Rapture #03
Scoffers At His Presence#6083
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we’re again grateful to be in the house of the Lord, knowing Your Presence is here in such a way as has not been previously and in a more wonderful way than ever, to consummate the works of salvation.
And we pray Lord that this Message is going to end with the Bride getting out of here alive, taken away and glorified, immortalized; and we’re grateful for that.
We know, Lord, that it is just grace that has brought us this far, and it’s going to be grace that takes us all the rest of the way. Now help us in this study of Your Word tonight Lord, that It might be alive. We know It is alive, Lord, may It be alive to us, and we alive because of It.
In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen.
You may be seated.
Now we’re studying in the message of the Rapture, and of course, I keep repeating myself. And I do that on purpose, because I want you to begin to understand what I feel is very, very important to us at this particular time.
Now Brother Branham says in page 14, which we’ll hopefully get there tonight:
[65] But to the Church, the Bride, the Rapture is a revelation to her. It’s revealed to her that the revelation of the true Bride will be waiting for that revelation of the Rapture.
Now, of course, his language seems a little obtuse, maybe not as head on the target as some would like it, but he is just telling you here that the Bride doesn’t have the revelation of the Rapture; but she is waiting for it.
Now this brings us to the point that we’ve already mentioned: that because the Bride is waiting for revelation and this is part of the pronouncement of the prophet of Revelation 10:7, who is also found in,
(14) And unto the messenger of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things sayeth the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
(15) I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot;
(16) So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
(17) Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.
I don’t need a revelation. Now that is what the church is saying. So when Brother Branham said, “The Bride is waiting for a revelation,” that went over like a lead balloon. It fell flat. It’s still falling flat.
Because how many, listen… let’s get real chummy tonight, because we are going to be out of here pretty soon. I don’t mean according to the clock, but there is going to be a Rapture.
I’ll be gone, and you won’t make it; or you’ll be gone, and I won’t make it; or we’ll all be gone, because we all made it; or we’ll all be sitting here, because we didn’t make it.
Now look, the thing is this: you’ve got to understand the sobriety of this hour. Are we still back in Laodicea? Listen. He said, “I counsel thee to buy me gold tried in the fire.” Gold, of course, is the trial of our faith.
Now, the gold tried in the fire through six thousand solid years has been a city that has got, has got foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Now, we’ve been looking forward to, all of us, who claim to be Christians, to the First Resurrection.
We didn’t know too much about the Second Resurrection. We dismiss it as second chance. There is no such thing as second chance. But He said, “I want you to buy that gold.”
Now you’re able to get it. “That you may be rich” because this end time group is poverty stricken. The word ‘wretched’ means that you don’t have what you think you have. And wretchedness deals with the condition of beggars.
Now, how beggarly is the church? Completely. How close is the assessment of the church in its thinking to the assessment of God? No where near.
It says, “You’re miserable.” The word ‘miserable’ has compounded, or has compounded the word ‘wretched’, because they go hand in hand.
Now, he said, “You’re naked, and the shame of being caught in your adulteries is openly manifested.” Now, He said, “You can come to me and you can receive a revelation, or you can stay back and not receive it.
So my question is tonight: how analytical, how judging by the Word of this hour, are we that we have been and are willing, in the face of Scripture, to say, “We don’t have anything, that we are ‘wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked”.
Now a man that says he has this revelation, that tells you he sees Scriptural verity and not only does he see the Scriptural truth, but he is able to know what that truth is. Otherwise he doesn’t see. Now, back in the days of Jesus Christ there was a man born blind who was made to see by Jesus the Christ.
And the question came up, “Who made this man to see? Was it God? Or was it the devil? Or what was it? How was he made to see? On what grounds was he blind in the first place?” And it evolved into this particular spiritual and Scriptural axiom that Jesus said, “Because you say that you see, your sin remaineth.”
Now, how is anybody going to be in the Rapture, if they don’t see the Rapture, and yet they say that they do? Now you say, “Well I don’t think it goes that way.”
It doesn’t matter what you think; listen to Scripture. If a person is blind to the Rapture, then he is blind to revelation. If he is blind to that revelation, what other revelation is he blind to? How many has he got right?
So what we’ve been trying to say here in these meetings, trying to stress them to a degree in Columbus that one night, and to bring to your attention this thought, which cannot be fooled with, but must be met head on: did Brother Branham really mean that the Bride was waiting for a revelation, because she didn’t have one?
The answer categorically is “yes”. Because, you do not have God’s revelation if you have a false revelation, because God is not false. To be the Word of God, It must be maintained in Its purity, or It is no longer the Word of God.
This is why the church ages could get by, kind of surreptitiously get by, for the 2000 years, because there was a portion of the truth that the church was not blinded to.
But this is a portion of truth the church was blinded to, because nobody knew exactly what that Rapture would consist of, because it was a mystery. It was an end time mystery. And at the end time, when there should be a Rapture, the whole church is wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.
Now, when a person thinks he is clothed, and he’s not; and a person doesn’t have the Holy Spirit but thinks he has. When a person doesn’t know that the little rats which pertain to or are symbolized by spiritual or rather not by spiritual but spiritualized by the physical act of adultery because nakedness actually means that.
How far has that person gone? And the answer is: the person would be past redemption, unless God did something for a few people at the end of that age.
So Brother Branham said in this page 14 that I read here, paragraph 65, that, “The Rapture is a revelation to her.” Now many people could hear that, and they’d say, “Well, a Rapture, being a revelation, would then disqualify the Rapture to have any substance.”
And that is not true. There is no such thing as a revelation that doesn’t have a substance. What you’ve got to understand is this, and we’ll take it slowly, if I never get through preaching on this subject, and that is, that it is substance; and the revelation of that Scriptural spiritual substance must come as it came in Matthew 16, and in Matthew 16.
(13) Jesus said, Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am?
Now the Son of man was there, and the question arose, him being there, “What do you make of me?”
And some people said, “Well I make this, and I make that.”
And he said, “Who do you say? What do you make of me?”
And Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
With the Rapture it is identically the same. As the personal present Christ, the Lord Jesus in flesh, had to be identified, so the personal presence of the Rapture must be identified.
Now that is a lead balloon to all the detractors. And that is a lead balloon to everybody but guys like me. And I choose to disagree vehemently, because according to Scripture this Rapture has to be like everything else, everything according to the prophet; and that is: God interprets His Word by making It manifest, or performing It.
The revelation lies in the manifesting of It. If that is the case, there must be a portion of the Rapture manifest now, or I’ll eat my shirt or anybody else’s.
I intend to be nice, but there is no way I can be nice. These people conveniently can forget, like some of you sitting here may conveniently forget. But God interprets His Word by bringing It to pass.
Then, if some portion of this Rapture is not in effect now, it’s going to be entirely too late to interpret it by the full effects of it, for the people will be gone. And this will be as though God broke His Word, because He puts His Word out here, and then He doesn’t let anybody know about it.
Now, if they say, “Say what the prophet said.” I’m saying what the prophet said. I’m believing what the prophet said. I’m preaching what the prophet said. I’m proving what he said by all that he said in the Word of God, the same as he did.
Now just like the prophet, our prophet, who came on the scene, there was a great mystery. “Behold I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the Lord.” Okay, then he has got to be somewhere. Tells you the hour he comes in, the times he is going to come in.
And he better be somewhere. It’s got to be a person. It’s got to be just before the great and notable day of the Lord; and he’s got to be identified. He’s got to be identified in the Word and by his appearing, and by his ministry, or he can’t be that one. It’s as simple as A-B-C.
Now what about this? Do the people know indeed that the Rapture is going on? Did the people know indeed who John the Baptist was? Did the people know indeed who Christ was?
After Christ performed many miracles and argued successfully… He just blasted those Pharisees and those men in the Sanhedrin right down to where they belonged to be blasted. The people said, “Why, he speaks with boldness. He speaks with power. Do not the people know that indeed this is the Christ?”
They said, “Hogwash. He ain’t no Christ.”
But a little prostitute, yes, a little prostitute flagrantly living in her sin, she quickly identified him. Then with her testimony, and the men saw really nothing except they heard him, they said, “We know now, not because we heard you, but this is indeed the Christ.”
“Well,” you say, “Brother Vayle, God putting this thing way up on a shelf.”
That is where He puts it.
You say, “God is making this obscure.” That’s His business. Why don’t you take a big club and hit Him?
Well, I’m going to tell you something: evidently eye salve is available, and evidently the prophet can be known. Evidently the Rapture can be known.
Evidently there is some substantial, spiritual token that God is dealing with to give a witness that is material, yes it is, and based upon a material that at one time was only a promise.
Now Abraham had a revelation, “the city which hath foundations.” He is still waiting for it, and he is up there part of it. See? Do they realize that this is exactly what the prophet and his ministry is all about?
That there is a Rapture going on in three parts? Do they know the gathering together for the Great Feast is going on? For as John the Baptist foreran the First Coming of Christ, so this man’s Message foreruns the Second Coming of Christ. All right.
So what about John the Baptist? Well, Zachariah was his dad. He was there in the holy of holies, or someplace ministering… rather, in the tabernacle.
And the angel of God appeared and let him know that his son, John, was going to be born; and he came out just dumb as could be, because he wouldn’t believe. And the man was dumb until John was born, and he had to remain that way as a sign. And John was born. Now John fore-ran Him.
Now an angel of God, Gabriel, comes to Mary, and he tells Mary she is going to have a son by the Holy Ghost, which is going to be the Son of Almighty God. And absolutely that happened.
Now Jesus comes on the scene. He is in the manger, and what happens? A whole bunch of shepherds are told, “Listen! He is born! Come on down and see him.” At that same time a star appeared that led three wise men about two years later to get there.
Now the wise men didn’t go to the manger. That is a lot of nonsense. They found him there in a house. Little tiny fellow going on two years of age, led there. Now you see, there was a witness.
Now the Rapture is of the same particular and wonderful order. There is a witness to it, because it’s going on; because the Message gathers the people to the Wedding Supper. Now, so therefore, we’re to understand this before we go any further: that when Brother Branham said that,
[65] To the church, the Bride, the Rapture is a revelation. It’s to her a revelation. It’s got to be revealed to her. The true Bride is waiting for that revelation.
Now someone says, “Well, I don’t know that I was waiting.” I wouldn’t be true Bride.
You tell me how many people ever were waiting. But when the Light struck, that is what counts. And I’m going to tell you something: the true Bride was waiting for a revelation, because we knew there were several revelations in the land already. And we didn’t know which revelation was right. We had to wait for it.
So the Bride was waiting for it. I’m going to tell you something: the true Bride had to wait for it; because, though a promise was there, there was no definitive revelation, because the best people could do was argue. But there had to come a time when men’s faith did not rest on argument, but it had to rest on the pure, unadulterated Word of God.
Now, so what we’re looking at categorically is this: when you come to this hour, Brother Branham said, “The Bride to this point does not have a true revelation. Whatever she thinks she knows, she doesn’t know right, and if it is wrong, the Bible categorically says that the promise of God is voided when creeds and dogmas step in.”
He said, “You’ve made to none effect the commandments of God through your creeds, through your traditions.”
In other words one word off is Satan’s kingdom. It is not the kingdom of God.
You say, “Well, Brother Vayle, it wouldn’t matter in this case.”
That is what you think. You tell God about it, I hope you have a nice time. Enjoy yourself. Enjoy yourself but you’d better enjoy it ahead of time and I’ll tell you won’t get a bottle of booze up here to get drunk either and you won’t get a shot of cocaine to deaden your pains either.
You’re going to find out a lot of Christians weren’t half the Christians they thought they were. They’re going to find out they lined up behind Lucifer. They lined up with the prince of power of the air, the devil.
They’re in disobedience to God, but in obedience to him. I’m not preaching a rough Gospel. I’m just preaching the truth. I can’t help it, I got a preach The Word of Almighty God here.
Now the prophet said, “She didn’t have a revelation. She had to have a revelation.” Well, I’m going to tell you something: if she didn’t have the right revelation, she wasn’t going to make it, because according to the prophet, the Rapture lay in three portions, and one portion lay in his Message.
And it didn’t say he had to be here on earth. It just said it lay in that Message: “for as John the Baptist foreran.” So there would not be a Rapture, unless there was a Message to literally cause Christ, I’m talking now in terms of Jesus, the Lamb, talking in terms of him; to pick the Bride up in the clouds of glory. It just wouldn’t happen.
Now, when we look at the fact that the Bride did not have a revelation; that the Bride is very vulnerable, because she was lead astray two thousand years ago. It is very, very necessary for this Bride to examine everything she believes in the light of the Word that Brother Branham preached.
Now we haven’t done that. Brother Branham spoke on the filter. But how many people realized what the filter meant? Well, to most of them it just simply meant, “Well, we’ll just see if we got this or we got that.”
No, you put every single thing through the Word that the prophet gave. If there is something on a certain subject, if there is something on a certain thing, you have got to put it right to the Word that the prophet gave and trace it right through the Bible, or you haven’t got a filter.
Now not just the Rapture as a revelation, the whole Word of God demands a revelation. Now evidently there was a portion of Scripture that was correctly revealed, perhaps to almost ninety-nine percent.
And there might have been a portion of Scripture revealed one hundred percent where the Blood and some of those things are so evident. But there was other Scripture that wasn’t revealed; and if it’s one word off, it is no longer the Word of God.
Now I know people say, “Well that’s a stickler.”
I can’t help it about being a stickler, because the Scripture says, “At the end time add one word, you get the plagues; take away one word, your name is out of the Book, you miss it.” All right.
Revelation is tremendously important. And there can be no revelation outside a revealed Word by a vindicated prophet, because that is what the Scripture tells us. Let’s go back to Acts 3, in case your memories are amiss, and you’ll begin to see for yourself what we’re talking about, the middle of the third verse… Acts 3:19.
(19) …, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.
That means that part which is visible of Him. Now that is not the Pillar of Fire. Man cannot see the Pillar of Fire; just the prophet. That part which is visible are the signs and the wonders… See? of John 15:24.
(20) Even he shall send Jesus Christ which is announced or proclaimed unto you;
(21) Whom the heavens must retain until there be a restitution or restoration of all things, which God spoke by the mouth of all his holy prophets.
What is there going to be? There is going to be a restored Word. That is what It says. So therefore, the Word will come. That is why you ask for rain in the time of the latter rain; and the latter rain and the former rain fall together when the reaper overtakes the sower in the last season. Now, that is going to be, there will be a restoration of correct revelation.
That is exactly what the Lord brings to our attention by His Word. And at that time It says that those who do not believe that restoration Message, that prophetic Word that comes from God Himself.
And remember: God has promised to speak one more time. You know a lot of people just think that because the Bible is written, God can’t speak, they’re crazy.
Hebrews 12:
(25) See that you refuse not Him that speaketh.
And He is talking about the end time… the Church of the first born… as we approach unto Mount Zion, as we’re getting ready to step out into the area where New Jerusalem can become visible, because the First Resurrection is all over.
Can’t even start the New Jerusalem in the visibility unless the First Resurrection is over. You’ve got to have Old Testament saints and New Testament saints, you’ve got to have 144,000.
They’ve got to be right here in the Millennium, because the holy encampment will make the New Jerusalem. Absolutely.
Now He said right here at that time:
(25) For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that is in heaven. [What is He doing? Speaking.]
(26) Whose voice then shook the earth: but promised once more saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
Now, He tells you that there is going to be an end time Message. Now God always uses a prophet. There is no other way He can do it. So at the end time Message they are going to start the shaking down, and the shaking down, my brother/my sister, takes place in the great tribulation.
And it’s got to start before the great tribulation. It’s got to start before. The majority of it goes on at that time.
This, as far as I see, this is not Moses and Elijah in the great tribulation, because this is talking to us who are going to approach. And Israel, the 144,000 is not Mount Zion.
They will be able to serve the Bride in Mount Zion, but they are not Mount Zion. They are not a part of the Bride: the 144,000. That is a different thing entirely. Alright.
So all through Scripture, through what the prophet taught, we see that there is the definitive revelation at the end time. And we are obligated, now listen: not any longer by fear, no longer by fear, but because of the actuality of the facts in which we are involved, to go to everything the prophet taught without fear and look at it, and see where it takes us; because there is still a lot of fear.
There is even fear in women that your high heels have got to come down lower than they are. Your dresses might be a little different from what they are. Listen. I’m talking to the woman tonight.
And you husbands: go home and tell your wives; because you better do it. There are a lot of little things we’re scared to look at, because it just might be that we don’t want to look at them.
I’ve got news for you. Those days are over, if you’re Bride. There is nothing to be afraid of anymore. God is only trying to help you, not destroy you. You know, Job was on the ash heap for a long time.
He lost everything he had financially. He lost about every single thing he had, when it came to his personal life. His family was gone. His wife was left, and she wasn’t too nice to him at times.
And his friends came and turned on him. And he said, “I look backward, and I can’t see Him. I look forward, and I can’t see Him. I look around, and I can’t see Him. What is He trying to do? Destroy me?”
No, He is trying to put strength in me. See? He knows the way that I take; and when I come forth, I’m going to be as gold. And there is a Bride that had better ‘have’ gold, and ‘be’ gold to be in the Rapture.
I’m not talking sinless perfection, my brother, my sister. I am not even talking character, although character is involved. I am not talking fruit, although fruit is involved. I’m not talking obedience, though obedience is involved.
I’m not talking nearness and those other things, the charismatic power and all. I am talking in straight terms of this Word. There is nothing to be afraid of, because It all reflects Christ.
There is not a lot the prophet or anybody else said to do. Now let’s understand this, if you didn’t get those tapes at Columbus, you’d better go over those tapes and go over them carefully again, because we touched everything. And I touched it to be sure.
I would like to take a little time right now, but there aren’t enough women here to talk to the women tonight, and they need a little talking to, because I wonder how they are telling their daughters about the future. Yeah. Scared, scared; that’s right.
People are scared to look, it might take away a little liberty. It might take… As Brother Branham said, “The wife doesn’t want to have any babies, so it’s convenient to have a dog or cat.”
Yeah… People are running scared. And they talk about a God of love. Hogwash. They talk about love… Hogwash. They haven’t got the least conception.
Let me tell you something, brother/sister. Don’t you realize that the wicked evil that Cain did was worship apart from revelation? Satan worshipped apart from revelation, and he had a part in the worship, and God had to throw him out.
People are running scared. You don’t have to run scared anymore. See? I’m very serious at this time, and I want to remain that way, because there is nothing to be afraid of, because revelation is the key to everything.
And the right revelation is where you stand secure. Brother Branham said, “If it skins you, you better do it or listen or whatever might be incumbent upon you, because you sure don’t want to miss it.”
You say, “Well what can I do that I won’t miss it?”
Well, I can tell you the one thing: you can get the right revelation. And you won’t go one step past the revelation you have now and into the full revelation as long as you’re running scared. Can’t do it. Alright.
Revelation is so very, very important, tremendously important. And Brother Branham, as I said, said here, “The Bride does not have the revelation of the Rapture.”
So therefore, because she doesn’t have the revelation, she throws out everything she has got. She just throws out of her mind every single thing. He said, “Let your thinking go.” So whatever you learned about the Rapture is dead.
Oh, now you may salvage one or two little parts. But I’ve got news for you: the doctors never have learned, and I don’t think they ever will learn, how to make transplants.
The body better grow its own part to make sure it’s right. Now let me tell you something: so the Bride of Christ will reject a transplant. It’s got to have the life coming from it. It’s got to be life all the way through. That’s why it’s revelation all the way through.
And it’s got to be the correct revelation. And the prophet said, “The Bride doesn’t have it.” So she hasn’t got it; she’s gotta look for it. And the only way she can look for it is by realizing she is wrong on all counts on the Rapture. She is completely wrong on the Appearing. She is completely wrong on the Coming.
So therefore, if the angel of God said to William Branham, “As John the Baptist foreran the First Coming, so your Message foreruns the Second Coming,” my question is, what is the ‘Coming’? Well, I placed it back there.
If you want to place it one way where a lot of people place it, Coming back with His saints. Some say, “Well, He is Coming for His Saints.” I place it, ‘Coming for His Saints’, in order to come back with them. But you might find even that is a bit abstract as you go along.
Now we are going to look at another point that Brother Branham brought out, and this is on page 10 and paragraph 47.
[47] God allotted His Word out to each age. And each one of those ages has to manifest that. And also foreordained men for that age to fulfill that Word. Certainly it has to because the Word’s concerning men anyway.
Every time He allotted His Word He allotted a man for it. Seven Church Ages, seven men – the last one’s a prophet. When He allotted Moses time, now he is illustrating going back there to the Old Testament, He allotted Moses to it.
Of course, Moses’ time had Moses. Who do you think got Elijah’s time but Elijah? What a lot of nonsense! People carry hogwash in their heads. You could go in with a fireman’s hose, and scrub brush, and a bucket of lye. Wouldn’t get it out. Why? Because they’re reprobate. Who was to be there but Moses?
“Well,” you say, “that was an accident.”
Hogwash that was an accident. His very name means ‘drawn out of the water’. They picked him out of the Nile.
…When He allotted the time for the Son of God to be born, He allotted him to it. What else? See? He made you very simple. Every age He is allotted His men, foreordained.
As the Bible said… If God’s infinite, almighty, all powerful, omnipresent, omniscient, why, He knew all things from the beginning. So He knew… There is nothing out of cater; it’s just that we think it is. Everything runs according to continuity.
All right. Brother Branham said, “The Word is allotted.” This is one of the toughest things for people to understand, the allotting of the Word.
They say, “Well, hey now… Just a minute… Just a second. You can’t add to this Word. You can’t take from this Word. Therefore, we’ve got It all.” Well, that’s fine. Nobody argues it; but because you’ve got all the Word didn’t mean you’ve got It all for one time.
Now let’s take a look at it. Every baby born. It’s only got two sources to make that one source, that child, that one product, the male and the female. Now if you didn’t know anything about a spirit standing there to come into the body, the prophet hadn’t told you, you wouldn’t know that.
So let’s pretend you don’t know it, which in this case it doesn’t matter, because this is not what influences anyway. Everything that child is, all through its life, bar none, comes from the fact of the conception, or the inception, and nothing else.
But the child is born so weak, it can’t even turn over. And when it’s able to turn over, it will begin to roll around. After it rolls around, it will squirm around and make more movement, even slide across the bed, rolling and turning.
And it’ll get on its stomach, and start to crawl, get on its hands and knees and crawl. It’ll get on its feet and walk. It’ll keep going. You see? Even though everything lies in that baby even at conception and brought forth in the birth especially, as a whole child, everything that child does is according to an allotment of time.
Now the Word of God was given to us all at one time in a book. But Seven Church Ages proves there is a history of seven complete eras, or ages, wherein God brought a portion of His Word, and how men responded, and what God would do about it.
Now the allotted Word, the first age was sowing, and the last age has to be reaping. Now let’s understand that. We don’t care what anybody says.
They don’t even believe in ages per se, started at the beginning of the Gentile dispensation. Put it that way. I don’t care how they put it. The beginning is not the ending. There has got to be a finality. You say, “What is a finality?” It’s going to be a Resurrection.
Absolutely. It’s going to be a great tribulation. It’s going to be a Millennium. It’s going to be a going on, which is exactly what it is.
So therefore, no matter how you look at it, there is a sowing, and there is a reaping. And no matter how you look at it, for Seven Church Ages there is going to be a sowing. But only in one age there is going to be a reaping.
So therefore, the reaper will catch up with the sower: that at the time in the last period, or the last Word to bring in souls has been uttered, there’ll be a living people on this earth changed, and a group come out of the ground and go into a Rapture.
People say, “Well, I don’t believe that.” You don’t have to believe. It’s going to happen anyway. We’ve got the evidence and the manifestation of the first third of the Rapture going on right now; and the second part is going on too, and they don’t know it.
Now let us understand categorically, because there are some very strong things a person has got to know about this Message and this Scripture, or forget it. 2 Corinthians 11:2: “For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy.”
He said, “I’ve married you to Christ, to one husband, and I want to present you to him in the physical form as a chaste virgin.
But,” he said, “I think you blew it for me,” because he said, “I’ve got suspicions as a jealous husband that you’ve been messing around the same way Eve messed around. You opened your mind to reasonings. You opened your mind to another way than the way of God.” What’s happened?
A preacher came by, and he preached another Jesus. They received another spirit. They heard another Gospel. What spirit did they receive? The spirit of error. They got all messed up.
Now listen. You know this one thing according to Matthew 25: there were some wise virgins and some foolish virgins. The wise virgins went in; the foolish virgins stayed out.
What was the foolish virgin? She was off the Word. Why was she off the Word? Because she didn’t have the Holy Ghost. Now if she had the Holy Ghost, she wouldn’t be off the Word. But the two are, of course, synonymous in this instance.
So therefore, she was away. She couldn’t get in. Now there was no way that she could make it, because she was in a deceived condition. Alright.
Now, how in the world is she going to get back to the undeceived condition? There is only one way: there’s got to be a fresh Word. And that is exactly what the Bible teaches, because It tells you over here in Acts 3, which I read to you, that at the time of that great revival, that is to be followed by the literal Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But he can’t do a thing about it. There is no way he can meet a Bride in the air, until the Word is restored: all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets. Now that is the Word.
Now just a minute. Let’s understand this very correctly. You are not going to get another Bible. You are not going to get another set of prophets to come up and argue. What you’re going to have is the Word set in order by correction; and that which has not yet been made manifest and revealed, will be revealed, because all the mysteries shall be revealed.
So you’re going to have a correction. You’re going to have a further revelation where it’s necessary. And when you have the two, you have got yourself a virgin.
So therefore, let’s understand this, my brother/sister, that at the end time, because of what is said in Scripture it is absolutely incumbent upon God to provide the living with the Message. Now let’s find out.
(13) But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
(14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring forth with him.
(15) For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remaineth unto the presence of the Lord shall not hinder [take a preeminence over] them which are asleep.
[In any way take a preeminence. You won’t get up there ahead of them. You won’t have anymore than they got or anything else. You’d be just one of them, because going out of here in death doesn’t mean a thing; you’re going to get up in the Resurrection anyway, if you’re born again.]
(16) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Now what is he talking about? He is talking about the Resurrection at the time of the living and the dead. So, where does that place them? That places them absolutely in the seventh church age of the last age, end of the era. That is where they’re going to be. Now it’s going to produce a Resurrection. But the living don’t get resurrected. No way. All right.
Let’s find out something. Ephesians the 1st chapter, spoken to those in the first church age that were full of the Holy Ghost, and therefore ready for the Rapture, if it was Rapture time. But it wasn’t.
(17) That 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 he is talking to the living.]
(18) The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, [That is the purpose.] that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. [Now that tells you a revelation is going to come to some Holy Ghost people. What Holy Ghost people? Read on.]
(19) And what is exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, [Present living.] according to the working of his mighty power.
(20) Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead.
It tells you right there, at the time of the Resurrection a revelation is going to be forth coming. So therefore, there is a revealed Word to the living. That is the Shout. What is the Voice?
That is to the dead. What is the Trumpet? That is to both of us. Simple as A-B-C, but it takes a prophet to open the door.
Listen brother/sister. A message started the Gentile age. Let’s go back and find out in 1 Corinthians 2.
It says here:
(02) For I determine not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
That was the message, Christ crucified. All right. A message then starts the age. Let’s find out if a message ends the age. We go to Philippians the 3rd chapter, and in there It says,
(10) That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, [He already knew that.] being made conformable unto his death: [He already entered into it. But he hadn’t entered into the Resurrection.]
(11) If by any means I may attain to the [out] resurrection from among the dead. [That is, Christ bringing them out, bringing them forth in the First Resurrection. Now he said, “If I may attain to it.” Now he said:]
(12) Not as though I’d already attained, or were already perfect.
You say, “How much more perfect can you get than Paul?”
Much more perfect. Yes sir, because Paul didn’t have it. There is a perfection in every age, there is a Word in every age, but there is a consummation at the end of the age.
Now Paul said, “Laying aside all those things” that he said over here in Hebrews 6.
(01) Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God.
(02) The doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, and resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.
(03) And this we will do, if God permit.
Now he tells you right there: there comes a time when that’ll be obsolete. When? When the baptism with the Holy Ghost runs out, because the baptism with the Holy Ghost takes you right up to the hour of repentance when your bodies come out of the grave, now redemption rather.
Because that is what It says in verses 13 and 14 of Ephesians 1. And then it adds in 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, and a Spirit will come into the Bride at the end time, and that Spirit will be a message of revelation, of revealing Him.
That is where we got the series on the “Reflection” from, and in, 2 Corinthians 4. Go back over it. See? And out of that will come a perfected Bride. Out of that then will be the living who have their portion, the dead that have got their portion waiting simply for a Voice, and then both of us on the earth at the same time waiting to be caught up.
So therefore, there is… The age starts with a message; it ends with a message. Only Old Testament saints, now let’s get this flat. Only Old Testament saints knew Him in the power of the Resurrection. That is all.
There is a Scripture gone out of my mind… Doesn’t matter. Paul knew Him in the power of the cross. He knew Him in the hour of redemption of the forgiveness of sins. But he did not know him in the power of His Resurrection in the literal sense of the word.
There is not one of us that doesn’t have a spiritual resurrection, but you show me one New Testament saint that at this time has a physical resurrection. You can’t do it. So they don’t know Him in that power, because it’s the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. All right.
So, the last message is the message of Resurrection and is backed by the power of the Resurrection itself.
Now let’s just take a little look here in,
(16) Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, [Now watch.] yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.
What do you know him after? Well, you know him after the same thing Peter said. Let’s go find out what Peter said. Let’s watch this one, because this is a real, real good one. But everybody passes over it.
(18) For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
(19) By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
He was quickened by the Spirit, and it was in the Spirit form that he preached to the spirits in prison – three pulls. What about our pull? Who’s doing the preaching now? Prophet did; the Bride did. The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.”
We have never known Jesus Christ after the flesh, neither will we know him until we meet him face-to-face in clouds up there somewhere in a dimension, going into the Wedding Supper. But the point here is this: that as He came to the Gentiles at the first in Spirit bringing a Message, so it ends the same way.
He comes back, as it is the same Pillar of Fire that brought the Word to Paul is here revealing It; and that same One has brought us to the place of the end time Word.
So there are two things here that you have to learn very, very definitely and not ever let them get out of your hands. Number one was revelation.
Number two: don’t worry about the whole Word. You’ve got a Word for your hour. That is what you’re interested in. You don’t have to worry way back what happened back there… You don’t have to worry about the Jews. Doesn’t have a thing to do with you. You’ve got one solemn thought, and that is the Word for this hour.
That is why it needs more and more looking into. More and more time allocated to it. More and more, because It’s life to us and nothing else.
Brother Branham said he “feared so desperately that the Bride would fall by the wayside, not because of any great thing, but the little things, where she just not give up those little things for that Word of God… where she would let little distractions come in, little problems that are so easy to allow a percentage of our time, that is not worthy of it, to take away the time, which time the Spirit of God Revealed Word is truly worthy of.”
Alright. Now, we’re just going to go in here… back where we started and I say we’ll get through this sometime. I don’t know when. I don’t much care when. Brother Branham took his background in the Psalm 27.
Now I’m going to turn to Psalm 27 and you know since the boys are doing a good job they got Psalm 27:1 for Him, did you catch that? That is the Psalm that Brother Branham used as the Rapture.
Now let’s just read it all. You see, Brother Branham could fool you. He could start reading a Scripture, then leave us sit there – like: he never did ever read the rest, “For the time of my departure is at hand.” He never would read it. Always just read the one part before it. So let’s look at this.
(01) The Lord is my light and my salvation; [The Lord is the brightness that comes to me, that quickening, and He is my deliverance.] whom shall I fear?
Now evidently there is somebody that you’re going to be afraid of, and somebody that is trying to bring fear. But it can’t be the Lord, because the Lord has only one purpose, and that is Light to deliver you from darkness.
Remember. God is not coming with chains. God is coming with the chain cutter. The angel of light never appeared to seal Peter in the jail. It took him out of the jail, undid his shackles.
(01) The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? [Now remember, the Lord is not the strength of your life unless you’re born again. This is a born-again psalmist.]
(02) When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. Now this is the Bride in the hour that even seems to go beyond Psalm 91.
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his temple.
(05) For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock. [That is revelation.]
(06) And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. [Now notice the sixth verse – he cut off at five.] … Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me… [You’ll be lifted up above the whole thing. Bride is getting out of here.]
(07) Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me and answer me.
(08) When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek. [Are you getting it? Ephesians 1.]
(09) Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
(10) When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.
Now this is the basis for the Rapture. You can see what I’ve been preaching all along. You don’t have a sister, or a brother, or a cousin, or an aunt, or a nephew, mother or father, because you’re reckoning with God.
It’s not what mama says, or papa said. Good heavens! If I had listened to my mother, God knows where I would be. I would’ve been worse than a prostitute of Roman Catholicism, hooked up to a Pentecostal used car salesman, backslidden-preacher type.
I’m not lying to you. She could pray up a storm as long as she had that crazy long prayer with the apostles creed in it. Now she was a fighter, and she loved her kids; but she was a rawboned sinner.
And when I came to God, she’d do her best to get me away. She didn’t try very hard, because I had her over a barrel. I told you how it was. She said, “Well you better go to the church.”
I said, “Well, ma, tell you what. I’ll go to your church in the morning; you come to mine at night. Bargain?”
She said, “Yes.”
I knew it would never happen. I never went back to hers ever again, and she never came to mine. Now if she makes the Second Resurrection… That is pretty well what she might do.
Now I couldn’t listen to my brother. He could never get through to God. Will I listen to my sisters? Well, not too easy. They’d better listen to me. Well, have I got some uncle to go to, I had a very brilliant uncle.
He was a very clever criminal lawyer. So, where does that leave him? He is going to hell too, or already gone there. I never heard a thing about him having salvation.
I’m just laying this down, people, tonight. Look, I’m not here preaching to anybody out of animosity or anything else. I can rough people up and ruffle a lot of things up, but as far as a personal animosity, me dealing with you, if you think that, you’re wrong.
This is the Bride. And the father and mother, the relationship is gone. Now that is going to be tough. See? That is going to be tough, because the men are supposed to be macho, and yet we’ve got more perverts today, homosexuals, because mothers have the string on them.
You’re going to tell me one homosexual going to make this? You’re nuts. Women have trouble. They always do have trouble. It’s the man that leaves father and mother, not the woman. Well, I’m going to tell both male and female had better leave father, mother, sister, brother, church, and everything else.
Now Brother Branham categorically said, his mother was supposed to be with that institution out there, the world churches. And it’s the father, supposed to be, according to vision, was the denominational headship. So he was born into that hogwash.
Now they’ll let you down. Your parents can let you down. I’m not trying to alienate you. Love them and be nice to them. Go visit and do everything under high heaven. If they’re still living, do something for them. But if they’re off this Word, forget it. Don’t be a part of their heresy!
Now he said, “When they forsake me the Lord will take me up.” I won’t talk about that. You figure your own thing on that.
Psalms 27:
(11) Teach me thy way, O Lord and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
What are the enemies of those going to be? The very ones we’re talking about… come and try to persuade you’re different – kind old priest, dear old ma, dear old pa. Well, fine.
Look, I’m going to tell you something, brother/sister: I’m just as corny, and carnal, and hard as any person living when it comes to my parents and my kids or anybody else, because this is between me and God. It’s a one-to-one. And though I can love my children, they will not stand in my way. No way, shape or form.
Now my wife doesn’t have too bad a background in the sense she had a wonderful father. Her mother died when she was just a little tiny kid. But, you know, her dad did his best to keep all the family, six boys and two girls, together and be nice clean people…
Don’t go to shows and don’t go dances, don’t smoke, don’t do this, don’t do that. But one day, you know, the old boy was overcome by the kids, and you know what? He backslid too.
So maybe some of you’ve got kids. Fine! Go to hell with them, if that is what you want. See? We’re bringing it right down to where it is. You’re not coming here just to hear a sermon. “Oh, bless God! The sermons going to do me good.”
Oh, bless God, it ain’t going to do you no good unless it skins you, and skins me, and brings it down to where it ought to be. Clears away the cobwebs and all the junk that doesn’t belong there.
Look, sure we love our kids. Sure they love us. That’s wonderful. That’s the way it should be. That’s the way it better be. But I’m going to tell you something: this is above all that. You’re coming to Rapture time. See? Plain ways, because the enemies… They’re going to try to come in. Diabolical plot of sin.
Psalms 27:
(12) Deliver me not over into the will of mine enemies:
What’s their will? To get you to where they are. Listen: remember Brother Branham said, “Get under the token.” Now he said, “Susie had the chance to get under the token. But the devil came by and said, ‘Susie there’s a hop going on down there on third street. There’s a hepped up, jazzed up band down there, come on down.’”
Pick up Guide Post. Read it through. You’ll find they all go for the rock-n-roll, and they’re all wonderful Christians. Not my kind; not my kind.
Now he said, “Susie went down to the honky tonk.” Oh, she knew it was right to put the blood on the door post. She knew that. That’s the daughter toward a parent, not going the parents’ way. Parents said, “Now, daughter, you better come my way.”
Remember that girl? She was delivered. Had good salvation. Then she went to the dance hall. The first thing, she just looked inside the door, and the first thing she is caught in the arms of a man whirling around and she was screaming with devils possessing her, until Brother Branham delivered her by the power of God.
Then remember the other girl? She wasn’t so fortunate. She said, “I wouldn’t give that religion to my cow; have Billy Branham’s religion;” and she died screaming, until the freckles came just popping out of her face, like moles and warts.
I’m going to tell you something, brother/sister: that’s nothing compared to the great tribulation. Now I’m not saying we’re going to be antagonistic or start some little cult and say, “Well, ma ain’t going to make it. Pa ain’t going to make it.”
I don’t know who’s going to make it. You don’t know if you’re going to make it. “But the foundation of God stands sure having this seal, the Lord knows them which are His.”
And there is only one hope: it is to believe this Message, because the Message is to the living. Now let’s face it right there. If it comes to a showdown, there is only one group of people going to be anywhere near the showdown, and that is us. The rest aren’t even in the picture.
(12) … For false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
They’re going to take everything they can find on you and everything they can’t find. That is why I’m smart if I’d just keep my peace, my cool, and not say one word about anybody or anything.
But I figure it’s going to be as good as you get, and give as good as you get. Is that it? I don’t know if it is or not. But It said, “They’re going to breathe out. They’re going to rise up and breathe out every cruelty.”
They’ll start every whispering campaign and lie around the country. They’ll make a mountain out of a molehill. They’ll twist and pervert everything that has ever been said. They’ll take it out of context. They’ll do it.
(13) I had fainted, unless I had believed in the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
You’re right here on this earth. You’re still living when the squeeze comes down, when the pressure comes down. And remember, the dove and the crow are on the same roost. Which is on whose roost? Very good question. Very good question. Of course, I’ll stand on my roost. You know what that means.
(14) Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, he shall strengthen thine heart, wait, I say, on the Lord. [Lying in the presence of the sun.]
So here it is. Brother Branham used this Psalm as the backgrounding for the Rapture. There is going to be a time of trouble. It’s going to be a time of intense desire for the Bride to be a part of New Jerusalem.
Now you know something? The Bride has had a desire for a long time to somehow be a part of the First Resurrection, to somehow be a part of the Millennium.
And she puts the New Jerusalem way back there in the distance; which, of course, in a degree it is, but you’ll notice what it is: the Bride is focusing more and more on Zion than she has ever focused in her life.
In other words Zion is rising on the horizon, because you cannot be in the First Resurrection and not be a part of it. You cannot be here in that First Resurrection and not come back on this earth that is been reformed, reconstituted, recreated.
No way. You’ve got to come back and be in there. So the Bride is hungry. She is anxious to go to her eternal home.
Now she knows this trouble is here, and she knows the only way she is going to get out is because of Him. So she knows the only hope she has until she gets out of here is that same One. She is beginning to put Him every place in her life.
You see now people say, “Well, Brother Vayle, I’ve always put Him first in my life.” Well, you couldn’t, until this hour. There is no way. There is no way. There is no way, because this is the Word allotted to this hour. This is the Word that comes into preeminence. This is where the Bride has something that she has never had before.
Now this is the background. Now I’ll continue awhile before we go to the other part of the service. Now after Brother Branham backgrounded, we looked at the fact that he then brought the next Scripture concerning scoffers.
And as he talked of scoffers, we brought to your attention time after time that the subject was the Rapture, because he said, “The subject is ’The Rapture.’“ Now therefore, every Scripture is going to be about the Rapture, getting out of here.
Every illustration, no matter where it’s taken from, is going to be contingent to delineating upon and showing you a facet that is going on now concerning the Rapture, because everything is Rapture. Do you follow me?
As I said, Brother Branham talking about a horse, doesn’t suddenly switch to a camel. He is not talking about being in Pennsylvania and ends up in Israel. He is talking about a Rapture, and everything is about the Rapture. Now he says concerning the Rapture, “Scoffers.”
Now let’s go and look at it: 2 Peter 3. All right. Now Brother Branham said, “They don’t know the Coming, they don’t understand the Appearing. That’s right,” he said, “They don’t.” Now let’s watch this.
(01) Beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance: [They’d already gotten slack. Repetition must be good for you.]
(02) That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandments of us the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now listen. He is reminding them of the Word spoken. Right? Then what do you think this end time prophet will do but remind us of the same Words? That is Acts 3. Right? Certainly, it is.
Don’t let anybody fool you when they say, “This has go to be restored. The temple has got to be restored. This has got to restored.” Don’t listen to a bunch of hogwash. You’re beyond that, I hope.
Now listen:
(02) Knowing first [Now let’s see]… of the commandment of us the apostles of our Lord and Savior: [Now He said, “You void my commandments by your traditions.” So He is setting the book in order. And when he sets the book in order, notice:]
(03) Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
What were they doing then? The same thing but in a minor degree, because he had to warn them of these birds? Now where do the scoffers come in? When do they come in? And where?
(04) And say where is the promise of his parousia? [Of his coming?]
Is that what Brother Branham is talking about? They don’t know it? Well, I believe I can prove to you by Brother Branham’s own words that the Rapture is the Seventh Seal.
I believe I can show you where it was revealed to the public. That’s my understanding. I’m not trying to preach a revelation on a revelation; just trying to tell you what I believe – what he taught. I could be wrong. Let’s wait and see.
2 Peter 3:
(04) Where is the promise of his presence? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
Now what is he talking about? You think all things continue as they were from the beginning, when He first said, “Let there be light. Let there be this. Let there be that”? – the beginning of creation? Where was the beginning of creation?
Let’s go back to it when God sat there all by Himself, in His solitude, bringing all His thoughts together, working on His great omniscience and foreknowledge, and suddenly a light began to form.
And what was he? The beginning of the creation of God, God forming Himself in human flesh. Okay? Everything continues since “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
Everything just goes on, as it were, by rote. God set something in motion, and setting it in motion, it just goes on and on and on. Hogwash! That’s the law of nature. That is not the law of God working with men.
He has promises. He has eras. He has vistas. He has many things; and He deals with them as He wants to deal with them in His Own time and ways.
So these people are all messed up. They don’t believe in God allotting His Word. Yeah. They don’t believe in Presence, because when the time comes to believe in Presence, they are going to scoff. He is talking about the Rapture! I said he is talking about the Rapture.
Now get it right down in your heads and in your hearts. See? Because that is what it’s all about.
2 Peter 3:
(05) For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, the earth standing out of the water and in the water: [What are they ignorant of? They are ignorant of the fact that you cannot judge God completely by nature. Nature runs in continuity. God runs in continuity, but not like nature. No way shape or form.]
(06) The world then was overflowed with water, perished:
(07) But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
(08) But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
(09) The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
He said, “Sure you can see a continuity in God through nature, but don’t get fooled! There is a judgment coming at a certain time. There is a Presence coming at a certain time, and you better not be fooled by continuity.”
God’s going to do something, and you better not be caught when He does that certain something. That is what he is telling you here.
2 Peter 3:
(10) But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; [He tells you what day… the very thing He is talking about, this Presence, this Rapture, what He’s talking about.]
Now He said, “It’s going to come.” Now watch: He even, talking about the Presence, goes plumb down with the same understanding of the same Presence beyond the thousand years when He ‘redoes’ nature.
The same One that started nature is going to bring us right into His very Presence, into His very Rapture, into the Millennium. And the same One that put nature in continuity will destroy the continuity and start again.
He is just telling you. He is not putting this way down a thousand years down the road. He is only explaining continuity in nature.
Don’t get messed up with God in continuity in nature. God has a continuity; nature has a continuity. But they’re vastly different, brother/sister; because nature is at the hand of God, and God is above nature. See?
Nature has seasons; God has seasons. You try to explain God’s seasons by winter, summer and everything else. You can’t do it. You can explain the Resurrection; you show continuity.
But I’d like to see Brother Branham try to teach God from nature in continuity, without this Word.
Now, do you see what I’m getting at? You can’t do it! You’re not left to your own thinking – your own devices. You’re brought to a position here. And remember, the third Chapter follows the second Chapter, which is also on the Coming, but there are scoffers coming at the end time.
They’re going to scoff at the Rapture, which is a revelation. They’re going to say, “There is no way the Rapture is going on” when it is going on.
There is no way they’ll talk about the Presence, and yet that Presence, that Coming… There is a period of history where Light comes to the church while the rest are following false prophets. And they’re saying, “See here… See there.”
What would a Bride raptured be saying, “See here… See there?” It’s the same Presence, my brother, my sister.
They don’t realize that this age starts with the Spirit, it ends with the Spirit; it starts with a Message, it ends with a Message. See? It’s not like the Jews. We’ve had it.
Now, in this scoffing Brother Branham takes many illustrations, and he goes back to how they scoffed at Moses. And Moses leaving Egypt with Israel was raptured, exodus Rapture.
Then he said, “Scoffers right today.” They’re scoffing at the cross. That’s right. “Why” he said, “These fellows said, ‘Why this Jesus… He pulled a bluff.’” He said, “They’re scoffers.”
“Well,” they said, “They gave him something to drink, and he drank it. It was a potion that would cause him to blank out for awhile…then steal him out of the grave and take him to India.”
“Why,” he said, “why don’t you read the rest of the Bible, if you’re going to work in the Bible?” He said, “He spit it out. It was vinegar and gall. It wasn’t some drug.” He said, “Scoffers.” What were they doing? They were scoffing the cross.
What are they doing today? Scoffing the Rapture. See? They’ve got to do it.
Now listen. You cannot scoff a thing, my brother, my sister, until it’s there to be scoffed at. Now they’re scoffing a Rapture. And you cannot talk about a revelation, unless as the prophet said, “God has it right out here for you to look at it.”
Here was Jesus, and John said, “There he is.” Jesus did miracles, manifested, then explained it. William Branham came on the scene. He did the miracles, and he explained them.
God works in continuity, but not like nature. He is more faithful than nature. Why, if God was just like nature, that would be ridiculous. Then God would have to destroy Himself. He wouldn’t be worth keeping, because God is going to blot certain nature out.
I’ll tell you what is wrong: people are just like Israel. They saw the acts of God, but they never understood His ways. And Peter is bringing us right to that very special attention, the very thing there. Now he said:
(11) All these things in nature are going to be dissolved, what manner of persons we ought to be,
(12) And looking and hasting for the presence of the day of God, [which same Presence is going to set] the heavens on fire…, elements melt with a fervent heat.
In other words he is telling you: “Listen, you people, don’t you dare scoff at the Presence of that great God, because it’s going to come so simple, you think you’ll crucify Him again, and you will to yourselves.”
Don’t think you’re so smart that you talk about dealing with God, and He is going to come in majestic glory, and tremendous power, and set the universe on fire.
No way! He is going to come like John the Baptist! “Bring the high things down, and the low things up, and the crooked place is made a plain.”
And they’re going to say, “Wha-wha-wha-what? Merciful heavens! If that is a manifestation of those tremendous Words… Merciful God! What is going on?”
That is the whole thing. That is the whole thing. They couldn’t take it.
Neither could they take ‘hillbilly’ Branham. I very seldom use that word. I’ve got too much respect. I only used it, because I’m throwing it back at them. If he was a hillbilly, I wish I were one. Certainly.
I’ll buy that any day of the week, if it just comes that easy. If the vernacular can do it, give me a bucketful of vernacular.
“No,” he said, “This Great One that is supposed to do all these great things” – this great Rapture that is supposed to be so great… This tremendous, fantastic, most marvelous phantasmagorical and God knows what kind of a well… a display… I’m running out of words, because how can you describe it?
Brother Branham said, “It was like a Roman candle.” This great, great thing… And all it is is a hillbilly.
And he stands on the scene, and he says, “Now God threw a curve and… Oh, yeah, He threw a curve… yes,” he said, “He threw curves.” He said, “I throw curves, too.”
And they thought, “My God, now he is a baseball player. I thought he used to get in the ring a little bit, fight a bit. Now he is going to be baseball player. Now he is going to throw curves.”
“Yeah,” he said, “God with a skin on It.”
“God with a skin on It?”
“Yeah,” he said it: “If you only knew who I was, you’d all be healed.”
Do you know what I’m telling you, brother, sister?
It’s already on the road, and hardly anybody knows it. And none of us know it as we ought to know it. See? You’re looking… Don’t look down that road, brother/sister.
I’ve been preaching for years, and I’m sitting in this one place. I don’t go on the road anymore. I stay right with you people. How much are you getting? Don’t look back! You’re not even fit to be Lot’s wife to turn back, let alone the Bride of God.
And don’t look forward. There is nothing to look forward to. You’re already into it. Just keep in step, keep in step, keep in step. How is it with the Word of the prophet? The Shout to get us together. See? All right.
He talked about the Red Sea and the reeds. He talked about the astronauts; all of these things. And they said, “We didn’t see no God. We didn’t see no miracle. And I think we can explain it away.”
Well, let them try. Now the scientific camera’s eye took the picture…two pictures. And he put the Cloud of Angels absolutely with the Pillar of Fire that they caught in Houston, said, “the same thing” the seven mighty messengers embodying the Holy Ghost that came with the seven delineations of the Seven Seals, and the Seventh Seal, that was to be broken to the public. That was in a three-fold manner.
Now you tell me if the Rapture is not in a three fold manner.
“Well, I don’t know if I’ve got the right to compare it that close, but I’m just interested in knowing.”
I’m interested in knowing, if it wasn’t on December 4, 1965 that the Seventh Seal was broken to the public.
Tape about over? That is enough for tonight… Leave you thinking. And I ask the question, “Where are we?” See? You’re not going somewhere, brother, as though you’re making plans for a journey. You’re already in it.
Either you’re getting what it takes, or you never had what it took in the first place; and I’m talking of myself, because if we don’t have representation now, we didn’t have it then. And if we didn’t have it then, we don’t have it now. Yeah.
You tell that to your friends. Tell it to your sisters and brothers. Tell it to your mother, Dawn, Lloyd. I can’t tell my mother. She’s gone. Tell it to my kids. How much do they believe? Huh?
See, there is a definitiveness about this that I’m speaking about. I’m not speaking rashly. God knows I’m a rash person, but I’m not that rash. I know how to come out fighting and then turn away and run, because I believe in that little old saying, “He who fights and runs away, shall live to fight another day.”
The best offense many times is a retreat, and then sometimes, the best defense is a mighty good offense. And I like that one better than any of them. Come out slugging. Brother/sister, let me tell you something: your gentleness and goodness are to be commended.
Your beautiful thoughts are to be commended. Your good works are to be commended. Everything is to be commended. But let me tell you one thing: this Rapture is by grace, and if God doesn’t do it according to His Own Word, to His Own people, it isn’t going to be done.
And if we are not His Own people, it is going to be done, but not to us, because the prophet said, “There is a Bride out there somewhere, and if we’re not Bride, by the grace of God we don’t want to stand in their way.”
Alright. So far, so good. Let’s rise at this time.
Heavenly Father, again we look to You knowing, Lord, that this is kind of like we thought it might be, and we are not unhappy that it is that we would take much time concerning the Rapture, concerning Lord, this last Message that the prophet brought which we believe was certainly a revealing of a great mystery, which is the great mystery to the Bride, because what else is going to supersede it in the realm of being the dead coming out of the ground and we being changed?
And that is what he said the Rapture was. And, Lord, he said, “Lord Jesus Christ does all three in descending.” And absolutely we find the same Scripture there “that the Lord shall descend from heaven and caught up to meet the Lord.”
And I believe that is just exactly what was said there where “the Lord said to my Lord, ‘Sit thou on my right hand.’“
I believe at this time that that same Spirit that entered into that spotless Lamb of God, that Son, that One made flesh, that same One absolutely is back here in the Spirit and has done the same things He did back there and now has revealed the Word and is now ministering and quickening that Word so that it is all of God.
Now Lord , tonight there is not one of us here that doesn’t admit that even though it is all of You, there is still far too much of us. And we are not happy with us in any way, shape or form. And we will just ask You, Lord, to hasten the day, not that we’ll be happy with ourselves, but we would begin to see, Lord, that we are more solemn, more sober… End of the audio tape.]