53-0609A Demonology, Religious Realm

Our Heavenly Father, [Blank spot on tape] ... believe that Thou dost care for us and has manifested Thy love towards us, insomuch that You sent Your own beloved Son, the innocent Son of God, to take the place of guilty sinners. How we thank Thee that Thou did care for us and was mindful of us, to do this. And we're so appreciative, Lord. We happy to gather here this afternoon under the canopies of the skies, and ask Your blessings upon this service. Grant, Lord, that every man, woman, boy or girl that's here, may study deeply now in the Scriptures. We're facing a world that's controlled by Satan. And, Father, we pray, as we study the power of demons and what they do to people, that You will give us great faith, and may many great signs and wonders be wrought. For we ask it in Christ's name and for God's glory. Amen.

We are study this afternoon, quickly into it, and I guess about fifteen minutes early. It's still on Demonology.

And now, I just got a message a while ago, Brother Beeler, from my friends, and I start in Africa the middle of July. So that settles it; we got it fixed now. And Brother Baxter can't go at that time, so I'm going to have to go to Africa by myself. So going over there with ... may the.... You have to pray for me now, that the Lord will help me, because I really going to need it now over there amongst ... I'm expecting at least two hundred thousand people in that meeting.

And I've got a vision wrote out here. I want you people to get the benefit of it. It happened in December. I was in the room one morning when the Angel of the Lord came in. You see, when I was over there I disobeyed God and I picked up Ameba. Any man know what Ameba is: a parasite that just nearly kills you. And because I'd done something God told me not to do. How many's heard the story of it? I guess some of you's here. I know the folks around the Tabernacle heard the story of what happened. God told me to go a place, and to stay away from this place, and to go back over to another place. And I let the preachers talk me out of it. Now, preachers are wonderful, and they're my brothers, but you mind what God tells you. That's right, see. You got one mission.

How many remembers one time there was two prophets in the Bible? And one of them, the Lord told him, said, “You go to a certain place and don't you come to ... you go back another way,” and so forth. And said, “Don't you eat or drink while you're there.”

And another true prophet met him, and said, “The Lord met me after He met you.” And said, “Come by my house.” And the prophet listened to what the other one said, and lost his life by it. See, you do what God tells you to do regardless of what anybody else says.

Now, we're in this vision. It woke me up, thirteenth of September ... or, of December. And as I was sitting on the side of my bed, I was wondering what would be my future. When I come back over here, they was ready to throw me in the pest-house; parasites had just about taken me. And they give me examination when I struck this land. And, by God's grace, they just let me go home, because it's very scattered. And I prayed, and I went to those ministers; I said, “The Lord said for me not to go that way.” Said, “Oh, God talks to somebody besides you.”

I said, “Korah had that idea one time.” But I went and got some leaves and laid it over their feet, and I said, “Remember, in the name of the Lord, if we take that trip there, it's going to be a failure, and we will all pay for it.” And we sure did! Oh, my! We all like to've died. So then coming back....

You have so much to contend with in those foreign countries. For instance, a little flea would bite you; it'd cause you to have tick fever. And that little thing, when it bites you, if you feel yourself itching, you can't scratch it. You look; if it's a little black ball, don't pull it off. It's got a little head; it bores its way into the skin, turns around like this and fastens itself. If you'd pull it, you'd pull the head off in there, it's got a virus, it'd paralyze you. So you don't scratch ... or, don't pull him off. Just take some tallow, and he breathes through his back, drop tallow on it and he comes off.

Then there's a little mosquito, he doesn't make a bit of noise, he comes right through the air, he just [Bro. Branham lightly taps the back of his hand.] touch you, that's all; you've got malaria.

And then there's what they call the mamba snake. If he hits you, you live just about two minutes after he hits you.

And there's a yellow cobra; you live about fifteen minutes after his bite. And one of them was close enough to my son, as he could have laid his hand on his head, already up to strike before we got the shot, like that.

And there's the black cobra. Oh, there's just everything! And then the wild perils of the animals, of course—lions, tiger, or leopards, and everything else—to contend with in the jungle. And then the diseases, there's just all kinds of diseases in there.

And you have all that to face when you go. Besides that, then here's the witch doctor to challenge you on every hand (see), and all their superstitions and things. But what a marvelous thing to see our Lord just wave it away from side to side like that, then go on. And that day I remember standing there, how well, what taken place. I'll tell you sometime in another meeting, because I want to get on my subject this afternoon of Demonology.

But now, and this I was thinking about, sitting there, what will the end be? And coming back across the sea.... I know we had around a hundred thousand conversions while we was in there. And old Brother Bosworth come to me. I said, “Well, Brother Bosworth?”

He said, “I'm so proud of you, Brother Branham!” He said, “You're just here, in the beginning of life.”

I said, “Well, I guess it's all over.” I said, “I'm past forty years old, and I guess I fought a good fight and finished the course.”

He said, “Past forty years old?” Said, “I was that old before I got converted.” Said, “I'm still going good.” He was pretty near going into his eighties.

I thought, “Well, maybe that's about right.”

So he said, “No, you're just a brand new Branham now, you just know how to control your meetings better, and everything.” Said, “Just, if you ever strike America in its right way, with the right setup meeting where you could stay six or eight weeks in a place, and get it set up and advertised around,” said, “you'd do something for our Lord.” So we went ahead just on like that, so it was very, very nice.

Then after a while I saw a vision when I was in America, and it come to me, and returned me back to Africa, and it showed me that same meeting sitting there in front of Durban. And the first meeting faded away into history, going towards the West. The second meeting rose up, and when it did, it was still larger than the first meeting was. And I heard a scream, and an Angel was coming out of Heaven. He had a great Light.

And the Angel of the Lord which stands by us here, always stands by my right, over on this side. And It was standing there, and It was milling around, and I seen this man standing there. Now, that's not vision when you see Him. It's just as real as you're looking at me. Why, you can hear Him walk and talk to you, anything. He's just as real. It's not a vision; the man's just standing there, just the same as you are. His voice is just the same as mine would be or yours would be. But a vision's something that breaks before you and you see it, like that. But this man just walks up and stands there.

So He told me what was going to take place. And He said that.... This Angel came down, and He told me to turn and look this way. And it looked towards India, now. And I don't say it's in India, but it's near.

But they were Indian people. Because the Africans are big burly, heavy fat-like people. Some of them nearly seven-foot tall, and weigh, oh, two hundred and eighty, or three hundred pounds, burly. The Zulus, now, the Songhai and the Bazutu, and, oh, there's many different tribes. There's fifteen different tribes sitting there that day, I was speaking to.

I'd say one word, like “Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” I'd go get a drink of water before it went through all the interpreters. One would say.... And all noises! I used to think when I heard Pentecostal people speaking in tongues, that maybe one speaking in one kind of sound and one speaking another, how in the world could that be? But I believe the Bible's right, and know it is, when it said, “There's not a sound without significance.” Some of them would say ... one of them go, “Blrr blrr blrr blrr,” that meant “Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Other one would go, “Cluk cluk cluk cluk,” and that was “Jesus Christ, the Son of God,” in his language. So no matter what kind of sound it is, it's a meaning somewhere. That's right. No matter what kind of a noise it is, it means something to someone somewhere. And they'd give that out.

And I noticed that over to my left, when that Angel came down and I seen a swarm-like there, and there were men looked like they had a sheet around them like this, and it wrapped up and tied, like around a small baby—the napkin. And it was.... And I could just see as far as I could see, it was nothing but people. And then this Angel turned on a great oscillating light, and it begin to sway back and forth like that. And I never seen so many people in my life!

And then this other Angel came real close to me, and He said, “There's three hundred thousand of them in that meeting.” And I've got it written down here. And you write it in some kind of a piece of paper, like I told about the little boy being resurrected in Finland. You write that on the flyleaf of your Bible or somewhere, that in this meeting there's going to be a meeting (and you'll hear it through some outlet) of three hundred thousand people attend that meeting. Now, see if that isn't right. That'll be three times the size the other one was, see. Three hundred thousand people to attend the meeting. And I'm just so happy to get to get there, I don't know what to do, for I like to win souls to our Lord.

And there, at one time, seeing thirty thousand raw heathens come to Jesus Christ in one altar call—thirty thousand raw heathen.

Now, let's go to our subject right quick. Yesterday we studied the technique of demons. I've been thinking today, as God dealing.... You don't know what a liberty it is to get out....

Now, I'm not a teacher, I'm a long ways from being a Bible expositor. And my education is limited to a seventh grade, so that's.... And I come out of school about twenty-five years ago, so that's a long time off. And I don't have very much of an education, but all that I know is what I receive through inspiration.

And if that inspiration doesn't compare with the Bible, then it's wrong, see. It's got to be the Bible. No matter what inspiration it is, it's got to come.... Here is God's foundation. No other foundation is laid but this. And what this is.... If what I would say would be contrary to this, you let my words be a lie, because this is the truth, see, see. And if a angel would tell you something that'd be different from this, Paul said, “Let him be unto you accursed.” Even an angel of light! Now, there's many great things. I only ... I chose two days, because ... to get this subject to the people; that was yesterday and today, of the afternoon meetings.

Now, the reason I did this, is to give myself a little try to see if God would help me. There's something on my heart. And this is, that after this great message, and after God Himself confirming what that I have said to be the truth, in His Word ... by His Word, first, and then through signs and wonders.... Now, I think, with the Gospel truth to the church, I'm under obligation to God to bring this to the church. That's right. They're so broke up in so many different organizations and sectarian parts of it till.... That's wrong. We're all God's children when we're born again, see. And the truth of the thing is that God wants us to know that, that we're His children.

Now, remember, the temple of Solomon was cut out all over the world. And here come one rock twisted this way, and one rock twisted that way, and one cut up this way, and one cut that way, but, when it come together, there wasn't a buzz of a saw nor a sound of a hammer, everything went right to its place. God was the Instructor of that.

God's got a church called the Assemblies, and one the Church of God, and one to this one, and one to that one; oh, when they all come together, they'll be one big group of brotherly love, and God will assemble that church together and take her on up into the sky.

Every famous picture, before it's ever hung in a hall of art, it has to be hung ... go through the hall of critics first. The man who painted that [unclear word] ... or, pardon me, I can't call his name, painted the Last Supper, anyhow; it cost him his lifetime. He painted that picture. It was about twenty years ... or, ten years, I believe, between painting Christ and Judas. And did you realize, in that famous picture, that the same man posed for Christ, ten years later posed for Judas? That's right. He did. Ten years of sin, from a great opera singer, to take the place of Christ, come to the place of Judas. You don't have to take ten years; it takes ten minutes, will do the same thing to you. It'll change your character, in sin. But, anyhow, that picture went through all the critics.

And that's what I think about God's church, the group that's called.... Well, I don't mean this through any slam. I've sailed the seven seas, and I'm on my third trip around the world, and the people say, “Holy roller, holy roller!” And I've searched the world and I've never found a holy roller yet. That's the name the devil has tacked onto the people. That's all. There's no such a thing as a holy roller. And I have statistics of every six hundred and sixty-eight different churches that there is, organized in the world, and there's not one of them called Holy Roller. And that's from the government. There's not one Holy Roller church I know of. So, it's just something the devil calls. But, now, in all of this, all these things, God has painted a picture. And one time, these little old churches used to be out here.... Some of you....

I watch these gray-headed men. My boy yesterday, I was in the room, studying, and a minister came by and said, “Like to shake hands with your dad.” Of course, my boy's been raised up with Brother Baxter and them who just: “No”; that's it, quickly. I don't like that, see. No matter if I.... Of course, I can't be serving a man and God, too. But I think I like to shake hands with my brethren. I like to do that. There's something about it, I like to shake the hands of a minister. Not only a minister, but any child of God, I like to do it. I didn't know about it until my wife had told me a little later. Well, if he could have told that minister, “Just a minute. He's back there in prayer, and I'll see what he'd say.” Well, that would have been better. So I give him a little correction on that, not to do that, see.

And so it's true, you can't just be right out as the brother said a while ago. If you do, then at nighttime I'm worn, you see. The people go to talking, and every one has maybe a sickness, and when they go to speaking about it quickly, there's the Angel of the Lord right there to tell about it.

There's someone sitting looking right at me now, knows that to be true from just a few minutes ago ... or, about an hour and a half ago. A lady sitting here, who didn't know what it was, that the Angel of the Lord spoke to her the other night and told her something and she couldn't understand it. But today it happened, so she knows now what it means when He was speaking to her. And I was standing there talking to her, and the Angel of the Lord went right straight back out and told her what her trouble was, and what it was all about, and what she was thinking about, and one of her loved ones, and how God had spoke and said He'd confirmed it, and what was going to take place. So that's just exactly the way it'll be. See, God has said so.

Well, now, what about a few times that every.... And each vision just weakens you that much more, see. And the first thing you know, when you get to church at night, you're just so completely wore out till you just don't know hardly what to do. And you pray for me now, see, because it's out of one meeting to another to another. If this was the only meeting, it would be different. If I was going home now and wasn't going to do nothing for a couple months, go out and get my fishing line and go fishing, but I got to go from one meeting right to another, from one right to another, you see. That's what makes it.

And you all pray, you people back here in the audience. They told me last night that I ... [Blank spot on tape.] ... did not respond to the call. Now, that's pretty dangerous, you see. When they said it, well, sometimes there's lights don't shine, there's a dark spot in between there.

And I watch the Angel of the Lord when He's standing here; I can feel it. Then I'll feel it move from me, and I will watch. It'll leave me and it'll go over somewhere and stand there a little bit, and I can see it. And it'll flash on and there'll be a vision come. Then I'll see the vision. I'll watch what kind of a looking person it is around there. And I find the person, then I speak. That's what takes place. That's what happens. You don't have to tell everybody that, but that's what takes place, you see. It's all in the spiritual realm.

Then if that person don't respond, it'd be like reading the Bible here and saying, “There's nothing to it,” walk away from it, see. So that makes it pretty bad. So be on the alert, be listening, be watching. When He speaks, answer. Just be ready to answer at any time.

And so my wife, and Brother Beeler and many of them, this morning, was telling me about it, that it was calling a man about his brother somewhere that had something wrong with him, and so forth, and the man did not respond to the call, so that can't be helped. That's between God and the man. The vision left me then; I couldn't find it no more, because he didn't answer. So be watching, be on the alert.

Now, taking this subject of Demonology and speaking about demons. Now, people, when you say “demons,” right quick they begin to think, Oh, some fanaticism, or something. But demons is just as real as angels. They're just as real.

And the devil is just as real a devil as Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He's a devil. Heaven is just as real. And if there is no such a thing as hell, there's no such a thing as Heaven. And if there isn't an eternal blessed ... eternal punishment, rather, there's no eternal blessed. If there's no day, there's no night, see. But as sure as there's day, there's night.

As sure as there's a Christian, there's bound to be a hypocrite. As sure as there's somebody that's genuine from God, there's somebody to impersonate that, see. It's just exactly pro and con, black and white, right on down through life on everything, true and false everywhere. And there is a false gospel, there's a true Gospel. There's a true Baptism, there's a false baptism. There's a make-belief, and there's a real. There's a true American dollar, there's a false American dollar. There's a genuine Christian, there's a genuine hypocrite (see) that's just impersonating. So you find that, so it all goes together. Now, we can't separate it. God lets the rain fall.

Let me speak here just a little bit. How many preachers is here? Raise up your hands. All around, preachers, let's see your hands. Well, God bless you, brethren. Now, now, you don't take this for doctrine now, but just before we approach this vital subject, I tell you.... How many Pentecostal people's here? Raise up your hands. All around everywhere. You're all Pentecostals. All right. I want to tell you what I had when I first come into your realms ... ranks. I was right up here in Indiana, at a certain place called Mishawaka. The first group of Pentecostal people I ever seen was called the Pentecostal Assemblies of Jesus Christ, I believe, or something like that—wonderful bunch of people. Now they've organized together and call them United Pentecost. They break up from the rest of them, because of an issue of water baptism. That don't make them any hypocrite. There's many a genuine, real genuine Holy-Ghost-borned-again Christian in their ranks. And God gave them the Holy Ghost by being baptized in “Jesus' name,” and has give the others the baptism of the Holy Ghost being baptized in “Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” So God gives them the Holy Ghost who obeys Him, so who obeyed Him? There you are.

If you just forget, and them that wants to be one way let them be, and you go ahead and be brothers. That's all. Don't.... What done it, was breaking away, see, breaking, tearing up, breaking up brotherhood, setting out and separating yourselves. No, sir. We're not separated; we're one. That's right.

But when I was standing there, I was watching those people. Now, me, just come out of a regular little old Southern Baptist church, why, I'd see those people, I went in there and they were clapping their hands, hollering, “One of them, one of them, glad I can say I'm one of them!”

I thought, My! Whew! First thing you know, here come somebody down through there, dancing as hard as they could dance. I thought, What church manners! I never heard such things as that. I kept watching them around wondering, Well, what in the world is the matter with those people?

Now, you've heard me tell my life story, where I hit that meeting there. But this is one thing I've never told, never told it before in public. Now, if you want to rub it off of your recorder, why, you can do so. All right. Now, in this I watched, and now I thought, Well, them people is the happiest people I've ever seen in my life. They wasn't ashamed of their religion. We Baptists get just a little bit ashamed once in a while, you know, see. And when they go to pray, you know, get behind the fan, you know. But them people wasn't. Brother, they had religion all inside, outside, and all over them.

Well, I remember that night when I got on the platform. Said, “All preachers on the platform.” It was a convention. They had to have it up here in the North on account of ... on account of the colored problem, the Jim Crow law of the South. So they was all met there from everywhere. So I was sitting up there and he said.... Well, now there was ... I heard all preachers through that day and that night. They said.... Some old preacher, he was an old colored man come out, just a little bit of rim of hair around his head like that, big old long frock-tailed preacher coat on, you know, velvet collar, and it hot weather. Poor old fellow come out there like this, and he said, “My dear children, I want to tell you....”; got to testifying. I was about the youngest one sitting on the platform. So then he said, “I tell you!” He took his text from over in Job: “Where was you when I laid the foundations of the world? Declare unto Me where they're fastened.”

All these other preachers had been preaching about Christ, and along the regular run. I listened to them, enjoyed it. But not that old boy! He went back there about ten thousand years before the world ever started. He went up into the heavens and come plumb down across the skies, what was taking place. What they was preaching on, going on, in the daytime he was preaching on what was taking place in Heaven. He brought Christ back on a horizontal rainbow, back yonder somewhere in eternity. Why, he hadn't been preaching about five minutes till that old fellow—something got a hold of him—he jumped up in the air and clicked his heels together, and hollered, “Whoopee!” He had about as much room as I got up here. He said, “You ain't got enough room for me to preach,” and away he went.

Well, I thought, If that'll do that to a man about eighty years old, what would it do to me? That part I want. That's what I want.

But, what got me was this. Now, we're talking on demons now. What got me, I watched two men. One sat at one side and one the other. And when the Spirit would fall, them men would raise up and speak in tongues and shout, and turn white around the mouth, and I thought, Oh, my! If I could only have that! See, how wonderful! Oh, I just love that. Well, I went out in the cornfield. And I told you my life story, you read it in the book. I slept all night, and I come back the next morning. So I thought I'd just test out. I have a way of doing things that nobody knows but God and I. So, I take up a parable and go to meet a man's spirit. You see it right here on the platform, see. And so then I got to talking to one of those men. I seen them; they set close together, and they'd just hold hands and dance and shout. I thought, Oh, my! That sounds real to me!

And I took a hold of one of his hands, and I said, “How do you do, sir?”

He said, “How do you do.” Very nice man, gentlemen-type fellow.

I said, “Are you a minister?”

He said, “No, sir, I'm just a lay member.”

And I got to carrying a little conversation with him so I could catch his spirit, see. He didn't know that; nobody knowed it. I never said nothing about it; years afterwards before I mentioned it. But, when I come to find out, it rang true just as perfect a Christian man; that man was absolutely a saint of God. I thought, Brother, that's fine.

But the strange part: When I got a hold of the other man, it was contrary. He was even living with a woman that wasn't his wife. That's right. And I seen it pull up to him in a vision. I thought, Oh, my! It can't be so. And the man.... I thought, Now, now, this spirit among them people is wrong; that's all there is to it.

So that night when I went to the meeting, and the blessings was falling, I would pray to God; and the Holy Spirit, the Angel of the Lord give witness that it was the Holy Ghost. And the same Spirit was falling on this man was falling on that man. And when the Spirit would fall, both of them would get up, and they'd both shout and scream and praise the Lord, and speak in tongues and dance. I said, “I just can't get it, Lord. I can't see it in the Bible where that could be right.” Now, I said, “Maybe I am deceived.” Now, here, I'm strictly fundamental in the Bible. It's got to be this, see. And I said, “Lord, You know my condition, and I've got to see it in Your Word. And I can't understand when the Holy Spirit's falling on this man, the Holy Spirit's fall on that man, and one of them is a saint and the other one's a hypocrite. And I know it is.” I know it without ... I could have took the man out and proved it to him, or called him out right there and told him about it.

Like I could that man sitting right here last night, was nothing but an impostor, if there ever was one sitting there. And I ought to have called it out, but he'd have raised up and started fussing, so I just let it go on, account of the meeting. But I knowed him. Yes, sir. There's one, two of them sitting right back there the other night, belongs to a certain church right here in the city. Real critics! I seen them. But, if you would, it just starts the trouble. I've done it many times. I just let them alone, see. It's all right. God knows; He's the Judge. Let them call me one time, and then you'll see something take place, you see. Let him.... Like the demon: I never called the demon out. He just come to me and challenged me. Then is when God went to work, see; that's right. You seen what taken place. All right. But I just let it go. Made the meeting hard, for that spirit was moving right in on me all the time, see. And so I just kept on.

But now, these men, I couldn't understand it. And it was two years later, or three, when I was up at Green's Mill, Indiana, here, the scout reservation, I was back in an old cave where I go to pray. And back there I said, “Lord, I can't understand what become of that group of people. The finest people I ever met in my life, and I can't understand how that that could be the wrong spirit, where it's the.... You know the integrity of my heart. You know how I love You and how I've served You. And the same Spirit that's here with me was on them people. And, here, it was on that guy there just the same.” So I couldn't understand it.

And the Lord come down in His mercy and showed me. Here's where it was. It has to be Scriptural, first. He said, “Pick up your Bible.” And I picked up my Bible. And I guess I held that Bible for ten minutes without anybody ... any more Word coming. I waited just a few moments. I heard Him say again, “Turn to Hebrews 6 and start reading.” And I did. And when it come down there where it said, “The rain cometh oft upon the earth to water it and prepare it, dress it for which it's ... but the thorns and thistles, which is nigh unto rejection, whose end is to be burned.” And I caught it right there.

I thought, There it is. Thanks be to God! There it is, see.

Now, Jesus said, “A sower went forth sowing seeds,” didn't He? Now, you're all Christians here. Everyone held up their hands, anyhow: Pentecostal, born-again Christians. All right. And He said, “A sower went forth sowing seeds, and while he slept (his death, between, see), and while he slept, an enemy come and sowed tares in that wheat field.” What is tares? Weeds, briars and things. Now, “And when the husbandman (the preacher) saw these tares growing, said, 'Let me go pull them up.' He said, 'No, no. You'll pull up the wheat also. Let them both grow together.'”

There's a wheat field out here. There's creepers, nettle balls, stink weed, everything else in it. Is that right? But, now, in there there's wheat. Now, the rain comes oft upon the earth, to water it. Now, what's the rain for? Not to water the nettle ball. Now watch and pay close attention. Not to water the creeper. The rain's sent for the wheat, but the nettle ball and the weed is just as thirsty as the wheat is. And the same rain that falls on the wheat, falls on the weed. And the little old weed will stand right straight up like that, and happy and rejoicing, just as much as the little wheat will stand up and stand himself up.

“But by their fruits ye shall know them.” There you are, see. Now, the same Holy Spirit can bless a hypocrite. That knocks some of you Armenians out, but that's the truth. That's the truth. Then call it holiness, which I believe in holiness, too. But the same Spirit, the rain falls on the just and the unjust, but by their fruits you shall know them.“

If I look out here and go to get wheat, I get wheat, but the weeds is all bound up. And they live on the same rain that fell for the wheat. And the rain was not sent for the weeds, it was sent for the wheat. But the rain being in the field ... the weeds being in the wheat field, got just as much benefit out of the rain as the rest of them did. And the same rain that made the wheat live, made the weed live.

All things in the natural types the spiritual, as we're teaching. There it is: demonology ... demons impersonating Christianity, yet with the blessing. That's not skim milk, brethren, if you can take it, see, see. All right. It's truth.

So, I'm not saved today because I can shout. I'm saved not because I feel like I'm saved. I'm saved because I met God's condition of this Bible. Jesus said, “He that heareth My words and believeth on Him that sent Me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life.” I believe that. That's right. And on them conditions I am saved, because God said so.

If he told me you're saved because somebody said, “A rushing mighty wind hit me in the face,” that's wonderful; but I want to know where that rushing mighty wind come from before it hit me in the face, see. Now, what kind of a life are you going to live after that rushing mighty wind hit you? See, see, it's by your fruit you're known. So, demons can work right amongst Christians. You believe that?

Look at Paul. Paul said....

Now here's where the Latter Day Rain.... If there's any of you here, forgive me if I'm saying anything against you. I wouldn't say no more against you than I would the Assemblies or any other, the Baptists or anybody else. It's truth is what's truth. Where you got off, was this: You're making prophets out of them men and things that's not prophets. Prophets are not laid on the hands and sent out. Prophets are born, see. In the Bible, there's a gift of prophecy. There's where your mistake was: between the gift of prophecy and a prophet. The gift....

“God, in sundry times and divers manners spoke to the fathers through the prophets, in this last days through His Son, Christ Jesus.” The body of Christ has nine spiritual gifts operating in it. And it might be on this woman tonight, prophecy, may never be the rest of her life. It may be on this woman the next night, may be on this man the next time, may be on that one back there the next time. That doesn't make her a prophet, doesn't make no one a prophet. It's a gift of prophecy in you.

And before that man or that prophecy can be given to the church, it has to be judged before two or three spiritual judges. Is that right? Now, Paul said, “You all may prophesy, one by one.” If something be revealed to this one, let that one hold his peace. Well, that would make the whole bunch prophets then, according to the teaching of today. No, Pentecostal church, we've got things all scrupled up. And that's the reason God can't come in till we get the thing straightened out and on the Bible. Right. You got to get the right path. How you going to build a house without looking at the blueprint, see? You got to start right.

Now, in there, a prophet.... You never seen anybody stand before Isaiah, Moses. One did stand, Korah, one day, and tried to dispute with him, and God said, “Separate yourself. I'm going to open up the earth.” A prophet is born. Gifts and calling without repentance. That's the foreordination of God, from the baby up. Everything was perfectly right along, exactly what he said was the truth and vindicated and brought out. It's the Word of God, comes to the prophet. But a gift of prophecy is in the church.

Now you said, “Well, the prophets are the Old Testament.” Oh, no! The New Testament had prophets.

Agabus was a New Testament prophet. Look at the spirit of prophecy falling down there and telling Paul about them. Here come Agabus down from Jerusalem, and found Paul and tied his girdle around him, and turned over and said, “Thus saith the Lord, the man that wore this will be bound in chains when he gets to Jerusalem.” Agabus, who stood up and told ... foretold what would take place, he was a prophet, not a man with the gift of prophecy.

And the gift of healing and all those gifts, my Pentecostal friends, you got it mixed up. The gifts are in the church, subject to any person that's in the church, anybody that's baptized into the body. “By one Spirit we're all baptized in.” And the Bible said....

“Well, I got the gift of healing.”

Well, the Bible said, “Confess your faults one to another and pray one for the other.” Every person pray one for the other. We're not a divided group; we're a collective, gathered group, see. Now, and there's how demons sometimes working.

Now watch what Paul said, “If one speaks with tongues and the other one interpret, and whatever he said, let it be judged first before the church can receive it.”

Now, it won't be a quoting of Scripture or something another like that. God don't repeat Himself. But it'll be a warning to the church. Then if good judges say, “Let's receive that. All right, that was of the Lord.” The second one says, “Let's receive it.” The mouth of two or three witnesses, let every word be established. Then the church receive it and go make ready for it. If that doesn't come to pass, what that said, then you've got an evil spirit among you. That's right. If it does come to pass, then thank God, the Spirit of God's among you, see. Now, that's where you have to watch and be careful. So, don't try to press. I couldn't make myself have brown eyes when I got blue, see. I have to be satisfied with blue eyes. Now, there's where demons work in the realm of spiritual people.

Now, we've got a deep something coming here, and I hope it's not too deep. Now, over in I Samuel 28, I want to read some Scripture here right at this time. I want you to listen closely. And I want to bring “demons,” show you how they work right in the church, and how Satan has a counterfeit for every real there is. Now, you can see, according to the Bible, that demons come among Christians and they impersonate.

And many times we have declared people to be Christians when they said, “I believe in Jesus Christ.” Why, the devils believe the same thing, and tremble. That's no sign you're saved. One of these nights I want to get on election, and then you'll see what salvation means, see. it's nothing you had to do with it in the first place or the last place, or nothing you can do about it. God saves a man, unconditionally. Boy, that sunk deep, didn't it? I just might as well get that out of your system while we're at it. All right.

Abraham was the beginning of our faith. Is that right? Abraham had the promise. And God called Abraham because he was a great man, I guess? No, sir. He come down out of Babylon, in the land of Chaldea, in the city of Ur, and God called him and made His covenant with him unconditionally. “I'm going to save you. And not only you, Abraham, but your seed,” unconditionally!

God made a covenant with man, and man breaks his covenant every time. Man never did keep his covenant with God. The law was never kept. They couldn't keep the law. Christ come and broke the law Himself. Because grace had already provided a saviour, Moses provided a way of escape, and then ... escape, rather; and then the people, after that, they still wanted something to do. Man's always trying to do something to save himself, when you can't do it. It's his nature. As soon as he found out he was naked, in the Garden of Eden, he made some fig leaf aprons. Is that right? But he found out they wouldn't work. Nothing a man can do can save yourself. God saved you unconditionally, all down through the age. And then when you're saved, you're saved.

Look at Abraham. There that fellow was, went over, and God give him the land of Palestine and told him not to leave there. Any Jew that leaves Palestine was backslid. God told him to stay there. If God tells you to do something another, and you don't do it, then you're backslid. Is that right? All right, a drought come on, to try Abraham's faith. And instead of Abraham staying there, no, he couldn't stay there, he run off, and took Sarah and went about three hundred miles (wish I had time to get on that) down to another land.

And when he got down there, and then he got this great king down there, Abimelech. He was a young fellow and he was looking for a sweetheart, so he found Abraham's wife, Sarah, and fell in love with her. And Abraham said, “Now, you tell him that you are my sister and I'm your brother.”

So that pleased Abimelech, so he said, “All right, we'll just take her over to the castle.” And I guess the women fixed her up, and he was going to marry her the next day.

And Abimelech was a good man, a righteous man. And that night while he was sleeping, the Lord appeared to him and said, “You're as good as a dead man.” He said, “The woman that you got out there to marry, is another man's wife.” Now watch! Another man's wife.

Why, he said, “Lord, You know the integrity of my heart,” a righteous, holy man. “You know the integrity of my heart. That man told me that was his sister. And didn't she tell me herself that that was 'my brother'?”

He said ... God said, “I knowed the integrity of your heart, and that's the reason I kept you from sinning against Me. But that's My prophet!” Hallelujah!

What was he? Backslid, and a little, lying shyster. Is that right? Oh, no, there ain't no little white lies, they're either black lies or they're not lies at all. The man sitting out there telling a pine-blank lie, saying that was his sister when it was his wife, beating around the bush, and backslid.

And here was a righteous man standing before God, and said, “Lord, You know my heart.”

“But I'll not hear your prayer, Abimelech, but take her back and let him pray for you. He's My prophet, I'll hear him.” A backslider, liar, but “That's My prophet.” That truth? That's the Bible.

Now, don't go plumb too far over here on the Calvinistic side, “once in grace, always in grace,” because you'll get in disgrace, see. Now, just a moment; we'll get time this week to bring that up and show you how level it is. But don't think just because you've done something wrong that you're gone forever. You're a child of God, you're born of the Spirit of God, you're sons and daughters of God, and the fruits will bear record of itself. There you are.

Now, here we are, sitting in the land. Now, I want to read here, the 6th verse.

And when Saul enquired of the LORD, the LORD answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by the Urim, nor by a prophet.

And then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman with a familiar spirit, that I may go to her, and enquire of her. (I could lay something to the rod right here: “Seek me a woman with a familiar spirit.”) And his servants said unto him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit in Endor.

And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went, and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night: and they said, I pray thee, divine unto me by thy familiar spirit, and bring me ... up, whom I shall name unto thee.

And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he has cut off all those that have familiar spirits, and ... wizards, out of the land: therefore ... layest thou a snare for my life, and cause me to die?

And Saul answered and sware to her by the LORD, saying, As the LORD liveth, there shall be no punishment happen unto thee....

Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee? And he said, Bring me up Samuel.

And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried with a loud voice: and the woman spake to Saul, saying, Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul.

And the king said unto her, Be not afraid: for what sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth.

And he said unto her, What form was he of? And she said, An old man cometh up; and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul ... (That was that prophet's mantle, of course, see.) perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself.

And Samuel said unto Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, and bring me up? And Saul answered, and said, I am sore distressed; because of the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me, and answereth me not, neither by prophets, neither by dreams: therefore I ... called unto thee, that thou would make known unto me what I shall do.

And then said Samuel, Wherefore ... dost thou ask ... me, seeing that the LORD has departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?

And the LORD hath done unto him, as he spake to me: for the LORD hath rent his kingdom out of thine hand, and has given it ... unto even ... David:

Now, many of you're familiar with this. Now we want to go right in, and God help us now, for a few moments, to get into this. Now watch. There was a man, Saul, who was once considered a prophet, for he prophesied with the prophets. Is that right, teachers? Now, here the man was backslidden. Is that right? But remember where Samuel said he would be, with him, at the next day. Prematurely gone, see. All right, if you won't mind God, God will take you off the earth.

Look in the Corinthian letter there, how Paul set those people in order. He said, “First, I thank God for you, that there's no such things among you,” and so forth, “and how that you come short of no spiritual gift.” Telling them what they was, positionally, in Christ. Then he begin to let the hammer down on them, tell them about their women preachers, and how they were doing, and how they were eating at the Lord's Table. And even one man living with his stepmother, and he said to this man in Christ, “Turn him over to the devil, for the destruction of the flesh, that the soul might be saved.” See, that's it, turn him over. The Bible said, “For this cause many are sick and weakly among you, and many are asleep (gone on prematurely),” because of sin. God taken you out of the way; a good sign you was a Christian, if you was taken.

So, now notice! In here, Saul was considered one of the prophets, or among the prophets, because he prophesied. And now he had backslid, because he disobeyed God, and his kingdom was rent out of his hands and placed into the hands of David, who God had anointed by Samuel, with the cruse of oil.

Notice. Then there was three ways that they had of finding out things from God: the first was the prophet, the second was a dream, and the third was the Urim of Thummim. And they neither would answer. Now, you know what a prophet is, you know what a spiritual dream is, and you know what the Urim of Thummim was. You know, the other day I asked a man about the Urim, and that man couldn't tell me what it was—the Urim of Thummim. Of course, it was God answering.

But, see, and the devil makes a counterfeit of every one of those. The wizard, the false prophet, and the crystal gazer. See, now, the Urim of Thummim hung on Aaron's breast here, and the Urim of Thummim covered over that stone. And they hung it in the temple. And when they wasn't sure, they'd go before God, in answer, and a light would flash on that Urim of Thummim, which, whether it was God's will, or not. Now, when the Urim of Thummim wouldn't answer.... Now, that was the direct answer from God.

Now, the Urim of Thummim of today, the fortuneteller took a crystal ball to pattern that—a false thing. God's in a trinity, God's powers is in a trinity; and the devil's in a trinity, and his powers is in trinity. I can prove it by the Bible. And that Urim of Thummim was only the crystal ball that the devil uses today; and the false prophet back here today, the one that we have now was the witch ... or, the fortuneteller out yonder took the place of the prophet, on the devil's side. See what I mean?

Now, then the Urim of Thummim today is this Bible. If somebody has give a prophecy or a dream, and it don't compare or echo with God's Bible, it's false; don't believe it.

A man come to me not long ago, from India, (where I'm just fixing to go), a fine little preacher. He said, “Brother Branham, I come over here.” Said, “A woman has the Holy Ghost.” And said, “She was just the sweetest, nicest woman.” He said.... (And she's been married four times, and was living with her fourth husband.)

And I said, “Well, how could that be, Lord?”

And said.... I went to him and (he) said, “Oh, glory to God!” Said, “Hallelujah, praise the Lord.” (Just one of that type, you know.) Said, “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord.” Said, “The Lord told me, 'Here I'm going to give you a dream.'” And said, “I dreamed that my wife, I seen her living in adultery. And she come back to me and said, 'Oh, will you forgive me, Victor? Will you forgive me?' Why, I said, 'Sure, I'll forgive you and take you back.'” He said, “Now, that's what I did.” Said, “See, I forgive.”

I said, “Victor, your dream was mighty lovely, but the devil give it to you.”

He said, “Why?”

I said, “It don't compare with God's Word. She's living in adultery. Absolutely. She can't live with four men. That's right. She leaves that and goes back to her first, she's worse off than she was in the beginning. She has to live single the rest of her life.” I said, “You know it. That don't compare with God's Word, so her dream was false.” I said, “It won't compare with this.”

And when a prophet had give a prophecy, and they spoke and wanted to see if that prophecy was true, they put it before the Urim of Thummim. And if the voice of God throwed the lights on the Urim of Thummim, then it was absolute the truth. And if a man gives an interpretation, gives a dream, gives something of the Bible, or something another, and it don't compare with God's Bible, it's false. There's the Urim of Thummim today. God's Word speaks, and that's direct the voice of God, like the Urim of Thummim was before the Bible was written. Amen! Hallelujah! I feel kind of religious right now. Don't take me a fanatic. If you do.... I know where I'm at. I'm not excited. That's right.

Here is the truth: God's Word! I don't care what kind of a dream you had or what kind of a prophecy you give, if it isn't God's Word, it's wrong—if it don't compare with that Word. That's what's the trouble today: one has a dream, one has a vision, one has a tongue, one has a revelation. It's got the whole thing so messed up and everything, you got denominations and broke up everything. You ought to bring it back to a final foundation; that's God's Word. That's true.

Churches will build upon one, say, “Oh, Jesus is coming on a white horse. I know, I seen Him in a vision.” They'll make a church of that kind. “Oh, hallelujah, He's coming on a cloud.” They make it in that kind. Break them up, and separate, and call one another “buzzard roost,” and “louse hangout,” and everything like that. Why, brother, it goes to show, in the first place, your heart's not right with God when you do that. Right. We are brothers. We must stick by one another. We need one another.

Now look. Saul had backslid, and he goes up. God had turned His face from him, and he went up and he inquired of the prophet. The prophet went and tried to prophesy, and God cut off, wouldn't give a vision. The prophet come out, said, “I can't.... He never told me nothing about you.”

Well, then he said, “Lord, give me a dream.” Night after night, no dream come. Then he goes into the Urim of Thummim, and he said, “O God! I've tried the prophets, I've tried dreams, now You help me. Will You do it?” Cut it off, no light flashed at all.

Then he resorted to a witch, low, degraded, and he went to her and crawled in there and disguised himself. And this witch goes out and calls up the spirit of Samuel.

I know what you're thinking. Many said that wasn't Samuel. But the Bible said it was Samuel, and it was Samuel. Strange how He sets that, isn't it? But that was Samuel, the Bible said it was.

And that witch could call him up, and she called up Samuel. And Samuel was somewhere else, but was conscious of what was going on, and was still standing with his prophet's mantle on him. So, brother, when you die, you're not dead; you're living somewhere, somewhere else.

Let me stop just a minute to get this demonology down just a little bit. She was a demon, but she was in close contact with the spirit world. Now, today, there's many spiritualists that know really more about the spiritual world than people who profess themselves to be Christians, yet she's a demon. In the Bible times it was the same thing.

When Jesus was here on earth, there was them professors and scholars and teachers, some of the best there was out of the better seminaries than we could produce today; and holy, renowned man, they had to be. If a Levite was found, he had to be found blameless, righteous in every way. And yet that man knowed no more about God than a rabbit knowed about snowshoes. When Jesus come, he failed to recognize Him, and he called Jesus a devil. He said, “He's Beelzebub, the prince of the devils.” Is that right?

And here come the lowest type of a demon, that had a man bound out yonder in the tombs, and everything, and they called out; the devil himself said, “We know who You are. You're the Son of God, the Holy One.” Is that right? Witches and wizards, devils recognized Him the Son of God; while educated, theological seminary preachers recognized Him to be Beelzebub. Which was right, the devil or the preacher? The devil was. And, brother, it hasn't changed too much today. They don't recognize the power of God.

No matter how much teaching you got, you can drum that into you. God's not in big words; God's in an honest heart. You might sing or speak big words, like I don't know what, that doesn't bring you closer to God. You can stand and practice how to repeat your sermon and say these things, that don't get you closer to God. You can learn dictionaries till you sleep with one, and it still wouldn't get you closer to God.

A humble, submitted heart, in the simplicity, is what brings you to God. And that's true. Amen! A humble heart God loves. Now, no matter if you don't know your ABC's, that don't make any difference. Just a humble heart! God dwells in a humble heart; not in education, it's not in schools, not in theology, seminaries, not in all these other different places; not in big words, or not in classical places. God dwells in human hearts. And the lower you can break yourself down, the more simple you can become, greater in the sight of God.

Let me give you something. I see your fields are full of wheat out here. A full head of wheat always bows. A little old sprig sticks up there, and flopping around like it knows everything; it ain't got it in the head. That's the way with a lot of these guys that think they got a whole lot in their head, and nothing in their heart. Where a holy head will bow to the power, will recognize Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and believe His works.

“And He's the same, yesterday....” Oh, they recognize Him, sure, in a historical standpoint. But it's not a history thing. People stand up and say, “Oh, I believe Pentecost when they had the great outpouring and things like that,” and paint a fire. A freezing man can't be warmed by a painted fire; painted fire don't warm. That's what they was. What is it today, if He's the same yesterday, today and forever? That's painted fire. Some fellow freezing to death, say, “Look at that big fire they had.” Why, that don't get you warm.

What they did at Pentecost, what they had in the early Testament, we got today! And as soon as God can get the thing ironed out, the church set together, the Rapture will come. But we can't even get faith for divine healing, let alone the rapture, because we're all twisted up, one this way and one that way, and “Doctor So-and-so said it was this.” “Well, my preacher said He was this.”

A while ago a woman said, “He's just a faker.” Said, “My priest told me so.” I wish her priest would come down here once, we'd see who was the faker. We'll see who's a faker. Come try it.

Here not long ago, in Harlingen, Texas, we was having a service there, and they had big signs all out over the cars that night when I went over there, said that the FBI was there to expose me as a faker. So, a little girl had been healed up in Texas there somewhere; she was way up, I guess, around a thousand miles, way up around Panhandle; this was way down in Harlingen, down on the border. Brother Baxter come, said, “Brother Branham,” said, “you never seen such a mess down there, about four or five thousand people.” And said, “And then, all around, the FBI is going to catch you on the platform tonight, and expose you.”

I said, “Well, I'm sure glad of that.”

Said, “You know that little girl that was healed the other night?”

I was coming home, going in to my room, and I heard something crying, and I looked around. I thought maybe it was someone who had been attacked. It was a girl. And I looked back, I said ... and I went back, I said, “What's the matter, Madam?” And it was two little girls standing there, about seventeen, eighteen years old, apiece, their arms around one another, crying.

Said, “Brother Branham!” (I knowed then they knowed me.) Said, “I brought her all the way down here.” Said, “She has to go to the insane institution.” And the little girl was in my meeting up at Lubbock, Texas. And said, “I knowed if I'd ever get her down here and you'd have prayer for her, I believe God would heal her.”

Well, I thought, What faith! And I said, “Well, now, sister, can you get her....” And just then I said, “You come down here in a yellow roadster, didn't you?”

Said, “Yes.”

And I said, “Your mother is an invalid.”

She said, “That's right.”

And I said, “You belong to the Methodist church.”

She said, “That's exactly the truth.”

And I said, “On the road down, you almost turned over. You and this girl was laughing when you come around where it was half concrete and half asphalt, and you was turning a bend.”

She said, “Brother Branham, that's the truth.”

I said, “And 'Thus saith the Lord,' the girl's healed.”

The next day she was burning the town up, telling everybody, going around about it. Of course, they didn't know her there, whether she was ever in that condition or not. And then that day, Brother Baxter said, “Brother Branham,” said, “them girls are down there packing their suitcase.” And this is one thing that he didn't know that I knowed. Our finances had went plumb down. I never let him talk about it. But one of them girls had put nine hundred dollars in that offering the night before that, and put that finance on the top. Now, he didn't ... he don't know it to this day, but I knowed it, see. God told me it would be all right.

Brother Baxter said, “Brother Branham,” said, “you better let me make a little pull.” Said, “They've had some of these here divine healers down here that's just pulled the people.”

I said, “Nothing. No, sir, you won't do it. Brother Baxter, whenever you make pulls for money like that, that's the time you and I just shake one another's hands as brothers, I'll go alone, see.” I said, “You don't do that.” I said, “God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and everything belongs to Him. I belong to Him. He'll take care of me.”

He said, “All right.”

And that very night he said, “Brother Branham, look here. Somebody.... Look here! Here's an envelope in here, no name on it, and it's got nine one hundred dollar bills in it. Just exactly what we need to catch up.”

I said, “Brother Baxter.”

He said, “Forgive me.”

So then, I knowed it was that girl. So then, the next day, Brother Baxter said, “Brother Branham, they're down there packing up their clothes, crying.”

I said, “What's the matter?”

Said, “You better go down and see them.”

I went down to the room where they was at, what room they were in. I went down there and knocked on the door. I heard them crying. I knocked on the door, and the girl come to the door. She said, “Oh, Brother Branham, I'm so sorry.” She said, “I've caused you all this trouble.”

I said, “Trouble? What's the matter, sister?”

She said, “Oh, I've got the FBI after you.”

And I said, “Oh, is that right?”

Said, “Yes, I guess I testified too much around town today, and everything.”

I said, “No.”

And she said, “Brother Branham, the FBI is over there, is over there, going to expose you tonight.”

I said, “Well, if I'm doing anything wrong, I need to be exposed.” See? I said, “Sure. If preaching the Gospel needs to be exposed, well, let's do it, see.” I said, “I live by this Bible, and what this Bible don't say.... This is my defense right here, see.” And I said, and....

She said, “Well,” said, “I'm just sorry that I did what I did.”

I said, “You never done nothing, sister.”

She said, “Well, aren't you afraid to go over there?”

And I said, “No.”

She said, “Well, the FBI's there.”

I said, “Well, I had them come in my meeting before and they got saved.” I said, “Mr. Al Ferrar.”

Captain Al Ferrar, many of you know of his conversion up there in Tacoma, Washington, was saved right down in a shooting gallery. Come in the meeting, he said, “I followed this man for two years. And I heard about the finances, and I've watched it, and went through everywhere.” And said, “It's the truth. You're not listening to a fanatic tonight; you're listening to the truth.”

Said, “One of the men on the police force, that I had a doctor look at his child and sent him through the prayer line,” and said, “the child was told just exactly what was wrong with it, and what had happened to it; and said, 'In eight days it'll be back to school.'”—a polio case. And said, “On the eighth day the baby went back to school.” Said, “I've followed him for two years,” before ten thousand people. There it's all.... There's a picture of it in the Seattle meeting, in your book. He said, “I want you all to know that you're not listening to some religious quack; you're listening to the truth.” Captain Al Ferrar.

And the next day I led him to God, and he received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, in a shooting gallery, down in a big place out there.

I said, “Maybe this guy will do the same.”

So, she said, “Are you afraid to go over there?”

I said, “Afraid? Why, certainly not! Certainly not. Why should I be afraid when God sent me to do it? He's the One to fight the battle, not me.” So I said, “Now, I want all of you to stay away.”

And so we went over to the meeting that night; the place was packed out. And the custodian there come out, said, “Reverend Branham, I hired ten Mexican children.” Said, “Look at here, 'Reverend Branham to be exposed tonight by FBI, a fanatic religionist,'” or something another like that. And said, “It's on every one of them cars.” Said, “I hired ten little Mexican children, go to pull them all off and put them over here.” Said, “Oh, I feel like if I could get a hold of that guy!”

I said, “Don't worry. God will get a hold of him, see.” I said, “Just let him alone.”

So, I come on over. And that night when we come in (I never forget it), walked into the room. Brother Baxter sang “Only Believe.” He said, “Now, Brother Branham says tonight for us to leave the building.” Said, “I'm going back in the back end and sit down.” He said, “They are fixing to expose him tonight here on the platform.” And he said, “I've seen him in many hard battles and seen God take his place.” Said, “I'm just going back to sit down.”

I walked up. I said, “I was just reading a little article here that where I was to be exposed tonight at the platform here.” I said, “I want the FBI agents now to come forward and expose me up here on the platform.” I said, “I'm standing here in defense of the Gospel. I want you to come and expose me.” I waited. I said, “Maybe they're not here yet.” I knowed where I was at. He had already showed me in my room up yonder, what was going to happen, before I left, you see. And I said ... I said, “Maybe I'll wait just a little bit. May we sing a hymn?” And somebody come up and sang a solo.

I said, “Mr. FBI agent, are you inside or out? I'm waiting to be exposed. Would you come forward?” Nobody come. I kept wondering where it was at. The Lord told me what it was. It was two backslidden preachers, and I was watching. I seen a black shadow hanging in the corner. I knew where it was at. I looked over there, and it moved right up and went up into the gallery like this. A man with a blue suit on, one with a gray.

I said, “Friends, there's no FBI. What's the FBI got to do with preaching the Bible?” I said, “Certainly not. It wasn't two FBI agents to expose me. But here's the exposure: There they sit right up there, them two preachers right there.” And they got down. I said, “Don't get down like that!” And there was two of them big Texans was going to go up there and grab a hold of them. I said, “No, brethren, this is not a flesh and blood affair; just sit still. God will take care of that.”

I said, “Now, brethren, look, while you're up there, look this way.” I said, “You said that I was Simon the sorcerer, under witchcraft, I was bewitching the people.” I said, “If I am Simon the sorcerer, then you are the men of God. Now you come down on this platform; and if I be Simon the sorcerer, let God strike me dead. And if I be God's prophet, you come down and let God strike you dead. Now we'll see who's the right and wrong. Now you come on down. We'll sing a hymn.”

Out of that building they went, and we never seen them since, see. I said, “Come on. If I'm Simon the sorcerer, let God strike me dead. And if I'm God's prophet, then God will strike you dead when you come to this platform. If I am truth before God, God will let you die on this platform.” They knowed better. That's right. They knowed better. They had heard from other places. That's right. So don't never think but what God's still God, He answers.

Now, this witch of Endor, she called up the spirit of Samuel, and Saul talked to Samuel. Now, you might wonder how that could be done. It cannot be done today, (No, sir.) because the blood of bulls and goats was only awaiting for the time of fulfillment. When a man died in them days.... Preachers, back me up if you think it's right. When a man died, he died under the atonement of an animal, and his soul went into Paradise. And there he stayed until that ... to the day of redemption. And his soul was in there.

Let me draw you a little picture here. How many read my article ... or, the article they wrote about me in Reader's Digest here, about in October ... November's issue? All right. Did you notice how that was? Did you notice about two or three weeks before that, this great famous medium here that's been tried since way long time ago, Miss Pepper. Has everybody ever read that, Miss Pepper's article in the Reader's Digest? Isn't it strange how them two spirits....

How much time have I got? Not but just a little. Twenty after, just I have to hurry. I know you got.... Look, excuse me for a minute.

You know, there's false.... There's a true and a false of everything. If I give you a dollar, and I say, “Is this a good dollar?” And you'd look at it, it'd have to look pretty much like a real dollar or you wouldn't believe it. Is that right? So it'll have to be really a good imitation.

And if Jesus said the two spirits in the last days would be so close till it would deceive the very elect if possible—religious people. Now remember. Now, there ain't nothing out there in them old cold formal outside, they have just a form of godliness, you see. But these two spirits are real spirits, it'd be so close till it'd deceive the very elect, how they was working side by side in the last days. Did Jesus say that? He did.

Now watch, friends, we will draw you a little picture I want you to look at here just a minute. And give me your undivided attention, because I'm going to give you a parable, and then you'll see it.

Now, in the Reader's Digest, it wrote up there, I was standing out there. We had twenty-seven hundred people waiting to get prayed for, standing out there. You read the article. And a man come down from Canada, and he had a little boy that had been to Mayo's and John Hopkins, a serious brain disease that drawed his little hands in like this, and drawed his legs up under it; and they said, “There's not even an operation or nothing can be done.”

So he took it back to Canada. He said, “I'm not whipped yet.” You get November's issue of the Reader's Digest, and it's called “The Miracle Of Donny Morton.” And then it said that, in there, that the man said, “I'm not whipped yet, because I know a faith-healer named William Branham that caused two of my friends who was deaf and dumb to speak and hear.”

And they called to try to find where I was at in America yet. And I was over in Costa Mesa, California. And if.... The article, when you read it, get ready to cry. It just break your heart, how he went through snowdrifts and everything else with that baby. He said, “Be careful, Donny.” Said, “Now, we're not defeated.” And the little boy couldn't even smile, hardly, he was so afflicted. Said, “We're not defeated; we're going to ask God. We'll go to God's prophet and ask him.”

So then they come through the snow. And they finally got down there, and the mother was coming with them, and they didn't have money enough to go by airplane, so they sent the mother back, and the boy and daddy had to come on a bus, and how they rode all the way from Winnipeg, Canada, to Costa Mesa, California. And they got in there, broke, and the father tells about had to change the little diapers on this little boy about seven or eight years old, just perfectly helpless. And how he couldn't get a chance to eat nor nothing, and said his little boy could just hear him talk and he could tell the way his eyes looked that he was ... he was trying to smile, you know, and know that he'd tell him different sights he would see over in America.

And when they got in there to California, they said to the traveler's aid, what he come to see. He said, “Come to see a divine what?” And a big question mark.

Of course, you could imagine what America said about it, you see. See, that's us, see. We're so smart! We know everything, you know, and there's no need tell nothing. We got it all wrote down, you see.

So then, so, “A divine what? Come all the way from Winnipeg, Canada?” Why, they thought that was horrible.

Anyhow, the newspaper catched a car and sent him over there. And he said, when they got to the line where it was at, said twenty-seven hundred people was waiting to be prayed for. But said, when they seen that deformed, little looking boy, and that poor daddy with his cap on, his ragged coat, said everybody just stepped aside and give him his place. When he hit the platform....

It's against the rules to stop a prayer card. Somebody must come to the meeting and get your own card. If you're ever caught in the line, swapping prayer cards on somebody else, the prayer card's dishonored, see. Because you must come hear the instructions and know how to receive it. It's up to you. You can't get it for someone else. You have to come get it yourself, so you hear. Some big person said, “Well, I don't believe much in this thing, but maybe if he will heal me I....” You see, and then that causes a fuss at the platform, so they just cull that thing out before it gets there.

So when the boy started ... or, the father started on the platform ahead of the people, Billy asked him for his prayer card. He didn't have any. Said, “Then I'm sorry, sir.” Said, “You'll have to wait.”

He said, “All right.” Said, “I'll wait.” Said, “I'll just take my turn like the others, then.” Said, “I didn't know I had to do this.”

And so I was talking to someone, I happened to hear it. I seen that father go away, and I said, “What was the matter?”

He said, “He didn't have a prayer card.”

And Something said to me, “Bring him back.”

So I said, “Bring him here.” And the father come up, and the tears running down his face needing shaving. And he walked up. And here's the Reader's Digest said: I asked no questions, but looked right straight in the face of the baby, told the baby where it was from, it had been to Mayo's Clinic, and all about what was the matter with it, how sick it had been, and everything.

And so the father started crying, and started to leave. And said he started off the platform, and he turned around, he said, “That's right, sir.” He said, “But will my baby ever live?”

I said, “That I can't say.” I said, “Just a moment.” I seen a vision appear. I said, “You won't want to believe this because Mayo's and Hopkins both said that operation couldn't be performed on that brain, but I tell you what you do. You, tomorrow, you just go ahead with this baby. Within the next three days you're going to meet a black-headed woman on the street, and that woman's going to ask you what's the matter with that baby. And then she's going to tell you of some little country doctor out here that can perform that operation, and you won't want to believe it, because that Mayo's turned it down and said it was impossible to be done. But that's the only chance your baby has, through the power of God, the mercy of God and that operation. Now, if you believe me to be His prophet, go do as I tell you.” Like putting the figs on Hezekiah, and so forth.

He said ... he turned around and said, “Thank you.” Walked off.

Two days or more had passed, and he was down on the street one day, and a lady walked up, said, “What's the matter with your baby?”

Said, “It's got a brain disease.” And he was going on talking like that. And, well, they thought it was awful bad, you know.

So he said just in a few minutes something taken place. She said, “Sir, I know of someone who can do that operation.”

He said, “Lady, look, Mayo Brothers give it up and said it can't be done.” Said, “A man up here was praying for it, named Brother Branham.” Said, “He's made a prayer for the baby.” He said, “Wait a minute! Black-headed, wearing a gray coat.” And said, “That's her.” Said, “Where is that doctor?” And he told her. Took him up there and the doctor performed the operation, the baby got well.

Now, that come through the Reader's Digest, you see. And Mayo Brothers called me in on an interview for that. Said, “Reverend Branham, what did you do to the baby?”

I said, “Nothing, I never touched it. I only told what God told me to tell it. The man obeyed it.”

Now, the funny thing about it, about two weeks after that ... or, two weeks before that, or three, in the Reader's Digest—maybe a month ahead—Miss Pepper's article come through. Now, she's a genuine witch, or a medium. Now, there's a real one, and there's somebody impersonating. They've had that woman since 1897. She's over a hundred years old now, in New York, both deaf as a post. The Reader's Digest.... I think it come along about two months or a month before mine, you can find it, the early fall.

Mr. Baxter had it here the other day. If I'd have thought of it, I'd have had him ... I knowed I was going to say this, I'd have had it with it. And I can get it for you. And it give about twelve or fourteen pages. She was just an ordinary housewife. And she fell into a trance one day, while in suffering, and she begin to speak to the dead. And they've had that woman all over the world, everywhere. They took her to England. Changed her clothes even, many times, and see if there was slip-ups and things, and got over there and disguised someone with a mask on their face, a Greek, and played out like he was an Englishman. And she told him all about it. And he wanted to call one of his dead partners.

Now, the only thing ... all over the world, and here's the Reader's Digest said here a few nights ago ... or, a few months ago, one of them things was exposed. A man was supposed to kiss the ghostly hand of his mother, and the next day it was proved in police court that he only kissed a piece of cheesecloth. Lots of people impersonating a medium. They're only these little old readers sitting out on the side of the street, which are not mediums in the beginning. They're nothing but bogus impersonators. But there is a real medium.

And we religious people, we've got a lot of impersonators on both sides. Now, hold still for a few minutes.

Now notice. That Miss Pepper is a real medium. And the magazine said, “Here's one thing that can be assured, that when a man dies he isn't dead, he's living somewhere, because that woman calls their spirit back and talks to the people.”

“Now, what does she do, Brother Branham? Do you believe it?” Yes, sir. The Bible says so, that's the reason I believe it. And she is of the devil. Spiritualism is the devil's trick. Now notice. Now, watch them....

And then you ought to've seen the letters fly on to me then when my article followed hers. Isn't it strange that just before the end of time God spoke these things, and the Reader's Digest is published in every language under heaven, see. Notice. Isn't it strange they followed one another?

Now, here come letters in, said, “Brother Branham, that proves you're nothing but a medium.” Said, “That proves it. Look at here, you told that woman where she going to find.... Look at this woman.”

I said, “Wait a minute.” I got an official letter out (pardon me) to send to the people. I said, “How little you preachers know.” I said, “Instead of baptizing your body, you need your brains baptized.” That's right. “You don't stop to think of things. You don't try to consider it.”

That's the same way they did in the other day. They seen Jesus, they knowed He knowed the secrets of their hearts, He knowed what they was doing like that. And they said, “He's the chief of the devils, He's a Beelzebub, the best fortuneteller in the world.” They didn't stop to try to figure it out, to see that was the Son of God. They wasn't spiritual enough to know it. That's it. They read over the thing. Sure, Jesus was supposed to come in Jerusalem, riding on a mule, and so forth, but they looked at the second coming.

And the same thing today! They're looking over the top of the real thing. Hallelujah! That's right. I know that God's here this afternoon, and I know I'm taking a lot of your time, but you got to see this, friends. If I never see you again, you got to know what demons are, you've got to know what truth and error is. And it's so close, you got to separate the thing.

Now remember, it ain't going to be out there, something way over on this side like the Pharisees, or something way back on that side. It's right up here in the door, right near it. Watch it. Now if I took....

Let's take them two cases. If I took and give you the dollar.... Now, if I give you a bogus dollar.... We'll use a parable so you can see it. The first thing that you would do, if you're a smart man, if you picked up a dollar and looked at it, the first thing, you'll feel it and see what it's made out of. Is that right? You'll look at what it's made out of. You'll look at its worthiness. A real dollar is not made out of paper; it's part paper and silk, you see. And the first thing, you'll have to look at the value of it. That's the first indication.

And now, let's take her over on this side; and take the Lord over on this side, that's dealing with us.

Now look, the first thing you have to notice, everything.... Watch your article. In the fifty-some-odd years of her fortune telling, and calling up the spirits of the dead, she hasn't one time mentioned God, Christ, divine healing, deliverance, judgment or nothing. There's nothing but frolic and folly in it.

But over on this side it's constantly God, judgment, coming of Jesus, divine healing, power of God, deliverance. Look at the value of it. You don't see fortunetellers and witches out preaching the Gospel. What's the matter with people? My!

Notice!

And the real thing to do, if you want to find out whether it's a real dollar or not, if it looks so much like it, take the numbers off of it and send it back to the mint. And if there's numbers there that correspond with that, there's a silver dollar waiting for it. Is that right?

Well, then, brother, take what she did and take it back to the Bible, you'll find it's the witch of Endor's.

You take what's here, you'll find it back, it's on the book here in the Mint, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Certainly, His same works! He didn't go and folly and nonsense with people. It was for some good, to help somebody, to lead them to God. Amen! I'm not ”amening“ myself, but amen means ”so be it.“ And I believe it. I know it's the truth.

Now, notice. Here you are. Now, quickly now, because I don't want to keep you no longer.

Here, let's give a little picture here, a little mental picture. Here's a stream right through here, right down through this way, coming down through life. Now, watch as it channels. Give me your undivided attention now, so you won't miss this. Right down like this. Now, in this little channel here dwells mortal beings, you and I. Now, in there, let's look what it is. It's a mass of folly and everything else, but once in a while you'll see a light. You see blackness and streaks, that's gaiety and carrying-on, devils getting the people. Oh, they dress fine, my, and highly cultured as they can be, polished scholars, but still the devil. But there's borned-again sitting in there.

Now, these people in this channel is influenced from two different sides. Now, on this side going this way, there's a trinity. And on this side going this way, there's a trinity.

Now, the first place, on this side, is souls of the unjust; when a man dies he goes into a place waiting judgment. Jesus went and preached to them souls that were in prison there. The next is demons. The next is the devil and hell. Going up, the first now, them in there is ghosts, spirits of dead men that never repented. They're waiting for the judgment. The only thing they know is folly and what they did.

Now, up here, these Christians are influenced from above. This is parable. Up here is another Ghost, the Holy Ghost, the Ghost of a Man Christ Jesus. The Holy Ghost ... the Holy Ghost influences His church in this realm of mortal.

The devil, by these spirits, influence men. Now, look. The next is angels. The next is God. Now, every mortal here is influenced by one of these worlds. You see what I mean?

Now, what that woman done, she broke into that realm, and she's speaking to those demon-possessed men who were beginning.... The spirits of those fallen angels that repented not back there in the beginning, and allowed their beings to be possessed of them, and they're waiting for judgment.

And these over here are influenced and borned again by the Spirit of God. And the devil has his prophets, and God has His. See what I mean? It's influence, and there we go. Stop to separate it. Jesus, when He was here on earth...

Now, today He could not break into that realm and get a righteous man out of that realm. He couldn't do it. Those righteous men are not in there where they used to be in Paradise. No, sir. Paradise was done away with when the blood of Jesus took it away. Looky here. My!

If I could think of how that Jesus, when He died, He went and preached to the souls that were in prison. He died a sinner, knowing no sin, yet our sin was on Him. And God, for His sins, sent Him to hell. The Bible said He went and preached to the souls....

Some people say, “Brother Branham, I can't understand it.” Said, “Jesus rose on the third day. He died Friday afternoon and rose up on Sunday morning, why, He was only dead one day.”

He said, “Within that time.” For He had one Scripture in the Bible that he could stand on. For David—a man that backslid later, but he was saved, but a prophet—under the inspiration of God said, “I will not leave His soul in hell, neither will I suffer My Holy One to see corruption.” And he knowed three days and nights that that body would set in corruption, and God had done said to the prophet, “He will not see corruption.” So....

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Hallelujah! He took God's Word. He defeated Satan every time on it. He defeated death on the Word of God. Hallelujah! He defeated death. And when they killed Him, and He died a sinner, my sins and your sins upon Him, He went down, I can see Him knock at that door there.

And them lost souls come out and said, “Well, Who are You?”

He said, “Why didn't you listen to Enoch? Why didn't you listen to those other prophets that preached?” They was condemned. “I'm the Son of God that once lived. My blood's been shed. I come to tell you, I fulfilled what the prophets said I'd do.” Right on down past the demons, right into hell, taking the keys of death and hell away from the devil, hung them on His side, started back up. Hallelujah!

Getting early in the morning. Hallelujah! Let's draw a little picture here. Early in the morning, there's another group laying over here in Paradise. Not there now.

Now, you good Catholic friends that believe in the intercession of saints, if you're talking to a saint in your church, that man is a sinner, he's in hell, or waiting yonder for his judgment. And if he was a saint, he's in the glory of God and can't come back. That's right. I can prove that. The blood of bulls wouldn't take away sin, but the blood of Jesus divorced sins.

I can see Jesus go up to there where ... Paradise. There's old Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and them in there—Samuel and all the rest of them in there. I can hear Him knock at the door. Amen!. Oh, I love this. It gets me right ... feel kind of religious now. I can see Him look over there, and hear him say, “Who is out there? Who is it there?” He said, “This is Abraham talking. Who is it?”

“I'm the seed of Abraham.” Amen. I can see Abraham come to the door and open up the door. He said, “I'm the seed of Abraham.”

Daniel said, “Look at there! There's the stone that I saw hewed out of the mountain.”

I can hear the people say, “There He is! I've seen Him, like dust under His feet, the clouds moving, when the rams ... clapped their hands, the leaves, and they all shouted.” Oh, I can see the different ones there in Paradise, waiting for Him.

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I can hear Him say, “Come on! It's breaking daylight over in Jerusalem; you got to go out of here. We're going up, because you've trusted in the blood of the bulls and goats, waiting for the time that My blood.... But My blood's been shed up there on Calvary. I am the incarnate Son of God. All sin-debts are paid. We're on the road out!” Hallelujah! Glory to God!

I can see Abraham grab Sarah by the arm, and here they come, right out! In Matthew 27. When he came out, I can hear him make a little stop around in Jerusalem there. And the first thing you know, I can see Caiaphas and them standing on the street, saying, “They tell me that guy rose. Say, who is that guy going there? That young fellow, that young girl?”

Not old no more, that was Abraham and Sarah. And they vanished. They looked, “Somebody's watching us.” They could have vanished just like He went through the wall, the same kind of a body. Hallelujah! That's right. Here's all the prophets and them walking around, looking around the city.

And Jesus led right on up in, or up over the stars, moon, clouds, and led captivity captive, give gifts unto man. Jesus sits today at the right hand of the Father, climbed up there, sat down, till all His foes be made His footstool.

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And today, my dear Christian friends, demons are working on every hand. And God's Spirit's moving right out, on the other hand, to counteract it every time. Hallelujah! There you are. Newspapers and digests and everything else is declaring it, they're watching it, they can't see what it is. What is it? It's the foreshadow of the great showdown that's coming pretty soon between God and Devil. Get on God's side and be right in your heart. Amen.

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Here not long ago I was up at Toledo, Ohio, having a meeting. (I'm going to close.)

You see what I mean about demons? They are working. They are very religious, just as religious.... Oh, they go to church every Sunday, repeat the Apostles' Creed, and sing the Doxology. Oh, my, just as religious as they can be. “Brother Branham, you mean that's the truth?”

That's the kind of a spirit that hung Jesus Christ to the cross. And Jesus said, “You're of your father, the devil.”

Now, some of them said, “Oh, Russia's the antichrist.” Never! Russia's not the antichrist. The antichrist's going to be so religious that it'll fool the very elect if possible. Remember, God takes His man, but never His spirit; the devil takes his man, but never his spirit. Now, there they are; suit yourself. I'm only responsible for truth.

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Demons working! Yesterday I had them in a physical realm; today I'm showing you in the spiritual realm, where they are in the religious realm, where they are out yonder, called cancer, and they call this, that and the other. But I've proved to you by the Bible, they're devils! Now, over here today, here they are again in the religious realms, very religious, very pious.

If you'll begin, brother, and think. Cain, the very beginning of it, was a very religious man. Esau was a very religious man. Judas was a very religious man. It's religion. It ain't the outside world; it's right in the ranks. Watch that: demonology! Maybe a little later on sometime I can get to it a little more; we're getting late.

Condemn no one. Love everybody. If you can't love from your heart, then Christ is not with you.

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At Toledo, Ohio, I went into a little restaurant. I'd been eating at a place, a little Dunkard place, lovely little place. They were so nice. That afternoon they had closed up, to go to Sunday school. And, when they did, I had to go across the street to a worldly little old place, and I walked in there. And I know it's illegal to gamble in Ohio, and here stood a State Police with his arm around a girl, his hand hanging here on her bosom, playing a slot machine. The law of our states and nation, all gone. Pitiful!

I trust on Christ the Solid Rock, I stand, all other grounds is sinking sand. Nothing else left. That's right.

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I looked back there, and there was a beautiful young lady, probably in her teens—nineteen, eighteen, nineteen years old. And what they were doing, them boys back there around a table, it was horrible. I sat down there. And now to my surprise, sitting right here where a lady come over, said, “Will you have a chair?”

I said, “Thank you, I wanted breakfast.”

And sitting in a chair, here, sat an elderly lady, as old as my mother, fifty-five, fifty-eight years old. She had on a little pair of those little ungodly clothes they wear.

They claim it's cool. Science says, “You're crazy.” Certainly, it's not, you just want to show your naked self. It's a shame, a disgrace. A lady won't put them on. A woman will, but a lady won't.

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And then, so then, there she was, sitting there. Her poor flesh was flabby. She had that kind of an orchid-looking manicure, or what you call it, on her lips. And a little bitty haircut like a man, and fuzzed all up; what the Bible said, which was a disgrace. And a woman, that a man....

The Bible claims, if a woman cuts her hair a man's got a right to put her away in divorcement, because she's not honest with him. We have to get down and preach the Bible here some of these days. Said if she bobs her hair, she dishonors her husband. If she's dishonorable, she ought to be put away. You can't marry another one, but you can put her away. Whew! Boy, that ... that's going hard; I can feel it. But that's the truth.

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Oh, it used to be we had it in the Holy Ghost realms, but we let down the bars. Old brother used to say, “We let down the bars, we let down the bars, we compromise with sin. We let down the bars and the sheep got out, but how did the goats get in?” You let down the bars; that's what was the matter. You let down the bars, the world and the church mixed together. Just like the Moabs and so forth, and Balaam, how he married among them; that's just exactly the same thing today. And the church is all polluted, and the Pentecostal age is the Laodicean age, which gets lukewarm, and spurted out of God's mouth. And, out of the whole group, God calls His remnant, takes her home. That's exactly right; that's exactly through the resurrection.

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And there she was, sitting there, lip manicure all over her face, and it was all like that. And she had this here black stuff over her eyes, and she was sweating and it was running down. And the poor old thing might have had great-grandchildren. And she was sitting there with two old men, and one of them with a big old scarf around his neck, and it was June, sitting there. And he got up, and was kind of drinking, and she was drinking, too, and she was looking around.

I thought, O God! God, why don't You just wipe the thing off of the map? Why don't...? Does my little Sharon ... my little baby, my little Sarah and my little Rebekah have to be raised up in that generation, to come to face such stuff as that? I thought, Look out here in these parks and things, and what goes on. I thought, O God! Oh, I'm glad You took Sharon if it was Your will. Does my little Rebekah and little Sarah have to be raised up under such stuff as that? And them people call them ... sing in the choir and everything. And I thought, Isn't that a shame? I thought, God, how can Your Holy righteousness stand it? Looked like that Your righteous indignation would fly out there and blow this place up.

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And I heard the Angel of the Lord, said, “Come aside.” I walked over there. And when He got through with me, I felt like a different person. “What are you condemning her for?”

I said, “Look at that, the way she is.” And here's what He....

I saw a vision. I saw a world like this, around, another world. But this world here, it had a rainbow around it, and that was the blood of Christ that protects God's wrath. He couldn't look upon that; He'd destroy the thing right now, because He said, “The day you eat thereof, that day you die.” So He'd do it.

Then I thought like this. I seen myself. Although I didn't do that, but I was a sinner, anyhow. And then the blood of Jesus Christ acts to us like a bumper, see. That, when I sin, my sins hit Him and it jarred His precious head, and I could see the tears and blood running down. “Forgive him, Father; he don't know what he's doing.” And I'd do something else and hit it. “Forgive him, Father.”

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If it ever passed Him, I'd have been destroyed. And if I'd never accepted His grace, and the day my soul sails beyond that, I'm already judged. I've rejected. There's nothing left but judgment. Judged, I've already been judged. God said, “The day you eat thereof, that day you die.” You're judged right.... This is the judgment seat this afternoon—your attitude towards Christ.

And then I thought, Yes, that's right. And I seen one day; I crawled up to Him. I seen my old book laying there—a sinner. There laid everything on it. And I seen my sins is what was doing it, and I said, “Lord, will You forgive me?”

Took His hand in His side, got some blood out, wrote it across the top, and said, “Pardoned.” Throwed it back in the sea of forgetfulness, to remember it no more. It was gone forever! He said, “I forgive you, but you're condemning her.”

That changed my idea. I said, “Lord, have mercy.”

111

After I come out of it, I walked over and set down. I said, “How do you do, ma'am?”

She said, “Oh, hello.”

And I said, “If you'll pardon me,” I said, “I'm Reverend Branham, a minister.”

She said, “Oh, (ahem) excuse me, excuse me, Reverend Branham.”

I said, “Lady.” I told her the story. I said, “I was standing there, and I was condemning you, and thinking what a horrible thing. Maybe you've got children.”

She said, “I have.”

I said, “What caused the way to go wrong?” And she begin to unfold a story to me that would rend the heart of anything. I said, “I was asking God why didn't He just rake such off the earth? Here you here with these two drunken men, and you're drunk yourself.” And I said, “Someday that blood that's holding God's wrath off from me.... You're going to die one of these days, and then you're.... You're a free moral agent now, you can reject or receive.” And I said, “But someday your soul's going beyond there, where there's no mercy left. And if you die in your sins you're already judged, and you're going to hell.”

And you know what? That woman slipped out of that seat there in that restaurant, we had a prayer meeting like you never heard in your life, and she come to Christ. What was it? Don't condemn them; tell them the Gospel. They're demon possessed; they're mortals in this realm. They're influenced from over here. Our influence comes from above. Let's see what we can do with our talents, to win others to Christ.

112

Our Heavenly Father, thanking Thee for Thy goodness and mercy. I'm sorry, Lord; maybe the people.... I kept them here so long. But being the closing of these afternoon meetings like this, I wanted to tell them: demons. And I chopped too much of it in one place, in one sermon, but maybe they can pick it out here and there and understand what I meant. You know the intentions of my heart, of bringing it.

May people go from here this afternoon, and men and women watch every move they make, but live happy and free. May they know that God has saved them. And may they look to Him, forget about all the isms and things that's around them, and live peacefully and soberly, and in the fear of God. And then, God, when You want to use them for anything, You can speak directly to them and send them wherever You want them to go or whatever You want them to do. May people be humble and find Christ in their heart. Forgive us, Lord, of our shortcomings, every one of us.

113

And we know that Satan's gone about like a roaring lion, everywhere, devouring what he will, wearing religious cloaks. O God, these poor little children, look at them, everywhere. They're open and exposed to the people. And I pray Thee, God, to be merciful to them, and save all the lost, heal the sick. And, God, we realize that these old devils of sickness coming upon Your children, that You have an atonement laying yonder to take care of that. And all the devils that would cause them to sin, You've got an atonement laying yonder to take care of it. And I pray that You'll grant it in Jesus' name. Amen.

I wonder if there's....

Demonology, Religious Realm

Connersville, Indiana, USA

53-0609A