 20th verse, just while we're right
here close to it, that you might notice here and just see how the
devilish that thing can be, by speaking in this last days what will
take place, how that these, what this woman would be. Remember, the
Catholic church is a woman. We just read it, haven't we?
Listen to this now, how It says, Revelation 2:20, "Now withstanding…"
He's speaking to this Thyatira church (See?), "now withstanding," which
is a middle age church there, went through the dark ages.

¹⁸⁰
Now, if you ever notice, watch these church ages; then we'll close. And
then in the morning we're going to pick up these other things. Watch.
In the… Under the–the golden candlesticks of the Jewish tabernacle
in the inside, of the shewbread and so forth, there was seven golden
candlesticks. All of you know that. See? There's seven church ages.
That speaks of seven church ages alike.
Now if you notice in Revelations 1, we find Jesus standing in the seven
church ages, the seven golden candlesticks, when he turned and saw One
like the Son of man standing clothed with a… How it was, it was a
Bride standing in the candlesticks drawed out.
Now, in the Old Testament, they would take these, this one candle and
light it, take the other candle and light off of that one, light off of
that one, one off the other one like that, till they made the entire
seven candlesticks.

¹⁸²
If you'll notice at the beginning, when God begin to deal with the
Jews, and they went through the golden age. And then the darkest age of
the Jewish dealings, God had with the Jew, was in the reign of Ahab.
And if you'll notice, reading those church ages there, He gets right
back to it again. He said, now, a few things ago, and said. Now, right
in that dark age, fifteen hundred years there, or the time of Ahab,
first, and the Jews, the darkest age they had, when Ahab married
Jezebel and brought idolatry into Israel, and made all the people
worship after Ahab, after Jezebel's god. You remember, they took, put
up the groves, and took down the altars of God. And Elijah cried out he
was the only one, and God had seven hundred who'd never bowed their
knee to Baalim yet. You remember that? That's that type of that elect
church coming out. See there, see how it is?

¹⁸³
Now, in this church, if you'll notice the first church, the first
church, the church of Ephesus, was a great church. He said, "You got
light yet." And if you notice each church, it begin to dim out, dim
out, dim out, until it got to Thyatira, then the fifteen hundred years.
Then He come out on the other side, "And you've got just a little
light. Strengthen that which you have got, lest your candlestick be
removed." And it come on down then to the Philadelphian church age, and
then into the Laodicean church age.

¹⁸⁴
Now, here's the beauty. Oh, my, I just love this, Brother Smith. See,
look at this. Now, in this church age, as we went through… Now, watch
this. The first church age was the Ephesus, the Ephesian church age.
Now, each one of those church ages, till it got to this fifteen hundred
years, if you'll notice… Read it now when you go home tonight, if you
have time, or early in the morning 'fore you come to church, on the
1st, 2nd, and 3rd chapter of Revelations. You'll find out, each one of
those church ages, He said, "You have a little strength, and you
haven't denied My Name," until He got to this fifteen hundred years of
Thyatira, the dark age. Then He come out on the other side, and said,
"You have a name that you live, but you are dead."

¹⁸⁵
And these, none of these other church ages, that or the Philadelphian
church age, never did pick up that Name again, never got that Name,
'cause it went out during this time. Now, oh, how we could lay that on
to them false teachings now, right there, show you it's a mother, the
Catholic church the mother of all of it, how she's "Mother, Mystery,
Babylon." And that's that… Look, this church age here when she come
out, she had a little light, then she went getting dimmer, dimmer, and
then she come into an organization back here, this fifteen hundred
years. And she come out now, not as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ,
but as the Catholic church. What did Luther come out? As the Lutheran
church. What did the Baptist come out? As the Baptist church. Not His
Name, not His Name; another name: "you have a name." For there's not
another name given under heaven whereby you may be saved, only the Name
of Jesus Christ. "You have a name that you're living, but you're dead,"
that's with that denomination.

¹⁸⁶ "Oh, I'm a Presbyterian," and you're dead.
"Oh,
I'm a Baptist," and dead. You're only alive as you come alive in Christ
Jesus. That's right. And your false baptisms in water, false baptism,
sprinkling, pour, instead of immersing, using "Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost" instead of the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ… All those false
things coming right down, the Bible speaking, like pouring it into it
just as hard as it can. And here we tolerate right along with them,
"Well, my church believes it this a-way." But the Bible says this. See?
No such things, there's no such a thing.

¹⁸⁷
And no place in the Bible did they ever stick out their tongue and take
the holy eucharist, and the priest drink the wine and call it the Holy
Ghost. Never in the Bible did they ever shake hands and give the right
hand of fellowship and call it the Holy Ghost. Never did anybody raise
up and say, "now I'm a believer," and receive the Holy Ghost. If it
did, here's the way that Acts 2 would have to read, "And when the day
of Pentecost had fully come, down the road come a Roman priest, and he
had his collar turned around. He walks up, and said, 'All of you stick
out your tongue now and take the holy eucharist, first communion.'"
Wouldn't that be some way to read Acts 2?

¹⁸⁸
Well, you Protestants are as bad. Come back there and say, "Now when we
walk up to you Methodists, put them on the right hand, give them the
right hand of fellowship, and six months on probation." Where do you
read that in Acts 2? See? Where you getting that? See?
See, it said, "When they were all in one place and in one accord…"
There never come up no bishop and done this, and there never come up no
priest and done this. "But there came a sound from heaven like a
rushing mighty Wind, and It filled all the house where they were
setting." There's the way they received It (Yes, sir.), as a rushing
mighty wind coming from glory, not up the road or from some
denomination. "You have a name that you're living, but you're dead."

¹⁹⁰
See, your creeds and denominations has barred God away like that,
till… "We believe this, and we believe the days of miracles is past."
It's a false prophet that says that. It's a false prophet that tells
you that you can shake hands and receive the Holy Ghost. It's a false
prophet that tells you you receive the Holy Ghost when you believe.
It's a false prophet that tells you you should be poured and sprinkled
instead of baptizing. It's a false prophet that tells you to be
baptized in the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, when there's no
Scripture for it in the Bible. That's right. There's not a Scripture in
the Bible tells you to be baptized, where anybody was ever baptized,
only in the Name of Jesus Christ; only part–John's disciples, and they
had to come and be rebaptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ to
get the Holy Ghost. That's right. Now, that's not Jesus Only doctrine;
I know Jesus Only doctrine; that's not it. That's this Bible doctrine.
That's right.
But there you are. What do you do with it? There's your mammy. There's the mammy of those creeds…

¹⁹²
Now, if you look right back in the Bible and tell me where anybody was
ever sprinkled. Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, tell me where one
person was ever sprinkled in the Bible. Tell me where one was ever
poured in the Bible for remission of sin. Mention it. Can you find it?
If you do, come to me, and I'll walk down this street with a sign on my
back, and say "a false prophet, I been wrong." Or you find one place in
the entire Bible where anybody was ever baptized in the Name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the way eighty percent of you has been
baptized. Find me one Scripture where anybody was ever baptized that
way, and I'll put a sign on my back, "false prophet," and walk down the
road with it like this. And show me where anybody was ever baptized in
the new church, that didn't have to come and be rebaptized over in–not
in the Name of Jesus only, but in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's right. See if that isn't right.

¹⁹³
And here, what is it? She was a mother of harlots. What was made her a
harlot? What made her a whore? Her doctrine. What made them a harlot?
Her doctrine.
And that's the reason we don't tolerate with their denominations and
their dogmas. We stay clean with this Bible. I don't know how well you
live it, but you're taught It, anyhow. That's right. That's up to you.
I can't make you live it. I can only tell you what's the Truth. That's
why we're not a denomination. I wouldn't–wouldn't want to defile
ourselves to get into such a stuff as that, have to knuck down to some
kind of a dogma. I'd rather take the way with the Lord's despised few.
I'd rather stay clean and pure before the Word and God, and stand
there, and say there's no man's blood upon my garment. That's why we
stay at the Branham Tabernacle. That's why we're not Assemblies. That's
why we're not Oneness. That's why we're not Jesus Only. That's why
we're not Methodist. That's why we're not Baptist. It's just a–a
little tabernacle here. We don't have no denomination at all. We're
free in Christ. That's why we stay the way we do. And God has blessed
us and God helping us.

¹⁹⁵
Now, we can tell you why we take communion, tell you why we take
feet-washing, why we won't let the members take it if we know they're
in sin. And that's why this last two or three weeks I've been going
from one member to the other one, where you been having your little
fusses around too: going around, one wouldn't speak to the other, pass
one another on the road and turn your head, shame on you, who's took
the blessed cup of God across this, the altar here, and 'cause you
brothers and sisters and them get on the telephone and gad off about
one another, you're not fit to be called Christian when you're that
way. Right. You keep off them telephones, if you can't talk good about
somebody, don't you talk at all. Remember, God's going to hold you
responsible. As long as that kind of spirit's in you, you know you're
not right with God. And if you don't feel…

¹⁹⁶
If a man's in the wrong, go to him and be reconciled. If you can't be
reconciled, take somebody with you. No wonder God can't discipline His
church, 'cause you're not doing it right. Instead of getting on the
phone and talking about this one, what taken place, and little cults
and so forth, around like that. Instead of doing that, why don't you do
what the Bible says? If some brother's been overtaken in a fault, go to
him and see if you can't get reconciled with him. "Well, now he did
me…" I don't care what he did, go to him anyhow. It didn't say for
him to come to you. You go to him if he's wrong. You say, "Well, he was
in the wrong, he ought to come to me." That's not what the Bible said.
The Bible said for you go to him. If he's wrong, you go to him.
And then if he won't listen to you, then take somebody with you as a
witness. And then if he won't see that witness, then, say, now I'll
take your pastor. Then you tell him, say, "I'm going to tell it to the
church, and in thirty days from now, if you brethren haven't made that
up… This brother here's willing to be reconciled. You won't do it.
And if you won't make that up within thirty days, then what's going to
happen, you're no more one of us."

¹⁹⁹
The Bible said, "If he won't hear the church, then let him be unto you
as a heathen and a Publican." You see, as long as a brother is under
that protection of the church, the Blood of Christ is protecting him.
That's the reason we don't get the church rolling on the way it does.
Now, I… This is the doctrine of the Baptist–of the Baptist church,
or the Branham Tabernacle here, if you'll do it. See, why can't…

²⁰⁰
You get here and say, for instance, two man, say Leo and I Well, you
have to… And I say, "Well, you know, he wronged me." That don't make
any difference; I'm supposed to go to him. Well, he's a member of this
church. He–he's become a Christian. He takes the communion here at the
rail with me. And we've been baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus,
walked upright as brothers before each other, then something happened.
It ain't the man; ninety percent of the time it's the Devil got between
the people. It ain't the people; it's the Devil. And as long as you let
the Devil doing that, you're harming your brother. That's right.

²⁰²
Well, something's wrong with Leo and I; let's go make it up. And if you
see there's something, it's your duty to come to us, and say, "Both you
boys come here and get together; we're going to straighten this thing
up." Now, then if it comes to there… And there, come to find out
then, here we are. I say well, first thing, if we–we can't agree, then
you come to the church like that.
And then if as long as you don't do nothing about it though, the Blood
of Jesus Christ protects us both. See? But then that–that old cancer
will start another cancer, and that cancer will start another cancer,
and the whole thing will be sick all over the whole church. Then you
get to a place you come into church, and just as cold, you'll have to
have the janitor come break the icicles out 'fore the congregation can
get in. Now, you know that's right. And cold… Somebody set around,
you know, and just don't say nothing. "We used to be so spiritual."
Well, what happened? You did run well, what was the matter? See, your
sins separate you. God will hold you responsible for it, brethren. Now
straighten this thing up.

²⁰⁴
Nothing's been wrong with me, nothing wrong with Leo; it's the Devil
got between us. That's right. Get the thing straightened out. Go to
him. Then if he won't listen, or I won't listen, whichever way it is,
then tell it to the church. If he don't come be reconciled to that
church in thirty days, then he's brought from under the protection of
Jesus. We loose him. That's exactly right. Then watch what takes place.
Let God do the discipline then. You got your hands off. You done the
best you could. Then let God have him for a little bit. He'll turn him
over to the Devil. He will come then. If he don't, his life is just a
short span.

²⁰⁵
You remember in the Bible where there was a brother that wouldn't get
right with God? How many remembers the case? He lived with his foster
mother, and they couldn't get him straightened out. Paul said, "Turn
him over to the Devil, for the destruction." You find out, in II
Corinthians, he got straightened out.

²⁰⁶
I've got a brother, a good friend, I like here to call his name. He's a
preacher brother, and this preacher brother, his name's Brother
Rasmusson. Many of you ministers setting here tonight, his name's on
your papers. It's that interdenominational out of Chicago. And look, He
had a boy, minister, and he went and married a Catholic girl, started
off like that, and he was going to do this, that, and the other.
And–and what all, got in some trouble. And his daddy went to him,
said, "Now look, son, are you going to be reconciled to daddy?" He
called their church a bunch of holy-rollers, his daddy. He said, "Now
look, are you going to straighten that thing up with this church?"
He said, "Now, daddy, you're my daddy, and I don't want to get in any trouble with you."

²⁰⁸
All right, went and got one of the deacons and went down to his house.
Said–said, "Wesley, I want to talk to you." Said, "Are you going to
straighten this thing up with the church?" And he give him a short
two-answer like that. Said, "Remember, Wesley, I'm the pastor of that
church. I'm your daddy, but I'm going to do what God says do. I'm
giving you thirty days to make that right with that church, or we'll
excommunicate you from the Presence of God. You're my own son; That's
my Saviour." Said, "I love you. You know I love you, Wesley; I'd die
right now for you, but you got to come straight with God's Word." See?
He said, "I'm the pastor; I'm the shepherd of that flock. And if you're
my child or whoever you are, you've got to line up with God's Word. If
you don't do it, then I'm not fit to be His shepherd."
Boy, that's a pastor. That's a man. Don't you think so? That's a man.
He told his boy that. It hurt him, he said. But said Who you going to
hurt, the man or hurt your Saviour?"

²¹⁰ So he said, "Then we went on."
And
said, "He wouldn't do it. And we… I told the church, and said, 'My
own son, Wesley, he refuses to hear me in this matter. He refuses to
hear the deacon. You're a witness of this, Brother So-and-so?' 'Yes, I
am.' 'All right, at eight o'clock next Sunday, four weeks from now, if
he hasn't made that right with this church, we turn Wesley, my son,
over to the Devil for the destruction of the flesh; this Blood, the
Blood of–of Jesus Christ and this church protect him no longer.'"

²¹¹
And that night come, stood on the pulpit, said, "He's got two more
minutes." The time come, he said, "Now, as my son, Wesley Rasmusson,
said to this congregation and to You, Almighty God, we've done all we
can do, according to Your Words and instructions of Your–of Your Son,
our Saviour, has left us, we now… I turn my boy, and this church with
me, over to the–to the Devil for the destruction of his flesh, that
his soul would be saved." That's all was said. Nothing went on for a
week or two, maybe a month or two.

²¹²
One night old Wesley took sick. And when he got sick, he kept getting
sicker. He called the doctor. The doctor come up and examined him. He
had a fever of a hundred and five, couldn't find no reason for it. He
just kept getting sicker. Doctor said, "Boy, I don't know what's
happened to you." He didn't know what to do. Said, "We'll call a
specialist." They called a specialist and the specialist come in there.
They took him over to the hospital, examined him, everything else, he
said, "I just can't tell you, the boy's just–just looks deathly." His
wife standing there, crying and everything like that, and the children
standing around the bed, and everyone like that. He said, "He's going,
that's all." Said, "His pulse and respiration's just going down all the
time."
He said, "Call daddy." Oh, yes, that's the way to do it. That's it.
"Call daddy." And his daddy run out there to the hospital real quick to
see him. He said, "Daddy, I can't now, but God hears my words. I'll
make everything right. I'll make it right. Yes, I will." Yes, sir,
brother, right then his respiration begin to come back normal.
And the following Sunday, he was up before the church; he said, "I have
sinned before God in the presence of this church. I refused to hear the
pastor's words. I–I refused to hear the deacon here." And said, "I 'm
asking this church to forgive me for the evil that I have done like
that." Said, "God has spared my life." I tell you; he lined up right.
Yeah. That's what it's got to be. See? See? You, if you'll just do it
God's way… See?

²¹⁵
Now, see, the way we do, we have a board meeting, and we say, "Well,
now, should we keep…" I don't say the Tabernacle, but I mean us
Protestant people: we have a board meeting, "And what do you think
about Jones? What do you think we ought to do with him? I think
he–he'd make the Methodist a better member than he does us." There you
are. That–that's wrong. That's the reason we don't have to follow
their traditions and some bishop we have to call him, ever some, what
is it you call them, district man in this Pentecostal Church, District
Presbyter, call him in to see the conduct of this man.
The Bible tells us what to do. That's the reason we don't fool with
their denominations. We stay free from that thing. Amen. Not mad at me,
are you? Don't you do it. I'll probably get some awful good questions
tomorrow night, but we are… That's right. See?

²¹⁷
Remember, no, I say this now. You people that's here from different
denominational churches, your denomination… And, brother, I'm not
saying that you're not a Christian. I'm not saying your denomination
isn't thousands of lovely Christians in there. I'm trying to say the
reason that we are not a denomination. 'Cause I just wouldn't stand for
that. No, sir, I sure wouldn't. They try to tell you what to do. If God
called me to preach the Gospel, then I preach it the way God tells me
to do it. That's just the–the way it's wrote here in the Bible. If it
don't line up with This, then it's–that's… God will judge me for it.
But if I–if I–if I see the wolf coming, or the enemy coming, and I
fail to warn them, then God requires me. But if I warn you, then it's
up to you then. See?

²¹⁸
Remember, there in the last days, that perilous times shall come, men
shall be lovers of themselves, boasters, proud, blasphemers (See?),
blasphemers, "Oh, they're a bunch of idiots. The days of miracles are
passed. There's no such a thing." He's an old false prophet. "Now, we
know that our women has just as much sense as our men." I'm not
disputing that a bit, but God's Bible said keep her out of the pulpit.
That's–that's good enough for me. See? That's right. All right. See?
And said, "Well, now, our denominations, we got just as many nice
people as you got over there at the Tabernacle." I don't say that a
bit, but the Bible condemns denominations. That's right. And so, I
ain't saying you ain't got fine members in your church. That's
wonderful. They are fine people. Some of the finest people, I meet them
in all of them, Catholics and all through, all of them; I meet fine
members.

²¹⁹
Now, the way we're going to bring this now, friend, if the Lord
willing, in these next couple studies, maybe I'll let you know tomorrow
morning whether we have to run tomorrow afternoon or not (See?), to get
it out. The reason we're trying to do this, I want to bring it down to
a spot now. Now, if you want to bring someone with you, you're
perfectly welcome to do it. But remember now, don't–don't go away just
trying to find faults, or come here. I'm just talking to my–my
congregation. You see? I don't teach this outside my congregation here,
'cause that's the other man's business, that he's the shepherd of that
flock. And I'm just the… [Blank.spot.on.tape–Ed.]

²²⁰
Right back to Genesis, he'll pull it right through and see where it's
at. Now, we're going back to Genesis to find out why that a
illegitimate child would not enter the congregation of the Lord for
fourteen generations. How it take… That'd be four hundred years for
that sin to run out. How we're going to find out how that the–the
righteousness of the parents is visited to the children and children,
how that started in Genesis, and so forth.

²²¹
And then you'll see how that, go all the way back, that God, before the
foundation of the world, before one atom ever bursted back there before
there ever was a light, meteor ever come into existence, God knew every
creature and everything that'd ever be on the earth. Is there anyone
here, you could not explain what the word, and break it down, and say
what the word of "infinite" means? Just like turning your camera to–to
infinity, it just–it's just from there on. That's all (See?),
infinite. And we can't, in the finite mind, ever comprehend what the
infinite mind could conceive. See, we can't do that. You–you can't do
it. See? But if–if you'll just watch, hold in the Spirit, you can feel
it way off there, and–and then get back here in the Scripture, and
you'll see now (See?), way before the foundation of the world was ever
laid.

²²²
Now, the Bible said that Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God. Now, listen
real close, so if some of you won't be in tomorrow to hear it finish
up. The Bible said that Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God slain from the
foundation of the world. Is that right? When was He slain? From the
foundation. That's the world, if it's made out of a bunch of broken up
atoms, pulled off the sun yonder, before it was that. Then before there
was an atom ever first broke in the sun, if this was a meteor off the
sun, which would be a hundred billion trillion trillion trillions of
years back before there was even one light meteor, Christ was slain.
When God's great mind settles on one thing, it's a finished product.
When God said, "Let there be," it's already finished if it taken a
hundred billion years to run out, it's already finished as soon as He
said it. And when the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world,
the same Bible, the same Spirit wrote and said, our names were put in
the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
So the man that wrote the song, "There's A New Name Written Down In
Glory," he had good meanings, but he was unscriptural. See? That name
was wrote down in glory when the world–when before the world ever
begin. When the Lamb was slain, our names were put on the Lamb's Book
of Life.

²²⁴
Let–let me just get you one little Scripture, just… Will you–will
you hold on just one minute? It just comes in my mind now. I think I
can turn right to it. I'm not sure. And now, I'm sorry to keep you this
long, but I told you it'd be midnight; it ain't quite that bad. But
I–I just like to–to get this, just one Scripture to that. Turn with
me now to the Book of Romans, and I want to–to read this with me now.
Now, let's see, Romans, if I can find it, just about right here. Now,
let's get Romans 8 and–and let's start 28th verse of the 8th chapter
of Romans, and I want you to just read it prayerfully with me now.
Listen here just what God said now.

That give ye… can you read with me? "For he…"

²²⁶
From the foundation of the world, when God looked down… Now, God
don't run His office, say, "Well, now, I'm going to… Oh, what we
going to do now?" See? There is nothing…
Remember, unrighteousness, sin is righteousness perverted. The Devil
cannot create. Does all–all understand that? That's a doctrine of this
church. The Devil cannot create. He can pervert what God has created.
Now, what is perversion? Here, you all look like adults, mostly. Listen
to this. We're married people. And you married men and you married
women can live together as husband and wife, and them women are just
the same as they never was… They're virgins as long as you stay with
your husband. That's right. Now, that's legal and lawful, and it's all
right; it's ordained of God to do so. Another woman can do the same act
of your wife. One of them, you're righteous in the sight of God; and
the same act to another woman, you're condemned before God to death.
What is it? Righteousness perverted (See?), righteousness perverted.

²²⁸
Now, the Devil cannot create, but he perverts what God has already
created. What is a lie? Is the truth perverted. Somebody said, oh, "It
was Saturday night, nine o'clock, yep, Bill Branham was in
Jeffersonville (Correct.) down at Anthony's saloon, drunk." A lie. What
was it? I was in Jeffersonville; that's true. It was the righteousness
perverted to a lie. See what I mean? See, a lie perverts right. It's
something that told where I was at. Now, if it said, "At the church,
preaching." Correct. That's righteousness; he told the truth. "At the
tavern, drinking." A lie. Perverted (See?), truth perverted. See what I
mean? All unrighteousness is righteousness perverted.

²²⁹
Death, what is it? Life perverted. Sickness? Health perverted. You're
supposed to be a good strong man. All right, if you're sickly, what is
it? Your health is perverted. See? That's all there is to it. What is
it? You used to be young beautiful women, and strong beautiful men; now
you're wrinkling and getting old, what is it? Life perverted (See?),
coming right back around again. See? And it has to come back. Blessed
be the Name of the Lord. God has promised to bring it back. And just as
sure as it… And if it is, we know it's here; so just as sure as it
is, God's going to bring it again. He promised it and swore He'd do it.
That's what gives us…

²³⁰
Now, how–what kind of people ought we to be? Now, notice how these
things take place. Now, those who He foreknew, He called; those who He
called, He justified; those… When? Before the foundation of the
world, before the world ever began. Now, if we could take this
Scripture and really justify it, we'd take hours on it, but we–we
don't want to do that. But all this unrighteousness here, is
righteousness perverted to unrighteousness. That's what the Devil does.
Now, when you come to the age of accountability, and you know what's
wrong and right, you're supposed to turn from your wrong. Because
you're born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking
lies, that you're–you're actually born as a sexual desire, and then
you must be borned again in order to receive a new birth to enter into
Heaven. Because this kind of a birth you have here…
You see where the Jehovah Witness would be so far wrong there, to think
that the new birth is the resurrection of the body. You see? It
couldn't be. See? It's got to be something…

²³²
You, you're in a time space, and the only thing that's eternal is
something that had no beginning or no end. Anything eternal never had a
beginning, or it never will have an end. See? So if you're a part of
God, the Spirit that's in you never had a beginning or it never will
have an end, and you're eternal with the Spirit that's in you. See?
Like the–the–the agapao love, then it comes down to phileo love, and
then down to lust love; it just keeps going on down and on down,
perverting on down till it's become to just conglomeration to what
mess. Well now, the only way, Jesus came down that same ladder down
here to pick up and take back again to the highest form: from the
lowest form, from death unto Life, from sickness unto health, from
unrighteousness to righteousness. See? He become from the highest to
the lowest, that He might bring the lowest to the highest. He become me
that I might through His grace become Him, an heir of the throne in
glory. See what I mean, those things?
Now look, way back before this world started in them atoms back yonder,
when God seen what was going to take place, right there He saw you, He
saw me, He saw every flea, every fly, every frog, every gnat,
everything that would ever be on the earth, He saw it right then. Sure
He did.

²³³
Now, He never said, "I'll send My Son down and let Him die, and maybe
somebody will have pity on Him. And it'll be such a pitiful case,
they… perhaps maybe somebody might get saved."
He foreknew who would be saved. Yes, sir. He said, "Esau I hate, and
Jacob I love," before either one ever had a chance to prove what they
was, because He knowed what they was. He knew. He knows everything. He
knew what you'd do before you was born, and when the world began.

²³⁵
Now look, as you know, I–I–I'm a rifleman. I–I like rifles. And some
woman in Texas (I believe it's Texas.) bought me a Swift, a .220 Swift.
I always wanted one; I wanted to, investigate it. It's the most
powerful shooting little gun. It's a twenty-two bullet,
forty-eight-grain bullet, and you can hand load that. Now, the factory
says, "Don't do it: too dangerous." But you can hand load that bullet
to five thousand feet per second and still hold it in its place. Five
thousand feet per second, that's a mile a second. In other words, a
hawk setting at two hundred yards, you can shoot the hawk and see the
feathers fly before the gun ever kick you. See? That…
But you take the flat part of a toothpick and get into your powder, and
pour that much more in there, just enough that you could hold it on a
toothpick; and you can shoot at a groundhog setting at the end of this
building here, and he'd just set and look at you. What's the matter?
The bullet disintegrates; it's going so fast. And you can put a sheet
between here and there, and you'll never even see one little fossil
fall from the sheet. It just turns back, not to–to ashes, volcanic
ashes; but it goes farther than that. It goes back to the original
acids that makes copper and lead that's in there. It goes back like it
was a hundred billion years ago. Now, here is a little bullet,
forty-eight grains of bullet, I'm holding in my hand, and the next
second it's turned back to what it was a hundred million years ago. And
if the world would probably stand another hundred million years, it
would be back a bullet again, could be brought right back, for he
formed right into copper.

²³⁶
Now look what God did, and then you'll love Him, then you'll go home,
and in the morning you sleep a little late and–and you–you'll love
Him more than ever.
Now, God is a Contractor. How many knows that? He's a Builder. All
right, listen real close. Now, God back yonder, they say… Now, we're
going to take the chronologists idea of it. God, a hundred billion
years ago, when He was going to make the world, well, He just started.
Now He had… He got an idea in His mind.

²³⁷
Now, you're going to say, "If He's that great, Brother Branham, how did
He ever permit the Devil to make sin?" Well, He knew before the Devil
was ever created that he would be the Devil. Glory. Now I feel
religious. Oh, my. He knew before the Devil was created that he would
be the Devil. Now, you ask, "What about that?" You say, "Why did He let
him be the Devil?" That He might be proven to be God. That's why He did
it. Why was there ever unrighteous?

²³⁸
Why, which was first, a Saviour or a sinner? Which was first? A
Saviour. Which was first, a Healer or a sick person? Why was there
permitted to be a sinner? Because the attributes of Him is a Saviour.
If there'd never been a sinner, He'd never been known as a Saviour.
Hallelujah. He can make all things wind around to His glory. "Can the
potter say to the…" Or, "Can the pot say to the potter, 'You made me
thus'?" Who's on the wheel? Who's got the clay? Who's hands is it in?
Paul said, "Oh, foolish man, didn't He say He raised Pharaoh up for
this very purpose?" Certainly, He knew it before there was a world, He
knowed who would be what. And He let there be sin that He might be a
Saviour. He let there be sickness that He might be a Healer. He let
there be hate that He might be love. Sure, He did. He's God, and that's
His attributes, and He has to have something to display His attributes.
How would you ever know there was a night, how would you ever know
there's any; if it was all daylight, how would you ever know there was
night. There's a night so it could prove daylight. Sure, there is.
Amen. You see what He did?

²⁴⁰
But when He was back yonder before the foundation of the world, before
He took this old sun and He moved it around this old star that we're
living on now, this earth, and He mold it over here by the sun, and
laid it around the sun. Say, here's the sun. He molded it on this side
and let her hang there for a hundred billion years. What was He making?
Some gases. He moved around on this side; He made something else. What
was He making there? Some potash. He moved around this way, and what
was He doing here? Making some calcium. What was He doing? He was
making you and me. What was He doing? Like the contractor laying out
all of his two-by-fours, his two-by-eights, his sheeting, his siding;
he knowed just how many buildings he was going to build. We're made out
of sixteen elements of the earth, and He was making us all, and laying
us out there before the world ever come into… And it–it might have
been oblong at that time; I don't know what it was. What was He making
gold, and copper, and brass, and water, and all those stuff for? He's a
Contractor. He's may… He's a Builder; He was laying everything out
there, had everything cut and fashioned. When He got it all made, it
was just a great big volcanic eruption. He let them old volcanics brood
up there for a hundred million years to make some calcium. What is it?
It's part of you.

²⁴¹
And then, before there was one speck of life on this earth, our bodies
were laying here. Hallelujah. Before one drop of moisture ever come on
the earth, we were laying here. When Adam walked up and down the garden
of Eden, I was laying here. Amen. Yes, sir. Oh, glory. When the
Cherubims, the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted
for joy, I was laying here just waiting for the breath of life to come.
I was here. He made me here, had my body laying here. Yes, sir. It
wasn't where you come from. My, how did it get here? God had it laying
here. God made it. We're made out of sixteen elements, petroleum,
potash and cosmic light, and whatmore. See, we were laying here.

²⁴²
Then what happened? Then God said to the Holy Ghost… We'll just take
it in symbol form, "Now You go forth, and You go to making love to that
world, because I'm Love and You're a product of Me, so now You go make
love to the world." And the big Holy Ghost, we think, come out there,
just in picture form now. It wasn't that way. 'Course the Holy Ghost
and God is the selfsame, purpose same, self same purpose, Person.
Pardon me. And just say He throwed His wings around the earth; He begin
to brooding. What's that brooding? Like the hen to her chickens,
cooing, making love, "cluck, cluck, cluck." Oh.

²⁴³
"O life, come forth." He screamed. He looked around. "I want beauty on
this earth. Come forth, light." The Holy Ghost a-moving… And when He
did, I look coming, there's creeking down the hill yonder, yonder comes
some calcium pouring down, and mixes with potash. What's it folding
into? "Life, come forth." And a little Easter flower stuck its head up
from under a rock. "Come here, Father, look at that."
"That looks good; just keep on brooding." He brood out the flowers. He
brought out all the vegetation. He brought out the animal life, and
birds flew out of the dust. After while, up come a man and woman; up
come a man, and the man was both man and woman, not no hermaphrodite
now; just–just in him.

²⁴⁵
There was a feminish spirit. When you take a man that's so sissified,
he may be all right, balanced up all right, but there's something
wrong. And when you take a woman, wants to chop her hair and wear a
pair of overalls, and get out there, "Bless God, I tell you," there's
something wrong. A woman has the feminish spirit, and a man is
masculine. We know that, and you know that. Does a woman look right
that's trying to be, act like a man?

²⁴⁶
Why, I set one time, I was game warden here, and I set on the bus and
went up there and was smacking that woman on the leg with my hand,
talking to her, and I didn't know it was a woman. She had on one of
these welder's caps and a big pair of goggles like that, and I was
setting right back there, and she was telling something another about
something done. She said, "You know," and she said, "and last night,"
just as rough looking as she could be, smoking a cigarette. She said,
"Last night, I tell you, that fellow slipped up on top of that thing,"
and said, "my he come sliding down under there." Said, "I never laughed
so much in my life."
And I was laughing, you know, like that. [Brother Branham makes a slapping sound–Ed.]
I said, "Boy, that was one, wasn't it?" Setting there talking like
that, and if she didn't take that thing off and shake her head, and she
had a mop up there that she was a woman. I never felt so little in my
life. I–I said, "Are you a woman?".
She said, "Why, sure."
I said, "Pardon me." I never seen such. Now, that–that's the truth.

²⁴⁹
I seen a sign the other day liked to thrilled me. It had a big sign up,
said, "Ladies, ready to wear clothes." I thought, "Praise God for
that." See? But come to find out, it was just some kind of a clothes
they'd already made, you know. I–I thought they was really going to
put on clothes. I really did. Said, "Ladies are ready to wear clothes."
I said, "Praise God for them. That's good. That's right. I sure thank
the Lord for that." But, see, it was just some kind of clothes they had
already made, I… Something, had be something funny (Wouldn't it?), in
this country? All right.

²⁵⁰
Then when Adam come up… And then Adam looked lonesome, so He taken a
rib from his side and made Eve, a byproduct for him. And He made… He
taken the feminish spirit out of Adam and put it in the woman, the love
spirit, feminish, kind, gentle. And He left the masculine spirit in
Adam. Now, if there's anything different, there's a perversion
somewhere. Now, and then they two was one.

²⁵¹
And so let's just take a little drama then before we close. Here comes,
here it's Adam takes Eve by the arm and they walk out. I just love this
story. And they walk out, you know, and Eve said, "Oh, darling, you
mean you have…"
"Yes, I named that."
"Well, what do you call that?"
"That's called horse."
"Uh-huh. What's that?"
"That's cow."
"You named that?"
"Yeah. Uh-huh."
"What do you call that–that, them two setting there with their heads together?"
"That's lovebirds."
"Oh, I see. I see." And they go on like that. "And what's this over here?"
"I call that that, and this here."
And, "Oh, I see. Uh-huh, that's beautiful." And a lion roars, "What do you call that?"
"That's the lion."
"What's this?"
"The tiger."
And all like… "Oh, I see." Just like kittens, you know, and meowing around.

²⁵⁶
So after while she looks around, and she said, "Darling, look at there,
the sun's going down, it's time to go to church." You know, there's
just something about when the sun sets, you want to worship. If you
don't go to church that night, you like to get in a room and read the
Bible. How many likes to do that, gets off to yourself? See? It's just
in a man to do that. You should do that. "Time to go to church."
Now, they never said, "Now, wait a minute now, now, Jones belongs to
the Assemblies, and we belong to the…" No, it wasn't nothing like
that then, so they just went up. They didn't have a church, a good seat
to set on like that. They just went up under the great big cathedral of
the woods and knelt down.

²⁵⁸
And that Halo was hanging yonder in the bushes. See? I can hear a Voice
speak down and say, "Has My children enjoyed themselves upon the earth,
the day that the Lord thy God has given thee?"
"Yea, Lord, we've enjoyed ourself today. Haven't we, darling?"
"Yes, yes, dear, we have." "Lord, we sure appreciate You. Now, I lay me
down to sleep." See? And he lays his big arm out, and she lays down on
his arm, and he lays the tiger down and the lion down, and everything
down to sleep, so peaceful.
So God comes down and He brings down, oh, a bunch of Angels, Gabriel,
His creation of heaven. So they come down and they tiptoe real easy
into the bedroom (See?), look around. Gabriel said, "Come here, Father.
Come here, look here. Here he is. Here, here lays Your children laying
here."

²⁶²
How many in here ever went to the bedside, some of you mothers, you and
dad together, and looked at the little boy and the little girl, and you
just–just remind one another, "Don't–don't he look like you, this way
and that way?" Did you ever do that? Why, many time I'd go and say to
Meda, say about Joseph. She'd say, "Bill, he's got a high forehead like
you."
"Yeah. But, Meda, he's got big eyes like you." Why? He's a part of our product; he's product of our–of our union.
Now, and Father said, can say this about this, said, "You know…"
And Gabriel said, "You know, he looks just like You." That's how God
looks; look at yourself. That's how God looks, He looks like you.
You're His offspring. How many knows that? See?

²⁶⁵
Now, watch. What's the lowest form of life we have? Frog. What's the
highest form of life? Human. Certainly. And what is the highest form?
It just kept coming from the lowest on up, from a frog to this and to
that, and to the bird, and to, oh, so forth, just higher forms of life,
until it come to the highest form it could come, then it was made in
the image of God. There you are. And the woman was not made in the
image of God, but in the image of man. See? Now, now, there they are.
And God looks at her and said, "Yes, they look–they look lovely."

²⁶⁶
What–what was that, brother? They never had to die. That was just the
first handful of calcium, the first potash, and everything started off
like that. Isn't it beautiful? But sin come along and marred the
picture. Now, is God… What did God permit it to do? Why did He permit
it to be like we was talking about awhile ago? He permitted it so that
He could prove that He was a Saviour. He done it. He let sickness
happen so He could prove that He was a Healer. He let death happen to
prove that He was life. See? He let all these bad things happen to
prove that He was good, what He was. We'll…

²⁶⁷
You talk about singing the redemption story. Why, brother, when Jesus
comes, this–this church will stand yonder on the rims of this earth
and sing stories of redemption, when Angels will bow their head, not
knowing what we're talking about. Why, they never was lost. They don't
know what we've went through. We know what it means to be lost and be
found. Oh, can we scream His praises? He's not a Saviour to them. They
never needed any saving. He wasn't a Healer to them. No. Glory. He
isn't–He isn't Life to them, certainly not; they never was dead in sin
and trespasses. We were, then made alive. There we are. What will we
say with our crowns off, "You're Reverend So-and-so"? Oh, no, no, no,
no. All glory to Him. That's it. There you are. Then we'll tell the
story how we overcome, we'll understand it better by and by.

²⁶⁸
Then there in that then… Then what happened? Did God then just say,
"Well, I might as well just simply destroy all My potash and calcium,
it's all ruined"? No, no, He knowed it was going to be that way. Now,
now, if the Holy Spirit made me what I am, and I eat food and put it
back in my body and build up to what I am now, I… Yet, I was made in
form. Every picture that God saw before the foundation of the world
mature–materializes. See? It come forth out of the woman, as He said
it would. The next time it comes forth from God. It come that time by
woman; it comes this time by Man. See? Comes that time by a sexual
desire; it comes this time by a spoken Word of God? See?
And there, now, can't anything harm me. No, sir. There isn't nothing
can harm us. Paul said, "There's neither things present, things come,
sickness, death, nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in
Christ." There isn't a thing can separate us.

²⁷⁰
As I've told a little story. I'm just about five hairs of being
baldheaded completely. And I was combing those few here sometime ago,
my wife said, "Billy, you're almost baldheaded."
I said, "But I haven't lost a one of them."
She said, "Where they at?"
I said, "Where was they 'fore I got them? See? Well, ever where they
was before I got them…" Now, there was one time, a hundred years ago,
these hairs wasn't here at all, but they were out here in the dust. Is
that right? Then about fifty years ago, they begin to come on my head.
They come from where? Out of the dust. And now they're returning back
to where they was. Is that right? They was not, then they were, and now
they are not. What is it? What made them what they are? God. There He
is. He painted a picture, and that's the way I want him.

²⁷²
"O Death, where is your sting? Grave, where is your victory?" You may
bury me one of these days from here. I don't know. But, brother, I'll
not be dead. I tell you that. No, sir. Oh, we shall rise, hallelujah,
we shall rise. On that resurrection morning when death's bars are
broken, we shall rise, hallelujah, we shall rise. There's nothing can
keep me from rising. There ain't enough devils in all hell can keep me
from rising. There ain't enough nothing nowhere to keep me from rising.
I have the promise of God; I have the Holy Spirit. I got Zoe, God's
Eternal Life, resting in here. This old carcass come from there, and
God's brood me out of the ground.

²⁷³
And if He Who brood, me out of the ground, when I become of age now,
every time I hear a church bell, something would speak to me, a little
bitty Voice. An Angel spoke from a bush, said, "Don't you never drink
or smoke; I got a work for you to do. Don't defile your body or run
around with women and things, you, I got something for you to do when
you get older."
"Who are You? Who are You?"
"You'll know more about that later." After while, here He come, He
hangs yonder at the baptism. He shows Himself. He declares Himself. He
answers. I see Him standing yonder everywhere, on every hand.

²⁷⁵
How you going to, if He made me what I am without having any choice at
all… I never went back there and say, "Now, Charlie Branham, you
marry Ella Harvey, and bring forth me out of the earth." No, sir. I
never had no choice of that. God did that. And if He made me what I am
without a choice, how much more when that Holy Ghost goes to brooding
over me and I say, "Yea, Lord, You're my Creator, and I love You and I
accept You as my Saviour," how you going to hold me in the dust? Just
can't do it, brother, just can't do it.

²⁷⁶
God never formed one piece of this calcium, or potash, or anything
else, that'd ever be–be wasted. "All the Father has given Me before
the foundation of the world, will come to Me." Whew. I feel like
shouting right then. "All the Father has given Me will come to Me, and
none of them shall be lost, but I'll raise it up again in the
resurrection." I heard Him call, and I come to Him. How can they keep
me in the dust of the earth? There ain't enough undertakers in the
world to pat me in the face with a shovel, would ever keep me in the
dust of the earth. I shall rise someday and stand in His likeness,
washed in His Blood, born of His Spirit. Hallelujah. Have all your
denominations you want to; I'll take Jesus. Amen.

²⁷⁷ An insurance man come to me, Wilbur Snyder, a good friend of mine. He said, "Billy, I want to sell you an insurance policy."
I said, "I already got it." (My wife looked around as if to say, "What are you lying for, boy?")
Said, "You got insurance?"
I said, "Yes, sir."
Said, "What company is it with? What is it?"
I
said, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, oh, what a foretaste of glory
Divine. Heir of salvation, purchased of God, borned of His Spirit,
washed in His Blood."
He said, "That's good, Billy, but it won't put you in the graveyard."
But I said, "It'll get me out." Hallelujah. I ain't worried about getting there; it's getting out.

²⁸²
So I've got me insurance that tells me, "I bring all the Father has
given Me, are Mine." I don't care what my daddy done, what my mama
done, what anything was, "All the Father gives Me will come to Me, and
no man can come 'less My Father draws him." Hallelujah. Why did He know
them for? "I foreknown them before the foundation of the world. When I
slayed the Lamb, I slayed him with Him." Amen. "I predestinated the
Church." What's got predestination? The Church. How do you get in the
Church? "By one Spirit we're all baptized into one Body." He knew
before the foundation of the world that we would be there. And those
who He foreknew, He has called. Those who He has called, He has
justified. Those who He has justified, He's already glorified.

²⁸³
In God's Books He's done said He'll meet me right there. There ain't
all devils out of hell can ever keep him anywhere else but keep him
from coming right there, cause God has already said so, and that
settles it. If a hundred billion years before the world was ever
formed, the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for
joy, before there was a foundation of the world (See?), before there
was a foundation. And them Angels and everything was happy, shouting
about it, before there was a foundation of the world, how is the Devil
ever going to keep me in the dust of the earth? Just can't do it.
You're right.

²⁸⁴
Let's see, now, this is democrat time I got over here. This is twenty
minutes till eleven, that's only twenty minutes till ten. Is that
right, Brother Wood? That's right, twenty minutes till ten. Everybody
happy?

²⁸⁵
You like them old songs like that? There used to be an old one we used
to sing about, something about "Grace and mercy found me, there the
Morning Star shone. What is that, Sister Gertie? Let's see. How, what
is it, Brother Neville? See, something, "Grace and mercy found me,
there the Bright and Morning Star showed Its lines around me." Uh-huh,
yeah. "In The Cross." Give us a chord on that, sister. That's "Near The
Cross." Come up here.
Oh, I love these. How many likes them old inspired songs? You can have
all your jump up-and-down boogie-woogie you want to. Give me this,
here's where grace and mercy found me. That's it. All right, sing it
now.

[Brother Branham begins humming "Near The Cross"–Ed.]
Oh, how beautiful. Think of it. What if there was no Saviour? What if
we didn't have this Word? What if He hadn't called you? What if He
hadn't have foreknew you, and you was out here in this rest of the
world tonight? Do you love Him? Oh, my. Don't forget services in the
morning now, at nine-thirty.

²⁸⁷
Now, give us a chord on "Room At The Fountain." This good old song,
"There's Room At The Fountain." How many knows it? "Room, room, yes,
there is room, room at the Fountain." And when you do it now, real
quietly, just reach over each side of you, shake hands with that
brother. You know, there's room now for all Methodists; there's room
for Baptists; there's room for the Pentecost. There's room for all of
us now at the Fountain. How many knows the old song? Oh, sure you do.
Some of you old timers now, this is a good old Kentucky song now.

²⁸⁸
Now, I've got a little surprise for you. All the latest sermons, and
the books, and everything will be on sale at the other end of the
church next week at the meetings. The tapes and everything, and all in
nice literature form… There'll be a table back there at the back in
one of the rooms, and the literature, the latest sermons, and some of
the nice writings that's went forth originally in new books, new
editions, will all be set up in the–in the end of the building this
next Wednesday night. And we're expecting a–a good time in the Lord.
Come praying now. Now, call your sick and afflicted; write them a
letter; get them in here, and we'll just… God will just move
mightily. And we're here and know that He'll do it now.

²⁸⁹
And now I've went to everybody that I knowed of, have little something.
If there's anything out of the way now, you remember, I told you a long
time ago, we was going to get it straightened up. And I know that you
know there's a different spirit here than what there was. See? See?
See? That's right. Now, don't let it leave no more. I charge you before
Jesus Christ; don't let it leave. Stay right here with it (See?), just
keep everything ironed right down and move right on. You are brethren.
It's never your brother or sister that does anything wrong; it's that
spirit of the Devil gets in there. See, he goes to…?… And just feel
sorry for the brother or the sister, and know it's Satan getting
between. And if you have some feeling about it, you get that out of you
right quick, you see, 'cause it'll canker you. Yes, it will, so stay
away from it. Just remember.

²⁹⁰
How many remembers our old dismissing song, that, "Take the Name of
Jesus with you, child of sorrow and of woe; it will joy and comfort
give you, take It everywhere you go"? Wish you could stay with us,
Brother Jeffreys, you and Sister Jeffreys, and the boys there, and all
of them. And–and then, "At the Name of Jesus bowing, falling prostrate
at His feet." Oh, my. "King of kings in heaven we'll crown Him, when
our journey is complete. Take the Name of Jesus with you, take It as a
Shield today. Oh, when temptation draws near, breathe that holy Name in
prayer." Oh, I love that, that wonderful Name of Jesus. Now, let's
stand up right now, while we sing now. All right.

²⁹¹ This is a little different now. Let's just bow our heads now, and real quietly let's raise up one hand, say:

With our heads continually bowed, we say…
[Brother Branham hums, "Take the Name of Jesus With You"–Ed.]