Questions & Answers: Who Is This Melchisedec #02

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Transcript in progress.

Audio is available now.

Shall we pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for this sweet solemnity, love and grace and mercy shed abroad upon us in our hearts, Lord, by the Holy Ghost. We cannot thank You enough, Lord, for this.

We realize it at times, Lord, [above other times] and for those times we are exceedingly grateful. We just pray, Lord, that this will be as the moving of the water, Father, when the angel would come down. We know greater than an angel came down the real Angel of God, the Holy Spirit, here, amongst us again, the Son given as a gift in the Holy Ghost, Lord, healing the troubled people, helping them, Father.

We are so grateful for it. We just ask You now to help us to take full advantage, Lord, of Your Presence wherein all things are possible, even to the raising of the dead universally even those that have gone before us two thousand years, gone back to dust or literally the gases, Lord, from whence they first came forth, Father and then, seeing a Bride purified at the end-time ready to go into the very Eternality of God, immortality.

All these things we thank You, Lord, having duly witnessed every sign that was given to us in Your Word, Lord, that this is that hour. So, Father, we want to take advantage of that and thank You for the privilege this morning, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

You may be seated.

01

Now, before we turn to the Word to study the questions that have been brought to me to… hopefully to give some kind of an answer [trusting it’ll be the right answer], I want to do something a little different this morning and before we even go into the service…actually to pray for the sick.

And what I want to do is to acquaint you with the Word of God in Acts, the 3rd chapter, where Peter is preaching his second sermon to the people. And he goes down to the end of the age when the Lord turns back to Israel, but before he does he says in verse 19 [the middle part of it].

Acts 3:19-21

(19) …when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

(20) And he shall send Jesus Christ, which…was [appointed] unto you

(21) Whom the heavens must receive until the times of [restoration] of all things, [what] God [has] spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Now, the major thought there is: ‘when times of refreshing shall come from the Presence of the Lord’. And we know, by what Brother Branham said, that was the great healing revival that indicated the Presence of the Lord, and that there would be a new Message come forth from it.

02

Now, with that, I’m going to look at the 13th chapter of the Book of Luke. Now, in here we find something very, very marvellous. The 10th verse beginning.

Luke 13:10-17

(10) And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.

(11) And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and [she] was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.

(12) And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman thou art loosed from thine infirmity.

(13) And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.

(14) And the rulers of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day. [Wasn’t that a beautiful little statement from those wonderful, kind people that had all the answers… just right like today.]

(15) [And] The Lord…answered…and said, [You] hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?

(16) [Now, listen. Here’s the verse we want]…And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham […had it been a man: ‘Ought not this man, being a son of Abraham’] whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?

(17) And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: [they hung their heads and slung off… slunk off at the Word of God] and all the people rejoiced for …the glorious things that were done by him.

We have the same thing today, in the Presence of Christ manifesting the miracles that attest to his Presence, vindicating his Presence and the prophet to bring us the Word of God. And this is all part of a repeat, according to Matthew 12.

So we have every right to expect healing. We have every right to expect every son and daughter of Abraham to receive the help that has already been vindicated as being present on the grounds that God has already made choice before the foundation of the world, and already on the grounds that God has indicated and proven who are those who are not with the hypocrites, with the Foolish Virgins, and with the others.

But they are those who receive the Word of the hour and they are entitled to every single thing that this Message brings; and one of them is, as Brother Branham said, “You take this Message for your healing.”

03

Now, I just don’t like to see people sick because I don’t like being sick myself. I don’t like to hear little children being constantly ill in this Church because I hate to see little children sick. Now, there’s nothing wrong with the people.

What is wrong is that this Message and everything about it is fought by the Devil. But you know, what Jesus did made the adversaries hang their heads in shame. And we have with us today, the Lord Jesus Christ personally present in the form of the Holy Ghost. He has not gone away, to come back and raise the dead, to go away, to come back and blow the trumpet.

The Shout, the Voice, the Trumpet is all in one season. And this is the season where not an angel came down to trouble the waters, to stir people up to see that some will get healed; but this is the day He came down…God, Himself, came down to stir the people.

And you’ll notice those who took that which was truly of God, as an indication and vindication, positively were those sons and daughters of Abraham. And God is not changed; He’s the same yesterday, today and forever. And He wants to heal the sick amongst us.

04

And notice what he said: He said, “Listen, you people, you have enough concern even for animals that you’ll loose the oxen and the ass in order to get water. You’ll pull something out of the ditch. You…you do that. Then you impute to me something which is lesser than you yourself have.” And so, this morning we have the call of this Word to impute to God something greater than you and I have.

We do not have within us the ability to heal others. There are lots of claims being made about that, but I’m not a metaphysicist; I’m a child of God. And I look this morning to God, the Great One that’s here, to do the healing. Not…I can’t heal anybody; Brother Branham couldn’t heal anybody. And there is no need for anybody to try to heal anybody.

You know, even the best a physician can do is attempt to remove some of the causes, you know, then nature goes ahead, as Brother Branham said…he said, “Look! he said Doctor gives you a shot of penicillin, but that doesn’t heal you.”

He said, “That’s just same as killing the rats. That’s all, but” he said, “Who’s going to plug the rat holes?” Once…in other words, the inroads those rodents make, who’s going to take care of that? Something’s got to be done.

05

So, this morning, I can’t stand to see Bill sitting back there unhappy with his condition. I can’t stand to see little children unhappy with their condition. Why should they be? So, I’m telling you… I’m going to just ask you to all rise at this time. I’m going to ask… Stan’s got a cold but that doesn’t bother… he believes in healing.

Pete’s there to help us. We’re going to lay hands on the sick. Come on, Bill, you’re the first one. And anybody else now…bring your children along too. We’ll just pray for them. Remember, we can’t do it but there is a God Who is present to do it.

And now, remember what I’ve always said: “Come quickly, come now, don’t come later”…that’s good. That’s the way to do it because later on I won’t pray for you… I’m going to be preaching. So that’s good… anybody else who’s got a problem come on along.

The Lord has stirred us up. We’re all part of that troubled waters. Thank God we got trouble, to see what God could do in this age and get us away from all the people! Okay, are you here, Stan and Pete, with me? Come on, let’s lay hands on these people there. Good… won’t take us very long. We don’t need to record this, but it’s all right if it goes on the tape. No problem. We’re just going to pray for everybody here.

[For the next few minutes, Brother Vayle asks people in turn what their health problems are and he prays for them. The tape cuts out and starts again.]

06

You know we have the rights as well as the privilege and this nation here as a democracy, we have the privilege of going out with a shot gun and shooting somebody; we don’t have right to do it. Well, this morning we have the privilege and the right to shoot Satan and his cohorts and everything else that’s from him, just like Jesus did.

But this time we do it by Faith. He suffered for us…the Just for the unjust…he might bring us to God and bring us these things so that we wouldn’t have to pay the price of doing it. We have a simple price which is the Perfect Faith that this Message gives us.

I realize it’s difficult for some of us to break away from the old traditions, realizing that we have Perfect Faith because we’ve got a vindicated Message. And when you believe a vindicated Message, you then have a Perfect Revelation…and that’s a fantastic thing.

We don’t have a tremendous amount of time for a message but… but that’s all right. We’re going to start on these questions here, and we’ll get through one this morning, or…[for]?… one part of it. And then you can bring some more questions by Wednesday and we’ll see what we can do with them. To begin with, it says here…

07

[Question # 1]

[A]In 1 Corinthians 15:44, spiritual and natural bodies are talked about. [That’s right] You have said that ‘natural’, in the Greek, comes from the thought of the soul. [It’s the same word. It’s not the same word of ‘nature’. Nature shows you this: it’s a natural thing to do. That is not that word. The word specifically is ‘soul’.]

The natural is, therefore, a soul-body. [That is correct.] The soul or seed of God builds this body. Can we correctly say that a basic difference between the natural and spiritual body is that the spiritual was begotten and the natural is created? [Now, we’ll talk about that. That’s good thinking.]

[B]I also need help in understanding where the glorified body fits in, with respect to these. To start with, is it correct to say the glorified body is also a begotten one? [We’ll …we’ll just check that out. I would say that, that is not really true, but it is true. It’s a peripheral, oblique…uhhh…statement, more than it is a head-on straight forward statement. In other words, we have to sort of explain things as we go along here.]

08

All right… Now, in answering this question based on verse 44, it is wise to read it in the context of verses 35-55 [that’s 1 Corinthians 15:] with the understanding that Paul is speaking of the resurrection of our bodies based on the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, himself, as in verses 1-23.

Now, I’m going to read that again because I want you to know what I’m saying so you follow me as I do this in answering this question about the natural body, the spirit-body and the glorified body. And the question comes from verse 44. And I will read it…it was already stated, but we read it…[1 Corinthians 15:]

(44) It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

So, in answering this question based on verse 44, it is wise to read it in the context of verses 35 to 55 with the understanding that what we read in these verses [35 to 55] and talk about is based upon the personal Resurrection of Jesus Christ, himself, as preached by Paul in verses 1 to 23.

So, 1 to 23 tell about Jesus Christ, himself, personally being raised from the dead and what it actually means. Then you read on, from verse 35 to 55, where it tells about us as pertaining to what is already come forth through Jesus Christ. So, that’s what you’re looking at. So, all right, let’s read them.

09

We’re going to start reading at verse 35. [1 Corinthians 15:]

1 Corinthians 15:35

(35) But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

(36) …fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

(37) And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but [a] bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:

(38) But God [gives] it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

(39) All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of [men], another…of beasts, another of fishes, …another of birds.

(40) There are also celestial bodies, [bodies] terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, …of the terrestrial is another.

(41) …one glory of the sun, …another… of the moon, …another glory of the stars: for one star [differs] from another… in glory.

(42) So [is also] the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

(43) It is sown in dishonour;…raised in glory: …sown in weakness; … raised in power:

(44) …sown a natural body: …raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, …there is a spiritual body.

(45) And so it is written. The first man Adam [became] a living soul;

10

Now, it wasn’t made a living soul…he became one. [See?] That’s what’s wrong with the King James’ version. This doesn’t let you see the transition, where Brother Branham without knowing a word of the King James’ version being wrong in so many places tells us how Adam was made…

the way he was as a spirit-being, and then God encased him in a human body and so on. [1 Corinthians 15:]

1 Corinthians 15:45-50

(45) …so [it’s] written. The first man Adam [became] a living soul: the last Adam …a quickening spirit.

(46) Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; afterward that which is spiritual.

(47) The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

(48) [And as] is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

(49) And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

(50) Now this I say, brethren, …flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

And that’s as far as we’ll read. We won’t read to 55 at this particular point. Now …now the reason… I’d better read also 1 to 23 because this is based upon this…

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[1 Corinthians 15:]

1 Corinthians 15:1-8,10,12-23

(01) Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also [you] have received, and wherein ye stand;

(02) By which also [you] are saved, if [you] keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless [you] have believed in vain. [Now, see where it all starts is in the mind… keeping the mind under control, the great Battle of Armageddon.]

(03) For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

(04) …that he was buried …that he rose…the third day according to …[Scripture]:

(05) …that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

(06) [And then] he was seen of above [the] five hundred brethren at [one time], of whom the greater part remain unto this present [time], but some are fallen asleep.

(07) After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

(08) [Now] last of all he was seen of me also, as…one born out of due time. [Now, he was not seen as a resurrected person. He was seen as a resurrected One in the form of a Pillar of Fire.]

(10) …by the grace of God I am what I am; and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; […and so on. Then watch, in verse 12]

(12) Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you…there is no resurrection of the dead?

(13) But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

(14) And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain…your faith is also vain.

(15) Yea…we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be…the dead rise not.

(16) For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

(17) And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain;[you’re] yet in your sins.

(18) Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

(19) If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

(20) But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept.

(21) For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

(22) For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ [all shall] be made alive.

(23) But every man in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ’s at his [Presence].

12

Now, the reason I spoke as I did when I mentioned that 44 should be read in the context of 35 to 55, and 35 read with the understanding of Christ’s own Resurrection, is based upon verses 12 to 14, more particularly than any other verses. [1 Corinthians 15:]

1 Corinthians 15:12-14

(12) Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you…there is no resurrection of the dead?

(13) But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

(14) And if Christ be not risen, then [our preaching is] vain, and [our] faith [also is] vain.

Now, you notice in here, it says: [number one] that Christ is risen from the dead. And the word ‘dead’ is nekros which means ‘corpse’. It doesn’t mean the process of death so that a person is recognized as deceased and apart from his body, which is simply lying there. It is absolutely saying that Christ is raised from a corpse.

Now, you keep that in mind. In verse 12… so therefore, the corpse and Christ are no longer identified as being separated.

Now, let that sink in because that’s what’s got to sink in, far as I’m concerned in talking this morning, as the first steps to understanding what we’re looking at You cannot separate Christ as a corpse and Christ as the one who said, “…into thy hands I commend my spirit”;

the same of whom the Scripture says, “…thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” You cannot separate them even though it speaks of death, corpse.

So the body of Christ is not separated from the other part which is spirit and soul, particularly a soul. Again it says in verse… down here, 35…

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[1 Corinthians 15:]

1 Corinthians 15:35

(35) …some …will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

Now, again you’ll see the word is nekros. And again it’s understood as a corpse. But

watch it… “[But] some will say, How are the [corpses] raised up?” Then it turns around and says, “…with what body do they come?” Oh, come on! That’s crazy… unless you’re identifying the body with the person. And that’s exactly what we’re talking about.

And that’s exactly predestination. Do you follow what I’m saying now? You simply cannot look at yourself apart from your body. Now, I know we’d love to do it because we know we’re in a body of sin, a body which generates sin. We know there’s a lot of deformities. We know there’s a lot of sickness.

We know the standard of the world what is called ‘beautiful’, what is called ‘sweet womanhood’, what is called ‘sweet manhood’ and we just love to think we’re separate from it. We are not separate from it. By this Scripture you cannot do it.

14

Now, maybe some of you this morning will start getting rid of your complexes as you learn to accept yourselves for what you are…with your hooked nose, double chin, myopic eyes, corns, bunions, flat feet.

We’re not running a beauty contest, you know; and God’s not entering into a beauty contest. The very Scripture concerning Jesus was that “there was no beauty anyone should have anything to do with him.” So he ought to have had a complex, eh? He never had any complexes.

In fact he said, “Lo, a body hast thou prepared for me.” And could God do anything in His predestinating power that wouldn’t be just exactly one-hundred-fold and a hundred percent? Now, I never said you accept your diseases, and I never said to accept your ‘myopic’ condition [your short-sightedness].

I just said maybe that’s how you looked. I believe that’s what I’m aiming at, more than the fact. You might have these little beady eyes. So… what are you worried about?

15

So the picture here is… what we’re looking at is: How are the dead raised? And all through this chapter the word ‘dead’ is nekros which is absolutely ‘a corpse’.

So, when Paul is speaking of the dead, and though he is referring only to the body as being a corpse, he cannot help but refer to Christ [and whoever else he’s speaking of in this chapter] as an integrated being of soul, body and spirit. So, you will never ever be rid of a body… the very thing that Brother Branham worried about.

And he said going over…beyond the curtain of time [what] satisfied him was that there was something waiting for him. He said he used to think, “Maybe I’d be something nebulous, like a little cloud floating by and Brother Neville a little cloud floating by, but they’d have enough [evidently] intelligence as that amorphic body, to recognize. And he goes

over there and finds a ninety-year-old woman as a most beautiful young girl, maybe sixteen years of age…and you know the song ‘Sweet Sixteen’ [Usually, if you’re not pretty at sixteen, you ain’t never going to be]…and she was absolutely beautiful! Of course, he… down here she might not have been so much.

16

You cannot separate the body, the soul and the spirit even though the spirit is gone back to God who gave it, the soul has gone to Paradise, and the corpse [body] is in the grave disintegrating, going to ashes and dust.

You are you as a tripartite being and especially, you are you as soul and body. [See?] So, thus we see that the seed spoken of in 1 Corinthians 15:38.

1 Corinthians 15:38

(38) But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. [That’s right…Now, notice: ‘ to every seed his own body’… never anything different from that.]

17

All right. Every body is according to a certain seed that God has brought into existence. And that seed and that body can never ever be spoken of as apart. The seed may leave the body,

temporarily, but it goes to another body to come back and pick up, in the resurrection, this body. There is never a time that you cannot associate them all together. And at the same time, I want you to notice something: This is true predestination.

Now, Brother Branham spoke of this in Melchisedec; he brings out predestination. And that’s what the Bible does. He glossed over it; he just merely made the statement, but you can see right here. [See?]

Now…and the word ‘body’ [except for perhaps two or three occasions at the most in the whole New Testament] is soma [s-o-m-a] which means ‘sound and whole’. Now you say, “Well, just a minute. That doesn’t sound like there’s disease there.” That’s not the purpose of it.

You’re looking at the word ‘somatic’…and notice how the age in which you live, always out here in Nature in the Kingdom of Satan which is stolen from God…God’s people they always have to bear witness to the Truth.

Through the ages we have had physicians [those that are more philosophical, more spiritual] understood you cannot treat the soul apart from the body and the body apart from the soul. So, today we have what is known as the ‘Holistic’ doctrine of the welfare of men which treats the whole body and cannot ignore the soul.

Now, it’s right here in the Bible…soma… It’s what John said…

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[3 John]

3 John 1:2

(02) [Brethren] I wish above all [else] that you might prosper and be in health …as [your] soul [prospers].

[See?] Somatic, which means ‘healthy’. Not, I would say as people like the word ‘healthy’, but as I just said it integrated and harmonious [See?] where the soul through the various channels it has, is given the chance [the opportunity] through the spirit and the mind

to literally accept the body. Do you know today everything is so rugged that the body does not accept the body? Do you know that the very life that’s in the body that determines through genetic patterns the welfare of the individual, the courses that deal with health within his body

can, by wrong influence within the mind, actually turn on the body and destroy it? And it’s called ‘Lupus’. And it’s not the only one there is because, actually, the body opens doors to every kind of intrusion bacteria and virus, even bringing on accidents and mental conditions because it can’t accept the fact of what it is.

19

Now, look. You adults, just start looking at your kids…and I don’t care how good you treat them. We thought we treated ours pretty good. And I’m looking at you young husbands and wives and families, and I marvel at how you bring up your children. But never sell yourself short; your kids will not believe what I’m preaching, the same as you sitting here have not believed what is being preached.

[See?] There’s an integration. There’s a wholeness. That’s what I’m saying this morning. If we understand what we’re saying and getting what I’m saying, you have already had your body redeemed perfectly by the Blood to a glorified perfect condition. And you are whole and perfect in the sight of God, because the word sozo [sode´-zo] is what we’re talking about [somatic] which means ‘salvation’.

And people simply will not believe God. The prophet said, “You are the virtuous, sinless Bride of the Lord Jesus Christ; you didn’t even do it.” How can a part of God do it? … speaking of sin. [See?] There’s a big challenge in this Message today, Brother, to take it for our healing.

20

So the Word of God, except on two occasions I know which speaks of the body as concerning membership in affiliation, the word soma is used. We get the word ‘somatic’, meaning ‘healthy’. So God presents to the believer a healthy body. As Brother Branham

categorically said…he said, “A servant of God is entitled to a healthy body.” You say, “He was talking about a five-fold ministry.” Well, I understood he told Sam…[Connally]?…, “There’s not that many true five-fold ministers.” So are you going to tell me only three people are entitled to healing under the Blood? He’s talking about every daughter and son of Abraham, as I brought out this morning.

You are entitled to it. And the Word of God does not look upon you as a diseased body. How could God in His Mind ever conceive of a diseased body? He said, “Satan has done this thing. She’s been bound eighteen years by the devil.” [See?] Even the poor woman that wasn’t entitled to healing, whose daughter needed healing…

She pressed it and she said, “Heal my daughter. Heal my daughter!”

He said, “No way! [he said] Should we give the children’s bread to dogs?”

She said, “That’s exactly right. I agree, but [she said] dogs can get crumbs.”

“Oh”, he said, “Go your way; [he said] you’ve got it.”

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The woman had more on the ball than most of the Hebrews sitting there [around there] and she was a Gentile. What does it mean to you and me, in the face of the Church having turned down this great Revelation, this great Ministry? We can this morning rejoice and say, “By the grace of God I’m an integrated, whole person!” Listen, doctors are teaching that.

And now they’re teaching the value of humour. Norman Cousins, given up to die

…“Okay”, he said, “I’ll laugh my sorrows away, my trouble.” He brought in Laurel and Hardy. No doubt, like me, he’d bring in Woody Woodpecker, the Three Little Pigs. It wouldn’t matter… anything for a laugh. And he laughed and he laughed and he laughed.

And the Bible already beat him to the punch. Thousands of years ago It said, “A merry heart doeth good like… medicine …but a [forlorn] broken spirit [withers the marrow on] the bones.” [Proverbs 17:22] If anybody should rejoice, it’s this hour because he’s brought us the Spirit of joy and gladness.

He’s come with healing to those that mourn. [See?] We must understand these things. [See?] There is a wholeness.

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Now, again, the word ‘body’ [ except for perhaps two or three occasions in the whole New Testament] is soma, which means ‘ sound and whole’, giving us the understanding that though the body is now a corpse, dead,

it is still a part of the person [Yup!] and can’t be separated from the soul because it’s bound to the soul. Come on, let me prove it to you…

Matthew the 10th chapter… [that’s where he sent all those people…[out there]… the disciples]. Watch what he says in verse 28. [Matthew 10:]

Matthew 10:28

(28) And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both [body and soul] in hell.

Well, if He destroys body and soul in Hell, what about you and me who aren’t destroyed in Hell?…kept by the power of God through Faith. [See?] We’re not entitled to draw conclusions based on nature.

We don’t have a natural body; we have a soul-body, which means your body and my body is absolutely predicated upon what the soul is. And the soul, if it’s not a part of God, has in it a part of God…and it’s building what God wants.

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How then, we ought to see each other as beautiful creatures! Look down below the skin and realize that here is a vehicle for the son of God and that’s why the Bible said, “Treat your bodies as temples of the Holy Ghost.”

And that’s why It says to male and female joined in marriage, “Respect each other for the grace of God”…respect the bodies. Also says concerning the man to “love his wife as he loves his own body.”

You got to have an understanding of what we’re talking about here. You cannot separate the one from the other. “Though skin worms eat my flesh, and eat this body, yet I shall see God in the flesh.” You got to understand it.

[See?] How much more respect will there be in the house of God? How much more pure and clean love, where men and women don’t lust after each other?

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You’re going to have a natural pleasure, but let’s… Come on! I’m not some stupid prude up here talking like some stupid Roman Catholic with his stupid dogmas some priest that talks as though he hasn’t got it. He’s out ‘shenanigan’ with some woman of the congregation or nun or somebody else Come on! Look! We don’t preach tripe and nonsense up here. We’ll talk

about the channels of the body. Certainly we don’t denigrate those things which God said, but when you understand the body is a temple of the Holy Ghost and is just as important in the sight of God as your soul is because on one hand He destroys both and on the other hand He keeps both and the double cure is in the Atonement. …[And]?…the Blood fell upon the ground to bring our bodies into reconciliation. He’s going to glorify them.

Then, how we ought to see this and understand there isn’t a separation. If your soul goes, your body’s gone; your body’s gone, your soul’s gone… spirit gone. What happens first of all if the body meets too severe an injury? The spirit leaves it, the soul lingers, then the soul goes… and your body’s gone too.

What’s going to come back? Soul and body. What about the spirit? I don’t understand and I care less. Maybe it comes back later on… I don’t know. I’ve got no problem with that, but I know one thing about the soul and body.

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Now, this understanding of the predestination of the soul helps us to grasp why Paul called our bodies ‘soul-bodies’…soul-bodies… we’re not natural bodies, though our bodies certainly do have to blend with nature. That is, our bodies have to blend in with nature all around us. In other words …look, we’re a part of all this out here [ understand what I’m saying]… we’re a part of it but we’re not of it.

In other words, we’ve been induced into the arena of what is, because God had it all made…everything all fixed up, then He said, “Here it is”; put Adam right…and Eve there, right with it…[See?] They weren’t a part of it as though nature had done it, but as Christ partook of humanity, so we partook of nature. Yuh! It was here and we had to be a part of it in this sense.

Now, we blend in…to it, [See?] They have to blend with nature… that’s the nature of the soul. They’ve got to blend with it or they would not be fit vehicles for the soul. [Do you follow what I’m saying?] There’s got to be something here, like in yours and mine…[by?]…bodies, that is a fit vehicle for the soul or there couldn’t be integration. There couldn’t be harmony and orientation. Because the body itself is a formed body, not created…it’s a ‘formed’ body from what is out here, [See?]

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Now, again 1 Corinthians 15:38.

1 Corinthians 15:38

(38) But God [gives] it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

So, now what He does… and you can see it in nature. Every single person has a different body. And there’s no such thing as true identical twins…there’s no way. There’s only one chance in about one with thirty-six…what is it? thirty-six thousand zeros behind it of any one person being identical [to] any other person.

And there’s never been born that many people and there never will be. So, you’re absolutely separate as individuals. The seed that is in you from God demands a certain body. And Brother Branham said, “Paul the Apostle was a beady-eyed, hunched over, stooped little Jew.”

And he said, “David was a runty little guy.” And he said, “Samson was a skinny little guy that maybe couldn’t pick up a milksop till the Spirit of God came upon him.” [See?] You and I’ve been given exactly what God wanted. And isn’t it strange that none of us wanted what God gave us? “Well”, you say, “I would have been, except for the Devil.” That hasn’t got a thing to do with it.

You got to look beyond that. That’s making God…the Devil bigger than God. It’s just like today; people worship the creature more than the Creator. They worship nature out here. They call it God. Just like in the Branham Message, there are people that made William Branham God and worshipped William Branham, the creature, more than God. It’s a sign of the times.

Everywhere you look the Bible is all but fulfilled. Don’t you know we’re on the next step to the resurrection?…coming out of the ground? 1988 has set the pattern. I told you, Gorbachev had to come on the scene; he had to bring the Christian world together.

The rest have got to follow. Rome will take over any day now… Praise the Lord! Let it take over; I’ve got no problem there. It’s not going to take us over. [See?]

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Now, you notice in here, the seed is never spoken of apart from the body. God gave the seed; God gave the body. Why? Because God put in the seed exactly what He wanted and the body forms a predestination foreknown , election, predestination. Can’t stop it. It’s there.

[See?] Now, a little insight…little more light. Let’s go back to Genesis, chapter 1 and in Genesis 1:21, it says,

Genesis 1:21

(21) And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth…

Now, in that 20th verse: “the moving creature that hath life”…‘abundantly moving’ that means where things swarm and teem, like the little microscopic things in the ocean and maybe like the krill and some of those things. But up here in verse 21…’living creature’, the word ‘creature’ is nephesh [neh´-fesh] which actually means ‘soul’.

That’s why you’ll find theologians do not agree with Brother Branham on the principle of soul. But Brother Branham made a little statement that hardly anybody ever catches. And that is, he uses the term inner soul.

So, if you’re going to have everything that breathes and has conscious life having a soul, let’s know this: they don’t have that inner soul. They don’t have a seed from God which was uncreated. Everything else is created. So man has an uncreated soul. It’s an issuing forth from God Himself. That’s right.

Now if you’re born a spirit to begin with how can you be born again? That will be true but it will refer more to the body.

Because that which is born of the spirit is spirit. We got our souls from God and, of course, that which is born of God does not sin. How could you make it sin? Paul, himself said, “It is sin that dwelleth in my flesh. In the flesh dwelleth no good thing.” But remember, it’s still predestinated of God.

[See?] Always, people want to look at the negative. We must cease looking at the negative. Every single Word of God has a negative and a positive. It’s just like everything in nature is made up of a negative and a positive or it’d fly apart.

If everything was positive, it’d fly apart; if it was all negative it would fly apart. Got to have the both together. That’s the way it is in life; you get the blessing and the cursing.

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Okay, I read the verse, and it says, [Genesis 1:]

Genesis 1:22

(22) …God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth… […that’s the soul creatures [call them what you want] but what we’re looking at is a natural concept.]

We’re looking at the fact that every body builds itself around that seed that God put there. That’s right … birds, fish … everybody got… everything’s got… Now let’s go to Genesis, the 2nd chapter and in verse 7. [Genesis 2:]

Genesis 2:7

(07) And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.

Now hold it! What kind of a soul was he before he was put in a body? Now just a minute…before he was put in a body [Genesis 1:28 paraphrased]

Genesis 1:28

(28) […the Lord God said, “Take dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, everything creeps, everything crawls, everything flies, everything walks, everything runs… Who cares!… You take control.]

And Brother Branham explained that. He said, “Adam was like the Holy Spirit controlling you and me.” And in the Garden he could say, “Tree, move over there”, and the tree moved over there.

So don’t tell me that Adam was a dead soul…Was he? He was a living soul. Then why does He say, when He put him in a body, “He’s now a living soul.”? You know why? Because God breathed in his nostrils the breath of Life and gave to Adam, at that time, the ability, the ability to be the father of the human race.

That would require a soul, and a body commensurate to the soul. Un-huh, and He breathed into Adam the ‘breath of lives’ plural, not singular. So we see the human race, now. It now has Zoe. The Bible says, concerning God: ‘ the living God’. And it says, concerning Him.

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[John 1:]

John 1:1,4

(01) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

(04) [And] in him was life…

Well, naturally! If a thing is living, it’s got life. But it doesn’t say that! It says, “In the living God is a life which is a Zoe life”…which means that God can translate and transfer Himself and become into what He created…[apart from]?…what already was.

So here we see predestination of the human race. Then, how in the world can you separate the body from the soul? You can’t do it. Every deed done in the flesh we give account for. Can’t do it! You cannot do it . You cannot separate yourself.

You’ve got to recognize yourself. You’ve got to be happy with yourself. You’ve got to be one with yourself. Now, you’re not doing it and I’m not doing it too well, but I’m learning to do it.

Give me a hundred and twenty more years…No, just give me this Message, Word upon Word. You say, “Do you depend on that?” I depend on that and nothing else! No way, shape and form… I can’t do it.

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Now, listen. The word ‘soul’, here, is nephesh and the word ‘living’ is chay [khah´-ee]. And the word ‘living’ is ‘raw’, as in vegetables raw, as in flesh raw… unh? Now, just a minute.

I’ve got raw flesh. I’m not talking about taking a hunk of beef-steak, now, and putting it in a pan…that’s a corpse. That’s not raw, according to the Bible.

It’s when I cut my hand open, you can see raw flesh. It’s living; it’s going to mend. So God made Adam a ‘living soul’ which means, a soul that now had a body whereby the life produced would be seed and the seed would bring forth the body continuously until God said, “It’s all over.”

And He calls it ‘all over’ by killing everybody except the Bride and the one hundred and 44,000 and takes them out. And they’re all corpses. So, therefore, whether you’re ‘living raw’, and your soul and spirit go, and you think you’re a corpse… you’re not, because God refers to you as an individual, pointing to your corpse and saying, “The dead shall come back”.

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Jesus didn’t die in the first place. He didn’t… as the soul of God he sure didn’t. As a son of God, he didn’t. He positively said, “…into thy hands I commend my spirit.”

Then he said, “…thou wilt not leave my soul in hell.” And according to the Book of Luke, there’s a little analogy there [allegory, I suppose…call it what you want ] about the brothers…the five brothers of this rich man and in Hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment.

His soul was down there. And the soul of the poor man, Lazarus, he was in another place. He had memory and conscience and all those good things going for him. He lift up his eyes…and the body was mouldering in the ground.

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Now, see what I’ve been telling you. Look…it says distinctly, Paul says this: [he said] [1 Corinthians 15:19] “Hey! Listen to me. If Christ has not risen, we are of all men most miserable. If in this life only we have hope, we are of all men most miserable. If Christ hasn’t come back in a glorified body and if we don’t come back in a body, it doesn’t matter what God has done… Pooey!”

You say, “Oh, Brother Vayle, don’t use that language! “

I have just used it. Because I’m so miserable I could use worse language than that. Now, let it sink in what I’m trying to get across…[See?]. You are identified, brother/sister. I know you still don’t like it.

You’re looking my way as if to say, “Well, I don’t think I want to believe that. Hate to think I’m stuck with it.”

Get over the feeling you’re stuck with anything. You’ll get all your hair back. I’m going to get all mine back…it’s preserved. All my tears are even in a bottle. [Of course, they’ll evaporate when He says ‘so and so’… they’ll all go out of the bottle.] You’ll never worry about your aching joints.

Why, man alive! My arthritis has made my hands bad. I even take some pills that are supposed to take down the swelling, but it doesn’t seem to take the swelling down. There’s something wrong with the blood, but so what!

Flesh and blood doesn’t inherit the Kingdom of God… be flesh, bone and spirit. This is just the negative of the positive.

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Look, it’s time the Bride was glad to know who she is and as, individually, to glad… to be glad that you are you. You know Walt Disney’s bunch of animators could make up beautiful ditties and songs ‘Aren’t You Glad You’re You?’[ ahh, maybe he didn’t, but somebody did].

“Well,…[I want to be]?…somebody else.”…you’ve missed the boat. Are you getting what I’m telling you? He is talking about Christ as a corpse because the word ‘dead’ is nekros, yet your soul doesn’t die unless it’s destroyed in Hell and annihilated in the Lake of Fire. So you cannot get away from the body.

Now, you’re born in here into a ‘natural body’, Paul calls it […I mean the translators do], which is a soul-body which your soul takes the elements of nature according to its own genetic pattern, that men can see transferred into protein and vitamins and minerals and so on for the body, and give a body.

Now, if you had been injured in birth where your nose was a nice Roman nose but the doctor flattened it, in the resurrection you’ll have your nice Roman nose. And if he put the hooks up in there [you have one of those bad deliveries…you get forceps] and he pulled your nose way out…[it was a nice flat nose …you know what I mean] or flattened it coming down, you’ll get your proper nose back.

[See?] Now look-it… I’m getting these things for a purpose here, because we have got to realize that this is a predestination of God we’re dealing with. And you wouldn’t want to change the predestination of God, or you got problems… real serious problems, because that’s what everybody wants to do.

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All right… Now, this body, here, which is a soul-body, is a living body which is raw living flesh. In the Greek it is psuche [psoo-khay´] which means ‘breath and vitality’… and souls don’t breathe, bodies do.

And the vitality has to do with the physical. Now, Adam was not soul only in Genesis 2:7 at that… but had a body according to the seed predestinated by God.

Now, remember, Adam already was, and he was allowed to be without a body. He and Eve were one. Now they get bodies. And in Genesis 2:7.

Genesis 2:7

(07) God breathed in him the breath of life

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Now let’s take a look at that over here in the Book of 1 Corinthians, the 15th chapter. And in there it says,

1 Corinthians 15:22,44

(22) For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive [Now watch in verse 44.]

(44) As it’s written, the first man Adam [became] a living soul

He became a raw flesh, living person from being an unraw flesh, living person. What about the last Adam? He took upon the flesh, died, sent his soul back upon us [and I’ll talk about that] “He became a quickening spirit” [1 Corinthians 15:45].

And without Him we would not be quickened; we would not be turned back to viable living flesh. In other words, the program and plan of God would not be completed. It could not fulfil its predestination. Now then, back to verse 44.

1 Corinthians 15:44

(44) It is sown a natural body; …raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body …[there’s] a spiritual body.

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Now, right here, is tells you in the first part. “It is sown a natural body. What’s he talking about?

It goes down to the grave as a soul-body that the soul produced according to the program of Almighty God, but it is raised a spiritual body according to God who raises the dead.

As Brother Branham said, “God creates again.” Not through sex but by His own creative Voice raises those same bodies. Then Paul goes on to say…

1 Corinthians 15:44

(44) …There is a natural body …[There’s] a spiritual body…

That is true! There’s a spiritual body. It’s reserved in [the] heavens, according to 2 Corinthians 5, [1:] “…that if our earthly [body be] dissolved we have [already one

waiting for us] eternal in the heavens.” Not on earth, but in the heavens is where it is. And Brother Branham said, “The word ‘eternal’ means it never had a beginning.”

So, therefore, the substance that is there whatever is there had to come from an eternal thing itself. You always were eternal. And you’ve got something there that’s eternal. Don’t ask me to explain it. I’ve done my best I could with it. I just believe the Bible.

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Now, then. After you’re through being in that ’Beyond the Curtain of Time’, Brother Branham preached on it [Jeffersonville, 61-03.05] you come back here to pick up a body that’s called ‘glorified’, immortal. And that’s what’s truly commensurate to your soul. Now, you’re

getting the very best that God has. [See?] Now, we die in soul-bodies that the soul built for itself from created material and go to a Word-body, or a theophanic form that must have come from the soul itself, you know… from eternity or from true viability of the soul.

[When I mean ‘viability’ it means the thing that the life can produce.] So the soul had in its ability to produce what it couldn’t live in; so, no doubt, produced it and moved down. So when you’re born again, sure you hear from your theophany! How else could it be? You’re going to go to it …deep calling to Deep.

Now you die. So the soul drops what it created…not created [pardon me], but formed through created material and goes back to its original haven, what it should be, only to come back and pick it up.

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So all right. So we see, we die in our soul-bodies which our souls built for ourselves… the soul’s built for itself [See?] from created materials; then it goes to a Word-body, theophanic form, which must have come from the true viability of the soul which is from God and a part of God, according to Second Corinthians [chapter] five.

[And I say this because, “The word ‘eternal,” Brother Branham said, “Means neither beginning nor ending.We bypass the Word-body to be tempted in flesh which can only come through channels of the flesh.

And notice it came through sensual pleasure. And there’s nothing wrong with the sensual pleasure, ‘long as we… Look-it, I’m going to tell you something flat: God gave us the ability to taste sweet things, but we shouldn’t just use crystallized sugar.

You know what sugar is? Its form has got the same form that drug has got. It’s a pure carbon. The majority of every person in this Church is one thing pure sugar. And the blood can’t handle it. So every disease under high heaven begins to come in. We naturally love sweet things.

So we should be eating all the good fruit that God put on the earth. Drinking good carrot juice. Some of you … “Oh, I couldn’t eat carrot juice. I couldn’t eat green stuff.” Come on, smarten-up! You’re not a bunch of dumb-bunnies…Or are you? [Good question…let that one go.]

I have my problems too, don’t worry. I got… I don’t hardly have a sweet tooth left in my head but I sure got sweet ‘gums’…[Gets ya.]

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Look… the body responds to the stimuli which is pleasant. Oh, come on. Let’s go right back to the Bible, in the 3rd chapter of Genesis I think it is. Eve is beginning to consort with the Serpent, that is the Beast. [Stupid woman!…should have consorted with her husband.] And in verse 6.

Genesis 3:6

(06) And when the woman saw…the tree was good for food,… pleasant to the eyes, …a tree…desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit… [and said, “Hey! This is terrific!” and gave it to her husband and he said, “Man, I never knew it could be like this!” …paraphrasing exactly 20th Century language.]

Sex, good food, nice warm baths, a massage… “Ooh! How about some more, it feels so good! Come on! The body is a channel of good feelings and the pleasures of sin is the downfall.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with the things that are legitimate. You can go to a good massage parlour, if you go to a male who knows what he’s doing he’s not some perverted homosexual. Even a woman can massage you if you’re properly covered and all.

[I’ll go a limit on some things but I can’t go too far…because neither am I foolish, neither am I a prude. I wish I were more puritanical but I don’t happen to be.] But your body naturally opens the door to problems. But God has never withheld any good thing from anybody…never has and never will.

It’s a people perverted. As Paul himself said [1 Corinthians. 6:12], he said, “All things are lawful but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful but I’ll not be brought under the power of any.”

Again he said to the people concerning the lawfulness of it all, that “All things are not expedient and therefore you have to watch out lest you go too far.” Always it’s the same thought: temperance in the Word of Almighty God.

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All right, the channels are there and we saw them. Now look-it, the channels that open up to pleasure are the same channels that open up to terror. Notice the 4th chapter of Genesis verse 8.

Genesis 4:8

(08) And Cain talked with Abel his brother:… it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and [killed] him.

What brought it on? The pleasure that Cain derived in worshipping God! And God said, “Your pleasure is illegitimate.” If you ever remember when you were back in Pentecost, your denominations, you had a lot of pleasure with the wrong interpretation of God’s Word… tongues-evidence.

Oh, I remember one time, I got in my Bible ; I was going to preach a sermon. And when I do… I get something I feel from the Lord, I immediately drop it [ almost always] and walk off and I’ll come back to it…let it cool awhile. And something in my heart says, “You better look that word up in the Greek before you preach.”

It was a hundred percent different from what I thought it was. Oh, I have preached some “rip-snortin’, Hallelujah, God-glorifying [so I thought]” sermons! Roused my own soul, raised the faith of everybody… it was “MARVELLOUS”! It was a hundred percent wrong. Yah! Where do you stand this morning on your thinking?…on your thoughts?…on your revelation, your interpretation?

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Listen! This fellow here, from a religious happy experience, bringing to God the fruit, the flowers which I consider to be a First-Fruit offering the Word of God misinterpreted. Oh, he was happy.

It was, “Hallelujah, you poor sucker, Abel. You bring the stinking blood and watch the lamb defecate on you, urinate on you and spill the blood… stink like a goat.

I’ll bring my pretty flowers, pretty, lovely worship. God loves lovely things. God loves lovely worship.” And God said, “You are wrong!” And that lovely spirit of joy and ‘Hallelujah, Jesus’, turned and killed a man. “Oh boy, I’m sure glad I’m a religious, happy person! See…[how]?… the pleasurable inlet goes to violence and lust?

This man killed his brother. Men rape. Women seduce. Shame on us! Soul-bodies, [See?]…Yup! Now, we understand this… inlets to the soul, inlets through the flesh; these things come in.

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All right, now we can see again, a little more, on this 1 Corinthians 15. I want to finish this because I’m taking a long time with it. But that’s all right [It’s got to be all right because we’re not finished.]… 45 and 46, I read it.

1 Corinthians 15:45-47

(45) …it is written, the first man Adam [became] a living soul; the last Adam… a quickening spirit.

(46) Howbeit that was not first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. [ We talked about that. You go there and pick up that Word-body, then you come back and get your glorified body.

(47) The first man is…the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven [ that’s exactly right].

The first one came down with the soulish body in order to propagate. The other one came down, took upon himself a soul-body having been in the theophanic Word-body, could not be tempted and fall into sin shed his Blood to deliver us and quicken us…

bring us to where he is, which is a glorified body. “Such as earthy is earthy” …you can’t change. And “such as heavenly is heavenly”… you can’t change it; you’re not going to change it. You went through this; you’ll go through that. You know [what] something?

I just said it, but you don’t believe it. I don’t either. See, I’m not going to stand up here and lie and say, “Lee Vayle’s got this great Faith.”

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I am preaching this great Faith believing I’m going to have the great Faith I preach! I’ve been getting some of it, knowing this: that as we have been in the earthly, we shall be in the heavenly. Do you believe it? That’s why Brother Branham said it changed his whole life.

Now, we’re just hoping to believe it. Don’t worry, we’ll get there. If you’re Bride, I’m Bride, no doubt we’ll get there. Listen. Unbelief does not make the Faith of God to no effect. Maybe it’s not that moment. Maybe we’re not going to die, so we don’t have to have it. [Now, I could well die …it’d be nice if I did because I don’t see, you know, too great a future here. You know what I mean.

I think I’ve seen…I think most of my future’s passed. I’m happy, satisfied with that. So maybe it’s no too…any great moment to go beyond the curtain of time.] We’re going to go the other course. Instead of picking up our theophany [as we call it, the Word-body], it’s going to come and pick us up, so to speak, or meet in the air.

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All right, now… verse 45 is talking about our bodies, there’s no doubt about it. Now, in verse 47 [we read that too] Adam was man before Jesus was man.

Sure, Adam was man before Jesus… that’s why he’s the last Adam, the second man; but he’s responsible now to get us there. And it says [1 Corinthians 15:48-51 paraphrased]…

1 Corinthians 15:48-51

(48) As is ‘the earthy’, we know that we’re going to be heavenly now.

(49) We’re going to bear the image because we’ve born the earthy. It’s a foregone conclusion. It’s absolutely sure, regardless this is of grace; this is of God; this is predestination that we are going to be in that resurrection.

(50) Now [he said]…flesh and blood, [he said] isn’t going to get there of its own…nor corruption.

(51) I’m going to show you a mystery… [Now, this is the last part of the question.]

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[B] What about the glorified body? Where does it fit in?

It’s right here it fits in. He’s been talking about the dead picking up glorified bodies. Now he’s saying, “If you think for one minute that everybody’s going to die in order to get a glorified body, the answer is ‘No’!

I’m going to show you a mystery. The mystery is: You don’t die and pick up a Word-body. The mystery is: You miss it, you bypass it.” Well, let’s read it. [1 Corinthians 15:]

1 Corinthians 15:51-52

(51) Behold, I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep…[we’ll] all be changed,

(52) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: …the trumpet shall sound…

So, there’s something that has to do with the trumpet. And it tells you distinctly: Every mystery of God [and this is a mystery] comes to pass in Revelation, chapter ten and verse seven, “When that man shall begin to sound…”,

and it’s always a trumpet. So it’s the trumpet of Rev 10:7, whoever that prophet is, under the descent of the One that comes down from Heaven, which was the One upon the Throne, which is God. There’s the picture, right there, the Pillar of Fire. There’s how He came down.

People laugh at It; let them laugh. How can they believe that? Do you know what they believe about Moses and the blood and the water? An eruption took place and the red dust came down and made the water red.

How unique! Isn’t it strange how, suddenly, earthquakes and eruptions and volcanic, and otherwise, can happen at a very crucial time of history of the Bible?

Why don’t those same jackasses tell us something about this day? A smart man isn’t fit to open his mouth. Mm-mm…fools made before God. Last trump.

1 Corinthians 15:53

(53) For this corruptible must put on incorruption…[and the word ‘put on’ is stressed in the Greek, an inner garment]

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So now, we’re dealing with the soul before the body’s changed. And that’s where, Brother Branham said, “Every inlet to the soul, through the mind and the spirit, is plugged with the Word of God.”

Every Word of God is channelled in. And it’s the Life that’s in the Word that’s channelled in, allows that soul to have a building that’s commensurate to what’s in the soul. And you don’t have to die to get it. If you die, you get a building commensurate by going to it.

If you don’t die, you get a building commensurate because you’re feeding your soul…feeding Christ, the Inner Man. You’re doing it.

1 Corinthians 15:53

(53) [And] this corruptible must put on incorruption…[It’s an inner garment].

And Brother Branham said, “I believe I’m here to dress a Bride.” And when he screamed in prophecy with that sword, he said, “Bring on Your holy vesture!,with the Holy Word of God standing by. What’s the sword got to do with vesture? It usually means that they take your clothes off with it.

And he did. He stripped away our arrogant dress of clothes and mind and demeanour. And we saw we were naked, wretched, blind. Then he clothed us with the Word of God. You’re right back to that ‘aura’ that Adam and Eve had in the Garden.

They didn’t have garments on. They were naked and they weren’t ashamed. The last Church Age is wretched, miserable, blind, naked and should be ashamed in His Presence; they’re not. We’re different; we realized our wretchedness, our misery, our nakedness.

There’s not one person here, if you’re born-again, but recognizes your undoneness out there in the world in the flesh and the Devil, in denominationalism …all those things and recognize, this morning, you’re being dressed in the Presence of Almighty God and by God, as a Bride fit for the King.

And the Bride is all-glorious, within and without! She’s as clear as the moon and terrible as the sun! She’s like a raging army with banners. She’s marching ‘New Jerusalem’…and they got bodies.

47

Just begin to think of all the good fun you’ve had in your life, and all the good times, and all the good sensations, what music has done to your soul, what somebody’s letter, somebody’s touch, something. Even though it can go to the carnal and the disreputable and the filthy… listen, it’s the same body.

Don’t snow it; don’t fight it; don’t fault it. Just realize we weren’t called for those purposes but a higher purpose. And this is the process of sanctification and moulding under the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost given us…not a hundred percent commensurate for the body we bypassed, but it’s to help us to begin to see what is right and what is wrong and walk in the Light.

You are entitled, and I am, to every sensual pleasure which is of God. And I’m talking of the word ‘sensual’ not as lust and sex, I am talking in terms of ‘senses’. How can anybody …look at that beautiful picture of ‘The Hoffman’. Look at the lovely flowers, those white poinsettias. Even what somebody manufactured…How pretty the chandeliers are, anyway!

The senses bend to music; there’s nothing wrong. But don’t look at some of this horrible art [so-called art work] and…[goggle]?… yourself. Sure there’s nothing… the masculine body, the female body is beautiful. Who said you’ve got to look at Penthouse and Rustler? [I guess there’s other magazines, too; I don’t know.]

Who says it’s got to go to filth? Who denied you anything that was good? Trouble is, people don’t want to keep in the framework that God gave.

48

Music is beautiful! Not your Rock ‘n Roll crud ..don’t bring it around here. Like I said, “That bop-bop-bop and the beat…If you dare to put a drum in this Church …?… that thing there, I will take a hammer and break it because I bought it.” Oh, I will!

I kid you not. Don’t you ever have that around here! We’re not Rock ‘n Roll, Pentecostal God-knows-whaters. I’m a tough egg at times. I treat you…[with]?… love… love you, love you with all my heart, but oh, listen, danger is danger.

If we come more here to eat together out there than [for] the Word of God [which we don’t], we should rip the hall up. Nothing to it, Brother.

Nothing sacred when it comes to the…too sacred…there’s nothing sacred outside the things of God. [See?] So we have every right for these things, but we…[you]?…keep within the boundaries of Almighty God.

49

Here’s the answer to the glorified body, in contradistinction to the other bodies. When you die and go in the grave, your body goes to ashes and dust and gases [whatever it may be]. Your soul, which made that body, has no longer use for it and it goes to the one that came directly out of it, the eternal one.

Then it comes back here to pick up every bit of your body a changed and different created…recreated body, so to speak, a reformed body [call it what you want] and the dead come out of the ground and they walk on the streets of this life here for awhile. Then we will be changed.

But you see, we living come to the same end that the dead do. There is no difference. And we have no pre-eminence over them. There is no difference. Brother Branham said, “It matters not if you die or if you live.” That’s exactly the Word of God.

Someone says, “I believe the Message; I’m different.” You are different. But if you’re proud about it, you’re pretty sick. You’re happy about it. You’re sincere about it. You know

it’s the grace of Almighty God. So there you are. Listen to me. The body that’s being formed in us now…if this is the end-time [and it is] and those of you who will be standing here and I might be with you. My wife and I might be.

We don’t know and we’re not saying we will be, but listen, I’m going to tell you something: Here’s what the Apostle Paul said about this glorified body that’s spoken of over there, in 1 Corinthians and right down the line, about the seed and all.

50

Now it says here, [Ephesians 1:]

[Ephesians 1:17-20

(17) … the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: [ Now, that’s a Word from a prophet.]

(18) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; …ye may know what… the hope of his calling, [what it is] and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, [and that’s the Name of God in the Bride.]

(19) And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

(20) Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead…

This message is the basis of your resurrection and your change. It’s going on right now. It’s got to be in somebody. I say, “Brother Branham, if we’re not Bride, there’s a Bride out there somewhere. By the grace of God we won’t stand in her way.” I hope we won’t.

I hope we don’t. I hope we’re of the ‘humble-mindedness’ in the people that know it’s the grace and the goodness of God. We’re in a process of a predestination, brother/sister. Can we believe, this morning, it’s going on now? If this is that hour…and look, it’s got to be…it’s got to be. We’re ready for the collapse, for the…Rome to take over the money.

Again in the paper, Japan is vying for the Yen to take over the American dollar. They’ll do it. [Somebody will]. The Jews got the paper. Japan’s got plenty of paper. America…boy, we’ve got enough almost to paper the world. We’ve got too much of it. Can’t back it. Rome will take over the gold. Christendom will sit down at a table together and the Pope will head it all up. For the first time, 1988 brought it.

Stock market crashed. It’s ready to crash again. We got a President; he won’t convince Congress. There’s no way. A simple man could tell him what to do but he won’t do it. Notice his prayer: he couldn’t even say “In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ” in case he offended a Jew.

What kind of religion is that? You don’t have to go out to offend a Jew just because you use ‘Jesus Christ’…use it anyway. We’re not here to offend.

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America’s on its last legs. Brother Branham said, in 1956, “I cease praying for America. You don’t pray for a dead horse. Well, you might pray for a sick horse, but a dead horse you don’t pray for. How many times does God ever raise the dead? Very, very seldom.

Lots of sick people get healed…lots of sick horses, even. You could be like two old ladies that couldn’t afford a pump for their well. So they just poured some oil down the old pump. Instead of breaking apart, it worked another twenty-five years or so, I guess. It was doomed twenty years

ago, but she kept on working. I don’t mind all those things. You can’t bring America back, Brother/Sister; it’s gone. Christ has already come. Pretty soon we’ll go with Him, by the grace of Almighty God. Here’s Ephesians working in us. And, by the way, somebody’s going to respond to the great call of that Word within a Bride. I trust that’s us.

So, I hope I answered your questions. Got them all done. We’ll try to work ‘The Order of Melchisedec’…that’s the next question. Show you what I have in mind when I preached on it. We’ll do that on Wednesday. In the meantime the Lord bless you.

Now, I don’t want you to get scared about a meal out there. I’m going to eat because I brought some Lasagne; so it’s all right. How…somebody also brought…I take some of theirs… won’t eat all of mine. You’re welcome, as you always are. Hope to see you Wednesday, if possible. If not, see you another time. Let’s rise and be dismissed.

Gracious Heavenly Father, again we want to thank You for Your kind love and mercy to us. And we know, Lord, that it’s no sin to reach beyond ourselves as we look in the Scripture and know what it says, and not really know exactly, on the grounds of a revealed Faith that makes it very, very real, pertinent, outstanding to us.

But it’s not sin; we know that, Lord. And by grace, this morning, we preached what we believe to be the Truth as it was simply laid out there…where Paul called the corpse, Jesus, [he wouldn’t separate it] and said the same thing about us.

So, here we are, Lord, a little happier than we have been since we came in. And as the days go by, Father, I know that You’re faithful even if we aren’t. Your Blessed Holy Spirit is going to take this Word and make it richer and realer to us until we begin to identify, Lord, the way You had us in Your Mind identified, knowing that we are coming up, like Job who said,

“Bless God, I’m going to see You in my flesh.” And he knew he wasn’t going to be going to Hell, some place. He just said. “You hide me over till the tempest is passed; till it comes time to come forth, Lord. He’ll be my refuge.” And, Father, we know if we depart this life here, there’ll be a refuge for us.

And we’ll come back and pick up this body. Father, I want to take my stand with the understanding of Paul and I know this people does, too that we could say, “If in this life only we have hope in You, we are of all men most miserable. And if you did not come back in a body I’d fully identified, and we do not come back, then everybody’s a liar.”

Father, what a terrible thing for people not to believe in a resurrection and count themselves a part of that glorious redeemed flesh, the host of God, that comes back here to partake of divine senses in a re-established earth, and then later in a recreated heaven and earth.

And everybody fully sensate to the reality of the True, unadulterated, truly oriented creation of God God Himself, partaking in it and we with Him…even eating and drinking anew, the New Testament Covenant of the emblems of Blood and bread, the Body, Lord. Father, we know we’re on the way. And we’re just going to keep on the way because it’s Your grace that does it.

We’re not boasting in ourselves. No sir! We’re looking at a vindicated Word and we’re looking at the power to do it, as it said in Ephesians.

Now, unto You, Lord, we ascribe all the honour and glory and by Your grace, Lord, we receive from You the gift that Brother Branham had not like him, but something like him: ‘the ability to get out of the way’.

That we do this morning, trusting that we’ve said the right thing; we’re looking to the right end. In the Name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. The Lord bless you.

‘Take the Name of Jesus with you.’

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