The Invasion Of The United States

The will of the Lord for certain things to happen at times. We went to Denver just recently, and returned. I believe they want a report, the meeting. It was one of the best meetings I've had in years. We had a marvelous time. Somewhat a little over two thousand gave their hearts to Christ, besides those who received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, besides great signs and wonders that our dear Lord Jesus did in the midst of the people there in Denver. They had a marvelous outpouring, and a great coming together of the people. We started off with around five thousand, to begin with. And we had the Mammoth Gardens, and on the third night, there wasn't even any room for people to stand in the place. Had such a wonderful time, of the five nights!

We left there to go to Canada, boy and I. And we got up into the mountains, and come a snowstorm. I guess you've heard of it, over your radio. And some hundred and eighty-eight people perished in it. And we were stuck in a snowdrift for several days, up there in the mountains. And our meeting passed by, and we had to come back home now before we leave again. So we believe all that was maybe for the will of God, that it'll be a better meeting, and something else. He had something lined up for us that we don't know.

We walk kind of in a dark world, but not in darkness. We just follow as the light goes, then we follow the light.

And our Heavenly Father perhaps had something that we know nothing about. There might have been some danger laying up there. Or, again, He might be working on somebody to bring.... u see, God can just work on one person like that; He change a whole nation just for that one person, to get them in. And so we know it was all for God's good glory. And we thank Him for it, and for protecting us. And there was many we....

Billy and I helped pick them up along the road, and things like that, of people that were crashed and everything. But we come through without any trouble. We got off the road once, but that was just for a few moments. And some man up there on a ranch come down and pulled us out with a tractor. Just sliding; it was very slick.

And it was one of the things that they hadn't had for ... the old-timers couldn't remember of ever having a storm like that, in that country, at that time of year—Roundup, Montana. And we know that anything real outstanding like that, our Lord had His hand in there somewhere. It was for some purpose, for our good. For our good, that's what it was.

And so I called Brother Neville after I got back, and I said, “I'm going to be home Sunday. And if you'd like for me to come down and maybe have Sunday school, why, all right.” And I said, “Then I'll be very happy to get to.”

He said, “Why, sure, Brother Bill.” Said, “We're always so happy for you to come,” with a great big open heart and welcome, like that. And put it on his radio program, yesterday. So we're thankful for all these things.

And this morning, now, being Mother's Day.... Most people, you'll hear Mother-Day sermons everywhere, and people speaking of mother, which I think is wonderful. Leave that for the rest of the service.

This morning I had announced a subject of: The Invasion Of The United States, that I wanted to speak on. Which, you probably heard your radio broadcast, and you'll hear plenty of them today. And there'll be a Mother's Day sermon, perhaps, tonight in the services. And so I thought, this morning, I would announce: The Invasion.

I spoke on it in Denver, here, not exactly from the approach I aim to give it this morning, if God willing. And we had a wonderful time with it. The Lord just did bless in a wonderful way. It kind of sometimes gives us a....

You have to be shook just a little bit to realize what it's all about, don't we, sometimes? And we pray that God will do it.

And by the way, up there, when we got through.... The Business Men of Denver was the ones sponsored the meeting, and it was a little different sponsor than I'd ever had before.

And usually, ministers, when they sponsor the meeting, they'll say, “Did you announce it?” “Yep, to the church.” That's just about it. That's shepherds; they want their flock to know about it. That's their business.

But the Businessmen were a little different. They wanted the world to know about it, so they just flung out about three or four thousand dollars worth of advertisement on all streetcars, taxicabs, all bumpers of the cars, and everywhere. We had a wonderful time.

After the service was over, they called me to one side, said, “Brother Branham, what can we do for you now? What we owe you?”

I said, “Why, of course, nothing.” I said, “You don't owe me nothing.” I said, “You can pay my hotel bill, down here, if you wish to.”

“Oh, we want to do something for you.” And they wouldn't.... I wouldn't take nothing from them.

So the manager called them around. He said, “I believe he kind of likes to hunt and fish, doesn't he?”

Said, “Yes.”

So one of the businessmen had a ranch up there, and he said, “I'll just make him a present of that.”

Well, Mr. Moore went up to see it, and he had to go back about thirty-five miles, by horseback. Mr. Moore said, “I'd like to see Sister Branham sitting on a horse, going back to that.” So they....

After that, though, they went over there to a homestead place at Silver Plumbe, Colorado. This is supposed to be on this side now. And they bought a little ranch over there, and putting up a five-room home over there for me now to ... at the Silver Plumbe, Colorado, which is right in the heart of the mountains. So you fishermen, I guess it's a good time, so it'd be a good place to relax, and when after the meetings and things, if God permits. That's up to Him, you see.

I wish now to call our attention to the Word. And I just love the Word, the living Word of God. It's.... Inside the Word is the life. Now, “The Word—letter—killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” And life is in the Word, because it's the Word of God. Life lays in its Word.

Like if I told you, “I give you....”

You say, “I'm hungry this morning, Brother Branham. Would you give me five dollars?”

I'd say, “I will.” Now, there's just as much life in that as there is in my promise.

That's the same way it is by God. When God promises anything, then what God is, He's got to be in His Word, see. This Word is worth.... This Word is just the same as God. It is God.

Your word is what you are. It's your bond, we used to call it. Your bond is your word. If we can't take your word, then I can't have confidence. But if I can take your word for anything, then it's a man of honor.

And the Bible said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” see, see. “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”

If we would think, this is the very earth that we're living on, this morning, is the Word of God. That tree is the Word of God. And you, your body, is the Word of God. God spoke it into existence like that, made it from nothing; which had nothing.

Did you ever notice the human life, where it come from? One little cell, so small that a human eye couldn't see it; only through a great, powerful glass. And out of there come a hundred-and-fifty, two-hundred-pound man. Where did it come from? See, God just spoke it, and it just started, by nature, growing, and there it produced just exactly. He spoke every tree, everything, into existence. And it's such a wonderful, wonderful thing, this morning, to view the Word of God.

Now, this ... this morning, in the Old Testament, turning over to Chronicles. I have been just a little bit upset.... While you're turning now to Chronicles, the eighteenth chapter. Just a little tired. But if the Lord willing....

I'm not sure; we'll know more Wednesday night. If the Lord willing, and the church feels led that way, I'd like to have Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, as a revival here, just a teaching revival from the Word. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, just teaching on the Word; not healing services, but teaching. Maybe the Lord will lead us that way. And then we.... I just love to be with you and have the fellowship around the Word, with you. Thank you very much for that fine, wonderful “amen.”

Now, in the 18th chapter of Chronicles, and beginning with the 12th verse, we wish to base our thoughts, just for a little while on this vital subject of the day. I Chronic ... or, II Chronicles, I beg your pardon. II Chronicles 18:12, and we'll read a portion of it here, and see what our Lord will have us to know.

And the messenger that went to call Micaiah spake to him, saying, Behold, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one assent; let thy word therefore, I pray thee, be like one of theirs, and speak thou good.

And Micaiah said, As the LORD liveth, even what my God saith, that will I speak.

And when he was come to the king, the king said unto him, Micaiah, shall we go up to Ramoth-gilead to battle, or shall we forbear? And he said, Go ye up, and prosper, and they shall be delivered unto your hand.

Now, to base our thought for a few moments; just one word to Him again, on this.

Our Heavenly Father, with grateful hearts we approach Thee just now in behalf of lost souls, behalf of those who are needy, in behalf of the church. May the Holy Spirit get into the Word quickly now, we pray. Take it right straight to every heart here that has need. And when He delivers His Message of the power of the Word into the heart, may we all prosper by it, this morning; going, leaving the tabernacle, rejoicing and praising God, saying, “Our hearts burn within us because of His presence.” For we ask it in His name. Amen.

Our scene bases, this morning, on a tragic. And the Old Testament, to me, is always a shadow, or a forecasting, of the New Testament. Many times, someone has said, “Brother Branham, why is it you always take the Old Testament? Nearly always, taking a text, you'll go back to the Old Testament.” I do it because I like typology. I like....

My education is very limited, as all know. And the only way that I know to be somewhere near right, is to see what the pattern was, to look off the blueprint and see what it was. And then I know what that was will be something similar to what this is here, because it's just the shadow of it. And I always look back to the Old Testament to see what the children of Israel did, see what the punishment of sin was, see what the justice of the prophets was, see what all those things were; and then I will have an idea what this is here, which has foreshadowed what will be in the general wind up at the end.

During this time, there had been a great thing happen to Israel. It was in the darkness of its midnight.

In the Old Testament, if the Lord willing, maybe in the coming services, I'd like to show how that the seven church ages typed out in the Old Testament. How that they began just exactly like at the beginning of the church ages of the Gentile church, and went right down through a similar dark age, and come out into the glorious time of Pentecost, at the falling of the Holy Spirit in the early church of the ... in the Jewish dispensation. Then going through another period of the Gentile church, through a dark age, and then coming out again into the Millennium, at the end.

Now, how that back in the middle centuries there, this great king Ahab came up in power. And he was kind of riding on the reputation of the other Israelite kings, which was a.... Ahab, himself, was kind of a borderline believer. I've often referred to him that way, because he was part of the time on this side of the fence, part of the time on that side of the fence.

You'd never know where to stand, a man that's unstable like that. Or, a person that professes to be a Christian, and that unstable, you don't know what to do about the person. Today they're a Christian; tomorrow you don't know where they're at. In church today, they're rejoicing and singing and praising God; and tomorrow, out drinking, carousing, running around. Then that type of a person is hard to do anything with.

I remember, as a boy, once we had an old horse, that he used to jump the fences all the time. And I guess many of you men, at my age, would know back in the horse days, buggy days. I've come a many a time right down this street here, driving a horse and buggy, myself. I'm forty-five. So, remember: This old horse, we'd put a yoke on his neck, like you would a cow, to keep him from jumping the fence. And he would jump, anyhow. And he would hang that yoke and turn him around, and so forth. He'd get over the fence. And one day, what he....

I wondered what was attracting that old fellow. And there was a big sink hole down there. Now, he was standing in alfalfa, high, but he wanted.... There was some blades of orchard grass in a sink hole. And he jumped that fence and got in that sinkhole where all these wire and glass. Well, he was in our dump, and get in there to get a few mouthfuls of that orchard grass. And we had to get some more horses and pull him out of that sinkhole. When he got in there, he got hung up. And when he stood out there, he was quivering and bleeding, and how he was, just to get a mouthful, or two, of that orchard grass, when he was standing in alfalfa, almost to his knees.

I've often thought of that picture. “A way of a transgressor is hard.” He just wouldn't stay still where he was eating and having a wonderful time. He had to jump the fence and go get all bruised and cut up like that, just to get a mouthful of grass of some other different kind. Now, that's just about the way people does, that jumps the fence of God's pasture. Don't you believe that? Gets out, go out today; come in. In church, having a wonderful time; then, tomorrow, sell out for something like that. It makes it very hard.

Ahab was more or less that type of a person. Every way the wind blowed, Ahab had his sail set, if it was on this side or that side. His marriage got him all messed up, with a little woman which was a little princess, a king's daughter, a Jezebel. Very pretty to look at, very beautiful woman, but in her heart she was wicked. And she was an idolater, and she caused all Israel....

Now, how I would like to border there just for a few minutes, [unclear words], and getting into the core of this on motherhood, see, there. And when a man starts to get married; and the type of a girl, woman that he.... It's more than just look at beauty. You've got to get somebody, both soul and body joined together; somebody that's really going to be your friend and pal, that'll stick with you through thick and thin.

Now, but, Ahab, he just fell for her because she was pretty, I suppose, and marry. It couldn't be nothing else about her, because as wicked as she was. And she come over there. And then, 'course, being wrapped up with her like that, and loved her, why, he caused all Israel to sin and to go against God, and to tear down the altars of God; built the altars of Baalim. And they had Baal worship all through Israel, at the time.

Now, his wife had caused righteous Naboth.... Many of you has read of him. How he took his garden, by deceit; and swore a lie, and had false witnesses against him. Because she wanted to do something for her husband; and killed a righteous man, in order to get a garden that joined close to the palace land.

All this, God was looking down. So the prophet, Elijah, which was a great, mighty servant of the Lord, prophesied and told Jezebel what would happen to her. And he told Ahab that the dogs would lick his own blood. Now, when God has said anything.... 'Course, them days, the direct word of the Lord came through the prophets.

“God, in sundry times and divers manners spoke to the fathers through the prophets, in this last day through His Son, Christ Jesus.”

So this is the Word. And if anything is contrary to that, leave it alone, see. Now, secondarily, He speaks today through the prophet, the seer, and so forth. But first is this, the Word, now.

And Ahab had done this wickedness; and he went on. God blessing the people for many years. And finally, Jehoshaphat was king over Judah, while Ahab was king over Israel.

And then, Jehoshaphat was a righteous man. He was the son of Asa. Asa was a righteous man, and he tore down all the altars of idols; built up the altars of Jehovah. And they having a revival, as it was, up in Judah.

And then after a while, Jehoshaphat ... or, Ahab, rather, sent up, and he found out another piece of land in Syria, that he thought belonged to him, that he thought he'd go get. So he asked this Jehoshaphat if he would come and make an alliance with him.

And 'course, there is a great danger now, see, when they seen this great king, Ahab, down there, and they seen this great one up here, Jehoshaphat; one of them, a lukewarm; the other one, a Spirit-filled man. Watch how you make your alliance. Watch what you're doing, how you yoke yourself up with unbelievers. Keep yourself clean, especially in the day that we're living.

I believe, church, without a shadow of doubt.... This is burned on my heart. That's the reason I'm looking for these five nights, soon; to once more, before it happens, give this church a thorough combing, through the Bible.

We're living in the shadows of the time. It could happen any time. When we see the times come for things to take place; the very wickedness of the enemy, the very powers.... We look at these snowstorms and everything happening, all these pestilence, all different things. That's all caused by these interruptions, of firing these bombs and things. They're getting things all mixed up here. And they're messing around in God's big laboratory, to fulfill His Word. It's going to happen.

So “the man of sin” rising up, power, so deceitful. My! I heard a minister this morning, a Spirit-filled man, taking the mark of the beast and saying that the antichrist was Russia. What an error! Russia has nothing to do with it. No, sir. That's Scripturally. Now, but notice in this great time that we're living: a warning.

Now, this Jehoshaphat, feeling kind of good because the great king of Israel said, “Come, visit me.” And he went down there. And they took ox and sheep, and so forth; done sacrifice. All the time, in Ahab's heart down there, he was a deceiver, 'cause he was not worshipping that ... or, offering those sheep and things with a true heart, because, after all, he leaned more to his wife's religion.

And notice, just as Ahab married Jezebel during the time of that great dark age of Israel, he brought idolatry into Israel, a very type of today. Just in the dark age; when we come out through the early apostles, second round, third round, over into the dark age, the fifteen hundred years. Just as Ahab married Jezebel and brought idolatry into Israel, so did the Holy Ghost church marry into isms, and brought idolatry back, and today it's a form of Christianity, see. See, just very dark! And now it's moved on down, each day; each church age moves down to that same thing, to the great climax, and the lukewarm condition comes, lukewarm Laodicean Church Age! Oh, what a horrible hour that we're living in!

Listen. I want to confess right here, before I go any farther: I'm an old-fashioned preacher that's longing to see the old days again. I've seen so much of this impersonation, Hollywood glamorizing the Gospel, till I'm so sick and tired of it. Yes, sir. I want to see the old fashioned. I'm afraid we're making Christianity too pretty for people; danger line.

Now, Jehoshaphat comes down, thinks, Oh, well, this great king of Israel, I'll just.... Oh, we'll.... It'll be all right. And right in the midst of all this big glamour, what did he do? He made an alliance, to go up and to fight the enemy, on common grounds, because they said, “We are both the same people.” But they wasn't. One was a Spirit-filled group, the other was a lukewarm group. They're not the same people. No, sir. You can't have....

Darkness can't have fellowship with light. The night cannot exist in the presence of the sunlight. And the most treacherous time there is, is between the times. Just when the sun is a going down or rising up, is the most treacherous time there is. There's not enough vision to see clearly; your lights on your automobile won't show good and clear. It's better to either be dark or light. Jesus said, “Be hot or cold, no lukewarm.” Just ... that's the danger line.

And there Jehoshaphat, when he come down, and then this great alliance was made, which did not please God. And notice, just in the time of his ... all the excitement now: “I have got favor with this king. And oh, I—I—I have fellowship with this neighbor. I have....”

See, be careful of that, church, see. That's what causes all the trouble around this tabernacle here, and around others, see. Be careful about of that you're mixing up with, see. Come right out, and either be for Christ or be against Him, see.

Now, this fellow made the alliance, and he thought he had done something great. Yet, when he said, “Isn't there now.... Before we can go up, we should consult the Lord about this.” Now, Jehoshaphat had enough religion left in him, in his mistake, that he had went down there to this king, but he had enough religion left in him to think, Well, we ought to at least consult the Lord.

Now, Ahab was going right on out without saying a word; just his own mechanical, physical, human way of doing things.

I just wonder right here, church, if that hasn't been, a lot of times, we've made mistakes. Figuring it out, and say, “Well, it ought to be this way,” and we set it like that.

I think that's where a whole lot of the American evangelism is today, that we have set it in a form of, I'd say, Hollywood evangelism, whole lot about glamour. We notice the evangelist comes to the platform today, and, my, he's all puffed out, and tells a whole lot of jokes before he starts to preaching, and things like that, and carries on and acts like a clown, in the pulpit. When it comes time to make an altar call, the people don't even see any sincerity to make an altar call by. That's right. That's the reason the world has got in a lukewarm condition today, that it's in.

I wonder today.... It's just, today.... The church: We tried to send our boys to school to learn psychology, and so forth like that, to know how to put over a program, to get in the pulpit and to arrange our.... The message is so enticing, that it'll catch the people, and catch their attention. And many a great psychologist go out as teachers like that, and dramatize and put on a whole lot of something. And I just wonder, when they.... We're always telling them the beauty and the attraction of the church, but we fail to tell them “He that will follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.” I wonder if we haven't made the beauty of the church too pretty, for the fellow that comes in.

For instance, the Baptist church today has got a slogan, “A million more in '44,” taking in members by the thousands, and the tens of thousands, unconverted, just people who walk in and join the church. And it's an indebtedment to the church of Jesus Christ, to take such members in. They still drink. They still smoke. They still gamble. They still lie.

They come to the church, expecting to be entertained by a bunch of Hollywood evangelists that gets up, put on a lot of glamour, and a lot of big instruments sitting up-and-down on the platform.

When, they ought to have an old-fashioned, God, crying-out, altar call down there; where men and women don't come to glamorize, or to run up and act a clown, but to get down to the altar and realize that the death of Jesus Christ, that died for them, that they're getting back sincere with God again.

I wonder if we're not living in that kind of a time, when we take great evangelists, like many that's crossing the lands today, of great-known evangelists who've studied psychology and attract the people to the church. But after you once get them into the church, then what you going to do to them? What's going to happen after they get into the church? Just join the church, and go back with the same sin and the same desire that they come into the church with. They go back the same way. And that's the reason, today, the world looks on, said, “Well, if that man's got religion, if this person got religion....”

I'm afraid we've made it too easy. I love.... I think, joy, certainly, I believe that all joys lays in Jesus Christ. That's right. I believe it's joyful and happy. But remember, brother, it's the way of agony and suffering and the cross. You must realize that, too. That's right. I wonder if we haven't painted a little too smooth.

Like, I was looking, and my wife put.... Started out, and she put a rose on my coat this morning. She said, “You ought to wear it. Your mother is a living.”

And I said, “Oh, honey, I don't know.”

Mother's Day is wonderful, but that's like the world; they've commercialized the thing, just merely to sell flowers and things like that. Why, it's a discredit to mother. Why, my mother is my mother every day of the year, yes, sir, not just one day.

I say, “You love your mother?”

“I sent her a bouquet of flowers last Mother's Day.” Well, brother, she ought to be mother every day. But it's commercial.

That flower is pretty. I love a pretty flower. I think of that just like I do.... How pretty the flower is! It blooms. And it's got fragrance. And the passer-by smells it. The animal comes by, smells it. But, now look, it's pretty. Like the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's the most glorious thing; divine healings, and powers, wonders, and signs, and miracles, and it's freedom from sin. It's a beautiful place. But, look, if that rose.... We will have to come, the church, like all nature.

That rose, being pretty, every cow in the country would lick on it if she could. But nature provided little bayonets, little spears sticking out there, called a thorns, and they leave them away. That protects it. That's exactly.

And I think, today, if we haven't got the Word of God, sharper than a two-edged sword, around the beauty of the power of the holiness of God, we're going to let every cow in the country lick on it and cull it. It'll gaum it. It'll be an indebtedment to the church. That's right.

I think, today, what we need is more old-fashioned, God-called ministers, raw, maybe not with much education, but will bring the people down to an altar, and there agonize. Not with a joy and laughing, and popping chewing gum, and put their name on a paper; but, brother, an old crying out and dying out, until men and women thoroughly repent from their sins and come close to God. Amen.

I tell you, we ... “Raise up your hands, who wants to accept Christ,” all like that. That's all right, brother, but that don't expel sin.

You've got to repent first, get right, get down there and really cry out. I can remember the times when the old-fashioned people would walk down through the aisles, and up-and-down the roads, a crying, and talking to their neighbors. That was Christians of that day, telling them about the things of the Lord.

And today, we put our name on a church book, and go out and stay home, and never say a word about it. Unconcerned! “Just as long as we belong to the church, it's all right.” I'm sure we're wrong there, people. Check up! For, that won't stand in the judgments. No, sir. It won't.

Nothing less, “He that will follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and die daily.” Stay dead there on the cross. That's right. Agony! The way.... “I will take the way,” you sing, “with the Lord's despised few.”

I think today, what a time that we're living in! That, evangelism, they put it out in great big bright lights and they try.... When you see the evangelist coming to town, you wonder. My meetings has been guilty of the same. That's right. I wonder who is coming to town, some time, the evangelist or Jesus Christ? Why, they got....

I went into a place here, not long ago, where a certain evangelist was supposed to come. And Jesus' name.... Why, they had the picture of the evangelist, “the man of the hour,” the man with this, and the man with that.

Sometimes I think of my ministry, and see people come. And I'd get in a hotel room, say, “God, who is the people coming to see, me or You?” See? “If they're coming to see me, they're lost, yet; but, O God, tear me down, take me away. I want to represent You, one who I'll stand before someday, with trembling hands and trembling, feeble body, looking at You. Knowing that my soul hangs by Your decision.” Let us exalt Christ.

Today, you say, “Well, I belong to the Baptist. I'm a Methodist. I belong to the Tabernacle. I do this.” Oh, that has nothing to do with it; not a thing. I wonder sometime....

Here not long ago, I seen an advertisement up, where a certain campaign was coming to the city. And the word of the man.... The man's name run great big letters all the way around, like that. And on the bottom, in a little corner, said, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever,” way down in the corner, see.

They took all the sacredness from Christ, and put it onto some man, or some church, or some organization. Brother, I'm telling you, you can get by with glamour, Hollywood clowning, like that, and it's by the church. But, in the presence of Jesus Christ, He is the One to be glorified. That's right. Now, that's the truth, my dear brother and sister.

Don't feel angry at me. You just remember that I'm preaching to you. I want to preach as if this was the last sermon I'd ever preach in my life. I want to preach ... every sermon I preach, as if I was a dying man preaching to dying men. And I am. my light is burning down, every day; yours is, too. And we're dying mortals. We got to face the living God, some of these days, and we better be in deep sincerity about this.

Just in a glamour, and carrying on, and join the church, and go here and there, act this way and that way.

We better be having old-fashioned prayer meetings in our homes, and crying out to God, day and night. The day is at hand: the time of distress, the time of trouble. The Bible said, “A dark day.” And we're living in it.

How that this great man went down there under the excitement. He joined himself with the lukewarm, with a border line, and thought he was doing something great, thought that God was blessing him. And not realizing that right then he was bringing in all this group with him. What? “Our little group, of Judah ... of Judah up here, would come down and join ourself with the great bands of Israel. What a mighty people we'll be!”

There you are. And that's the very line of deceit the devil is using right now, to bring in the antichrist; just as certain as I'm standing into this. “We'll unite our efforts together.” We can't do that. How can two walk together except they be agreed?

This United States making the same ... selfsame experience and the same mistake, when it united with Russia back yonder, at the time they was just about ready to have war, and bound ourselves together with Russia. And now you see what we got, don't you? They got our airplanes and all of our secrets, and our atomic bombs and everything laying over there, to blow it back at us. Same thing goes by spiritual!

Then we find out, after Jehoshaphat had made this alliance, and they consulted. Now, watch, watch the outside world. He said, “Sure, we've got plenty of prophets down here. We got a seminary full of them.”

They go down and get the fellows that had been trained, who knowed psychology, who knowed all about it. Said, “Come up now, and we're asking and consult the Lord.”

All of them, of course, in their fleshly puffed up mind, come up there and said, “Now, look, you go on up. The Lord is with you, and the Lord is going to give you that piece of land up there. It's going to be yours. You're going to push the Syrians all the way back. You're going to do it.” One of them even made himself a big pair of iron horns, and begin to run around like this, and “This is what you're going to push the Syrians away....”

But, Jehoshaphat, just a little more spiritual to put up with that tommyrot of clowning! That's right.

God, give us some more Jehoshaphats, sick and tired of this here Hollywood clowning, (That's right.), putting on, pretending to be something that they're not; making out, dramatizing, drawing in. And then when they come in, what's you got when he got in? Like asking a man, “Come, swim,” and in a desert. Nothing but bay sand upon your head, to cause sorrows afterwards!

Now, notice, what can you bring them into? A certain lady said to me the other day, “A man said, 'I'd go to church, but what would I get when if I went to church?'” Said, “'All they do is organize some supper, and about this, that, and the other.'”

And the lady said, “I stood speechless, for I didn't know where to send him.” There you are. Said, “I wish I could find an old church where they really sing the old-fashioned hymns and live godly.”

Children are hungry, they'll eat from a garbage can. It's up to the church of the Living God to feed them the true living Word of God.

There, in all that glamour and stuff; Jehoshaphat said, “Isn't there one more?”

“One more?” said Ahab. “Well, what do you need with any one more? We've got four hundred of the best, selected, educated, top-fed, dressed men there is in the country, standing here. Every one of them with one accord, and one heart, and one voice, saying, 'Go! God is with you.'”

I wonder if United States hasn't met the same thing! I wonder if the church of God hasn't met the same thing! I wonder. “Well,” say, “look, they're having success. They're having great big meetings. They're carrying thousands at a time.” But I wonder if there isn't just one more! I wonder if there isn't something different!

We find out, we have thirty thousand converts in six weeks, and six weeks later we haven't got a one. There is something wrong somewhere. That's right. And it's all glamour, putting on. The world, through television, through radio, through picture shows, and those outlets there, has corrupted this nation with the tommyrot of Hollywood. Right. Everything wants to be in big glamour. Isn't that the truth? You know that's the truth. We don't have any more of the old-fashioned religion that we used to have years ago. It's because it's been let down. We'll get to it, just in a moment, you'll see.

Why, what a beautiful picture ... or, a stirring picture, I should say. And here come this Jehoshaphat, said, “Yes, I see them all. They're, every one, got their degrees,” and whatever it was. “They're all to be prophets. They're great ministers. They're out of great colleges. And they're all this. They're out of the big school of the prophets, and everything. They're all with one accord. That's true. But isn't there just one more?”

“Well, what will you need with one more, when four hundred is giving consent at one time?”

But that man, way down in his heart, had God. And he knew that there was something wrong about that. Yes, sir. He knowed there was something rotten. Why? Let me give you.... The Scripture doesn't quote it, but here is what I get. I know that Jehoshaphat knew that that hypocrite down there, Ahab, that he wasn't right with God. And Elijah had prophesied the Word of God to him. And how could God bless what He had cursed? Amen.

I say the same thing today, friend. And the church of the Living God, who is standing true to God, will say the same thing. You can't mix oil and water together and call it salvation. You can't. Got to separate yourself, brother. Something has got to happen. If there is any hope left, we got to do something, and do it quickly; for the hour of the rapture is at hand.

Things are heaping up, everything, and the church is so far away. They read all kinds of magazines, books, stories, and everything. I could go today to a.... I can go to a church, and I can say, “Oh, how many know....” They know every hymn, after one of these big revivals. “Now, what page is certain-certain hymn on?” They know it. They know who it is. They know who is running for President, and who is running for this, and how many movie stars married, and this and that, the other. But, the Word of God, they know nothing of. There you are. So we're giving.... And yet, they profess to be Christians.

And the people is not at blame. It's from behind the platform, where it's come from. Exactly. It's behind the platform. They teach them all kinds of rhythms, and all kinds of this and that, and organizations, how to make you preach, and everything like that. I wonder if it's paid? Nothing against it, but I'm wondering if that's God's requirement.

When, Jesus said, “Except a man be born of water and Spirit, he will in no wise enter into the kingdom. He that will follow after Me, let him deny himself and his own worldly pleasures, take up His cross and follow after Me.” Cross is a symbol of “death, agony.” “He that will be a Christian, let him strip himself of his own thoughts. Let him strip himself of his own works. Let him strip himself of everything, denying himself; and take up that consecrated cross, and follow Me daily. He that will come after me, let him do that.” That's what Jesus said.

But, today, we say, “Everybody have a big time. Everybody clap their hands. Everybody holler, 'Hallelujah!' Everybody do this.” Oh, how we got a bunch of fuss! Amen. God.... We get these new songs out and sing them so fast, that it looks like we're going to run through the wall with them, or something like that.

When, I think, if we'd be singing Nearer, My God, To Thee, would be a whole lot better for the church; the old-fashioned hymns.

Get a lot of dance orchestra people, some boy in a dance orchestra over here playing last night, and tonight over here playing in the church of the Living God? It's an abomination in the sight of God. Let that man be proved, first, and let him bring forth fruit, meat for repentance, to show that he's right with God.

They bring the jazz world right into the platform. They bring the Hollywood, glamorizing preaching, right into the platform.

Why, didn't I sit in your fair city, a few weeks ago, in Louisville, Kentucky? My heart breaks! When they was all sitting there, willing to see the miracles of God; but as soon as you preach the Gospel, they would fill up, in a second, and turn their backs and walk out of the building. Certainly. They don't want it. Their hearts are hardened. Step out; and many of them, Protestants, too, who go to Protestant churches. But they've been filled so full of glamour and everything like that, of tommyrot and churchism, until they know nothing about the Spirit of the Living God. “Having a form of godliness, and denying the power thereof.” What a day that we're living! Watch where it heaps up.

Jehoshaphat said, “I know, Ahab. There is your four hundred preachers. They're all fine-looking fellows, every one dressed and their hair combed neatly, and everything, whatever more they may be. They may have their DD's. They may have their all kinds of degrees. They may know the Scriptures, from A to Z. But haven't you got one more, somewhere? Isn't there just one more, somewhere?”

He said, “Yes, there's one more, but I hate him.” There you are. There you are. “I hate him.” Remember, Ahab was a religious man, and these were religious teachers, but they hated this man who had the truth. Said, “I hate him.” Said, “He's always bellowing out something against me.” How could he keep from doing it, when the Word of God had condemned him?

How can you hold still if you're a man of God, or a woman of God, and know and see sin and things, heaped and weighted, and everything like that; and see human souls going to hell, millions a day, and stand still? You can't do it.

Someone said to me the other day, “You think you can stop it?”

I said, “No. I can't stop it, 'cause God said. But one day, at the judgment bar, they're going to pull out the big screen, flash on the camera yonder, and that tape recording is going to be played. I'm going to stand and listen at it, and I want to hear my voice warning against it. God will judge me when my voice comes against it.” Yes, sir. When we see this life, this generation, reenacted again there at the judgment. Certainly. We're living in a terrible time. And there it is.

We see him; he said, “Isn't there one more?”

He said, “Yes, but I hate him, for he's always prophesying evil against me.”

How can he keep from preaching those hard things, when he sees it going on? See Ahab living like he was and doing like he was, and bringing the people like they are!

How can a man of God, or a woman of God, keep from hollering out and rebuking sin from every side? When, they see these lukewarm preachers, and glamorizers, and educators, and so forth like that, out letting the people go to hell, by the millions, under deceit; a lot of ... even in the holiness people. I'm not talking so much about Methodists and Baptists and things like that; they have it, too. But it's right down in their own ranks.

My!

Coming to the platform, like everything else, Christians, living like everything else, across the countries and things, then they call it “religion.” It's a religion, but it's a long ways from the salvation of the Lord. That's right. They just got the people till it's just a big bunch of worked-up. Then as soon as the little work-up goes over, then, the first thing you know, you can't find a one of them; the church is sitting empty. Brother, if a man loves God, he'll fill his seat of the church, every time. He can't stay away from it. That's right.

Now, notice just a few minutes. I'll try to hurry, get straight to the point now, 'cause my time is getting away.

Notice, then he said, “Isn't there one more?”

He said, “Yes, but I hate him. He's always prophesying against me. He's saying evil things against me.”

“All right.” Said, “Go get him.”

He said, “His name is Micaiah.”

But this man had enough religion to know that these fellows wasn't right.

And any man that's ever been touched, the least bit, by the Spirit of God, knows that these things, what's called Christianity today, is not right. “You can't love the world, or the things of the world; if you do, the love of the God is not in you.” The Bible said so.

Now, look. He said, “Go get him.” And they went over.

And then he sent a little old messenger along. The deacon of the church, perhaps, or somebody, went over there and said, “Now, look, Micaiah, we're going to bring you over here before Ahab and Jehoshaphat. Now, they're both sitting out there. They're great men now. They're teachers and they're scholars and they got their degree, and so forth. And every one of our seminary, every one of our churches here, is a perfect at agreement that this is the will of the Lord. Now, you say the same thing they say, and, I'll tell, you'll dress better and ride in a Cadillac car. I tell you, you'll just be a great fellow if you'll do that. Yes, sir. You'll prosper.”

Micaiah said, “As the Lord God lives, I'll only say what God says.” Amen. Oh, there's a man after my heart. “I may have to eat bread and water,”—which he did—“for doing it.” You may be smote on one cheek and the other, whatever more, but he told the truth and stood by it. God confirmed it to be the truth. He wasn't so popular, but he knowed God.

Brought little old Micaiah over there. He said, “All right, Micaiah, what do you say about it?”

He said, “Go on up. Go on up.” Said, “Go up in peace. Go ahead and prosper; that's what I want you to do. But I seen Israel like sheep without a shepherd, on a hill, scattered. That's it,” he said.

And when he did like that.... And Ahab turned around, and Jehoshaphat.... Said, “What'd I tell you? That holy-roller, or what,” excuse me, “or whatever he was, that guy said that! What'd I tell you, that fellow would only prophesy evil against me? What'd I tell you, he'd only condemn our church, and condemn our ministers, and condemn our way of religion? What'd I tell you, he'd say it? I know him. I knowed his daddy before him.” Amen. “I knowed his daddy before him.” Yes, sir, a real man of God. Said, “I knowed he'd say that.”

And so then he said, “Yes,” said, “I saw Israel like sheep scattered without a shepherd on a hill.” And so then he said, “I....”

And then one of those fellows that had the big horns, was going to push off. A preacher walked over and pulled little Micaiah around, and smacked him in the mouth as hard as he could, said, “Which way did the Spirit of God go when it went out of me? If you know it.”

Said, he said, “Wait till you're sitting in prison over here, and you'll know which a way it went.” That's right.

Wait till Russia is sitting out here, take over the nations and things like that, and this country, because of its backsliding, and you will see what was right and wrong. That's right. You'll see whether your lukewarm religion will pay off, or not.

Let this nation come to tears, not come to laughter and drama. Let this nation come to its knees, in repentance. That's what we need. Not a revival to get a whole lot of people in a church. We need to close every bootleg joint, stop all cigarette smoking, tear down the factories. Start up a real, old-fashioned, Holy Ghost campaign; where men and women, day and night, laying on their face, crying. I'll tell you, it'll be the greatest shelter that this nation has ever had. That's true.

Let the Branham Tabernacle quit its foolishness. Let it get back here at the altar and get right with God. Make up with the neighbors, and so forth like that, and get right with God. You won't have any fusses and going on; you'll be the drawing spot of the world. That's right. Now, that's the truth.

Then he said, “Which way did the Spirit of God go, out of me?”

And Micaiah said, “I saw God and His host, His council, sitting in glory.”

You know, God has a council up there, once in a while. He brings up His angelic beings and holds a council, once in a while, up in Heaven.

And he said, “I saw Him sitting upon a throne, and all the people were standing on the right and left hand of Him.” And said, “They were discussing, 'Who can we get to go down and deceive Ahab, to get him out here and to fulfill Elijah's prophecy? God's done said so, what was going to happen, so we'll just see who can go down.'”

“And a lying spirit come up from beneath,” (of course, out of hell), “come up before God and said, 'I'll go down, and I'll get in those preachers and cause them all to prophesy a lie.'” Oh, did that blow them up! Did that make them feel funny when they said, “I will go down and cause those preachers, every one of them, to prophesy a lie.” And he got down and got in those preachers, and they begin to prophesy a lie.

And, brother, the same God rules on the same throne today. And that same lying spirit has done the same thing today: prophesying lies.

They kept saying, “Peace, peace, peace,” after the First World War.

Let me show you where it come from. In the First World War, when France over there turned away from God, in their gay '90's, and begin....

Now, I'm going to get a little on morals, so you all just sit real quiet for a few minutes.

Look, on back there, in the beginning, over in France, there is where orneriness and filth first began. If there ever was a rat hole in the world, it's Paris, France. And I've pretty near traveled most of it, and that's the worst place I ever seen. And London, England, is not much of an exception. And United States is coming right in line with it. That's right. There they are.

Every time that you break the morals of womanhood, you break the backbone of the nation.

Here you go over, in some countries, and say you're a missionary, they don't like.... Say, “What are you going to tell us to do, how to sing dirty songs about our wives, or about our girls? You going to tell us how to divorce our wives? Teach us how to drink whiskey and go the way we do?” That's what we are.

We call ourselves a religious nation, the Christian nation. Well, them heathens in Africa could teach us morals, how to live. The rottenest place, in the United States ... or, the world, nearly, is this nation, how it's got. I'm an American, certainly. But, brother, I can't help.... But when before Ahab or Jehoshaphat, and I got to tell what God says is the truth. That's what the church needs to stand for, today. If it comes between nation and God, it's God, always. Yes, sir.

Notice, in France, they started all their rottenness, and going on the way they lived over there. And then God sent Germany in to them, to beat them up a little bit. Then we went over there to save their hide. And as soon as we done that, and won the war, sent the Germans back, had peace with France, did they turn to God? No, sir. Women, wine, debauchery, sin and filth to the gills!

Then what did they do? What happened? Here is where it started. The devil set up his headquarters there. There is where he started, right there, to demoralize the world, from Paris, France.

Then, if you notice, he couldn't get in here through the ministry, so the thing he done was come in to Hollywood out here. He set up his headquarters over here in Hollywood. The devil landed back here, a few years ago, fifteen or twenty years ago, with his great army, and hit in Hollywood, California. And he has invaded the United States with his demon powers. Right! All of our fashions come from Paris. They get into Hollywood, onto the screens. These little girls and little boys, and things, get out here, they watch them screen plays.

Nice little kiddies, fine little fellows, nothing against them. God bless their little hearts! My heart bleeds for them.

And right here in the city I was talking to one my boy, the other day, he said “Daddy, if there was just some boys around there in town that had the Holy Ghost, and so forth!” You wonder why I was getting away to Denver, Colorado, or somewhere like that? Get my children somewhere where there's a bunch of people who cry out to God! What we need, brother!

This country, this nation, this city, this place, is become so demoralized till it's pitiful. If I could only express right now what I absolutely know to be the truth right here, it wouldn't even be presentable before a mixed audience. Or, right here in this own city right here; not only here, but other places, everywhere, it's begin to come a simply....

Because why? The people.... Look, friends, it's got so cunning. It's come in so easy, till it just smothers you down. The devil used to be in fashions. He might not have went out of fashions, but he didn't go out of business, I'll tell you that. He's still in business.

Look, today. We take, like I said a while ago, about the little lady, a little girl with a rose. For instance, the rose, it's pretty; it's there to be looked at, that's true. And that's just like the church, it's there to be looked at. Like a pretty little woman, she is there to be looked at. That's right. But if she.... She is fine, that she is to her husband, she is all right. But if she hasn't got the moral sword sticking out there to protect her, she becomes a indebtedment to society and human being; get so low and scandalous and rotten till the dogs wouldn't look at her. That's right.

And the same thing to the church of the living God! They get out here and try to glamorize and fix themselves up, and act like.... They strip their women here, right ... and people don't realize that these devils are invading your homes.

Right in my neighborhood the other day, a young lady which I think is a nice woman.... She's a married woman, got a child. And the little woman come out there. Men come down the road to do some work, and this little lady got out there with them little bitty old clothes on; was horrible.

This is an awful Mother-Day speech. But, my brother, let me tell you something. Mother, get back to be mother again!

Even to a little bitty boy was visiting our neighborhood, come in and told us about it, “Look out there!”

I said, “Well, that's nothing.”

The woman is a nice woman. I don't say she is demoralized. But, the thing of it is, there is an ornery, filthy spirit on her, making her do that, and she don't know it.

What in the world would a mother want, or anybody, put on those little old dirty clothes, and stretch themselves out before men? You're pretty, sister. You're pretty, mother. I thank God for you. But, you're pretty, but if you haven't got the Holy Spirit there to protect those morals; you'd have been better to be so ugly nobody would have looked at you, and went to Heaven. That's right. That's true. Watch what you're doing; those morals.

Now, what it is: The devil has come in and he's told the people these things. He's got into the preachers; He's patterning after Hollywood. The girls and the young ladies, they pattern after Hollywood. The best of things that they have in the country today, the most moralist you can hear, is talk about; all the radio talk.

Some old woman like Mrs. Kay Starr, nothing against her; but to see an old woman, fifty years old, and all, with her clothes all pushed out on her, like she was poured in a meal sack. I ain't saying that for a joke, 'cause I'm talking against those things. But a woman act like that, and stand up and be an example to young American women, it's an indebtedment to our nation. It's the devil.

Guys like Arthur Godfrey and them running around here, doing the things that they do, and the most noted man in the country like that, and, why, it's a disgrace.

Hallelujah! I say that because I feel the Holy Spirit is here. The invasion is on, just sweeping from house to house, from place to place, from church to church, from man to man.

Children, in the name of Jesus Christ, rise with the moral standard of the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ, and say, “I'll take the way with the Lord's despised few.” Yes, sir. “I'll be a real mother.” “I'll be a real dad.”

When the whole world, all around,

all around my soul gives way,

Then He is all my hope and stay.

For on Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other grounds is sinking sand,

All other grounds..............

What's caused all this stuff? What's caused ministers to act like this? What made preachers prophesy this lie to the people?

Why did it, years ago, that you Methodist people.... When old John Smith was packed to his pulpit, to preach the Gospel, and he preached a short sermon of four hours. And he said, “The trouble of it is, that my heart is breaking.” He said, “The Methodist daughters are even wearing rings on their fingers.”

And today, they're dressed in shorts and little old dirty clothes. And they'll be perfectly nude, in another five years, if something ain't done. What's happened to you Methodist preachers, you Campbellites, you Baptists? Yes, sir. It's the devil, has throwed down his powers, and he's got his imps out here.

And you don't realize it, you smoking cigarettes, you women, and doing the way you're doing out there, and drinking and carrying on the way you're doing. You don't realize that you're poisoning your system, and ruining the whole generations that'll follow you, if there is such a thing. Eighty-five percent more chance to take cancer, by smoking cigarettes, and you deliberately move right into them. And the churches endorse it.

In a great Baptist churches here, recently.... I'm hitting the Baptist. I got a right to that; they kind of lean on the side that I come from. But when they had to give intermission between the Sunday school service and the preaching service, so that the pastor and all could go out and have a smoke, and the street was lined with men and women smoking cigarettes. The devil has done that. That's right.

Then, here in our own city, one of our most outstanding ministers, right down here in New Albany, at this playground, that one of our outstanding ministers of the city is directing a square-dance program, to bring men and women on the platform.

Don't care what the world says, I don't care how you try to coax around it; brother, there is no red-blooded man pulling up to another man's wife, and feel the same. You know that's the truth.

They've took our women, and stripped them; out yonder in offices, and driving taxicabs, and up-and-down the street, where they ought to be at home, behind the stove, cooking, and fixing dinners.

What is it? It's the devil. The invasion is on. I ain't saying nothing about this individual or that individual. I'm saying it's unclean spirits that are possessing the people, driving them right into it. The invasion of the United States!

The overthrow of the church! The church is overthrowed by the devil. Back yonder....

They take a boy up now, when he comes to a seminary, the first thing he has to learn is to get his degrees. He has to take psychology. He has to take theology. He has to teach, get all kinds of stuff indoctrinated in him. If he hasn't got a real fine education, if he isn't smart and bright as he can be, then they'll turn him out; he can't qualify. What's he to do? To go out here and present a little political talk, as it was, a church politic talk, to a group of people, a bunch of dying men and women.

O God, send us some old-fashioned, sassafras men who doesn't know A from B, that knows the power of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, who'll preach repentance, and send men and women to the altar, to love the Lord Jesus. [Blank spot on tape.]

It's an indebtedment. He's invaded the seminaries. He's invaded the churches. He's done stripped our women. He's got our men into a place that you can't tell them nothing. And men and woman, I think....

You say, “Well, the women!” Yes, and you men that'll permit your wives to do that, that shows what you're made out of. That's just exactly. Certainly. It's a disgrace. It's a pity.

And then down to the preacher. The preacher stands in the platform, today, of a modern pulpit. Stands in there, with his people before him, and preach about every little old thing in the world besides repentance and sin, and the rugged cross of Christ. Yes.

When you lay the facts down; the people will come to hear you, in evangelistic service. You're trying to get the thing to preach the Gospel, and get people repenting and get them right, they'll blow up and walk out; they don't have to hear it.

No, they don't. But, brethren, they're going to have to repent or perish.

Demons! You go to the school; it's invaded the schools. Look around, over the country today. Looky here, you people, you Protestants. Look, there's four great big Catholic schools and things, built up today. Why is it? You are letting down the bars.

Nothing against Catholicism, though I don't believe in it. I'm strictly a Protestant. That's exactly right, and can prove they don't.... You can't argue with them. They say, “We don't care what the Bible says. We know what the church says.”

God is in His Word. This is where God's at.

But some of the Catholics, sticking to their church, would make you ashamed of yourself, as a Protestant. If you'd only stick to the Bible, as they stick to the church! That's right. But they're wrong. I can say that under the authority of Almighty God that they're wrong. Absolutely.

And you Protestants are wrong, the way you're doing, 'cause you really know better, and you do it. That makes a hypocrite out of you. Sure, it's the invasion; churches letting down.

And now instead of....

The church, trying to make the church beautiful, build a bigger church, put big spires on it, great big pipe organs, and get everything trying to pattern like the Catholic church. You don't want to pattern like the Catholic church, if she is doomed to go to destruction. For, that's 'Thus saith the Lord,' she's doomed to go to destruction. And you're patterned after her, you're going with her.

But what we need today is not a big church, a big spire; it's an old-fashioned altars where sins are burned up, under consecrated prayers from men and women who love the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that. That's what we need. Hear me, friends. Hear me. It's love.

My time is gone. I'd just like to linger on that, where.... I'll pick it up a little later on: that invasion, where it's went to. It's invaded. It's invaded our nations. It invaded United States.

Now, remember, I never cast a vote in my life; see, that's nothing to brag on. That's my American birthright if I want to do it. But I think too much of my friends to put them in there. Look, I've seen them go in as fine men, come out as crooks, and I don't want that.

I have one thing. I'm here building a platform for one person who is the candidate, and that's Jesus Christ, and Him alone. I give my time for Him. That's right. If I can get the church straightened out, the rest of the world will take care of itself. That's right.

But let me tell you, when Mr. Roosevelt.... The man's dead. Let him rest; I trust he is. Come in, and run in three or four terms, and taken over, just a preliminary dictatorship. I can prove to you that in the Scripture, where that said it'd take place. That's right. We haven't got no more constitution. She's broke to pieces. Everything is all smattered. The Republicans is just as bad. It's six of one, and half a dozen of the other one.

For, every kingdom is going to be smashed, but the kingdom of Jesus Christ shall stand and reign forever. That's right. Daniel saw the Rock hewed out of the mountains, and hit the political world back there and mashed it into a grinding powder like that, like the wheat on a threshing floor in the summertime. But that Rock grew into a great mountain that spread over ... filled the whole heavens and earth. That's it.

The political world is gone. Our nation is broke. You remember that, that Brother Branham said that, “Thus saith the Lord.” Our nation is demolished. It'll never rise. She's gone, like all the rest of the nations. It's the greatest nation in the world, standing today, but the very seed of the devil had been planted into the hearts of the people; how he come in through Hollywood, how he got out into the people, and begin to this. And you can't tell them nothing.

Get a President up there who will try to close whiskey, and not have prohibition, see what would happen. He'd be shot in two hours after he got in there. Sure, he can't stand it; the whole world is against him. Yes, sir. You couldn't do it.

She's gone. She's invaded, and the spirit of communism has took over.

Go to our schools today, look at our school children. Our little old fellows that go to school, you just ought to know what goes on. Little girls down here in the schools, and things like that, at the age of fourteen and fifteen, their mammy sent them to school, wrecked morally, mentally, dope fiends, dope addicts, cigarette pumpers, everything else like that; and a little bitty age, the little children like that. It would be as hard to find a virgin among some of them as it would be to find a needle in a haystack, when they have blanket dates with the boys, and stretch on these river banks and everywhere else.

And I can prove it to you, my friends. I wouldn't say it in the pulpit 'less I knew what I was talking about. Of schools right here in our counties, right in here in these counties, of those little ladies dressing, don't know ... telling their mothers that they're going to different places, and meeting boys and even prostituting on the streets of Louisville, (What is it?) and sing in choirs.

Because, they got a little old social Gospel standing there, where preachers stand and talk about little petty things, and little bitty stories of the Bible, or something like that, instead of preaching repentance and bringing men and women to the altar.

Her daddy walk in at night and light up his cigar, take a glass of beer, and sit down and drink it. Mother's out, through the daytime, with a bunch of women at some card party, some social like that. How can you expect the child to be anything else?

Look! Whatever an environment you live in, that's what you are.

You take a little bitty girl, little bitty boy, put them out here, let them live with somebody. You take a man.... I can take my boy, let him be out for a day with somebody; let me come in, I know, I'll tell you who he's been with. Certainly. Watch, that environment, that spirit catches him.

You go into a church, where the people all.... You go into Holy Ghost churches, or Pentecostal churches, they call it. Let everybody be.... They run and jerk their head back and forth, the pastor does; watch the whole church begin to do the same thing. Let the men, the people, get up and just carry on terrible, or something another; watch the whole thing do that. Get into a place where the pastor's real starchy and cold; watch the whole group do it. You come into that environment.

You take a man that's a good moral man, and let him marry a little old woman that ain't worth a dime; it isn't long till he ain't worth a dime either. That's what happened to Ahab. Take the same vice versa: Let a nice little woman marry an old man that ain't worth a dime; the first thing you know, she's doing the same thing he is.

How I could go this morning and point my hands on little broken-up homes and things like that, where lovely little mothers come into a drinking dad, and things like that, and thought they could do something with them, and now the whole mother and all of them is drinking and going on. It's environment.

What is it? It's the devil. It's the devil, the invasion. He swept into this nation, like a roaring lion. He set himself down here under the best place they had, in Hollywood. He said, “I can get the movies here until the television comes on, then I'll get them.” And he sat down there.

And the church people, instead of shutting down the shows and not letting their children go, they give them ten cents on a Sunday afternoon and send them down there, so they could have a little social card party, be out to theirself and ride around. Oh, what a disgrace! Now, they just turn the television on and watch all the dirty, rotten tommyrot there is in the world, on it. That's right.

I ain't got nothing against the movie. I ain't got nothing against television; it's the rotten stuff that's on it. That's what it is. If you'd have kept it moral, it'd had to stay moral.

You couldn't sell old-fashioned button shoes here in town, today, at all. Women don't want them. They want the toes out of them. The rest of the women is a doing it. That's right.

When you go to church, you can't sell them old-time religion, 'cause, the other woman, she don't want nothing to do with that. No, sir. “There's no need me going down there. I just believe, that's all there is to it.” Oh, brother, the devil believes, too. That's right. You'll repent or perish.

Now. Sorry. No, I'm not. No, I'm not. No, I take that back. I love people. But I love you too well to see you go into a headlong plunge like that. If God willing, I'll pick this up a little later on in the week.

Now, to you mothers that's mothers, just a word to you before going. God bless you. You bring your children up right.

We'll pick up this invasion; we got to go into the homes yet, and a lot of places, the schools, and out in places with it. We'll pick it up.

But, the invasion of the United States, the devil has took her over. Don't be afraid of Russia. Russia ain't got nothing to do. We're doing it ourselves, our own rottenness right among us. That's right.

You know, the United States has more divorce cases than all the rest of the world; more divorces. Think of it. That horrible? The motherhood has been broken. Mothers don't stay home no more with their children, like they used to. They got to have a job.

Here the other day, a certain grocery man in this city, was talking to me about it. These women working in these public plants, these young married women with a bunch of little kids. They got babysitters taking care of their babies to work in these public places. Said, “There was two of them standing in.... When they got laid off, at their public works, 'Don't worry. We'll make it, anyhow.'”

Oh, such an hour of prostitution at hand! Sure. The devil has done told them they're the boss of the house. They'll make their own way. They'll do what they wish to. And you get it out of them, if you can.

There's only one thing can get it out of them, that's the altar, before Jesus Christ, an old-fashioned, tear-stream religion that'll break their hearts and tear them to pieces, and make them what they ought to be. That's right.

They may think I'm just an old fogy. But the day when you're dying, my brother, sister, you'll realize that I told you the truth. That's right.

She is on, the invasion, the hour is here. Now, yes, an hour of decision, too, an hour of decision. Not to come to church, but an hour of decision whether you're going to serve Christ or stay lukewarm in your church. That's right.

There's plenty of church members. If all the people of America that profess to be Christians would be real Christians, born-again Christians, brother, we'd be as safe as you'd be in Heaven, almost. Mortal trouble, yes, sir, diseases would leave the land, everything else.

Wouldn't you like to come down the street and see where a lady come by a man, “How do you do, sister? Good morning, brother?” Walk down, you don't have one worry in the world. Everything is just fine and dandy. And the fellow come to the street corner; instead of trying to run over you, he'd stop, “All right, brother. All right, you had.... Oh, you before me,” you see; just prefer.... Wouldn't that be wonderful? We're going to have it; that's in the Millennium, brother. The day is coming. That's right. So now we're not....

I stood in our neighborhood, here the other day; nothing against our neighborhood, but I can notice, our little children. Wife was crying. A certain doctor of this town, his little girl was running around with my little girl, and they loved one another; until they found out that her name was Branham, and she was Rev. Branham's child. That settled it. The little girl couldn't go with my little girl anymore. Oh, I thought, well, okay.

Some little neighbors run over there, said, “Well, it was all right.” So they went to their pastor. Don't tell me. You know, I have a way of knowing a lot of things, you see. So they went to their pastor, and said, “You know, there's a man lives in our neighborhood, is so good to our children.” Said, “It's Rev. Branham. He takes them, haul them in his little old truck, and takes them out.”

Said, “Well,” [Brother Branham clears his throat] “we have nothing against Rev. Branham. He's all right, but, you see, he's just a different class of people than what we are, see. We.... I would that you wouldn't be ... you know I wouldn't kind of.... You speak to them, and be friendly, but just let that be the end.”

Oh, brother! My wife was standing there, crying. I said, “Sweetheart, it's a separating line. As for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord.”

Though all the world gives way; still Jesus Christ! If I have to be called a fanatic, if I have to be shunned by my kinsmen, my fellow man, and things like that, I still choose Jesus Christ. Hold to God's unchanging hand. When earthly friends forsake you, still more closely to Him cling. Hold to Him.

God, let me preach like I've never before. Let me preach to dying men, as a dying man, myself. Let me preach to people like I'd never have another sermon to preach. Let me persuade them to come to the altar, with streaming faces, with tears; go back home and live like Christians, and live in their neighborhood. Stop all this here frolic and running around, and jumping and carrying on; and acting this way, and blowing up at this, and going that way. Oh, don't do that. That's the devil. Them demon spirits come on Christians.

Remember, those ministers down there that was them prophets. They were prophets. They were religious men offering a sacrifice. They were just as religious as the teachers of this day, but, brother, they were a long ways from knowing the truth.

Don't you see how religious the devil is? The devil is not no anti-, great big thing like communism, all against Christianity. That's not.... That's full of the devil, sure, but it's not the antichrist. The antichrist is very religious, very religious. It was a religious spirit that crucified Jesus. It's always been a religious world, a religious people, that crucifies. It's the religious people that was against the true Christ. It was the religious prophets that was against Micaiah. It's the religious people of the day that's against the message of God.

Remember, I have warned you. I have told you. I ain't speaking so much about Catholicism and Baptist and Methodist; I'm talking about people that's holiness people, right down these lines here. Look at it today, how it's come across and standing in drama. Oh, my! I'd go into it, sometime. And my heart breaks within me.

Stand up there with an old banjo, beating that old banjo, and sawing an old fiddle like that, “Is this Texas cowboy So-and-so?” I ain't got nothing against the man; but that belongs out there in the world out there. That's right. I'd rather stand, brother, with not even a thing, with nothing at all, but just stand and raise my hands and say, “Jesus, keep me near the cross.” Yes, sir.

Consecrated cross I'll bear,

Till death shall set me free,

Then go home, a crown to wear,

For there's a crown for me.

To you little mothers here this morning, that's been real mothers, and I know there's many of you; I think, every one of you. Let me tell you something: God bless you. You're the fifth Gospel, I think. Let me tell you what's in there for your children, just a little thing. 'Cause, Brother Neville will probably preach about mother tonight, or whoever, one of us that preaches, all right, about mothers. But, listen, let me ask you something.

Remember, when Moses was a little boy, it was a mother who give him his instructions. It was a godly mother who took little Moses on her knees, and said, “Moses,” taught him all. He was her teacher or.... She was his teacher, rather, under Pharaoh, and said now these things: Said, “Moses, someday you're going to deliver the children of Israel. You're the boy that's called. Keep yourself pure and unspotted from the world, for you're the one. You're the one.”

No other place do we know, where he ever went to any seminary, any teaching at all, he ever got. He stayed right in Pharaoh's palace, which was heathen; but his mother taught him. That's a real mother. She taught him the precepts of the Lord. She told him how he must be holy. She told him how and what he must live, and how ... what God would do for him. And it stuck with Moses all the days of his life.

And any good, true, loyal mother that'll take her little babies, instead of send them to picture shows and dances, and so forth like that, she'll put them on her lap and teach them about the Lord Jesus Christ!

Here the other day, I was talking to a mother on the telephone. And the mother said, “Oh, Brother Billy,” she said “my poor boy is in trouble.” Said, “Oh, what a trouble he's in!”

I said, “Yes, I know about it, sister, dear.”

And she said, “He may be wrong. I don't know.” Said, “One says this and one says that. I don't know. But,” said, “no matter whether he's wrong or right, I love him.” There you are: “I love him.”

He said to his mother, said, “I've been so deceived by this and that.” Said, “Mother, I believe you're about the only sweetheart I really have; a woman that's true to me and sticks to me.” That's mother's love. That's a real mother that'll put her arms around her baby. Regardless whether he's right or wrong, she goes right on to him. And if God.... If a mother can think that of her baby, how much more will God think that of His, you see. You stay right with Him. Go right.

And now let me just tell you another mother, right quick, in the Bible, before we close. There was a mother called Herodias. She taught her daughter to tap dance. She wanted her to be popular. And she danced before the king, and required the head of John the Baptist. We have record of seventy of her offsprings, this damsel that danced before ... Herodias' daughter danced before Herod; seventy of her offsprings, they either died prostitutes or on gallows.

One mother taught hers the things of the world; the other mother taught hers the things of God. One became a great leader and a conqueror—is immortal among men today; and the other one's debauched and in hell, and taken thousands times thousands with her. See what I mean? “Bring up a child in the way it should go.”

And I certainly sympathize with you poor mothers sitting here with your white roses on. There's a Heaven that a mother has gone to, today, where a good old-fashioned mother that lived for God, probably has passed beyond the veil. She's waiting for you to come. That's right.

I respect and honor you there with your red roses on. Your mother: If you want to do anything for her, do it three hundred and sixty-five days a year. Go to her house and offer prayer, and live for God. That's the thing to do. And bring up your children. And when your children come up, they'll call you “blessed,” after you have passed on beyond the veil. That's the real spirit of motherhood, the real spirit of mother's day. Mother's day is three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

This is the day they sell flowers and pass presents. The world does it. If it passes—if the world should stand another twenty years —they'll have son's days, daughter's days, and cousin's days, and uncle's days, and all them things like that, just enough to get the world in a commercial glamour. That's just where it's going, right into hell, just as hard as it can go, to destruction.

But, you.... God bless you, is my prayer.

Shall we pray.

Our kind Heavenly Father, as we view back this morning with our minds, back down yonder some hundreds of years ago, when there stood Jehoshaphat standing there by the side of King Ahab. And a little spirit down in his heart, still left of God, though he had made a mistake, told him, said, “This is wrong. This is wrong. It's not clean. It's not holy. The prophet has said these things couldn't go on like this.” And the little fire of God woke him up.

And then You had somebody to answer that little fire, which was Micaiah, the true prophet of God. Though he might have come up there dressed in rags, though he might have come up there despised, and all them looking upon him as if a bunch of wolves looking at a lamb. But he told the truth, though he had to be smitten in the face, though he had to be throwed into prison and fed bread and water of sorrow. But, yet, the words that he said come to pass, for You was with him.

God, grant, today, and we look down in this Bible. We look at the church books, the Decalogues, and so forth, of the churches, the rituals, and see how they do this, that, or the other. But let us look into this true Word here, and see what it says. “Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Follow peace and holiness, which, without, no man shall see the Lord. He that loves the world, or the things of the world, the love of God is not in him.”

“In the last days perilous times shall come. Men shall be lovers of their own selves, proud, boasters.” Oh, those great things, Lord, that's happening! “Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; teaching people precepts of men instead of the commandments of God; having a form of godliness, and denying the power of the Holy Ghost” to make a man be filled with the Spirit, to make him rejoice, to make the tears flow from his eyes, to make him go out and pray for the sick, to make him speak with tongues and interpret, to make him prophesy. The Spirit of God, the living God, they just took it off into some lodge or something like that: “Having a form of godliness, and denying the power thereof.”

O God, may this little audience, on this day, wake up quickly, right now, before the end time comes, and catches it in this condition. May we renew ourselves, as the Bible said, “Rise and shake yourself. And ask for the old way, which is the good way; and when you find it, walk in it.” God, grant that we can find the old rugged way, when we can stand together again, as hundreds, and join our hands together and sing.

I'll take the way with the Lord's despised few.

I've started in with Jesus, and I'm going through.

God, help us to live that and be that!

Bless all these dear mothers sitting here, Lord; knowing that they are mothers, theirself, with white roses pinned on their coats, this morning, as a memorial of a dear old mother that's passed beyond the scene. O Master of life, bless them, Lord. And may they be blessed too, and may their children's memories be as theirs is with their mother, if she's gone beyond the veil, to a glorious Heaven. Grant it, Lord.

And some morning when life is shutting off from our veins, and our breath is failing to come to us, the veil will open back; she'll come down, perhaps, to the end of the Jordan, to help us over. Oh, to that glorious day when we step our feet over yonder, where there'll not be.... The air will not be contaminated with cigarette smoke. There'll never be a drunkard on the street. There'll never be a prostitute. There'll never be sin. There'll never be nothing like that. But, in the glorious forever, will we live with peace with our Lord Jesus Christ and our children. And oh, what a wonderful day!

O Father, while the great darkness is on, the battle, and the devil invading the countries, and invading the pulpits, invading the churches, invading the peoples, invading the businesses, invading the cities, and the schools and the homes; O God, help us to stand, pull the sword quickly and fight for God, as Moses and the Levites did down there when sin was in the camp. Help us, Lord.

Forgive us now, and bless us. And keep us humble, break us up, Lord. O God, You said, “He that goes forth, sowing in tears, will doubtless return again, rejoicing, bringing with him sheaves.” O God, break us to pieces. Mold us, anew, Lord. We're getting too much out of the way.

I am, myself, Lord, I'm getting to a place where I'm thinking about how many will attend my meeting. O God, I want You to attend. Come, Lord! O Christ, come Lord! Break me up; mold me over. O Lord, don't never let me get those things on my mind. God, keep them from me!

Help me, Lord, to preach, as I said, a while ago, like a dying man to dying men, knowing that we all must face eternity. We got to stand before You; when You're not in Your pleasing manner, when You're not with mercy, when You're standing without mercy; when You're standing angry, to bring judgment upon the nations and the people that's rejected and spurned the love of Your Child.

God, give me mercy with You today, that in that day I can stand assured. May, after crying out, that You will wipe it away, to joy, at that time, when You say, “Enter into the joys of the Lord, which has been prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” God, be with us now, and help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.