Rapture #23

Transcript In progress.

Audio is available now.

Heavenly Father, we’re grateful to know the presence of Yourself in the form of the Holy Spirit, which You are, veiled in the Pillar of Fire, which we know is the garment You wear.

Knowing also that all things are possible, but we know that possibility only extends to the very realm which you have allowed Yourself to extend, which is defined by Your Word.

[And we can believe now that everything that is ours shall be fulfilled in a people that has been promised to her as the prophet said,] “Thus it has been spoken; thus it will be.” And we thank You for that, Lord.

Today we have confidence and rest in it, so that we know as we approach Your Word, and the subjects which are for this hour, that it is going to be understandable, and we are going to be a part of it, and it a part with us, safely shall be removed out from this earth, Lord, into the great and wonderful Kingdom of our God which shall materialize shortly.

We praise You for this, for this great knowledge, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

You may be seated.

[Missing audio section.] …recap on the strange subject of the Rapture. Now two weeks ago, I guess it was January 22, we took over two hours on the phase of Brother Branham’s teaching on the Rapture, when the prophet himself said, in paragraph 27:

[27]  I want to speak on a real strange subject; [the Rapture. Now we noted he did not say this to be sensational. He tells us he is not saying it to be sensational. Paragraph 31, and paragraph 156.]

[31]  And I think that in speaking I just don’t try to get up here [and] say something that I think would please the people.

I’ve never been guilty of that. I want to get up here and say something as I feel led to say it, that I think would be a help to you, something that would further your experience with God if you are a Christian, and if you’re not a Christian, make you so ashamed of yourself that you will become a Christian.

And that’s the purpose that I’ve always tried to line up my thoughts as the Lord would lead me.

[156]  You’re not blind people. You’re sensible people, and if I stood here and said these things for prejudice… I say it because it’s Life, because I’m responsible to God for saying it.

And I must say it. And my message… All the time knowing back there under healing and so forth like that, was just to catch the people’s attention, knowing the Message would come. And here it is. [All right.]

We heard what he said about being, or not being, sensational or ear tickling or ear tingling or titillating in some respect to the hearers when he teaches on this subject.

However, you cannot help but understand he is going to say something startling. Now you can’t help but understand that as he develops his theme.

Thus the subject must be sensational, but not for the sake of sensationalism. Now, that’s right. You’ve got to understand that this subject is sensational, but not for the sake of sensationalism.

It’s for the sake of letting people know the path of life, life in Christ, and how to get out of here. The utter uniqueness can only be meant to alert the people, to jar their thinking toward his understanding, and to anticipate that this subject will be controversial as soon as he brings it.

So, we ask a question: Is this man saying that he knows something about the Rapture that is not given to be known by anyone else?

Or is he settling seminary differences and indicating who is right amongst the denominations as to their particular beliefs and understanding of the Rapture? Or can it involve both?

Well, the answer is, it does involve both. He is going to say something that positively is not known by anybody else, and furthermore, he will be settling differences amongst those who believe, and we are amongst those who believe.

He’ll be settling the differences as to certain phases and putting everything right.

Furthermore, we go to paragraph 27 again, just the first sentence, and he says:

[27]  I want to speak on a real strange subject. [So, the Rapture is not only strange, it is] real [strange.]

The Rapture according to Brother Branham is thus, literally, mind-boggling, which means that according to the real truth of it, which is his revelation, it will be so far from the accepted revelation the churches have, that it will be eerie, literally eerie and unbelievable.

You might as well admit it, repugnant, to those who have the denominational understanding and it will be turned down because of its seeming disorientation from the rest of the Scripture. In other words, there is no way this will line with their Scriptural understanding. See?

All right. We go to paragraph 30, and he said:

[30]  Now, on speaking on this subject. Now some of you may [differ from] the avenues that I take, but how many in here believes the Bible teaches there will be a rapture of the Church? That’s right! A catching away of the church.

Whether you’re a Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, or whoever you are, Pentecostal, there will be a catching away. [Now he said,] “You people, you believe in it.” [And he said,] “This message is going to be real eerie to you. It’s going to just not sit with you.” [Okay?]

Let’s see something what he says in the Seven Seals that are along the same line. He says on the Seventh Seal, when there’s silence in Heaven:

[02]  No angels singing, no praises, no altar service, no nothing! There was silence, hushed, deadly silence in Heaven for a half hour. All the host of Heaven was silent for this half hour, when the seventh seal mystery in the Book of Redemption was broke open.

Think of it; but it’s broke. The Lamb breaks it. You know what? They were awed by it, I believe. They didn’t know. There it was; they just stopped. Why? What is it?

[03]  Now, none of us know; but I’m going to tell you my revelation of it. [Just like this.] Now I’m not prone to be a fanatic. If I am, I’m ignorant of it, see. I’m not given away to such [‘delirious’] carryings-ons and imaginary things.

I have said some things that might have been kind of strange to some people, but when God comes around behind and vindicates it and says it’s the truth, then that’s God’s Word. It may seem strange that way.

Now, if they didn’t take that, they’re not going to take this. So, this man’s a very strange person when it comes to teaching.

Let’s go to page 567 of the Seals, paragraph 4.

[04]  Now, when that gets on tape, [what he was saying, see, on the Seven Seals,] which it [did.] that will probably send ten thousand of my friends away from me, because they are going to say that Brother Branham is trying to put himself and make himself a servant, or a prophet, or something, before God.

[Now, it’s going to trickle down, don’t worry; trickle down to you and me. We’re going to get the ax, too.] Let me tell you, my brethren, that is an error! I’m only telling you what I saw and what has been told to me, and you do what ever you want to.

I don’t know who’s going to… what’s going to take place. I do not know. I just know that those seven thunders holds the mystery that Heaven was quieted.

[06]  This has been a tremendous week for me. I’m tired; my mind is tired, because it was the best that I could do. And something strange going on every day;

Now, what was that strangeness? An angel coming and bringing a Word. What do you think brought this?

Who is responsible, then, for this very, very strange Message? It is not the prophet; he was only a voice. It is God Himself.

“End-Time Evangelism,” paragraph 123 and on.

[123]  Now notice in these times, intellectual age. “Heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” [So what, He’s present. What’s it do for you? Intellectual?] Sounds stupid, blind.

Stay home on Wednesday night to watch some of those old vulgar plays like, “We Love Lucy.” [That wasn’t really vulgar, that was just kind of ridiculous.]

[So, you know he’s referring to what’s coming up in our time.] Or what all that stuff is, woman married a dozen times living with men.

We hadn’t gotten to the soap operas yet by the time Brother Branham died, those new serialized, filthy ones. I haven’t seen any myself, but I guess there’s…

Well, I think I saw a bit of one, one night. It was a parody on one. It wasn’t the real thing; it was a parody.

I don’t know that it was worth watching, but that person sure hit it exactly right who parodied the whole thing, just how stupid they were.

[123]  …You’d rather stay and watch that than attend prayer meetings. “Lover’s of pleasure more than lover’s of God.” Let a ball game come to town or Colonels against the Giants, or whatever happen to meet out there somewhere, they closed churches to get to attend it.

Let Elvis Presley come down here in the street with his guitar, go swinging it back and forth, and some of them guys, on a Wednesday night, the prayer meeting would be closed.

“Lover’s of pleasure more than lover’s of God. Heady, high minded, incontinent, fierce despisers of those that do good. Having a form of Godliness.” You say, “They’re communist.” No they’re not.

[124]  They’re church members having a form of godliness. But what? Denying the power thereof! Having a form of God, but say, “God doesn’t do these things. See? There’s no power to it. You just accept this and do that.” See? No change of life, nothing. Just belong to church.

[125]  “Having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof. From such turn away,” the Bible said. “For this is the sort that go from house to house, and leads silly woman laden with sin, led away with divers lusts.”

[That’s exactly what the Bible says. Now we’re living in exactly that age.] But do the work of an evangelist, make full proof your ministry.

Now he’s telling you in there, there’s going to be absolutely a scoffing concerning these things that he is involved in. That they’re not going to want it; they’re going to turn from it.

[But he said,] “You still keep on moving. Win all the souls you can.”

Now, make no mistake about it; the prophet is actually saying here, “There are things involved in this catching up that you are unaware of. Things or events involved in this Rapture that must be known and reckoned with.”

Now, to miss the truth, then, is to miss the event. That’s what he’s saying. Then people are going to say, “Well, now just a minute.” Now, you ‘just a minute’ me.

Some say, “Well, this thing is going to be according to election.” That’s exactly right, but the elect are brought into a knowledge.

Now, let’s understand that this is the omega of John the Baptist in the time of Jesus. And It says concerning John.

The people are already prepared, but they’ve got to be made ready. Now, that’s what John did. Now, how much readiness did John do? He chastised everybody and upbraided them for their folly.

And, after he got through whipping everybody on each side of the head, publicans and soldiers and Sanhedrin, the whole bunch, calling them what they were, he said, “There is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,” and walked off.

And everybody says, “Marvelous.” He made them ready. Well, did he, or did he not? Look, I just room and board here on earth; my home is above. I can accept it.

Jesus categorically said, “You void my Word by your traditions.” They voided the entire Messiah concept by a wrong understanding.

Then, can you void the Rapture by a misunderstanding? Yes. Then, how does the Bride not void it? “All thy children shall be taught of God,” and they’ll miss nothing.

Jesus said, “If you had been aware of the times, you wouldn’t have done this.” The prophet said the same thing, and people still stand back and say, “Well, it’s how we’ve got it figured.”

Ridiculous. How much figuring have you ever done that is worth a nickel. You need to get your brains jarred, or, as Brother Branham said, “Your brains baptized with the Holy Ghost.”

Now, listen; what the prophet said here concerning the Catching Up could be very legitimate. If they’re able to discern from the ‘Alpha and Omega Precept’, so that they would know what is present; had the precedent of the Word of God, for what God does He does forever, and what is done now has been done previously and what will be done has already been done. Just the same as God cannot change.

And yet the same people say, “Well, there’s no mystery at all to the Rapture because we know all about it.”

To them, simply, the Rapture doctrine is set forth in three parts that they all accept. There will be a Resurrection of the New Testament saints.

There will be a change to immortality in the living saints. There will be a taking up to the Wedding Supper, which is in the air.

It is accepted by all believers that these three events are consecutive and that there is absolutely nothing happening, or will happen, or must happen, at that particular time that is necessary, outside of the rebirth, to instigate this Catching Up. Now, that’s what they say.

But Brother Branham does not disagree with those three divisions. He accepts them as absolutes, as do others: Resurrection, change and Catching Up.

However, we know that among believers there are differences of opinion as to whether the Bride is the Church, or a segment of the Church; whether the Rapture takes place before the Tribulation, during the Tribulation, at the Tribulation, or at end of the Millennium.

But the prophet has already expressed himself in no uncertain terms many years ago concerning these issues. And his stand is well-known; that the Bride is only a part of the church, and she comes out of the church, and the Rapture is before the Great Tribulation.

Furthermore, those who believe in the Rapture and the return of the saints to this earth for the millennial kingdom designate 1 Thessalonians 4:16 as the Appearing of the Lord to the saints, and Revelation 19:11 and Jude 14, as the Coming of the Lord with His saints.

One is the Appearing, and one is the Coming. At this point we must admit that Brother Branham denies their accuracy, as to their understanding of these events because he says, “The coming and the appearing is not understood by these men.”

All right. We go to “End-Time Evangelism”, page 10, paragraph 50.

[50]  The same thing today, when you see His work. Now, we have already seen and are witnessing the appearing of the Lord.

“Now we have already seen and are witnessing the appearing of the Lord.” Now remember, ‘appearing’ and ‘coming’ is two different words, ‘to appear’, then ‘to come’.

So therefore, Brother Branham does not put the Coming in Revelation 19, although that is the coming back to earth. He also places it very distinctly, then he must, in the fact that we should meet Him in the air. Now we’ve got to figure that out, which we will.

[50]  ...‘to appear’, then ‘to come’. Now is the appearing; He’s already appeared in these last days, right here with us in the last few years. Now it’s a sign of His coming.

He’s appearing in His Church in the form of the Holy Spirit, showing that it’s Him, because people cannot do these things that you see the Holy Spirit doing, so that’s the appearing of the Lord. Now remember, it’s spoke both places ‘appearing’ and ‘coming’.

Now he said, “It’s spoke both places, ‘appearing’ and ‘coming’.”

You better know what is being talked about when those words are being used. When Brother Branham uses them, you better know from what he teaches what he is saying.

[51]  Now He upbraided them because of the hardness of their hearts… and so on. That is, they didn’t understand that appearing either.

Page 11, 57-66.

[57]  Jesus said, “You must be born again.” In order to be born again, it’s letting yourself go and die, and the Spirit of Christ [comes] into you. Then you’re no more yours; it’s Christ in you, see, the Holy Spirit. Paul said, “I die daily; yet I live, not I, but Christ lives in me.” See, Christ.

[58]  And if I’ve told you the spirit of John Dillinger was in me, I’d have guns here and be an outlaw, because that would be his spirit in me. If I’d told you the spirit of an artist [was in me,] you’d expect me to paint the picture [as] an artist.

[59]  If I tell you I am a Christian, and the Spirit of Christ in me or in you, then we do the works of Christ. Jesus said in John, “He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he shall do also.” [Now he put that in the singular.] Then he said here, “These signs follow them that believe.”

Now there are signs that follow them that believed, but when you come to those works that Brother Branham spoke of, there was Christ in that man doing those works, and it went over the peoples heads.

Because I’m going to tell you something, brother/sister, my hand does not do what my foot does. When I have a body that’s completely under dominion of the Holy Ghost like the Bride of Christ could be, then that is Christ moving in a one member, though many-membered body.

Now, when you see the fullness of the Godhead once more represented in a man, you see an individual member doing it under the Holy Ghost, a complete filling and a complete dominion. Let’s understand that.

[60]  Now, here through the age, there has been a time that these signs has not followed the believer. That’s right. The prophet spoke of it, and he spoke of it in Zachariah. He said, “There would come a time neither day nor night, but in the evening [there] shall be light.”

So, when the prophetic ministry broke on the scene, that is, the evidence of the prophetic ministry, Light struck. That’s right; Light struck. Somebody said, “Look, something’s going on.”

Number one, Light. Next thing is, right to the Word. Second Light; next thing, right to the Presence. Third Light, the [long ē on ‘the’] Light. Rising of the Sun? Come on go back over it; we’re into it. That’s right.

[61]  Now, the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. It doesn’t change; it’s the same sun. [Doesn’t say that about a Bride, said, “Sun.” Bride’s not the sun; she reflects. Bride’s the moon.]

Now, when the Holy Spirit came, Jesus, the Son of God, He’s come in the east on the eastern people. It’s been a day… as it’s traveled, as civilization’s traveled with the sun coming from east to west, and now we’re at the West Coast.

We [cannot] go any further, we’re back east, until everything denotes His coming. Right? [“And if I go away I will come again, receive you unto myself.” “Where I am, you’ll be also.”] We’re at the evening time. Everything shows it is over.

[62]  Now the prophet said. And no prophecy [can] be privately interpreted. As Jesus said, it’s exactly what It says. “It shall be light in the evening.”

Then the same Son that came upon the eastern people and showed His works and His blessings, it was prophesied that there would be a dismal day; neither day nor night, that’s a gloomy day, that light hazy.

And you can’t see the sun but the sun yet gives enough light [that will get you by.] Something like it is out there now, maybe a little darker.

And we’ve had enough to join [the] church, put our name on books, and so forth, but in the evening time that same great power of Christ that come upon His Church like it did back there on the eastern. In the western it would be the same again. So, that’s why I want to speak on evening-time evangelism.

[63]  Each age has its message and messenger. All through the times, every age has packed its message with a messenger. God, in every dispensation, is sent forth, someone anointed with the Holy Spirit, to bring His message forth for that age, every time.

Then, why would it be strange if Brother Branham says that his message foreruns the Second Coming? I brought that out the last time. There’s no strangeness to it. It’s axiomatic.

[64]  Now, we could start to back it up a little bit, even from the beginning. God was the messenger at the beginning to tell Adam and Eve, “You shall eat this but shall not do this.”

That was the Message. And when man stepped across the Message of the Hour it brought death and chaos to the whole human race. Now, that’s how much the Message means.

Now he’s talking about the Alpha to the Omega, God being His own messenger. And when you step across it, you bring in chaos. You bring in complete purging, everything goes down, everything gives way.

Remember that it wasn’t just complete blank denial of what God said, that Eve believed, it was taking what God said and whitewashing it over, or just misconstruing it a little bit, or adding a little bit, or taking a little bit away.

[65]  That’s the reason that I believe the Word is the Truth. If our creeds and denominations [don’t] completely comply with the Word, then it’s wrong.

And if God would not permit, and His Word was so important, to just misquote one word of It caused all death that ever happened, every suffering, and every baby crying, every funeral procession, every grave on the hillside, every ambulance that ever screamed, every blood ever shed, all the old age and starvation, trouble [like that,] just because God’s Word was miscalculated, caused all this, will He excuse at the end time if we miscalculate it again?

The answer is no. Since one Word in His Presence brought it all on, then, what if they cross the border line this last. That’s Hebrews 6.

Then, if misconstruing one Word brought all that, what will the right construction on the Word at the end do? It will bring it all back. Now, can’t people see that? No, they can’t. No, it’s already fixed.

[66]  So, you see, Christianity is an important thing. If it’s cost all this six thousand years of trouble, because of one word being misused, now we’re not going back with one other Word misused.

It’s got to be exactly with the Word, with nobody’s interpretation, just what the Word says! So many [men] will get together and say, “This [is] this,” and agree [together,] say, “That’s it.”

What did Peter say? He said, “I’m going to tell you something. There’s going to be a prophet come on the scene just before the Kingdom arrives, just before you see the glorified person, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

He said, “Get this into your minds, and understand it.” He said, “The Word that was given by the inspiration of a prophet must be interpreted by the inspiration of God in a prophet.”

And he said, “What it is, you watch the false teachers come on the scene, and then see what happens.”

Now, brother/sister, I’m reading what the prophet said. I am not so well-educated I know everything that the prophet said, because education will not do it.

I would have to be in his skin to understand, or I would have to have the same Spirit that he had that gave it in order for me to understand. I believe I understand. All right.

Now, “Elijah and the Meal Offering”, paragraph 127.

[127]  But I’m so thankful tonight, to know, friends, that our Jesus, (and every promise He made) is the Truth. If I could heal anyone here, I’d do it; if I wouldn’t do it, I’d be a hypocrite. But I can’t. But God has given a gift to the church that He promised.

[128]  That during the days of Luther, we lived by justification. During the days of Wesley, by sanctification, the church become in a minority. In the days of Pentecost, [they] lived down through the baptism of the Holy Ghost and the restoration of gifts.

Now we’re really in a minority, [and] the coming of the Son of God. Here they believe by faith; here they shouted under sanctification; here they spoke in tongues by a gift.

Now, watch what he said took place, what they believe concerning this great Coming. They said, “We ain’t going to miss it because after all, we here, we’re justified. See? We’ve got faith.”

The next bunch shouted. They felt something. That’s sanctification. The third bunch spoke in tongues. They said, “That’s it.”

Now, watch:

[128]  …But now the negative and the positive, and the cap’s coming on the pyramid, and it’s the end time, when Christ and His church is so much alike till it’s going to call the dead from the Methodist, Lutheran and all those back there, and there’ll be a resurrection.

Them that fell asleep in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh watch, will rise one of these days, to meet Jesus in the sky.

Now, see; that’s the Coming, because we’re going to meet. This is the receiving down here. That’s the receiving up there. We’ll touch that. Bride receiving Christ is not Christ receiving Bride. This is uniting time and signs. All right.

[128]  The hour’s arrived, friends, the coming of the Lord is at hand. [Now, that’s meal offering, see?]

[129]  Now we look at Jerusalem and see the Jews [were] blinded for our sake. The fig tree putting forth its bud. He said, “And the other tree.” [There’s other trees. Now you watch. What other trees? Protestant and Catholics, and the whole other bunch. See?]

Billy Graham has caused a revival amongst the nominal people, Oral amongst the Pentecostals, and now Jesus, the Son of God, has come in to this remnant, to pull the people for the capstone, to bring back the Son of God, to complete the thing for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He said, “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.” [You remember also, it says, “The revelation and the Presence.”]

[130]  I shall turn my backs to you, not just so that you’d see. Now remember, it was not the man. The man sitting there was just [made of] calcium, potash, petroleum, and sixteen elements of the world that God went… [blew] together, stepped into; it was living.

[131]  Jesus Christ was the same thing. He was the Son of God. He was God manifested in flesh, but His flesh was man, [and] His Spirit was God. [Now you understand that.]

Then He promised the last day that He would come into His church, “A little while and the world seeth me no more; yet you’ll see me; I’ll be with you, even in you. The works that I do shall you do also.” See? Now [the] great Physician is here. [Malachi 4, “Healing in his wings.” Remember?]

[132]  He said, “The sign of Sodom and Gomorrah.” Now, what is it? Look at our papers, “Homosexuals, perversion is on the increase of forty percent over ten years.”

[That was the tip of the ice berg, just like incest.] Earthquakes in divers places, all kinds of signs of the Coming. The church falling away, [and] the end time here.

[133]  Now God showing His signs, too, as we’ve been preaching about. Now, if this Bible is true, which it is, I’m ready to die for that purpose. The Bible is true. Jesus Christ lives.

We are His Church, filled with His Spirit, then His Life in us will produce the same Life that He lived in the Son of God if the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God lives in us.

[134]  For God’s glory and the sake of the church, and for your sickness, you that’s sick and afflicted, touch the hem of His garment and see if You can cause Him to say through me, as His servant, call you like He did the woman that touched His garment.

May the Lord grant it. Would it make you believe great, and accept His healing? How many believes they could accept their healing if God would call on you like that, or see Him call? Raise your hand. The Lord grant it. [We’re playing] “The Great Physician”.

Now see, there again speaking of the Presence, proving that that Presence is the original Presence, which is manifest in flesh because it does the same thing through an individual, and that individual being a part of the church; therefore, the church does it, or more perfectly, the Bride Church.

But you see, when Brother Branham talks this way, people go completely wrong. They say, “Well, if Brother Branham discerned, I can discern. He came to show us the great thing that could be done.”

[He did not…] “Stay away from that Pillar of Fire, and stay away from that ministry.” [People come over here from Europe, and they say, “Well, I’ve got the Pillar of Fire.”]

I say, Brother Branham said, “Stay away from it. What are you doing near it?”

No. They can fool somebody else, but not us. Let them go back to Luther. Look, brother/sister, I’m not running down Europe. I’m just putting the thing where it belongs. They had their day.

Now, the same Appearing he speaks of, this Appearing, is the predicted coming of Jesus Christ in the form of the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles and doing the same thing He did when He was here in flesh, which He did to Israel; Matthew 4 and Matthew 12, which we’ve gone into on several occasions.

This is that coming of the Son of man that is spoken of in Matthew 24 and Luke 17, but absolutely misunderstood by any other person but Brother Branham. This is something which could not be revealed till this hour.

And it could not be opened to us until after the Seals. So, this is one of the mysteries under the Thunders, under the Seventh Seal.

Now, let us understand: it is in this Appearing to the Gentiles… Now ‘to appear’, He has ‘to come’. He’s got to be here, and He is here, constitutes an Appearing.

This truly secret, sudden Coming to them, which evolves into the identification, or the identified, an identical ministry of Jesus in the flesh, and then gives way to a prophetic ministry or message, is the part of the prophetic description of the descent of the Lord that causes all commentators to admit they can only surmise what it means.

Now they understand nothing about what I just said, but they do know there’s a descent, and they cannot figure the nature of the Shout, Voice and Trumpet.

They’re lost concerning it, and I’m telling you from what the prophet said, this is 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which is what was prophesied in Isaiah, reiterated by Jesus, built upon a graphic demonstration in Israel, what should come to the west, to the Gentiles.

But wherein He was seen in the street and raised His voice and cried, and was vehement and contended and fought and strove, breaking the bruised reed, putting out the smoking flax, when He comes to the Gentiles, He won’t be in the streets to raise His voice, to strive and to be heard. He’ll do it by the Holy Ghost in a prophetic ministry.

And when He comes, He will not destroy what we have; He will revive it because He said, “Except I sent Elijah, I would destroy.” And when Jesus came, He destroyed the system in Israel.

They haven’t had a sacrifice yet, and they’re not going to have one. They’re going to cry, “Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord,” one of these days. That’s after the Bride is gone.

I want to tell you, America has played partners too long with Rome. She’s married; we’re finished; we’re down the drain. And the Jews are just as ignorant.

When Golda Meier went there and opened the door, the understanding, that would be détente with them, and they hate each other.

Now, how much of a good marriage have you got when you hate each other? A marriage of convenience working out lust. So much for that bunch of foolishness.

So, we see that the real strange subject of ‘the Rapture’ is the revelation of it that God gave Brother Branham, and he in turn gave us, what took literally months and years to come to pass in this descent starting June 11, 1933.

And then he said, “Here it is. This is what it was all about, and you didn’t know it. And I’m telling you now,” [the same as when he opened the Seals, and he said,] “I couldn’t tell you now, but I wondered if you’d catch it.”

And nobody caught it then, and we’re only catching it now.

That’s why I preach as I preach, because this is the thing that’s pertinent to the Bride. What do I worry about Zachariah and something down there for the Jews?

What have I got to worry about the trumpets? God told Brother Branham, “Keep out of the vials; that’s for down the road.” What have I got to worry about those things that have to have answers? Get your answers now.

Oh my, how they project down the road: the government and all the economists, all the dim bulbs and burned out bulbs that are there in Washington.

But one of them, not one, even the president, who started out so great, hasn’t got enough control on the nation to really know what’s going on. Or why would he put a budget that’s going to put us into deep debt?

Hire Doctor Grace, who I believe was one of the smartest men living. He took one hundred fifty men, Grace Commission, the smartest brains in America and laid it before the president. I could cut out 100 billion deficit right now. “Oh, very nice boys; you’ve done your job. A big dinner at the White House.”

That’s their brains. They did not accept the solution of Doctor Grace. America, according to people right now, is not in chapter 11, but bankrupt.

A little whimsical thought: If you’ve got a few bucks, go and spend it. I’m not saying you should. I feel like it myself. Gone. It’s gone! And America won’t even call the money in, because they can’t.

There’s a lot of rumors, but I don’t believe too much in rumors. They could be true, and, if they are, well, so what?

Now I want to read a certain Scripture that could be the exact parallel of this sermon by Brother Branham: when Paul was in Athens in chapter 17 of the Book of Acts, beginning at verse 15.

In other words he’s telling you that everything comes from God and is kept by God. That’s all. We don’t live and move and have our being in Him as though everybody’s a born again Christian. Everything is of God, from God, will eventually go back to God.

Acts 17,

Now It tells you right there, the inhabited world is going to be under judgment by Jesus Christ. That’s when He appears to the Gentiles.

And Brother Branham said, “America is gone. The whole things done washed and gone.”

That’s the verdict. Now the carrying out of the sentence is a different thing. That’s where the force of State comes in. That’s another thing.

The earthquakes and those things are just little raps on the knuckles to let you know, “Look, I’m not fooling.”

Acts 17,

Do you think maybe, if some of us go around and tell people, say, “The resurrection is on. I know it.” …They say, “Ah, you’re insane.”

It can happen. Listen, when people sneer over the fact, and the chaff separates from the wheat on the grounds, “I and my Father are one,” and we know it, I’m going to tell you something…

Let’s get this, and understand what I preach here: You cannot identify with Jesus Christ as a Son of God, no way, shape or form. You have got to be a son of God.

You can only identify in his death, his resurrection and those things he meritoriously worked out for you.

Notice how I have used the word, “identify.” But Brother Branham said, “If you weren’t in God in the beginning, you don’t have representation or identification.” You’re judged.

So, I cannot say that Jesus Christ, I’m identified with him as the Son of God, as all the rest of the people say. I am a son of God, and have always been a son of God.

And I have been identified by Him as a son of God by coming under the Blood, being full of the Holy Ghost, and proving it by the Word of this hour, and I expect to be manifested in a resurrection flesh.

Now we’re getting somewhere. That’s the Bible. Anything else, you’ve got yourself a dogma. You’ve got yourself a confession that isn’t worth a nickel.

You might as well go back to saying, “Well, woman, if you put lumber boot shoes on, you’re born again, some dress code or conduct.”

People are waiting to see if what Brother Branham said is going to come to pass. It’s already come to pass, and when the Rapture is over they’re going to say, “Wasn’t so and so suppose to happen?”

They said, “It did happened. What are you talking about? You want the record?”

Acts 17,

It is now very evident that this strange subject is strange to the church, because no one ever had a clue that this is exactly what would happen at the end time. This is the true Elijah ministry of restoration, exactly what it is. We have been restored. Right?

Who would have known even though we had a precedent in an example that the Lord would descend from Heaven and come right down to earth and remain here from 1933, even till now, and then we being changed and caught up, would still meet the Lord in the air. Why, they say, “Now hold it; that can’t be true.”

But it is true, because they don’t understand the Scripture that said, “The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand.” And it is the Lord that said to our Lord, “Sit.”

That’s the Lord that came down here to get us ready to take us up there to our Lord, because headship of the Bride is Jesus, who is the Christ. And the headship of Jesus, who is the Christ, is God.

So, God as usual, according to type, has contracted for a Bride for His Son, and come and got her, too. Now I use the word ‘contract’ because you know what I mean. It takes the parents to get together and decide, “Well, I think my son, he’s college educated. He’s a fine boy.

The best you can do is have a daughter at least who is, you know, she’s at least a nurse and pretty good in stenography, because you know, she could work with my fine educated boy, who is a doctor, and she could fit in right there until enough money came in.”

You know how the Jews are. The Armenians are no different. The Indians are no different. It takes the East. And getting over this way you’ve got a few Italians that know how to contract also.

So, I can see where God came down to get a Bride for His Son. And I’m going to tell you something: that Bride had to come out of the same blood line.

Yes, Isaac and Rebecca, Abraham and Sarah; half-brothers, half-sisters. I’m a half-brother to Christ in the sense that I’ve got a little different flesh from His, but got the same Father. We’re not a bunch of mules that can’t trace ancestry.

Now, notice how Brother Branham brings this in “The Rapture”, paragraph 157-160.

[157]  When them Seven Seals opened, those mysteries and showing those things is what’s happened. 

Not ‘what’s going to happen’; “what’s happened.” Then, based upon the correctness of the knowledge of what has literally happened, showing and proving all things, you know that the record being produced today has to be inerrant and applies to this hour.

And somebody else, if there is an hour, is going to look back and say, “What happened” and they are, but it’s going to be too late.

He said:

[157]  …I didn’t know it, but there’s a man standing here right now, standing right with me when you all heard me preach that sermon, Sirs, What Time Is It?

And that morning exactly where it said it would be, there stood seven Angels standing right from the Heaven. [Came down, there he stood.]

And as they went up, and that whirlwind taken them up there, we standing, watching as they went away, science took the picture of it…

There it is, see. Now that to that. …Picture of it… way across the nations, down into Mexico. There I was watching… [Now he interjects.]

[158]  One day when I started to preach these seven church ages, that’s Patmos vision part, and I called Jack Moore, a great theologian; I said, “Jack, Who is this Person that’s standing there, ‘There’s One like the Son of man standing there, hair as white as wool.’” I said, “He was a young Man; how could He have hair as white as wool?”

[159]  He said, “Brother Branham, that was His glorified body.” [That is not a glorified body. No, that is not a glorified body. [Brother Vayle points to the two pictures on the wall.] And Brother Branham you’ll find says,”] In a symbol.” [Symbol?]

[Symbol. Now he said,] “He appears to Israel in a symbol. In our day,” [here it is, symbol. Of what is this? Seven angels forming what? Wig and a beard. Of what? Judge.]

I don’t know what others think, but I’ve got my thoughts, and I’m telling you what Brother Branham’s thoughts are, as perfectly as I can.

Now he’s telling you, interjecting this in “The Rapture” to let you know: you turn this down at your risk. You get your own ideas at your own risk. Now I told you what I went through, but God was merciful.

I’m so grateful that something way beyond my own thinking took over, or I would have been just like a denominational member who has to go by his creeds.

[159]  …That didn’t ring a bell. But when I went to the room and started praying, He let me know what it was. [A judge. The One standing here for that, Son of man, in the glorified form. One who came here.]

[160]  See, I’ve always preached that He was Deity, [See how far, yes I’ll get this next verse.] not just a man; [Now there’s no man there at all, and there’s no man there at all. No.]

 He was God manifested in flesh, God, the Attribute of the God of love, the great Attributes that come down displayed here on earth of God. Jesus was God’s love, which built a body that Jehovah Himself lived in.

He was the fullness of the Godhead bodily. What God was, He manifested through that body. That body had to die so He could wash the Bride with His [own] Blood.

See, everything lines up. All right? That One here, then, is Elohim. God coming down to investigate. God coming down to condemn Sodom. God coming down to justify a Bride.

Let’s go to page 33, paragraph 160. Well, I read to you…

[160]  I always [knew] He was Deity. [Okay? Let’s go on now, paragraph 161. Now, notice; the last sentence I’ll read again first.]

[160] What God was, He manifested through that body. That body had to die so He could wash the Bride with His [own] Blood.

Jesus is the Blood of God. And, notice the relationship: the Life is in the Blood. The Life is in the Bride, so the Bride now is the Blood of God. Don’t carry that too far; just remember it’s what was said.

[161]  Notice, not only is the Bride washed, forgiven, but justified. See? Did you ever try the word ‘justify’ to see what it means?

Now if Brother Green [were to say,] I’d been drinking, I’d been doing bad things, then he found out that I didn’t do it, then he come and say, “I forgive you Brother Branham.”

[162]  Forgive me? I never [did] it. What are you forgiving me about? See? But if I’m guilty, then I can be forgiven, but I’m still not just, because I did it. But the word ‘justified’ is “though you never did it at all”, justified.

And then the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us so from sins, till it’s put in the book of God’s forgetfulness. He’s the only One can do it. We can’t. We can forgive, but not forget.

[163]  I could forgive you, but I’ll always remember you [did] these evil things.

Now, listen; see, this is where we got to come to, what we’re talking about last night.

You can recognize everything that’s going on, but it’s not going to jar you because you’re above it now. You can cope with it. There was a time when we couldn’t, but there’s a time now. I’m believing that time is here.

Now you watch the devil step in and see if we can ruin it. I’m sticking my neck out for me and for you both, but these things have got to be done.

[163]  Now [you’ll] always remember those evil things. Then you’re not just; you’re forgiven. But in the sight of God the Bride is justified. She never done it in the first place. Amen.

Standing there married to the virtuous Son of God, never sinned in the first place. Why? She was foreordained… [See, the seed remaineth in you, how could you sin? You never… That seed couldn’t sin.]

[See? Could be led astray by the flesh and what have you.] She was foreordained; she was trapped into this. And now when she heard the Truth and come forth, the Blood cleansed her.

[See, you can talk about the Blood all you want, but you can’t have it apart from Light.] And she stands there virtuous. See? No sin on her at all.

Now, what a court room drama is unfolded before us. God the Judge of all the earth is here; separating as in Matthew 24:36-51, which you read. That tells you what’s happening.

That’s the tares from the wheat. And that is exactly Matthew 3:12, His fan is in His hand, separating the chaff from the wheat. And the fan is Acts 3.

This marvelous ministry comes on the scene like a fresh revival breath, and the people stand up and say: “Look, marvelous, marvelous things God’s doing. Oh, great revival. Oh, the Coming.”

“Hold it. That’s exactly right. He’s going to come, but there is no Coming until there is a restoration.”

And the restoration takes place through an Elijah ministry which is Christ Appearing, the Son of man, in the form of the Spirit, prophet and Pillar of Fire, yes and the Spirit in the prophet bringing forth a perfect ministry, which identifies and brings a prophetic truth. Then it’s all over.

You say, “Why is it over?” Don’t you understand, when John the Baptist came on the scene and that Word came, and the full Word was fulfilled, that the order changed completely.

We’re going to have a change of order. Come on. Come on! “We’ve turned the corner,” Brother Branham said.

People stand around and say, “Oh, well, so what?” I say, “You’ve turned a corner.” They don’t have any idea what he’s talking about. Everything’s a cliché.

Everything is that group of Greeks down there in their coliseums, wherever they are, their gymnasiums, all those places, and they titillate each other with, “Oh, did you hear this? Did you hear what the prophet said? Oh my, the prophet said this. Oh my, the prophet said that’s all they can receive.”

The prophetic Word of the hour, brother/sister, to a lot of people is just a bunch of talk… I’m going to tell you something.

I don’t care what the prophet said, as far as you and I are concerned, unless we understand doctrine, I don’t care how well a house is built that comes in your yard that’s already cut and pre measured and precut inch by inch, if you haven’t got what it takes to put that lumber together, then somebody else comes along and puts the lumber together, and you haven’t got enough sense to know it’s a house.

Now, that’s just exactly what we saw here in this hour. It’s too bad. God revealing Himself, that He is doing It. Matthew 24:23-27, not proving anything Himself, but God manifesting Himself by the Word of the hour coming to pass. A veritable showdown: man against God.

Now, Matthew 24:23 and 27: that tells you that they’ll say:

Showing you exactly that positively there it is God not trying to prove anything to anybody, as though proof was involved, although in a sense of the word it is, but it’s literally God manifesting Himself and the Word completely vindicated, because the Word has been fulfilled exactly as God said.

And this is 1 Thessalonians 4:16. This is a prolonged period of time. This is the Bride receiving Christ preparatory for the Lord Jesus Christ to receive the Bride, the Bride getting ready.

Now, let’s go back to the book of Luke again. Because, look; this thing is just so utterly simple, it goes plumb over people’s heads. They say, “I’ve got to do this; I’ve got to do that.”

Like one preacher said, “You can revolutionize your church. Go home and make the preacher understand this: we’re going to play so many minutes per day. We’re going to do this, and we’re going to do this; we’re going to do that, and that’ll do it.”

That’s the biggest bunch of nonsense I’ve ever heard because, as far as I know, that man is so far off the Word it a lie. When you teach the people wrong, what have you got? Now, come on. That’s what this Bible is all about.

Now he said right here, verse 15.

Now, if John the Baptist had not come and done this, the people would not have been ready. The very Elect would not have been ready. That’s why He said, “If I do not send Elijah, I’ll destroy utterly.”

And that’s the very thing He says over there in Acts 3, “When that one comes, then He will destroy utterly.” Utterly destroy what? Those that don’t hear, actually, the tares.

Now then, what is it all about? There is something to be heard concerning the end time which involves the Rapture: the Shout. It went on literally from 1933 until 1965, almost to the end.

Thirty-three to sixty-five is what? Thirty-two years and about somewhere in there, that’s what Christ lived. The years of doing, the years of silence and all of those things in there, showing exactly that’s what it was.

Now till 1983 from 1933 is fifty year jubilee. And that’s when the trumpet blows to sound jubilee, sound as you never sounded before that this Rapture has got to be imminent.

You say, “How long is it going to be?” I don’t know how long it’s going to be, but it can’t be long. The signs are in. I’m not setting any dates, but I want to understand this thing is near.

So, we in this Shout, the Bride is receiving Christ preparatory for the Lord receiving her. This is the real strange part of this doctrine.

But let’s close off with this thought: the mystery of 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which is, “The Lord Himself shall descend out of Heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, the trump of God.”

Is not actually ‘real’ strange as you would interpret the word ‘real’. We interpret the word ‘real’ the way it is. It is real, and the reality is always strange to those that are strangers to reality.

The ‘real’ is always strange to the dying creeds and dogma believers, but to the Bride I ask the question: Is this strange to us? Are we uneasy?

Are we not relaxed, as it says we will be in 2 Thessalonians 1:7, where It says, “And you that are troubled rest with us when our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed from Heaven?”

A relaxation taking over. No, it is not strange. It is the living Bread, the very Body Word of Christ that we are feasting on. We’re not fasting; we’re feasting.

Remember, Israel was to eat preparatory for the journey. That was the one commandment they were given, to eat.

The trouble is, people are gluttonizing, not eating. They wonder why they don’t have vitamins and energy for the journey. The energy is not a physical thing and longer, it’s a spiritual thing.

What physical energy did Elijah suddenly have that he could run down the mountain faster than the horses and go forty days in the wilderness? It wasn’t a physical thing; it was a spiritual thing.

God gave him of the proper food. But the Bride is at rest and is relaxing, and she is maturing in the presence of Almighty God. And we see signs of that maturity.

One of these days we’ll be a whole lot closer to where Brother Branham was. We’ll begin to see the evidence of those people who are under the same Holy Spirit, who know that they’re guiltless before God, who have no fear, not something brazen, but a reality: the beauty and the mystery of it deepening until it becomes a beautiful humble thing.

And the Bride in His Presence, as Peter said, doesn’t have the adornments on the outside, but on the inside, shamefaced as it were. In other words, she’s not proud.

She’s not vulgar. She’s not made up. She’s not thinking of herself and anything that she has, but she’s looking at Him, and she wonders, “How could this be? But, oh my, I’m glad it is.” There’s nothing vaunting about her.

You know people misunderstand what we’re saying. Now we’re going to keep being misunderstood, so we’re coming to the place now where it’s time to forget the whole kit and caboodle.

Time to take our stand as those that don’t have any fear. The Spirit of God is not regressive. We’re not going back; we’re going forward. We’re not going back anywhere; we’re going on. It’s “Onward Christian Soldiers.”

That’s the last song that Brother Branham heard as the Bride came back into view, this Bride. “Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war.”

Listen; that song was written for a purpose, because the word ‘Shout’ is a military command, and ‘subdue’ means to put it in an order.

We’ve heard, not just from our theophany; we’ve heard from the General and Creator of all theophanies, the One that can bring the dead out of the ground, the One that can change us and take us all up.

We’re not telling fables anymore, brother/sister. It’s getting more real and more real and more real, and one day it will be reality, because the negative, which we have here…

And that negative simply means like a film, that’s being translated into the picture that God wants. And that’s going to be a living three dimensional immortal Bride. Yeah, it’s coming fast. It’s coming fast.

Let’s rise.

Gracious, heavenly Father, God of the universe, God of all creation, God of us, our Redeemer, our Savior, the altogether Lovely, the Rose of Sharon, Elohim, Melchisedec, Jehovah God, El Shaddai, all of it today.

Right now we in the presence of Him, Who is in our midst, the great Holy Spirit, knowing one time very shortly the dead are going to come out of the ground, because they are going to hear the Voice of the Son of God.

They’re going to hear that Holy Spirit, God raise the dead. We know that is going to happen. We know that all these things are in, Lord. We’re at the very end time, the very Capstone, the very Head, coming around the very Head Himself.

We believe that, Lord. We believe You’re here. We do not believe for one minute You’ve gone. We believe You’re going to take us into the Millennium. We stand on it. And we thank You for it.

You may have disappeared from view in a certain sense of the word. You may have passed from Son of man, back to Son of God again at this moment; we do not have any doubts concerning anything that You do.

We just glory in the fact that, whatever we have seen done, we begin to understand and know because of Your grace and Your goodness. We know who You are in the sense, You are God and there was none beside You, One God, living everlasting.

And we know shortly when the dead are raised and we are changed, the Rapture takes place, You incarnate Yourself in the body of that One who is the head of us, who is that man, complete identification in Him, complete brother in Him.

And now bone of bone, flesh of flesh, and the whole thing they’re one, even as we are one now in the Spirit. We praise thee, O God, for these things, and, Lord, we know that only You can impress them upon us. Only You can make them real.

Only You can do it, Lord, and, if there’s a time required, an element in there that we ourselves can be more sober and sincere, then, Lord, we just believe that any measure You take to make us more aware and more sincere, is not only legitimate, but it is the most merciful, kind thing that You can do and we depend upon Your love knowing that You will do it.

Father, our times are in Your hands and we are in Your hands. All things are in Your hands. We accede to Thee as the great God, the everlasting Father, the lovely One.

We accede to you, Lord, in all things, and we know in many respects, in many ways, who You are, and we know You know that You know all about us, discerned our hearts, our thoughts, our minds; our thoughts speak louder in Heaven than our words do on earth.

All of these things, Lord, we know, and we are so glad for them. We are happy for Your grace, Your graciousness, all of these things, O God. We cannot praise Thee enough.

It’s just marvelous, Lord, what You have done for us, and we here, and especially me in my older age, knowing that time really has run out, and I hope it has, Lord, because I’m standing strictly on a promise from this point on, and it is so good to just stand on a promise. “Standing on the Promises.”

And, Lord, here we are now in this last hour, perhaps my last closing hours of life, to come to a place of the fulfillment which is only in and through You, this is the most marvelous thing under heaven. And knowing, Lord, the God of all grace has done it in eternal wisdom showing forth His love.

And as Your own Word says, “Through the mouth of Your holy prophets, your holy apostles,” these men of God, that we love You because You first loved us. That is exactly true.

The only reason we see You is because You showed Yourself to us. The only reason we have anything is because You have done it. And, Lord, that is nice to come to that place; it is so good.

Over the years we wondered, over the years we were fraught with misunderstanding and feared within and without. But now it is so good to come to a place where, if You don’t do it, it’s not going to be done.

And that’s exactly the way we want it. Lord, You do it, and then it will be done; it’ll be done right. For whatsoever the Lord doeth, He doeth forever, and no man can add to it, no man can take from it.

That’s exactly the way we want it. We want to just get back. We’re looking to it, Lord. We believe this is that hour. We praise Thee.

May each one here, Lord God, stand in perfect health before You. May that sweet Spirit amongst us which is now growing more and more intensive, which we believe it is, presaging the coming back of the dead amongst us, Lord, and we’re going to see them.

There won’t be one that isn’t healed, not one. Oh, with the grace, the marvelous grace of our God, we praise Thee this afternoon. Now unto Thee, Lord, we ascribe the glory in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

[Brother Timothy Alexander Lusk is dedicated to the Lord.]

…Start singing ‘Take the Name of Jesus with You’.