E-1 Certainly very happy to see as many out tonight, after me keeping you till midnight last night. I didn't think you’d all be out today, but looks like you going to come out to Sunday school, and that’s very good.
E-2 Now we’re studying and trying to just take our time upon this church Doctrine. And I just teach It. And now, there may be some strangers with us, that I don’t know. I’m not here in the tabernacle enough to know who is members of the church. But I’d announced that this would just be for members of the church. Because, out, people has so many different doctrines, and so forth. Well, and, they’re believe those things. They been taught to believe them. And—and—and then when you come into another church, maybe, and teaches something very contrary, well, then they think, “Say, I don’t agree with That.” See? Well, we don’t mean to be rude or to hurt anyone, the reason we do this. Now, you believe whatever you wish. But we are…I’m placing this, and have to make it real strong, because we have to clinch it down. This is what the tabernacle stands for, see, just what we stand for here. And, that way, we wouldn’t want you to feel offended and think that we were trying to hurt you in your belief, or anything like that. That’s not at all. And this is a…
E-3 We go through this about every two or three years, around here, and what we stand for, just the doctrine, what we stand for, and why we do it. What, why we believe This. And so if there be strangers here who is not a—a member of the church, we’re certainly glad to have you to set in on this discussion this morning and also tonight.
E-4 And, then, Wednesday there will start a regular campaign in the meeting, I mean, at the tabernacle here. And I been away for a while, on a little rest. I got real, real tired, and had to go away, to rest a while. And I just got back, feel fine, feel wonderful. And so I’ll be leaving again, as soon as this over, and won’t be back any more till January. I’m not going any meetings; I’m just going away, continue the rest that I was on.
E-5 But, when we come in, we found the church kind of in a little upset here and there, and some of the members had begin to kind of get a little lukewarm, pull away, holding little enmities against each other, and so forth like that. I went around, from one to the other, till we got this all straightened up now. It’s all right. See?
E-6 And there’s nothing wrong. There was nothing wrong with any of the members. They’re every one fine men and women. If they could just realize that that’s the devil, gets between the people. That’s exactly right. It’s not the people. If you can let a brother see that, then he won’t hold enmity against the other fellow. He has…He’ll—he’ll feel bad. He’ll feel like, “Well, that’s…I feel sorry for my brother.” See, if he did do wrong, why, it wasn’t the brother. It was the devil that did that.
E-7 You say, “Well, this guy did a certain, certain thing.” Your brother didn’t do that; your sister didn’t do that; that was the devil got into them, that did it. So don’t blame the brother, the sister; blame the devil, that’s the one who caused it.
E-8 And so now in these church Doctrines, now, they may be very odd to you. They may be that you wouldn’t agree with them, at all. But we just…That’s what we believe. We believe it because that it’s in the Bible, and we teach it that way.
E-9 Now, last night, our subject was: Why Are We Not A Denomination? Now, we are an organization because we’re a church, but we are not a denomination. And then I was giving the reasons why we are not a denomination.
E-10 Now, as we open the discussion this morning, before we do so, let us pray.
E-11 Dear God, it’s into Thy Holy Presence that we come again to ask the cleansing of our own minds, our souls, that we might present ourselves to Thee as an instrument in which You could work in, and through, to Your own glory. And, Father, cleanse my thoughts, and my mind, and my speaking, that it might not be me that does the speaking; but the Holy Spirit might anoint the lips, and of clay, that it might bring forth the Truths that God Almighty would have His Church to know.
E-12 And we would ask You, then, Lord, if You do that, that You would move back every demon of—of trouble, and every demon of enmity and malice, away from the people, that they might hear the Holy Spirit speak, that God may receive glory out of our gathering together this morning. And if there be one thing in our hearts that’s not just exactly in condition, where You could speak to us, O God, cast it away from us, as far as the East is from the West. For, we would know only the will of God, to do. So lead us by Thy Holy Spirit, in this coming discussion upon Church and Its Doctrine, and what It should stand for, and why It should stand for thus. For we ask it in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
E-13 Now, last evening we were giving the—the thought of why we was not a organized denomination. And we…Just a little backgrounds for this. Is because we find, that, in a denomination, it draws a barrier.
E-14 Now, we got many things to discuss. And we discussed it, why we did not accept women ministers in the church, last night.
And this morning we want to, the subject, if we possible: The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit, and why we believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and how the baptism of the Holy Spirit comes, and what It does, and how It makes you act afterwards.
E-15 And then tonight, if the Lord willing, I want to speak on the subject, “The seed of the serpent, of this in this day.” Now, the people don’t believe in the seed of the serpent, but it’s Scripture. See? Now, regardless of…
E-16 Now, this, if I make this real strong, I’m not meaning it now to you—to you dear people. Only thing I’m trying to do is drive it in, and we’re going to make it rough, see. So you got to speak like…You say, “Johnny, go sit down,” he might not listen to that. But you say, “Johnny, sit down!” Johnny will pay more attention to it. So now we’re going to holler, “Johnny, sit down,” this morning. See? All right. I want to speak it so that you’ll understand what we’re meaning. See?
E-17 And if we say something that’s contrary to your thoughts, and your belief, we’re not one thing…Remember, that, in this church being a interdenomination, we believe that Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Catholic, Protestant, Jew, whatever he is, as long as he is a brother, he is our brother, that’s all, no matter what denomination he belongs to. God will never hold that against him, be in a denomination.
E-18 But, the reason denominations are. Now, here’s what starts denominations. God will reveal a little something to somebody, and they’ll come and make a denomination around that belief that they have, and then God can’t move any farther.
E-19 How could the Methodist ever accept anything more than the second work of grace? They denominated themselves under that. How could the Baptists ever believe any more than what they… “The just…” Or, Lutheran, rather, “The just shall live by faith.” That’s what they denominated under. How can the Baptists go any farther than they go? “Why, when you believe, you receive the Holy Ghost. And immersed in water, and that settles it.” Why? That’s what they’re denominated under. See? Why is it Pentecost believes, that, “When you speak in tongues, you got the Holy Ghost, and that settles it”? Cause they’re denominated under it. Brother, them things may be, every one, all right, but God isn’t bound to any little denomination. He just spreads over the whole thing, that’s all. And—and we—we believe that.
E-20 And that’s the reason that we never become a denomination. The Lord has give us the opportunity to merge this little church in many different denominations, but we don’t do it. Because, we want to stay just like this so it can be under the rulership and headship of Jesus Christ. That’s right. Whatever He reveals to us, and we see that it’s the Truth, and it lines up with His Word, all the way back and forth through the Bible, that it is the Truth, and the Spirit is agreeing on it, we have no denominational barriers to hold us from accepting That. We go right ahead into It, and move right on.
E-21 And so when the denomination says that, like the church of Christ, they’re under a denomination, so-called Church of Christ, that, “Days of miracles is passed, and all these things like that.” Why, where would you ever find that in the Scripture? But they couldn’t do nothing else about it. They’re denominated under that, see, so there’s nothing you can do about it.
But we want to be free, where we can just move as the Spirit moves us, by deeper depths and higher heights, and just keep moving on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, just wherever.
E-22 But now we won’t accept any fanaticism. We draw a line right there. If somebody gets a little something the Lord’s revealed to him, and it doesn’t coincide with this Bible, plumb through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, becomes a doctrine, then we will not accept it. See? It’s got to come from the Bible. And it can’t just become by somebody’s revelation. If the revelation is right with the Word, all right.
E-23 A man come to me, some time ago, and he said, “I just come to the United States, Brother Branham.” He said, “Now, I got acquainted with a Christian sister, and,” said, “this Christian sister was one of the most lovely women. But,” said, “they come to find out that she had three or four husbands. And,” said, “that—that, right while I’ve knowed her, since being here three months, she got rid of that one and married another one.” And said, “She had the Holy Ghost, spoke in tongues completely all the time, regularly, and,” said, “gave prophecies and revelation.” Said, “She was a real Spirit-filled woman. And she was a lady minister.” And said, “I went and I asked the Lord, ‘Why would such-and-such a thing be? Why is it that this woman could do such as this?’” And said, “I had a dream of my wife. And my wife was having an affair with another man, which was immoral. And then,” said, “she come and knelt down by my feet and said, ‘Will you forgive me for what I done?’” He said, “‘Sure, I forgive you.’ And said, ‘Why do you forgive me so freely?’ Said, ‘Because I love you.’” And said, “The Lord spoke back in the dream and told me, that, ‘That’s the reason I forgive her, is because I love her.’”
E-24 I said, “Sir, your dream was mighty sweet. It was mighty nice, but the Lord never give you that dream. It don’t cooperate with His Word.” That’s right. It won’t work with His Word. No matter how real it seems, it’s got to come from the Word.
E-25 In the Old Testament, they had three ways of knowing a message. First, of course, was the law; next, was by a prophet; next, is by a dreamer. Now, the law was a written articles that was kept in the ark, and that was the commandments and the laws on the commandments. And then a prophet could prophesy, or a dreamer could dream a dream. Which, God deals both ways, with prophets and with dreams. “If there be one among you who is spiritual, or a prophet, I the Lord will make Myself known to him in—in—in—in dreams, and will reveal Myself to him in visions. And if what he says comes to pass, then hear him, for I’m with him. If it doesn’t, then don’t hear him.”
E-26 Now, when they took a prophesier, prophet, or a dreamer, and (they) he had a dream or a prophecy, and they wanted to find out whether that was the truth or not, they took him up to what was called the Urim Thummim.
E-27 Now, I know that may be, to some—some of you, a little hard word. But what it was, was actually the…Aaron being the high priest over the—the twelve tribes of Israel, he had six stones on each side of a breastplate. And each stone was the birthstone of the tribe, like the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Gad, tribe of Reuben, tribe of Benjamin. Each one had a birthstone. And then when that birthstone…It would be hanging on one of the plates in the church, or the pilaster. And then when they brought this prophet who had a prophecy that he said the Lord was going to do a certain thing, and they brought him before here, and he told his prophecy, or he told his dream. Now, if God was in that dream or in that prophecy, them lights begin to mingle together and made like a rainbow color a ’flecting, an answer of Supernatural. See? That’s right. Agreeing with every stone in there, every stone blending its part together, reflecting back with the answer of God, “That man is a prophet. He’s telling the truth.” Or, “That dream was sent by Me.” But if it just stayed dormant and didn’t move, I don’t care how real it seemed, it was wrong. They didn’t receive it.
E-28 What a beautiful illustration today. Now, the Old Testament Urim Thummim has been done away with, because it changed priesthoods. Now the Urim Thummim is the Word of God, the Bible. Yes, sir. In here, the Bible said, “Let every man’s word be a lie, and Mine be true.” And no matter how real it seems when a man is a telling it, or how real his dream is, or his revelation is, if it, every Book in the Bible, the entire Bible, doesn’t reflect the light on It, that it’s the Truth, leave it alone, leave it alone.
E-29 Now, you can take a little piece of Scripture here, and say, “Jesus did so-and-so and we ought to do the same,” you can make It say anything you want to make It say. But it’s got to come all the way through and line up perfectly with the Word of God, then it’s right, that’s God saying so. This is His Urim Thummim.
E-30 Therefore, God never did, in any age, have a denomination of churches. You tell me when it was. And, now, there never was a denomination until three hundred and sixty years after the death of the last disciple. That was the Roman Catholic church. And out of…The Roman Catholic church, God called her, in the Bible, Revelation 17, “a whore.” That’s an impure woman. And out of that, she had daughters, and those daughters were harlots, impure like she was. That’s what the Scripture said. And the Roman Catholic church gave birth to all Protestantism, and they’ve went right back and done the very same thing that she did.
E-31 And the reason that she was impure, she had a cup of doctrines in her hand, a wine of her wrath of her fornications. And she give it to the kings of the earth, and she set over “many waters,” and reigned over the rulers of the earth. We found that so in the Bible. We found that she was supposed to be setting on seven hills, a church. We found it. We found that she was decked with a triple crown: jurisdiction of hell, heaven, and purgatory. Right. And is a man was the ruler of it; he was the antichrist, set in the temple of God, showing himself he was God, forgiving sins on earth. We had all this, went through it and see that it’s right.
E-32 Said, “Here is to him that has wisdom.” We find that the Spirit kept speaking expressly, “To him that has wisdom; to he that has knowledge; to him, the different spirits, the gifts.” Can’t you see that God moving that Church in the last days? There’s got to rise a Church full of the spiritual gifts, the real gifts of God. “Here’s to he that has wisdom. Let him count the numbers of the beast, for it’s the number of a man. His number is six hundred and sixty-six.” And we found where that was, exactly. Couldn’t be no more perfect. Write it out, your ownself, a “vicarivs,” which is the vicar of Christ, a “filii” of God, VICARIVS FILII DEI, and see if it doesn’t, in your Roman numerals, and see if you haven’t got six hundred and sixty-six. See if don’t place, not upon something else would give you suspicion this or that, but right at the same place where the rest of the Scripture says it’ll be setting.
E-33 And here we are, Protestants, coming right out. Now, what we’re trying to do today is to bring out and show that the doctrine that the Catholic church brought out, and has, we’ve adopted it right over here in the Protestant church. And we’re giving that to the people, which is the same glass of spiritual fornications that she gives out. Cause, they’re not Scriptural. They’re man-made. It’s false prophecy. It’s a lie. It’s of the devil.
E-34 And then we found out, to get a little background, to show that, the age that we’re living in. And picked it up last night, that, a—a bastard-born child, illegitimate child, could not even come into the congregation of the Lord for fourteen generations. That would be four hundred years; forty years to a generation. How horrible sin was! How horrible, not was, but what it is now. And if that was under the law…
E-35 And Christ come to magnify the law. He said, “You’ve heard them say, them of old times, ‘Thou shalt not kill’; but I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his brother, without a cause, has killed already.” Magnified it. “You’ve heard them say, them of old times, ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’ that was the act; but I say unto you, whosoever looketh upon a woman, to lust after her, has committed adultery.” Magnified it, thousands of times. Well, if it taken fourteen generations for that to fade out, then what about when the magnifying glass of God is throwed on it?
E-36 And people today, the teen-agers out in high school, with beer parties, and drinking, and living…and little girls living in adultery, little boys, and things like that. What kind of a generation is coming up after this? What makes these little girls act like that? Their mammy was a flapper, their grandmammy was a chorus girl. And He said He would visit the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation. What can you expect any more?
E-37 And when the whole things begin to leak out, and the righteous seed begins setting on the side, getting thinner and thinner. And the wicked just keep on, very religious, just keep getting wicked, and wicked-er and wicked-er, there’s nothing to do but destroy the whole thing like He did back there in the antediluvian destruction. Every thought of man is continually full of sin. Everything man thinks about today is a bottle of whiskey, or some woman, or out running around, can’t live true to their wives. The boys can’t live true to their girls. Girls can’t live true to the boys. Why, they’re in such a place till the devil has got them so bound and possessed with evil spirits, the whole thing has become a conglomeration of sin. That’s the reason we’re in the day. And that’s the reason that Russia is playing exactly in the hands of God, to rock this thing out of here. The Bible says so. Certainly. God is using communism. He will use it. Communism will destroy the entire thing, according to the Scripture, and we’re in that day.
E-38 Now, bringing these things out, see. Listen, people, you are facing this. And you, it…This determines your Eternal destination, so don’t take it something lightly. Look at it in the—the Urim Thummim that’s affecting, how it’s affecting the Words.
E-39 Now, when we’re speaking of these things, see if they cooperate with the Bible, see if they tally up with what the Scripture said.
E-40 Now, every church, as you say, “I’m a Christian.” “What denomination do you belong to?” What difference does that make, what denomination he belongs to? We realize that denomination has nothing to do with God’s Bible. And all Protestant denominations are harlots. Your Bible said so. When you say you’re a Methodist, you’re a Methodist harlot. You say you’re a Baptist, you’re a Baptist harlot. When you say you’re a Pentecost, you’re a Pentecostal harlot. That’s what the Bible said. So, she is, “The mother of harlots.” Now, if that’s all you got…
E-41 Now, if you are fellowshipping in this denomination and yet a Christian, you are a Christian; and you’re not a Methodist, you’re not a Baptist, you’re not a Pentecostal. You’re a Christian. Not, why, even the…
E-42 I heard a discussion this morning on the radio, while I was getting ready to come to church, on this Christian roundtable discussion in Louisville. And the churches have adopted the program of teaching their children modern drinking.
What kind of a bunch of idiots are we going to produce? Why is it? Because their mammy and pappy at home knows no more about God than a Hottentot would know about Egyptian night. Abstain from the whole thing. You don’t have to moder-…make yourself modern. You make alcoholics when you do that. “Oh, we’ll let her do this, and let him do this,” and so forth like that. What can you expect? We can’t go another generation. We can’t do it. We’re at the end time.
E-43 So, I don’t want you to class me as some kind of a quack. I may be; if I am, I’m just as…I’m ignorant of it.
E-44 I said to my wife setting there. I said, “Meda, have I become a religious fanatic? Have I lost my mind? Or, is it the Spirit of God that can’t stand those things, that’s crying out? Is there something in here that makes me even go against my own thinking, my own will?” I said, “There’s only three things it can be. It can either be that I have lost my mind…” If I am, I don’t know it. I’m a nervous, upset person. That’s just my nature. My gift does that, but, as a minister. But I—I’m… “I’ve either lost my mind, or I’ve become a fanatic, or it’s the Spirit of God.” It’s—it’s got to be one of those things.
E-45 But, I can’t stand to see the things, and something inside just screams out. And yet I know, according to the Bible, that it’s got to happen. Then what good does it do to scream out? How is God going to stand at the Judgment and throw this generation up here if He hasn’t got a voice screaming against it, to bring judgment? What’s going to be the Pharisees, if there wasn’t a John to scream out of the wilderness? What good is it going to do, when I tell, “They shouldn’t do this, and shouldn’t do this, and shouldn’t do this, and you should not do this. And you should be filled with the Spirit”?
They walk by and say, “Off at the head! Crazy! Something happened to him!”
Well, what’s the use of doing it? Because, God’s got to have a voice. Got to say it, anyhow, so He can bring judgment, say, “There it was. You’re not ignorant of it.” That’s right. And if you don’t cry out, what’s He going to do? There’s something cries out, in you. You can’t help it.
E-46 Now, now we find out, then, that when we brought down the next article we have here, finding out, that—that, the reason we are a nondenominational. And we believe that there is born-again Christians, sainted people, in Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, and whatmore. We believe that God’s Church is that Seed that’s mixed down through this realm down through here, and it come in by what we spoke of last night, and we’ll further discuss it, predestination. Not that God predestines anything to be, but, by foreknowledge He can predestinate, for He knowed all things.
E-47 And we found out last night that there’s nobody ever got saved, like tonight, and had their name wrote on the Lamb’s Book of Life. Your name was either put on the Lamb’s Book of Life before the world begin, or it never was there or never will be. We find out, when God slayed the Lamb before the foundation of the world, you was slain with your Lamb. You believe that? Find out just in a minute.
E-48 Let’s turn to Revelations, to begin, Revelation 17 or…Revelation 13:8, and find out here what the Bible says about—about whether…when the Lamb was slain. See if It was slayed in a.d. 33, or a.d. 33, or whether It was slain what…when It was slain. All right. Now, this is the United States in prophecy here, of course. Now we read this.
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (What? The beast.), whose names were not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
E-49 When was the Lamb slain, two thousand years ago? Maybe a hundred million years ago. Before the foundation of the world was ever formed, Jesus Christ died for our sins. Oh, but now I get religious. Before there was a world, Jesus Christ died to save it.
E-50 “Well,” you say, “then why did God, the infinite God, ever permit sin?”
You know, there’s attributes in God. And if God would have never permitted Satan…He knew, when He created Lucifer, that he was to be the one to corrupt the world. Oh, our God is not something little, pushed off in one corner, but He’s the infinite God Who never had a beginning or never will have an end. And, in Him, He is in His attributes. He is a Saviour. And how could He ever been known as a Saviour if there hadn’t been something to save? How would we have ever know…
E-51 Which was first? As, I ask the question. Which was first, the Saviour or a sinner? Well, if the Saviour was first, and the Saviour is higher than the sinner, how did the sinner ever happen to be? If there hadn’t have been a sinner, he would have never knowed Him as a Saviour. Which is the most powerful, a healer or a sick man? The healer just takes the sickness and destroys it. Which was first, a God or a cancer? Why, there was a God, first. Why did He permit the—the disease then? Because, if He can destroy it now, He could have caused it not to happen. And if He’s infinite, He knew it would happen. But then, if He doesn’t—if He doesn’t, if there is no disease, then He’d never been known as a Healer. But being that He is a Healer, there had to be a disease. You see what I mean? Now, He knowed all things.
E-52 Now, in Revelation 13:8, listen. “And the Lamb was slain” (When?) “before the foundation of the world.” God in His infinite mind, looking down through the streams of time, and He saw what would take place, and how He would have to create and drop down into this time of space, to pull out what He really was.
E-53 Why don’t you young…you men that’s got your wives, put a woman under a test and you’ll see what she’s made out of. That’s right. Put a man under a test, it’ll shake a bottle under his mouth, if he’s been an alcoholic. It’ll tell you whether he got saved from it or not. If he’s been a rascal, a run around, a filthy hound that broke up other men’s homes; strip some woman and start him…start her by him, and it’ll tell what he’s made out of. That’s right. Certainly.
E-54 God, to show His power, to show what He was, that He was a Saviour, He permitted a sinner to be here.
E-55 As I’ve said, how will the Angels sing the redemption stories, when they don’t even know what redemption means? But, we can sing it. We know what it means to be lost and what it means to be found. You never was lost, you don’t know what it means to be found. It’s those who are lost, knows what it means. It’s those who’ve had sickness, that knows how to enjoy good health when it comes. It’s that vile person that walked the streets yonder, that never had a friend, and never had no one to put their arms around, and never had nobody to even look at them and consider them; it’s that person that knows what a real friend means, to put an arm around. Sure, you have to know.
E-56 How we ever know how to appreciate this sunshine, if there hadn’t have been a night? How would you knowed to appreciate a pretty, bright day, if there’d never been a cloudy one? How would you know to appreciate the warm sunshine of the summer, if there hadn’t have been a winter? The law of pro and con. I’m getting off, to preaching. I don’t mean to do that. All right.
E-57 Revelation 17:8, where we, just for a minute now, to show now. The Lamb was slain when? “Before the foundation of the world.” All right. Revelation 17:8.
And the beast which thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and shall go into perdition: and they that dwell upon the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from—the book of life from (when?) the foundation of the world,…
E-58 When was your name put in the Book of Life? As I said last night, the man that wrote the song, “There’s a new name written down in Glory, and it’s mine, it’s mine,” meaningly he was right, but Scripturally he was wrong. Your name was not written the night you come to Christ.
Jesus said, “All the Father has given Me will come to Me. And no man can come except My Father draws him. All that comes to Me, I’ll give them Eternal Life, and raise him up at the last day. There’s none of them lost. I loose nothing, ’cause no man can pluck them out of My Father’s hand, Who gave them to Me.” Oh, my! Whew! Saint John 5:24, “He that heareth My Words and believeth on Him that sent Me, has Eternal Life, and shall never come to the judgment, but has passed from death unto Life.” That’s why this church believes in the security of the perseverance of the saints, not in the Baptist form, not in the Presbyterian form, but in the Bible form.
E-59 “Well,” you say, “now, Brother Branham, I guess once in grace always in grace.” That brings a lot of disgrace. But when a man or a woman has been born of the Spirit of God, old things have passed away, all things have become new, and he’s been birthed and blessed by the Eternal God. And they can no more perish than God Himself can perish.
E-60 Do you mean to tell me that a God, the infinite God, would come down and give you Eternal Life, knowing that He was going to lose you? Save you here, knowing He’s going to lose you there? What did He save you for? Why, He’s working against Himself. If He saved you once, you are saved for all Eternity. There’s no demons in hell could upset you.
E-61 Now, the infinite God Who could tell the end from the beginning, and then save you here, this week, and knowing next year you’re going to backslide, and lose you? Well, what’s He doing a work like that for? That would be foolish; I wouldn’t do that. If I made you my friend today, knowing you was going to be my enemy tomorrow, well, I wouldn’t do it. I’d just let you alone. See? God makes you His servant, today, because He knows, and knowed before you ever come on the earth. When He was making the calcium that went in your body, when He created the cosmic light that you…that’s in you. When the petroleums and all that you’re made up of, when God created it on the earth, He knew every fiber of you and what you’d do. How can the infinite God…
E-62 “Well, I better walk careful today; I might backslide and be lost tomorrow.” You wasn’t saved at the beginning. You might be worked up, under emotions. You might just think you’re saved. You might feel like you’re saved. You might believe that you’re saved. You might join the church. You might be a good Baptist, Methodist, or Pentecostal. That don’t have one thing to do with it. Your name’s ever…If you are ever saved, you were saved before the world ever began, when God sent Jesus, in His mind, to save that one who He saw was savable. Now, He’s not willing that any should perish. He’s not willing, but, if He’s God, He knowed who would and who would not. The Scripture says so. So there you are.
E-63 That’s why we different with the Baptist, the Methodists, and the so-called Calvinistic-thinking people. But, Calvinism is right.
E-64 Then we’re going to come over on the Armenian side. What did they get? Works. That’s the holiness groups. Works, “Bless God, I’ll let my hair grow out,” the women. And, “Oh, praise God, I won’t even wear a short-sleeved shirt,” the man will, and so forth like that. That has nothing to do with the Kingdom. No, sir. You can let your hair grow long, you can wear dresses wherever you want to, or you can do this, that, or the other, and it won’t have nothing at all to do with it. You’re not saved because of your clothes. If so, God would just have made some patterns of such. Jesus wouldn’t have had to die.
You’re saved because that God saved you, by grace, and you do these things just in appreciation. Common decency will tell you that. You do those things in appreciation. Works is what I do for God.
E-65 If I never preach another sermon, and live here a hundred and fifty years, I’m still saved. Sure. I’m not saved because I’m a preacher. I’m saved because it’s the grace of God that saved me. There wasn’t one thing I could do to merit it.
E-66 I’m sued at the law, right now, for half a million dollars. And they said, “Why, you went up…Them’s money that you taken up out there, to pay your bills. It was yours before you paid your bills. You passed it through your church, but it was yours first.”
I said, “But I never done one thing for it.”
Said, “Yes, you did,” said, “you told them that you’d take up a love offering.”
I said, “I want someone to tell me when it was.”
“Well, you solicit through the mail?”
I said, “Search my office; not a penny.”
E-67 You know, the Bible said, “Don’t take no thought what ye shall say, for it’ll be given to you in that hour.” And was setting there by those federal attorneys, and each one busting again to me, from one side to the other; and me hardly know my ABC’s. And with those smart men who is trained to make you say things that you really don’t mean to say it, then how can you match wits with someone like that? He can never match the wits with my Master, though. This Scripture said, “Don’t you take no thought when you’re brought before kings and rulers.”
I know the money that I taken up there, I had spent it for…And they didn’t dispute that. It had been spent just as legitimately as it could be. But they said, “It was yours, first, and then you turned it to the Branham Tabernacle.”
I said, “But I am the treasurer of the Branham Tabernacle.” And this…
Well, he said, “I don’t know about that. Then why didn’t the trustees do this, that, and the other?” One…
I said, “Then you call me dishonest?”
E-68 Said, “We think you’re very honest.” Said, “I want to show you something, Mr. Branham,” that attorney.
I’m just saying this for the glory of God now, only, and especially for the young. He said, “I want to show you something, to show you how…” If you live by the Bible, God will live by you. And if your spirit disagrees with what God says, then you’re not living by the Bible.
E-69 Remember last night when we talked about women preachers, when they say, “Oh, I believe the Holy Ghost called me to preach,” and so forth like that? The Bible said, “If any man says that he’s a prophet, or even spiritual, let him acknowledge that This is the commandments of the Lord; but if he’s ignorant, just let him be ignorant.” So when you hear men say that they believe in women preachers, it shows that they’re not right with God, or don’t know Truth. That’s the Truth. Scripture says so. We found it There, and coinciding through the Scriptures. Now, no matter how real it looks, it’s a contrary. It’s not right.
E-70 Now, we’re going to get something here now. Notice. God, the infinite God, Who made the earth, and the heavens, and knowed all things, and knew it before the world was ever formed, every flea, every fly, every gnat, everything that would ever be. And you live by His Word.
E-71 Then, standing there by those attorneys. This attorney walked over there and said, “We are not, by no means, trying to say that you’re dishonest.” Said, “You were ignorant of the fact that when anyone give you money it was yours first.” Said, “You signed the check from Mr. Miner Arganbright, from—from California, of the Christian Business Men’s Full Gospel Fellowship, for so-many thousands of dollars. And the same day you took it out of your bank and bought four or five tickets for a overseas trip, about twenty-four thousand dollars.”
Said, “Yes, sir.”
He said, “You owe income tax on that.”
Why, I said, “We stood right in the same bank, and he gave me the check, and I passed it into the bank and wrote the tickets right back.”
He said, “If you had the check one minute,” said, “half of that, was yours. You had it, a half a minute. It was yours, a half a minute, before it become the church property.” Said, “You owe income tax on it.”
Said, “He gave it to the church. He paid income tax on it, and he gave it to the church. He gave it to you.”
And I said, “You pay income tax on it, it goes to church, then it’s untaxable.”
Said, “We’re not taxing your church. We’re taxing you.”
I said, then, “Why,” I said, “the very man that signed his name, the federal income tax, told me to do it this way.”
He said, “He’s not with the government anymore.”
I said, “They who wrote the Constitution is not with the government anymore, is it still stands?” I said, “Someday you’ll not be with the government anymore, and what are you saying then?” I said, “What kind of a government are we serving?” Certainly.
But, then, and the other man said, “Mr. Branham,” he said, “we find here, let me show you that we know where every penny that you spent is.”
I said, “All right.”
He said, “Here is a place where you was having a meeting in Canada, in Alberta, and in there you was given a love offering of three thousand dollars.”
I said, “Yes, sir.”
And said, “The following…Sunday previous, rather, to that, you went out and found where there was an old church, and they were worshipping in this church, and had no roof on it. And you give that three thousand dollars to them people, to build a church.”
I said, “That’s right.”
Said, “But you owe income tax on it.” Said, “You gave it to the church.” Said, “See, it was yours before it was the church’s.”
He said, “Isn’t it the truth, that a certain man…” And I won’t call his name, ’cause many of you know him. “His house burnt down, here in the country, and you had come in, off your meeting, and you had fifteen hundred dollars.” Now, that may sound a whole lot of money, to one of you all. But that’s just fifteen days for me to loaf, or rest. Cost me over a hundred dollars a day, whether I preach or whether I don’t, to take care of the office and things. And said, “You had fifteen hundred dollars. And that man was…house burnt down. He had about six children, and you gave him that fifteen hundred dollars.” Sure, they had my check laying here.
I said, “That’s right.” I said, “What would you do, a man with five children living in a tent, and it zero weather and snow on the ground? You think I could set in a decent house and know that that man and them little children out there, freezing, and coats stuffed around them, and with money could have helped him?”
He said, “Isn’t it true that a man died in an alley up here? And he come from Kentucky. He didn’t even have money for his funeral service, and you buried the man. And you and your wife took money and went down to J.C. Penney’s.” Folded out the checks. Said, “You spent over two hundred dollars just for clothes for those children.”
I said, “That’s right.”
He said, “Isn’t it a fact that an old woman right here in this certain city…” That lives in, then, New Albany. And said, “You gave her three hundred and something dollars, to pay a back grocery bill, that, they had cut her off, on. And you paid nearly five hundred dollars for her rent, that they was going to set her out in the winter. And you paid up her—her rent till the following June, and also stood good for her grocery bill which mounted up to fourteen or fifteen hundred dollars again.”
I said, “I remember the case well. An old mother, eighty years old, with afflicted daughter, and a preacher boy in Georgia, afflicted by rheumatism, and laying on a bed, and no other support. What would you do about it?” I said, “Yes, I did.”
Said, “Did your trustee board know this?”
I said, “No, sir, they didn’t.”
“Did your wife know this?”
I said, “No, sir, she didn’t.”
Said, “Then why did you do it?”
E-72 I said, “Because my Lord said, ‘Don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.’” I said, “Have you got any law higher than God’s laws?”
And just then the Holy Spirit came to the rescue, so beautifully the way He does it. You say things, subconsciously, not knowing you’re saying it, if you just let the Holy Spirit do the talking.
I said, “Well, well, if you claim that I owe that,” I said, “I’ll do the best I can.” I said, “I’m no boy no more, but I’ll do my best to pay it.” I said, “Don’t owe anybody anything, as I know of.” I’ve tried to be honest. I’ve went thousands of dollars in debt, and paying it back at a dollar a week. But, by God’s grace, I’ve got it paid. I said, “If you claim and prove to me that I owe that money that I give those people…” And they went ahead to show where it’s nearly twenty thousand dollars, in the last ten years, I give away like that.
And he said, “The trustees knowed nothing about this.”
I said, “It wasn’t necessary for them to know it.” And so he said…Well, then he said…
E-73 I said, “What hurts me, is to know that those poor old widows and orphans, they’ll have to pay income tax on it, too, or die, owing the government.” I didn’t know what I was saying. That was the Father speaking, and I didn’t know it.
“Oh,” he said, “no, they’ll not have to pay income tax on it.”
I said, “Why won’t they have to pay it?”
Said, “You see, that was unsolicited gift.”
Then the Holy Spirit woke me up. “Oh,” I said, “then a unsolicited gift is not taxable?”
Said, “That’s right.”
I said, “Then I don’t owe the government anything, for I never took an offering in my life.”
Then my attorney raised up, and he said, “Mr. Branham can you…”
I said, “I can have you two million letters in Washington, to prove that.” I said, “I never took an offering.”
Said, “But when you go out in these meetings, and this money that’s taken up by these ministers and pays off this,” said, “you have some kind of an understanding that you’re going to get something.”
I said, “Not a thing.”
He said, “Then, well, don’t you solicit through the mail?”
I said, “Not a thing.”
Said, “How do you get your money?”
E-74 I said, “What people send me.” I’m looking in the face of people right now that sends me tithings continually. I never asked them. They just do it. That’s the Holy Spirit. He’s able to take care of His own.
And he said, “Well, then, Mr. Branham,” said, “can you prove that? Can you get me letters for at least eight or ten years back that you received offerings without soliciting?”
I said, “As many as you want.”
He said, “I want three out of each year.”
I said, “All right, you’ll have them.”
Said, “Then will you give to me your post office box key, and let me…Let your mail accumulate for two or three days, and then go down and open it, myself?”
Said, “You can do anything you want to. You can come to my office also.”
He said, “What kind of soliciting do you do?”
I said, “Nothing.”
“What do you send out in mail?”
“Prayer cloths.”
“Do you charge for it?”
E-75 I said, “Come, read the letters I send with them.” That was it. Now the government owes me for all I’ve paid, income tax, for the past twenty years. See?
“Take no thought what you shall say, for it’s not you that speaks, it’s the Father that dwells in you, that doeth the speaking.” See? That’s why we believe in staying with the Word. It may be a long time, but it’ll work out just right, according to the Word.
E-76 Now, that’s why we believe that the Bible tells us that before the world was ever formed, and before it came into existence, that the Father slayed the Lamb. And then when He slayed the Lamb, He put every one of His oncoming children’s name in the Book of Life, and we just live up to that age till it’s all finished. You see what I mean? The infinite God knew that, that before the world began He seen the program what it had to be done, and He just made it.
E-77 Now remember, as a great Master Builder, the Father, when He made this world and put calcium, potash, and petroleums, and all these different elements that goes in to make up our bodies, He knew every bit of it and knew what kind of a form and body that would have before it was ever created. Certainly. He knowed the Eternal destination of it. And He know what kind of a spirits would inhabit these.
E-78 And now, before we can finish that subject, we’ll have to pick it up tonight, in “the seed of the serpent” and in “the seed of the woman,” and bring it down and show you why it is. See how that seed of the serpent moved down, how that seed of the woman moved down; how that seed of the serpent begin to predominate, predominate, get greater, and greater, greater, greater, greater, until now there’s nothing left but just a little small remnant of names still left, written from the foundation of the world.
E-79 But when the Body has been formed, and that last name that’s on the Book will be recognized here on earth, the Books are closed, for it is completed, the story of redemption has been read completely. Then we go to see Him and to meet Him in the resurrection. “He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that has sent Me, has Eternal Life and shall never come to the Judgment, but has passed from death unto Life.”
“No man can come to Me except My Father draws him.” “And it’s not him that willeth or him that runneth; it’s God that showeth mercy,” said the Scripture.
Not him that willeth. Lot of people say, “I’ll join church. I’m going to be a good guy. I’ll do this.” That has nothing to do with it. It’s God that showeth mercy.
E-80 Now, you see, when God began, in…There is seven Spirits of God, just like the seven colors in the rainbow. And did you ever notice? A three-cornered piece of glass reflects seven perfect colors. Did you ever try that? Set a three-cornered piece of glass; yet it’s only one piece of glass, but, in three corners, will reflect seven colors. That’s how Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, being One, yet reflect the seven spiritual attributes of God.
E-81 And, then, the first great Spirit of God, which is love. God, like the great rainbow. We couldn’t imagine what He looks like. But just say He looks like the rainbow, them Spirits. The perfect Spirit of love, red. Blue, the perfect Spirit of fellowship. Just all those perfect Spirits! And then they begin to condescending, coming down. And they come all the way down from a—a philio love or…Agapao love, to philio love, and on down to lust, and down to the lowest.
And then God Himself become a Man, Jesus, and came down that same way, to the lowest pits of hell, and picked out those who He knew before the foundation of the world, whose names were written on the Book, and redeemed them back to Hisself. There you are. The story of redemption cannot be fully known until we see Him and we stand in His likeness.
E-82 Now, that’s why we’re not a denomination. That’s why we do not cooper-…We cooperate in every move that we can, for God. But that’s why we are not a denomination. Now, out of the denomination comes them false things.
E-83 Now, as I said, I’m punching hard, because I want it to stick. Now, out yonder, in somebody else’s church, I wouldn’t think of these things. I’d be Christian and brother enough just to stay on the great principles which we all agree on. See? But, it’s just—it’s just like, we don’t want cheating.
E-84 I was speaking to a young boy yesterday, where I was squirrel hunting, yesterday morning, way down in the mountains of Kentucky. And I didn’t notice the little posted sign in the woods, and I was setting on the other side. And I thought it was Brother Banks here, coming up through the woods. He was squirrel hunting, too, in the same territory. And I seen him come on, and I whistled at the young man. I thought it was Brother Wood, dressed just like him. He turned around, and I seen it wasn’t him.
And Brother Wood had told me that there was a place up there was posted. And I didn’t know it. There’s no line fences; just the woods. And how will I know which hickory tree belongs on which side? So I was setting there listening to the squirrel bark. And I was thinking about, “Well, now, tonight I go home and start the meeting. I get back in the harness again.” And it started raining, and the storms a blowing.
E-85 And I seen this fellow, and I spoke to him. Went up there and found out that I was on his ground. See? And I talked to him. He said, “Oh, that’s all right.” He said, “My, just hunt anywhere you want to.” And I said, well…He said, “You wasn’t on my ground. You was setting beyond that hickory tree.” Said, “On this side of the hickory tree is my ground. But,” says, “it doesn’t matter, Brother Branham. Hunt wherever you want to. Come on up to the house. Pappy would like to see you.” See? And I said, “Well…”
We got to talking about the Bible. Then when on hunting subject, he said this, he said, “Brother Branham, there’s nobody down here cares for anybody hunting. But,” said, “my daddy was out here one day and some city hunter come out and killed one of his sheep that weighed about sixty or seventy pounds, and he hollered at the guy, and the guy shot at him, with a rifle.” He said, “That’s what makes it bad.” Said, “We don’t care for hunting.”
E-86 Well, that’s the same thing that I’m speaking of. I don’t care what denomination you belong to, but stay with the Bible and with the Holy Spirit. It isn’t your denomination that we’re worried about; just as soon belong to one as the other. But, it is staying with the Bible or accepting man-made dogmas. Stay with the Bible.
E-87 Now, they brought forth denomination, which was wrong. Now, the next thing they had brought forth, which was an error, was water baptism. Water baptism, as taught in the Bible, is by immersing. But the Catholic church brought forth sprinkling or pouring. And there is no Scripture in the Bible to support sprinkling or pouring; no such a place found in the Bible. It’s by immersing.
E-88 Well, then, but along came, after the Catholic church, and the Lutheran church, with their pouring. And along came the Anglican church, and so forth, as it come down.
Then, after a while, the Baptists come in and the Campbellite, to get back to immersing again. Well, Satan seen that, so he just give them a false name to immerse in. And they started using the Name of the Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost. There’s not one speck of Scripture in the Bible where anybody was ever immersed in the name of the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” And ever who teaches it is a false teacher. And I told you I’d make it stick.
E-89 Now, if you don’t think that’s right, I want your question on this platform, showing me. If you can show me one place where anybody was ever baptized, in the Bible, in the name of the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” I’ll put a sign on my back, as “a false preacher,” and go up-and-down the streets, crying to the top of my voice, with my hands up, “A false teacher!”
There’s no such a thing. Where did it come from? Now go back. This is this side the Bible. You have to get the history. The Catholics believe in many gods, and they broke down the one true God into three different gods.
E-90 And hear me. What a horrible thing was in the paper the other day, concerning a great man that we all know to be a servant of God; Billy Graham. We have the statement. Brother Beeler, there, has it. When was asked, Billy Graham, by certain, “Who, what was this great contradiction about the trinity? Was there three gods, three actual gods? Or, how was it? One place, it looked like three gods. And one looked like there was on-…” Billy Graham said, “It hasn’t been revealed. Nobody knows.” My!
E-91 If there is three gods, we are heathens. Like the Jew said, “Which one of them is your god? The Father? Is the Son your God? Or, is the Holy Ghost your God?” There is only one God.
And those are not three personalities, for a personality has to be a person. It can’t be a personality without being a person. You know that. How can anything be a personality without being a person?
E-92 “Oh,” said, “we don’t believe in three personal gods. We believe in three personalities of the same God.” Well, before it could be a personality, it has to be a person.
E-93 “What is it, then?” you’d say. It’s not three gods. It’s three offices of the same God.
He was the Father, in the beginning, that hung over the—the wilderness in—in the flame of Fire, the burning bush. Fatherhood, God, just as I got through saying, condescending, coming down. That was the highest order. The Spirit, the—the—the agapao, the Zoe, the—the Life of God Himself made in the form of a pillar of Fire. And that same One, after being in the Fatherhood, became the Son, and the Spirit of the…was in the burning bush, was in the Man, Christ, and It brought forth the same evidence that the Fire did. Said, “If I do not the works of My Father, don’t believe Me.” Every tree will bear record of its own fruit.
E-94 And then after It become Man, see, It dropped down from Supernatural, into something tangible that could be touched, a body. And through the sacrificial death and the supreme sacrifice of this one God, Jesus, He said, “I and My Father are One. My Father dwelleth in Me.” Can…No one could read that any plainer.
They said, “Why don’t You show us the Father, and it’ll—it’ll satisfy us.” John 14:8.
E-95 He said, “I’ve been so long with you, and you don’t know Me?” He said, “When you see the Fa-…When you see Me, you see My Father.”
As a lady once jumped up; she said “Why, Brother Branham,” she said, “yeah, the Father and the Son are one, just like you and your wife are one.”
I said, “Oh, no, they’re not.” I said, “Do you see me?”
She said, “Yes.”
I said, “You see my wife?”
Said, “No.”
E-96 I said, “Then they’re not the same kind of one. Jesus said, ‘When you see Me, you have seen the Father. The Father dwelleth in Me.’ My wife don’t dwell in me.” See?
They are One. In every way, they are One. And we’re one through agreement, wife and I. We’re one in fellowship, but we’re two personalities. My wife can do one kind of thinking, and me another. And we’re two persons. But not so with God. They, God and Christ, is the self-same Person.
E-97 Then what’s the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost is that same Spirit of God dwelling in the people whom He has died for, and put their name on the Lamb’s Book of Life. Which, they were one with Him, in the beginning. The Scripture says so. Did not Jesus tell them that they were with Him before the foundation of the world? Your minds are blackened and dark, and we all are, to those things. But we’re just not some little coincident happening here. We are sons and daughters of God, in the beginning of the creation of God, and been dropped down here for a witness, to witness the grace of God that’s shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. We have an Eternal Spirit. No one, no one, and there’s no way, to stop it. God’s Church will be there just as sure as it can be sure.
E-98 As we were speaking, to pick up the little subject again, just for—for a minute, how the illegitimate child could not enter the kingdom for fourteen generations, four hundred years, and how that the iniquity of the parents was visit to the children, to the third and fourth generation.
E-99 Also, the righteousness of the parents was visited. What you do, if there is a coming tomorrow and you have a great-grandson, your action today will determine what he’ll be then.
For we read in the Bible where that Melchizedek, when He met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and Abraham the patriarch give Him a tenth, a tithings of all he had. And then he said that of tithings, that, “Just only Levi could accept tithe. But,” he said, “Levi, who received tithes, paid tithes when he was yet in the loins of Abraham.
E-100 Oh, can you catch that? [Brother Branham knocks on the pulpit five times—Ed.] Abraham was Levi’s…great-grandson. And here, Levi, at least eight or ten hundred years later, maybe several hundred. I wouldn’t know just what, many. Would have to figure it up, through the generation. But, Abraham begot Isaac; Isaac begot Jacob; Jacob begot Levi. And here, Levi, Jacob would be his father; Isaac his grandfather; and Abraham his great-grandfather. And when Jacob was in the loins of Abraham, the Bible said, “He paid tithes to Melchizedek.”
E-101 And then this young generation, running around, smoking, drinking, and everything, how do you expect another generation to exist? The reason we got sin, the juvenile delinquency now, the reason we got little girls on the street, and little boys, is because their mothers and daddies did what they did in their bygone age.
And the reason we still got preachers who will stand for Truth, the reason we still got some old-fashioned girls, is because they had old-fashioned parents back behind them. That’s exactly right. We still got preachers that stands uncompromising with any denomination, or the Word, is because that we had old-fashioned preachers in the back, stood right on the same grounds. Yes.
E-102 Now we’re in this day. And now we want to say, that, in here, back to the…some of the denominations, the reason we’re not a denomination. And, because, if we were a denomination, we’d have to bow down to that.
E-103 And remember, you search the Scriptures wherever you please, and you’ll not find one place in the Bible where anybody was ever baptized by sprinkling, by pouring, or in the name of the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” So, if it’s not in the Scripture, it had to start somewhere.
E-104 As I say, setting under a big tree, looking at it. It, oh, it may be like a—a masculine, it—it may be a gigantic, it may be powerful, but it had a beginning. It had to start. And everything…This old-time religion that we so gallantly stand for, it had to start somewhere. It had to have a beginning. And the isms that we have, it had to have a beginning. And the false Scriptures that we’re using in our denominations, had to have a beginning. And if we say, “I’m a Methodist,” you had to have a beginning. If you say, “I am a Baptist,” you had to have a beginning. You say, “I’m Catholic,” you had to have a beginning. You say, “I’m a born-again Christian,” you had to have a beginning. You had to have it.
E-105 Go back, find out where it begin at. Let us go back to the beginning of the picture. Then if there is no denomination in the Bible, then denomination had to have a beginning. It started with the Catholic church. The Protestants just offsprang from it.
E-106 Then if the Bible said that she was a ill-famed woman, because, her doctrine, she committed spiritual fornications. What is fornications? Remember, we went through it now. A woman living with her husband, she’s the same as a virgin. She’s never been defiled, as long as she lives with that one man. But what is unrighteousness? Righteousness, perverted. Let her live with another man, and she’s doomed. See? Righteousness, perverted.
E-107 Now, if denomination was wrong…If it had been right, God would have said, “Now we’re going to have denominations.” And if…The Catholic church was pronounced, in the Bible, as a “whore,” unrighteous, because she was giving to her congregation her own theology, and not the Bible. Brother, sister. [Brother Branham claps his hands two times—Ed.] Doesn’t the Catholic church laugh in your face about the Bible? They say they don’t care what the Bible says; it’s what the church says, what their denomination says. Well, then, how can you call them wrong when you’ll knuck’ down to a baptism of “Father, Son, Holy Ghost,” when the Bible condemns it? Cause the Methodists say so, the Baptists say so? Why will you agree to sprinkling and pouring, when there is no such a thing in the Bible? There’s no such a thing as anybody baptized in the name of the “Father, Son, Holy Ghost.” Then why do you do it?
E-108 See, that’s why we’re not a denomination. We don’t have to cater to them. We take…When the Spirit throws the Light on the Scripture, we stay with the Scripture and THUS SAITH THE LORD. There you are. There’s no such things as that. It’s not written in the Scripture.
E-109 Oh, you say, “How about Matthew 28:19?”
Now, we’ve combed through that a dozen times. That was an issue that Jesus said. “Go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, Son, Holy Ghost.” Was it ever carried out? Was there ever a person ever baptized that way? Not one. Then there must be something wrong somewhere. Sure, it’s Catholicism did it.
E-110 Find out if there was ever in the history, up to the ante-Nicene fathers, you historians. Read the books of the ante-Nicene fathers, and see, plumb on to the king of England. Every one of them baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ until the Catholic church. And the Catholic church has power, they said, to change anything they want to. And they went to baptizing in the name of the “Father, Son, Holy Ghost.” Martin Luther brought it out. John Wesley followed it. And Alexander Campbell come with that. And John Smith, of the Baptist church, followed on. Here is Pentecost on with it, yet.
But the hour has come!
E-111 Watch the candlesticks, as we was on last night. The first candlestick is Light. It went darker, darker, darker, till it went through the fifteen hundred years of dark ages. Then, started lighting up. And just before the last church age, she lit back again. In between the two church ages, the Light come.
Follow the Scriptures, of the Ephesian church, Thessalonica church, on down to the dark age. Each one of them, He said, “You have a little strength, but you haven’t denied My Name.” And the next church, “You’ve done a great thing, but you haven’t denied My Name.” Follow the ante-Nicene fathers down through that. “You haven’t denied My Name.” Then, fifteen hundred years of dark ages.
Then the Lutheran church came out. He said, “You don’t have My Name, but you have a name.” Not no more Jesus; but Luther, and Catholic, and Baptist, and Presbyterian. [Brother Branham claps his hands two times—Ed.] “You have a name that you’re living. ‘We’re a living church. We’re thriving. We’re going on.’ But ye are dead!” Scripture said so.
E-112 “For there’s not another name given under Heaven among men, whereby men may be saved.” Not…Baptist don’t save you. Presbyterian don’t save you. Catholic don’t save you. Jesus saves you.
E-113 All in the little textbooks, man-made theories, they put them down, “That’s what we believe.” And that’s the reason we stay away from it. We have no textbook but the Bible. No leading, no bishop, but the Spirit. That’s right.
And then if there’s a wrong spirit comes in, will try to twist something in there, the Word will untwist it. “That’s wrong. Stay away from it.” See? Here come the Spirit along, saying, “That’s wrong.” Bears record, for our spirit bears record with His Spirit.
Here come one along, saying, “Oh, we should. Oh, I think it’s all right for them to do this, that, the other.”
E-114 But the Spirit said, “There’s something wrong with that.” Goes right back in the Bible and brings her right down, the way we do. “And it’s wrong. Stay away from it.”
That’s the reason the Bible said, “Here is to him that has wisdom. Here is to he that has knowledge. Here is to him that has this.” The Church there, setting in order. Don’t you see the great plan of God?
E-115 Now look. The Philadelphian Church Age was the Methodist church age, the church age of brotherly love, the reformation. Which, when rank Calvanism had sprung up in the Anglican church in England, where they didn’t even have no revival no more, went plumb off into hay seeds, God raised up John Wesley as a legalist, to take the Arminian doctrine. And when he did, he knocked that thing in the head, and it deserved to be. But what did he do? Here come the Methodists along, and run just as far that way as he (the Calvinists) did this a way. Now, in between there, still Methodist, still Baptist.
E-116 Wish we could get over here now in the Scriptures, Take Revelations 3, and you’ll get it. Now just before…The last church age, which was Pentecostal, is the lukewarm, Laodicean Church Age, which is rejected.
But remember, as Jesus was seen in the cross, standing in the seven golden candlesticks, the darkest was what was the fartherest away from Him, His right hand and His left hand. “And He was to look upon as Alpha and Omega.” Not the in-between. “The—the Alpha and Omega,” as He had His hand stretched. “And He was jasper and sardis stone,” which was Benjamin and Reuben, “the first and the last.” There He had His hands stretched. There He stood.
E-117 But remember, at the going out of this, don’t confuse it. For, when they received these names here, of these denominations, they would die right in them same things, right on down. But He said, “Just between the Methodist and Pentecostal, going out, “I have set a open door before you.” There you are, the Name restored again. “I have set an open door. For I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man cometh to the Father except through Me.” What is it? That open door.
E-118 “Strait!” Strait, if you noticed, it ain’t s-t-r-a-i-g-h-t. It’s s-t-r-a-i-t. “Strait is the way.” Strait, is water.
How? “Back to the Name of Jesus, which you did have. You haven’t…Got a little life; you haven’t denied My Name.” Then, then, in here they lost it, went into a Catholic denomination; come out in a Lutheran denomination, come out in a Wesley denomination, then they’re going right into the Pentecostal then.
But, just before the end time, the Seed is almost gone from the earth. It’s waded out, the Seed of the righteous. The seed of the serpent is just accumulating faster and faster and faster, getting ready for this atomic age, to be destroyed. “But just before that time, I’ll set a way of escape. I’ll set before you an open door. Strait is this gate and narrow is this way, and there will be just a few of them that’ll find it. But broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many will be will go in thereat.” There you are. Just before this, this great Light was supposed to spring forth.
E-119 I’m so glad. I just don’t know how to express it, I’m so glad. Here it is, time to close, and I’ve never touched my subject.
E-120 I want to speak on: The Baptism Of The Holy Ghost. I’m going to touch it, anyhow, for ten, fifteen minutes. Now, I won’t keep you three hours like I did last night; I’ll try not.
E-121 Now, if they got a false water baptism, denominations are wrong. And ever who hinds up for certain denominations is absolutely supporting the wrong thing. They’re supporting what God is against. Said so in these church ages. Said so in the Scripture, and called them prostitutes, because, “They teach for Doctrine the commandments of men.” Now, we the…
E-122 I went to a place not long ago, to a certain man come in here, writing a thesis on Divine healing. And he said, “The only thing about you, Brother Branham,” said, “the people hold it against you because you go to the Pentecostals.”
I said, “Well, I’ll come to yours,” I said, “if you’ll support me in your city.”
He said, “Well,” said, “I—I done took that up.” Said, “I took it to the bishop of this certain church, Methodist church.” No need of pulling any punches about it. Said, “I took it up, and they said, ‘Now, you see, we, as the Methodist church, don’t believe in these miracles.’”
E-123 Now what are you going to do? Now you going to listen to the Methodist church, or the denomination? If you are, you’re a prostitute religionist. You think the Baptist church would support a campaign of such? [Congregation says, “No.”—Ed.] Why? Because they’re Baptists. The Bible said they are prostitutes. She brought forth her daughters, and they were “harlots.” Why? Giving out the same kind of a doctrine, man-made doctrine, instead of God’s Doctrine. That’s why we’re not denominated with the Baptists. That’s why we’re not denominated with the Methodists.
E-124 Now, why ain’t we denominated with the Pentecostals? Here you are. That’s exactly. The Pentecostal would have stayed where…If—if the Lutheran church would have stayed where it would begin, it would have been the Pentecostal. But they denominated, so God raised up another pentecostal, called Wesley. And so when Wesley denominated, He raised up another one, called Baptist. When they denominated, then He raised up another one, called Campbellites. When they denominated, He raised up another one, called Pentecost. When they denominate, He’s moving on. Just watch and see.
E-125 It is not God’s Divine program. It’s not in the program of God, to have those denominations. So, you see, that’s why we’re not a denomination.
E-126 Remember this. I said, in the beginning, now, if I hurt you, I don’t mean to. This is for the church. If you’re setting along, we like to have you here, but this is what we stand for, and why we’re not a denomination.
E-127 Now, the denomination, to begin with, is false, and false teachers. I said it would hurt, and I want it to hurt. They are absolutely false teachers. Any man that knows those things, and will stand and compromise, for the Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, or Pentecostal, knowing that the Bible teaches different, he’s a false prophet. No sticking around it. That’s exactly. That’s why I didn’t join the Assemblies. That’s why I didn’t join the Oneness. That’s the reason I didn’t join the Baptist, Methodist, or Presbyterian, because they’re false. I don’t mean their people is false. I mean their theology is false, because it don’t compare with God’s Word.
Paul said, “If a…” He went over here…Let me show you what Paul said, ’fore we leave this water baptism.
E-128 When Jesus made the issue, in Matthew 28:19; Peter, ten days later, said, “Repent every one of you and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
The next time baptism was mentioned, when Philip the evangelist went down and preached to the Samaritans. And he baptized every one of them in the Name of Jesus Christ. Paul…Peter came down, or Peter and John, rather, and laid hands on them; they received the Holy Ghost.
Then they went on up there. Peter went straight then to Cornelius’ house. And when Cornelius… “While Peter yet spake these Words, the Holy Ghost fell on them.” Peter said, “We can’t forbid water, seeing that these have received the Holy Ghost like we did in the beginning.” And he commanded them to be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
E-129 Now, Paul passed through the upper coast of Ephesus; he finds some Baptists. And they had a—they an apostle up there, apostle of the Bible, and his name was Apollos. He was a lawyer, converted, and he was proving to the people that Jesus was the Christ, by the Bible. He said, “The—the Messiah is supposed to do certain things. This Man was the Messiah.”
E-130 And they had a big bunch of people there, and they were rejoicing, and shouting, and having a big time of it. Aquila and Priscilla had went over there and joined up with them, having fellowship with them. They didn’t have no denomination. They was having fellowship. And so they seen this man was a great man, oh, he’s smart, an attorney, and he was—he was a smart man. So he…They said, “Now, you, you are very good on what you know, but we got a little brother named Paul. When he comes, he’s had some experience, he knows what he’s talking about. He’ll teach you the way of the Lord more plainer, if you’ll just set and listen to him. Now, don’t try to push something off on him, ’cause he ain’t going to stand still for it. See? But you just—you just go ahead, listen to him.”
E-131 And Paul come through. He listened at them, watching once over there.
He said, “That’s very good, but have you received the Holy Ghost, you Baptists, since you believed?”
“Oh,” they said, “haven’t we got It?”
“Don’t think so.” See?
“Well, why?”
“Well, how was you baptized?”
“Oh, we been baptized. We been baptized.”
E-132 “Well, who baptized you? And how was you baptized?”
The Bible says, “unto what.” The Greek, or the original, says, “unto how.” And this says, “unto what.” Said, “What was you baptized?” In other words, “How was you baptized?”
E-133 “We was baptized by John the Baptist, the same man that baptized Jesus Christ, same hole of water.”
That’s pretty good baptism, don’t you think so? Looks like that would stick all right, don’t it? Look like it’d be all right, if the man that walked into the water with our Lord Jesus Christ and baptized Jesus. And God sanctioned it, till He come down in the form of the Holy Ghost and went into Him. And He said, “This is My beloved Son in whom I’m pleased to dwell in,” right after that baptism. Looks to me like that baptism been all right.
E-134 And Paul said, “It won’t work any more now. Won’t work anymore.”
“Why won’t it work anymore?” See?
“You got to be baptized over again.”
“You mean that we, who have been baptized by John, that baptized Jesus, has to be rebaptized?”
“That’s right.”
Said, “How must we be baptized?”
E-135 Said, “In the Name of Jesus Christ.”
And Paul took them out there and baptized them all, over. Acts 19:5. “And when they heard this, they were baptized again, now, in the Name of Jesus Christ. And Paul laid his hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.”
E-136 If Paul constrained men and women to be baptized over again, in the Name of Jesus Christ; if I preached any other Gospel, then my spirit is not right like Paul’s was. “Let him acknowledge what I write is the commandments of the Lord.”
E-137 And now in Galatians 1:8, Paul said, “If an angel from Heaven comes, a bright shining angel.” What’s he speaking of? A revelation. Blessed be the Name of the Lord! It don’t matter how good your revelation is. You remember the first of our service this morning, the Urim Thummim? If something comes and reveals it perfectly; he’s a liar, he’s a false angel, and the man who packs his message is a false prophet. There’s only one way to be baptized, that’s the Name of Jesus Christ. If you haven’t been baptized that way, there’s a baptistry waiting. That’s right.
E-138 Falsely! Find me one place where anybody was ever baptized in the name of “Father, Son, Holy Ghost.” It’s not in the sacred Writings. What is it? It’s a dogma that started with the Catholic church. We can support this. We have the full Nicene father’s doctrines. We have the history of it. We have Hislop’s Two Babylons. We have Josephus’ writing. We have all the ancient histories. And Josephus wrote in the time of the Lord Jesus. Hislop’s Two Babylons, wrote after that. The Ante-Nicene Fathers wrote after that, before the forming of the Catholic church. And then the Catholic church come in, and pushed it all out and took over, themselves, and pagan Rome was made papal Rome. And there they brought that false baptism of water, to sprinkling; and from the Name of the Lord Jesus, to “Father, Son, Holy Ghost.” And Jesus said, under the inspiration He give to John on Patmos, “You have a name that you’re living, but you’re dead.” “Father, Son, Holy Ghost” is a dying name.
E-139 Let me tell you a little personal experience; Switzerland, Germany, and the places where I been.
How does fortunetellers work? How does evil spirits travel? I want you to believe me, as your pastor, ’cause you’re the one I’m speaking to. Devils travel in the name of the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” They cut feathers, and everything else, and throw spells on each other, through the name of “Father, Son, Holy Ghost,” call it the three high names. The mother of it is Catholic churches. They go to these little statues and kneel there, and cut a feather with scissors, and turn it backwards, and throw spells on their neighbors, and so forth, where they’re burnt to death, and everything else, for it.
E-140 In Switzerland, I’ve stood with my hands on the post, like that, where honest men and women died, when they cut their tongues out, and burnt their eyes out, and everything, with hot rods, that prostitute Catholic church. Not only that, but your early Anglican churches, too. And your Protestant churches did the same thing. And they throwed those spells, by the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”
E-141 Your brother and pastor, I’ve had the—the grateful privilege, by the grace of God, to be protected in these things, but to know firsthanded what I was talking about. Where, a woman, had come to this church, condemned me and said, “He’s fooling with spiritualism.” God in Heaven knows what it was all about. I can’t take no man…I didn’t…
E-142 When they told me that Pigalle, in Paris, was such an ill-famed place, how did I know? I was never there. But I went down there to find out if it was right or not. I took two or three more ministers and went down there to those womens and things that stripped on them streets and things. It’s the truth.
E-143 How did I know Rome set on seven hills? How did I know the pope had VICARIVS FILII DEI? Had to take somebody else’s word for it. How did I know the triple crown was on the pope; the jurisdiction of the vicar of Heaven and earth and hell? How did I know it till I went and seen it?
E-144 How did I know there was a living God? Not under somebody’s theology, some intellectual conception of some emotional period that passed through an age gone by, as infidels would tell us. But one day, down yonder, I found Him and talked to Him, face to face. That made things different. Exactly right.
E-145 Spiritualism works through “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” I stood in a meeting where those witches was a working. Don’t you think they won’t challenge you. They stood there. They throwed a table up in the air, and it floated around; and a guitar playing. Standing there, and they was want to put me out. I said, “You’re wrong.” And the spirit spoke back to them, spirit professing to be God, said it was God. I said, “It’s wrong. It’s a devil.”
They said, “This man is an unbeliever.”
E-146 I said, “I’m an unbeliever of this stuff, ’cause it’s not of my Lord. This is witchcraft. This is of the devil.” I said, “Now, here I’ll try that powerful Name that I been baptized in.” I said, “In the name of ‘high Heavens,’ tell me the truth.” Wouldn’t even answer me. I said, “In the name of the ‘holy Church,’ tell me the truth.” He wouldn’t answer me. I said, “In the name of the ‘Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,’ tell me the truth.” And he wouldn’t answer me. But, I said, “In the Name of ‘Jesus Christ,’ tell me the truth.”
E-147 He said, “Yes. It’s wrong.” God knows that’s the truth. Yes, sir. Oh!
Faith in the Father, faith in the Son,
Faith in the Holy Ghost, these three are One;
Devils will tremble, sinners awake;
Faith in the Lord Jesus make anything shake.
Yes, sir. Stay by that Name.
E-148 “You have a name that you’re alive, but you’re dead.” There’s your church. There it is.
E-149 Listen. There’s one woman setting…There is fine, nice-looking, beautiful women setting in this church this morning. Young women, middle-aged women, old women, they’re all fine. They’re somebody’s wife, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sweetheart, so forth. They’re, every one. There’s one Mrs. Branham setting here. You’re, every one, women. But there’s one Mrs. William Branham. She is the one goes home with me. She is the one is my sweetheart. She is the one that raising my children.
E-150 There is many fine churches in the world today. But there’s one Mrs. Jesus that’s bringing forth the real, true, born-again creatures of God. You know what I mean, don’t you? Her name is not Methodist. Her name is not Baptist. Her name is Jesus, Mrs. Jesus. Sure, She is. She is bringing forth people, not members of the Methodist church. She not bring forth Baptist church, or Presbyterian, or Catholic. She is bringing forth them, born, and rooted and grounded in Christ Jesus. There She is. That’s Her. I’m so glad that I’m with Her. She’s a mystical Church. She don’t have any denomination. She carries none of these great big fancy names and big buildings. She meets wherever the members of the Body gathers together. They worship in Spirit and in Truth. They were predestinated before the foundation of the world.
One more Scripture, and I promise you I’ll close. And I’ll leave the rest of it till tonight. Leo, you can catch that tonight, then.
E-151 Let’s go to Ephesians, just a minute. Just read this one Scripture, then I’m going to leave it with you. We find out what the Bible said now about this. I’m going to take this great teacher, Paul, which is…There’s never been nothing like him. He was the apostle to the Gentile Church. All right. Get Ephesians 1.
E-152 Now we’re going to close, just in a minute. Listen to this, my dear friend. Listen at Paul preaching to the same kind of Church that I am, this morning.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of…(the Presbyterian church? The what church?)…the will of God, to the saints (the sainted ones) which are at Ephesus,…
Now, remember, they’re scattered all over the world. But, this is the group at Ephesus, he’s talking to. Now, he ain’t talking to the world. He ain’t talking to local church members. He’s directing this to the sainted ones. Let’s see.
…and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
How do we get in Christ Jesus? “By one Spirit we’re all baptized,” living faithful. How do you know you got the Holy Ghost? We’re going to get on that maybe tonight. See? All right.
…in Christ Jesus:
Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and…the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places…
E-153 You know, it don’t take a lot of hollering. It don’t take a lot of screaming. That’s all right; nothing against it. It’s all right. It don’t take that. It takes a—a submitted heart, setting in Heavenly places, feasting on the things of the Spirit. And what does the Spirit feast on, emotion? Not altogether. It brings emotion. See? But you could…
E-154 Remember. You remember the vision about the rain and the wheat, the tares? Remember. When the needing rain, there’s a little cocklebur, he’s got his head hanging down; the wheat’s got its head hanging down. When the rain come, both of them jump up and shout. Same rain. “But by their fruit you shall know them.” Look.
Grace be unto you,…from—from God our father,…
Now watch. “According…” The 4th verse now.
According as he has chosen us in him…
At the last revival? [Congregation says, “No.”—Ed.] Huh? [“No.”] When we become a member of the Baptist or the Meth-…? No. “Has chosen,” before they had the meeting. Yeah.
…before the foundation of the world,…
He chose us right then. Not, we didn’t choose Him. He chose us. See? He chose us then before the foundation of the world.
…that we should be holy…
E-155 How was we holy? Not through what we did, but what He did for us, ’cause we can’t be. How can you make a pig a lamb? Brother Roy, you raised pigs and lambs, both. You can’t—you can’t—you can’t mix them. A pig just…he get around there and eat all kind of stuff that he can. He’ll get out on a manure pile and eat a belly full. Well, you don’t feel bad about that. You think that pig is just all right. He’s just a good pig. That’s all. But you don’t see a lamb around there. He couldn’t invite him over for dinner; he wouldn’t come. No. What’s the matter? Cause, he’s a pig. You go tell him he’s wrong. “Bless God, I’m a pig. You keep on your own grounds. You go down there, be a holy-roller if you want to.” There you are.
“If you love the world or the things of the world, the love of God is not even in you,” said the Word.
E-156 Now, not because I quit eating manure, made me different from a pig, see, made me not a pig anymore. That isn’t it. But when my nature changed. “Oh, they put a fence around, I guess. They bar off. I’m not supposed to do this”? Oh, no. You don’t bar off nothing from this. You’re just born again. That’s all. You just been changed. That’s right.
E-157 But if you could take the spirit out of that—of that lamb and put it into the pig; that lamb would do the same thing. The pig would do the same thing the lamb’s spirit in him would do, and that lamb would turn right back around and do the same thing the pig did.
Now you see, you pigs, where you’re at? See? That’s exactly right. That’s right. See? You go on out and love the things of the world, wear shorts and do all these things. Go ahead, shows what you are.
E-158 “By their fruits you shall know them. Does man gather figs off of thorns?” See? No, no. You draw figs off of fig trees. You get apples off of apple trees. You get thorns off of thorn trees. That’s right.
Now, listen real close now.
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to his own, to his good pleasure of his—his will,
Having predestinated us, to the praises of his glory of his grace, wherein he has made us acceptable in the beloved.
E-159 Who did it? “Cause I quit drinking? Cause I quit smoking?” No. He did it. He made me, before the foundation of the world, acceptable in the presence of His grace. Nothing I done. Never done a thing about it. Didn’t have one thing to do with it.
I was a pig, to begin with. I was a sinner, born in a family of drunkards, raised up on a moonshine still, setting on a whiskey barrel, disgraceful. That’s right. Kentucky moonshiner, never wore a pair of shoes till I was a great big boy. Hair hanging down my neck, setting up there on a moonshine keg, making moonshine.
Yet, the Holy Ghost come to me, at seven years old, said, “Don’t you touch a drop of it. And don’t you fool with them little old girls out there. And don’t you smoke a cigarette or chew a chew of tobacco.” Oh, my! What was it? The Father’s good will, before the foundation of the world, that He would send me to preach the Gospel and lead His sheep. God bless Him and, forever, that great Name! I’ll stay by His Bible, sink or drown, popular or unpopular. Whether anybody loves me, or not, I’ll please Him. I want to do that which pleases Him.
E-160 If the Baptist turn me down, the Methodist; the Pentecostal, upon their “initial evidence, speaking in tongues, being the Holy Ghost.” That’s the reason we’re not Pentecostal. We don’t believe that the speaking with tongues makes you filled with the Holy Ghost, no more than we believe living in a barn would make you a pig. No, sir. No more than we believe living in—in a king’s palace would make you a king. Doesn’t! You could be a servant. See? You could be anything. No, sir.
E-161 We believe that you receive the Holy Ghost by an experience, not by mythical intellectual conception of the Scriptures, but by an experience that you alone know. Now, if you want to know whether it was the Holy Ghost, watch how your life patterns after that. It’ll tell what kind of a spirit come into you.
E-162 You might speak with tongues and you might not. But why did the Pentecostal do such a horrible thing as that? Catch that. Why did the Pentecostal do that? Why? Because, in the beginning, when God begin to restore back yonder, forty years ago, bringing back the gifts, somebody begin to speak with tongues. And speaking in tongues is the least gift, according to Paul’s teaching, of the entire bunch of gifts. “The least of all the gifts, is speaking in tongues.” And as soon as they did it, they all got excited and made a denomination, and called it the General Council, which is the Assemblies of God.
E-163 Now, I’ve talked to some of their best men, their best theologians, and they say, “Brother Branham, you’re right. But what can we do now? If we’d raise up against that, we’d be kicked out. And what would our church think about us? When, we’ve taught them for years, we’ve taught them for years, that, ‘The evidence of the Holy Ghost is speaking in tongues.’ What if we change it now?” That’s the curse of denomination.
Bless the Lord! We have no denomination. Just as the Spirit leads, we take It.
The baptism of the Holy Ghost is a personal experience.
E-164 I’ve seen people speak with tongues. I’ve seen witches and wizards. Any missionary knows the same, that’s ever dealt in witchcraft and devils. I’ve seen them stand and speak in tongues, and throw dirt over the back of their heads, and cut themselves with a lance, and speak in tongues and interpret it. And you say that’s the Holy Ghost? Certainly, it isn’t. It’s a devil.
Jesus never said, “By their tongues you shall know them,” but, “By their fruit you shall know them.” And Ephesians 5:1 said, that, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, gentleness, patience, meekness, faith, temperance.” Is that right? [Congregation says, “Amen.”—Ed.] There you are.
E-165 Now, if you’re a Methodist, those kind of fruits follow you, that you’re not quick-tempered, thus fight a buzz saw; if you got patience, since you got love, and you’re consideration to everybody; if your first love is Christ, your second is your fellow man, let you be third, down like that; if you’re moving on, got longsuffering, gentle, patience, faith. “My,” you say, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And there is Divine healing. The Holy Ghost is the same today.”
E-166 Now, you say, “Wait a minute. I’m taught in the church of Christ. Days of miracles is past.” You got a devil. That’s right.
You say, “Well, we got to be baptized. In the Bible, there’s no such a thing as being baptized in the name of the ‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost.’ I see it right now. It’s in the Scripture. It’s the Name of the Lord Jesus. Everywhere, it’s the Name of the Lord Jesus.”
E-167 “Wait a minute, we’ll kick you out of the Assemblies.” You duck down to that, you got a false spirit in you. You’re listening to a false teaching, or a false prophet.
E-168 Now, you just find one place where they was ever baptized, the name of “Father, Son, Holy Ghost,” and I’ll give up to you. I’ll show you, every place, they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus. Now, who’s right, the Assemblies or the Bible?
E-169 If you say, “Well, I been sprinkled. Bless God, that’s just as good for me. You just don’t have enough education. I tell you, sprinkle them. What difference does it make, to pour water on or immerse it down?”
I don’t care what it—what it looks like. The Bible said to be baptized. And baptize means “to be immersed.”
You say, “What difference does it make?”
E-170 Well, what if—if God told Moses, “Take off your shoes; you’re on holy ground”; Moses say, “That’s too much trouble. I’ll just take off my hat; got to unlace my shoes”? Would it been just as good? No, sir. God would have never spoke to him until he took off his shoes. [Brother Branham knocked on the pulpit four times—Ed.]
And God will never speak to the church till it comes back to the articles and principles that Christ laid down, and it’s not dominated by some emotional or some denomination to pull it this way and that way. They’ll have to come back to believing in miracles, believing in signs, believing in the Holy Ghost, baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, and all these things. They’ll have to come back to That, or God won’t speak to them. That’s exactly right. There’s where the church is.
E-171 That’s why we’re not denominationals. That’s exactly why we don’t belong to denomination.
We believe the Bible. And then there’s lots of things in There that we don’t know; plenty of it. But, “We’re standing open, Lord Jesus. Just reveal It.”
And we’ll walk in the Light, it’s a beautiful Light,
It comes where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us, by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
Not the Methodist, Baptists, Presbyterian; but, Jesus, the Light of the world.
All ye saints of Light proclaim,
Jesus, the Light of the world;
Then the bells of Heaven will ring,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
Everybody, in the form of worship now.
We’ll walk in the Light, beauti-…(Just hold it a minute, see.)
Come where the dewdrops of mercy are bright;
Shine all around us, by day and by night,
Jesus, the Light of the world.
E-172 Wouldn’t you rather have Jesus and His Word, than to have any denomination’s idea about it? How many would rather have Jesus and His Word? [Congregation says, “Amen.”—Ed.]
Now, find one place in here where God ever ordained a denomination. Find one place He ever put a woman preacher or ordained one, in the Scriptures. Find one place that any person was ever sprinkled or poured. Find one place that anybody was ever baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ, anywhere, is anything but the Name of Jesus Christ; not “Father, Son, Holy Ghost.” Find where one person was ever baptized in the name of “Father, Son, Holy Ghost.” Come show me. Where, every person was baptized in the Name of Jesus.
E-173 Now we’re going on into deeper things than this now. Now we’re going into “the initial evidence,” and so forth, and to just see where it’s at.
Now, if they teach contrary to that, they’re teaching things that’s not in the Bible.
E-174 Remember, I’m asking you for one place that there ever was a denomination. Just show me one. Then somebody is wrong. I’m not asking there be one here and one over here, maybe, if the other one wasn’t. I’m showing you. Show me one place there was ever a denomination, three hundred years after the death of the last apostle. Show me where there’s one denomination outside of the Catholic church starting it. Show me one place that the Bible doesn’t condemn denominations. Then why are you a denomination?
E-175 Show me one place, now, one place, one place where any person was ever sprinkled, for the remission of their sins. I don’t mean just one here and there. Now show me one place in the whole Scripture. Show me one place in the whole Scripture where anybody was ever poured, for the remission of their sin. Show me one place where anybody was ever baptized in the name of Je-…Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Just one place, one person, where one person was ever baptized in the name of the “Father, Son, Holy Ghost.”
Show me one place where God ever put a woman preacher in the church, or either said for her to be. Where’s it at?
That’s a big challenge. But I want to find your question, now, laying on the pulpit, showing me where one of these things are; tonight, I’ll apologize. If it isn’t, then if you haven’t met these requirements, then why not meet them? Come be one of us. You are, anyhow, potentially.
E-176 If your name is on the Lamb’s Book of Life, you’ll walk in the Light, you’ll see the Light. God will reveal It, and you’ll walk in It. That’s exactly right. See?
E-177 Now what? I’m not taking you back to a church. I’m taking you back to the Bible. Now, what did Paul say? What did Paul say? “If an angel from Heaven preaches anything else than This, let him be accursed.”
E-178 God said, “Let every man’s word be a lie, and Mine be the Truth.” So I don’t care what any church says, Pentecostal, Baptist, Presbyterian. God’s Word is Truth. Why did they start this? On account of denominations.
E-179 The Pentecostal Assemblies of God, today, would give anything, right down the bottom of them great teachers’ hearts, if they had never started that dogma of “initial evidence: speaking in tongues.” They know that’s wrong. It won’t hold water. Certainly won’t. I can prove to you by God’s Bible that you don’t receive the Holy Ghost by speaking with tongues. It’s not in Here. Oh, you think; yeah, sure. It’s written so close till it’d deceive the very Elected. See?
“He’s hid it from the eyes of wise and prudent, and revealed it to babes.” It’s a spiritual revelation. You watch the revelation hits it, and watch it brighten out. See, there you are. See? There’s the thing you want to watch, friend, see, is there.
E-180 We thank God for the Holy Ghost Who is our Teacher. And He doesn’t just go out and get some little old mythical idea, and bring it up here and say “Oh, hallelujah! Here it is, right, wrote right here. Hallelujah!” The Holy Ghost goes back and brings you right down through the Scripture, places her right down, right on through the Scripture. See? That’s when you got the Truth. That’s exactly. “For precept must be upon precept upon precept, and line upon line upon line.” That’s the way the Bible said to do it.
E-181 You say, “Do you condemn denomination?” No, sir. “Do you condemn women preacher?” No, sir. “Do you condemn speaking in tongue?” No, sir. “Do you condemn these people who is baptized in the name of ‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost’?” No, sir. No, sir. But, I say, if they know better now, God will hold them responsible if they don’t follow in the Light. You might not knowed it till just now, but you know it from now. See?
Now, if you don’t think It’s right, search the Scriptures. Then find your place, and come back and lay it on this desk tonight, and we’ll see whether it’s right or not. Then you go search It, with a open mind, open heart.
E-182 Now, that, now, this teaching like this is for the Branham Tabernacle, see, just here, just right here. There’s not…
E-183 I wish it wasn’t “Branham Tabernacle.” I wish it was just called “The tabernacle,” didn’t even have my name attached to it.
E-184 I’m fixing to turn this church…You all know, when we bought it, I bought it when I worked for the Public Service Company. And put this thing up here, and just called it that because that Brother Seward and them attached my name to it when they put it on the deed down there. Just as soon as I can get clear of this thing that we’re in now, this church is going to be turned over to this, a community, and just given; my name taken off of it.
E-185 I don’t think my name ought to be on that church. It oughtn’t to be a “Branham Tabernacle.” Should just be a church, “The church of the Lord Jesus Christ,” or something like that. “The tabernacle of the Lord,” see, “The dwelling place,” “The house of prayer,” or something, another, given some kind of a name. Let the congregation choose their name. My name, I’m—I’m just a man. My name don’t deserve to be on this, not no more than nothing. The reason it had to put my name on this, because my name was on the deed, said, “Billy Branham.” See? And it shouldn’t be there. No, sir. It should be a community church. This, this should be to the—the congregation here.
E-186 And this church is sovereign. There ain’t no board of trustees or deacons going to tell you what to do. This church, in a whole vote, tells you what to do. That’s exactly right, if there’s a decision.
E-187 If you don’t like your pastor, and there’s two or three people gets something against the pastor, they can’t raise up with their deacons, trustees, they just on what officer they are here. They just got one vote. That’s all. If he is assistant pastor, he’s just got one vote. He’s just like the lay member that sets back there. The whole vote of the church settles the matter. And that’s right. That’s—that’s right. No deacon board put a pastor out, or no pastor put a deacon board out. The church does that, in a general vote of the whole thing.
E-188 It’s sovereign in itself. We have no bishops. We have no general overseers. We have Jesus. Amen! He’s the Bishop. He’s the General Overseer. He’s the Head Pastor. He’s the King. He’s the Lord. He’s the Healer. He’s All-and-All. And we’re just His subjects, walking in the Light. Amen.
E-189 “And He set some in the Church.” What? “In the Church,” in the Body. “Set some in there.” What?
“First apostles,” that’s missionaries. We got one here in the church now, a little boy setting back there, a friend of mine, brother, I call him Creech Jefferies. That’s the first, highest call, a missionary. You say, “An apostle is a missionary?” Absolutely. Go look in the dictionary and find out what apostle means; means, “one sent.” Go look, and what a missionary means, “one sent.” Same thing. The highest order is a missionary who travels the seas for the Lord Jesus. High, “First apostles.”
E-190 “Second, prophets.” What is a prophet? A seer. Not one that makes out…
Not an apostle that makes out like he’s a missionary and stays home, but one who really is a missionary.
And a prophet, a seer.
E-191 Apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, pastors, that’s what the Body consists of.
In that local body, then, there’s nine spiritual gifts. One of them is wisdom, knowledge, Divine healing, speaking in tongues, interpretation of tongues, all these different gifts that’s in the local body.
And these apostles, pastors, teachers, and evangelists, are all here to be sure that, in these gifts, these things are working right. [Brother Branham snaps his finger once—Ed.] If they find something false raising up, quickly they condemn it, ’cause it’s not according to the Scripture.
Let somebody walk up here, say, “Bless God, I got oil in my hands. Looky here. You know, I—I—I believe I got the Holy Ghost, and I got oil in my hands.”
E-192 You’ll hear somebody say, “That’s not Scriptural.” That’s right. “Let’s take it and go here in the room. Let’s search the Scriptures through. Show me in the Scriptures where that’s at, the evidence of the Holy Ghost.”
E-193 One said, “Oh, I spoke with tongues. I got It.”
“Show me in the Scriptures that’s the evidence of the Holy Ghost.” That’s right.
E-194 “Oh, the Lord called me to preach,” says some woman.
“Show me in the Scriptures she did that.” Yeah.
E-195 “Oh, I know the Lord told me. He blessed me that night I was baptized in the name of ‘Father, Son, Holy Ghost.’”
“Show me in the Scriptures where you’re supposed to do that.”
E-196 “Well, I’m just as good as anybody else, and I’m a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Presbyterian. I’m Pentecostal.”
“Show me in the Scripture where God said that.” See? That’s right. It’s not there.
E-197 Now, there’s a wide-open challenge to you members of this tabernacle. There’s a wide-open challenge. Now, if you find one thing that you think that’s wrong, that I’ve said this morning, one thing that’s contrary to the Scripture, you’re duty-bound to lay that on this pulpit this evening. That’s right. You bring it and lay it here. Show me the Scripture, the verse in the Bible where that there was a denomination, that Jesus made a denomination, or any of these things that I’ve taught. Where He ever ordained and put a woman in the church, as a preacher; where He ever ordained sprinkling, pouring; or—or anything of that type that I’ve been talking on. Put it here.
Then, tonight, we’re going in, if the Lord willing, to “the baptism of the Holy Ghost,” and into “the seed of the serpent, and of the woman.” All right. The Lord bless you. How many feels good?
Oh, I feel like traveling on,
Oh, I feel like traveling on;
Now sing that real sweetly to the Lord.
Heavenly home is bright and fair,
And I feel like traveling on.
Oh, I feel like traveling, traveling on,
Oh, I feel like traveling, traveling on;
My Heavenly home is bright and fair,
And I feel like traveling on.
[Blank spot on tape—Ed.]
E-198 Now, there’s been one thing since I been on this rest period for these few weeks, I found out, that’s been a trouble with me. And I want to confess it now to my church. I set back behind those oak and hickory trees, down here a studying, “Where did I make my first mistake? What made me go wrong? What was it?” You know what I found out what makes me wrong? There’s such a thing as going overboard with something. Did you know that? You can try to be all right, and try to be good, and then you can be too good. And I’ve just let people push me around. See?
They’ll say, “Well, Brother Branham, you come over here. The Lord told me to tell you this.”
“Well, all right, brother, here I come.”
“Oh, Brother Branham, don’t you go over there, over here.”
E-199 “Well, maybe I better not go there.” See? And you don’t know what to do. That’s what makes me nervous.
I’m going where the Lord leads me to go, and I don’t care what anyone says about it. See? That’s exactly right. So, I won’t hurt feelings.
E-200 And then I noticed another thing. My children up there has become a bunch of neurotics, screaming at night, and everything, people piling in and out of the house there, all the time, people coming from everywhere. I don’t blame people from that, sick people. But we’ve got that all arranged.
And here at the church, when I come to hold a meeting, why, I almost have to slip out, get out of the church, because people just holding on, and this and that. I’m so tired, and sometimes coming out on a healing service, and I’m not real good to them, I say…
“Say, Brother Branham, the Lord said…”
“Yeah. When we come over here, go the…” That’s no good. I shouldn’t do that. We don’t have to do that.
E-201 Now we’ve made arrangements to take care of that. And now, just remember, anybody that wants…I want to see everybody. And I want to have time, and talk with people. This way, you can’t. You get somebody in there, and, the first thing you know, all your time has gone to one, and—and you don’t get to see the other one. And that’s not right. People come from a long ways, just to have a few words with you. And if God has—has give those people that faith in me, to believe that, they deserve a little time to be taught. You shouldn’t just turn them away, say, “No, I don’t see nobody.” That ain’t right. Because, I’m afraid to do it, ’cause…
Someone comes and say, “Now, the Lord tells me, Brother Branham, that you should do a certain, certain thing. This is—this is the will of the Lord now.” The Lord will tell me His will. See?
E-202 Mr. King, how many remembers R. A. King, used to come here, was down here? He said…I was building a boat up there, one time. He said, “Now, Brother Branham, you build that boat according to your own specification.”
E-203 Said, “I was building…Or, some man was building a boat one time, and a guy come along, said, ‘You ought to cut these gunnels this way.’ Well, he tried it that way. Another one said, ‘Oh, you ought to do it this way, everything, the—the ribs and everything. The boat should be this way, and the bow should be this way, and the head, and the stern, and the—the rudder.’”
E-204 And he said, “It was the awfulest looking thing you ever seen, when he got done.” Said, “He just took the boat and packed it back in the backyard. And started out with his saws, cutting him another one.”
E-205 Said, “Somebody come by and said, ‘Say, this is the way you ought to build it.’ Said, ‘That one, was built by others’ instructions, is out in the backyard. I’m building this one according to the way I think it ought to be built.’” That’s right.
E-206 Now, God, if He wants me to do anything, He’ll tell me what to do. If you think that I’m wrong in what I’m doing, or anything like that, you pray for me, that God will straighten me out. See? Cause I can’t listen to too many.
E-207 Now, you here maybe at the church, you just got to listen to maybe one or two people, but here I go into the tens of thousands. How can I do it? Then I said, “Before I make any man an answer, I’m going to set down and study over it right, see which way the Holy Ghost leads. Then I’m going to tell him or tell her, whatever it is, and that’s my decision. I’ll stick by it. That’s right, stay right there.”
E-208 Now, interviews are fixed. Anybody that wants to see me, perfectly all right, if you’ll call BUtler 2-1519. Just look in the telephone directory and find William Branham, BUtler 2-1519, arrangements will be made for interviews. [Telephone number has been changed—Ed.] It’ll be put down, just exactly the time and the place to do. And I can meet every person, see with them, help them with their problems and things. But I can’t just go in and stay a day with one, and four or five hours with this one, and next day miss the whole thing. We have so much time. We ask them what they want, and how much time, and bring it right down. And we see every person. We got that.
E-209 And the man that answers the phone will be Mr. Mercier here, or Mr. Goad, setting right there. And they’ll fix that right on my book, exactly, for the interviews, and I’ll see every person.
E-210 If it’s a special case, if it’s during time for the prayer service now, for the sick, bring your sick and afflicted in and let them listen a night or two, now. We’ll pray for them emergency cases.
E-211 But then, after about a couple of nights, I want to start in on my new ministry, and I want to take them back here in this room. Because, you know the vision. How many remembers the vision? Sure, you do. Of the little tent in the room.
E-212 Now, I’m going to take Meda in with me, on the first night, on account of sending women in. And then if it…See how it works just with her in there. And then if it don’t work right, that way, then I’ll turn around and send two women in at a time, bring two women at one time, ’cause they’re coming into a place where just a man. See? And that, course, we got clean minds. But the devil don’t have it out there, you see, so what he would think about it, see, and what the world would say.
But it’s a ministry that I can’t let be known to the public. No one will ever duplicate this. You see? No, sir. No. I know it’s right on the merge now. I can just look like just reach out there and take a hold of. It’s laying right there.
E-213 Last night I was dreaming just before I got up this morning, Brother Neville. I—I was dreaming a dream. And I thought the ministry…I don’t know what I was doing. But, whatever it was, oh, you talk about things taking place, I never seen such. I woke up just a crying, a praising. I hit my wife in the face with my hand, like that—like that, just a praising God, laying there.
Oh, I—I just know that there’s something right out here just ready to reach over and get a hold of it. It’s going to be greater than it’s ever been. It’s going to be wonderful. I believe God is fixing to do something great. But now we got to approach it sanely, intelligently, and right in the Word of God. Correct. Oh, we love Him.
E-214 Now remember, if any of your friends or anybody wants to see me and wants to talk with me about a little something that’s privately, let them call BUtler 2-1519 and there’ll be an interview arranged out at the place. [Telephone number has been changed.—Ed.] I can’t have them around the house up there, and around the tabernacle here, ’cause you get in here…
I preach real late. And I stay here, ’cause I’m not with you very much. And I just hold you as long as I can, to get every Word in. Because, friends, this is the only time that we’re ever going to have to do this. This is all going to be over, pretty soon. We’re going right on down the valley, right on down. Look at them that’s left since last year, that’s been here. See?
E-215 So we’re going down the valley. We got to do this now. This has got to be done now. And, now, that’s the reason I hold you.
You say, “Well, that, how about Scripture for that?”
Yeah, Paul preached all night, one night. And a man fell out of the building, killed himself. How many know that? All night long! Paul went over and laid his body up over him, felt him, his heart begin to beat with that guy’s heart, said, “No, he…” [Blank spot on tape—Ed.]