Leadership #3

Bringing Forth People with a Better Conscience

Question of Eternal Life

June 26, 1994

	Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we acknowledge Your Presence, and we know
truly that You are that One that followed Israel. You are that Rock and
that Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night, and You certainly
were there in Messiah. We understand these things, and appreciate the
fact that You are the One that brought the Word to Paul, and now here,
revealing that same Word, having revealed It, and standing here now, the
Pillar of Fire, to take us into the Millennium, but first of all,
raising the dead, and transforming a people, at the same time, and
taking the Bride up to the Wedding Supper to the Reincarnation. 

	These things, Lord, we stand on to be truth, to be absolutely evident
by vindication. And we thank You, Lord, that this is that hour, in spite
of the fact that many evidences in the world and all, at this time, do
not seem to go along with Your Word, Lord—it never has, and never
will—except for the fact that It’s proven to be true, which we are
happy about, and therefore know that things are climaxing rapidly and no
matter what any man says, what any man’s plans are, we already know
what You’ve said and what Your plans are, and we rejoice in them,
Lord.

	Help us to study Your Word today, to feed our souls, to be more and
more full of the Holy Ghost, to come more and more to that stature of
the perfect man, right to Headship, where the Bride of Christ,
individuals all conforming to that Bride…maybe as Bro. Branham said,
“Those living, moving, statues,” God in them, and they, completely
controlled by Him through that life of the Word, and then going into
immortality for a greater sanctification, for a greater work. These
promises we have from You, Lord, vindicated to us, and we’re grateful.
So, we thank You for Your Presence and what You do for us. In Jesus’
Name. Amen. 

	You may be seated.

1.	Now we’re in “Leadership #3”, and Bro. Branham has taken for
his reading Mk 10:17-22, which portion of Scripture is usually called
“The Rich Young Ruler,” and he used it in a two-fold thought of
‘follow Me’ and “leadership.” It is very evident that when Jesus
invited this young man to follow him, he was also inviting him to accept
His leading or His leadership, which the youth declined.

	Now right there, of course, the youth had asked him for the way to
eternal life, and you notice that Christ set it forth.

2.	Thus Bro. Branham, then, begins by illustrating that each and every
one of us is lead by someone or something. From our first step to our
last step, there is either someone or something that is in control over
and above and beyond ourselves. It is very telling in that he is talking
to men who have assumed leadership, practically around the world of
Christendom, and he is telling them about the fact that God has likened
us to sheep, which cannot find their way, and require a leader—not a
lot of leaders—a leader. Even in their slaughter, (That’s the
sheep.) they are led, but how horribly in that a goat—not another
sheep—leads them into the chute to the slaughter pen, and then, the
goat jumps over the fence and leaves them to their destruction.

	Is Bro. Branham telling these men that they are leading the church into
Rome and great tribulation and second death? It is certainly so, as we
see it today. Bro. Branham, then, tells of himself hearing the lost lamb
and carrying it in his bosom, until he was able to find its mother. Is
it possible that he is thinking of bringing a Bride, lost in Laodicea,
to its true mother, the New Jerusalem? I’m sure he’s done it.

	Then, as in many messages, he begins to talk of God in nature, as he
points these men to Jesus Christ, in hopes that they will point and lead
others to that great Leader. And so, we’re ready to start reading
here. And, after Bro. Branham talks about that little lamb that he took
in his bosom, he talks about God carrying him in His arms, a lamb,
across that river into his journey’s end, to a land where there’s no
sorrow, sickness, etc., and “I’ll be with the ones that I love.”
And that is true.

3.	Now he says:

[21]	If you’ll study nature, there’s a great understanding to be
found in nature. Everything that I look at, and God has made it, He’s
the Author of nature. Nature runs in continuity. All nature runs about
the same. In other words there are set laws, and it all abides by those
laws, and God is keeping those laws in order. You notice,
everything…As I have said, I believe last evening, that “Nature
testifies of God.” If you never had a Bible, you could still watch
nature and know that this Bible is the Truth.

[22]	Now I’ve had the privilege of going around and around the world.
And I’ve read many histories, and I’ve seen different religions; the
Mohammedans, and I’ve read the Koran, I’ve seen the Shiites, the
Jains, the Mohammedans, the Buddhists, and whatmore. But yet, each of
them, they have a philosophy, a book of creeds and a book of laws, and
so forth. But our Bible is the Truth, and our God is the only one that
is right; because each one of them has to point to a grave somewhere
where their founder is still lying, but Christianity points to an open
tomb and can live in the Presence of the One that was put in there. He
is alive! It’s not a God that was, It’s a God that IS. Not an “I
was” or a “will be,” but an “I AM.”

	Now he’s talking about God per se, but he’s also talking about
Jesus Christ, the Son, that was made the sacrifice; that Jesus was
raised from the dead. And, if you go back to the Book of Acts, you will
find that that is identically what Peter speaks on the day of Pentecost
and shows them that, because Jesus was raised from the dead by God, now
God is able to do these things that God could not do otherwise. So, this
is what you’re looking at here: that we are pointing to our prophet. 

	Every one of these people point to a prophet or some philosopher—a
Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, and whoever else. It doesn’t matter;
there are scads of them. And they talk about updating. Prophet Mohammed
came along, and somebody else came along, and he had a better
revelation. Then, the Mormons came along with Joe Smith. Always some one
rises up with a revelation, a philosophy.

4.	But he’s showing that everyone has a prophet, and everyone points
to a tomb wherein the bones lay, but our prophet rose from the dead. You
see? And, remember; our prophet was a man. God was in him, but he’s
still a man, because God has to deal with man through men. That’s the
law laid down, and you’re not going to change it. But there’s a big
difference in just taking that statement. You’ve got to understand God
raises that man up according to foreknowledge, election, and
predestination, forming him in the womb in a certain way that other
people are not formed.

	Now people aren’t going to believe that. But their followers say,
“Well, I believe that; I believe that they were formed a certain way,
too.”

	Well, that’s fine, but you understand also the devil has a part in
forming, too. The devil, the prince of the power of air, has a lot of
power over the human body, genetics and everything else.

5.	So anyway, we’re looking now at an empty tomb, because God raised
that man, Christ Jesus, from the dead; and therefore, having raised him
to His right hand, to the Mercy Seat, (makes him mediating and
interceding) we find that there now is a way that God has bridged the
gap. And we know that the tomb is empty, and our God always was, and is,
and He’s known as the ‘Great I Am’, which none of these others can
possibly prove, because they do not have what lies in true seed, that
is, the true manifestation.

	Now Bro. Branham here in saying, “God is not a God that wasn’t, but
He’s a God that is. He is not a ‘was’, and ‘will be’.” He is
an ‘I Am’. And he speaks, of course, at the time, talking about the
empty tomb. And this is the language that Oneness people use. 

6.	But, what is the exact historical and proven truth of what Bro.
Branham is saying here? Well, I’ve been talking about it from Acts 2,
but we’ll just take Acts 10, where the Gentiles have received an
outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and you’re going to find Peter saying
the same thing to them that he said to the Jews in Acts 2:22-36, and
10:34-43:

(34)	Then Peter opened his mouth, (In the presence of the Gentiles
because God gave him the vision saying, “Go to the Gentiles and preach
the truth.”) Of a truth, I perceive God is no respecter of person. (In
other words there are no longer Jews. It’s anybody that God wants to
talk to.)

(35)	But in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh
righteousness, is accepted with him.

(36)	The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching
peace by Jesus Christ. (He is Lord of all.) 

	Now, notice that “the Word which God sent unto the children of
Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ,” there are three people
involved there: God, Israel, and Jesus. And you can count it any way you
want; you can’t come up with two. Now you can come up with one God
with one Message to one people. But, how did it come through? One Lord,
Jesus Christ. So, don’t try to change this, or you’ll come up with
Jesus-Only, and then, you’re not part of this Message. We are not
Oneness or Jesus-Only.

(37)	The word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all
Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached;

(38)	How that God (How that God!) anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the
Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all
the oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

	Now It tells you that Jesus was there, and God was with him, and
that’s two people. You might say, “Well, it’s one and a half.”

	No, it’s not. It’s two people, and God is in Christ reconciling the
world.

7.     	(39)	And we are witnesses of things which Jesus did both in the
land of the Jews, and in    Jerusalem; whom they slew and hung upon a
tree: (Why? Because God was with him. Now, watch what God did.)

(40)	Him God raised up (from the dead) the third day, and showed him
openly;

(41)	Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God,
even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead.

(42)	And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that
it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and
dead.

(43)	And to him give all the prophets witness, that through his name
whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.

	So, here’s what you’re looking at: You’re looking at the empty
tomb, because God raised him. Everybody else talks of a prophet, of a
philosopher, somebody that brought truth. You see? But nobody can point
back to an empty tomb, except Christianity.

8.	Now Christianity, as we know it today, in its modern, filtered
condition, where they’ve filtered out the Truth and the Light, cannot
point to it. All they can do is talk about it, and they really don’t
believe it. That’s why the churches are so dead, and you have what
you’ve got: such corruption today, where the kids even say there’s
no relativity between God and people. If God exists, fine. He runs His
business; we run ours. He does what He wants, and maybe in the end,
He’ll have finality. But, as long as He’s the way He is, and we find
nothing relative, then, all right. What does it matter what anybody
does? We’ll see what happens later on.

	Well, you see, the churches have bypassed every point of vindication.
They never have wanted it, only a very tiny Elect—like that little
sheep here that needed help. All right.

9.	Now:

[23]	…All nature runs in continuity, as I have said, talking to our
Church Ages, on our church ages (which the books are now coming
out)…about my writing of The Seven Church Ages. How that we see the
Church, how It’s matured, and come up just exactly like all nature
does.

	Now there might be a certain amount of agreement there at that meeting,
that the Church is maturing, and they’re looking at themselves as the
great nurturers and ‘maturers’ of the Church. Because, remember;
these are the ones, who, (like the fundamental businessmen—formed the
‘Fishers of Men’—these Full-Gospel Businessmen) started in
opposition to spread the lie of the evidence of the baptism with the
Holy Ghost. 

	Now, if you’ve got a false evidence, how can you have, then, the real
Holy Ghost? Can’t be. There’s no way. If I’ve got a genuine robin,
it is not going to produce brown eggs. It won’t do it. If I’ve got a
white chicken, it produces white eggs; brown chicken produces brown
eggs. It doesn’t mean that a red chicken is going to produce red eggs.
It doesn’t mean a bantam hen with sixteen colors is going to produce
sixteen colored eggs. But we’re looking at this as evidence.

10.	Bro. Branham will talk about that evidence. But these people here
have boasted leadership. The five-fold ministry failed, so they’re
going to take over.

	Do you remember what happened to the first Church and the first Church
Age under Paul? All the elders came together, and they took precedence
over the five-fold ministry. Now an elder should be blameless. These men
are a bunch of liars. They were liars in the beginning; they are liars
now.

	Say, “Bro. Vayle, don’t you think they came in with a genuine, true
motive, the true love of God in their hearts?”

	Hold it, please! I just don’t feel like getting ill, especially on
you, this morning. And I don’t want to go out here, holding my mouth,
running, because I’ve got to throw up. What are you trying to tell me,
if your thinking is so loose this morning—you here and those on tapes?
Are you trying to tell me the Word of God lies? These men are wolves in
sheep’s clothing. They set a trap! They dig a ditch! And my Bible says
they’re going to fall into it. Blind leaders of the blind!

11.	On the other hand, you have this consolation: the elect cannot be
deceived. They’ll never believe a lie, no matter how sugar-coated it
is, and how delicious to the taste. Do you know a baby, a little child,
can eat ExLax, which is very, very delicious? And he’ll die of
diarrhea, because it contains a virulent poison that the stomach
rejects, and it rejects the kid with it. And children have died eating
ExLax. I can get you the history on it.

	Everything is sugar-coated: “Thou shalt not surely die.”

	Everything has a promise of durability and endurance and success at the
end; but it doesn’t, except for the Word of the living God, which is
truly understood as God gave It.

12.	Now he said here:

[23]	…How we see the Church, how It’s matured, came up exactly like
all nature does. 

	They are going to mature the church through spreading a false evidence
of the baptism with the Holy Ghost, though the doctrine of the baptism
is correct, yet their understanding is incorrect, because they say you
can be born again and then filled with the Holy Ghost. And the old
fundamental idea, even by Dr. McCrossen was ‘you are born to the
Spirit of Jesus Christ when you are born again, but you’re not filled
with the Spirit of God for power until later.” 

	I thought Jesus had the same Spirit. Yeah. Bro. Branham said,
“You’re born again by the baptism with the Holy Ghost.”

	Paul said, “Because you are Seed;” didn’t become Seed, but
“because you are Seed, God gave the Spirit,” clearing with Galatians
3, making a way through the Blood. As It says in Hebrews, “The Spirit
answers to the Blood.” If you’ve been thoroughly cleansed by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no way the Holy Ghost will not
come in. Of course, don’t forget those are the elect.

	One can argue, “Just a minute, Bro. Vayle, the point is to be
thoroughly cleansed, and then, there’s a fight between the devil and
that person, which way you’ll go; so, seven more devils could come
in.”

	Well, well. I never heard such. An elect child of God? Why, that means
God turned him over to Satan. What do you turn him over to Satan for?
While the man’s climbing and screaming to God, God says, “Look, I
don’t want you,” and turns him over to Satan?

	I’m trying to tell you something: If nature runs in continuity, let
me tell you something: There’s something in continuity over the
continuous nature! And a million times stronger and a million times
greater. The church matured.

	Catholics are vying with the Full-Gospel Businessmen. All Protestants,
whether they are Fishers of Men, or anything else, they’re vying, and
they’re claiming the Church will come to perfection through them. 

	Oh, my! If this is perfection, please count me out. I’m not
interested.

13.	Now, watch what Bro. Branham is saying here:

[24]	As we were talking the other day how about the sun rises in the
morning, it’s a little boy, real weak, not much strength to it at all.
As the day goes on, it gets stronger and stronger. By eight o’clock it
enters school, like a young boy or young girl. About eleven o’clock
it’s out of school, it’s ready for its service. That’s its career.
Then across until three o’clock it changes, in the middle life into
old age. And then it dies in the afternoon. Is that the end of the sun?
No. It comes back the next morning to testify that there is a life, a
death, a burial, a resurrection, and a continuation of that same Light
that was hidden for a while, under a cover, as it were. Eternal life may
be veiled, but it can never cease. It doesn’t disappear or go into a
nonexistent state. That’s just the physical part. It’s always there.
…Resurrection. See?

[25]	We watch the trees, how they move and what they do. I was sometime
ago down in Kentucky, I like to squirrel hunt, I went down in the fall
of the year to hunt squirrels with a friend of mine. It got very dry.

[26]	And anyone ever hunted a gray squirrel, know that how hard it is to
slip up on them when the leaves are crackling. Houdini is an amateur
escape artist to those fellows, how they can get away! And then trying
to shoot eye shots at fifty yards, it takes some good hunting to get
your limit in a day. In other words, he shot them through the eye so the
squirrel wouldn’t be messed up by a bullet.

[27]	So, Mr Wood, a friend of mine, a converted Jehovah Witness, was
with me. And he said, “I know a farm over there where there’s a man,
he’s got a lot of them, in what we call “the hollars.”

[28]	And he said, How many people know what a hollar is? What part of
Kentucky are you from? Well, he said, That’s where I’m from. See?

[29]	Like here now long ago here not long ago in one of the chapters…I
was telling Bro. Williams this, that they said, “We’ll now stand and
sing the national anthem.”

[30]	And I said, “For my old Kentucky home.” So nobody joined with
me…That was the only anthem I knew.

14.	So, Bro. Branham, then, prays for a lady, and then, he goes on:

[33]	On with the little story just to kind of get a feeling before we
get right down to the few notes I’ve got written here, and some
Scripture.

[34]	Now he said, “This old man, we’ll go over there and see him.
He’s got a lot of hollars in his place, but he’s an infidel. He’d
just about curse us out if we went over there.”

[35]	And I said, “But we’re not getting any squirrels here, and
we’ve been camping two weeks. And we’re dirty, and our beard’s all
out and all over our faces.”

[36]	And he said, “Well, let’s go over.”

[37]	So we went down a few miles, about twenty miles. I’d been in the
country down there once before, for three nights, at a Methodist camp
meeting where they had some great things the Lord had done, and great
healing services amongst the Methodist people. And then we went way back
over some hills and hollars and ridges. And you just have to know
Kentucky to know what kind of a place you had to get into. Now a
‘hollow’ or a ‘hollar’, as they call them, is like a declevity
between hills or mountains, so that’s what they call that…your hills
and valleys. And while we went back there we came to the house, and
there sat two old men out there, with their old hats slouched down over
their faces, and Bro. Wood said “There he, is he’s the tough one. He
hates that word ‘preacher’.”

[38]	So I said, “Well, I just better sit in the car, or we won’t get
to hunt at all. You go in and ask if we can hunt.”

[39]	So he got out and started walking in, and spoke to them. And in
Kentucky, always, you know,it’s “Come in,” and so forth. And so he
went up there and he said, “I just wondered if we could hunt a while
on your place.”

[40]	And the old man sitting there, about seventy-five years old,
tobacco running down his mouth, spit, and he said, “What’s your
name?”

	He said, “My name is Wood.”

	He said, “Are you relation to that old man Jim that used to
live…” probably ‘here’.

	He said, “Yeah, I’m Jim’s boy’s son. I’m Banks.”

[41]	“Well, old man Jim was an honest man. Certainly, help yourself.
Are you by yourself?”

	And Banks spilled the beans: He said, “No, my pastor is out there.”

	He said, “What?”

	He said, “My pastor is out in the car, and he’s hunting with me.”

[42]	He said, “Wood, you don’t mean you’ve got so low-down till
you have to tote a preacher with you wherever you go?”

[43]	He’s a rough, old character, so I thought I’d better get out of
the car, you know. So I walked around, and he said, “Well, you’re a
preacher, huh?”

[44]	I said, “Yes, sir.” He looked me up and down (squirrel blood,
and dirt on me) he said, “Well, don’t look much like it.”

[45]	“And I kind of like that.” He said, “You know, I want to tell
you something. I’m supposed to be an infidel!”

[46]	I said, “Yes, sir, I understand that, but I don’t think it’s
much to brag about, though. Do you?”

[47]	He said, “Well, I don’t know. I’m going to tell you what I
think of you guys.”

	I said, “Well, all right.”

[48]	He said, “You’re barking up the wrong tree.” Now how many
knows what that means? See? It means it’s a lying dog, you see; the
coon’s not up there at all, see. He said, “You’re barking up the
wrong tree.”

	I said, “That’s your opinion.”

[49]	He said, “Well, look, you see that old chimney standing up
there?”

	I said, “Yeah.”		

[50]	“I was born up there, seventy-five years ago. I’ve lived right
here in these hills all along through all these years. I’ve looked
towards the skies, I’ve looked here and there, and, surely, in all
these seventy-five years, I would have seen something that looked like
God. Don’t you think so?”

[51]	I said, “Well, it depends on what you’re looking at, or what
you’re looking for.”

[52]	And he said, “Well, I certainly don’t believe there is such a
creature. And I believe you fellows just simply get out and swindle the
people out of their money and everything. And that’s the way it
goes.”

[53]	I said, “Well, you’re an American citizen. You have a right to
your own thinking.”

[54]	He said, “There’s one guy, one time though, that I heard of,
that I sure would like to meet. If I would ever get to talk to that
fellow, I’d like to ask him a few questions”

	I said, “Yes, sir.”

[55]	He said, “He was a preacher, you might know him. He had a meeting
up here in Campbellsville not long ago, in a church yard up there, a
campground. I forget his name. But he’s from Indiana.”

	And I said, “Oh? Yes, sir.”

[56]	And Brother Wood started to say, “Well…” So, Bro. Branham
kicked him. I know that stopped him. He said, “What about him?”

[57]	He said, “Well, the old lady…forget her name…up there on the
hill… You know, she was dying with cancer. And my wife and I would go
up there of a morning to change her bed. They couldn’t even raise her
up high enough to put her on a bedpan, just had to pull a draw sheet.
She was dying. She had been to Louisville, and said the doctors had
given her up and she was ‘going to die’.”

[58]	“And her sister went up to that meeting and told us that the
preacher was standing up there on the platform, looked back over the
audience and called this woman by name, and told her, that when she
left, she’d take a handkerchief and put it in her purse, and called
this woman’s name down here, that’s the one that lives up the hill,
twenty miles below here, how she was suffering with cancer, what her
name was, and all that she’d been through.”

15.	Now, in other words, this, the camp meeting, was 20 miles from this
place, the woman who was dying of cancer was up the hill. Her sister
went to the meeting 20 miles away. Bro. Branham called her by name, told
her her sister was dying of cancer, took her handkerchief, and no doubt
he prayed over it, put it on the woman, and told her she’d get well.

[58]	“…So take that handkerchief and go lay it on the woman,” and
said, “the woman will be healed of her cancer.”

[59]	He said, “They came down here that night, and honest, I heard the
awfulest screaming up there. I thought they had the Salvation Army
turned loose on top of the hill up there.” I said, “Well, I guess
the old sister’s dead. Tomorrow we’ll go and get the wagon, and
we’ll take her out to the main road so they can get her to the
undertaker.” We waited. No need going up that time of night, for
it’s about a mile up the hill there. Well, we went up there the next
morning, and you know what happened?”

	I said, “No, sir.”

[60]	He said, “She was sitting there eating fried apple pies, and
drinking coffee, with her husband.”

	I said, “You mean that?”

	He said, “Yes, sir.”

	“Oh!” I said. “Now, mister, you don’t really mean that.”

[61]	He said, “What bothers me is this: How did that man, and never in
this country, and he knew that?” See?

	And I said, “Oh, you don’t believe that.”

	“Oh, yes, it’s the truth.”

	I said, “You believe that?”

[62]	He said, “Well, go right up the hill, and I can prove it to
you.” He’s preaching back to me now, you see.

[63]	So I picked up an apple, and said, “Can I have one of these
apples?” and rubbed it on my clothes.

[64]	He said, “Well, the yellow jackets are eating them up, I guess
you can have one.” I bit into it, and I said, “That’s a nice
apple.”

[65]	He said, “Oh, yes. You know what? I planted that tree there forty
years ago, or something like that.”

	I said, “Oh, is that right?”

	He said, “Yes, sir.”

[66]	I said, “I notice we haven’t had any frost yet, and it’s
early August, and yet those leaves are falling off the trees.”

[67]	He said, “Yes, sir. That’s right; it’s coming on fall. I
believe we’ll have an early fall this time.”

[68]	I said, “Yes, sir.” Changed the subject, see. I said, “Well,
you know, it’s strange how that sap goes out of that tree, and those
leaves fall off, and yet there’s no frost to kill the leaves.”

[69]	He said, “Well, what’s that got to do with what we’re talking
about?”

[70]	I said, “Well, I’m just wondering.” (You know, Mama said,
“Give a cow enough rope, and it’ll hang itself.” So, I just gave
him plenty of rope.)

[71]	So he went on, and he said, “Well, yes, what’s that got to do
with it?”

[72]	I said, “You know, God brings those apples up, and you enjoy
those apples and leaves, and you sit there in the shade and so forth. It
goes down in the fall of the year, (That’s the life goes down in the
fall of the year.) and it comes back again with apples and with leaves
again.”

[73]	And he said, “Oh, that’s just nature. (In other words,
“That’s not God. That’s just nature.”) See, that’s just
nature.” (Repeats himself.)

[74]	And I said, “Well, of course, that’s nature. That’s nature,
but Somebody has to control nature. You tell me now what does that.”

[75]	He said, “Well, it’s just naturally nature.”

[76]	I said, “Who is it that talks to the little leaf now, and it
falls off?” I said, “Now, the reason that leaf falls off is because
the sap goes down into the root. And, what if that sap stayed up in the
tree through the wintertime? What would happen?”

[77]	He said, “It would kill the tree.”

[78]	“Well,” I said, “now, what intelligence is there that runs
that sap down into the roots and says, ‘Get out of here now. It’s
coming fall of the year. Get down into the roots and hide’? And stay
down in the roots like a grave; and then next spring comes back up
again, brings up more apples	, and brings more leaves and things.”

[79]	He said, “That’s just nature. It’ll do it. The weather! (See?
That’s part of nature.) The changing,  you know, coming on fall.”

[80]	I said, “Set a bucket of water on the post out there, and see if
nature runs it down the bottom of the post and brings it back up again.
See?” (Now that’s kind of offbeat for an illustration, but it’s
still true. If nature is so tremendous, let’s see it do something. In
other words nature’s in a rut, you know.)

	And he said, “Well, uh…you might have something.”

	I said, “Think of it while we go hunting.”

	And he said, “Well, hunt where you want to.”

[81]	And I said, “When I come back, if you’ll tell me what
intelligence runs that sap out of that tree down into the roots and
stays all winter and comes back next spring, I’ll tell you that’s
the same intelligence that told me about that woman up there.”

	He said, “Told you?”

	I said, “Yes, sir.”

	He said, “You’re not that preacher!”

	I said, “Would you know his name?”

	He said, “Yes.”

	I said, “Branham?”

	He said, “That’s him.”

	I said, “That’s right.” See?

[82]	And you know what? I led the old man to Christ right there on his
own testimony.

[83]	And a year later I was down there and pulled a car (Indiana license
on it) into their yard. They had moved away; he had died. And, when I
came back, there stood his wife and really raked me over the coals,
because I thought I had permission to hunt. And she came out there, and
she said, “Can’t you read?”

[84]	I said, “Yes, ma’am.” She said, “Did you see those signs
saying ‘No Hunting!’?”

[85]	I said, “Yes, ma’am, but I have permission.”

[86]	“You do not have permission!” she said, “I’ve got this
place posted for many years.”

[87]	I said, “Well, sister, I was wrong then. I’m sorry.”

[88]	She said, “Sorry nothing! Those Indiana license plates on there,
and you sit there; you’re the boldest people!”

	I said, “Could I just explain it?”

	“Yeah! Who gave you permission?”

[89]	I said, “I don’t know who it was, but it was an elderly man
sitting out here on the porch, when I was down here last year, and we
were talking about God.”

	She looked, and she said, “Are you Bro. Branham?”

	And I said, “Yes, ma’am.”

[90]	She said, “Forgive me. I didn’t know who you were.” She said,
“I want to tell you his testimony. In his last dying hours, he raised
up his hands and praised God. He died in Christian faith and was carried
away to God.” (And he quotes the Scripture:)

[91]	“If they hold their peace, the rocks will immediately cry out.”
There’s something in nature.

	Now this is true here, because you’ll notice that the apostle Paul
immediately goes to nature as a disclaimer against those who will not
believe in God. And, of course, there are many people who might believe
in various gods, of various natures, when they consider nature as in
creation. But you must realize that Bro. Branham is pointing to the
definitive Creator, and how this One created, and how He maintains.

16.	Now, in this particular case, we don’t know that this man was even
baptized in water. We don’t know if he went on to baptism with the
Holy Ghost. All we know that there is an election here, and a
predestination; and this man became thoroughly converted to the
understanding and the acceptance of God, which you will notice, that
Paul did as he went to preach to the Athenians, who had a multiplicity
of gods. It was zeroing in on the truth of Godhead. And you will see
here that this little seed that this man carried, maybe it did not carry
him to the place of Abraham, or to a Peter, or Paul, which I don’t say
even we are carried to that particular place—you know, station-wise,
within the kingdom.

	But, what I’m looking at here in this testimony is where Bro.
Branham, back here in this prayer that he prayed, said: 

[9]	Thank you for the success that these brethren had overseas in the
countries over there where they’re hungering and thirsting for God. I
pray, Lord, that if they go back again, and these children, that they
brought into the Kingdom, will have become great-grandmothers and
grandfathers of the children that they bring in.

	In other words there’ll be a continuity of the Word of God going
forth and bringing souls into the Kingdom, which is what he is talking
about here.

17.	Now, concerning this fact of Bro. Branham praying and looking at
these men’s ministry, it’s literally the same thing as I mentioned
before, that when Bro. Bose, a Trinitarian, sat there, and Bro. Branham
preached on “End-Time Evangelism,” Bro. Branham actually was
stressing the fact of the Message of this hour and its vindication, and
what there was at this particular time, which, if turned down, would be
just the same as the Catholic Church having turned down Luther, as the
Lutherans having turned down Wesley, as the Wesleyans having turned down
Pentecost, and now they, in turn, becoming a chaff, which would be the
holder of the true Seed.

	Yet, at the same time, you must understand that whether these are
foolish virgin or not, how they come in, whether they’re based on that
one statement that Bro. Branham made in a message. I’ve got it here,
(Lloyd gave it to me; he looked it up.) where Bro. Branham mentioned the
heathen will have the Gospel preached to them.

	These things I am not able to explain to you. I do not go beyond what
he says. I believe what he says; I cannot put it together. I have no way
of knowing. But I do know this: that Bro. Branham had perfect confidence
in the salvation of this man, and he has the confidence that whether
these men are preaching the identical message they should preach or not,
there is enough Gospel there to do something for the people.

18.	Now I’m going to relate that at least to the fact that Bro.
Branham said, “People do not go to church to become bad people.”
They’re not sitting on bar stools; they’re not out there rioting and
doing things they shouldn’t be doing. They’re coming in order to
better their lives, to have a relationship with God, to become more
spiritual. Some people only come, as we notice some churches, they’re
disregarding entirely… Like Dr. Schuler’s church out there in
California, when he has Wynona Judd and the Judds up there on the
platform in their slacks and singing songs that are ungodly and
heathenistic and everything else. These people… I don’t have any use
at all for that. If he’s not part of the kingdom of Satan, I’m at a
loss to figure it out’.

	There is nothing here, there is nothing there in my understanding that
has anything to do with it, but this here does have something to do with
the future and what is going on.

19.	Now I talked about the people coming to be better people. That’s
when I wanted to explain by making a statement last Wednesday: that in
the world today you look around, and where are the major trouble spots?
The major spots are not Christianity. Take Europe: It is between the
Muslims and the Christians; and the Christians, of course, are likely
the Greek Orthodox. And you’ll notice they’re talking about ethnic
cleansing, and it’s a holy war. Now there’s a holy war going on in
Ireland; let’s face it. And you’re seeing every place you go the
Muslim-Mohammedans are rising into a holy war. The major target is
Christianity, but it could start up against the Hindus. 

	But, look at those countries. Look at the countries that repudiated the
move of God. Now those that repudiated the move of God have always
stayed behind in basic social advancement.

	So, what I’m trying to say is this: even though there’s preaching
of Christianity that isn’t true, or with a wrong spirit, a wrong
Christ, a wrong gospel, yet where that has gone, because of witnessing
to Jesus, the Son of God raised from the dead, things have happened and
brought forth a people who have had at least a better conscience, at
least for some time.

	So, I believe Bro. Branham is saying here, “Look, do all you can. Go
out there just like I do it, and you leave the results in the hands of
God;” and, as he said to me concerning a man that turned from
Catholicism to becoming a Freemason, he said, “Look, Lee, that was a
tremendous step.” (That man’s name was Mr. Lee. He ran a restaurant
in New Albany. I knew the man. We ate there on different occasions.) And
he said, “Look, that was a tremendous step for that man to make. Who
knows if he might make the next step to becoming a Christian?”

20.	So, what we’re looking at here is a gradation. I’m not going to
try to explain it too much, because I don’t have the answers. But I
want you to know this: You do not leave the definitive Message of this
hour, no matter what Bro. Branham says relative to other people. This is
talking to them. This may be some place where they are leading and
going, not for Lee Vayle, and not for Grace Gospel Church, or anybody
under the sound of my voice, I hope.

	So, let’s be careful, and in our carefulness, let’s not go, as I
said previously concerning the ecumenical movement, which is absolutely
diabolical, but claims to be based upon the pure love of God. Now, at
this time, they will be getting results. Will all of those end up in the
Lake of Fire? By no means they’ll not all end in the Lake of Fire,
because they’re before the White Throne right now being sorted out.
And the rest that come up will finish the White Throne at the complete
sorting out. So, stay carefully with what you and I are hearing, because
these people are not necessarily going to take this Message.

21.	Now here:

[91]	“If they hold their peace, the rocks will immediately cry out.”
There’s something in nature.

	So therefore, Bro. Branham is saying, “No matter which way you turn,
God is going to vindicate Himself in some way, and this way is nature;
because, when men turn nature down, (that is, a Creator down, and they
see nature.) they have turned down the ultimate which God has set before
them as across the board. But that does not go for the believers.
Abraham could well have left the Ur of Chaldees, just mumbling and
bumbling around and said, “I know there’s a God by nature. That’s
absolutely true; there’s got to be a God.” But I’m going to tell
you: Until God appeared to him and talked to him, he did not know if
there really was a God, or, if he really believed there was a God, who
was that God, what was He like, was there any relationship, did he have
any hope.

	So, nature will show you there is a God, but only vindicated revelation
will show you the true God, what He is, how He deals, who you are, what
you are, is there a relationship, what is the future. Now that’s it.

	Now, if you turn down, as Bro. Branham is talking about the church
maturing and all of these things which he brings in, by nature and all,
to turn down the Word of the hour proves that you are not elect, as
Bride. But you could be in an election of foolish virgin. So, all right.
Never forget that. Just keep going to where we are going. We stand with
the Judge right now, and He is the Word. See? Okay.

22.	[93]	Watch the little dove how he flies. Nature. What a different
bird he is, see. He doesn’t have any gall. He can’t eat like the
crow can. See? He has no gall in him. He doesn’t have to take a bath
in the water, because he’s got something on the inside of him; it
cleans him from the inside out, you see.

	Now that’s true; but, on the other hand, we have a bird bath in our
backyard. Put water in there and the robins like to bathe more than
anything. They come in there even though it’s raining and splash
around like crazy. Well, a dove one day decided to go in the bird bath,
but he wasn’t splashing and cleaning himself, he was just hot. He was
getting cooled off. And the robins would buzz him, but being bigger than
the robins, he wouldn’t move, until he got good and ready to move. 

	Now he went to the waters to cool off, and even though the dove has the
cleaning from the inside. He also knows how to get cooled off. And what
I’m telling you: He knows how to rest in the shade. He knows how to
get cool. And so does the Christian have the inner cleaning. He has that
something from the inside that takes care of the outside; yet at the
same time, the outside cannot be let down, as though it is of no
account. It needs rest; it needs care. And a Christian will know how to
conduct himself, as a temple of God. 

	I thought that was kind of interesting in the fact that the dove never
got in the water to clean off; just got to get cooled off and refreshed.
I think that’s the way Christians are. You don’t come to church as
though you’re going to get the Holy Ghost coming to church, although
that’s an integral part of being filled up and all with the Word, but
you come because you want a time of refreshing, receive the Word to make
you grow up in grace.

23.	Now:

[93]	…He cleans from the inside out, you see.

[94]	And that’s the way the Christian is. That’s the way God
represented Himself, in a dove. See, because Jesus was represented as a
Lamb. Always in nature, you’ll find God. And God likened us unto sheep
that have to be led. Did you know that I preached a sermon on it
sometime ago? The Dove coming down on the Lamb, to lead the Lamb, and It
led him to the slaughter. That Dove did that! Now that Dove could not
have descended on any other type of animal, because they both had to
have the same nature. Now, what did Bro. Branham say the nature comes
from? The soul. Right? You have a soul down in there giving you a
nature; it gives the nature to the spirit; it shows what’s in you. So,
all right. We have, then, the Holy Ghost coming upon a gene of the Holy
Ghost. If the Dove would have lit upon wolf he would have snorted and
growled; the Dove would have taken its flight. 

	So, that’s very true. The Holy Spirit can be in a meeting, if the
lambs are there, a little lick of fire, a little modicum of the Holy
Ghost will come down and bring that seed to life and begin a child on
his way to maturity and adoption.

24.	[95]	Well, that’s the same way now. And because of our ill ways,
the Holy Spirit just takes His flight and goes away. 

	Now he’s talking about an animal of another nature, and he talks
about the ‘ill ways’. Now what are the ill ways? The ill ways are
evil ways. If he has the way of Cain, which is a worship and a stubborn
spirit that he’s going to continue his worship, that he knows the
Word, he’s going to do what he wants with It, the Spirit of God cannot
abide upon that person. There’s no way He can move upon him. There’s
no way a union can take place, because, you see, unless you go to
genetic splicing, which is human engineering—science being of the
devil—you cannot take a human cell and a cat cell, even in vitro, and
combine the two, and actually bring forth a cat person. It doesn’t
work. You’d have to have some pretty rough things going for you.

	Now it’s being done in an engineering process, but it’s not being
done in life; and so, therefore, there is no way that a person
manifesting himself contrary to the Word of God in a form of worship and
service can ever be baptized with the Holy Ghost, unless the gene is
from God. And that gene from God will indicate and validate and perform
with the Holy Spirit right in the Word.

25.	Now, if you’ve got the wrong soul, it will not validate the Word
of God. It won’t join with it. There’s no way it’ll perform. See?
It can’t do it. It’s got to be the same life. And there’s where
people are all wrong up on what they think we’re preaching, two gods
and everything else here. If I’m preaching two gods, I’ve proven all
along Bro. Branham’s preaching two gods. The same people will scream,
“Oh, I’m a gene of God! I’m a part of God!”

	I’m not here to make them liars, but something doesn’t add up. And
I’m not backing away. I’m not saying what they are. That’s between
them and God. I’m just telling you God’s Word. You do what you want.
That’s what this pulpit is all about. Just spell it out. And, if I
don’t make the Rapture, I won’t make the Rapture. If you don’t
make it, you don’t make it.

	You say, “That’s cut and dried.”

	Look at nature. It runs in continuity.

	Now man can experiment. But, as soon as man takes his hand off, it goes
back. Darwin found that with the pigeons—all went back to browns, or
grays; I forget, one of the two. I wasn’t much on evolution. I never
got taught it, thank God. I didn’t have to bend my brain with all that
rubbish. I had enough trouble as it was. My trouble was trying to get
away from God, so He wouldn’t box me around.

26.	Now:

[95]	That’s the same way now. And because of our ill ways, the Holy
Spirit just takes His flight and goes away. It’s got to have the same
nature. And nature comes from the soul. The bird of the Heavens, the
dove; the meekest animal on earth, the lamb; they can agree together.
And when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and makes us new creatures, then
He can lead us. But if we try to live the same old life, it won’t
work! It just won’t work. 

	Now Bro. Branham is telling this, then: From our understanding there
is, first, a passive faith, and then, there’s an active faith, and you
can see that all the way through his teaching and the Scripture, because
he based it on the Scripture. 

[96]	Now the first step you probably ever took in your life, speaking of
leadership, is probably by the hands of some old mother. Those hands may
be still tonight, out there in some cemetery somewhere, but that was the
hand that held you to make your first step.

[97]	Then, after mother taught you how to walk, you make a few steps and
fall down, and get up, and you thought you were doing great things, then
she turned you over to the school teacher. And she begin to lead you to
an education; and how and what you must do, and how you must learn,
and—so forth like that.

[98]	Then, after the school teacher got through with you, then you
returned to your father, and he got ahold of you. When your father got
ahold of you, he taught you perhaps your business; how to be a
successful businessman, how to do things right. That would be in that
particular area. Your mother taught you now to be a housewife, if you
were a girl, how to cook, and so forth.

[99]	Then, after they got through with you, then your minister or priest
got hold of you.

27.	Now it doesn’t mean that these things have to come in three
separate areas: till the child is five years old, sixteen years old,
twenty-two years old, then on to the priest. No. He’s just telling how
things begin to develop, and they are running parallel with each other,
but he’s showing you that you’re getting these various types of
training at this particular time. You’re being led by them, and, of
course, you’re being led in these areas in order to keep you in those
areas in which they lead you, because now they want a perfect set of
zombies in a certain way. In other words, like father, like son; like
mother, like daughter, right down the line.

	You say, “Well, my mother believed the priest, bless God, and I
believe the priest,” (See?) or, “my minister” or so on.

28.	Now he said:

[100]	But now, who leads you? That’s the question now. Now we’re all
led by something tonight. We have to be. We’re led. Some people are
also driven by the leading. 

	But, after you’ve got all this under your belt, in your mind,
you’re made up of this composite; you’re the person. The thing is:
You’ve been taught. Now you’re on your own. Get out there. What are
you doing with yourself tonight? You know you’ve been led. You know
that’s the norm. There’s something that’s got to be there doing
something. You’re not as much your own boss as you think you are,
because you came here without wanting to, and you’re going out here
maybe screaming and kicking; but you’re going to go. 

	So, in other words Bro. Branham is talking about a certain fatalism
here—a certain something in life I call a sort of fatalism. We’re
led; there’s nothing we can do about it. Now people will argue the
point, but you just say, “What about the fact when you die, you’re
so smart, what’re you going to do there? Which one of your friends
that taught you came back to prove it? See?

29.	Young guys have been shot by believing in the Mafia. Did they know
any of the Mafia bosses that got shot came back and said,
“Everything’s okay over here. St. Peter said, ‘We’re just
fine?’ The money we gave the pope and the church was blessed, and
we’re okay. We made it. We didn’t even go to purgatory; right up
here in heaven; walked in, and we’re all having a great time.”

	Now he’s hitting up a real strong point here, in spite of the fact
there are those who are obnoxious in their thinking; they are proud and
arrogant, and say, “I’m my own man!”

	Nobody’s his own man. There’s always a faster runner, a better
boxer, a faster gun, a smarter crook, a better deal. He’s letting them
know, “Hey, you better reckon there’s a fate; there’s something
ahead. How are you contending with it?”

30.   	[101]	Now, let’s look at this young fellow as to what had
influenced him. This young businessman we would call him, because he was
a businessman. He was a great successful man. Let’s look at his
leaders.

[102]	Well, first, perhaps, his mother taught him as a little boy the
things that he should do. The father had made him such a fine success,
and maybe left him an inheritance, because he was a ruler himself;
perhaps his father was gone, so he became a businessman. Let’s call
him, today, like a Christian businessman; or, he was a religious
businessman, I think that would be the best quotation.

	Now there’s a distinction, because religion and Christianity are
actually hand in hand. But they’re still different, because you can
have a religion, and you can also be a Mohammedan or something else; but
you still are a Christian, but you’ve got a religion. In other words,
are you of the true Christian religion? 

	But this man was religious. And Bro. Branham, knowing they didn’t
call them Christians in those days…although ‘Christ’ means
‘Messiah’… And they were messianic in their belief, and in some
places Bro. Branham calls them Christians, which is truly Scriptural.

	So, he backs away at this point and says, “Well, let’s put it as
religion; that’s the better.”

31.	[103]	This man was religious, he was by no means an infidel.
‘Infidel’ comes from the Latin word ‘fido’, meaning
‘faithful’, like you call your dog “Fido.” ‘Infidel’ means
‘unfaithful’; he doesn’t have a faith, but he was by no means one
that wasn’t taught, and had a faith. He had been taught by his mother
how to do right, how to walk, how to dress himself. He had been taught
by his father to be a great businessman and to be a successful man; and
his business was successful. His father and mother had been raised up in
the church, had pointed him to the priest. The priest made him a real
religious man. Therefore, he was a fine cultured man; he was a fine boy
with good character.

	Now religion, of course, can do every one of those things, but look
where it went today. When they got away from the life, the Word for the
hour, it went worse, worse, worse. And I know that everybody’s going
to try to say, “The Catholic Church, Bro. Vayle, is in better shape
than when Luther left it.”

	I’ve got news for you: It’s in worse shape.

	You say, “Well, the Lutherans are in better shape.”

	They are in worse shape, and the last Protestants, called
‘Pentecostal’ are called ‘chaff’, which are going to be burned:
brittle, dead, husk… Farmers don’t even want to put it in the ground
and plow it under. I guess it stays in the soil. How many years would it
stay in the soil without even rotting? It’s kind of miserable stuff;
gets in your eyes; everything else. Bearded rye and stuff out there.
Barley out there that’s getting in your clothes. I remember, when I
was a kid, messing out there. We’d come home and shake our underwear,
clean it out, pick out all the stuff. You know what it’s like. Fit for
the burning. 

32.	All right:

[104]	If Jesus Christ looked at him and loved him, there was something
about that boy that was real. That’s right. For the Bible said here,
we find in Mark, “And Jesus beholding him, loved him.” Yes, “Jesus
beholding him, loved him.” So therefore there must be something really
outstanding about this young fellow. He had a good character, good
character rating, a man raised right; intelligent, smart, intellectual,
successful in business, a religious man. Had a lot of good
characteristics that were outstanding, so much that it attracted the
attention of Jesus Christ the Saviour. But when he was confronted, being
successful and all these other things…

	Now Bro. Branham didn’t finish his sentence, but the fact of the
matter is, Bro. Branham is telling us: When this young man met an
unnerving challenge, that unnerved him, when this certain, specific talk
came up about giving it all away. You see, he didn’t understand the
rules of sowing and reaping. If he’d had stayed around, Jesus would
have said, “Everything you give away, you’re going to get back, son,
one hundred fold, not only on earth here, but the life to come,
depending on how it’s working out with you, and for you, and how you
listen.”

	Do you know you can have it here and have it there, also? Sure.
Absolutely. 

33.	Now he was confronted. It unnerved him. Notice:

[105]	Nothing had gone wrong; he was perfectly cut out right, measured
up right, intelligent, right education, successful, smart, fine
businessman, probably belonged to a businessman’s group somewhere in
Palestine. He might have belonged to a businessman’s fellowship like
we have here tonight, no doubt he did, because businessmen have always
had fellowship one with another.

[106]	Cause just like “birds of a feather,” they have things to talk
about. That’s in common. The religious men, they don’t want to talk
about the men that run the barroom, that is, to not talk about them, but
actually talk with them and associate with them, and then all of them
get together because the two groups have nothing in common. The barroom
gang and the spiritual gang—so called, you’re not going to find them
having a great time together. We’ve got to have things in comon. So
Christians have things in common with Christians, and sinners have
things in common with sinners; and societies, and whatever they are,
they have things in common. And this young boy probably belonged to a
businessman’s fellowship.

	Now here, then, a segment of society or cosmos world might have a lot
of appeal, you know, to belong to one of these societies, but the point
is: Where does it get them? Who’s leading what in this particular
area? Now, remember; this is a businessman Bro. Branham is talking
about; and, when he got confronted with eternal life, equating to Jesus
Christ, and in turn, there was a Word concerning it. 

	Now I wouldn’t have been surprised if this young fellow might have
known something about Jesus, and said, “I believe this one could be
the Messiah. I think he’s got something to tell us.” Like Nicodemus,
“Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

	And so, now the Word comes out here, “Look, this is the Word of the
hour, and this is something in the Word that you’ve got to come to,
and it’s going to make it difficult for you. It’s going to be your
cross. But I want you to notice something: You, then, will come under
the proper leadership into eternal life.”

	The leadership actually was not just a person standing there, it was
the Word. Remember, there’s always the Word, because He is the Word. 

	Well, he had to turn It down.

34.	And Bro. Branham said:

[107]	And he was religious as he could be, because Jesus, in questioning
here, he said, “I have kept these commandments, observed them all from
my youth.” That’s right.

	See, he had been brought up right, taught right, and everything. But
when he was confronted, see? the confrontation, with the thought of
eternal life… See? That’s it. Now I want you to notice, with all
this character that he had, yet he knew he did not possess eternal life.


	Now you can’t say this about these businessmen. They really believe
they’re born again; they’ve got eternal life. But this was a
businessman; and, when this businessman, with all he had, his
fruitage… Now we’re not talking about gifts; we’re talking about
fruitage. And you look at fruitage to see how your life’s been
changed. That’s fruit. Now this boy did not have a lot to change. He
didn’t have anything to change, really. He’d done it all. He had one
thing to change, only, and that’s different from all these
others—that was his mind. He had to come to grips with what Jesus said
when God revealed Himself, manifested Himself in the way that He did in
that hour. Now he knew, Bro. Branham said, something in him made him to
know he did not have that eternal life. 

	Now, look; he’s coming to Jesus, not somebody else, not his priest,
not a group; he’d have a confrontation here. And he’s saying,
“Look, you evidently have something, far more than what I have. I’m
concerned then. What must I do to inherit eternal life? Am I missing
eternal life? I believe I am. Something is missing. What is here?”

35.	Now, see, why I am talking this way is because I’m relating this
one hundred percent to my own experience in this hour with Bro. Branham
in the return ministry of the Son of man upon this earth, where the
prophet reveals It. And you come right there and you say, “Look, I
know that I’ve got something, but something’s missing. What is the
difference between this person and me?”

	This question could have been couched in various ways, but the actual
question was, “What must I do to inherit eternal life? There’s
something that I do not possess. There’s something here.”

	Now Jesus was talking to a man who was not born again. He was talking
to a man who knew that he needed something. Now this businessman back
two thousand years ago is being met, being duplicated as the omega in a
group of American Full-Gospel Businessmen, and they’re claiming that
they’re born again. And they’re coming to a confrontation. They are
not coming to say, “Am I missing eternal life?” “I don’t believe
I really have eternal life,” “What do I have to do to have eternal
life?”

	They’re saying, “Tell us, if you can, something, and give us
something to make us more effective in what we already have, because we
know we’ve got it.”

	Understand what I’m saying? I know what I’m talking about this
morning. Because, if they’re born again, and turn this Message down,
William Branham lied to us, because he said, “If you’ve got the Holy
Ghost, you’ll say, ‘Amen’ to everything He said.” And you’ll
find it here in the Bible. You won’t kick your toes in the dust and
walk away. 

36.	Now, that picture is scientific, and had there been a time of a
camera in the days of Moses, it would have been the same picture.

	“Well, I don’t know about that.”

	Well, I do know about it! I just read, “He’s the same yesterday,
today, and forever,” and that doesn’t have to do with the things of
God in this universe as per creation and those things. It has to do with
God Himself and His dealing with people! He has never changed: Heb 13:8
is Genesis 18. Then, it’s Ex 1:20 and so on. Then, it’s the same
Pillar of Fire that came down in the temple in the time of Solomon and
the same Pillar of Fire that left. It’s the same Pillar of Fire that
came upon Jesus, the same One came to Paul, and the same One came today.
There isn’t any difference. He doesn’t change. This is it. And this
is where they’re all ignorant and confused. 

	Now you just remember that. I’m taking a lot of time with this, I
need to, because you can read a lot of things in here; you think Bro.
Branham is swallowing his tongue, he’s backpedaling, or something
else. Well, there’s one thing about it, he has to talk to people, only
what they can bear. They can’t even bear that. 

37.	[109]	Now, all our societies, our churches, our membership, the
things we hold so dear, our American societies and everything, are very
fine. There’s nothing to be said against that. And our Christian
Business Men’s society here is a great thing. It’s been an open door
to me for my interdenominational thoughts that “We are Christians.”

[109]	There is no one (no one denomination) can claim us, a real
Christian, because we belong to God. Denominations are man-made, and
Christianity is Heaven-sent. But in all these things that we have, as
good as they are, as fine as they come together, and as nice meetings as
we have, and social understanding that we have, (social; didn’t say
‘spiritual’ based on vindication.) yet we’re each one confronted
with eternal life. And no matter how successful we’ve been in
business, how successful we’ve been, and what great church members we
are, and how we work, and how we try to do things right, still, if
it’s not done in the right way, it is a worship of God in vain.

	Now we know they have organized into a Trinitarian group, falsely
declared what God’s Word does not declare, and they cannot prove, by
talking about tongues evidence being the baptism with the Holy Ghost,
then turn right around and cover up with their sinning preachers by
saying, “They backslid.” That’s why, at the day of
judgment…“If they don’t come back to God…because there’s no
eternal security; that’s of the devil…”

38.	You see where these men are? You talk about Luther going to seed,
and Wesley came by and cured them of Anti-nomianism… Where are these
men? The Anti-nomianist said, “You’re already predestinated, so it
doesn’t matter whether you’re born again, or anything else; you will
get there.”

	Now these men say that in spite of everything that God’s done, you
might not get there. So, if you’re sealed in as part of the Body of
Christ, then you run out here, and you’ve backslidden and showed that
you’re nothing but a sinner and you die as a sinner. Now there’s a
member missing of the Body of Christ.

	“Oh, well, no. You see, what it was, Judas fell from his place, and
God took another one.”

	I’m telling you what they teach. If you believe that, forget this. If
you’ve got that misinformation out of this, you’re reading something
that’s not in the book. You’re reading between the lines. You’re
not facing up to reality. You can’t stand the fact that God would take
one lump and choose out of it. 

39.	Let me get this straight, as I tried to tell it the other day:
genetic breeding—there are more dominant traits of the beast in our
bodies than there are from Adam. Now, remember; Eve got hers from Adam,
pure and simple. That’s all. She’s identical to him. For the
children that were born to her from Adam, all became the sons of God
through Adam—or known as the children of Light. And the last true
genetic person was Noah.

	Do you mean to tell me that God could not breed us back to a Noah and
back to an Adam? Certainly, He could do it!

	Now, listen: He was on the road to doing that when He told Israel,
“Get out! And, when you go in, don’t you dare marry anybody from
what I tell you to marry! Kill every inhabitant.And He was going to kill
out the serpent seed. He could have. He said, “If you’ve got a child
that’s obstreperous and will not obey his father and mother, take him
to the elders and kill him. Kill his seed. Get rid of him.”

	God could have bred the people back, but they’re still in the flesh
that could fall, and coming by sex; and it’s always been the root of
the problems. You’re right back where you still need a Redeemer. So,
all right.

40.	What am I trying to tell you? One lump! We’re all alike. We’ve
all got the perverse elements in us; we’re all mammalian; we’re all
part animal. 

	What makes me disgusted… I was down South, down in the South, I had a
bunch of people around there, in Athens, Georgia. They were saying the
black people are serpent seed, because Bro. Branham said that the
serpent was a black person. He didn’t say it was Negroid. Bro. Branham
absolutely said the black race today comes from the fact of their
geography, where they were stationed, where they were, the soil and the
elements and all those things…adaptation and all. He said it; I agree.
But the point is: every one of us has the strain of the serpent in us.
Some people are mental owls when it comes to this Message. They can’t
sit down and be reasonable. They just go “Whooo” like a Roman candle
out of control. Not a Roman candle, but a keg of dynamite with a
cigarette butt thrown in it. It blows everything to pieces.

	So, look here: one lump. That’s why Bro. Branham said for Him to
bring forth an elect child of God is a million times more difficult than
just going ahead and creating a sperm and an egg, and putting life in
it. He could have done that. Every one of us could have been a sperm and
an egg, and then, that being of ours, that gene, could have popped in
there, and it would have developed. Huh? Nothing to it, brother/sister;
nothing to it. When you get God in this, and you see these things,
it’s so crystal clear. It’s pitiful that people don’t begin to
understand these things.

41.	Now he says here: ‘These church members, these people here, with
their societies and all, can come to the place where you worship God in
vain.’ And he is challenging them at this moment as the prophet who is
a judge; and the Judge is here. Does their worship bring them to eternal
life? In other words the complete and full elements of the future. And
the point is: How can it? unless the seed is there. So, Bro. Branham now
equates eternal life to worship. He makes them inseparable. Why?
Because, if you do have eternal life, you will worship a certain way and
no other way. 

	Let me read it to you:

[111]	Jesus classed that the same way, as I stop here for a moment. He
said, “In vain do you worship me, teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men.” In other words, he’s teaching…these people
are teaching a walk that is not based on the definitive revelation of
the Word. So therefore, their walk before God is not acceptable. It just
isn’t there. See? A true believer would not walk out on the Word. Now
think! A sincere, honest worship (with the sincerity of your heart) to
God, and still be in vain! See? It began that way with Cain, at the
Garden of Eden. Sincere worship, but rejected! Very religious, still
rejected! 

	Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Cain went
to the Word, but he misdivided the Word. He’s the one who refused to
believe in serpent seed. Therefore, he didn’t need a blood offering.
Oh, he couldn’t believe he wasn’t the son of Adam. Well, you take
one look at him, and he didn’t look like Adam—he was a giant. There
were no genes in Adam to bring forth these guys that are about ten feet
tall, size twenty-three shoe, fingers fifteen inches, whatever they
were—take a whole room for a bed. Talk about a king size; one freight
car would just do it—one bed, one gondola. See? Never forget 1 John 3.

42.	Now, watch:

[112]	In Shreveport last week, week before last, at a Business Man’s
meeting, a breakfast where several hundred people were gathered, I took
two and a half hours on “Doing God a Service Without It Being His
Will.” Now, that sounds strange, but we’ve got to channel ourselves
into God’s provided channel and God’s way of doing it. In other
words you cannot worship and serve God apart from a certain channel, and
that channel is the prophet: Good Master, Good Prophet. I want to know
something, I want to know the truth. No matter how much we think it’s
right, it’s got to be according to the Word of the Lord or it’s in
vain. Cain worshipped, but it wasn’t according to the Word of the
Lord. The Pharisees worshipped, but not according to the Word of the
Lord. Now, why was it not according to the Word of the Lord in both
cases? Because they changed It; they changed It from its actual
revelation, the desire of God from His heart to the people, and they to
Him. And in this particular message to the business men, I taught this. 

[113]	David wanted to do the Lord a service, and he was right in what he
said. “Is it right for the ark of the Lord to be down there?” By no
means, of course. “Let’s bring it up here.” In the days of the
king, the other king that he succeeded. He said, “It’s not right.
They never consulted the Lord by the ark, but we must do it.” Now,
that’s correct, what they shouldn’t have done. He said, “We should
go get the ark, and we can consult the Lord.” That’s right, it was
down in the other country. He said, “We’ve got to bring it up here.
Get it up here and put it in our house here, and worship the Lord.”

[114]	Notice he went in the wrong channel to do it. He consulted the
captains of fifties and hundreds and thousands. 

	He might as well have said, “You businessmen, you’ve got fifty
thousand, and hundreds of thousands. There’s billionaires here. That
doesn’t make you an authority.”

	They say, (The business men’s testimony.) “We love the Lord;
we’re successful; we talk in tongues.”

43.	Then, they’re like Clifford Ford, the man from Denver, talking in
tongues to show a Baptist up in Minneapolis how he could speak in
tongues, and had the tongues. He’s spitting all over the poor guy. He
was a very ‘fluid’ orator. And the poor guy said, “Yeah, I’m
seeing you do it, but prove it to me. Prove it something.”

	He’s the same one with the businessmen, when Bro. Branham said there
was a well in Kentucky that would bring in a gusher. Poor old Banks Wood
put in $23,000. What he got from those men and the businessmen (They got
greedy.) wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. So, what did God
do? He wouldn’t let them drill in the right spot. So, some businessmen
came in, the gusher came in, they had to bring up bulldozers and put a
big hole in there and dam it up so the oil could come on.

	I don’t care if they’re worth a million dollars. What’s your
millions, when you’re going to die? It didn’t bring you into the
world; you’re not going to take it with you. So, I like what he’s
saying. I like talking about it, in fact. It’s interesting. 

44.		[114]	…They were all consulted, these guys with the money, big
captains, and so on, every one. Seeing it was the will of the Lord,
looked like it was the Word of the Lord.

[115]	The Word of the Lord, sometimes you have to put it in Its right
place or it’s not the Will of the Lord. Of course, now Bro. Branham
was just being nice there. The fact of the matter is: Paul the apostle
said you’ve got to rightly divide It or forget It, because that is the
mark of you being a true, born again, Word believer. Now, let’s face
it, that’s right in the Book of Timothy. Now, let that soak in deep,
and you’ll get a general conception of what I’m trying to say. In
other words he’s saying, “You cannot worship and serve God without a
prophet of the Word when there is no prophet, but the Spirit will teach
you.

[116]	I don’t want the church to fall into the steps that you found
over there in England: long hair, painted-face men, and perverted. We
don’t want that! No matter how religious it sounds, how much Elvis
Presley can sing religious songs, he’s still a devil. And I’m no
judge, but “By their fruits you know them.” See? He’s Pentecostal,
but that doesn’t make a bit of difference. See, your fruits bear
record of what you are.

[117]	No matter if the Spirit comes upon him, he could speak in tongues,
he could shout, could heal the sick, and Jesus said, “Many of them
will come to me in that day, and say, ‘Lord, haven’t I done this and
done that?’ And I’ll say, ‘Depart from Me, you that work iniquity,
I never even knew you.’” See?

[118]	We’ve got to be real, genuine Christians, and the only way we
can do that is confront it with the question here of “eternal life.”

	Notice it’s getting really sharp right now, because they won’t even
get an idea of what he’s talking about. Again, you’ll notice,
eternal life is linked up with worship. Eternal life is not a gift, per
se, as though it is… What would you say? There’s actually nothing to
define it. It just isn’t. There are certain things that you’ve got
to recognize that are involved in it, a part of it, before you can even
say, “Yes, I know I have eternal life.”

45.	You can say, “Yes, I know eternal life is a gift from God. I know
I asked for it. I know He said, ‘If I ask anything in His Name, I’ve
got it;’ so therefore, I have it.”

	Is that a fact? See? Take it all the way to the Word, and you come up
with a human reasoning that is called ‘proof text salvation’, and
Billy Graham and some people (I don’t know how far he got away from
it, but I do know that adherents around him, and I thought he did, too.)
absolutely revile what they call ‘proof text salvation’, which is
simply ‘preach a message’, and you say, “Look man, you know,
you’re a sinner. Here, the Bible says so.”

	“Well, yes, I know, I’m a sinner.”

	Well, there you are. See?

	Now the Bible distinctly says, “He took upon Him our sins. Now here
it is right here—he bore them. Then, now, if your sins are on him,
they’re no longer on you. Right! Hey, then you’re not a sinner.”

	And they lead you verse by verse until “Shake my hand. Now you’ve
got it.”

	No way! That’s the fellow that can clean up and has seven more devils
come in. And that’s what religion does, every single time. God started
with a group. As Bro. Branham warned, “At the end time, preaching
“The Token”, “you can get cleaned up, but unless you truly receive
the Holy Spirit, and you can only know that by coming right to the Word,
you take a hundred per cent this Message, are you getting filled day by
day, because, see, the ‘born again’ we’re talking about here, the
baptism, is not that full stature,” We’re working on it. We’re
looking at it.

46.	So therefore, as you look at eternal life, you have got to come to
the place where you have got to have an understanding far beyond what is
a ‘proof text salvation’. It won’t work. So, to say, “Look,
I’ve got this gift; here it is, in a box. That’s it. Now I decree
this fruit; I decree that gift; I decree this; and look, it matches.
I’ve got it.”

	Now, just a minute. Are you a trinitarian? You oneness? 

	You missed it.

	“Why, I can’t take that.” I won’t believe it is that way.

	Well, look; I’m not here talking about myself. I’m talking about
what a vindicated man said. I’m talking about a man who’s talking to
these people and telling them, “This young ruler wanted eternal life,
and he turned down the Word of eternal life.”

	Now turning down the Word is turning down Jesus. Accepting Jesus, and
turning down the Word, is not accepting Jesus. So, here’s where we
stand, and here’s where we quit today, because time has run out. See,
this is real slow, because we have this problem. I’m looking at every
single thing that I know goes on and has gone on. And I even sat and
discussed it with Bro. Branham. And I’m not fooled for one minute when
he preached to those men and said, “Doing God a service without it
being His Will was entirely unacceptable.”

	That puts you right back where the Pharisees were. And Jesus came and
said to them, “In vain do you worship me, having for doctrine your
teaching, your commandments of men.” And yet, those people went right
back on the Old Testament, the same as the people right today stand on
this Word and say, “Don’t tell me—I found it in here.” It’s
Scripture.

	Then, why did they not come to vindication? That’s what you’re
looking at. 

	Let’s rise and be dismissed.

	Gracious, heavenly Father, we thank You for Your goodness and mercy to
us, giving us time to come together. Maybe some people think we’re
belaboring points here. That’s fine and good by me, if that’s the
consensus, but I know, Lord, that it’s a whole lot more under the
surface in this Message, knowing the reality of the hour and having been
there amongst them, that there was a complete turning down in many
cases, of the Message and the messenger, which stood there completely
vindicated.

	And, Lord, like Bro. Branham, we don’t condemn anybody. We know that
great good is done just by preaching some Word, and how much and all
will come we acknowledge that, we appreciate that. Hospitals are come up
through the ministries, great good, fine things have happened. But we
know, Lord, as this young man turned down the Word, who himself was the
Word, eternal Life, just by what that one said, could be traced down to
the rich man lifting up his eyes in Hades, having lost it all. 

	And we see a lesson for us today, too, Lord, to cling to this Word as
never before, and to believe It with all of our hearts, until It becomes
our entire nature, which will, then, not only manifest Itself, but
actually give us the great consolation that we’ve been looking for,
the knowledge of the maturation within us to the great passive faith and
the outworking of It as we do those things that we should do and not to
finagle ourselves into a position, Lord, where we don’t belong, but
just as real Christians with this life in the Word within us, live the
lives that the prophet indicated and told us what to live.

	And here we stand, then, this morning, Father, dedicated to the Word
that You have. Forgive us of any sins we have, any error, anything that
we may have said or believed wrong, Lord. We pray you’ll correct it by
Your Word and may It come forth in the nature of our souls and hearts
and lives here to prove it has been corrected, that we are going on with
You, Lord, moment by moment, every oversight corrected, and walking in
the Light as You are in the Light, and having fellowship one with
another, the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleansing us.

 	This is our desire. This is our heart’s cry. And Lord, we know that
You told us You would not turn us away empty. We know we might not get
full all of a sudden, but we know we’re marching on and You’re
helping us. Lord, we just ask You to keep pouring the Words in, into our
souls, until there is such a complete oneness with us, there will be the
outgrowing of what You want coming out of these vessels.

	We don’t predict our walk, Lord. We only know there is a path that we
can and must walk and will be to Your glory and to Your honor. We will
not bring shame upon You or upon ourselves, though we be reviled,
misrepresented, misspoken of, even cursed, we know that’s beside the
point. That doesn’t matter. 

	The thing is, Lord, have we been approved today in our worship and our
understanding by coming to a vindicated Word and standing with the
prophet, that no matter what people say and what people think they see
and what they say they’ve accomplished and whatever else might be
manifested, we are standing with the source of the Word and the reality
of this hour.

	Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only-wise God be
all power and honor and glory through Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior,
Amen.

	“Take the Name of Jesus with You.”