Paradox # 2 (1961) 

 

 Bro. Lee Vayle   -   July 18, 1984

	

	...know Your love, Your mercy, Your kindness to us, and we know it,
Lord, just in a little measure we have not even got to know it anyway we
ought to know it, Lord, even though we have had certain revelation,
understanding through comparison other ages and what has gone on. We
have a mind of revelation, but we're looking for a greater revelation by
far, Lord, that would be to apprehend what is already been done with
revelation knowledge.

	So Father, we would love that tonight and increase in it. Be with us in
the study of Your Word. We pray You'll subdue all thinking to the Word
of Almighty God which You gave us, Lord, Yourself by a prophet so
there's no guess work. But indeed, the Word, the Voice, the Lord for
this hou,r strange as it may seem to other people who's been so
thoroughly taught, that there isn't any other Word, or by their own
ignorance have accepted that from within themselves. Not having been
taught, but, Lord, we have been taught of You and learned otherwise. And
we're very grateful for that, shows Your love to us, Your marvelous
mercy.

	So, help us tonight that You might receive honor and glory, and we
might be thoroughly edified in Jesus' Name we pray. Amen. You may be
seated.

	[Local announcements made]

1.	Now, this is the second time we're looking at The Paradox of 1961,
and it's greatly vastly different from The Paradox that Bro. Branham
preached in 1965. You'll also notice that Bro. Branham preached the same
sermon, that is not The Paradox, but the same title sermon, another
subject many times. Such as A Greater Than Solomon is Here is one of
them. And you'll find that as he preached the same Message maybe years
later, I think maybe one was maybe ten, twelve years later, that it took
on the breadth and a scope that was missing in the first one. There was
nothing missing in the first one, it's just that the revelation and the
impact was that much greater.

	And so, we've looked at this Paradox, and Bro. Branham starts out by
bringing us particularly a vision of the binding of the serpent Satan,
which appeared as a mamba, and he was able to bind it in the Name of the
Lord and to loose it. And he was warned to be more and more serious
concerning the things of God.   

2.	Well, coming on down we got close to about page 18,19, actually a
little bit further. And in there Bro. Branham was illustrating a paradox
by looking in the lives of various men. How that these men would seem to
be ill equipped to do the job that should have been done. And actually
when you would look at them in the contradistinction to what was there
that God could have used, you'd say, "Well God must have made a big
mistake." But He didn't.

	So, the last illustration pretty well we were looking at, was where
Ahab had called all the prophets together, the four hundred prophets of
Baal and of Jehovah. They were a mixed group is what they were. It was
really an illegitimate religion what they had, and those four hundred
men were well educated and they were well versed in the Word of God, and
they knew the Word of God. And they knew really what was supposed to be
in that hour, understanding the conditions and all those things that
pertain to the Word, and they launched out on the Word of God. And they
said, "Well, it's perfectly alright Ahab, you go up there and you're
going to take the land back, everything is fine, because the Bible said
that's it's your land and we're going to get it."

	And so, the king of Judah stood back and somehow he had a little more
spirituality than the others. I think that's the way we were when Bro.
Branham came on the scene. The Pentecostal's pretty well were the cream
of the crop, and there were a few of us that already just begun to move
away. And you know, actually we stood there with that...I know I was one
them, and I wasn't in too good spiritual condition when I saw Bro.
Branham, but almost instantly, I knew that that was the man that you
listen to. That man had something. And the others knew something was
there, and you'd think, well now this man will go to them, and this is
the people that will take this great man, and though they turned him
down flatter than a fritter. They walked off on Bro. Branham.

3.	So, we got a case here where Bro. Branham said:  [Paradox 12-10-61]

[47] 	 ...God chose one illiterate boy, a little renegade to the nation,
(that's Micaiah) 				a despised and rejected one, to bring His message
to the hungry-hearted. And 				instead all the denominations together
speaking with one accord in union, God 				brought one person:  

	Now, you'll notice it back there the four hundred prophets were typing
ecumenism of this hour. See, like Protestants getting all together and
getting under the headship of a devilish religion which was Ahab. And
here one man comes out against it.

		...a paradox. But the man had the Truth. And it proved to be the
Truth, 					because he was with the Word. It was a paradox, exactly.
Now, you say, 					"You mean you disagree with all this, and that, and
that?" If it's not with 					the Word, I disagree with it. That's right.
God's Word will never fail. 					Talking with a priest, not long ago, he
said, "Mr. Branham, you are trying 				to argue a point from a Bible."
He said, "We believe the church, nothing 					with that. We believe the
church, what the church says. God is in His 					church." 

[48] 	I said, "God is in His Word. And He is the Word." That's right,
the Word... 

4.	Now, I want to stop right here, and just say something. People think
right away, "Well God's in His Word." And they talk about a Bible with
printed page. Well, I'm not so sure that that's what it's all about,
because in Psalms 68:11, It says, (or somewhere in that area) "The Lord
gave the Word: and great was the company that published it."

	Now, this is the Word that the Lord gave by the prophets. Now, we'll
have to read some more what Bro. Branham said to get back to this. But,
just don't be too sure that when you hear Bro. Branham say, "God's in
His Word," that this is what he's talking about. That this Book, see in
one place he said, "This is the letter form of the Lord Jesus Christ."

5.	So, let's just read on a bit. Now, I believe paragraph 133, which
I'll read now following 132, explains 132 and so on.

 [48]	...That's the reason Micaiah took the Word. And God used a paradox
to put 				every denomination to shame and brought to pass the Word of
the servant of 				God: one man, despised, rejected, hated. Hated by his
own people. Now, he 				wasn't a communist, he wasn't something else.
Let's say he was Pentecostal, 				and the Pentecostal groups hated him.
They didn't like him. They had nothing 				to do with him. But he had
the Word of God. And God made a paradox out of it.

	Now see, we started back there with Ahab that these were trained men
that had the Word of God. Now, they were actually prophets, (weren't
true prophets) but they had the Word. Now, you got the same things
delineated here before you. You got a bunch of people that got the Word.
Now:

 		"Why wouldn't He, if all these other fellows are prophets and
ministers, 					and so forth, why can't, in all this whole big group,
decide something 					better than one person? Seems unreasonable that
God would just make 					one man's Word right, than the rest of them."
(And just put the rest to one 					side is what he's saying.) Because
that man's word was God's Word. 

6.	Look, what book did the other fellows have? What did this man have?
Then how come they didn't have the Word of God, though they did have the
Word of God, and this man really had the Word of God? Now you see...
what's your doing...this is why so many people are still entirely
confused in the paradox of William Branham the prophet, and where I feel
we stand is a paradox to people. They don't understand that we stay with
a certain understanding which we call hopefully, believing the true
revelation that Bro. Branham brought us.

	Now, they're using the same sermons Bro. Branham preached. They're
using the same Bible that we use that Bro. Branham used. And there's a
big difference. See, a tremendous difference.

7.	Now:

		Because that man's word was God's Word. That's the reason God brought 
				the thing to pass, because the man was with God's Word.   

[49] 	The others were prophesying a lie. 

	Well, that's very strange to say they prophesy a lie. Was it a lie that
God said, "The land was theirs?" See, Bro. Branham brought that out.
Said the land was theirs. And it was, all those things were there, but
there was something missing. See?

		Yes, it was a paradox when God took one little fellow's Word, and made
it 					true, because it was His Word. God has to stand by His Word, not
the 					council's word. But God's Word, that's who He stands by. 

8.	All right, let's just go back here to the beginning:

[48] 	"God is in His Word. And He is the Word." That's right, the Word. 


	All right, that's fine. What you're looking at here, really, so that
you get the picture is that Bro. Branham said that  "a prophet comes at
a juncture." Now, if you let your carnal understanding of a prophet go
by the board, there is no way you can understand the things that God's
Word has laid out through William Branham, and vise versa. There's just
no way. You simply cannot cope with it.

9.	Now, let's go back to the time of Noah. That was a juncture. And God
said, "Noah, I want you to build an ark. And you are going to float the
people above disaster and all this chaos, and you're going to save them,
I'm going to save them through the ark." Well, Amen, hallelujah. The
Word of the Lord at that time was the firmament was divided, the waters
above it, and there was no water on earth and there was no rain, there
was nothing like that going on. There was no seasons as we know them.
There was a mist that came down as it were, from up, from the earth
rather, like a dew and everything was wonderful.

	Now, we are in a juncture and everybody could have come by, and they
said, "No way." As Bro. Branham said, "You are crazier than a coot that
hit his head diving too deep and struck a rock at the bottom of the mud
lake." 

	"There's no water there."

	You see, "I got news for you, there's water now."

	There will be. See, a juncture.

10.	Now, let's go a step further, God says to Moses, (there's a
juncture) "I'm going to bring you out of Egypt. I'm going to destroy the
Amalekities, the Amorites and all those people. Now the time isn't quite
ready, but it'll be pretty soon now, and we're going to bring you in and
we're going to go ahead now and bring you over here in the Promised
Land.

	All right, Moses goes back to the Israelites and he said, "Hallelujah,
bless God, we're going to build an ark and float down the Nile and we'll
float across the Red Sea and we're going to get right to the Promised
Land, and would..." They didn't do it. What happened to the Word of God?
Was finished. The juncture word couldn't repeat. It was for that
particular hour. 

	Now, here's Moses, he couldn't use what was Bro. Branham called 'dead
manna', the life was out of the Word. Now we come to the time of Jesus
Christ. What did Jesus say? He said, "If you'd have known Moses you
would have known me. You would have understand I was spoken of, and with
my coming as Messiah there was going to be a radical change." So
therefore, Jesus couldn't take Moses' message. He couldn't do it, see?

11.	Now, you get to the time however of this day. You got a juncture
here where William Branham comes on the scene. Now let's face it, you
cannot go back to Pentecost, because that's the start. You are now to
the place from the feet up, you are coming to the very head. Remember
the statue of the world empire's was from the head down, but the Bride
if from the feet up. From what comes from the head starting at the feet
filling up, goes back to a headship.

	All right, there is a juncture period here, just as there was back
there at every time that God sent a prophet with the Word. And when the
prophet came with the Word, it was for the necessity of number one: sin
had come to a place where it had to be dealt with. See? Now then, number
two: when sin is dealt with it, is only dealt with on the principle of
light and life and righteousness. Because that's all that's going to
illuminate and make you know what's sin is, is to have light there to do
it. That's why the Bible says, "That men don't want to come to the
light, because their deeds are evil." [Jn 3:19] They don't want to come
and test the thing out and find what is there.

12.	So, we're looking at the fact here, that it wasn't that the people
didn't have the Word. They've always had the Word. But what has
happened, having left the Word to such an extent that no longer is the
Word a revealedWord, but has literally gone into creeds and dogmas, and
the reasonings of man; which is where original sin started back there
with Cain, because he will put him rather than Adam and Eve even,
because John doesn't use Adam and Eve, Paul does, but John doesn't when
he speaks of righteousness and unrighteousness. So, we go all the way
back to the perversion. We see that men did not understand. They didn't
handle the Word of God right, until pretty soon the Word of God was so
far away, it wasn't Word of God anymore. So they could quote all they
wanted, and what they were doing was putting their own interpretation on
It, so therefore, when it came to the promise they put their own
interpretation on the promise and they died. You understand what I'm
saying? That's what they did in Moses' day. They did it in Ahab's day.
They did it in Jesus' day, and they're doing it today.

	Now, the paradox is this: anybody can read the Bible, and the more
education you've got the better versed in the Greek, the Hebrew and all
the history and understanding of the ages. You should get a good bunch
of people come together and they'd be able to tell you, say, "It's going
to be this." 

	Yet, William Branham came on the scene and is speaking of the very hour
and the Rapture that we've gone into, he said, "We know that He's going
to do it, but we don't know how he's going to do it." 

	Then you get people come along and they say, "Aw bless God, don't give
me that stuff. I know how it's going to be done."

	Well, I got news for you: if there comes a time of a juncture which is
predicated upon the mounting of sin to where God has got to deal with
it. "And judgment begins at the house of God, so the righteous scarcely
be saved." [1 Pet 4:17-18] And this hour He's going to destroy root and
branch. Then you try to tell me that we are going to be able to
apprehend the promise under those conditions? No! It's going to be a
paradox!

13.	Now, right today Bro. Branham came on the scene, explained the
Rapture, and people still don't believe It. They don't believe It. Your
Pentecostal Branhamites are still sowing ...?... in their own unbelief,
then when Bro. Branham said, "The Lord Himself shall descend from
heaven," that was the Lord Jesus Christ doing all three. And the 'Shout'
was a Message. And he called it "his Message." And said, "He is here on
earth now, and It's in the form of the Spirit." And they're so blind,
they try to tell you and me that we're preaching, especially Lee Vayle
is preaching a false doctrine of saying, "That Jesus is not going to
come in the flesh." It's a paradox. And I'm going to tell you, they
never will see It.

	You say, "What makes you so sure?"

	Well, I'm not, but I'm saying it anyway. For I've said things before
and they came to pass. You know why? Because look, if you don't see the
prophet and understand that he is the sole authority on the Word, you
don't see anything. Because it means: your thoughts of God will go under
and if you got one thought that's original, that's maintained itself
from your original concepts, you better examine and re-examine, and
re-examine, and re-examine, and re-examine, and re-examine, and
re-examine, and re-examine. And that's still not enough. You better come
to understand you're wrong, and the prophet's right. Paradox. They got
the same Bible, there's no problem there. 

14.	Now, because that man's word was God's Word. "You mean a man come on
the scene and that's God's Word, when bless God, I got the Word of God
right here?" That is not the Word of God, unless It's spiritually
revealed. It's just 'a word' of God, so to speak. Something written, but
you've got to have that life in there.

	Now, Bro. Branham, we all know a lot of this Word is gone. Bible said,
"The Word of God shall not pass away until It be fulfilled." [Lk
21:32,33] When It's fulfilled, It passes away. 

	Bro Branham said, "It was worm-eaten, wiggle-tails are in it." He said,
"You got to have fresh manna." There's manna for this hour, as he
preached spiritual food in due season.

		 He took Micaiah instead of a well-trained school of ministers, renown
men. 				Nothing against them, they were great men. They were men who
believed in 				not another God; they believed in the same God Micaiah
believed in. But they 				acted like they believed in It...

	All right, if you act right to believe in it, what can you be? A wolf
in sheep clothing. Now, I'm hitting pretty hard, but that's my nature.
I'm not about to give in. At least not at this point, because it's too
easy to stand up and be counted. 

	So, Bro. Branham said, "The great thing coming is not fruit, it is not
character. It is not gifts, it is not obedience." Now these people can
have all of that. Now it said they acted like they believed in it. They
believed in what? The Word of God. But when God sent a Word prophet on
the scene, a vindicated man at a juncture, it showed what they did
believe. They believed in dead manna. They believed in an unrevealed
Word. See? They acted like they believed. 

		...but  they wouldn't take His Word because they wanted to be popular.
They 				wanted to find favor with the king. And their blindness
overlooked the true 				Word of God.

  	What was the True Word of God? This is the True Word of God. But it
isn't, until it's vindicated. Revealed by vindication.

15.	Now, here's a showdown, God's dealing with Israel. And this juncture
is not as serious as other junctures, like yours and mine is at this
hour.

	So, he said, "Alright, go on up, take the land it's yours, go ahead."
Oh, then they got mad, because they knew now he was being sarcastic. 

	But he said, "Listen," the king said, "I'll tell you what, throw him in
prison until I get back."

	He said, "If you get back, (he said) I'm a liar. Because (he said)
you're not getting back. I saw Israel as sheep scattered upon the hill."

	Now, the point is: who was right? Who had the Word? They both had the
Word. That's right. But one man had a Word that was built upon a former
vindicated prophet who said, "The dogs are going to lick Ahab's blood."
And he knew that had to happen, he prophesied right in line. Not because
he knew it would happen, did he prophesy, but he knew the prophecy,
because God quickened it, and his prophecy lined up.

16	Now listen, who was proven to have the Word of God? The man was
vindicated by the thing coming to pass. Now, in our case it would be too
late. We're like the woman at the well. We're looking for a Messiah.
That's what the Rapture is all about. That's what everything is all
about. Is this the hour, if it is there is juncture?

	All right, then like Moses which is an Exodus, the Word must be
prefixed by a demonstration of vindication. Like Jesus began to do and
to teach. He did it before he taught. So, William Branham came on the
scene and he said, "God gave me two signs." He said, "I'll tell you what
they are. Come on, lay your hand in mine." Sure they did. He told them
what it was. "Now I'm going to read your thoughts. I'm reading your
hearts." He said, "That's discernment, that's a sign of the Messiah."

	And they said, "That's very entertaining, but it's no sign of no
Messiah." 

	Now, you do what you want with it. You can sit here and say, "Well
look, my mind's..." So your minds are turning wheels now, because you're
trying to figure just where that's in Scripture. "It was in Scripture."
It ain't in Scripture. It's a correlation of Scripture. And the
correlation of Scripture belongs where Bro. Branham correctly said that,
"Jesus Christ is obligated to do for the Gentiles in the form of the
Holy Spirit at the end time what He did for Israel in the flesh at the
beginning." The sign of the Messiah is too common. Paradox again. So,
men turned it down.

17. All right:	

  		You ladies and men both, don't think that I do this to be nasty; I
do it to be honest. 			That's the reason. How can I say that women
should have--all right, let them cut 				their hairs off, and things
like that; wear, their clothes, that ain't got nothing to 				do with
it? God's Word says it does. She's shameful and disgraceful as long as 	
		she does it, and God will never deal with her. I don't care how much
she speaks 				in tongues, or jumps, or shouts, she's not got nowhere
with God yet. (She'll not 				get anywhere.) That's the Word of the
Lord.

	Now that's a paradox. Samuel came before the sons of Jesse and here he
looked at Eliab the first born, he [Jesse] said, "Now that's the one who
should be the king."

	And God said, "Just hold the anointing-pot back boy, I want to tell you
something, God looks on the heart, man looks on the outside."

	A woman comes by and she said, "Now, just a minute," she said, "Now God
looks on the inside, and man on the outside, that's the whole trouble
man looks on the outside he sees your flesh-pot." He desires you too.
So, what's on your inside? See, there you are.

	Why would a woman wear men's clothes? Why would she cut her hair when
the Word of God is against it? See? The old paradox comes up. See, and
prophet stand right there and say, "Look, I didn't say she'd be more
spiritual, I just said she's not supposed to do it." See?

18.	Now:

[50] 	Men, you who can't rule in their own houses, then try to be
preachers and 					deacons? How are you fit to be a preacher in the
pulpit to lead the Church 				of the living God, and divide for them
their inheritance...

	Well, let's just check it out a little bit. Let's begin to see some of
these things. You say, "People say,  ain't got nothing to do with it."

	Now listen, come on, now look it, I'm not here and I'm not scathing.
What I say here in this church here doesn't matter too much, anybody in
this church some of the things I say, you just get a little knowledge
from what I tell you, it's people picking the tapes on the outside. And
I just think of it, if we put out the proper number of tapes every
single week, we'd be putting out I imagine ninety to hundred tapes a
week. That would be over five thousand tapes in one year.

19.	So, I'm going to read 2 Timothy 2:15.

		(15) 	Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth 
					not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

	Now, we're dividing. So therefore, these men they're dividing the
inheritance. They're dividing the Word for the hour. They're in there
working these ministers and so on.

	Now, It says here: "If you don't rule your own house, how can you be a
preacher or deacon? How are you fit to be a preacher...the Church of the
living God."

	Now, I tell you what I look at that. I just don't look at the fact that
this man sets his house in order to the extent that (you know) say,
"Well, I'm the head of the house,  and (you watch that you know) my
family listens to me." Sure they do. Yeah, check it all the way down the
line and find how much. See, that's the point.

	Where does a man, the preacher and all put his family in relationship
to the church? They said, "Jesus, hey, (they said,) your mother and your
brother's outside."

	And He said, "Who are they?"

	I heard many a preacher say, "Well my family, my family."

	Why did I give up my family? Why did William Branham give up his? Are
we a couple of jack-asses? Are we stupid or something? Great sermon Bro.
Branham preached on a Good Friday, That Day on Calvary, he said, "Well,
people say, 'I ought to do this, I ought to do that'." 

	"Just a minute," he said, "you ain't got nothing when you put it that
way." You ought not do nothing, you just do it, it's there."

	Bro. Branham talked of King David going down that road, crying,
weeping, he said, "The same Son of David came down four hundred years
later, weeping, bearing His cross." I'm trying to get something across
here my brother, and sister. You're still a million miles off the mark
to what you've got to be at. Sure.

20.	You wonder, where shall I be here with this that and the other thing
for my family? Well, I'm not preaching to preachers, but I say it's on
tape. Maybe somebody is going to get a little vision someday to
understand. There's a few prices you pay, but they're nothing really.
But I'll tell you, and what am I driving at it this: You say, "Well,
Bro. Vayle, that, that, that..."

	Oh, shut up and listen, that does count! Woman cuts her hair and wears
men's clothes will never understand this Message and get a revelation.
And a man that doesn't properly have his house in order, and his heart
in order, never gets a revelation. That's right. It's not because you
ought to do it, you will do. That's funny, I'm tougher than (I don't
know) 'Hogan's goat' I guess and crazier. I'm talking up here in a way
that you perhaps don't understand, but I'm sincere and honest before
you. I just tell you, you're not going to get it. Paradox.

	You see, one place it isn't character, one place it's not fruit. Aw
listen, that's exactly right. It's not fruit. It's not character. It's
not all of those things, even though you got the Holy Ghost to help you
get this, you think you do to have this, and the other thing. There is
something in there goes way beyond what we're talking about, and it
becomes an absolute paradox. In other words, it doesn't make sense. It
doesn't add. It doesn't lie. It doesn't anything, but suddenly there's
God and how God moves. And I wouldn't trade it all for hundreds of
billions of dollars. Not for hundreds of billions in no way, shape, and
there's not enough money in the universe, forget it. Yuck!

21.	Anything about Laodicea makes you learn to know one thing, money
isn't anything. Did I say, they say, "Everything is money, but money is
not everything." Money ain't nothing. You got to have it. Just like Bro.
Branham said, "Education."

	But see, It says here: "How are you going to be fit?" 

	Now the fitness is right here. You got to have the truth of the Word of
God. And there's a great paradox with that. See? I know it's hard to
understand. I can't...like Bro. Branham said, "Look, I know what I'm
talking about, and yet nobody else knows I guess, because maybe I can't
put it just right, but I think you get what I'm talking about." Begin to
understand.

	There's a lot of seriousness, there's a lot of cost counting. Where we
line everything up in divine order. Now, it doesn't mean you run off and
don't take care of your family. I've seen preachers run around and don't
take care of their family. Ain't got no more nothing on the ball than a
pin-head has. Let's face it.

	Another man run around making gimmicks, that isn't going to work
either. I told you years, I gave up my gimmicks years and years ago. If
you need gimmicks to serve God, you don't serve the God I know. You
don't need gimmicks. Ain't going to work anyway. Can't work a gimmick
against the Word of God. Nothing you can do.

	See, where this paradox Bro. Branham reduces to the place (and we'll
get to it in a little while) reducing us to the place where God begins
to move in people's lives. It's part of that great sealing in. It's part
of that great portion of Peter. You know, we often think temperance is
this, and temperance is that; and patience is this, and patience is
that. Better check a lot of things the prophet said about all those
things. We might be a little bit enlightened to know.

22.	All right:

		...when, you think more of your meal ticket and the offering that
comes in 					than you do the Word of God, and ashamed to say it before
the women, 					afraid you won't be popular. God have mercy on your
sinful soul. 

	And weaving the whole thing in here, preacher's wives not lining up.
Women in the assemblies not lining up. Men in the homes, the whole
thing. See? Not receiving the revelation that a prophet brings through
vindication. Turning it down. He said, "Okay, all these things in there
that you take this same Word of God that I've got." He said, "Let me
tell you something: you're wrong, it brought death to you instead of
life." Why? There's a perversion. There's a misinterpretation.

		Speak the Word of God in truth. (Now listen:) John said, "The axe is
laid 					at the root of the trees." The axe is the Word of God. See?

	Notice, not great gifts. It is not great gifts that binds Satan. No
way, shape and form. It's the Word. People think it's gifts, it isn't.
It's the Word. Why certainly in this hour, when Bro. Branham saw the
mamba, he said, "It's sin and death, it's Satan." And the binding proves
that sin is bound. The binding proves that death is bound. (The vision
of both I'm talking about.) Showing that life is going to be right here.
Somebody standing here for the Rapture. Death is bound.

 		"Every tree that doesn't bring forth the right fruit, hew it down and
cast it 					into the fire." 

23.	Now, what did Bro. Branham say that fruit was in the Book of
Matthew? He said it was Word. Every tree that doesn't have Word, it's
got a wrong Word. No, he said: 

		"God bring us another paradox." (He's speaking of himself now. Every
time 					he said a thing like that.) Why did God take John the Baptist,
I was just 					speaking of it, instead of His well-trained priests of
that day? Took a man 					that never went to school a day in his life...
understand that John went 					into the wilderness, the age of nine, was
alone with God. A few days ago in 				reading of the Nicene Council...

[51] 	...a long time after the death of the last apostle, Saint John.
When those men 				come up there to that Nicaea Council, some of those
old brothers embarrassed 				the rest of them. They come there, dressed
in sheepskins; upon those robed 				emperors, (they came up to them, I
guess) like Constantine and the bishops of 				Rome. Old sheepskins
wrapped around them, and lived in the wilderness on 				herbs, but they
were prophets of the Lord. The little church, the Greek side 				went
on; the Roman side went back. But it goes to show, when you compromise, 
			you can't be a servant of Christ. John... In that day the church was
very orthodoxy; 			they had the priests, the well-trained men. But God
chose the man that had no 				education at all, took him out of the
wilderness, with a piece of sheepskin 					wrapped around him, his
whiskers all burred out, his hair hanging over his 				neck: no pulpit
to preach from, no church to invite him. But he probably stood 				in
mud, half to his knees, and preached, "The Kingdom of God is at hand." 	
		God chose that man.

24.	There again, you'll notice that Bro. Branham was talking about
conditions in America more than he was talking about conditions over
there. How much rain water you had to stand in mud to your knees?

	How many times did Bro. Branham talk about a little thin guy, knobby
knees and bald headed and a beard in his face?  Why was it always bald
headed? Now, if you couldn't figure that out, you better take another
lesson in figuring? You'll never get the algebra, I can tell you that.
You know he's talking about himself right there.

	He's preaching, 

		"The kingdom of God is at hand." God chose that man.  

[52]	 When Jesus said, "Who did you go out to see, a man that can speak
at all 					the schools, a man that's finely robed, and so forth?" He
said, "They're in 					kings' palaces." Said, "What'd you go to see, a
prophet?" He said, "More 					than a prophet. This is who the prophet
spoke of would come, 'I send My 					messenger before My face.'" And he
was the angel of the covenant. He was 				the great forerunner. 

25.	You notice in this place Bro. Branham puts John the Baptist as an
angel of the covenant, which he was, but he also put Jesus the Christ as
the Angel of the covenant, which he was.      You notice, you have a
compound understanding here. All in Scripture, they're compound
understandings, and we're learning those. One of the greatest compound
of all is Hebrews 13:8  as one of the truly big ones. We have the true
understanding. The others have just the casual.

		But it was a paradox, the way it came. Why didn't he come down to that
big 					school at Jerusalem up there? (Maybe that's Gamaliel's school.)
Why didn't 					He come to Caiaphas, the high priest? (Why, he was the
high priest.) Why did 				He not come to some of those great, trained
men, who had been trained from 				childhood, their fathers trained
before them, their fathers before them, 					generation after generation
after generation, trained, schooled, fine, high-					cultured, educated?
Then pick an old man out in the wilderness, never 					had a day's
schooling in his life, set him out there on  Jordan, and said, 				
"This is him." A paradox, exactly. Incredible, but it was true. God did
it. 

26.	Now, there again of course Bro. Branham is bringing out the fact
that God can use...might not necessarily turn down an educated man just
for the sake of education. But God cannot use education per se. It can't
be done.

[53] 	The virgin birth of our Lord, incredible, for a woman to bring a
child without 				knowing a man. God did it. God did it. See, it's a
paradox. Took a little old 				woman down there, a little old girl,
engaged to some man about forty-five 					years old, she herself was
about sixteen or eighteen, and engaged to this man 				who was a widower
of four children. 

	That's tradition, Bro. Branham will tell you that. You say, "Did Bro.
Branham get that from God?" Not to my knowledge. He spoke of this before
he said it's historically said that Joseph was a widower.

		And then took this woman and overshadowed  by the Holy Ghost, and 				
conceived in her womb the body that tabernacled  God: a paradox. (A
paradox.) 				How that heaven can't hold Him. Earth is His footstool,
heavens  His throne,			      and yet could bring the Fullness of the
Godhead bodily, and embody It into a 				Man. Oh. When you can measure
for hundreds of billions of miles into aeons of 				time, and never
measure God; and yet a little baby, laying in a manger, contained 			the
Fullness of His Godhead bodily. (Now, keep reading.) Jehovah, a paradox.
				That great God, Who sets back yonder, to control a hundred million
suns shining 				on planets, Who never began and never ended, and would
embody Himself in a 				manured stable... 

27.	Okay, what's he saying here? This is one of your great mysteries.
One of the great paradox's. We can talk a little bit about it. Maybe not
much. And yet, could bring the fullness of the Godhead bodily and
embodied into man. How did God do it? Bro. Branham categorically said
when it came to the theophany, the Logos, the manifestation that which
came from God, the veil, the covering, God one day took that. And
reduced Himself down to the size of a sperm and an egg.  

	Now, the question comes: could God literally take of Himself and make
of that a sperm and an egg? Certainly. Why not? Then if God did that
being God, (now let's go back a minute,) that's not hard to understand,
you understand, if you do understand creation. If you understand
creation God made male and female as one in the spirit. Then He put them
in one body. And they were only separated later on, and later on through
act of procreation a child could come forth. But let us just consider
the male himself. And the female, herself, being one in Adam, and He
called their name Adam. Just one, not two members now, but they're just
one.

28.	All right, everything therefore was of Adam. Okay, now the
separation comes and therefore everything still is of Adam. So
therefore, Adam is literally able to make another in his image through
what was in him and he producing both, which would be egg and sperm
coming together under chemical conditions would bring forth that one
which would literally be another Adam.

	Now, you step this up into the high realm of God. This transcends
billions of times what we're talking about. And you take the omnipotent
God able to take of Himself and with that literally produce an egg and a
sperm that will be sympathetic to a womb. Now the womb can't reject it,
it could reject the womb. Oh yeah, It's picked its womb. So that means
that every womb was rejected, except one womb. Right? That's like a
transplant.

	All right, now you put that in there through the chemistry of Mary, we
now find a baby brought forth which was God truly manifested in flesh.
[end of side one] This being physical, so this would be the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. Not fire, not cloud. Not in a wind. Not in a
rainbow. Not in something else. This would be That body.

	Then, at the River Jordan God completely filled Him, and He become
Jehovah Almighty God, Elohim. There He was, the Lord God of Israel in a
human being, human form before the very people.

29.	Now, here He is then, now this is His birth Bro. Branham is talking
about.  

		And then we get out and dance and drink, and carry on in a
celebration. (That's 				Christmas, see?) It's not a celebration; (It's
not supposed to be,) it's a worship.

[54 ]	We do celebrate Christmas. (Sure we do, not supposed to.) How that
God did 				that in order He could die to take the place of a sinner. 

	Now, you don't celebrate that, you worship. Why do you worship? Because
you understand what God is doing. So therefore, God becomes His Own
mediator. God becomes His Own sacrifice and Redeemer. God becomes His
Own High Priest, so that the whole of salvation has devolved upon God
and He's responsible for all of it. And the human race gave only a body
which came by chemistry, that's all. In other words, Mary was the
laboratory. That's what she was. She was the incubator. She was the
human factory whereby those... all the elements that lay in the egg and
in the sperm, all that it required was a nourishing. And God allowed the
nourishing to come to human instrumentality and therefore that truly was
the Son of God. 

	Now, I can't go beyond that, but I understand that much, how God became
all of that to us in His Own way. Just the Bible says, It says, "It
takes a mediator to get between two people." Therefore there's three.
But It said, "When God came to man, It was only one." God was His Own
Mediator. And a man to have mediation does not become a mediator. That's
dictatorship. Then, how did God become a Mediator? Coming in the form of
a man. It's not too easy to understand, yet not too hard. Just let your
mind go and accept it. Don't try to get all the ramifications, because
that's where you'll lose faith. Anytime faith questions, it's no longer
faith. The less you ask questions about anything, the more your faith
will grow. The minute you start asking questions that's the time your
faith blows out the window, and the whole room gets dark. Ever think of
that? Well, start thinking now.

30.	Now, I saw a little seed right in there about divine healing and the
whole thing. The whole gamut of faith lies in one perception. And that
perception is: yes Lord, I believe. It doesn't ask questions. See?

	Faith does not say, "How are we going to get Him down?" Faith does not
say, "How are we going to get Him up?" Faith in your heart will produce
on your lips. You just say the Word and that's it.

		It was a paradox when a little, curly-headed boy, little
stoop-shouldered 					fellow; probably wasn't five-foot tall; seven
locks hanging down around his 				head, like a little sissy. On his road
down one day to see his girlfriend, and					a lion roared against him.
Anyone ever hear a real lion roar? Probably have 				in these cages and
things around here. But I want to tell you, they're just 					meowing
then. You ought to hear a wild one really roar. The rocks will fall 			
off the hill a half a mile away; pebbles will roll down the hill; it
just vibrates 				the ground so. Where that roar comes from, I don't
know. And I saw one one day; 				he was hanging his head down, a big old
yellow-mane lion roared at a black 				one, because the black-mane one
had picked up a piece of meat. That the 					yellow-mane lion  had  left
there, and he just as much said, "Now, you leave 					that alone, I'm
going down to get a drink of water." He went down to lap 					the water.
And he come back, the black-mane had been licking on it.

[55] 	The old pappy just stopped, put his head down, let out a blast,
and, I say, the				 rocks rolled off the hill. Oh, my. He'd shake the
city if he roared like that. 					The roar of the lion, oh, he is
ferocious. (What's he talking about? Amos. A 					lion roar, see?) That
roar run out against this little curly-headed shrimp, we'd 				call him,
and then something happened. The little shrimp walks over, and 					gets
him by the mouth, and puts one hand this a way and one in that way, 				
not nervously, just pulls him apart and lays him down there. That's a 		
		paradox. What caused it? If you'll notice the reading just before it,
"And 					(the conjunction) the Spirit of the Lord came upon him."
That's what made 				the difference. He slew the lion. See?

31.	Now, you'll notice in here that Bro. Branham is beginning to bring
out that the Spirit, it's a paradox, the Spirit always works contrary to
men, and what men would believe would do the job. Always. That's why the
Bible said, if you got in disputes among you, don't get the big-shots
in, you know the smart guys that know all the answers, call the dumbest
one of the whole bunch." Because he's the only one that knows that he is
dumb and needs some help. The rest of you guy's got too much on the
ball, you think you're too smart. You see, everybody sit down while the
humblest and the meekest and the dumbest one give you the answer. That's
the Bible, I'm just quoting It, Twentieth Century Lee Vayle. It's to get
my point across.

		Then one day some Philistines came after him. He was unarmed. There
was 				a thousand. They had long spears and big shields, just like that
door in front 				of you, like that, those shields were so big.

[56] 	Just think of a great big brass shield now, all the way in front
of you, (that's 				what they had too) with helmets of brass, big coats
of brass, and all over their 				shins and everything (you know) with
brass; (you know, like these, like the 					goal tenders out there in
the hockey game) great, big long spears, long as a pole, 				maybe
fifteen, twenty feet long, brass heads on them, sharp as a razor. Found 
			this little curly-headed shrimp coming down from Palestine to visit
some girl-				friend down there. And they said, "There's that little
fellow. Let's go get him." 				One man could've took him by the end of
that spear, lift him up and shook him 				a little bit, and he'd
a-fallen right down in his hand, down to the hilt on the spear... 		
just a little bitty old guy. Some people, artists, try to draw Samson
with 					shoulders he couldn't walked in this Tabernacle. Well, there
wouldn't be any 				mystery, a man that size. Samson, a little bitty old
thing, but the Spirit of the 				Lord's that's what was big. See? It's
dishonoring the Scripture to say he was a 				man of that size. (You
know, like some giant. That's right. People like to make Samson 				like
Goliath of Gath didn't they?)

 [57] 	God always takes the foolish and ignorant things like that, to do
His work 				   	with. You see? He takes something that's nothing. 

32.	So, we're learning here what God does. He deals in the humble. God
always just takes the lowly, He deals in the humble. See? Then you
send...the thing is if God uses a man like Bro. Branham, then of course
He's got to have a gimmick you know. You know, what's He doing? What's
He got, a gimmick here? The world never understands these things.

		So this little fellow was standing out there, and all at once here
come these 				Philistines surrounded him to kill him. And he took the
jawbone of a mule 					that was laying there, a wild one, a little
donkey, picked up the jawbone of 					that mule, the Spirit of the Lord
came on him. And there was a paradox, 					how that he beat down with
the jaw bone of the mule, through half-inch-					thick helmet over the
top of the head with the jaw bone of a mule. Why, the 				first, that
old dry jawbone laying there, the first lick he would've hit it, 				
would've broken in a thousand pieces, over the top of one of those
helmets 					or big shields. When a thousand rushed in upon him, and he
beat every one 				of them to death: paradox. 

	Now, when you think that one over, can you really believe that
happened? You might if you put your own thinking to it. Now, you put
Bro. Branham's the jaw bone of an ass, and you know,  listen, it become
pretty brittle. They're pretty brittle laying out there just like he
said, brittle. And just bang like that, there it goes. Ever try to drive
a nail with a pop-bottle? Sure, what happened to the pop-bottle? You
lost your hammer. Well, this fellow here would have lost that jawbone to
the ass too evidently. Well, something happened. 

		Oh, if we could only be jawbones in the hand of God, there would be
another 				paradox. See?

33.	Now, what he's telling you there, in the economy of God when it
comes to God, God will reduce every single thing He can to the common
denominator which is next to nothing, or nothing so He can be all of it.
See? What he's trying to tell you, the man and the mechanics always are
reduced to the place, if God is going to use the person, he's going to
have to get out of the way.

		It was a paradox when Jesus our Lord took five biscuits and two little
fish, 				and broke them, and fed five thousand people, and took up
baskets full of  					remainders,  little parcels of them that didn't
eat.

[58] 	They lay four or five fishes down on this table, and four or five
loaves of bread, 				and then go over here and lay four or five loaves
of bread. And some of them				 couldn't eat it all, just left them
laying there. So they picked them up, baskets 				full of them. See? Oh,
how did He do it? It's incredible that a Man could take 				five
biscuits and two little fishes, and feed five thousand, and take up
seven 				baskets full, left over. It's incredible, but He did it. Why?
It was God. It was 				a paradox. It's incredible, but He did it. (Now,
that's pretty mind boggling, just 				stop and think about it.) 

34.	You see, you can go to Sunday school for so long that you'll believe
that. Then you get right back to the place where Jesus stood before
Moses, and they said, "Oh we got Moses."

	And He said, "Well, if you would have believed Moses, you'd believe
Me."

	"Oh," they said, "nah, come on now, you're just pulling our leg on that
one. We can't believe that." 

	Well, if Jesus Christ has to appear today, the Gentiles, in the form of
the Holy Spirit to do...in the Spirit the very things He did when He was
here in the flesh, then would there not be something that absolutely you
can't explain in this man's ministry, because God had to have a prophet.
   

	Now, there's another thing right there where people are going to cavil,
they're going to pull their horns in and say, "Oh no way, that can't be
done." They won't pull their horns in over that, but they'll crawl back
in their shells and make you a fool and a liar. Because they're not
going to believe in a prophet, no way, shape and form. They can't do it.
They've been so thoroughly schooled against it, you don't need prophets.
"We've had the book."  Have you had the Book, then why is everybody
still arguing? There's something wrong somewhere. 

	You see, that's why I say you can call this the Word of God if you
want, but you see, that's what other's do, but it's not really true. We
use it in a very special way, because we understand what we're saying.
We're talking about Word for this hour. We understand.

35.	Now, what about that, when Jesus stood there and He said, "Now," He
said, "If you had known Moses, you would have known Me?"

	People there say, "Oh Paul, Paul, Paul. Oh Paul, Paul, Paul."

	William Branham, they say, "Oh Paul, Paul, Paul."

	William Branham could say, "If you'd known Paul, you'd know me." They
don't know that, see? I just thought when I read this here, Bro.
Branham... preached it about those fishes and loaves, and I thought, you
know that is something. But I'll tell you what is different...from, look
it here, see my finger is there right now. I told you about the time
that he was standing there at the microphone cord, like this, see, and
he makes two whirls, just like this, you know, whirl around. And it is
like this [demonstrates] and I wiggled that thing and it comes right
down here. And I suddenly said, "Oh God, don't let him move." And he
didn't move and my eyes didn't move, and suddenly here it was. Now
remember, I moved and this moved here, but that didn't move back there
in 1953.

	You tell me, you explain it. You say, "Well, Bro. Vayle..." Well you
Bro. Vayle all... you explain it all you want, I saw it. It's nice I'm a
nice person, or I'd say something.

		It was incredible, and never before or after, on a stormy sea (notice,
 never 					before or after, he's right,) the waves so high till it was
sinking the ship,  a Man 				come walking down across those waves. 

36.	Now, Jesus walked on the water. Remember I told you I saw that film
clip that Jack Paar had, where this Hindu ...?... psyched himself up to
walk on the water. I didn't really know what was going on, and here this
guy he comes out, a huge crowd, they paid him a big sum of money. And
he'd been psyching himself for months he's going to walk on that water.
And he goes to the diving board and he puts his foot in... going to
walk, and he goes plop down into the water. He just [makes a noise]
right down in. And you know something? Nobody has ever walked on water.
But how come a certain man that says he believes this Message went over
to the Philippines or somewhere, maybe it's Borneo or somewhere, and
there's people over there they do not walk on water but they walk in the
water. Yep, they don't sink, they walk in the water. I'm not lying to
you. They go slosh, slosh, slosh, and they don't sink, they go right
across the river sloshing in water with lots of water under their feet,
and they don't sink. 

	I want to ask you a question: Is that the same? It's not the same. 

	I say, I ask you another question: Is that a genuine miracle they're
doing in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ? I don't know. I don't have
any faith in it.

	I know a man went over there and he came back, and he was old, he was
just on fire that they had way more than we ever had, because you were
just looking at a prophet. Some of you know the man's name, but that's
alright. No big deal. No big deal, just makes you wonder.

37.	Now you see, Bro. Branham said, "Never before or after." So alright.

		...on a stormy sea the waves so high it was sinking the ship, when a
Man come 				walking down across those waves. I can just see every time
the great big 					whitecap comes around Him,  bursts and fall down
towards the bottom, He 				walks right on just like He was on a piece of
concrete. (He wasn't going slosh, 				slosh.) Walking upon the sea in
time of a storm, let science figure that one out. 				What held Him up
there? What kept Him on that sea, when it's a half a mile				 deep right
in there?

[59] 	When those great waves, many times bigger than this Tabernacle,
splashing,				 why, it filled the little boat and waterlogged it. It was
wet inside and out, and 				it was sinking, the mast poles had broke
down, oar's gone, all hopes of being 				saved  gone. And here come
Somebody walking on the water. Paradox, 					sure, incredible, cannot be
explained, but He did it. Oh, yes. He did it, come 				walking on the
water. It's incredible that this same One... O God, I hope this				
drives home. (He breaks his thought up.) Incredible, a real paradox,
that this 				same One, Jesus of Nazareth, would choose a bunch of
ignorant fishermen 				for His church, instead of the well-trained
priests and denominations of that 				day. 

38.	Well, I would ask this question, that very thought: how many well
educated men could walk on the water? They wouldn't do any better than
the dumb humble ones. Then let's ask the question, who'd believe that
Jesus did walk on the water outside the dumb fishermen that was out
there when they shouldn't have been? You know, educated man wouldn't
have been home, said, "Hey, boy that sky doesn't look too good, better
hit for the shore." So, I'm going to vote for the paradox every time. 

		... choose a bunch of ignorant fishermen for His church, instead of
the well-				trained priests and denominations of that day. How that a
God that had all 				wisdom, that could walk on the waters, could turn
water into wine, could 					take five biscuits feed five thousand
people, and take up seven basketfuls left 				over. How that same One,
the God that sets in eternity yonder, that's so bright 				till the suns
hide their face from Him; the very pool of wisdom and purity, of 			
understanding and knowledge, Supreme of the supreme's, and He would come
				to a place where a great organization of churches had all gathered
together 				and trained all their men, and He'd go down and pick up a
bunch of dirty, 					stinking fishermen that couldn't even write their
name, and choose that 					type of men to set the Church in order for
His Bride. Strange thing, isn't it?

[60] 	Looks like, at least, He would have took somebody else that was
trained. 

39.	Now, he answers his question:

		He's the Trainer. He's the One that does it. Strange that He had done
it. 					Instead of taking some church men, He took fishermen to do it.
Very odd, 					but that's the way He does it. It's true. It's a real
paradox...

	Now, what is he talking about here? He's talking about God's training
has to be left in God's Own hands. See? We learn as Bro. Branham said,
"How to get out of the way." That's the great thing right there. And it
doesn't mean that you have to be plumb ignorant. Many people believe
that Bro. Branham put a price on ignorance. They believed that you have
to be a thoroughly uneducated and act like an idiot to be qualified as a
Bride. I do not believe that the Word in the Bible could be wise-virgin,
you got to have some kind of a wisdom maybe the world doesn't understand
it, and maybe you don't either. But it's wisdom of the highest order to
recognize, don't worry.

	Remember, Abraham sat at the tent door, three men came down the road,
and he said, "There's God." How could he spot Him just like that? How
could he spot Him? Two of them weren't God. They went down to Sodom, he
said, "lords." God was flanked by two men. Two angels. People say,
"That's the Trinity." That's no Trinity, that's God period, with two
angels. Just the Bible said, "Believe what your Bible said." The two
angels went on down, and God stayed with Abraham. Then God destroyed
Sodom.

40. All right:

		...when God took a bunch of ignoramuses, as we would call them today, 
				holy-rollers, poor, of this world's goods, poured out the Holy Ghost
on them 				in a upper room; instead of pouring It out upon the
Sanhedrin Council, 					where all the theologians sat, where all the
great men were, where the heads 				of all the churches, where the ones
that had studied Scripture, and had made 				a great school, well
trained, waiting for the coming Messiah, and knowing 				that they'd be
the one who'd walk out and meet Him, and say, "Messiah, You 				came
down as if on an airplane's wings; You set right down here on the temple
				steps; we saw You come down out of heaven, from the golden corridors
of heaven; 			now, we're all ready and trained to go to work. We got our
schooling, got our 				Bachelor of Arts, Ph.D., LL.D., and all this.
We're trained. Here we stand, 				ten-thousand strong. We're ready for
You. Come on. We're waiting, calling, 				'Come.'" 

[61] 	...instead of that, He goes down and gets a bunch of people didn't
hardly 					know right hand from left (That's right.), put them in the
upper room, and 					poured out His Spirit (O God) upon a bunch of
people like that. Instead of 					taking the Sanhedrin Council, He took
fishermen. Isn't it strange that He 					didn't use their education? It
pleased God. It seems to please God to make 				His own Church a
paradox. The same thing He's doing right now, making 					a paradox out
of His Church, bypassing all the great highfaluting, and all 					this
stuff there that's so-called church. And He'll use anybody that He can
get 				into His hand, that'll open their eyes and see what's Truth, and
test it with 					the Word of God...

41.	We get a lot of flack, because we go right to the Word of God the
way the prophet did. I just can't believe for one minute that we're any
different from the prophet and how God would have us use our
understanding as ministers any different from His. If he check checked
everything out, we do not go to the Bible to check Him out, we go to the
Bible to see that we understand even as He understood. And there's
nothing wrong with that.

  		And all those in the upper room, come out there speaking in another
language, 				staggering like drunk people, staggering and carrying on.
Women, His own 				mother and all of them in the upper room, come out
there, jabbering something 				that nobody could understand what they
were doing at first.

[62] 	...had cloven tongues set upon them. "Cloven" means "parted." No
one 					understood what they were doing. They was jabbering around
there, acting 				like they were drunk. And there stood a bunch of
people who was trained, 					scholars of the Gospel, theologians, but
God chose, God, (not man, see?) to 				take and leave them sit in their
ignorance, with their highly smart and 					educations, and come over
here and picked up this bunch of guys that didn't 				know abc's, 
poured out His Spirit upon them, made a paradox out of them. 				Yes,
God does that; He does that for His own purpose. He makes His Church 			
a paradox; I believe in them. I believe it. (I believe it.)

42.	Now, why does He go against the trained mind? Well, I'll tell you
why: If you learn a certain thing that becomes a rigid pattern to you,
so that your thoughts are constantly dominated by the pattern that
you've been trained in.

	All right, if you haven't had any training, then whoever comes along to
give you the training, you're wide open. You don't have to throw away a
lot of things. You don't have to break a lot of patterns you once had.
You're wide open to receive what is fresh. That's why that you can take
a good old heathen Roman Catholic who really went to church once in a
great while, (maybe Christmas time or Easter, their mother got on their
tail, or their wife or somebody, or one of the kids needed to be blessed
or something, which is a very wonderful occasion to dedicate him to the
wrong sources and all those things thinking you're doing right) so we
take a raw heathen, I prefer the Catholic's above any, because they're
the best of the works. Because when they come to this Word knowing
nothing (because they really don't) and believing it's nothing to just
drop what the Catholic's taught him, because they didn't get taught much
anyway. And the mind is wide open without question to listen to what
Bro. Branham said.

	So basically, they automatically know far more than what most people
know, because it had backgrounds. That's your trouble. That's been my
trouble. Everything is analyzed and evaluated in the light of a previous
conception.  

43.	Now, let's just talk about conception for a second. Let's say that a
woman has her fertile time and she conceives. And somehow, some other
the nature gets into the act in a wrong way, and this has happened, six
weeks later she's pregnant the second time. You know what will happen
most often? An abortion and a tragedy. She can't carry two seeds. Not
meant to.

	Well, if you've got... really what should have happened was the second
seed should have killed the first seed, or vice versa. Now, we've got
something wrong in the first place, that's got to go. Or if that thing
got its tentacles in there so strong, it takes a longer time to pull
that rascal out and get all the goodie in there. So, that's what he's
telling you here.

	If God wanted to put a church on fire and do it in thirty minutes, He
sure couldn't have gone to the Sanhedrin. But you get a bunch of bimbos
like they were, Bro. Branham said they couldn't read or write even.
Ignorant fishermen, most of them. Nothing to it. Sure.

	What if you'd never known that was an organ. Somebody came along and
said, "Let me tell you..."

	You say, "What is that?"

	"Well, ...?... you know what that is? That is a juke-box."

	"What's a juke-box?"

	"Well, a juke-box is something that you open the door and you can put
things in to keep them cool." (That's an ice-box...)

	What I'm trying to show you is, you can fool the guy, because he
doesn't know.

44.	We had a fellow come over from Hungary years ago, he was a
carpenter. And the neighbor's kid, he was one of these practical
joker's, the kind that I hate, because I don't like practical jokes.
Where you sit on people's hats and think it's a good joke because you
ruined their hat, or something like that. So, don't be practical joker.
But this joke wasn't that bad.

	So, this old guy he whistled, and he said to the boy, "What's that?"

	And the guy said, "Groan."  

	He didn't tell him it was whistling, he said, "That's groan."

	So, Sam was groaning some tunes, instead of whistling some tunes.

	That's what I'm trying to tell you. It's just that simple. See, the
simplicity floors you. That's why Paul had to go through the process of
reducing the fruit of his mind to dung. The waste. Oh, you blow your
nose, that's waste, right? Might have been good at one time for
something. No doubt it was, but now you blow your nose you got no use
for it.

	All right, that's what you've got to do with your brain. Blow your
brains. Get rid of your thinking. See, that's what's behind this and
people don't realize it. See, that's why always... listen, study your
church history, you'll see the same pattern. It's the common folk gladly
hear. The age of the man, He has a smart man. But normally speaking
there's no way, shape and form. They had to get rid of their own
thinking, the churchyanity.  

45.	Now: (let me see.)    

		So help me, God, I believe the Word. "Let every man's word be a lie,
and 					This be True." What this Word says do, let's do it the way this
Word says do 				it; no matter how funny it seems, and how odd you get
to be, or anything 					like that. Stay with the Word. You're called old
fashion; you're called this, 					that, or the other; what do you care
anyhow? Stay with this Word. This is 					It, the Truth. Don't take what
someone else says. Take what the Word says. 

	Now, I can tell you something right here. Paul the apostle said,
"Brethren, I came to you not with excellent speech or wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God." [1 Cor 2:1] Now he said, "I'm going to
stand up here and tell you about God." He said, "I'm not going to do,
(he said) all kinds of refine education, though I'm an educated man, (he
said,) I had to let it all go as dung."

	Now, what do you do with dung? I'll tell you. If you're smart, you know
of horses and cows, now I'm going to tell you something: I don't know
too much about horses and cows, except that we had some horses and cows.
And I was elected to clean the barn. And the longer I put off cleaning
the barn, the worse it got. Until one day I said, "phooey, phooey,
phooey, I will clean this barn and I will really clean it. And from this
time on, everyday will be a cleaning process." You know something? I got
somewhere from that time on. It's the same with your spiritual and your
religious and your knowledge condition in this Word. 

	Clean the barn, and do it every day. Make sure you got something fresh
from God, so to speak without pushing it, any little thing you don't
believe in or think you don't, lay it out before God, try to get rid of
it. All right now, see he got rid of it. 

	"I determine nothing among you say Christ I and Him crucified, with you
in weakness 	and fear and much trembling. Speech was not with enticing
words of man's wisdom, 		but in demonstration of the Spirit and of
power. That your faith should not stand in 		the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God." [1 Cor 2:2-5] 

	So, he's trying to tell you right there, "I never converted you through
the weight of my words. You were converted by a gospel that was
quickened by the power of God. It became the living Word to you." So,
there you are.

46.	All right:

[63]	 Here sometime ago, a minister friend... (I want to just tell
this:) One hot 					afternoon down in Georgia, he was visiting this
druggist. The old druggist 				a fine old Christian brother, full of the
Spirit of God. And he said, "Come 					in and set down, and let's have a
coke." They was setting there drinking 					their coke. And he said to
the preacher, "I want to say something to you, 					and you perhaps will
not believe it.”

		And the preacher said, “Well, let's hear it first," And I'll tell if
I do or not. He said, 				"I have always tried to do my best for God."
He was a deacon in a church. 				"I've always tried to live to my
calling do that which was right." "I've never 				cheated
anybody...testified for my Lord everywhere I could." And  "I got my 			
drugs here," and I said, "I've tried to carry the very highest class
that could 				be bought. I've never overcharged anybody. Tried to do
the right thing 					that I knew how to do to serve the Lord." "I'm
going to tell you what happened."

[64]	"My son, who's studying to be a druggist too, and to follow me, he
was in the 				front of the building there one day." And he said, "It
was during the time of 				the depression. A little lady walked into the
door." And he said, "You could 				see what her trouble was. And she was
to be a mother. And her husband, 					and both of them, poorly dressed,
they give the prescription to my son, have it 				filled, for the woman
was in need of this certain thing that the doctor prescribed 				for
her. And said, 'This will be so much, such-and-such,' and when the to-be
				father asked 'How much will it be?' 'So-and-so.' He said, 'Sir, I'll
not be able 				to get the prescription filled, 'because I don't have
any money.'" Well, he said, 				"My son said, 'Go right down the street
there, half a block, or a block, and 				turn left, and you'll go to a
place where they have charity. 

 

47. [65] ...you go there to the county, and perhaps they will give you
the money for 				the order, and pay for this prescription, because the
lady has got to have the 				medicine right away.'" And he started to go
out of the place. And said he 					listened to his son. "And something
said, 'Oh, don't do that.' The voice said, 				'The woman needs that.'"
He happened to think, "'That long line of people 					down there, it's
hard for a healthy man to stand in line, let alone a mother in 				that
condition.'" So, "I said to my son, 'Go, call them; tell them to come
back.'" 				And he said, "And I rushed to the door, and said, 'Come
back. Come back.' 				They come back. And I said to my son, 'Fill that.
There's no charge.'" And said, 				"My son give me the prescription, and
I went over and had it filled, and filled 				it up the best that I
could, and brought it to the lady, and tell her that. There 				would be
no charges on this. That was all right, 'cause she was in need of it 			
real bad, I'd get by without it for the money."

[66] 	So, "I just started to lay the medicine in her hand. And when I
did, I looked 				at the hand; it was scarred." And, "I looked up, and I
was putting it in Jesus' 				hand." Said, "I learned then that the
Scriptures, what it meant, 'Insomuch as 				you've done unto the least
of these, My little ones, (you've done it to Me.)'" He 				said, "'Do
you believe that?' this fellow said to me. Why, sure, I believe that." 	
		It was a paradox, incredible, but true. 

48.	Then he goes on to talk about incredible things in lives of people
like Martin of Tours.

		...being a soldier, coming down one night, cold, dark street, and
there 					was a bum, laying on the street, freezing. His blood was
freezing in his veins. 				Martin, yet not a Christian...anyone who has
read Bible history, knows of Saint 				Martin. The historian the other
day that was trying to get his card, (that's the 				book for him, out
of the library.)   And Saint Martin looked down there... He was				 a
soldier, and this old man, laying in the street, freezing. And Saint
Martin had 				just one coat; (the old man didn't have a coat, and he
would freeze without one. So,				 he took his knife and cut it in two,
and wrapped the bum in one half,  put the other 				half around himself,
and went walking on. 

[67] 	That night, when he got into his room, and  sat down, he heard
Someone come 				into the room. He looked; here is Jesus, wrapped in
that piece of coat. That 				was his call to the ministry. He become a
saint. He spoke in tongues. His school 				was well trained. He trained
his people right with the Word of God. He didn't 				care about what the
first Church of Rome or any had to say. He stayed right 				with the
Word of God. He taught them; speaking in tongues, and laying hands 			
on the sick. (And so on.) They raised the dead. They casted out devils.
One man, 				his friend, had been killed, went and laid his body over
him, he and his buddy 				come walking out together. Why? It was a
paradox. Sure, God did it. I believe 				in paradoxes. Yes, sir. I
believe. I believe in them with all my heart. 

49.	Now, Bro. Branham I think he's making a point here, where he says,
"You've got to do the right thing and God responds." And there again,
the right thing of course would be consistent with Scripture. And of
course It would always be doing good. And it doesn't always mean,
because you would do good that there would be an answer back of this
caliber. But you can see here that you initiate by doing something so
that God moves back on the scene to further enhance and bring to fruit
what you have already done.

	Like the woman who had a little bit of meal left and a few sticks to
make a little fire. Elijah came by, and he said, "Why," he said, "I see
you've got a bit of meal there and you're going to do some baking."

	She said, "Yes, "she said, "I'm picking up a couple of sticks." How
much can you cook on two sticks? You know. A bonfire sounds pretty good,
but a couple of sticks, you know, she didn't have much. Maybe she was
going to make a little bit out of lukewarm water and stir the stuff in
it. I suppose that's about all it was going to be. Something like that
little buttered gruel or porridge.

 	 Now, what he said, "I tell you what, (he said) first of all (he said)
you make me a cake and then (he said,) everything good is going to
happen." He said, "The Lord will continue to bless you."

	And she could have said, "Now, I'm going to tell you something, that
swindler, I've been around these fast talking mouthy preachers, man
alive, they don't care just as long as they get what I got, they
wouldn't care if I starved." She went right down and made him a cake and
from that time on the meal and the oil never wasted. She just had plenty
all through the famine when other people didn't have it.

50.	So, he's showing you here there's a paradox. And I think that
paradox might be based upon the Scripture that says, "There is that
which scathereth and yet increaseth, and there is that  withholdeth more
than meet and tendeth to poverty." [Prov 11:24]

	And you know there are people who never learn the laws of proper
spiritual giving, and doing unto the Lord in order that God may move
back on the scene in those various realms. It's like the law of
psychology, I've often talked about that Dr. Crane brought out. He was
the great marriage councilor. He saved so many marriages, so many from
going into divorce and all, because they lost the glow of their
marriage. And he said, "Look," he said, "there's nothing to it, all you
do is go through the motions and the corresponding emotions will come."

	I know right away the man said, "How could I pretend I love her,
embrace her?" 

	It's like Bro. Branham said the guy said, "Bro. Branham," he said, "I
wish you would come and cast the devil out of my wife."

	"Well," he said, "I'll tell you how you do it for yourself." 

	He said, "How do you do it?" 

	"Well," he said, "tonight (he said) before you go home from work (he
said) buy her a great big five pound box of chocolates and a lovely
bouquet of red roses and rap on the door. And when she comes to the door
sweep her in your arms and kiss her and give her the bouquet, (my wife
likes this) [laughter] the women… " Go get your own bouquet. ...?...
grow your roses. "So, you sweep her in your arms and kiss her, give her
the bouquet and the box of candy." I don't know if the guy ever did do
that. I don't think he did. 

51.	But you know, so many people don't believe, don't believe the Bible.
See, that's the Bible. The Bible says, "Lay not up for yourselves
treasure on earth where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break through
and steal. But rather, gather up yourselves treasure in heaven where
moth and rust do not corrupt and thieves break through. For where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also." [Mt 6:19-21]

	See, the heart the seed of the emotions will follow, you see. That's
why there's so many things people just ought to do. And as you do them,
you'll learn to love them. They'll become a part of you, because you
know there's spiritual things. And it's not so simply that you ought to
do them, it's because now you know to do them. You see, it's a part of
life, the spiritual life. So, some of these things people don't
understand, but it's good to understand them. And that's a paradox, you
see? 

	It's right in the Reader's Digest about this woman tells you how to
completely change everything in your house in five weeks time. Her
husband was the kind of a guy that...he's a good husband, he brought the
pay check in, but what he brought in I guess he blew, and she was a
little more conservative. I think there's people like that, I can name
names, not here so it's all right, a way down further south. 

52.	In an actual interview I was there and Bro. Branham had it. They
wouldn't mind me telling, (but I could do it without names,) but anyway
she's the one that was better with the money than the man was. And (you
know) she was always nagging and nagging and on to him, and the marriage
was sour. And so one day she realized that, "hey, (you know) what's
going on here?" And so she knew the man had some good qualities that
they really had a good marriage, and so she began thinking, well the
nice things that where the man qualified, where all the time she was
nagging him for all his bad points. And you know, that's what a lot of
psychology too that we think of the bad more than the good. It sticks
with it, because we've been hurt and offended and so on. You know,
really.

	So anyway, she began deliberately against her own...well, her mouth in
gear so much of the time in the wrong manner, she had to learn to take
it out of gear. And so she had to learn to take it out of gear and put
it in a better gear. Which was to praise him.

	And so, she began talking nice and saying nice things and pretty soon
the whole atmosphere changed. And within five weeks, one day he said,
"You know," he said, "you sure been right (he said) about this money
bit, (he said) I've noticed a big change in you. But (he said) I've sure
am wrong about the money. I'm going to see that you (you know) do
something about it." And here, the whole thing was changed, because of
what was done.

 	Now you see, almost everywhere there's a paradox. See, there's a
paradox. There's a paradox here in this Message where people took Bro.
Branham to mean: well, if your wife isn't in obedience, kick her out! Do
this, do that, slap her around. Well, you got to be jerks. I mean, you
got to be plumb jerks that's all. Take the rest of things he said, you
know? And if the things mess up, whose fault is it? 

53.	Well, so what we're looking at here, there is... there in life the
laws of God are paradox's. The things of God are little paradoxes. In
other words, we have a tendency to do things that we think are the right
way, and they are absolutely the wrong way. Then God comes along and
does things the right way. And we say, "Hey, that can't be right." And
it is right. Paradox. Paradox, that's the...boy listen, this thing is
really rich and real. 

	[Bro. Vayle refers to the time left]

	Okay, alright, he says here:

		I believe in paradoxes. Yes, sir. I believe. I believe in them with
all my heart. 				It was a paradox when all the smart men there was in
the world, God put the 				keys to the Kingdom in the hands of the one
that was considered the ignorant				 and the unlearned. (That was
Peter.) That's right.

[68] 	One of the smartest men at that day was Caiaphas, the high priest;
another 				was the emperors and  kings the great men of the earth, like
presidents, so 					forth, great men. And what's the most important
thing in the world? Is God's 				Church. God made the earth; He made it
for a purpose: to take a Church 					out of it, (sure) a Bride. 

	That's what He's doing now. He made it to take a Bride. And what's He
going to do? He's going to remake it, and bring a Bride back. Right?

		 ...the smartest men  (the man he had represented)  kings, potentates,
monarchs,				 high priests, church men. (We couldn't take a look at)
those. But it's a paradox 				when He called a man who couldn't even
sign his name. "I give you the keys 				to the Kingdom. Whatever bound
on earth, Is bound in heaven. What you 					loose on earth, I'll loose
in heaven." (All right, now listen, and he goes to fishing.)

54.	But you know something? That word in the Greek is literally this:
'what has been previously bound in heaven, you can bind in earth, and
what is previously loosed is therefore loosed'.

	In other words, what God has set in pattern by His Word, man never
needs to fear. Line up and it'll bind, it'll loose. You don't need to
worry. 

	Now, if we're one with this Word today brother/sister, the paradox is
this: we are going to get out of here living off right into the
Millennium. Now, the other guy say, "No way, no dice." 

	They'll just tell you and me, "Hey, you're just really wrong. Old Baal,
that bunch that believed that cracked-up stuff he's teaching what the
prophet never taught, why they believe in a spiritual coming, and they
don't believe in a physical coming of Jesus. You know what those guys
are? They're foolish. They're just plumb ridiculous."

	There's no place I've ever said it. I say what the prophet said. "When
that Spirit's in the midst of us." And that's not the baptism with the
Holy Ghost. For three hundred trillion, billion, to bullions, or
whatever they are. In God's mighty Name, I don't know. Trillions and
Trillions could be full of the Holy Ghost, that will never constitute
God! When that Spirit, not that's in us, but in the midst of us becomes
incarnate to us, we'll crown Him Kings of kings, and Lord of lords. And
that'll be the Mighty God, everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the
Father, Son and Holy Ghost. That One now Elohim, when we go to that body
I'm going to meet Him in the air as a Person. What nonsense people talk.

55.	Sure, it's a paradox. How can He be here and not the way we say He's
here. How can He be here and not according to our thinking. I don't
know! But He's here! Because God takes the man and not the spirit.
Paradox.

	Did He come up, or did He come down? Paradox. Did He leave then come
back? Paradox. Who cares whether it's a horse or clouds, or both? Or two
different occasions? Paradox. But I believe what the prophet said.
"We're going to get out of here." 

	Let's rise. Heavenly Father, we worship You, we're hopeful in spirit
and in truth, O God. We feel Your love, Your warmth, Your lovely nature,
Lord. We know, O God, we're not ours, we're bought with a price. We
know, Lord, we're in Your hands to do with what you want. For when You
died and rose again, proved that You owned the whole world. Maybe the
song writer said, "He's got the whole world in his hands," they don't
know how true that is, because they don't go the rest of the way to
teach the truth that You can do with Your Own what You want. No man can
say no. Neither does any man have to approve or disapprove. Doesn't make
any difference, ours, what man says, it's what You say counts. And
those, Lord, who understand are wise, they've been given the Spirit of
wisdom, the revelation the knowledge of You tonight. And we thank You
for it.

	We cannot praise You enough, Lord. We feel very much relaxed, and very
much at peace, and very much at home with what we know, what we have in
this hour we're grateful. Father God, bless everyone in divine Presence
here, knowing that divine Presence is not only here, but It's
everywhere, where You have Bride, Lord... [tape ends]

 

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