E-1 What think ye of Christ, and Whose Son is He? It's an age-old question has been asked through the days. Years after years, this same question has been raised. What think ye of Christ, Whose Son is He? All through the ages people has wondered Who--Who He was, what He was. The argument has come back and forth, "Was He the Son of God? How could He be? How could the virgin birth...?"
And you know what? After a survey was made, according to government statistics, after the survey was made, there was seventy percent of the Protestant preachers denied the virgin birth of Jesus. Would you think of it? No wonder we've hatched out thirteen million infidels last year. See? Because that's the fundamental part of the Christian religion is based upon the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. If He was not borned a virgin birth, He was not the Son of God. And if He was born the virgin birth, He would have to be the Son of God; for no other one could bring Him here, 'cause God is the only Creator there is.
And now, let's look into the Scriptures, just for a few moments.
E-2 Some time ago, I was talking to a--a man, a hunting partner that hunts with me. I knowed him but just a few hours. I had met him on the road up to Colorado. I was going back to--to the mountains elk hunting, getting away to relax a little, back to myself. He picked me up, and we got on a horse. He said, "Can you ride?"
I said, "Well, I--I can hang on a little."
And he said, "Well, jump up in the saddle." And he was... having a couple of horses, and so we went riding along. He said, "What's your occupation?"
I said, "I'm a State Game Warden in Indiana."
He said, "Well, there's never a game warden ever welcome in this country."
I said, "Well, I'm from Indiana. I have nothing to do with your laws and rules here." I said, "That's just on the side, so I won't have to take up offerings." I said, "My church... I'm a minister."
He looked around to me, he said, "You look too bright for that."
And I said, "Well, I--I... not exchanging the compliment, my brother, but I--I feel like if I didn't believe that, I wouldn't be bright."
E-3 So, he said, "Well," he said, "I--I--I just want to talk to you awhile."
And I said, "Now, I won't argue," because the Scriptures are not to argue, They are to be lived. That's--that's, you live me a sermon. That's the best thing. I'd rather see one lived, than I would to hear one preached. Wouldn't you? Live a sermon. "You're written epistles, read of all men."
He said, "Well, what do you think about that virgin birth?" Said, "Do you believe that's the truth?"
I said, "I know it's the truth."
And he said, "Oh, you're just mistaken," said, "There--there couldn't be such a thing happen."
I said, "But there was."
E-4 He said, "Well, I want to ask you something." He said, "Now, I want to tell you in the beginning, I do not believe it. And I--I really think, in the bottom of your heart, you don't believe it."
I said, "But in my heart, if I know my heart, I do believe it."
And he said--he said, "All right," he said, "I can scientifically prove to you that the virgin birth is impossible."
I said, "I have nothing to do with science," I said, "We mu-... He that cometh to God must believe that He is, not prove that He is, but believe that He is."
And so he said, "Well," he said, "Look, anything that can't be proved by science is not real."
I said, "Oh, my. I'm going to sure disagree with you there." I said, "The only real things there is, is the things that science know nothing about."
He said, "Oh, my. We're really getting apart, aren't we?"
I said, "Yes, sir."
He said, "Well, looky here..."
E-5 I said, "I want to ask you something: Do you love your wife?"
He said, "Yes, sir."
I said, "Show me, scientifically, what love is. Pull that part out, let me feel it and see what it is. What part of you is a love that loves your wife, makes her different from any other woman?" There you are. See? I said, "Do you believe in personality?"
He said, "Yes."
I said, "Scientifically show me in a man what's personality. Can't be done." I said, "Personality, and love, and those things, God, Christ, Holy Spirit, Angels, all those things that are real, are things who cannot, which cannot be scientifically proven. When God made man, He made him first in His Own image, which is a Spirit. Then He put man in five senses, not to declare Him, but to contact his earthly home. Scientific part of a man, see, taste, feel, smell, and hear is only to contact his earthly home. The inside man, which is spirit, contacts God. Science knows nothing about it." And they set up things, and the first year, they have to alter it again, take it down. But God's Word is set up and established forever, never altered, It's God's Word, forever.
E-6 Now, he said, "Why, look," he said, "That virgin birth," said, "do you really believe that that's the truth?"
I said, "Yes, sir. I believe it."
He said, "Preacher, that's against all scientific rules, that virgin birth." He said, "It can't be," said, "corn, corn has to poll'; trees has to poll'; everything; the pollen has to go from one to another, from male to female to even in trees and everything else. If you don't, it don't bear."
I said, "But, you forget, sir, He's God, the Creator."
He said, "Well, it just can't be so, sir."
And I said, "Well, I--I beg your pardon, it's already proved. 'The--the proof of the pudding is the eating of it.'" And I said, "It is so."
E-7 He said, "Well, now, looky here," he said, "don't you believe that was a little slip-up, like Joseph was really the father and that just..."
I said, "No, sir! I believe that was God's Son, and Joseph had no more to do with it than I have." That's right. I said, "I believe it was the Son of God." And he... It was the Son of God.
And he said, "Well, looky here," he said, "I tell you," said, "it--it is, I believe it was a little slip-up."
I said, "Let me tell you something. Do you believe He had a, actually, a earthly mother?"
He said, "Yes, I believe Mary was his mother, but, Joseph was his father."
I said, "Then you say it's impossible for a woman, here on earth, to bring forth a child without knowing a earthly mate."
Said, "Yes, sir. That's exactly right."
E-8 I said, "Then I'm going to ask you one question. If you ask... you answer this, then I'm going to agree with you. If you tell me..." He'd just told me the first man come off of a--a polliwog, you know, or a piece off a star or something. I said, "I want to ask you something. If you tell me that a baby can't be born here on earth without a actual contact from the male sex, I want to ask you this: 'Where did the first man come from? Who was his father and his mother?' Let him be tadpole, monkey, whatever he might been, he had to have a pappy and a mammy somewhere, according to your teaching." That's right. "Who was his father and mother?"
He's never answered me yet. No, sir. He can't. No, sir. Let him be whatever he might be, if he was an insect, polliwog, jellyfish, whatever he was, according to their talk, he had to have a daddy and a mother somewhere.
E-9 I say that He was the virgin-born Son of God, created by Jehovah. I believe that God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. Hear the Truth of it and then worship Him in the Spirit. Now, and here's what I believe: That virgin Mary, was just a little girl, seventeen, eighteen years old, was going with a man, Joseph. And I believe God, the Creator, overshadowed that girl by the Holy Spirit, His being, and she conceived and brought a Child: Christ Jesus. We know that the--the baby, the blood cell comes from the male sex. The female has nothing to do with it. She's only a incubator.
E-10 Look, you take... if a hen... a hen can lay an egg, and if that hen hasn't been with the male bird, it will never hatch. It's not fertile. An old mother bird can make a nest, and lay a nest full of eggs, and she can just hover them, and hold them, and squeeze them, and set on there, and starve herself till she gets so poor she can't get off the nest. That's right. Hovering them eggs and keeping them warm, but if she hasn't been with the male bird, them eggs will lay right there in the nest and rot; they'll never hatch. That's right.
That's what I think about a whole lot of these old, cold, formal churches: a nest full of rotten eggs. You can hug them, squeeze them around: they haven't been in contact with the Holy Spirit and borned again, you got a nest full of rotten eggs. They don't believe, nor nothing else, might as well just dump it out and start the nest over again. That's right. Get people who's borned again, and know what they're talking about. No matter if he's a deacon, preacher, or whatever he is. Amen.
Don't get scared. I know where I am, now. This--this is... I'm not excited. I--I just love the Lord. Don't you? Sure, you do. All right. Now, that's true.
E-11 Then the Holy Spirit, God, the Creator, overshadowed the little virgin Mary, and created in her womb a Blood Cell that produced the Son of the living God. Man had nothing to do with it. There it is. And in there she brought forth this Baby. And He was the Blood of His Father, created, not sexual desire, but created. God, Jehovah, created That. We're born by sexual desire. And He shed, freely, that precious, Holy Blood, on Calvary's cross, to stand between the sinner and God, making a way of sinner, a holy man, through His Blood, by the offering of it. Hallelujah!
That's the Blood, this afternoon, that heals the sick, and cleanse the sinner, and makes him a new creature. Only through That, that Blood, alone, that's the reason we can stand on faith knowing where we are, for we believe it. The attributes of It cleans us up from a life of sin, and makes us a new creature in Christ Jesus. Devils scream and holler, and come out; cripples walk; blind see; deaf hear; sinners laden in sin are made ladies and gentlemen in society. Amen. There you are. That's Whose Son He was, He was the Son of God. Amen. I believe it with all my heart.
E-12 God is a Spirit, not a man. If He was a man, Christ was born, sexual desire. He was not a man. He is a Spirit, and He overshadowed the virgin Mary, and she brought forth the Son by a creative power, which is Jehovah God. Amen. Then that Blood is unadulterated, and It answers in my place, this afternoon, It answers in your place.
E-13 Few years ago, when Mayo Brothers looked me in the face, and said, "Reverend Branham, you can't live," I accepted the Blood of Jesus Christ. I'm better off, today, than I ever was in all of my life, because It's the unadulterated Blood of Jesus Christ.
When the best doctors that could be, doctored Congressman Upshaw, wheelchair cases and everything else, when everything had failed, and when his young bones, looked like, would've come together, and everything would've been all right, when he was a young man. But, God let him live till he was old, and his old--old bones was brittle and everything else, then the unadulterated Blood of Jesus Christ answered at Calvary for his healing. Here he is today, like a new man. The Blood of Jesus Christ! The Son of God! That's what I believe He was.
Oh, how we could go on. Ages would only tell what--what He is, explain what He is, and Who He is.
E-14 Let's call some questioneers for a few minutes.
Let's ask some of His enemies, if anybody would know, let's see some of His enemies, see what they testify.
E-15 Let's ask some of His friends, first. Let's go back and ask the first man, if we could call him on the stand, this afternoon, say, "Adam, come here a minute. I want to ask you something. Whose Son was that? Who was this Baby the world's arguing so much about the virgin birth, and so forth, Who is He?"
Adam would say, "He's the Seed of the woman, that was to bruise the serpent's head." I believe he'd give the answer he did in the Bible.
"Adam, what do you think about Him?"
E-16 If I'd ask Moses, the great prophet, "Moses, what do you think about Him, Jesus Christ?"
You know what he would say? Moses would say, "He's the One that I spoke of, 'the Lord your God will rise a Prophet up, like unto me; and if the people won't believe Him, they'll be cut off.' That's what I think about Him." All right.
E-17 We'd ask... we go ask Ezekiel. He was a great prophet. "Ezekiel, what do you think about Him?"
He said, "I saw Him, and He look like a wheel in the middle of a wheel, turning way up in the middle of the air."
"What do you think about Him, prophet Ezekiel?"
E-18 "Hebrew children, what do you think about Him?"
They'd say, "One day, way down in Babylon, we were down there in captivity, and the first thing you know, there was a proclamation went out, that, whosoever would not bow to an image, should be throwed in a fiery furnace. And we purposed in our heart, with Daniel, that we would not defile ourselves. So when the time come, and the horns blowed, and the music started, we turned our back to the image, to serve God. One day they het the furnace seven times hotter than it ever was het. They marched us on the gangplank." Let's look at that, just for a few moments.
E-19 My, you talk about whenever you speak of Jesus Christ and His Blood and His power, the devil turns the heat on you right then. Don't you think that you're going to get by.
Must I be carried Home to Heaven
On a flowery bed of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
No, I must fight if I should reign,
Increase my courage, Lord.
That's it. Support me with Thy Word.
E-20 I can see them down there, that morning, when King Nebuchadnezzar said, "We'll cut out all this here holy-roller shine, we're having down here. We'll burn it out of them." Could you imagine a fire burning Fire? Well, you can't burn the Holy Ghost out of a man. It's Fire itself. All right. I can see them heat the furnace, the skies are black, seven times hotter than it ever was, and King Nebuchadnezzar get him a chair and watch to see what would take place.
The crucial hour come when they was tied, their hands behind them, on the death march, up to the place to drop into the furnace.
I can hear Shadrach say to Meshach, "Listen, brother, are you sure you're prayed up?"
"Yes! I'm all right."
They said, "Are you ready to compromise, boys?"
He said, "Our God is able to deliver us from the fiery furnace, but nevertheless, we'll not bow down to your image."
God give us some more people like that in New York, not only New York, but everywhere, who is willing to take God at His Word and stand there. Let come, let go, what may: stand with Christ. All right. He may be late, He may be this, that or the other. But don't worry, He'll be there, just right.
E-21 Then I can see them going up. And they begin to get fainty and sick. The men with the spears behind them, pushing them. They're almost...
Let's look at a little drama here for a few moments. Look, back there, at them people, standing back, said, "That's what'll happen to them holy-rollers. That's what takes place with them people who call themselves the servants of the God that can't be seen with a..." like of the image was, that they serve, said, "that's what will take care of them."
And as they walked up, I can see them getting kind of deathly sick, but they knew that God was able, but nevertheless, they wasn't going to bow down. Then, just about two steps was left, look at them walking, and there they go on. And the men is begin to faint, who is pushing them on. It looked like a pretty black picture for a believer, doesn't it?
E-22 Let's turn our camera for a few minutes. Let's look up to Glory. All the time there's anything going on down here, there's something going on up there. Always. I can see Him setting there with His priestly garment. My, the first thing you know coming to His right, I see a great Angel coming, his name is Gabriel. You know, Heaven's full of Angels. Don't you believe it? I can see Gabriel run up there, and pull his sword, say, "Master, I've served You since the day that You created me. I hold the lightnings in my hand. Look what's going on, down there in Babylon. They're fixing to burn up three believers. Let me go down there, this morning. I'll show Babylon which side of the bread has got butter on it." I believe he could've done it, don't you? I can hear him say, "Let me go down there. I'll clean Babylon up, this morning."
I can hear Him say, "Yes, Gabriel, you've been a righteous Angel. You've obeyed Me since the day I created you, but I can't let you go." Then I see him sheath his sword, stand back to attention, to his side.
E-23 Up, from this side, comes another Angel. He's Wormwood, the one who has control over the water, saying, "Master, have You looked down in Babylon? Why, You give me the jurisdiction over the antediluvian destruction. I broke up the springs of the deep, and rained the waters out of the heaven. I washed the earth off. Let me go down there, this morning. I'll wash Babylon off the face of the earth." I believe he could have done it.
I can hear Him say, "Woodworm, you've been a good Angel. You've done just what I told you in the antediluvian destruction. You cleared the earth out, and saved Noah, but I can't let you go."
Said, "Have You considered them?"
Said, "I've watched them all night long." Oh, my. "His eye is on the sparrow, I know He watches me." He knows what you're doing, what you're thinking. I can hear Him say, "I've watched them all night long." Oh, my. If He was concerned about three, how about the thousands that set here, of a night, that's in trouble? Sure He is.
E-24 I can hear Him say, "I'd let you all go, but I can't, for I'm going Myself. That's a Man-size job, so I'm going down." I can see Him rise from His chair, His priestly garments drop around Him. I can see Him look around, way back over here in the north, there's a big thunderhead. I can hear Him say, "Come here east wind, west wind, north, and south."
Everything in the heavens obey Him. Man knows more than He does; man tries to figure it out. The heavens obey Him. Obedience is better than sacrifice.
E-25 "Come here, east wind, west wind, north, and south. Get under that thunderhead over yonder. I want to take a trip, this morning." I can see them go over there, roll under that big thunderhead, come down along, go aside of the throne. He stepped off of His throne, onto that big thunderhead, like a chariot, reached over, and hooked them four winds to the cloud out there, going to ride like a chariot, get a hold of a zigzag lightning out the skies, crack it. Hallelujah!
One step more, and Hebrew children will be in the fiery furnace. And He passes by the Sea of Life, picks a palm off the Sea of Life. When they made their last--last step, there He appeared, in the fiery furnace with a fan, fanning back the breezes.
E-26 "What do you think of Him, Hebrew children?"
He said, "He looked like the Son of God, to me, when He was standing there." I believe He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. "One like the Son of God."
What do you think of Him?
I say, "Isaiah, what do you think of Him?" (Another prophet.) " What do you think of Him? You're a major prophet."
He said, "He's the Counsellor, The Prince of Peace, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father. Unto us a Child is born, given: the government shall be upon His shoulders;" Oh! "and of His Kingdom there shall be no end."
What do you think of Him? Whose Son is He? I believe He was the Son of God. Don't you?
E-27 I say, "Daniel, you stood there one day. What do you think about the Son of God? What do you think about Jesus Christ? Was He the Christ? What do you think about Him?"
He'd say, "One day, Brother Branham, I was viewing the ages," Hallelujah! "I was viewing the ages as God was passing them by me in a vision. I was watching the ages pass by. I seen all the kings come, and the great kingdoms, and so forth. And then I beheld, till there was a Stone cut out of the mountain without hands, and rolled into Babylon; poured down; and it became a great Mountain, that filled all the earth." He said, "That was Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God." Hallelujah! Daniel.
E-28 Let's ask John the Baptist. The Bi-... Jesus said, "He was the major of all the prophets." "What do you think about Him, John?" Look at John, when he was standing there. Jesus said, "There never was a man borned of a woman, as great as John." "What do you think about Him? You was right there. You was His second cousin. What do you think about Him?"
Here's what he said: "I knew Him not: but He, that, said to me in the wilderness, 'Upon Whom thou shall see the Spirit descending, and remaining, He's the One that will baptize with the Holy Ghost and with Fire: Whose fan is in His hand.'"
"What do you think about Him, John?"
E-29 Let's call another witness. I don't believe there's a better witness that ever lived, than His mother. That's right. "Mary, you're the one who brought Him here." Let's ask Mary, the virgin, "Whose Son is He? Mary, you ought to know. You're His mother."
She said, "I knew not a man." Hallelujah! "But the Holy Ghost overshadowed me, and said, 'The Holy Thing will be called the Son of God.'" I believe the Son of God. Don't you? Yes, sir. Whose Son is He?
E-30 Let's ask that Roman soldier who pierced His side, seen His Blood come pouring out. "What do you think about Him?"
He said, "Surely that was the Son of God."
E-31 Let's think of Judas, His enemy. Let's see what His enemy said. "Judas, what do you think about Him?"
"Oh," he said, "I have betrayed innocent Blood. Give me a rope, that I can hang myself; and here, Caiaphas, is your money. I betrayed innocent Blood."
E-32 Let's look at Pilate, that great lawyer, a great man of that day, a proclamator. Let's ask him, "What do you think about Him, Pilate? Come on out of hell and raise up here."
You say, "Was he in hell?"
Sure he was. He is yet.
Say, "Why do you say that?"
I ain't judging him, but by his fruits he's known. All right.
"What do you think about Him, Pilate, sitting there?"
He said, "Oh, one day I was setting there: 'I find no fault in Him.'"
E-33 Let's look. Let's turn the scene just a minute. I can just see him standing there, looking, looks around, his angered eyes looking at Him, trying to find something wrong with Him. Then he thought he would find some favor with Caesar, and so forth.
I hear a horse coming. Listen at it. It's coming up the road, hard as it can come. What is it? It's one of the temple guard. He jumps off, dismounts, runs up before Pilate, bows hisself, and hands him a note. Let's see. Pilate, he opens up the note, begins to read it. His face turns white, his eyes set, his knees buckle together. What's the matter? Let's look over his shoulder and see what it is.
It's from his wife. "My beloved husband," a heathen, she was, "my beloved husband, have nothing to do with this just Man: for today I've suffered many things in a dream." He was white in his face, his bones went out of joint, his knees buckled together, that great proclamator. "What do you think of Him, Pilate?"
"I wash my hands."
"No, you never. He's still on your hands."
E-34 He's on the hands of every man, this afternoon, that hears the Message of Jesus Christ. That's right.
Oh, my. What do you think of Him? Whose Son is He? Why, in birth, He was wonderful, in His birth. Do you believe it? In His birth, He was wonderful. In wisdom, there was never a man that spoke like this Man. Do you believe that? In sacrifice, He was perfect; in death, He was a Redeemer. When He rose, He proved He was God. Hallelujah! That's right. He said He was. When He was here on earth, He said He was God. He looked like God. He acts like God. He preached like God. He rose like God. He was God. Hallelujah! Emmanuel inveiled in flesh, walking among man. He was God, Emmanuel. He fulfilled the Father. He's thrilled the hearts of the poets and great men down through the ages. And every man that ever amounted to a hill of beans, was somebody who put their trust in Him, as the Son of God.
E-35 Stonewall Jackson was asked, one time, "How can you stand with this small of a group of men?" And asked, "How can you stand like that? And with opposition so great." He kicked his boot on the ground, he said, "There's never a glass of water goes to my lips, 'less I thank Jesus Christ for it. That's why."
George Washington, before Valley Forge kneeling.
You know the different ones.
E-36 Let's ask the poet. "What do you think about Him?" He's thrilled the hearts of the poets. Let's ask, today, "Eddy Newton, what do you think about Him? Newton, what do you think?" He was in the room one day; inspiration struck him. "Let's see what you think about Him."
He picked up the pen. He wrote: Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I'm found, Was blind...