Adoption #2

... that we bow our heads tonight as a church, as a group of called-out, believing people here tonight to teach thy Word, positionally placing us into the body, that ... where we belong, and where we can work fitly together as members of the body of Christ.

And now it is called upon us to go immediately to God. And each of us fathers thinks that ... what if that was our little girl? How our hearts would burn and hurt within us; and we would call to the churches to immediately have prayer. And some father's heart is burning, aching. Lord, may that great person of the Holy Ghost come just now to that father's heart. Take away every shadow of doubt, and every ache, and let him know that Thou art God and there's no disease can stand in thy presence when thy divine commission has been carried out by thy church and thy people.

And as through the week, we praying, since last Sunday I have thought on these ways, or these means, of prayer. We do not have very much of a weapon as far as it looks to the world, but this little slingshot is deadly when it's held in the fingers of faith. O Lord, may our prayers strike home—that death yonder that's hanging over that child—and may it be shattered; the darkness, gloom, go away from the bedside of that infant, that baby or child, little girl. May the great light of God's presence shine upon it, and may it come from that hospital a well child.

God, we know just across the river our loved ones wait, and it is glorious. But we love our little ones. And we pray, Lord, that for your glory, that You'll spare the life of that child. We, as your church, rebuke that death, and say, “Stand still yonder. You can't take that child, because we claim its life for the kingdom of God's sake.” Grant these things, Lord, to go straight to the mark as we direct them, in the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour. Amen.

Do we believe? I don't know what I could do if I wasn't a Christian. I just wouldn't want to stay any longer. There is nothing to live for, only to get others saved, is the best that I know.

Now, tonight we want to just start a little background of our previous lesson. And I will try to read ... because ... the entire chapter, if I can, tonight. So Sunday morning.... I'll have to maybe push in both Sunday morning and night, if that's all right, to try to get in this setting of what I want the church to see. Oh, it's glorious to find your position!

And no one can do anything unless you know properly what you're doing.

What if you were going to have an operation? And there was a young doctor that had just come from school, that he would.... Never had a operation before. Yet, he was young and handsome, and his hair was combed slick, and he was dressed very fine, mannerly, and everything. And he said, “I've sharpened the knives, and I've sterilized all the tools and things.” But you'd have a little funny feeling about that.

I'd rather have an old doctor that had went through that operation many times before, before I want to be cut on. I want to know somebody not just out of school, I want somebody with some experience. And the best experienced one that I know to call on tonight is the Holy Spirit. He's God's great physician and great teacher.

And as backgrounding my message tonight, still from Sunday's sermon, that it is.... They rejected Samuel with the Word of the Lord; and accepted Saul, the son of Kish. And rejected Samuel, which represented the Holy Spirit because he only spoke as the Spirit led him to speak. And when he called their attention to it, he said, “Remember, I've never said nothing to you in the name of the Lord but what the Lord brought it to pass. Neither have I walked misbehavingly before you. And no one can accuse me of sin.”

Like Jesus said, “Who can condemn me of sin?” See?

And he said again, that, “I have not come to you and begged you for money and so forth. I've took nothing from you. But all that I have said has been for your good, that I have brought to you from the mouth of the Lord.”

And all the people gave witness, “That's true. All that's true, but still we want to have a king. We want to be like the rest of the world.”

Now, tonight, our Scripture is dividing.... The book of Ephesians is the book of Joshua of the New Testament. It's dividing up and setting in order the “overcome ones.” Now, just a background for a few minutes, to get a place before we start reading, beginning with the third verse. Now, we find last Sunday night that God in the Old Testament had made Israel a promise of a land of rest, because they had become pilgrims and wanderers, and they were in a land that wasn't theirs. And God had promised through Abraham that he'd sojourn ... his seed would sojourn for four hundred years in a strange people, and be mistreated, but by a strong hand He would bring them out into a goodly land that was flowing with milk and honey.

And, now, when the time of the promise drew nigh, God raised up someone to bring them to that land. How many in the class tonight knows who that one was? Moses. Notice, a very, very real type of our one that was given to bring us to the promised land—Christ. Now we have a promise, because our promise is spiritual rest, where theirs was physical rest. And so they was coming to a land that they could say, “This is our land. We are no more wanderers. We've settled down. This is our land, and here we have rest. We'll plant our corn, our vineyards, and we'll eat from our vineyards. And then when we pass on, we'll leave it to our children.”

Oh, how we could go into the land of it, the laws of inheritance—like Naomi and Ruth, Boaz—bring all that back. How a brother in Israel, how that he must ... anything that he had lost must be redeemed by a kinsman. Oh, how beautiful! It would take weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks, we'd never leave this chapter, to go to it. We could tie the entire Bible right into here, right into this one chapter. And, oh, I just love to study it. We used to take it, and take it for a year and a half, and never leave a book. Just stay right with it.

Now, but it was such a great thing that the inheritance ... how it was that an inheritance in the land, that no one else but a close kinsman could redeem that inheritance. Now, let me just drop on a little token here that I touched on the other night, to you mothers. How many of you has prayed for your loved ones, lost? All right. There you are again, see—your inheritance, see.

Paul told the Roman, said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou and thy house shall be saved.” If you've got faith enough for your own self to be saved, have faith enough ... no matter how wayward that boy is, or that girl is, they'll be saved anyhow. God, somehow.... If He has to lay them on their back, laying there in a hospital, dying, they'll be saved. God promised it. The inheritance! Oh! “And they shall be there,” said Isaiah, “and all their offsprings with them. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.”

Oh, I've got a little spot I hope I can get to tonight for you, just burning in my heart, of that—comes back to that.

But now, on forward.

Then did you notice Moses, that great miracle performer that brought down Israel down through the land, and brought them up to the promised land, but did not place their inheritance to them? He did not give them their inheritance. He led them up to the land, but Joshua divided the land to the people. Is that right? And Christ brought the church up to the place to where their possession was made to them, was given to them, just the Jordan to cross, but the Holy Spirit is the one who sets the church in order. The Joshua of today puts the church in its order, giving to each one gifts, places, position. And He is the voice of God speaking to the inner man that Christ has saved, the Holy Spirit.

Now do you get that much of it? Now we're getting over into the book of Ephesians. Now, the same way, He's positionally placing the church where they belong. Now, Joshua placed them in the natural land. Now the Holy Spirit is placing the church, positionally, in the land, in the position that they belong in, their inheritance.

Now, the first thing he starts off here, he addresses his letter—Paul. Which, we're going to find out after a while that all this mystery was revealed to him—not in a seminary, not by any theologian, but it was a divine revelation of the Holy Ghost that God gave Paul. Knowing that the mystery of God, he said, that had been hid since the foundation of the world, had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit.... And the Holy Spirit amongst the people was setting each one in order, setting the church in position.

Now, the first thing Paul starts out here to tell the people, is to get all the....

Remember, this is to the church, not to the outsider. It's a mystery in riddles to him, never able to understand it, goes over the top of his head. He does no more know about it than nothing. But to the church it's honey in the rock, it's joy unspeakable, it's a blessed assurance, it's a anchor of the soul, it's our hope and stay, it's a rock of ages. Oh, it's everything that is good, for heavens and earth will pass away, but God's Word shall never pass away.

But the man outside of Canaan knows nothing of it. He's still wandering. Not saying that he's not a good man. I don't say that. I don't say the man even in Egypt's not a good man. But until he has come over into this possession....

And the possession that ... the promise that was given to the church is not a natural land, but a spiritual land, for we are a royal priesthood, a holy nation. Then in this royal priesthood—holy nation, peculiar people, called out, elected, chosen, set aside—then all the world is dead on the outside, and we are led by the Spirit. Sons and daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God. Not by man, but by the Spirit.

All in love, the whole thing is bundled up now. This has been tried to be taught on many times, and no doubt what great theologians has struck it a lot deeper than I could. But the thing I want to try to get to you is this: that a man that is in Christ, with the Holy Ghost, can bear with a man when he's wrong. Long-suffering, gentle, patient; he's sweet, humble, faithful, filled with the Spirit. Never negative, always positive. He's a different person.

Not just a man that.... “We once had it if we shouted, we had it—us Methodists. Oh, when we shouted, we was in the land.” That's good. That's all right. I believe that, too.

Then the Pentecostal come along speaking with tongues. They had it—everyone spoke with tongues had it. I believe that, too. But still we found out that a lot didn't have it yet, see. See?

We are now coming to this great hidden mystery that's been hid since the foundation of the world and now being revealed in the last days to the sons of God. Do you believe that to be true, that sons of God are manifested? Before we even go anywhere, let's turn over to Romans, the eighth chapter, just a minute. Let me read you something. See if this is just coming up to what I'm speaking of here. Now we're going to get Romans 8, the nineteenth verse of the eighth chapter of Romans:

For the earnest expectation ... the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

With earnest expectations the whole creation is waiting for the manifestation. See, the manifestation. What is the manifestation? Making known.

The whole world. The Mohammedans over yonder, they're looking for it. All around, everywhere, they're looking for it. “Where is these people?” We've had the.... We've had a mighty rushing wind, we've had thunders and lightnings, we've had oil and blood. We've had all kinds of things, but we failed to hear that little still small voice that attracted the prophet, that wrapped the robe around him and walked out, said, “Here am I, Lord,” see?

Now the whole creation is groaning and waiting for the manifestations of the sons of God. Now Paul is going to first place the church exactly where it belongs. Now just to get the background, let's read again.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints [that's the “sainted ones”] which are at Ephesus, and ... the faithful in Christ Jesus....

Now, so the class won't forget it, how do we get in Christ? Do we join the church to get in Christ? Do we make a profession to get in Christ? Do we be immersed in water to get in Christ? How do we get in Christ? I Corinthians, twelfth chapter: “For by one Spirit [one S-p-i-r-i-t, which is Holy Spirit] we are all baptized into the promised land.”

In this promised land, everything belongs to us. In the promised land. See it, Brother Collins, see? Everything in the promised land. When Israel crossed over this Jordan, into the promised land, fought down every thing....

Now remember, in this promised land, that don't mean that you are immune from sickness, that don't mean that you are immune from troubles. But it does spell this (Oh, let this sink deep!), it says this: that it's yours! Just rise and take it, see?

And, remember, the only way that Israel ever lost a man, is when sin got in the camp. That's the only way we can ever lose a victory, is for sin to get in the camp, something wrong somewhere. When Achan stole that wedge and that Babylonian garment, sin was in the camp, and the battle went wrong.

You give me this church tonight, this group of people, perfectly, perfectly, in the promise of God, with the Holy Ghost, walking in the Spirit, I'll challenge any disease or any affliction, or anything that there is; every Joe Lewis there is in the country, with all of his infidelity, and all the unbelievers that there is, to bring any sickness or affliction in this door and they'll walk out of here perfectly whole. Yes, sir. God gave the promise; only sin of unbelief can keep it away. Now we're going to get down to what this little sin is, after a while. Now:

... that are in Christ Jesus:

Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and ... the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

When we are in Christ, we have spiritual blessing; outside of Christ, we have sensations. In Christ we have positive blessings. Not make-beliefs, not shams, not put-ons. But as long as you are trying to say that you're in the promised land, and are not, your sins will find you out. And the first thing you know, you'll find yourself floundering and all, (as we'd call it in the world) gaumed up. You'll find out that you haven't got what you're talking about. But when you're in Christ Jesus, He's promised you heavenly peace, heavenly blessings, heavenly Spirit, everything is yours. You're in the promised land and in full possession of everything. Amen. How beautiful! Oh, let us study.

According as he hath chosen us....

Now, here is where the church stumbles so bad.

According as he hath chosen us in him....

In who? Christ.

We find out now, back in Genesis and in Revelation, Revelation 17:8, that He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Now, the word.... Let me read the next one.

... foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him....

Having predestinated us....

I want to stop on that word of predestinated. Now, predestinated isn't, say, “I'll choose Brother Neville, and I won't choose Brother Beeler.” That isn't it. It's the foreknowledge of God that knowed which one would be right and which one wasn't right. So by foreknowledge—God knowing what he was going to do—He predestinated, by his foreknowledge, to make all things work together for the good to them that love God; that He might, in the age that is to come, call all things together in one, which is Christ Jesus.

Let me draw you a little illustration here. It's good. We go back (I believe I talked on it a little bit the other night, or struck it) in Genesis, the first chapter, 1:26. When God called his name “Lord God,” it's in the word of “El, Elah, Elohim,” which means the self-existing One. There was nothing else existed but Him. There was no air, there was no light, there was no stars, there was no world, there was no nothing else. It was God, and God alone—El, Elah, Elohim. Now, He made that.

Inside of that was attributes, which means that He was a.... Inside of this great El, Elah, Elohim was an attribute or a.... You know what an attribute is. Or let me say it like this, was a nature. That's so the little fellows will get it. And I'm one of the little fellows that has to get it that way. Inside of Him was the nature to be a father. But He's self-existent; there ain't nothing for Him to be a father by. And, now, down inside of that was something else—that He was God. And a god is an object of worship. But He was self-existent—El, Elah, Elohim—so there was nothing to worship Him. Inside of that, He was a saviour, and there was nothing lost to be saved, see. Inside of that, He was a healer, see, but there was nothing sick to be healed. There was nothing to be sick. Now do you get the picture? So his attributes, his nature produced what is today.

Some people say, “Well, why didn't God just stop it in the beginning?”

“He's a cruel-hearted brute,” said Joe Lewis, the one that condemned Joe ... or, Jack Coe, see. Said, “He's just a cruel-hearted brute. There's no such a thing as God. If there was such a thing, He'd be a....” Oh, just called Him all kinds of names, see. But it's just because he might have a lot of knowledge up here, but he ain't got nothing down here. Now, that's where it's at, see.

This Word tells it here, and He's hid it. And these mysteries has been hid, now remember the Bible said since the foundation of the world, waiting for the manifestations of the sons of God, to display them to the church. Oh, my! You get it?

Now, I'll stop on my story just a little bit, or I'll bring ... I'll go to my next thought to get this. Now remember, all through the ages of Moses, back through the ages of the prophets, back through all ages, they've waited until this latter day for these things to be displayed, according to the Scriptures (that's right), for it to be revealed to the sons of God. Why? From the lost ... until like the pyramid, as I have said, building closer, closer, closer.

As I've often made this remark and said, God made three Bibles. The first one, He put it in the sky—the zodiac. Did you ever see the zodiac? What is the first figure in the zodiac? The virgin. What's the last figure in the zodiac? Leo the lion. He come the first time to the virgin, He comes the second time as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, see.

He made the next one in the pyramids, back in the days of Enoch, when they made the pyramids. And they measure them (I don't understand it) ... but to the wars, where they stoop and go on their knees for so long, and can measure the distance of the wars. You know where they measured to now? Plumb across the king's chamber.

And as this pyramid went up.... We could not build it. With everything that we got today, we couldn't build it.

It's built right up like this, to a point. And the stone on.... The capstone never was found. They never did put a cap on top of the pyramid. I don't know whether you know it or not, the big pyramid of Egypt, it never had a top stone on it. Why? The capstone was rejected. Christ, the headstone, see, was rejected.

But as we grow from the Lutheran age, Baptist age, Methodist age, Pentecostal age, we're right up to the capping stone now, see, waiting and longing for that capping stone to sit down, the building's complete. “Have not you read in the Scripture, The stone was rejected ['Course, we realize that was talking of Solomon's temple.], but the rejected stone has become the chief of the corner...?”

But I'm saying this only to make a picture to you. Now, and in the Bible, we're living in the last days, the top of the pyramid, the crossed fishes of the cancer age in the zodiac, in the time of the coming of the Leo the lion, in the capping stone, and in the days of the manifestation of the sons of God, in the Bible, see. See where we're at? We're right at the end time.

How many's been reading the paper this week, what Khrushchev and them said? Oh, they're ready; so are we. Amen. Ready. It's all right, see. Oh, what a privilege, what a day! If the Christians could only realize the day that we're living in. My!

What do you think the writer of this book that seen it, and seen where it would be manifested in the last days...? Waiting and groaning for those sons of God to rise in the last days, with the power of the Holy Ghost at the end of the age, to reveal the secret things from the foundation of the world, to bring it up....

Now let's go back into “the foundation of the world” again, to get a revelation, to see if we're right or not. I hope I don't make myself sacrilegious by calling God “Papa,” but I want to say it that way so you'll understand it. Papa. Papa wanted some children, so what did He do? He said, “Let there be angels.” And they come around Him. Oh, that's fine. They worshipped Him. Then He was God, the attributes. Remember, He was El (E-l), Elah, Elohim, self-existent, nothing but Him. The first thing come around was angels. Then, angels could do no more than worship. They couldn't be lost, they couldn't be sick—they were immortal beings. So He couldn't display his healing power, He couldn't display his salvation. So then, before.... Now let....

Then after that, He said, “We'll make something tangible.” So He made an earth. And when He made the earth, He made all the creatures of the earth. And then He made man. Everything that come up out of the earth, starting off with a polliwog, or a jellyfish, just a form of flesh floating on the water, started from there; from that to a frog, which is the lowest type of life that we can find, they claim, is a frog; highest type is human being. From the frog it started to the lizard, from the lizard on and on and on. And every time the Holy Ghost began to “whew” (breathe), life come again; “whew,” greater life. And the first thing, something come up in the image of God. That was a man. Nothing has ever been, never was, never will be created anymore, anything higher than a man, because a man is in the image of God, see. Then man....

When He made His first man.... Now, when He made his angelic beings.... He made man, “Created He them male and female,” all in the same unit. He was both man and woman, feminish and masculine. When He made Adam and put him in flesh.... Remember, in Genesis 1, He made man and woman; and in Genesis 2, there was no man yet to till the soil, flesh man. No man that could take ahold of anything and till the soil, but yet there was a man in his image. And God is a [congregation says, “Spirit”]. That's right, see. He made the first man, “male and female created He them.”

Now, when He made the first man,

now, remember, altogether He had it in his mind. And Sunday night I went through that. A word is a thought expressed. God thought how He could be God, how He could be worshipped, how He could be a healer, how He could be a saviour; and as soon as He spoke the word, it was finished forever. Oh, if these sons of God now could only lay hold of that Word like that! When God speaks a word, it is finished—absolutely. He might have waited.... Chronology says that, or archeologists and all, they claim that maybe the world was millions and millions and mill.... I don't know, it might have been trillions and trillions of years. I don't know how long it was. God does not exist in time. He has not one minute less time than He did when He spoke it. He is still God. There's no time with Him.

I never knew that like that till the other night, other morning, rather. Eternal—no yesterday, no tomorrow, it's all now. Did you ever notice the word “I AM”? Not “I was” or “I will be.” It's eternal —“I AM,” see. “I AM,” always.

Now, but He wanted to put things in time. He had to make something to worship, so his attributes produced this. Then He made the man. Then, in this man.... He looked lonesome, so, now, to show now his great mind, what He had in picture of the Christ and the church, He took—not a different piece of clay and made a woman —but He took from the side of Adam a rib; and took from the spirit of Adam the feminish, and put it in this rib. When you see a man that acts like a sissy, there's something wrong. And when you see a woman that wants to act like a man, there's something wrong, see. There's something wrong. They are two different spirits altogether. But, together, they make one unit. “These two are one.” So He made woman and man, and they never was to be old, never die, never get gray, never.... They ate, they drank, they slept, just like we do, but they never knowed what sin was.

Now I'll bypass right here for another lesson sometime on the seed of the serpent. Which, they asked me to recall that. Let me see somebody come and show me something different. That's what I want to know, see.

Now, but then after all this, then when sin set in, what takes place?

Way up yonder, above a million, hundred million miles, there's a space that big, and that is perfect agapao love. Every time you make a step this way, it narrows an inch. And you know how little it would be time it got to the earth. It's a shadow of the shadow of the shadows. That's what you have, that's what I have: a shadow of shadow of shadows of agapao love.

There's something in you, there's something in every woman in here past twenty, there's something in every man in here past twenty, that would long to remain. You've only got five years, that's from fifteen to twenty. After twenty you start dying. But, from fifteen ... you're just an adolescent child till then. And then you mature up till you're twenty. And after twenty, oh, you say, “I'm just as good a man.” You just say that, but you're not. You're dying, and you're burning away, no matter what you do. God made you up to that age, but then you're going to die. Now what happens? Now you start dying, but in there there's something in you that says, “I want to be eighteen again.”

Now I want to ask you something. What if you was born five hundred years ago, and you remained eighteen years old until today? If you wouldn't be an antique, with your ideas of five hundred years ago! (Before the Pilgrim fathers ever come over here.) And you were a young lady with that kind of an idea, why, you'd be better off just to've went ahead and got old and lived five hundred years. See, there's something wrong.

You say, “Well, right now I feel pretty good, Brother Branham. Oh, I'm eighteen, I'm sixteen, I feel good.” Honey, let me tell you something. How do you know that your mother's a-living at this minute, if she's not in this church? How do you know that your boyfriend didn't get killed just a few minutes ago, or your girlfriend? How do you know that in the morning there won't be a corpse in your house? How do you know you're going out of the church tonight alive? It's such an uncertainty. There's nothing certain. If you're fifteen, twelve, nineteen, seventy-five, or ninety, everything's uncertain. You don't know where you're standing. But yet you long to go back to fifteen, eighteen. What makes you do that?

Now, if you go back to eighteen and remain there, and never be sick and never be.... You'd have to have other people with you, because you'd outgrow it, see. People would go on in other ages and you'd be an antique. You'd be worse than it would be if you went old with them. But there's something that calls for you to be there. That's that little agapao, that little shadow that makes you.... Something above here.

Now, the other night ... or, the other morning, at seven o'clock, when the Holy Spirit, by his goodness and his grace, taken me from this body, I believe (I believe; yes or no, I don't say.), and entered into that land and saw those people, and they were all young. And I seen the prettiest people I ever seen in my life. And He said to me, “Some of them was ninety years old. They're your converts. No wonder they're screaming, 'My brother! My brother!'”

Now, that is a celestial body, that.... When we die we don't become a myth; we become a body. If we'd, every one, die, if the atomic bomb would blow us up at this minute, in five minutes from now we'd be shaking one another's hands, and hugging one another, and screaming and carrying on, and glorifying God! Yes, sir. And Brother and Sister Spencer sitting here, I guess one of the oldest couples in here, would be eighteen, twenty years old. Brother Neville would be just a young boy, and I'd be a young kid, and we'd just all be.... That's exactly the truth. “If this earthly tabernacle of habitation be dissolved, we have one already waiting.”

When a little baby drops from its mother, as a natural birth, its little body's a-twisting, and legs a-jumping, and so forth. Excuse the expression, you young women. But, when it does, it's got life muscles a-jerking. But when it comes to the earth, the first thing, it catches its breath, and there is a spiritual body of nature to come into that baby right then. Let it alone. It'll take its little head and root against its mother's breast and begin to nurse. If it didn't do that, the milk would not even come down.

Did you ever notice a calf when it's born, as soon as it can get strength enough to get on its legs? Who tells it? Walks right around to its mother, starts rooting around and starts nursing. Oh, yeah.

For when this earthly body is brought here, there is a spiritual body ready for it. And as soon as this.... Oh, hallelujah! “And if this earthly tabernacle of our habitation be dissolved, there is one waiting yonder.” Just as soon as we step out of this one, we step into that one. One that don't want a cold drink of water, don't have no need of a drink of water; one that don't eat, they're not of the dust of the earth. But they're just as real, and can feel and shake hands, and just love, and everything is perfect. And that body is waiting yonder. It's part of it.

There's three of them.

You begin your eternal life right here at the altar. Here's where you start eternity. Oh! You start eternal life right here. Then you are born again, a son of God. And then when you die, you begin.... When your death strikes you in this body and the heart quits beating, and the mortal wheels begin to stand still, that little shadow that was a shadow of the shadow, in one second it becomes a shadow of the shadow. Then the next it becomes the shadow; then the next, it becomes a little trickle; then the next, it becomes a creek; then the next, it becomes a river; and the next, it becomes the ocean; and after a while you're standing in the presence of your loved ones—standing yonder, clothed in the garments of a celestial body, that you know one another, love one another, you've turned back to a young man and young woman again. Exactly right. It waits there until the coming of the Lord Jesus. And someday that glorified body of his.... Now, remember, that is a celestial body, not a glorified—a celestial body. And someday that celestial body will leave heaven with Jesus.

“For I say this unto you [II Thessalonians, the fifth chapter, or I Thessalonians, fifth chapter, one or the other] I say to you, I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those that are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe Christ died and rose again the third day, even so those that sleep in Christ will God bring with Him. For we say this unto you by the commandments of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent [or hinder, the best word], hinder those which are asleep. For the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. [These celestial bodies come down and put on earthly, glorified bodies.] And we which are alive and remain shall be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, and shall be caught up together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.”

“I will not drink of the fruit of the vine nor eat no more until I eat it anew with you in my Father's kingdom,” the wedding supper. For the three-and-a-half years, the antichrist finishes up his reign, the whole world is destroyed, the Jews are called out, Joseph makes hisself known to the Gentiles ... or, to the Jews. Remember, when Joseph made hisself known to the brethren, there wasn't one Gentile present. When he sent.... You know the story. Joseph—a perfect type of Christ, in every manner. And when Joseph sent for his brethren, and they came down, and he looked and seen little Benjamin.... And he seen them there, and then he.... They said, “Why, this fellow.... We oughtn't to have killed our brother, Joseph.” (The Jews, seeing that they had made a mistake now, when Christ ... when He was making hisself known to them.) And Joseph was so full, he had to weep, nearly, so he dismissed his wife and his children, and all the guards and everything else, and sent them to the palace. Exactly right. And then in the presence of the Jews alone, he said, “I'm Joseph, your brother. I'm your brother.” And then they fell and begin to tremble, said, “Now we know we'll get it, because that we killed our brother. We've said we killed our brother, now he's this great king.”

He said, “God did it for a purpose, to save life.” That's exactly the reason God did it—to save us Gentiles. But the Gentiles was in the palace. Hallelujah! Being rejected of his brethren, Joseph, he took on a bride; and the bride was a Gentile, not a Jew. All right.

Now, where you getting to now? After we put on this glorious body, and the great age that is to come, when this glorified body ... this celestial body has been made a glorified body. You get what I mean now? Then I can walk over and say, “Brother Neville.” Let me just give you a little illustration. I say, “Brother Humes, let's go up to Papa this morning.” He's God. We know Him now. He's a Saviour, He's a healer.

There never was such a thing as a creation of sin. (That didn't go down good, did it?) Sin is not a creation. No, sir! Sin is a perversion. There's only one creator—that's God. Sin is righteous-ness perverted. What's an adultery? Righteousness perverted. What's a lie? The truth misrepresented. Certainly. What's a curse word? It's God's blessings turned to a curse word to God instead of a blessing. Sin is not a creation. Sin is a perversion. So, Satan could not create sin; he only perverted what God had created. That's exactly right. Death is only a perversion of life.

Now, notice this. Then I walk up, and I say, “Brother Humes, let's you and I, and Brother Beeler and some of the brethren....” We'll go up to Papa God, and ... say, “Let's take a little journey. You boys liked mountains when you....”

“Yeah, we sure did.”

“Oh, there's a couple million miles of them out yonder in that new world. Go ahead out, roam over them.”

“I have to ... the sun each day. Come up high, I'll hear you. While they're yet speaking, I'll hear.” Isaiah 66. That's right.

And you know, I'm walking out through there, all of us walking out through there just for about five hundred years, just a little journey, a million, don't make any difference, see. Now that sounds like crazy, but it's the truth. See, it's the truth, because there's no time. It's eternity. And when I go out there, I walk along down through there, and you know who I meet out there? I say, “Well, if there ain't Sister Georgie Bruce! Why, Sister Georgie, it's been a long time since I seen you.” Looks just like she always.... She's maybe ten million years old, but just as young as she ever was. She'd be scratching somebody on the back, and I look there, it's Sheeta, the lion.

I say, “How are you this morning, Sheeta?” Meow like a kitten.

“Oh, I've been down there talking to some of the sisters around them big flowers down there. We've been down there about five hundred years, see, looking around.” Now, that sounds crazy, but it's the truth. That's exactly. That's the way God intended it.

“God bless your heart, Sister Georgie, no harm can come. Nothing at all.”

In the evening time we'll go up on top of the mountain, and say, “O Papa God, I once was lost. Oh, I was once in the muck of sin, Papa God, and You saved me.”

Why, people that's tried to express that's went crazy. Well, that man who wrote the last verse of that “O Love Of God,” that was penned on the insane ... wall of an institution, who tried to express the love of God, how that He stooped to save sinners, and how that He did, his love that come down to save you and I.... Talk about worship, angels don't know nothing about it! The worship ... an angel only knows he stands there and wands his wings back and forth, and across, “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” But, oh, mercy! When it comes to knowing I was lost and now I'm found; I was dead, I'm alive again! O God, I was sin, I was muck, I was down on the dump!

Here's the best that life could give you. Did you ever go down here to Colgate dump? It's the stinkingest place I was ever at. That old smoke just makes me sick to smell it. Laying down there in all that old smoke, so sick that your stomach's just turning inside out (after taking castor oil, see, just as sick as you can be), and rats running all over you, trying to eat on you—and that's the best of life. And then somebody reach down and pick you up (and you're real old and can't help yourself), and just pick you up and turn you to an eighteen-year-old boy, set you up on top of a mountain, the very bloom of health. My, good breath of fresh air like that, good cold drink of water. Would you ever want to go back to that dump again? Never, never, never! Never go to that dump again.

Now, that's what it means, friends. That's what that vision (or translation, whatever, a vision—I'll say vision, because I'm afraid that would hurt somebody to say translation), that's what that was. Now, there's when God ... what God did to bring sons and daughters to Him. Now, who are these people? How did they ever.... What did these people do to merit this? How did they ever do it? God, at the beginning, before an angel was ever made.... How many knows He's infinite?

Now, you trinitarian brethren, I'm not wanting to hurt you, but how in the name of the good Word of God could you ever place Jesus being a separate person from God Himself? If Jesus could take another person and make him go and die to redeem this person here, He would be an unjust being. There's only one way that God could ever do it, would be take the place Himself! And God became flesh that He might taste the pains of death, to take the sting and death away from us, that we might be redeemed by his own.... That's why He'll be so worshipped. Jesus was a man, sure He was. He was a man, m-a-n, born of the virgin Mary. But the Spirit that was in Him was God without measure. In Him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He was Jehovah-jireh, He was Jehovah-rapha, He was Jehovah-manasseh, He was Jehovah our shield, our buckler, our healer; He was Alpha, Omega, the beginning and the end; He was the first, the last; He what was, which is, and shall come; the root and offspring of David, the morning star. Why, He was all in all. In Him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

And death always had a stinger, that it stung people, “Ah,” the devil says, “I got you, because you listened to me. Sting you! I'll put you in the grave. That sheep's blood can't help you any. That's just an animal's blood.” God, in his wisdom, knowed that there would be a Lamb coming, slain from the foundation of the world. Yes, sir. And He waited for that time, for the fullness of time to come.

But one day when this Lamb come, this man, Satan was even fooled. He looked around Him. He said, “If thou be the Son of God, do this. If thou be the Son of God, perform a miracle and let me see you do it. Let me see you do it. (Uh-huh, I'll tie a rag around his face.) Smite you. If you're a prophet, tell us who hit you. Hmm! I don't believe you're the guy. If you are, tell us straightly you are. [See, all like that.] Oh, tell us you are!” He opened not His mouth. Oh! Oh, did He pull the wool over his eyes then!

He looked around to the disciple, and said, “I could speak to my Father and He'd send me twelve legions of angels.” Pilate didn't hear that, you know.

“If thou be.... If thou be.... Oh, that ain't him. Why, look at him bleeding. Hey, some of you soldiers go over there and spit in his face. [Spit, mocked Him, pulled handsful of beard out of His face.] Oh, he ain't ... naw, that ain't him! I'll anchor my stinger in him, boy. I'll get him up there. I got you now!”

When He was there crying, “Eli! Eli! My God! My God! [That was a man.] Why hast thou forsaken me?”

In the garden of Gethsemane, the anointing left Him, you know. He had to die as a sinner. He died a sinner—you know that. Not his sins, but mine and yours. That's where that love come in, how He took mine! Oh, hallelujah, how He took mine!

And there He was. He couldn't open his mouth. Stinger said, “You know, I believe that was just an ordinary man. He wasn't virgin born, so I'll anchor my stinger in Him.”

Here he come, socked his stinger in Him, but that was the wrong time, boy! He got his stinger pulled out then. He can't sting no more from then. He left his stinger in there. Rose up on the third day, and said, “I am he that was dead, and is alive again, and alive forevermore. I have the keys of death and hell.” Yes, sir. He failed to see who that was. “And because I live, you shall live also. It does not yet appear....”

One day, three or four days after that, after He had ascended to the Father, had returned back, then some of them said, “Oh, he must be a spook. He must be ... kind of something spooky about that guy. When you seen Him, you seen a vision.”

“No, He was the real Jesus.”

Thomas said, “Let me see his hands and everything. I'll tell you if it is.”

He said, “Here I am.” Said, “You got any fish and bread over there. Bring me a sandwich.” And they brought Him a sandwich, and He stood there and eat it. Said, “Now, does a spirit eat like I eat? Does a spirit have flesh and bones like I got?” See? He said, “I am He. I'm that.”

And Paul said, “It does not yet appear just exactly what kind of a body we'll have, but we know we'll have a body like his.” What? Did He ever have that theophany body? Yes, sir. When He died, the Bible said that (He is a personal pronoun again) He went to hell and preached to the souls in prison. Hallelujah! How did He do it? He had senses of feeling, He had senses of hearing, He had senses of speech. He preached with that same kind of body I saw those glorified ones in the other night. He preached to the souls that were in hell, that repented not in the long-suffering of the days of Noah.

But when He rose up on Easter, it was not possible that that body should see corruption, because David the prophet foresaw it: “I'll not leave his soul in hell, neither will I suffer my Holy One to see corruption. Moreover my flesh shall rest in hope, because he'll not leave my soul in hell, neither will he leave my Holy One see corruption.” And on seventy-two hours—before corruption could set in—that theophany, that body that went and preached to the souls that were in prison, that repented not in the long-suffering of the days of Noah, rose again; and the mortal put on immortality, and He stood and He ate, and He [unclear words] He was a man. Hallelujah!

That's how we'll see Him, Brother Evans. That's when He'll sit on the throne of David. Hallelujah! That's when we'll walk up and down, now, I'll take a trip with you across the mountains for a million years, see—just a few days, just a few minutes. We'll go across there, sit around over there.

And it comes time to eat, you know, first thing you know, Sister Wood said ... I said, “Sister Wood, well, where have you been all this time? I haven't seen you for ... seems to me like it's been fifteen minutes.”

“Oh, that was two thousand years ago, Brother Branham.”

“Uh-huh. How you feeling?” Oh, of course you can't feel nothing but good.

“Say! Come here, boys, I'll show you all something, brethren, my darling brethren. Here is a fountain of water here, the best you ever drank.” And, oh, we'll get a good cold drink. I'll reach up there and get a great big bunch of grapes, and we'll all sit down there and eat it. Won't that be wonderful? That's exactly what it is. That's just it.

How did we get this? How do we know it? God, before the foundation of the world, predestinated us. Who? Those that are in the promised land.

... predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ ... according to his good pleasure of his will,

To the praises of his glory [That we might praise Him, like He said. That's what He was, God; we want to praise Him.] praises of his glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us acceptable in the beloved. [In Christ we are accepted.]

In whom we have redemption through the blood, the forgiveness of s-i-n-s....

I got to go back to adoption, but I want to stop on sins here a minute. Sins, did you notice that? Did you know God don't condemn a sinner for sinning? He condemns him for being a sinner. If a sinner smokes a cigar, He don't condemn him for it; he's a sinner, anyhow, see. He don't have any sins, the sinner don't. He's just a sinner, see. He don't have any sins. But you have sins, you that's Christians. Do you notice here he's talking to the church? Keep her straight, see. “Forgiveness of sins,” s-i-n-s. We commit sins, but the sinner is just a sinner. God don't forgive him....

Now, you say, “Well, he went out here and shot a man. What're you going to do about it?” That ain't none of my business. I ain't a reformer; I'm a preacher. The law will take care of that—they're reformers. They're.... Well, say, “He committed adultery.” That's up to the law. That's between him and the law. I'm not a reformer. I don't reform people. I want to get them converted. I'm a preacher, see. It's my business to get him to God. If he sins, that's his business—he's a sinner. God condemns him on a higher level. He's a sinner to begin with. He's condemned to start with. He didn't even get to first base. He's nowhere. He's a sinner to start with. He don't have any sins; he's a sinner.

You couldn't go out and say, “This much is night, and this much isn't night.” No, it's all night. Just all night. That's what God says. That's right. He's just a sinner, that's all. “Now, he did this. This much is night, this is real black night right here.” I know, but it's just all night, that's all, see.

I couldn't say, “This much is light right here.” No, it's just all light, see, just light. You can't say how much, see. But if there's a black spot in this, then there's darkness in it.

So sins, s-i-n-s, we have forgiveness of our sins through his what? Blood, precious blood.

...according to the riches of his...

How do we get it? Because we're worthy, we did something to have our sins forgiven? His what?

...grace;

Oh, my! Nothing in my arms I bring, Lord. Nothing could I do, there isn't a thing I could do. Look! He predestinated me, He called me, He chose me. I never chose Him. He chose me, He chose you, He chose all of us. We didn't choose Him. Jesus said, “You didn't choose me, I chose you.” He said, “No man can come to me except my Father draws him first, and all the Father has given me will come to me. And none of them's lost, except the son of perdition, to fulfill the Scriptures.” You see? Said, “All the Father's given me will come to me.”

Oh, I'm getting too late, ain't I? And I ain't never got out of this. I ain't got started on this yet. Let me hurry up. I got to get to something right here just right quick now if we hurry. I got to get back to this adoption just a minute. Oh, will you forgive me just for a minute? Let's get this here. Some of these people are all the way from Georgia here, all the way for tonight. Bless their hearts. Now, brother Georgian, and Texas, and wherever you're from, listen to this. Fifth verse, let's linger on it a few minutes.

Having predestinated us unto....

Unto. What does the word unto mean, the word unto? It means that something we're coming to, unto. “I am going unto the fountain. I am going unto the chair.” Humes, you get that? “I am going unto the desk.” Now,

He predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according as his own good pleasure of his will,

How much pleasure? Whose pleasure was it, whose goodness? His own. His own good pleasure of his own will.

Now, what is adoption? (Now let me get this now. I don't know whether.... I won't have time to get through this, but I'll hit it. Then if there's a question, you can ask me a little later on, sometime in the message, something.) Listen. Your adoption is not your birth. Your adoption is your placing. When you were born again (John 1:17, I believe), when we are born of the Spirit of God, we are sons of God. But we were predestinated. Now here's what I'm trying to get you to, for this sons of the last day, you see. We were predestinated to ... unto adoption. My!

Now here we are. Now, this is what hurts Pentecostal a little. They say, “I got born again! Praise the Lord, got the Holy Ghost!” That's fine. You're a child of God. That's right. But yet that ain't what I'm talking about. See, you were predestinated unto adoption. Adoption is placing a son.

(I'm too close to that, because Becky told me that I get too close to it, you can't hear in the back.)

I am.... See,

a child.... How many knows the rules of adoption in the Old Testament? Of course you.... Look. A son was born. (I believe I got it in some sermon. What is that, Gene, do you remember? It's on a tape. Oh, what was that? I've struck on it. Oh, yeah, I got it. “Hear Ye Him.” “Hear Ye Him”—the adoption of children.)

Now, in the Old Testament, when a child was born in a family, he was a child when he was born. Because he was born of his parents, he was a son of the family and heir of all things. Now, but this son was raised by tutors. Galatians, fifth chapter, seventeenth to the twenty-fifth verse. All right. He was raised by tutors, raisers, teachers. Now, for instance, if I had a son born, say, I'm a father and....

And that's the reason in the King James.... How many ever thought that read awful funny in the King James version, said, “In my Father's house is many mansions.”? A house, many mansions? See? Really, in the days that the Bible was translated for the King James, a house was a domain. “In my Father's domain is many mansions.” Not in a house, mansions, but he was called the Father of this domain. They had it very Biblical. In the Bible that's the way it is.

When a father had a great big thousand-acre farm, or something another, he had a bunch of people living over here. He had hired hands living over here to take care of sheep; he had some over here to take care of cattle; he had some here that run up to the upper range up there a hundred miles away. And he had some right over here taking care of goats, and he had some taking care of mules and different things. He just had a big kingdom. And he got on his little donkey and he rode around to each one and seen how they was getting along, the sheep-shearing and everything like that. He didn't have time....

(You can't hear me when I walk away from there. I'll try to stay back here. Can you hear me all right now, here?) Watch.

He rode away, and went away, trying to take care of his kingdom. So now he wants.... That son is going to be heir of everything that he's got. He's an heir.

And when we are born in the kingdom of God by Jesus Christ, we are heir of heaven, joint-heirs with Jesus, because He took our place. He became us (sin), that we might become Him (righteousness). See? He become me that I might become Him, see, joint-heirs with Him. All right, now remember that, each one of you.

Now, remember, God predestinated you, by foreknowledge, that you were coming to this. Everybody understand it, raise your hand. God, by foreknowledge, predestinated you to come to the promised land. What is the promised land for the Christian today? Just raise up your hand if you know. “The promise is unto you and to your children, and to them that are afar off.” “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, your sons and your daughters.” And in Isaiah 28:18, “Precept must be upon precept, line upon line; here a little, there a little. Hold fast to that what's good. For with stammering lips and other tongues will I speak to this people. And this is the rest, [the rest—the sabbath land] that I said that they should enter into.” And for all this, they would not hear, but they wagged their heads and walked away, and wouldn't hear it, see. Exactly.

What was it? Just exactly like those people who had come all the way from Canaan ... or, from Egypt, all the way up through the wilderness, and got right next to ... close enough to taste grapes that come out of the land. Brother, there, them men want me to draw back that on Hebrews 6. How can I do it? Them's borderline believers. They'll never go over! They can't go over. Jesus said.... They said, “Our fathers ate manna in the wilderness.”

And Jesus said, “And they're every one dead.” That's separated. They're every one dead. That's right. Said, “But I'm the bread of life that come from God out of heaven. If a man eats this bread, he'll never die. That's right. Yes, sir, he's got eternal life if he eats this. I'm that tree of life from the garden of Eden.”

Now, see, these people come up so close! See if you notice in Hebrews 6—not going back to that—but in Hebrews 6, “These people once made partakers, come so close, and have tasted of the heavenly gift.” They've sat around, they've seen healings done, they've seen people in the power of God, they've seen lives changed—but they won't put a hand on it. No, sir. No, sir. “And have tasted the power of the world to come; and if they should try to renew themselves again unto repentance, seeing that they have crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh, and counted the blood of the covenant wherewith they were sanctified with....”

“I belong to a church that believes in sanctification.” That's good as far as it goes, but you don't go far enough, see. Yes, sir. The wilderness sanctified them. Yes, indeedy. They had the brazen serpent and the brazen altar, and everything out there, sanctification; but they entered into Palestine for rest.

Look over in Hebrews 4. Didn't he say “another rest”? God created the seventh day and gave them rest on the seventh day. Another place he spoke of rest day, “and today....”—in David. Then He give them another rest: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest.” Enter into this rest. “For we which have entered into this rest have ceased from our works as God did from his on the sabbath.” Certainly. There's your sabbath rest. There's your real rest, in this promised land.

The Holy Ghost is a promise of the people. And why will they want educated scholarly preachers who will let them wear shorts, and cut their hair, and wear lipstick; and men that gamble and drink beer and tell jokes, and go on and carry on like that, and call themselves members of church? Why they will take something like that and refuse the leadership of the Holy Ghost? Why, the Bible said the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword that cuts to the sunder of the bone, and even the discerner of the thoughts of the heart. Yes, even the thoughts of the mind.

And if we love the world or the things of the world, the love of God's not even in us. “Many are called, few are chosen; for strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life, and but few there'll be that'll find it.” “Many will come to me in that day and sit down in the kingdom,” said Jesus, “with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” But the children of the kingdoms will be cast out, and say, 'Lord, have not we did this in your name? Have not we preached? Have not we been Dr. So-and-so and Reverend So-and-so?“ ”I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I didn't know you. Not all that saith, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter in, but the one that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.“ That's the one that goes in.

There you are.

Entering into this promised land, how do we get into it? We are predestinated to it. The church, by the foreknowledge of God, has been predestinated to what? To his honor, by his grace, to the glory, and worship, and glory of God. Papa, sitting back there in the beginning, self-existent, nothing around Him, wanted something to worship, so He foreordained and predestinated a church before the foundation of the world, and put their names in the Lamb's book of life when He was slain before the foundation of the world; that they might appear to his glory and to his praises at the end of time, when He'll gather all things in that one man, Christ Jesus. Whew! Glory! That's it. That's it right there, my brother, sister. Don't you never move from that.

God by his election grace called you; God by his election grace sanctified you; God by his election grace and his power baptized you and put you into this land of rest. They which have entered into this rest have ceased from their going astray. They ceased from their works like God did from his. They have joy unspeakable and full of glory! The tree of life is blooming in them. They have long-suffering, gentle, goodness, patience, faith, meekness, gentleness, and so forth. The tree of life is blooming in them because their hope is anchored in Christ Jesus, the witness of the Holy Ghost bearing record with signs and wonders following the believers. “These signs shall follow them that believe.” As they go along, they heal the sick, they cast out devils, they speak with tongues, they see visions. Oh, they walk with God, they talk with God. No devil can move them. They're steadfast, looking toward a better place. Forgetting those things that are in the past, they press towards the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus. There they are. There they are. That's that church!

How did they get there? You can't say, “Well, Lord, you know, one day I started smoking cigars; and I fell down and I thought I'd....” Oh, no, no, no, no.

Predestination—He called us. And when we fall is when we say, “God, we were lost and undone.” We didn't even have a mind to even save ourself. We were nature of a pig, we were pigs to begin with.

You go out to a pig pen and look to an old sow, and say, “Now, look here, old gal, I want to tell you something. It's wrong for you to drink slop.”

She'd say, “Oink-oink,” see. Now, that's just as much as you have of saving your own self. That's exactly.

You say, “Lady, you shouldn't wear clothes like that. You should dress neatly. You should do this. You should not go to ... you should not have these card parties. You shouldn't smoke cigarettes. You shouldn't do this. Mister, you shouldn't carry....”

He says, “Oink-oink. I belong to the Oink-oink.” Uh-huh. “Oink,” that's just about as much as they know. “Well, I'll let you know I'm just as good as you are. Oink-oink!” See, they reject the leadership of the Holy Ghost, for the Bible said that if you love the world or the things of the world, the love of God's not even in you.

What makes them peculiar? You are a holy nation. What have you done? Entered out of that land. You're over in another land. How did you get over there? That's the promised land. What kind of a promise? “And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I'll pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.” By one Spirit we are all baptized into this one promised land. Amen. Brothers and sisters, hallelujah, with the purity of heart, no jealousy, no enmity, nothing! I don't care if a brother goes astray, no matter what he does you'll go after him.

I went after a brother not long ago had went astray. A young fellow said to me, said, “Let that rascal go. Let him alone.”

I said, “If I ever get to a place that my heart don't go with my brother, then it's time for me to go to the altar, because I've fallen from grace.” I said, “I'll go as long as he's got breath in his body, and I'll catch him somewhere along the line.” Yes, sir. And I caught him (hallelujah), brought him back. That's right. He's back in the fold safely now. Yes, sir. He would have went astray as sure as the world.

A while ago when I seen that poor little woman sitting there, and the sheriff called me, said, “Why, she ought to be in a straitjacket.” Said, “She's just delirious, she's out of her head.” They put her in a hotel. They can't....

I said, “That's all right.”

Sheriff said, “Why, Billy [I know him real well, and knowed him since I was a kid.],” he said, “if there's anything I can do to help you....”

I said, “That's all right.”

Said, “Can you help her?”

I said, “No, but He can.” I said, “Give her to me.”

So they brought her out there. And when she left a while ago, in peace, what was it? We sent a prayer out after her. Amen! She was so....

They said, “Do you want to get a doctor?” Said to her husband, “Do you want to get a doctor?”

Said, “A doctor can't do nothing for her.” And that's right. She was insane. Doctor can't do nothing for her.

Said, “Our only hope is get there.”

And he said, “Billy, I don't understand that.”

I said, “I don't expect you to, see. Don't expect you to.”

But, oh, my, neither do I understand it. No. But, brother, I remember when I was away out yonder one time, something come after me. Amen! It wasn't because that I wanted to come, but it was because something come after me; because before the foundation of the world, God predestinated (hallelujah), that we would be to his honor and glory. Listen! Those who He foreknew, He has what? Called. That right? Did He call you? Yeah! Why did He call you? He foreknew you. Those who He foreknew, He called; those who He has called, He has justified. Is that right? And those who He has justified, He hath glorified! Amen! That's what the Bible said. Those who He foreknew, He called—every generation. Those who He called, He has already glorified. What? Let me read the scripture here. All right.

Having predestinated them unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to his own pleasure....

To the praises of his glory....

Oh, do you get it? To the praises of his glory! That He could sit there in the eternal ages that is to roll on, and his children would scream, “Abba, Father! Abba, Father!”

And the angels say, “What are they talking about? What are they talking about?”

So beautifully displayed in the prodigal son. I was lost. “This is my son. He was lost and now he's found. He was dead, and he's alive again. Bring forth the fatted calf, the best robe, a ring, and put it on his finger. And let's....” No wonder when the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy, when they seen the plan of salvation, God putting your name on the book before the foundation of the world....

Now you say, “Calvin believes something like that.” I didn't believe Calvin. Calvin was a murderer. Calvin put a man to death because he baptized in Jesus' name. He was a rascal, needed to be converted himself. Yes, sir. But what he said about ... some of the things he said was right. But what.... His action, a man that'd kill a man for something like that, that's horrible. That's sinful. All right.

Wherein he hath abounded towards us....

Oh, wait, I didn't get that “adoption,” did I? Am I too late? Let's see what this clock says up here, what time we got. All right. Let's just take ten minutes for the sake of these people that's come so long. Look.

Adoption, let me show you why it's done now. A father has a big kingdom he rides around. Now he's got a son born. Oh, he's so happy! (That's God.) So you know what that father does? He finds the very best raiser, tutor. You know what a tutor is, don't you? It's a schoolteacher. He finds the very best schoolteacher he can find in all the country. (And then we're going. Now listen.) And he finds the best schoolteacher he can find. He don't just get just a scallywag. He wants his boy to be a real fellow.

Don't you want your children that way? Sure, best you can give them! Yes, sir. So if a natural man thought that, what do you think God thinks about for his children? The best He could get.

So, he wants a man that'll be honest. Now, he don't want a man to say, “Now, look, Junior, you just do anything you want to, honey. Oh, yes, father, uh-huh, he's getting along fine. He's a fine boy.” Get a little pat on his back and a straw in his hat. No, no. That guy would get fired right now. Sure. He wants a man that'll be truthful. If that boy's coming right, tell him. If he isn't, tell him what's wrong.

And if an earthly father thought that.... Wouldn't you want a man to be honest with you, the schoolteacher be honest about your children? Sure. Well, what do you think God thinks? And He knows. We don't; He does. We're finite, we couldn't tell; but He's infinite and does know.

So, you know what the Father did? He never said, “I'm going to get a pope to watch over my children.” Neither did He say, “I'm going to get a bishop.” No, no. He didn't do that, because He knowed the pope would be wrong, so would the bishop, see. He never said, “I'm going to get a general overseer to watch over my churches.” No, no. He got the Holy Ghost. That was his tutor to raise his children.

All right. Then how would you know the Holy Ghost don't...? He speaks through human lips. How do you know then He's telling the truth? When you see the Holy Spirit speaking through lips that's telling the truth exactly every time, predicting and coming to pass just perfectly, like Samuel said, then you know that's truth. It's coming right. Because God said, “If he speaks and what he says don't come to pass, don't hear him, because I'm not with him. But if he does, well, then hear him, because I'm with him,” see. There you are. That's how He does.

Now, then He goes around.... Now, what do you think that tutor would say if he had to go up to the Father, and say, “Your children's acting awful. I tell you, that boy of yours, he's a renegade. He's a roustabout. I never seen such a fellow! My, You know what he does? And that girl of yours! Oh, whew, I don't know what You're going to do with her. Hmm! Well, you know what? She looks just like.... She's all painted up like some of them girls over yonder in Philistine. Yes, she wants to act just like they do.”

“My daughter?”

“Yes, your daughter.”

That's what the Holy Spirit has to say about the church today. No wonder we can't have a revival, see. Now, that's true.

“What about your son? Same thing.”

“What?”

“Well, You know You always said that those sheep should herd in that pasture up there on that sheep food up there. Yeah, You know what he did? He drove them down there in that weed pile. Just took them down there and dunked them all in that creek, and let them lay around in that weed pile, eating them old willows, and they're so poor they can't hardly get out of there. [That's bishops, pastors, who deny the power thereof.] Well, I tell You the truth, I never seen such a bunch of nervous sheep in my life. [He don't like that. No.] And You know what? Them cattle up here, You know, You told them to feed on that alfalfa up there, You know, to make them fat?”

“Yeah.”

“You know what he's giving them?”

“No.”

“Them old ironweeds. Yeah. He's making them join societies and everything. You never seen the like in your life. You never seen such in all your life. You know what he's doing? Going along out there smoking a big cigar, reared back. He's got his wife with him, she's wearing shorts just like the Philistines are doing out there. Yeah.” That's the kind of message the Holy Spirit has to take about church today. Now, what do you think about that?

That's adoption. What did He do? He predestinated us unto adoption. He give us the Holy Ghost—but wait a minute, adoption, that's what we're talking about. Adoption!

“Well, You know what he does? The bishop come by the other day. He was having a little healing service down there, and the bishop come by. Some guy, a brother come by and was praying for the sick. And he said, 'You stop that!'

“'Oh, oh, yes, father bishop, I'll do that.'

“'Don't you cooperate.'

“'Oh, no, no, father bishop, sure not.'

“And here I come and tell him the truth right out of your Word. See, here it is. I read your laws to him exactly what to do, and he won't listen to them. He said, 'Oh, that was for another age, another son, some other time. That don't mean me.'” There you are. Now that's truth, friends. Now don't you see where the church misses its placing, why we haven't got revivals, why we haven't got things going on? That's where it lays.

Joshua say, “Gad, I want you to.... Right in here lays your place according to the blueprint. Your place lays here, right here. You get in here, Gad, and stay here. Benjamin, you go right down here. And now you all stay away from the border of the Philistines.” And Joshua comes back, here they're all over in the Philistines, having a big old shindig, just dancing up like that, and all the women painting up, and dancing around, having a big time. Then Joshua scratches his head, and say, “Now what?” Now that's just exactly what's taking place. Not all, thank God. Not all, but too many. All right.

Now what takes place then? That's what happens. Don't you imagine that man (the Holy Spirit) blushes before the Father when He has to say that? Oh, my! “I told him, but he wouldn't listen to it. I told him that ... and let him read right there in the Book. I had a little minister to come by and show him that Jesus Christ was the same yesterday, today, and forever. And you know what? He let one of them old goatherders come over here and tell him that that was for another age, see. And he smelled so bad, time he got over there, with goat smell, you know—cigars, and you know, so forth—smelled so bad when he got over here. But I tell you, that goatherder had enough medals pinned on him, oh, I tell you, if you'd write his name in the paper, it'd take ... his obituary would take half a sheet to make his titles. Yes, sir, they sure like him over there in that country, but I tell You, he sure don't know how to feed sheep. That's one thing about it. He just won't listen to me,” says the Holy Spirit. “I tried to tell him that You're the same yesterday, today, and forever, but he just won't do it. He's the biggest coward I ever seen in my life. Yeah. And the church has made him an overseer, bishop, so forth, and all the people are listening to him.

“And then You know what? They take those ... they got a little old thing down there they call a television. They turn a little old thing on like that, and them women come on and carry on, all kind of halfway dresses. And, You know, a lot of your daughters are....”

“Oh, surely not!”

Say, “Yes, they are. Yes, they're doing that. Some of them are crying out for revival, Father, some of them really want it. Some of them are really walking the line. Some of them are standing just as true on that Word as they can be. Others, I don't know what to do, they're way out there. You know what them others are doing? Making fun of them, saying, 'They're just a bunch of cranks.'” Well, that makes Him feel pretty bad.

But now let's change the picture. Now the Father ... his son is a good boy. His Father right along.... Here's the tutor, the Holy Spirit. Which way the Holy Spirit, He said, “I'm going to walk,” the tutor said, “I'm....”

The child said, “I'll walk right with You. I'll go right with You.”

“Oh, the hill's awful high, son.”

“I'll go right with You. I got confidence in You. If I start getting tired, You'll raise my hand up and hold me on.”

“But there's lions up on the hill there!”

“Don't matter. As long as You're around, don't make a bit of difference. I'm walking right on in.”

“There's trouble up there, it's slick rocks.”

“I don't care, as long as You're holding my hand, I'll walk right with You. I'll walk right with You.”

“Oh, you know what? Your Dad used to do that.”

“That's good. Yes, sir.”

Get up on top of the hill there. “Oh,” He said, “You know what, Father? Your son is just like a chip off the old block. He is absolutely, exactly like You. Every word that You say, he says 'amen' to it. I had him turn over in the Bible the other day, and it said, 'Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.' You know what he said? He screamed and throwed his hands up in the air and said, 'Hallelujah! Amen!' ”Oh! And you know it said here, in your Word, you know, where You said, 'He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also'?“

“Yeah, I remember writing that to my son. Yeah, I remember writing that.”

“Oh, when he saw that, he just screamed and jumped up and down, hollered, 'Hallelujah! Lord, take all the world out of me. Make me like that!' Yes, sir. And all those things that he done!”

“Oh,” the Father said, “I'm happy for that son. That's a fine son. All right. Keep an eye on him for a few years, see how he comes on, how he progresses.”

After a while the years pass by. “How's he getting along?”

“Oh, my, he's even growing in grace! Oh, my, he's just ... he's shelling the woods. I'm telling You, he's really.... Why, he takes them sheep, can handle them just like You do. He'll never give them seaweeds. He'll never give them ironweeds. When they come around, saying 'We want to join the churches,' say, 'Shut your mouth, you don't need that! No, sir. Here's what you need, ”Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins. You shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.“' Yes, sir, that's what he said.”

“Oh, does he really say that?”

“Yes, sir, he sure does.”

“Well, that's just the way I wrote it.”

“That's just the way he says it.”

“Hmm, yes, sir.”

“Some said, 'Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem till you're endued with power from on high, since the Holy Ghost come upon you; you'll be witness of me in Jerusalem, Judaea and Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world.' When he read that, he hollered, 'Hallelujah, that's what you need!' You know what he does? He just gets them right down there till they get it, that's all. Stays right with them.

“And if they start fussing, he says, 'Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute. That's the way goats act, not sheep, see.' Oh, sometimes they get a little peeved at him, but he kind of pats them on the back a little bit, and says, 'Wait a minute, sh-sh, sh-sh, sh. It's all right.' He really knows how to control them sheep. Yes, sir, I tell you.

“You know what? I seen Archbishop So-and-so was telling him that he couldn't come to this town and hold a meeting. But, you know, I kind of led him. I said, 'Go anyhow,' see. ”Went through all these tapes and, 'Don't you let them go out.' They went anyhow. Went over in these towns here, said, 'Well, we won't spon....'

“And you know the devil got down there, said, 'I'll bet you I can keep him out of that town.' ”I said, 'Can't do it. If I tell him to go, he'll go. I bet you he'll go.' 'No, no, no, no, no. I'll tell him. I'll go down there and say, “Now, all my agents, you all gather together. You don't want that old fanaticism down here, all that old divine healing and that old Holy Ghost stuff. That passed back with the apostles years ago. You know that's no good, back there.”' Trying to give them that old ironweeds and everything like that.

“But, you know what? He went right on down there anyhow. Went right on down there and begin to throw out alfalfa. And you know what? Them sheep started eating. They're getting as fat as they can be. Yes, sir. Why, they're having healings and meetings, and you know a lot of them young fellows begin.... Why, they seen.... If they got a big bunch of hay like that alfalfa, you know what they done with it? It was so good till they run over to their neighbors, said, 'Taste this! Taste this!' Teenagers get [unclear words]. 'Yes, sir, like this right here. Here it is right here. Right here it is, see. Just repent, every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, so you can get the Holy Ghost. It's for whosoever will, let him come, let him come. Here, see here what the Bible said,' see. And they're just having a great time down there.”

“Oh, that's my son! That's my boy. Well, You think he's well matured?”

“Yep. Sure do,” said the Holy Spirit. “I've give him tests. Boy, I tried him this way and tried him that way. I've throwed him down sick, I've put him under. I stomped him. I let the devil do everything to him he could do. He come right back up again, believing just the same. Come up again. I made him sick. I done this. I throwed him in the hospital. I took him out here and I done this, I done that. I turned his wife against him, I turned his neighbors against him, I turned everything. That didn't make a bit of difference. Said, 'Though He slay me, yet I'll trust Him.' I killed his family. I took this, I did this, I done all this, I did this, that, or the other. Still he stood right up, 'Though He slay me, yet I'll serve Him! He's mine!'”

“Oh! Well, I believe we ought to call him out somewhere to a little special place and have an adoption.”

Now, when the father, in the Old Testament, understood that his son was ... come of age, and had been seasoned out unto adoption.... Unto! They're borned a child, but when.... They're a son right then, but then they'll never be no more than just a child, just an ordinary son, until they mature and show what they are. Then, he calls him out then.

Now here we are, church. Are you ready? Now it's a little bit late. Everybody bite your finger, pinch your soul, and pluck your heart, just for a minute, see. Now we're going to place the church. Now when the church gets to that place, He says, “Manasseh, you belong over here. Ephraim, you over here.”

Then he takes them out to a certain place, the father does, and he sets him up on a high place like this, and he has a ceremony, and they all come around. And he said, “I want everyone to know that this is my child, and I adopt my son. And I want anyone to know, from henceforth, that his name.... (I dress him up, a special dress on him.) And I want you to know that his name is just as good on any check as my name is. He's my child. I adopt him into my family, although he's been my son since he was born. Since he received the Holy Ghost, he's been my son. But now I'm going to place him positionally in authority. What he fires is fired, what he hires is hired.”

“And verily, verily, I say unto you, if you say to this tree, if you say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you've said will come to pass, you can have what you've said,” see. There you are. There you are, see. “He's my son.” How many knows that the adoption, that they adopted the son after he had proved to be a.... Everybody ever read the Bible—placing a son.

Now, God did the same thing to his Son when He took Jesus up on Mount Transfiguration. He took Peter, James, and John up there. That's three witnesses of the earth. There was Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, and God, up on the mountain. There they stood, up there on the mountain. And, first thing you know, they looked, and Jesus was glorified before them. Is that right? How many knows that's the Scripture? What'd He do? He dressed Him in the robe of immortality. And he said his raiment shined like the sun. Is that right? And a cloud overshadowed Him. Peter and John and them fell on their face. And they looked, and there stood Moses and Elijah, talking to Him. And Moses had been dead, and buried in an unmarked grave for eight hundred years. And Elijah took a chariot ride to heaven five hundred years before that. Whew! Ah, but they were still there. There they was talking to Him. See, He had taken Jesus up to see them, to see what it was all about, see there, showing these things. And they talked with Him, had a conversation with Him.

Then as soon as Peter looked back again and the glorification was off of Jesus, they seen Jesus only, and a voice come from that cloud, and said, “This is my beloved Son, hear ye him! His name's just as good as mine now. Hear ye him!” That's it—adopted, or placed sons. Now, there's where God is trying to get the Pentecostal church, in the book of Ephesians, see. Do you understand?

We got to close because it's getting too late, see, the kiddies getting sleepy. And I wanted to get down here to this verse right here, but I can't do it, till the thirteenth verse, see, the last part, “...sealed by the Holy Ghost of promise.” We'll get that Sunday, see. Look, now—what brings us in, and how we're kept by this.

But now to place, how are you? You are first born into the kingdom by the Holy Ghost. How many know that? All right. The next, you are predestinated unto the what? Adoption. What is that? You are predestinated unto the placing.

Oh, Sister Scott (I believe it is), sitting here, aren't you the one was up home today? A teaching's going around, somewhere in the world, around different parts of the country (I've heard of it lots), that Jesus is here on earth, walking around in a body, and He comes in and does this. That's a lie! His Holy Spirit's here, and He is trying to place his church, to get his church in order, place it in the promised land, so they can enter ... so that all the enemies can be drove out.

Manasseh can't take his land. I can't have a healing service when half of the ... when I go out there and preach the baptism in the name of Jesus Christ, and the trinitarian brethren saying, “Oh, he's old 'Jesus Only.'” And I can't go over here and have a divine healing when half of them says, “Divine healing's all right....” And a lot of them enjoy the miracles of the Lord, and say, “Well, I believe Brother Branham's a prophet, but let me tell you something. As long as the Spirit is on him, and he's discerning, he's the Lord's servant; but his teaching is rotten. It's no good.” Whoever heard of such tommyrot? It's either of God or it isn't of God. That's right. It's either all God or none God. That's the way it is.

But how you going to have...? Manasseh won't keep his ground, Ephraim won't keep his ground, Gad won't keep his ground, Benjamin won't keep his ground—they're all running out here with the Philistines, and all mixed up. How we going to get placed? But we have been born by the Holy Ghost, all of us. Is that right? What are we being born to? Predestinated.... Then after being born, we are predestinated unto the adoption, to be placed in the body of Christ. You see what I mean?

What is the body of Christ? Some are apostles, some are prophets, some are teachers, some are evangelists, and some are pastors. Is that right? We're called to.... Others has gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues, wisdom, knowledge, miracles, working of miracles, all these different gifts. And now what did they do? They practice that a little bit. What? Let it run loose just like I don't know what. One raise up, speak in tongues, the other one go ahead talking “Blah-blah-blah,” same as ever. Preacher will be preaching, make an altar call, and somebody raise up, speaking in tongues. “Hallelujah, glory to God.” If the preacher happens to go on with his message, being anointed, then the people say, “Old backslider,” see. It's because they're not taught.

The Bible said the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. God is no author of confusion. When I'm standing here, ministering here under the anointing of God, no matter how much you want to speak with tongues, you hold your peace till God's finished here. Then if you speak with tongues, it can't be just some repeating of Scripture, because God said don't use vain repetition. But it's a message directly to somebody. Ask me one time, put your finger on one time that the Holy Spirit ever, under the discernment, told somebody ... repeated a Scripture over and over. It told him something that was wrong with him and something that they had done, and something that they must do, or something had to happen, or something like that. Is that right?

So is speaking in tongues and interpretation. If there's one in the church that speaks with tongues, and another interpret it.... Let us say this: Let Brother Neville raise up and speak with tongues, and this brother here give the interpretation, say, “Tell this man here that yesterday he went out here and done something he oughtn't to have done. Now the doctor told him today he had cancer. Go make that thing right, and come back here and get right with God.”

The man'd say, “Truly, that's the truth.” Then God's with you.

But how're we going to do it this way? See? It's just bump, bump, just haphazard, any way, no placing at all. Now that's.... See, Ephesians, are trying.... See, they miss that. See how they miss it? We are predestinated unto the adoption of sons. Now how many understands what I mean, raise up your hands. Adoption! We're born in the Spirit of God, sure, receive the Holy Ghost, and crying, “Abba, Father! Hallelujah! Glory to God!” That's right, we're children, but we can't get nowhere. We can't whip the Philistines.

Look at Billy Graham standing over there and that Mohammedan saying, “Prove it.”

Look at Jack Coe standing down yonder. And that atheist ... that Church of Christ shaking hands with the atheist out there, and taking hands. Supposed to be a Christian, and shaking hands with a devil like Joe Lewis, a free thinker, and even cuss God and said there was no such a thing as a God, anyhow, to begin with. And things like that in a church that calls themselves a Church of Christ, shaking hands with him, and taking sides against Brother Jack Coe. How're you going to do anything? And the Pentecostals, many of them, against him; when every preacher in our land ought to've stood toe-to-toe with him, and said, “God, send down your power.” See, there we are. We can't be placed.

Ephraim don't want to stay. One of them go over here.... We find Manasseh gets over here, say, “Oh, my, the Lord give you a good corn field!” Then here comes over here, Gad, said, “Well, now, wait a minute. I'm supposed to raise oats, but I'm going to get corn too. Hallelujah!” See? You ain't got nothing to do with corn. Get oats—oats is your part to raise. You ain't supposed to herd sheep when you're supposed to herd cattle. God wants to place the church. But every one of them wants to do the same thing. “Hallelujah!” And you can't tell them a thing about it. No, no. They still got that goaty nature, “Butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt, butt,” see. You can't tell them. That's right. Now, isn't that true?

And you can't place the church, see.

The church is supposed to be predestinated unto the adoption of children, where a man ... God can take a man and adopt him into the family, and give him something that's.... First, try that and see if it's right. The Bible said try the spirits. This man claims a certain thing, try it and see if it's right. If it's right, move right with it. Then say, “Lord, send us something else. Keep moving us, see, just keep moving us and everybody'll take his place.” Then you're going to see the church of God begin to get its place. Then's when the Philistines will go to backing up. The shorts will go off, hair will grow down, faces will be washed, cigars will be missing. That's right, when the church begins to get into its mighty power, when we have an Ananias and Sapphira, and a few of them. Yes, sir. You'll see when that holy church stands together in its power, positionally placed as sons of God, adopted into the family of God, powerful church standing there in its glory. Oh, that's what He's coming for.

See how far we are off, brethren? You can't even get together on Scripture. And any man, any man that can't see water baptism in the Bible in the name of Jesus Christ, he's either blind or something mentally wrong. That's right. And there's where the big fight is.

I'll tell any person that'll bring me any scripture where anybody was ever baptized in any other name besides the name of Jesus Christ, in the new church.... Or, if he was baptized any other way, he had to be baptized over again in the name of Jesus Christ, to get the Holy Ghost. You come show me. There's not no such. There's no such a commission. When Jesus said over there, “Go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” Father, Son, nor Holy Ghost, neither one is a name, none of them. Peter turned right ... ten days later and said, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” And everywhere in the Bible....

And then here was some was baptized down there some other way, by John, just unto repentance. Paul said, “You got to be rebaptized again. You got to come again.”

“Oh, but we've been baptized by a great holy man, John. He baptized Jesus.”

“This is the gospel. This is the Spirit of God that's been revealed to me. I am an apostle of the Lord, and if an angel from heaven comes and preaches anything else....”

Let me read that. The Bible said, “If an....” Paul said, “If an angel from heaven said anything else [bishop, archbishop, pope, overseer, whatever he may be], if he preaches anything else besides this that I've preached unto you, let him be accursed. There's no.... We have no such customs as that. No, sir. You just.... There's just no such thing.” And then, see, why is it people can't see that? Why is it people won't believe that? See? [Someone in the congregation says, “Predestinated.”] Somebody hit it right there, Gene. Predestinated, exactly. Why? “All the Father has given me will [what?] come to me.” Exactly. “All the Father has given me will come to me.” (What's the matter with me, me trying to find here? Here we are. All right.)

Let me just read this verse and then I'll tell you what Paul ... the things that.... The very message I preach tonight, here's what Paul said on predestination, on water baptism in Jesus' name, the Holy Ghost baptism, the setting in the church, and so forth. Here's what he said.

I marvel [telling these Galatians] that you are so soon moved from him that called you unto ... grace of Christ....

[I am so ashamed of you, in other words, that you let somebody come in and twist you away from that], unto another gospel:

Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would prevent the gospel of Christ [prevent the real gospel of Christ].

But watch. Now, remember, it was Paul that constrained every person that had not been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to come and be baptized over again in the name of Jesus Christ. How many knows that's true? How many know it was Paul that said these secrets had been hid since the foundation of the world and been revealed to him? that we were predestinated to be the sons, unto adoption. It was Paul. Look here what he said.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

Just don't say, “I don't agree with you, mister.” Just let him be accursed. Let me read the next verse.

As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that we have already received, let him be accursed.

That's right. Now, brother, sister, if it was God the other day (and I say that, hoping not irreverent) that taken me to see this little.... Now, I get excited ... I don't guess I get excited, I just get blessed in preaching. I get beside myself and I keep you here till I know you're sleepy and tired. But, oh, if you could only know how I want you over there! See? And when I—once I say this again—when He said.... I said, “It would do....”

He said, “Would you like to see what the end is?”

And I looked back and seen myself laying there on the bed. Surely you've knowed me long enough to know that I tell you the truth. I want to ask you something, as Samuel said before the anointed Saul, “Have I ever told you anything in the name of the Lord but what was true?” Is that right? It's always been true. Have I ever come begged you for money or anything like that? No, sir, I never have. Have I ever did anything but tried my best to lead you to Christ? Exactly.

Now they want to say I'm a mental telepathist, you know, a supersensory perceptionist. Of course, them things has got to rise. The Bible said they would. As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, they did pretty near the same thing Moses did, till it come to a showdown. That's right. But remember, Jambres and Jannes could not heal. They could not heal. They could bring plagues, but not take them away, see. All right. Now, God is the healer. God's Word remains true.

I have tried to be honest with you. I've tried to tell you the truth. I've ... for about thirty-one years, I've stood at this pulpit, off and on, for thirty-one years; and someday may leave to go to glory beside this pulpit. There's been a wife, a daughter, father, brothers, all buried right across there, precious friends. I've watched their caskets and the flowers set here, and know someday that mine will be, too. Now, that's true. But sincerely, from all my heart, I tell you with all my heart, I believe I've preached to you the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that you should be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, and receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And whenever you do, it'll bring to you a joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, meekness, gentleness, patience, faith.

And the other day, what happened to me on that morning I don't know. I can't say yet whether I was here at my body and just seen a vision, or whether I was taken away from here over there. I don't know. I can't say. Only thing I know, that I was always afraid of dying, that little place of sting. But not afraid Jesus wouldn't come get me, now, I wasn't afraid of that, because I didn't fear that; but if I'd meet you and just be a little old myth flying out through the air. But I see now. When I seen those people, they were real.

Ever was a man that ever represented Pentecost and was a true apostle, it was F F Bosworth. Clean, straight, real gospel, see, it was Bosworth. And when I held him in my arms, and I screamed, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof.”

He said, “Son, stay on the field.” Said, “Beat some of these young fellows to the foreign fields, if you can, before they get a lot of fanaticism over there. Take them that real gospel that you've got, see.” He said, “Your ministry hasn't begun yet to what it will.” Said, “You're a brand new Branham.” Said, “You're young, son.”

I said, “Brother Bosworth, I'm forty-eight years old.”

He said, “You haven't started yet.” He said, “Don't let these young Pentecostal preachers get over there with a lot of nonsense, and poison the thing up, and get all the diplomats and all the country against it before you get there.” Said, “Move on, Brother Branham, go on with the gospel that you got.” He said, “I believe that you are an apostle, or a prophet, of the Lord our God.”

I looked at him, I hugged him in my arms. I said, “Brother Bosworth, I want to ask you a question. What was the happiest time of your ... moment of all your years that you preached?”

He said, “Right now, Brother Branham.”

I said, “Do you know you're dying.”

He said, “I cannot die.”

I said, “Why would you say this is your happiest time?”

There was a little door. He said, “I'm laying here with my face turned towards that door. Most any minute, the One that I've loved, and One that I've preached for and stood for all these ... my life, He'll come to that door for me, and I'll go with Him.” I looked at him, I thought, I was looking the same as I would be at Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.

I took his hand. I said, “Brother Bosworth, we both believe the same God, we believe the same thing. By the grace of God I'll preach until the last breath leaves my body. I'll stay true to God as I know how to stay. I'll not compromise with the gospel on any side or any place. I'll stay as true as I know to stay. Brother Bosworth, I'll meet you in a better land where you'll not be young ... or, not be old anymore, but young.”

He said, “You'll be there, Brother Branham, don't you worry.”

And an hour before ... two hours before he died, about two months later.... I thought he was dying then. My wife come in and seen him (he always thought so much of her), and then Mrs. Bosworth. And about two hours.... He had been laying sleeping. He raised up, he looked, and he jumped up from his bed. He said, “Mother! Well, I haven't seen you for years! Dad! Brother Jim! Why,” said, “let's see, you was one of my converts to the Lord at Joliet, Illinois.” [He had been dead for fifty years.] Yes!“ He said, ”Here's Sister So-and-so. Yes, I led you to the Lord at the Winnipeg meeting. Yeah. Why, here's Sister So-and-so. I haven't seen you.... Yeah, see, you come to the Lord at So-and-so.“ And for two straight hours he shook hands with ones that he had led to the Lord. Walked right back to his place, and laid down, crossed his hands, and that was it. Did Brother F. F. Bosworth enter that land that Jesus let me view the other night? If it is, he's there a young man tonight. God rest his soul. And may I ever live so faithful that I'll enter that land. And may I be so true a servant to Christ....

I'm ashamed of my life. I'm ashamed. But if I've sinned before you people, you owe it to me to come tell me, see. I try to live upright in everything that God lets me do by His grace, see. But, look, friends, you owe it to me if you know anything that's wrong with my life, come tell me so. And, look, I owe it to you to stand here and preach you the true gospel. I owe it to you, because I'm expecting to see each one of your faces, young men and women, just across that bar over yonder. That's just one breath between where you are now and there. Now, that's right. It's there.

And may the God of all grace, the God of heaven—not sacrilegious, but in reverence, “Papa”—on that great day when we be presented back here and have our earthly bodies again, so we can drink, and eat the grapes and the fruit of the land.... They'll build houses and another won't inhabit. They'll plant vineyards and another won't eat thereof, see. One man plants a vineyard, his son takes it, and then his son takes it, and his. But not in this case—he'll plant it and stay there. See, that's right. We'll be there forever. And may, in that land, may I see every one of you.

And I know that I'm talking in here even to trinitarian ministers. And, my brethren, I do not say this to hurt. I'm a trinitarian, too. I believe in the trinity, the three attributes of God (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), but not three gods, see. I believe to be three attributes. Absolutely. I do that with all my heart. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but they are not three gods. They're just three attributes, or the three offices of God. God lived once in the Fatherhood, Sonship, and now the Holy Ghost. It's the same God in three offices. And they have....

And Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is not no name of God. God has one name, and his name is Jesus. The Bible said, “The family in heaven is named Jesus, and the family in earth is named Jesus.” That's right. So God had one name, human name. He had a name called Jehovah-jireh, Jehovah-rapha ... that was his titles of deity. But He had one name—Jesus! That's Him.

And truly, my brethren, if you disagree with me, remember, I'll meet you over there, anyhow, see. I'll be there with you. And God bless you. And I love you.

And I want the church to remember, now, Sunday morning we're going to pick up from here. And I'm going to try not to keep you no longer than two o'clock, so you can have an afternoon meeting, if we possibly can, and if I do as well as I've done tonight, ten-thirty. Do you forgive me? Friends, we ain't got much time left, honey. I call you “honey” because you are. You are my honeys. You know what? Here's a scripture come. Paul said, “I am jealous over you [his church] with godly jealousy, for I espouse you....” There you are, that's got it. That's it. “For I espouse you, engage you, to Christ as a chaste virgin.”

Now, if that was true then, on that day He said ... the people said to me, said, “Jesus will come to you, and you will present us to Him,” a chaste virgin, judged by the Word that you preached to them. And, look, if I preach to you just what Paul preached to his church, if his group gets in, ours will too, because we got the same thing. Amen. Let us bow our heads now while we say, “God bless you.”