Gabriel's Instructions To Daniel

Good morning, friends. It's very hot to be in the Tabernacle this morning, but very glorious to be here. So glad that we could get in today for this service. And I've given out that I'd have a study now on this seventy weeks of Daniel. That ties in the rest of the message before I can go with the seven seals. Which, there's seven seals, seven plagues, seven trumpets, three woes, the woman in the sun, casting out of the red devil, the 144,000 sealed away—all happens between this time. And I thought I'd have to get this in first.

Now, it's hot. We don't aim to stay too long—just as we can. And this is the season, usually off-season, that when people don't have church too often, and especially... All of them has got air-conditioned rooms, and so forth, where it's comfortable. We wish we had that, but at this time we don't have it.

Many of our forefathers sat out in the hot sun. When I think of apologizing to the people for not having a air-conditioned room, my thoughts always drift back to Africa, where they laid there in those storms, and them women with their hair hanging down in their face, lay there both day and night, never leave the spot from where they're laying. Don't eat, drink, nor nothing, stay right there—just to catch a word or two now and then of the Lord.

I can think of Mexico, when it was so hot that, honest, I sat in a air-conditioned room and tried to fan myself, it was so hot. And see them people come there at nine o'clock in the morning in that big arena, and no seats to sit down—sick people, real sick, dying sick, cancer, tumor, and sick mothers, little dying babies, and everything. Stand right there in that boiling hot sun, not a shade nowhere, and just lean against one another from nine o'clock that morning till nine that night, just to hear thirty minutes through an interpreter and see the works of the Lord. Sit there and wait, big old heavy garments on. They wear them winter and summer—that's all they got.

And then I think of laying out there in those jungles, how they'd bring those sick people in that couldn't even move. And in India, when they'd pile one down, then lay one on top of that one, and one on top of that one, like that, with leprosy and diseases where they'd drag them through, and out of the streets; and lay them in that hot, boiling, tropical sun, and the storms and lightning a-flashing, and things like that. They'd lay right there in that sun and storm and everything, and never move or complain—just to try to catch a word of God now and then, something for their soul. Then why should we apologize this morning with a roof over our heads, fans a going? We should be ashamed if we complain about it.

So, I remember not long ago in an island, one of the islands out in the South Seas, I was having a service there that night. And, oh, it come up a storm. Oh, I never seen such a storm—just one flash of lightning after the other one, lighten up the country, and how the winds a-blowing until the trees was laying right on the ground. I said, “Well, I might as well take off my suit, because there'll be nobody down there.”

In a few moments the little car backed up to the door, and someone knocked at the door, ready to go.

And I said to the boy (he could speak English), I said, “Anybody down there?”

Said, “You can't even get within city blocks of the place [on a big ball park]!”

And I said, “Do you mean that the people are out there like that,” I said, “all this storm?”

He said, “They want to hear about God.”

And so I went down there. And there were ladies, young girls, teen-agers—not snickering, and laughing, popping chewing gum, and talking about their boy friends. Every word, they just lay onto it. Never move, just sit and listen. Make an altar call... Make just an altar call, and thousands raised, with tears streaking out of their eyes, like that, with their hands up to God, wanting mercy for their soul—young girls and boys, seventeen, eighteen years old. Now it's kind of hard to get the old folks to even listen. You see? It shows that we haven't got nothing to complain about. Thanks be to God, yes, sir.

We'd like to have it all modern like the rest of America, but we haven't got it that way, so we'll just make out with what we got.

Now, I got a little thing that I noticed that I'd like to do here in the Tabernacle again. How many has got Bibles? Raise your hand. Good! Let's turn to Psalms 99 before we have prayer. We used to do this, Brother Neville, years ago. I don't know whether... have you already read a Psalm this morning? No. I'd just like the congregation to read some of the Psalms.

This morning when I was sitting in my study room meditating on this message and Word, I thought, “You know, it'd be good again to have them all to read a Psalm. I like it so well.” The reason I was just a little late, a long distance call had me from Cheyenne, so that's the reason I was...

And now, while we're turning to this Psalm, I have some announcements to be made that was just give me. That's Psalms 99.

“From henceforth, all announcements concerning meetings here at the Tabernacle and in the campaigns will come from the office at Jeffersonville. Anyone desiring to know of the meetings must file out, or give their name and address and lay it on the pulpit at the close of the service tonight. A notice will be sent to you in time for you to make arrangements to attend the meetings.” That is, if anybody in the future wants to know just where we're going to have meetings, we have a system set up at the office out there now, that you can just lay your name and address here, and we'll send you a card ahead of time so that you'll know where the meetings are going on, and probably the subjects, and whatmore there is, if you could get a chance, you see. If you don't have some official place it comes from, one says this and one says that, and you don't get it, you see. So just make out your name and address and lay it up here, and Billy Paul will pick it up and will give it out.

Now, it was asked also if there will be any more... “Brother Branham, will you have any more healing services in the Tabernacle with discernments?” No. No, the discernments will be given by our other board. We have Brother Neville here now who has a gift of prophecy, that prophesies over the sick and makes known to them the things that they have need of knowing. And we have a brother by the name of Higgenbotham, one of the trustees, served faithfully on the board. I don't see him this morning, but he usually has the gift of speaking in tongues, and a little lady named Arganbright, a lovely little sister, who has a gift of interpretation of tongues.

And these messages are proving out to be of God, because they are actually not coming out of order, they're just set in order. And soon as these gifts begin to accumulate, we're going to try to get it set right back into the church way of doing it. And I'm to see them pretty soon, and... so that the meetings will be carried on just perfectly in the order of the Lord, as we can get it perfectly.

But these dear people... So says my neighbor, Mrs. Wood, who has a microphone hooked up here, and a tape back there to tape the meetings just purposely to get those messages, and write them down, and see whether they are right or not, see. That's how she's checking them. I know Mrs. Wood to be an honest woman, and she's telling me of many things that's been said are coming to pass.

Now, so we're grateful for that. What a relief that is for me at home, when I come in home then. That discernment on the prophetic side just tears me down. And therefore, God has sent me some relief for that, through prophecy, and speaking in tongues and interpretation, which is prophecy. Which is prophecy, to speak in tongues... Then it's two different people prophesying. One speaking, the other one understanding what the one's saying in unknown tongues, is exactly prophecy.

And now, we have that every day, every meeting here when we have our prayer lines in the meeting. Now, there's someone then would ask about the gift. Yes, I still have it, but the only way I use it is on private interviews which I have. And to obtain them (I believe they got it on the bulletin board back there), to get permission and set your time in order by Billy Paul, my boy, for here or in the meetings after this, out in the fields anywhere, you must have a little card that Billy Paul will give you. If there's something in life that you cannot understand, and don't know how to get out of it, and you're seeking the wisdom of the Lord, then see Billy Paul, my son, which is the secretary, and he will give you a little card and set you a date, at a time. And then when we're having those interviews, then that will be when we'll go in together, just you and I (and if it's women coming, you'll go in with me and my wife) and then we will find out, and seek the Lord, and ask Him what must you do.

Now, other minor cases, and so forth like that, is given over to Brother Neville, and Brother Higgenbotham, and Sister Argan-bright, and the others who speaks with tongues and interprets, which is here in the church.

Therefore we're like the journey... I believe it was Jethro said to Moses one day, see, “Let's take some elders...” And the Spirit of God was taken off of Moses and put on seventy of the elders, and they prophesied; but just the major and hard things come to Moses alone. Now, we're not Moses, neither are these the elders, but we're still serving the Jehovah God with the same pillar of fire leading us to the promised land. So then, yes, there will be other... be meetings and will be the interpreta... the discernments will come. That will be giving me a chance then to be in prayer, and study the days that I know that these interviews will come, and be ready for them.

Now remember, Billy Paul Branham, our field secretary, will... Bulletin is on the board back there by the trustees. I've got a note here to announce that, and to tell the people they might read it on the bulletin board going out.

Now, this morning we have a great lesson, and tonight we'll try to continue it on, and if the Lord willing, next Sunday another into it. I didn't know how deep it was getting until I got to studying it, and still it's a mystery to me yet. So, I'm just depending on the Lord.

Now, you with your Bibles, let's turn to Psalms ninety and nine —99. And I will read the first verse, the congregation read the second verse, then all together we'll read the last verse. We'll continue on: me the first, congregation the second, me the third, congregation the fourth, on to the last verse, and then we'll all read it together. Shall we stand as we read the Word of God.

The LORD reigneth; let the people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be moved.

The LORD is great in Zion; and he is high above all the people.

Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it is holy.

The king's strength also loveth judgment; thou dost establish equity, thou executest judgment and righteous-ness in Jacob.

Exalt ye the LORD our God, and worship at his footstool; for he is holy.

Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the LORD, and he answered them.

He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the ordinances that he gave them.

Thou answeredst them, O LORD our God: thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions.

Exalt the LORD our God, and worship in the holy hill; for the LORD our God is holy.

Let us bow our heads. Truly, Lord, these words are written and penned by Thy servant David in a psalm unto Thee. Thou does dwell between the cherubims. Thou art holy, and Thy hill is holy. Let us draw nigh with our hearts sprinkled with the blood of the Lord Jesus with a pure conscience and with faith and assurance that we're coming into the presence of our God. Let all this audience this morning be reverent. Open up our ears of understanding. Speak to us in wisdom that we might know how we must behave ourselves in these days and in Thy presence.

We would ask Thee, our God, to reveal to us these secret things that's been hid all these years, as we are approaching one of the most sincere, solemn words. Thou did speak of it when You were here on earth, and said, “He that readeth, let him understand.” So we, most graciously, come to Thee, Lord, and seek Thy wisdom, not knowing just what to say. Set in order here a few scriptures, and solemnly and holily depending upon Thee for the answer, for no other purpose but that we might know the hour that we're living, that we might be prepared for the great things that lies ahead. Won't You grant it to us, Lord? In the name of Him who taught us all that we should pray like this: [Congregation joins in praying the Lord's Prayer.]

Our Father Who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us of our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

You may be seated.

Now, if any of the men wants to remove their coats, just feel welcome. And those who are standing around the sides of the wall, if your feet get achey, why, just feel at liberty to move out.

And now, I think if the children wants to go to their rooms... Or have they already been dismissed? The pastor says that the crowd has got the rooms packed up, so we cannot have Sunday School for the little ones. We would be happy if you little fellows now would cooperate with us, as this morning we are having... starting a great, tremendous message that I'm sure that will mean a great deal to your father and mother, and your loved ones that's here, and even to you little ones. So we approach it very reverently.

If the Lord willing, this morning we're taking the subject of Daniel's seventy of weeks. And this morning we're speaking on Daniel in captivity, and Gabriel flying in to instruct him about the future. While Daniel was in prayer, Gabriel, the angel, come in to instruct him. Tonight I want to speak on “The Sixfold Purpose of His Visit”—six different subjects to be brought in tonight, what Gabriel come from.

Next Sunday, the Lord willing, I want to place the reason and the time of the seven church ages, and what time they are, and where we are standing today. That's on next Sunday morning, the Lord willing.

Now, the reason for this... I brought down some little notes from my last few messages. And this morning I want to lap over, because this is on magnetic tape that will go all over the world, many nations. And always the reason I lap it back is perhaps some-one would hear the tape for their first time and would not be able to understand what I was meaning when I refer back to something else.

We have been now for months in the study of the book of Revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ. We have come through the church ages. The first three chapters of Revelation was the church ages. Then John was caught up in the fourth and fifth chapter and was showed things that was to be hereafter. Now, on the sixth chapter he drops down into the earth again to see things taking place that will go from the sixth chapter, the first verse, until the nineteenth chapter and the twenty-first verse. In here comes in the seals, the plagues, the woes, the locusts, the woman in the sun, and the casting out of the red dragon, the sealing away of the 144,000, and all these things.

This has been a week of tremendous study. Yesterday all day I hardly moved from the room, trying to study. And it's something in the... Last time, many of the old-timers here that I taught, I just said, “In here belongs the seventy weeks of Daniel,” but I did not try to attack it, to explain it. But this time, by the grace of God, I have taken upon myself to try to ask grace before God that I might bring it to the people. And in here I'm finding things that I do not know one thing about.

And then I've been reading Dr. Larkin's book, Dr. Smith's book, Dr. Scofield's notes, different commentaries from men everywhere, and yet I cannot put theirs together to make it come out right, see. So this week I'm planning on... Been visiting the library in Kentucky on some of the ancient astronomy of the calendars and times, and picking up from the libraries, and so forth, all the ancient books that I can, and what little I can do; and having my trust solemnly in Jesus Christ to reveal it to me, because I do not want it to say, “I know this, and I know that [He knows my heart; He's listening at me.],” but I want it that I might enlighten His people. Therefore, I believe that He will give it to me. I do not know as yet, but I'm trusting Him for next Sunday, because that'll be the tremendous part, as next Sunday to know and place those seventy of weeks.

Each one has a different place. And when you do, you go to running them on through, they don't come out right, they don't register up right. It can't. And therefore, I may not be able to have it right, but I'm going to trust the Lord for it.

And I remember of Solomon one time praying and asking the Lord God if He would give him wisdom. Not for hisself—no extension of days, no longer life, not riches—but that he might have wisdom to know how to judge God's people. And God honored that prayer and gave Solomon that wisdom, because it was for His people. And that's why I'm asking God to let me know what these seventy of weeks mean, because I know it's the exact calendar for the age we're living in. And therefore I want to know it. Not for myself. I'm... not for myself. Of course, I want to know it. I don't say it that way, “Not for myself,” because I do want it for myself. I want to know, because I want to know where we're living and what time we're living in. And then, I know that that was given.

And different ones has figured it out, and they've had it way back... One fellow I was reading had it all ended up in 1919, of the seventy of weeks. Well, that wasn't so. After seventy of weeks... After seventy of weeks it's all finished. So we want to know the truth, and I'm asking God to give me the truth.

Now, in order to back this up, go back, I want to rehearse a little bit of the back. So therefore, some notes that I jotted down that we had in the fifth... the fourth and fifth chapters, so that the people will understand.

First, before we do this, I want to lap it over so that you will get from the fourth... Now remember, the third chapter was the Laodicean church age, and the church was taken up at the end of Laodicea.

Now, I was trying to explain something to my wife about it. I had Becky, my daughter, with all the different types of dictionaries and things that we could get. They don't give the answer. I got the Bible dictionary, I got the old Greek dictionary, I got the Webster's and many others, the modern dictionaries. None of them could give the words, or the answer any way.

My wife said, “How do you expect our people, which are poor people, and many of them uneducated like we are, to understand such as that?”

I said, “God will give the answer.” No matter how complicated it is, God can break it down and make it simple. For we are a portion of those people who are longing, praying, for that day and that hour; and our eyes are set towards heaven, and we're watching for His coming. And I'm just sure that He will show us. Now, it won't tell us the day or hour, because no man will know that, but it'll certainly tell us the day of the week we're living, if we can just get it.

Now, in the fourth chapter John was caught up immediately after the church. John, going up, he saw the complete church age. There's where I'd like to stop just a second to say that many people who are expecting some great, tremendous, powerful something to happen in the Gentile age are certainly wrong. The church age and all that will happen during the Gentile reign is recorded from Revelation 1 to Revelation 3, inclusive. Then the church was raptured and taken up, and the rest of this until the nineteenth chapter is what happens to the Jewish race, after the church is gone up, and it is the time of the great tribulation. Nothing to happen amongst the Gentiles, only the slaughtering and so forth, as we'll get to that and see.

But the church itself has gone on the thirteenth... on the last verse of the third chapter of Revelation when the Laodicean church age end, which was the last.

And we took each church age, each time, each thing that happened, each star, each messenger, their nature, what they done, and brought it right down through history until the very last one—drawed right there on the picture on the side of the wall—and when we got finished, the Holy Spirit come in and made a circle of the same thing on the wall, and revealed it by Himself right here to all of us.

Now, in doing this, I trust at the end of this He'll come with a tremendous something and show us again, that we are at the end time.

How many of you heard Kennedy's... President Kennedy's speech, the comments and so forth? How many heard this prediction, that by January the 1st it's predicted that both the United States and Russia will be volcanic ashes? That's all we need. It's later than we are thinking, see. So if we are so near till even men of this earth are predicting this tremendous thing to happen, we better be on the alert, everything right up-to-date, all confessions made, everything ready, because we don't know just what time our Lord's going to summon us. And when He gives the summons, “Come up higher!” you'd better be ready. It's going to come in the hour that you think not.

The great Pentecostal revival is now ceasing. We see it everywhere—the last great move. The message has went forth. Everything's ready now, waiting. The church is sealed away. The wicked are doing more wicked. Churches are becoming more churchy. The saints are coming closer to God. The gifts of the Spirit are beginning to multiply in the little groups. We're at the end time. Oh, I love that song that we used to sing in the church:

I'm watching for the coming of that glad

millennium day,

When our blessed Lord shall come and

catch His waiting bride away.

Oh, my heart is crying, thirsting for that

day of sweet release,

When our Saviour shall come back to earth

again. (Waiting for that hour.)

Now, in the fifth chapter in the fifth verses, we find in our previous lesson that we talked of that kinsman redeemer, which we found out was Christ. Typed it up with Ruth: Ruth deciding, Ruth serving, Ruth resting. Deciding was justification; serving, making herself ready, sanctification; resting was with the Holy Spirit until the wedding supper came. How beautiful!

The church come through John Wesley, justification... or, Martin Luther, justification; through John Wesley, sanctification; through the Pentecostal, baptism of the Holy Spirit; and now, resting, waiting for the coming of her Lord. Perfectly!

Our Kinsman Redeemer, the elders was right when they called Him a Lamb about to become a Lion, His judge. He was a Lamb, you know, with the seven-sealed book. When the book was taken, the mediatorial work was finished.

Now, in the third chapter, the church was gone up, but now redemption is to be revealed—how the church was redeemed, the revelation of what taken place during the church age. See, the church is gone. So He is now showing in the fifth chapter how He did it, what taken place, how He sealed the church off. The revelation of His name, water baptism using His name, eternal life, no eternal hell, serpent's seed, eternal security, all the great doctrines, predestination of the church, that was revealed to the church. He's showing how He done it.

Now, our Kinsman is handed the seven-sealed book of redemption from the original owner. Amen! Who do we find was the original owner? God Himself. “And the Lamb came and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne.” Who was the Lamb? The Redeemer, our Kinsman Redeemer, the Kinsman to the church who come and redeemed Israel.

Now, we're going to get into that this morning. Israel was redeemed, but it was not applied to them, because they rejected Him. But the church received their redemption. And He is our Kinsman Redeemer. As Boaz had to redeem Naomi in order to get Ruth—the Moabite, an alien, a Gentile—so Christ redeemed Israel, applied the redemption, and was rejected.

You remember the pardon that the man was shot, that I sometimes tell, during the Civil War, when he was a good man? He was innocent, and they found him guilty—although he was guilty in a way, that he run away in time of battle. And they found him guilty and was going to shoot him. And a man went to President Lincoln and said, “Mr. Lincoln, this is a Christian man. He was scared, the boy. I know his people. He was just afraid. He didn't mean no harm. He run away.” Said, “Mr. Lincoln, it's in your hands. You're the only one can pardon him.” Mr. Lincoln picked up a piece of paper and his pen and signed, “Pardon this So and so. Abraham Lincoln.”

He ran back to the jail, and he said, “Here it is. I've got your pardon.”

And the man said, “I refuse to look at it. It would have a big seal on it. It would be everything. You're only trying to make me a laughing stock. It is not Abraham Lincoln. Anybody could sign his name, but it would have to be documented by his seal and so forth if it comes from him.” And the man persuaded him, though the man in the prison thought he was kidding, and just walked away. The next morning he was shot. And then after he was shot, then there was a Federal Court trial, because Abraham Lincoln, twenty-four hours before the man was shot, signed his name that this man was pardoned, and then the government shot him anyhow. Then what? Then the Federal Court of the United States said... come to this decision of the Federal Court, said, “A pardon is not a pardon unless it be received as a pardon.”

And Jesus redeemed Israel at Calvary, but it was not a pardon to them because they did not receive it as a pardon. But in our lesson now on these seventy weeks, we find they come back and receive their pardon. But He redeemed the church. Then we are pardoned, because we have received the blood of Jesus Christ as our pardon.

Now, we find that He was our Kinsman Redeemer, and He took the book out of the hand of the original owner. It is a title deed to redemption. We found that. You remember the study? It's a title deed of redemption. It's an abstract deed with it, that God required life for death, in the Garden of Eden. Then Jesus, the righteous One, died and took a title deed, and was able to break the seals, reveal what was in them, and give the inheritance that belonged to Him to His people. Eternal life that He inherited by doing that, He passed His own life back out at Calvary, and divided it among us by the Holy Ghost. Amen! No man has never been able to even think of the love that that was, what He done.

Satan, the once-possessor because of the fall at Garden, is bound and cast into a lake of fire. His days are finished.

Jesus in the gospel had four titles, we caught that: Son of David, heir to the throne; Son of Abraham, the royal grant; Son of man, heir of the earth; Son of God, heir to all things, the royal grant.

In the Old Testament, property could not be held any longer than fifty years. It could not be annihilated from its original owner but fifty years. And on the fortieth day He paid the price. On the fiftieth day, the redemption and the power that belonged to the church that was lost in the Garden of Eden was redeemed back and sent to us by the baptism of the Holy Ghost on the fiftieth day.

Then we picked up the scrolls. We picked up the scrolls... How that this scroll was handed into his hands, how that Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 32:6, his cousin, Hanameel, left him some heir. And they was going into captivity (which, we're going into with him this morning, captivity), and it was kept in an earthly vessel. Shows where the power of God, and the scrolls and secrets of God is known—in the heart. Our plan of redemption, the same being kept in earthly vessels—Jesus' name and the revelation.

We find out that this was sealed with seven seals, and each seal was wrapped around. And as the revelation come forth, He pulled the seal, and undone this, and read what that seal said; then He undone the next one, the scroll, and read what that seal said; undone the next one and pulled it out and see what that seal said, and what the revelation was. That's exactly what our seven seals that we're going into shortly, we trust, that will do. Each seal when it's took off the book will be unrolled, and that'll show exactly what taken place.

We find out that there's seven... five in the plan of redemption. Five is the number, and there's five sevens: seven seals, seven spirits, seven angels, seven trumpets, and seven church ages. So you see, the five sevens is grace. Five is grace, and seven is perfection. So it's just perfectly running just exactly, see. All right.

Like each seal broken in the Word of God reveals to the man of the age what age we're living in, the spirit of the age, the church of the age. Revelation 10, at the end we find when the last seal was broke, we find the angel standing with one foot on the land and one on the sea, with His hands up to heaven, and a rainbow over His head, swearing by Him that lives forever and ever, that time has run out, on the last seal. And you wait till we get in them seals and see where that seal's at. After you find the seventy weeks, then see where the seals are. Time has run out. Redemption is over. He is now the Lion and the judge. He's your Saviour this morning, but one day He'll be your judge.

The eighth through the fourteenth verse of the fifth chapter reveals the time for the Lamb to be worshipped both in heaven and in earth, the seven sealed book, the worthy Lamb, the Kinsman Redeemer. And from the eighth verse through the fourteenth, angels worship Him, elders worship Him, living creatures worship Him, and John worshipped Him so much till he said, “Every creature in heaven, in the earth, underneath the earth, heard me saying, 'Blessings, glory, power, wisdom, might, be to the Lamb.'”—the worship time for the King Lamb.

Now, the church was gone, remember. Now, let's turn to Daniel and the ninth chapter and the first to the third verses. And then we're going to take the twentieth to the twenty-seventh, because this is just Daniel's prayer. I want you to read this over and over through the week now till you get it.

In the first year of Darius the son of... the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans;

In the first year of the reign I Daniel understood by books that the number of... years, whereof the word of... God came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem.

Now, the next.

... I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek in prayer and supplications and fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes:

... I prayed unto the LORD... God, and made my confessions, ... [And on and on it goes, until now we get to twentieth verse.]

To save time, the people standing, I want you to get to the 20... till we get down now to the twentieth verse.

And while I was speaking and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplications before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God;

Yet, while I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.

And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.

What if we could've only been there! How did he find him? In prayer. The angel, the man. You notice, he called him “the man.”

And being of... In the beginning of my supplications the commandment came forth, and [came forth for him to go] and I am come to show thee; for thou art greatly beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision.

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city [or thy city], to finish the transgression, ... to make an end of sin, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. [There's the sixfold reason of his coming. Now notice:]

Now therefore... Know therefore and understand [Now listen!], that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto... Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, ... threescore and two weeks: and the street shall be built again, and the wall, even, in troublous times.

... after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come [the prince that shall come] ... destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are determined.

And he shall confirm the covenant [Listen!] with many for one week [one of these seventy of weeks]: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and ... oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abomination he shall make it desolate, even unto the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.

Now, there is our lesson for the next three, four, or five meetings, whatever the Lord will reveal. Seventy of weeks.

Now, I'll ask Doc, if he will, tonight, to put up my board there, so that I'll be able to mark it out. I don't want you to miss it. Now you've got to study with me, and study deep, or you'll miss it. And I want to draw it out here on the blackboard, and then you bring your pencils and paper and write down these dates, these times, and all about it.

Now, the seventy of weeks begins (now get this) after the church is taken out. Now, everybody understands that say, “Amen!” Now, after the church is taken out.

Revelation 6:1 to Revelation 19:21 is connected with the seventy of weeks, therefore we must stop and explain before we go further. We must stop and explain why these seventy of weeks, because if you don't you'll miss those seals, you'll miss those trumpets, you'll miss those vials, those plagues, those three unclean spirits like frogs, those three woes, the casting out of the red dragon, the woman in the sun. You'll miss it all if you don't, because it takes place right here in this seventieth week. That's where it takes place.

Now, the prophet Daniel had been in Babylon for sixty-eight years—you who wants to run references back and save yourself some of the time that I've had to look it up—sixty-eight years. He went into captivity in B.C. 606, and when the vision came to him was B.C. 538; 538 from 606 leaves sixty-eight. Sixty-eight years he had been in Babylon amongst heathens and still had the victory. Amen! We can't stay a hour.

But he had been in the very midst, with nobody but three companions, and them in different parts of the kingdom. But Daniel standing alone with God held the victory for sixty-eight years. Think of it! I don't want to start preaching, because this is supposed to be a teaching lesson, but sixty-eight years he had kept the victory and was undefiled before God—without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, without the blood of Jesus Christ to make intercessions for him, with only the blood of bulls and goats and heifers which he had to offer secretly, because of the heathen traditions of that land. They'd been taken down there. Jeremiah had prophesied of them that they were going down.

Now, Daniel (Oh, my!) he had begun to see that the time was getting close, just as we are today. Daniel began to understand, he said, by the reading of books. And in the first year of the reign of Daniel... in the reign...

... I Daniel understood by books the number of... years, therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that... should be accomplished seventy years in... desolation of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah, in B.C. 606, prophesied, because of their sins and ungodliness, that they would be seventy years.

You remember there was another prophet came up in that day. (I can't call his name at this time. I might be able to catch it for you in a few minutes if I'd look back for awhile.) But he came up and said, “Jeremiah, you are wrong. God's only going to keep Israel down there for so many days... for so many... about two years.”

Jeremiah said, “So be it. Amen!” He said, “But wait a minute. Let's you and I check up with one another as prophets.” He said, “Remember, there's been those who prophesied before us, and they told things that was wrong. God dealt with them for telling wrong things, so let us be sure. But the Lord God has told me there's seventy years yet.” God smote that false prophet and took his life that same year, because God had told this true prophet that there was seventy years.

And I want you to notice how Daniel, yet an alien, yet ousted from his people, ousted from his church, without one church service, without any church to go to, without any hymns to be sung but what he sang hisself, in the midst of all of this, still held onto what that prophet said. Amen!

No church to go to, nobody to fellowship with, everybody went to heathen temples, everybody worshipped their idols, no Christian songs, nobody believed the same thing he did, and in sixty-eight years, from a young man of about twelve, fourteen years old when he was taken down there, he held true to God and understood by Jeremiah's prophet that the days were almost accomplished. How that would warn the heart of any true prophet of God today, that we look back and see what this true prophet said, and know that we're at the end time.

He said, “I understood by books that Jeremiah, my brother, many, many years ago prophesied that Israel would stay down here seventy years, and that time's about fulfilled.” And he made hisself ready, and he called a fast, and he sanctified himself, and when... ashes, and sackcloth, and put it upon his head, and went to fasting and praying to understand about what day they were living in.

And if Daniel, the prophet of the Lord, could consult Jeremiah's books and bring him to such a place that even Israel coming out, all of them alive—was coming out of Babylon to go back to the homeland would cause him to fast with sackcloth and ashes, how much more ought it to do to the church of the living God to know that time is fading out and shall be no more, and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the great millennium ready to set in? How can we spend wasteless time gambling, swimming holes, on Sundays no time for the Lord. Just run down, if the pastor speaks on something or other that you don't like, you get up and go out. And if the church holds too long, why, you're dissatisfied. Look at our condition, look what we're doing, compare our lives with that prophet. One man in a complete kingdom with no church to go to and none nowhere else to go to. It was tore down and burned down. His city, his people was captive. Sixty-eight years. Sixty-eight, sixty-nine, seventy—he had two years left.

So when he began to read in the book and see that the time was drawing nigh to be fulfilled, he went to God in prayer to find out about it. What a time! What are we doing, when nations are breaking, the sea a-roaring, men's hearts failing for fear, perplexed of time? All these things: the handwriting on the wall, racial disintegration, all kinds of evil going on in the world, and fusses and fights and stews, and weapons hanging in the hangars. That one little nation by the size of Cuba down here can destroy the world in ten minutes. And them fussing with one another, ungodly men who knows not God and knows not His power. And the Holy Spirit in the church, moving amongst the elected, showing Himself alive after two thousand years, that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. How can we sit slothfully? How can we just run over the top of it? Time we were checking up, watching for that great hour approaching.

Now, he read in Jeremiah, the twenty-fifth chapter. Let's turn over in Jeremiah, the twenty-fifth chapter, and read what Jeremiah had to say. Actually, let's begin at the eighth verse, because it's ... I want you to be sure to get it. The eleventh verse is where I had wrote down here to read, but let's begin at the eleventh verse.

Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; [I just like that. When I can hear a prophet stand up with “Thus saith the Lord God,” brother, that's it. To me that settles it. That's all of it.] . . . thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because you have not heard my words,

Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all the nations around about, and I will utterly destroy them. . . . [Remember, them were God's elected that He's talking about. That wasn't infidels; that was church members.]

Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, . . . the voice of gladness, [Just like we have today, all rock'n'roll, Ricky and Elvis, and, oh . . .] the voice of the bridegroom, . . . the voice of the bird [or the bride, rather], the sound of the millstone, . . . the light of the candle.

And this whole land shall be desolate, . . .

Hear that prophet cry out, “This whole land shall be desolate.” And not to impersonate this great servant of God, but I prophesy that this whole nation shall become desolate. God shall punish this nation for her sins. If God would not let Israel—His elected, Abraham's seed, who He made the covenant and promise with—if He would not let them get by with wrongdoing (though they were religious to the core, had the great churches, the priests, and the rabbis, but because of the immorals and things among them. . . .) and God made them reap what they sowed, so shall we get it!

Eleventh verse:

. . . this whole land shall become desolate, and . . . astonishment [That is, everybody just look and say, “There they are. They were so great. Look at them now.”]; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. [That's a lifetime. That's when your blessed old mother was a baby. They were in there without a God, without a church, without a song, without anything for a complete generation, till all that sinning generation died out.]

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it a perpetual desolation.

And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nation.

For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense . . . according to their deeds, and according to their works of their own hands.

For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of the fury of my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I will send thee, to drink of it. [In other words, “Jeremiah, I've give you this message. Don't sit still. Don't stay in one place, but prophesy to all the nations.” Do you follow it? “Prophesy to all the nations. Show My signs and wonders, and let them know that I'm coming to do this.”]

And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the word that I will send among them.

What do they do in this very day? They call you a false prophet, call you a compromiser, call you a fanatic, a soothsayer, or a dreamer of dreams, or some kind of a mental telepathist. “They will be mad!” And the word mad, if you'll break it down, means “crazy.” They'll actually go crazy and say, “Aw, pay no attention to that holy roller. That's nonsense.” “Because of the word that I will send among them.”

Do you see the history repeating itself? Jeremiah wouldn't agree with their Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, whatever they might be. He just put the word out, and it made them all mad at him. Watch! Now notice:

And then I took the cup at the LORD'S hand, and made all the nations to drink it, [Jeremiah didn't stay home. Jeremiah didn't just stay in one little spot, but he made all the nations drink it.] ... unto whom the LORD had sent me:

Jeremiah took the word of the Lord, the wine of His words. And the wine is the power of His Word. Wine has a power. Wine is an intoxication. Wine has got power behind it. “And I've took the Lord's word,” said Jeremiah, “and made it manifest. The wine, the power that's in it, I exercised before them, and they would not hear it.” God said, “Then I'll send them for seventy years into Babylon.” That's just what He did. The righteous and unrighteous went alike.

Now, back to the lesson. Daniel had been reading. Just think, Daniel read the same words that we are reading this morning. Daniel read the same Bible, the same punctuation, the same sentences, the same things that I, by the help of God, will read you in the next few messages, the same thing to show you that we are at the end time. And Daniel, taking the word from Jeremiah, goes down into Babylon, and he was the anointed prophet. [Blank spot on tape.] . . . wonders among them, yet standing alone by himself. Amen! He stood alone.

But Jeremiah had wrote these words many many years before, and Daniel, interpreting the Word, said, “Now, wait a minute, we're coming near the end time, for I've already been down here sixty-eight years. And the prophet of the Lord [Amen!], my brethren, the true prophet of God, that proved hisself a prophet, prophesied to us. I've got it wrote here in a book that said, 'Seventy years will be accomplished.' O Lord God, we're nearing the end. All that generation has died out. What will You do now, Lord? You promised to send us. . . .” And he set himself in order to pray.

O God, if there ever was a time that we ought to be setting ourself in order to pray, it's now. For we, as His true servants, we see by the letters of the apostles, by the warnings of the Holy Spirit, that we're in the last day. The Holy Spirit speaks that in the last days men will be heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than of God, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, and despisers of those that are good. I understand by letter.

And I understand that there'll come scoffers in the last days. I understand that there'll be nation against nation in the last days. I understand that there'll be tidal waves in the last days. I understand that there'll be fearful sights, like flying saucers in the heavens, mysterious sights, and men's hearts will be failing for fear; there'll be a perplexity of time, and a distress amongst the people. I read that they'll all go into organizations and denominations, and have a confederation in the last days. I understand that the women will bob off their hair in the last days. I understand they'll wear short clothes and walk with high-heeled shoes, tinkling as they go, in the last days. I understand that morale will be very low in the last days. I understand that the preachers will be false shepherds in the last days that'll compromise and will not feed the people the Word of God, but will go after creeds and things instead. But I understand there'll be a voice come in the last days, crying out of the wilderness, calling the people back to the original message, back to the things of God. I understand by the book those things will take place.

I understand that in the last days there'll come a famine. The churches will be so organized and so set, and everything, that in the last days there'll come a famine, and it will not be for bread and water only but for hearing the true Word of God. And people will go from the east, from the west, from the north and the south seeking to hear the true Word of God, but the churches will be so organized and tightened up that they'll fail to hear it. I understand that by books. But in that day (O God) there'll be a branch rise up from David.

I understand that He'll send Elijah before that day comes at the end time, and he'll have a message that'll turn the hearts of the children back to the fathers, turn them back to the original, go back again to the end and start. I understand that that'll take place just before the Spirit leaves the Gentile church to return to the Jews.

And I don't understand only by letter. I do by the Word, by the written Word, that Israel will return to her homeland; and I see her going in!

I understand by letters of the prophets that Israel will become a nation. They'll re-establish the temple worship. And God will go to dealing with her again when she comes to her homeland. Oh! Two prophets will rise in the last days with them. I understand that. Just as the Gentile church moves out two prophets will arrive, Elijah and Moses to Israel. We'll get it as we go through.

Prophets seen the time was nearly fulfilled down there in Babylon. All right.

Gabriel appears to reveal not only what he was asking about, but to tell him all the way down what was determined for the Jewish race all the way to the consummation. Amen! He asked a little bit and got the whole thing. He asked just to know. . . .

Daniel was trying to find out, “How much longer, Lord, will it be now? Jeremiah the prophet, Your servant, my brother, has prophesied sixty-eight years ago and said there's seventy years that this people will stay in here. All the old generation's practically gone now.”

There's an old Pentecostal generation that raised up forty years ago—“old fighters,” they was called. They organized, and beat, and fussed all down through Mount Horeb and Nebo, all through there, but finally we're at the river now. He's going to raise up a new one, with a Joshua to take them over. The law failed. Moses went with it, Moses failed. Joshua took them over. We find out that the organizations has failed, but the Spirit of God (Joshua, the word Joshua means “Jesus our Saviour”) . . . that the Holy Spirit will come into the church. Not an organization, but the Holy Spirit will get among the people and make her ready to go up, cross Jordan. I understand by the reading of the Book that that's what's to take place, and God knows that's what I'm seeking now, that I might comfort His people and tell them what's at hand, both here this morning and out through the lands that these tapes will go worldwide, that we're at the end time.

He revealed all the way until the kingdom was completely restored and the millennium set in. That was Gabriel's message. He said, “I've come to tell you that there is seventy of years . . . seventy of weeks yet determined upon thy people, determined to the end of the Jewish generation. There's seventy of weeks.” Now, watch what he said, that now from the going forth to restore. . . .

Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy . . . city, . . .

Thy city. Babylon wasn't his city. Where was his city? Jerusalem.

Now, when we get to the seven . . . or, the sixfold confirmation, we'll find what that city is and bring it down and prove who it was, who founded it, where it come from. How long will it stand? Will it be rebuilt again, and what time? Oh, great things are in store for us. All right.

Seventy of weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy . . . city, to finish the transgression, . . .

Now, he never said, “Daniel. . . .” No doubt but what he told him that the seventy weeks was . . . I mean, seventy years was about finished—sixty-eight, just lacked two years. And we find out that Jeremiah's prophecy hit just exactly right. Two years later they went out. Nehemiah went and got an order from the king and built the wall in troublesome times. They worked. . . . He said, “The wall. . . .” Listen to this:

. . . finish the transgression, to make an end of sin. . . .

To make an end of sin! Who to? The Jews. “. . . determined upon thy people.” Not upon the Gentiles; “. . . upon thy people [the Jews], and thy city.” Not New York, not Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Rome, but “upon thy city,” Jerusalem.

. . . and to finish the transgression, . . . make a end of sins, . . . make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in the everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. [Watch!]

Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to rebuild Jerusalem [which was his city] unto . . . Messiah the Prince shall be seven [of the seventy] weeks. . . .

Wait till we get into that. Oh, my! That's a blessing that I. . . . I'm going to get me a rope and tie myself to the place here.

Revealed it all the way down, said, “I'm not only going to tell you now that them two years is just about . . . it will be finished, accomplished. . . .” And we all know that they exactly stayed there seventy years and went out, just exactly what the prophet said. And Isaiah . . . I mean, Daniel believed that prophet, so here he was, ready. All right.

And now, when Gabriel come, he said, “I've come to show you all the way—to reveal to you these things that . . . all the way to the consummation,” see. Look.

. . . the abomination he shall make it desolate, even unto the consummation. . . . [Consummation is the end of all things.]

“I'm going to show you what will happen. . . .” Now, listen. Get it. “Daniel, I have been sent. You're beloved in heaven. And I heard your prayers, and I have come down now to tell you what's determined for the Jews and Jerusalem from right now until the end of the consummation, the whole thing.”

Now, do you understand, class? If we can find out what these seventy of weeks are, we know when the consummation is. Oh, my! God, help us to know it. It tells us exactly, somewhere in these pages, exactly from that time till this time, until the consummation, and it won't miss it one minute. How God's great Word. . . .

When God made the earth and set it in orbit (when I was preaching the other night, Sunday night, how that there's nothing fails), why, this world turns so perfect till they can tell you exactly when the sun and moon will pass in twenty years from today to the exact minute. I can't tell you by any timepiece we got in the world. It'll lose two or three minutes a month, or gain two or three minutes—the best we got. We can't make nothing that perfect, because there's only one thing perfect—that's God! And God and His Word is the same, so God's Word is perfect!

And if we can find these days, we'll find exactly when the consummation will be. Do you get it? It's determined to the consummation. The twenty-fourth verse: “. . . thy people and . . . thy holy city,” which is Jerusalem. Got the twenty-fourth verse here. Jesus referred to this in Matthew 24.

Now, Brother Collins (if he's here this morning, I don't know whether he is or not), in the questions the other night he asked a question (I guess it's all right for me to say “Brother Collins”) about the abomination that maketh desolation, see, what it meant. Jesus spoke of it in Matthew, the twenty-fourth chapter, and we find out. . . . Yeah, Matthew 24:15.

Now, let me just get that right quick so you can see what . . . Jesus speaking of the same thing here, referring back to Daniel. Matthew 24:15, to you that's taking down. I want you each one now, especially tonight and next Sunday, bring them pencils and papers, because we're . . . unless you got a tape. Twenty four and the fifteenth verse:

And when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet [Think, this is four hundred and eighty . . . three, four, five . . . eighty-six years beforehand—486 years beforehand.] . . . Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place [Now look in your Bible. It's in parenthesis.], (whoso readeth, let him understand:). . . .

Now, He's talking to the Jews. They want to know: “What about this temple, when will it be destroyed? When will it be rebuilt? When will there come a time that there won't be one stone upon another? How long will it last?”

He said, “When you see the abomination that maketh desolation standing. . . .” When Daniel stood in the holy place. . . . Said, “When you see this come to pass, now let him that read understand what he's talking about. . . .” That's the reason we're praying to God to make that so perfect that there'll be not one shadow of doubt, because we're not supposed to put our own interpretation to those things. It's got to come through “Thus saith the Lord.” So I'm leaving it right there until I understand.

Revealed all things to him. That abomination. . . . And remember, it has a compound meaning, just like “Call my son out of Egypt.” As Israel was called out, so was Jesus His Son called out. And that'll be just exactly, take place as certain as I'm standing here. And He did it in a way . . . and He's made it all hid from the church. Oh, when we get down into that, into those sixfold understanding, how He's got all this hid from the church so that the church will be watching at every minute—didn't know when He was coming. But now the church age is about over. So it's just ready now for the coming, just getting ready.

This is the one . . . most important scriptures in the Book. What does it do? It tells the closing of the Jewish nation, the Jewish people. This scripture, the seventy of weeks, it discloses and tells exactly from the time that Daniel started there until the end of the consummation. It's one of the greatest timepieces. . . . How many's heard me say, “If you want to know what day of the week it is, look at the calendar. If you want to know what time we're living in, watch the Jews”? That's right. There's God's calendar taken from right here. Any theologian, any Bible scholar, anyone will tell you that this is the timepiece, the Jews.

Now what time we got? We're just. . . . People hot. . . . Oh, I. . . .

It has nothing to do with the Gentiles. These seven seals, seven plagues, seven woes, seven trumpets has not one thing to do. . . . The Gentile church will be in glory at that time. Don't have nothing to do with us, the Gentile church; it only deals with Israel. “Daniel, thy people and Jerusalem.”

Now, and discloses the fact that God deals only with the Jews when they are in their homeland. Hallelujah! There's where I think it hit the core, right there. They're always trying to allow from the time that Israel was there at Daniel's time, and. . . . One great writer. . . . Because I know some of his followers are sitting here, I won't say it, but that's the reason they had all this false stuff.

Did you know how the Millerites, before they came Seventh Day Adventists, what they did up here in 1919? Got their wings (you all seen it in the Courier paper) and got up here to fly away that morning. That was taking Daniel's seventy of weeks—Millerites. Then later on, by Mrs. Ellen White, which was their prophetess, turned around and called themselves Seventh Day Adventists, and now they've changed their name to the Voice of Prophecy, see. Three different names for the same cult.

Now, but they were wrong, because they were trying to apply those seventy weeks to both Jew and Gentile, and he says here, “It's for thy people.” And God never did deal with the Jew out of Palestine. And when the Messiah at the seventy and two weeks, was cut off—not for Himself, for us—was cut off, Israel was scattered, and has not never come back to their homeland unless the last few years. So time wasn't counted in there for the church age. Do you get it? It wouldn't be 1919. I can show something happened in 1919. Well, that's when that angel . . . the third angel's message struck and the woe went forth. Exactly, but it wasn't that. That was when the war stopped in a mysterious way. We get that in the seventh chapter when we get to it—when we get to the seventh chapter. You all have heard me preach that many times, see, when the angel's message said, “Hold the four winds of the earth till we seal the Jews, the servants.” And now, they kept waiting till all the Gentile age had moved out. Then when He come in, then He seals the Jews, the 144,000 receives the Holy Ghost. There's the 144,000 sealed, Revelation 7. You've read it. “And I saw a great number already in heaven (John saw them) of all kindred, tongues, and nations, and they stood before God with palms in their hands and white robes on, singing. 'Hallelujah! Amen! Glory, wisdom, honor, might, and power be to our God forever and ever. Amen!' they hollered.”

John couldn't understand them, but he looked back and he saw on Mount Sinai (glory!) 144,000 that had not been defiled with women—Jews, women (churches). They hadn't joined no organizations—Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian—but they had been Jews from the beginning, orthodox, and had their temple there, worshipping, on Mount Sinai. That's the 144,000. That's after this. The church is done in glory, see.

So Mr. Smith was wrong. Had to be, because how you going to apply that down here in 1919 and take the 144,000 out? Then you're back in Russellite again, see. Then you're right back to the Russellite doctrine: that Jesus come in 1914, 1919 He took his church, and now He's a mystic body going around over the earth, going to Grandma's grave and Grandpa's grave and raising them all up, all of those that were Russellites. Nonsense! It don't make sense in the Word. It won't come out right. No, sir, it doesn't.

But God's got the truth! God's the one who can reveal it and place it in there and show it exactly to us! I believe He will do it. I don't know it. I'm telling you the truth. I do not know, but I'm believing. I'm believing that He will.

So you see, God never did deal with the Jews (I want you to keep this in mind) as long as Israel. . . .

That's what I tried to tell this brother sitting over here that's talking about going to Israel. Stay away from Israel! Stay away from it, all you people that talk about converting the Jews. Before this message is over you'll see it's “Thus saith the Lord” by Word and by Spirit! Israel will be converted over, the whole nation in one night. The Bible said so. But the gospel's not even to them. There's a few renegades that's out, and so forth like that, that come in—and outside of the main body of Jews—that come in and get saved. That's true. I believe that with all my heart. But remember, as long as Israel's out of their nation, they cannot be saved. Now they are returning, and they'll be saved—all, the whole nation in one day. The Bible said so. One day will bring completely, all Israel, right back to God. There'll be such a mighty thing strike Israel one of these days, until it'll shake the whole nation. Even the prophet cried out and said, “In one day has Thou did this”—in one day. They will see it.

There'll be a mighty thing. In my opinion, it'll be a mighty prophet that'll rise and stand before Israel and prove to them that that Messiah's still a-living. That Messiah that they rejected is [unclear words].

Them reading that little Bible now, of . . . Israel Bible. . . . They read it from the back to the front, the way they read it, and you know how the Jewish language is written. And so when they read it, and they read that. . . . Lewi Pethrus sent down to them a million Bibles. They said, “If this Jesus. . . .” That was them Jews that was brought up from down in Iran and down in there, never heard of such a thing as Messiah. And when they got ready to come back to their homeland, why, they wouldn't get on them airplanes. They were still plowing with old plows. You read it in the Look magazine. How many read them articles in the Look and Time? Why, sure you did, see. They wouldn't get on there. That old rabbi stood out there and said, “Remember, our prophet said we'd go back to the homeland on the wings of an eagle.”

Nations are breaking,

Israel's awakening,

The signs that the Bible foretold;

The Gentile days numbered,

With horrors encumbered,

Return, O dispersed, to your own.

You'd better be waking up. You've heard it and heard it and heard it, but it's going to be the last time one of these days.

Israel's returning to her homeland. What day that God determines Israel to be a nation, that's the day that there'll never be another Gentile saved. I'll prove that by these seventy of weeks, if I can only find them days. I'm going over to get the astronomy calendars and the Julian, the astronomy, and the Roman, and all of them. There's . . . somewhere there's something. God knows about it, and He's able to reveal it. I know the Julian calendar has 365¼ days in the year. So, oh, they're all mixed up, but there's a truth somewhere.

I see so many churches, so many organizations, so many people going this, and some, “Hail, Mary,” and some worshipping this, and that, and the other. There's got to be a truth somewhere, there's got to be a God somewhere, there's got to be a message somewhere. I see false prophets arising, acting like discernments, and all other kinds of stuff going on. There's got to be a real one there somewhere that counterfeit's made off of.

I see people getting in the flesh, and shouting, and carrying on; and going out and living all kinds of lives. There's got to be a genuine Holy Spirit there somewhere! I see people acting religious, and so forth, and trying to be pious. I know there's a genuine God somewhere. There's a genuine Spirit somewhere, because that's an old hypocrite that's made off of it, an old bogus one. There's got to be something that's real—a man, a people, a church, a God. There's got to be something true somewhere, because these was just copied off of it. There's something real somewhere.

I've said to this church about your gifts: Listen to your gifts, keep them in the Bible! Don't take a substitute when the skies are full of the real ones. Let's keep the real ones. Let's get the real or don't have any at all. Amen!

Now, the close is the fact that God deals with Israel only when she's in her homeland. Let's take. . . . When God . . . Abraham left the homeland and went down into Egypt, what happened? He walked away from the will of God and never was blessed till he returned back to the homeland. God never dealt with him—not one vision, not nothing else—till he come back to the homeland.

Look at Israel when they were sent down in Egypt. Four hundred years—not one miracle, not one sign, not one thing happened among them, not recorded in the history of the book. Same old nine and nine: Go to church, offer the lamb, say a “Hail Mary,” or whatever it was, go back. Next year, same way. The priests all argued. “Rabbi So-and-so. . . . We'll elect Rabbi So-and-so. He's got a better scholarship. He knows more about the Egyptians.” The first thing you know, the Egyptians and all of them was the same thing.

That's the same thing's happened to the church. We've all went to be Methodist, or Baptist, or Presbyterian; and we got a degree out of Harvard, we got a degree out of Wheaton, we got a degree out of somewhere else, or Bob Jones; we got a Bachelor of Art, we got a D.D., LL.D., or something or other. What has it amounted to? A bunch of nonsense.

It's the way it was in Egypt,

and God never did deal with Israel till she come to her homeland. Hear me! “Thus saith the Lord, God will not deal with His church till she comes back to the homeland—message of the hour. Come back to the original! Get away from your Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian ideas, you Pentecostal, Assemblies, oneness, threeness, and fiveness, whatever it is, Church of God, Nazarene, Pilgrim Holiness, Church of Christ—all antichrist movements!” And I realize this strikes the world. All wrong! All of the devil. There's godly men in every one of them, godly people in every one of them movements, but the organization in itself is not of God, and God will never bless it. He never has done it!

And I ask any historian who'll hear this tape to write in and tell me whenever the church organized if God didn't lay it on the shelf and never dealt with it no more. Tell me when He ever raised up the Lutheran again, Wesley, Methodist, or Pentecostal. Never did. That organization laid there and cankered and rottened! God took individuals and tried to point the people back to the homeland. And many of the individuals so weak and sissified with some kind of a degree until they organized another organization, made it a twofold child more of hell than it was to begin with.

But somewhere, surely, Jehovah has a man that He can put His hands on, who will not compromise with them ungodly organiza-tions, who will swing the people back to the rock, Christ Jesus, back to the original Pentecost and the original Holy Ghost, with the original signs and original wonders. Surely He's got one somewhere who'll not break down under any kind of a persecution —run out, cancel out, fall out, anything else—that'll stay with it.

God never blesses Israel till she gets to her homeland. God will never bless you a Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Catholic, or a Pilgrim Holiness, Nazarene, Church of Christ, or Pentecostal organization. He'll never bless you that way. Come back to the homeland, to the beginning, back to the Pentecostal experience like it happened on the day of Pentecost, when the power of the living God changed those thousands of people and set their heart aflame with the fire of God, that showed genuine, not impersonated, signs. Not some made-up telepathy, not some mockery, and got into a rat race like we got in America, who can have the biggest tent, or who can have the biggest crowd! What difference does that make to God? God wants the people honest in heart, not the big crowds. We all got a rat race here running—what a disgrace—to see if we can add a thousand more to our organization. It's a disgrace. He wants us back to the truth, back to the Spirit, back to the right life, back to a hideaway in Christ, back to the truth. How can He ever bless us the way we go? He won't.

He never blessed Israel until they come back to the promised land; and when they got back in the promised land, signs and wonders begin to happen. He sent a man right down among them by the name of Moses. What did this Moses come down with? A polished-up theology? Did he come down with a Bachelor of Art degree? Did he come down with a LL.D., Ph.D.? He come down with the power of Jehovah and with a message: “Return from this land to the homeland.” Return, O dispersed, to your own. Amen!

For nearly two thousand years the Jews has been out of their homeland, scattered to the four winds of the earth. How that we could make this message last for weeks now if we had to go to details. We can chase Israel right back and show when it was scattered by the Roman Empire on their rejecting of the Messiah, how she was drove to every nation under heaven. Go back to Jacob, Israel, back in Genesis 44 and 45 and show back there that how He blessed those patriarchs and told them exactly where their standing would be in the last days; and I can point to you exactly every nation of Israel, every tribe of Israel, standing exactly in the nations where it said it would be. And here we are today.

The Jew that we know, that's not the real Jew. The real Jew is that real orthodox who has not defiled himself with the things of the world, who's not went out and joined other churches. That's the ones that's returning yonder, living on cheese and bread, up on the hillsides, not allowed in the old city. Had to build them a city on this side in a no-man's-land, with machine guns pointing both ways. But she's beginning to put forth her buds. Amen and amen! The time is at hand.

There's Ishmael and Isaac standing there fussing about the land yet; but she belongs to Israel. If you happen to go over in the new Jerusalem, they won't let you come to the old Jerusalem. You have to go there first and let them explain it all to you, the Arabs, then take you over to the other side. That's Ishmael's children. But wait, there's coming a time when God's children's going to take her over. That's right! Jerusalem will be rebuilt again. The daily sacrifice will be set up. And the antichrist will make a covenant for them last seven weeks, and in the midst of it he'll break that covenant, turn them all into Catholicism. The abomination will spread over the whole thing like that, and then the end shall be. Watch.

Seventy of weeks. Yeah, nearly two thousand years they've been away. They've been drove now. There're people like it was in hardening Pharaoh's heart. He had to harden Hitler's heart. Millions of them died. Look at this Eichmann, guilty of killing six million Jews. Six million of them, human souls—babies, children, adults—all put to death. Eichmann, one man.

Look at Russia, how you drove them out of there. They drove them everywhere. They've been a despised nation, but because of the love of their money, they came back again. But that little minority is returning into Palestine. Amen, brethren!

When you see her begin to come to her homeland. . . . They've got enough in there now to make that about 144,000. And what's happening? They'll know their Joseph. Don't you worry. Yes, sir! And they're all standing there waiting for it to happen. And the very hour that. . . .

The nations has declared them a nation this last year. When that hits, we're near the end. The Gentile church is gone. So most any time, God could say, “Israel is my people.” When that is, the Gentiles are finished.

“They will trod down,” said Jesus in Matthew 24 (the abomination maketh desolation), “they'll trod down the walls of Jerusalem until the Gentile dispensation be finished.” When that's finished, then the Jews will return back into Jerusalem to reestablish the temple and temple worship. We'll get it all in these next messages, the seventy of weeks, of the sixfold purpose. Now, I'll read that before closing, because it'd be just about time then for us to get home, then come back tonight at seven o'clock.

First (if you're putting it down), “to finish the transgression.” Daniel, the ninth chapter, twenty-fourth verse: “to finish the transgression [1], to make an end of sin [2], to make reconciliation for iniquity [3], to bring in everlasting righteousness [4], to seal up the vision and prophecy [5], to anoint the most Holy [6].” And that's what we'll speak on tonight—God, bringing to pass. . . .

Now wait, let me go over it again so you get it. First, finish the transgression; second, make an end of sin; third, make reconcilia-tions for iniquity; fourth, bring in everlasting righteousness; fifth, seal up the vision and prophecy; sixth, to anoint the most Holy. Let me read it to you now out of the Bible. It's the twenty-fourth verse.

Seven weeks are determined upon thy people [the Jews] and upon thy holy city, [Israel, Jews, Jerusalem] to finish . . . transgression [1], to make an end of sin [2], to make reconciliations for iniquity [3], to bring in everlasting righteousness [4], and to seal up the vision [5], the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy [6].

That's exactly what he came to tell him that would be done, and then the end would be.

Now tonight we'll get what those things are and see how close we are to there, and then next Sunday bring in and place these time elements exactly where we're standing. I love Him.

Israel returning to their homeland, Israel. Let me just say this now, while . . . I guess it's off the tape. Let me say this: The very hour that Israel become a nation. . . . The reason I've always believed (before my class here) that there was something, that I'd have a part before I die of getting Israel back to the Lord, because the very hour (by the Pan-American chart) that Israel was declared a nation for the first time for two thousand years since they'd been scattered, not a people, it was that very same hour, exactly to the hour, that the angel of the Lord met me up yonder and sent me with the gospel. The very same thing—May 7, 1946.

Now, then another thing that gives me to know, it's restoring the hearts of the children back to the fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children—the message. Notice Malachi 4. Not 3; 4.

Another thing, when Billy, my son, and I, and Brother Ern Baxter was on our road to Palestine, after we'd met the Jews at Brother Arganbright's, and they seen the meeting. . . . Lewi Pethrus had sent these Bibles over there, and he said, “These Jews come, said, 'If you will call up a bunch of the leaders of Israel—I mean, not these new rabbis with all their ceremonies—but call the real Israelite leaders together. . . . And we have read this New Testament, and we know that when the Messiah cometh, He'll tell us these things, like the woman at Samaria. We know that Moses said our Messiah would be a prophet. And when you can tell them, and show them by the Scripture that [which we will get in tonight's message] that they had to be darkened and their hearts cut off so that the Gentile space could come, that we'd have a time of reconciliation for the Gentiles, and their hearts were hardened just exactly like it was at the time of Joseph and so forth; and then bring those Jews to a place, and call those men from that audience, just like you do these Gentiles here by that inspiration of the Spirit. . . .' Because they said, 'If this Jesus, if He is the Messiah and your words are true, then He is not dead, and He's alive. And if He's alive, He promised to be in His servants, His disciples. And if we can see Him do the sign of the prophet, then we will believe that He is Messiah.' ” What a perfect thing! Exactly right. Then what would that do? A nation would be born in one day amongst the leaders. Every one of them would say, “We know it.” When that rabbi says that, that settles it. A nation would be born in one day. Israel would be born in one day.

And I was on my road, and stood at Cairo, Egypt, with the ticket in my hand, and fifteen or twenty minutes of calling time. They was fixing to make the call. And I walked down to see a little piece of this ebony with . . . a little elephant made out of ebony with a ivory tusk. I was going to send it to a doctor friend of mine, Dr. Sam Adair, for a paper weight. And I was looking at it, and something said to me, “This is not yet the hour. Stay out of Palestine.”

So I thought, “That was just me thinking that.” And I went on.

Something said, “This is not the hour.”

And I went out behind the hangar, I raised up my head to God. I said, “God, was that You speaking to me?”

He said, “This is not the hour. Stay out of Palestine. This is not the time.” Then I took my ticket and changed it, and went from there up through Rome, and come back to Lisbon (and it's Portuguese), and from there back to the United States.

The hour was not yet. The iniquity of the Gentiles hadn't filled up yet—just to the end of the cup—but some day that'll be. And God will send somebody there that's a prophet, and will prove to them. . . . I trust that God will raise him up right away, whoever he may be, that'll raise him quickly. I believe it has to come. That's what we're studying this for, that we're so close. . . .

And remember, the very minute that the Jews receive Christ, the Gentile church is gone. Then the Gentiles has the plagues poured out upon them—the tribulation.

And how can men, great teachers, teach—and looking at this Bible like this—and say that the church goes through the tribulation period when there's not a scripture in the Bible that says it? They haven't got one thing.

A man come to me not long ago, said, “Oh, Sister McPherson taught that the church would go through the tribulation, because we'll be shining lights in that time.” It's Israel then, not the Gentiles. The Gentiles has done gone, the church. They don't have to go through no tribulation. The dragon spurted water from his mouth (the seventeenth chapter) and made war with the remnant, the sleeping virgins, not. . . . The real church has gone on. She's done at the wedding supper for the space of time where the wedding supper will be going on the last week. And that's when the tribulation sets in, when the locusts and persecutions rise upon the churches, and things like that. Then at the end, in the nineteenth chapter, here she comes with her bridegroom (Hallelujah!)—King of kings and Lord of lords, vesture dipped in blood, and the heavenly host riding on white horses coming with Him. There she comes to take her place for the millennium. Amen. Oh!

How do you do it? You make it great in your life. You live such a life that they can say, “There is a servant of Christ.” That's how you magnify the name now, see.

Oh, don't you love Him? Oh, my! Our little song now:

(That Lamb with them seven seals, only one in heaven and earth was able to take it.) . . .

I like to worship, don't you? Now we don't come to church just to hear a sermon. That goes with it, but we come to church to worship, worship in the Spirit and in truth. You've heard the truth —that's the Word, see. Now, to worship is to express yourself to Him, see.

“Oh, I love that Man of Galilee!” Give us a little chord on that. Do you know that, Teddy? I forget now . . . let's see, let's see.

Listen to this one:

(That was Him.)

I love Him, don't you? All my heart. Don't you? Isn't He wonderful?

(Nations are breaking, don't matter.)

Oh, think of it!

Now, together!

(Listen at 'em sing! Look at 'em, waiting for Him!)

Now, with your hands up, if we mean it.

Do you love Him? Then you have to love one another. Because if you don't love them who you can see, who is here, how can you love Him who you haven't seen? Let's shake one another's hand and sing:

Just think, He made this big revelation known to us. Don't we love Him? Isn't He wonderful? How thankful we are for our Lord Jesus. Never forsake us—“Lo, I am with thee always, even to. . . .”

Are we enjoying the seventy weeks of Daniel? Oh, don't we love Him? How does it do?

(Just worship Him in your heart.)

(We all do it.)

(Guide me through it, Lord.)

[Brother Branham begins humming.]

Oh, Jesus, we see we're nearing something. Isaiah the prophet has spoken of it, Jeremiah spoke of it. Daniel looked back and seen what they said. It caused his heart to be stirred in him. He set his face towards heaven, he fasted in sackcloth and ashes. He wanted to hear so he could warn the people.

Lord, we see by books also, Thy Book, the book of Isaiah, the book of Jeremiah, the book of James, John, Luke, Mark, Matthew, the book of Revelation, all Thy books, that we're near the end. And we have set our face towards heaven in prayer, supplications to find where we're living, Lord. We begin to see daylight breaking, and, Lord, we come to You. Our faith looks to You now. Laying aside every weight, every sin, every little unbelief that would so easily beset us, we press now towards the mark of the high calling, knowing that our time is limited.

Bless these people in here, Lord. They love You. They're yours. They've come out. You're the one's doing the revealing. We pray that You'll grant these things to us as we wait on Thee.

Give us a good afternoon of study, Lord. Give us understanding. Bring us back again tonight fresh. Lord, anoint me this afternoon, oh, as I study, Lord, for this sixfold reason of the visit of Gabriel. If Gabriel come to visit and give a sixfold meaning, Lord, we must know that. We study by the books and know we're near, so we pray that You'll reveal it to us tonight.

Next Sunday, Lord, O God, place them days in there. I don't know how, but You can bring us right to the time. Grant it, Father. We're looking to Thee. We love one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, has cleansed us from all sin. We're looking to Thee now. Help us as we wait on Thee, Father. Through Jesus our Lord. . . .