The First Seal

Jeffersonville, Indiana, USA

63-0318

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Let us bow our heads now for prayer. Our heavenly Father, we thank Thee tonight for this, another opportunity to come to worship You. We are thankful to be alive and to have this great revelation of eternal life dwelling within us.
And we've come tonight, Father, to study thy Word together, these great hidden mysteries that's been hid since the foundation of the world. And the Lamb is the only one that can reveal it to us. I pray that He will come among us tonight, and will take of his Word and reveal it to us, that we might know how to be better servants to Him in this end-time. O God, as we see that we are now in the end-time, help us to know our place, Lord, and our frail beings, and the certainty of the coming of the Lord soon. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
I believe it was David said, “I was happy when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.” It's always a great privilege to come, and the studying of the Word together gives us this great hope.
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Now there's many standing, and I'm just going to hurry as quick as possible. But I trust that you have enjoyed the presence of the Holy Spirit like I have in these last couple of times. And today, I had something to happen that I haven't had for a long time. I was studying on this revelation here, on the opening of the seal.
Years ago I run through it here-about some twenty years ago I guess, or something like that-but somehow or another I never was just exactly satisfied. It seemed like there was some things... especially in these seals, because those seals are the entire book. It's the book. The whole book is one book sealed. It starts...
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For instance, if I had something here... I'd show you what I mean. Here is one Seal. That's one... And you roll it up like this-the way it was rolled. And you roll it up in this manner, and at the end there is a little piece sticking out like that. That's the first seal. All right. Then that's the first part of the book. Then the next seal is rolled in this manner, right by the side of it. And it's rolled up in this manner, like here. And then at the end, right here, there's another sticking out, and it means two seals. And that's the way the whole Bible was wrote-in scrolls. And so to break these seals, it opens the mysteries of the book.
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Did you get to study in Jeremiah, how he wrote that (many of you taking it down last night)? How them seals were wrote and placed away for keeping until he returned after seventy years of the captivity? He was returned back and claimed his possession. And I certainly would like to state you can't... there is no way to express it all because it is an eternal Word. It's an eternal Book. Therefore, we just have to kind of hit the high places.
And today in studying, I have written down many scriptures so you can study it. And also in the tapes will reveal much of it as you study.
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There are so many things, if I could just stand here at the platform and reveal it to you the way it's revealed to me in the room, my, it would be marvelous. But when you get here you are pressed, and you just kind of jump over the things and try to just get the main part to the people that they might see it.
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I certainly appreciate that song that Brother Ungren just sang, “Down From His Glory.” If He hadn't have come from His glory, where would we all be tonight? So we're thankful that He come down to help us.
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Now with many standing, we'll just hurry right through it here the best we can. I don't say we're going to hurry right through, but I mean we're going to get started as quick as possible.
And now, let us turn now, after... We've had the 1st chapter, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th; and 5th last night; and tonight we're starting on the 6th chapter of Revelation. Now as we study this chapter we are referring different places, even to Old and New Testament alike, because the entire Book is the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's altogether the revelation of the Lord Jesus, the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is God revealing Himself in the Book-revealing Himself through Christ in the Book.
And Christ is the revelation of God. He come to reveal God, because He and God were the same. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. In other words, you'd never know just what God was until He revealed Himself through Christ. Then you can see. I used to think years ago that maybe God was angry with me but Christ loved me. Come to find out, it's the same person, see, and Christ is the very heart of God.
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And now as we study this, we are comparing it now...The first three books (of the Bible) of Revelation-which, we have pretty thoroughly combed that-is the Church Ages, the seven Church Ages. Now there's seven Church Ages, seven Seals, seven Trumpets, and Vials, and unclean spirits like frogs. And all this goes together. My, how I would like to have a great big map and draw it all across, the way I see it, you know-just how each one takes its place. I drawed it out on a little sheet of paper, but you know... And everything so far is just exactly right, with the time and the ages as they have come and gone, and everything has blended in just perfectly right.
So, it may not altogether be right, but it's the best that I know about it anyhow. And I know if I do my best, and I make a mistake in trying to do my best, the best that I know of, that God surely will forgive me for doing... for the error if I have done wrong.
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Now, those first three books is the first seven Church Ages, and then we find out in the 4th chapter of Revelation, John is caught up, see. We see the churches. There's not too much said about the Church Ages. There's where I think that people are going to be so surprised. They're applying the church way over into the tribulation, to those things that's happened. And as I said Sunday (yesterday), “The first thing you know those tribulations will break in, and you'll wonder why was not the...? The first coming was the Rapture. And it'll be as it has been: it's past and you didn't know it.”
Now, there's not too much promised to that Church, that Gentile Church, the Bride.
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Now, I want you to bear in mind, there is a Church and a Bride. You always have to make it run in threes, fours is wrong. Threes! Threes, sevens, tens, twelves, twenty-fours, and forties, and fifties-those unbroken numbers. The Bible is... And God runs His Messages in numerals of the Bible in those numbers. You get something that flies off of one of those numbers, you'd better watch. It won't come out right on the next thing. You've got to bring it back here to where you start from.
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Brother Vayle, Brother Lee Vayle-I think he's here. We were talking the other day about people who... getting off the track. It's just like shooting a target. If that gun is perfectly balanced, perfectly trained and sighted, it's got to hit the target unless that barrel moves, or twists, or vibrations throws it off, and wherever... or a wind puff. Wherever it starts off at, there's only one way to do: is come back to where it left the track and start again, if it's going to hit the target. If it doesn't, why, it just doesn't hit the target.
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And that's the way in studying Scripture, I believe. If we find out we start something here, and it doesn't come out right, you see, we've made a mistake somewhere. You've got to come back. You'll never figure it with your mind. It just isn't... We just found out by the Scriptures that there's no man in Heaven, or in earth or beneath the earth, or ever was, or ever will be that can do it. The Lamb alone can do it. So seminary explanations, whatever it might be, is just nothing. It takes the Lamb to reveal it. That's all. So we trust that He will help us.
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John caught up, in the 4th chapter, to see things which was, which is, and which is to come. But the Church finishes at the 4th chapter, and Christ takes up the Church, caught up in the air to meet Him, and does not appear again until the 19th chapter, when He comes back as King of kings and Lord of lords with the Church. And now... Oh, I hope some day that we get through it all, maybe before He comes. If we don't, we'll see it anyhow, so it doesn't matter.
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Now, in this 5th chapter, the breaking of these Seals. And now, the Seven-Sealed Book... first we want to read the First Seal. Last evening (to background it just a little more), we find out that when John looked and seen that Book still in the hands of the original Owner-God... Do you remember how it was lost? By Adam. He forfeited the Book of Life for the knowledge of Satan, and lost his inheritance. He lost everything, and no way for redemption.
Then God, made in the likeness of man, came down and become a Redeemer to us, to redeem us. And now we find out that in days passed by, these things which was mysterious is to be opened up to us in the last days.
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Now we find out also in this that as soon as John heard this announcement for the Kinsman Redeemer to come forth and to make His claims, there was no man that could do it. No man in heaven, no man in earth, no man beneath the earth, no one was worthy even to look at the Book. Just think of that! No person at all worthy even to look at it. And John just started weeping.
He knowed that all, there was no chance for redemption then. Everything was failed, and quickly... We find his weeping stopping quickly, because it was announced by one of the four beasts, or the elders rather, one of the elders said, “Don't weep, John, for the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed.”-in other words, overcome and has conquered.
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John turning, he saw a Lamb coming out. It must have been bloody and cut and wounded. It had been slain. A Lamb that had been slain, and it was still bloody. If you had cut the lamb and killed it, the way that Lamb was anyhow... It was hacked to pieces on a cross, spears in the side, and nails in the hands and feet, and thorns over the brow. He was in an awful condition. And this Lamb come forth and went over to Him that sat upon the Throne, that held the complete title deed of Redemption. And the Lamb goes and takes the Book out of the hand of Him that sat upon the Throne, and was took and opened the Seals, and opened the Book.
Then when that happened, we found out there must have been a great something took place in heaven, for the elders and... the four and twenty elders, the beasts and everything in heaven began to cry, “Worthy,” and here come the angels and poured out the vials of the prayers of the saints. The saints under the altar screamed out, “Worthy art thou, O Lamb, for you have redeemed us, and now You have made us kings and priests, and we shall rule on the earth.” Oh, my! And that's so, when He opened that Book.
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You see, the Book actually was planned and written before the foundation of the world. This Book-the Bible-was really written before the foundation of the world. And Christ, being the Lamb, was slain before the foundation of the world. And the members of His Bride, their names were put in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. But it's been sealed up, and now it's being revealed; whose names were in there, all about it. What a great thing. And John, when he saw it, he said everything in heaven, everything underneath the earth, everything heard him saying, “Amen, blessings and honor!” He just really was having a great time, for the Lamb was worthy.
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And now, the Lamb is standing now tonight, as we enter into this 6th chapter. He's got the Book in his hand and starting to reveal it. And, oh, I would have absolutely today.. and I hope that people are spiritual. I would have had a horrible mistake on that if it hadn't been.. about twelve o'clock today when the Holy Spirit came in the room and corrected me on something that I was writing down to say.
I was taking it from an old context. I had nothing on it. I don't know what the Second Seal is, no more than nothing. But I've got some old contexts of something that I'd spoke on several years ago and wrote it down. And I had gathered this context from Dr. Smith, many great outstanding teachers that I'd gathered. And all of them believed that, so I'd wrote it down. And I was fixing to say, “Well, now I'll study it from that standpoint.” And there, about twelve o'clock in the day, the Holy Spirit just swept right down into the room, and the whole thing just opened up to me and there it was; of this First Seal being opened.
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I'm as positive as I'm standing here tonight that this is the Gospel Truth that I'm going to show you tonight. I just know it is. Because if a Revelation is contrary to the Word, then it isn't Revelation. And you know, there's some of the stuff can look so absolutely true, and yet isn't true. It looks like it is, but it isn't.
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Now, we find the Lamb with the Book, now. And now in the 6th chapter we read:
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of a thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
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Now, that's the First Seal, the one we're going to try by the grace of God to explain it tonight. By the very best.. and I realize that a man trying to explain that is walking on dangerous ground if you don't know what you are doing.
So if it comes to me by revelation, I'll tell you so. If I just have to take it through my own mind, then I'll tell you that before I talk about it. But I'm just as positive as I'm standing here tonight that it come afresh to me today from the Almighty. I'm not prone to just saying things like that when it comes to this part of the scripture. I hope you know what I'm talking about now. You know, you can't say things if something's supposed to be laying over here before it happens. You can't say it till something lays it over there. See? Are you reading, are you listening to something?
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Now, the Seven-Seal rolled Book is now being released by the Lamb. We approach that place tonight. God help us. As the Seals are broken and released, the mysteries of the Book are revealed. Now, you see this is a sealed Book. Now, we believe that, do we not? [Congregation says, “Amen”] We believe that it is a sealed Book. Now, we never knowed this before, but it is! It's sealed with Seven Seals. That is, on the back of the Book, the Book is sealed with Seven Seals.
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If we was talking about this kind of book, it would be like putting a strap across it-seven straps. But it isn't this kind of a book; it's a scroll. Then when the scroll is unwound, that's one; then laying right in the scroll is number two, and right here it says what it is-but it's a mystery. But yet we have probed in it, but remember, the book is sealed and the Book is a book of mystery of revelation. It is the revelation of Jesus Christ, see, a Book of revelation. And now you know down through the age, man has probed and tried to get into that. We all have!
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And yet..
One time I remember.. If Mr. Bohannon happened to be present, or some of his people, I don't mean it by any insult. Mr. Bohannon is a bosom friend, and he was the superintendent of the Public Service when I was working there. When I first got saved, I was telling him about reading on the book of Revelation. And He said, “I tried to read that thing.” He said... And Mr. Bohannon was a fine man, and he was a member of the church, I don't know what all he belonged to. But he said, “I think that John must have had a red pepper supper that night and went to bed on a full stomach.”
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I said to him (although it could have cost my job), I said, “Aren't you ashamed to say that?” I was just a boy, but I said, “Aren't you ashamed to say that about the Word of God?” Yet I was just a kid-no more than early.. maybe twenty-one, twenty-two years old. And work was scarce, and the depression on. But yet there was a fear in there when I slanted.. heard any slant toward God's Word. It's truth! All truth!
So it was not even a dream or a nightmare. It wasn't John eat... He was on the Isle of Patmos because he'd tried to put the Word of God into a book form, and was he exiled there by the Roman government. And was on the island on the day of the Lord, and he heard behind him a voice of many waters and turned to look, and he saw seven golden candlesticks. There stood the Son of God in between them.
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Now... and then the Book is a revelation. So, a revelation is something that's made known of something, something that's been revealed. And now (notice, so you won't forget it!), it is closed up until the latter time, see. The whole mystery of it is closed up until the latter time. We find that in the scripture here.
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Now, the mysteries of the Book are revealed when the Seals are broken. And when the Seals completely are broken, the time of Redemption is over, because the Lamb left the intercession post to walk out to take his claim. He was a mediator between that. But when the real revelation happens on the Seals, as they begin to break, the Lamb is coming forth from the sanctuary. It's according to the Word. We read it last night. He come from out of the midst and took the Book. So, He's no more mediator, because even they called Him a lion-and that's the King, and He's not a mediator then.
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Although the actors of these Seals begin at the First Church Age... Now remember, so you will get the background of it thoroughly if we can, or as thoroughly as possible. The actors... I'll place it like that because an actor is a man who changes masks.
In this act tonight, we're going to see that it's Satan changing his mask. And all actors.. Christ, acting the part that He did when He become from a Spirit to man, he only put on an actor's garment, human flesh and came down in the form of a man in order to be a Kinsman Redeemer.
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Now, see, it's only an actor's form. That's the reason they are all in parables, and the way they are here like beasts, and animals, and so forth. It's in an act. And these actors begin in the First Church Age, because it was Christ revealing Himself to the Seven Church Ages. Do you understand it? All right. See, Christ revealing Himself to the Seven Church Ages. Then through these Church Ages, there's a great mess-up comes along. Then at the end of the Church Age, the seventh angel's message is to pick up these lost mysteries and to give it to the church, see. Now, we'll notice that.
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But... not then revealed in their true state. Now, in the Bible times, the mysteries were there, and they seen these things happen the way John saw it here. Now he said, “There is a white horse rider.” But what the mystery of it is... There's a mystery that goes with that rider. Now, what it was, they didn't know; but it's to be revealed. But it is to be revealed after the Lamb leaves the Father's throne, of his intercessory as kinsman redeemer.
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I am going to drop a little something in here. Now, if anybody gets these tapes... Any man can speak whatever he wants to. He has a right to, anything of his conviction. But you know, if a minister doesn't want this amongst his people, then tell him not to take it. But this is amongst the people that I have been sent to speak to. Therefore I must reveal what is truth.
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Now, the Lamb in the time of intercessory back here, He knew that there were names in there that was put in there from the foundation of the world. And as long as them names had never been manifested on earth as yet, He had to stay there as intercessor. Do you get it? Perfectly predestination, see.
34 All right, He had to stay there, because He came to die for those that God had ordained to eternal life, see. By his foreknowledge He saw them, not by his own will. His will was that none should perish, but by his foreknowledge He knew who would and who would not.
Therefore as long as there was one name that had never yet been declared in earth, Christ had to stay there as an intercessor to take care of that name. But as soon as that final name had been splashed in that clorox or bleach, then his intercessory days was over. “Let him that's filthy be filthy still. Let him that's holy... he's holy still.” And he leaves the sanctuary, and then it becomes a judgment seat. Woe unto those outside of Christ then.
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Now, notice. But it's to be revealed when the Lamb leaves his intercessory place from the Father. (Now, that's Revelations 5). Now, He takes the Book of Seals-the Book of Seals or a book sealed with Seals-breaks them and shows them... Look, at the end of the age now, after the intercessory is over, the Church Ages has done finished up... He come in the first age, the Ephesian Age, revealed, sent the messenger. Notice what happens as we go along.
Here is the plan of it: The first thing happens, there is an announcement in the heavens first. What happens? A seal is opened. What is that? A mystery is unfolded, see. And when a mystery unfolds, then a trumpet sounds. It declares a war. A plague falls, and a church age opens. See? What is the war for? The angel of the church catches the mystery of God, not fully yet revealed; but when he does, he catches this mystery of God, and then he goes forth to the people-after the mystery has been given to him, goes forth to the people. What does he do out there? He begins to proclaim that message, and what does it start? A war! A spiritual war.
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And then God takes his messenger with the Elect of that age and lays them away asleep, and then He drops a plague upon them who rejected it-a temporary judgment.
And then, after that is over, then he goes on. And they denominate, and bring in denominations, and start off with that man's work-like Wesley and all the rest of them. And then it gets all into a scropple again; and then another mystery comes forth. Then what happens? Another messenger arrives on earth for a church age, see. Then when he arrives, the trumpet sounds. He declares war, see. And then what happens? Finally then he's caught away. And then when he's laid away, then plague falls-destroys them. Spiritual death hits the church and she's gone, that group. Then it goes on to another one.
Oh, it's a great plan until it comes to that last angel. Now he has no certain mystery. But he gathers up all that's been lost in them other ages-all the truths that wasn't truly revealed yet, see, as the revelation come. Then he reveals those things in his day. If you want to read it, there it is: Revelation 10, 1 to about 4 you'll get it. All right.
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See, takes the Book of Seals and breaks them and shows the seventh angel, for this alone-the mysteries of God-is the ministry of the seventh angel! Now, we have just come through the Church Ages with even history to prove that. It is the angel's message of the seventh church. All right, reveals all the mysteries that's been in the past-all the things in the past. Revelation 10:1-7. That's to be.
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Now remember, in the days of the seventh angel-his sounding forth, blasting forth the gospel trumpet-he is to finish all the mysteries of God. Just like... Here come forth in the early church ages (we'll get it after awhile) a doctrine, then... It become a saying first, and then a doctrine, and then it become a statute, then it become a church. And through the Dark Ages, and out of the Dark Ages, come the first Reformation with Luther. And he brought with him all kinds of mysterious things that happened during that church age (all back in there), but he never finished it up.
Then along come Wesley with sanctification, got some more of it. Still never finished it. Left loose ends everywhere, such as sprinkling instead of baptism. And Luther took “Father, Son and Holy Ghost” instead of the “Lord Jesus Christ”-all these different things.
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Then along come the Pentecostal age with the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and they cabbaged down on that. Now, there cannot be no more ages. That's all of it. That's the Laodicean age. But then we found in the studying of the Scripture that the messenger to the age come right at the end of the age every time. Paul come at the end of the age. We find out Irenaeus come at the end of the age; Martin, at the end of the age; Luther, the end of the Catholic age; and what?-Wesley, at the end of the Lutheran age; and Pentecost, at the end of the age of sanctification, to the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
And at the end of the Pentecostal age we are supposed to receive, according to the Word, as God help me tonight to show you through here, that we are to receive a messenger that will take all those loose ends out there and reveal the whole secret of God, for the rapturing of the Church.
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Then there's coming forth seven mysterious thunders that's not even written at all! That's right! And I believe that through those seven thunders will be revealed in the last days in order to get the Bride together for rapturing faith; because what we got right now, we wouldn't be able to do it. There is something we've got to step farther. We can't have enough faith for divine healing hardly. We've got to have enough faith to be changed in a moment, to be swept up out of this earth. And we will find that, after awhile, the Lord willing, find where it's written.
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Then all the judgments of these evil doers... Now, see, down through the ages as these Seals has been breaking... until now the last Seal is broken. And now, as they have been watching in on these Seals, and just presuming what they were doing, now at the end of the ages (of the Church Ages), all these evil doers will take place and head up in the tribulation.
All of these evil doers of the seven seals that's been working mysterious in the church... And we will find out in a minute it even worked in the name of a church. They call themselves the church! You just see if that isn't right! No wonder I have been so against denomination, not knowing why.
They end up... Now, it starts back here in a mild form and just keeps getting worse and worse, on down until... And people go right into it, saying, “Oh, yes, this is just fine.” But in the last days these things are made known. And they finally go so bad until they go plumb into the tribulation period.
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How can a man say that the Bride of Christ goes into the tribulation? I can't understand it! She's took away from the tribulation. If the Church has been judged, and they have judged themselves and have accepted the blood, how can God judge a man that's perfectly, totally sinless? You say, “There is no such a person.” Every borned-again believer, true believer, is perfectly, absolutely sinless before God. He is not trusting in his works; in the blood of Jesus that his confession's dropped into. The Bible says so. See?
“He that is born of God does not commit sin,” for he cannot sin. How can you make a man a sinner when the bleach of the blood of Jesus Christ is between him and God? That would scatter sin till there'd be nothing left of it, see. How can that pure blood of Christ ever let a sin pass there? He cannot.
Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” And how could we even start the thought of being perfect? But Jesus required it; and if Jesus required it, He's got to make a way for it. And He has-His own blood.
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Now, reveals all the mysteries that's gone on in the past. Now, the thought is, here at the end-time, that the mysteries that begin way back long ago and has come down through the church ages is to be revealed here at the breaking of the Seals-here at the last day, after the time of intercession is just about finished, at that time.
Then the judgments wait for those who are in the back. They go on out into that. That is after the bride has been taken from the scene.
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Oh, let's just read a scripture. You all like to put down some of the scriptures? Let's take II Thessalonians just a moment and look here just a minute. It's such a beautiful picture here. I like it. Let's see. Yes, II Thessalonians, and I want the 2nd chapter of II Thessalonians and the 7th verse. Let's see. II Thessalonians 2:7. I think that's right. Now, I was writing this down quivering and shaking.
... the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
Who? “He that letteth.” See, a mystery... the mystery of iniquity way back in that very first church age, here. Here is Paul writing, saying that the mystery of iniquity... What is iniquity? Iniquity is something that you know you ought not to do, and you do it anyhow. And Paul said there is such in the earth today, workers of iniquity.
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Oh, if you... we're going to get to... let's just read that piece. Start up a little farther-the 3rd verse.
Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that [m-a-n] man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition [that's right];
Who opposeth and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God [remitting sins].
Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? [I'd like to have sat under some of his teachings. Wouldn't you?]
And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
Not then, see! Not then, but in His time. See, at the breaking of that Seal, we'll know exactly what it was. Who is this man of iniquity? Who is this man of sin? This fellow that is working iniquity, that he be revealed in his time?
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For the mystery of iniquity doth already work…
[Deceivers, you see, deceiving the people off into something]:
…only he [God] that... letteth will let, until he [The Church, Christ, the Bride] be taken out of the way.
And then shall the Wicked one be revealed…
[At the breaking of the Seal, at His time. Paul said, “Not in my time but in the time when He'll be revealed. See?]
…whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth…
[We're going to get to that after awhile]…
, the spirit of his mouth [Watch what that is], and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan…
[Him, him, a man, whose working is after the working of Satan]
…with all power and signs and lying wonders,
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness [Deceiving people by unrighteousness] in them that perish...
[Not this Bride; in them that's looking for such a thing]…
; because they received not the love of the truth…
[And Christ is the truth, and Christ is the Word, but they'd rather have a creed]
…, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God has sent them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:…
[It should be translated there, as I looked in the lexicon, “the lie.” Not “a lie”; “the lie”-same one he told Eve.]
…That they might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
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What a statement! My! After the Bride is taken away, then this man of sin will reveal himself. She, the true Bride of Christ, has been elected out of every Church Age.
Now, the other day I made a statement the Bride could go home and you would never know nothing about it. That's true. Somebody said, “Well, Brother Branham, that would be a mighty small group.” Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah [now, you talk to Him about it] wherein eight souls were saved by water, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man.”
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If there was eight hundred went in the rapture tonight, you'd never hear a word about it tomorrow, or the next day or no other time. They'd be gone and you would know nothing about it. It would just be the same thing.
What am I trying to say? I'm not trying to scare you, worry you. I want you to be on your toes. Be ready, watching, every minute. Quit your nonsense. Just get down to business with God, because it's later than you think.
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Now, remember, the true Bride... Now, there is a false bride. We get that in Revelation 17. She says, “I am a widow and have no need of nothing,” sitting upon the scarlet-colored beast, and so forth, (or beast rather). But the true Bride will be made up of thousands times thousands of people. But it will be the Elect out of every Church Age-every time a message went forth and the people believed it, and accepted it in all of the light it was, when they were sealed away until that day of Redemption.
Don't Jesus speak the same thing when He said, “The sound comes in the seventh watch.”? That's the last Church Age, see. And said, “Behold, the Bridegroom cometh. Go out to meet Him.”
Then the sleeping virgin come, rubbed her eyes, and said, “I suppose I ought to have some of that oil, too. So maybe I'd better have some.”
The real true Bride standing there said, “We've just got enough for ourself. We've just got enough to get in ourself. We can't give you nothing. If you want some, you go pray up.”
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And while she was gone the Bridegroom come, and in went the Bride. And then the remnant there, the ones that were absolutely virgins, the church, was left outside! And He said, “There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth,” see?
Now, that's the Elect. And when the sound come, “The Bridegroom cometh,” then every one of those that slept down through those ages awakened-every one!
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See, it isn't God, as we'd think, just going to hunt Him out a few thousand people of this age and take them. It's the very Elected out of every age! And that's the reason Christ has to stay on the mediatorial seat back there as an intercessor until that last one comes in at the last age. And these revelations, then, of what it has been breaks forth upon the people, and they see what's happened. Do you get it now?
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All right.
Notice, the rest of the dead-church members-live not again until one thousand years was past. The church members, the christians, the church, live not again until the end of the thousand years, and then they come forth to stand before the Bride. That's right. Stand before the King and the Queen. Glory!
Some church today calls herself “The queen of heaven.” The Queen of heaven is the selected Bride of Christ, and she comes with Him. Daniel saw it and said: “Ten thousand times ten thousands ministered to Him.” Now if you'll watch the scripture there in Daniel, judgment was set, and the books were opened.
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Now remember, when He come, He come with his Bride. The Wife ministers to Her Husband. And ten thousand times ten thousands of thousands ministered to Him. Judgment was set, and the books were opened, and another book was opened which was the Book of Life. Not the Bride at all! She has done gone up and come back, and standing there in judgment of those generations that refused the gospel message.
Didn't Jesus say “The queen of the south shall rise with this generation in her days of the judgment, and will condemn this generation: for she came from the utmost parts of the world to hear the wisdom of Solomon! And a greater than Solomon is here.”
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There stood the judgment. The queen of Sheba, of the south, stood there in the judgment. And her own testimony, (not even a Jew) came up with that generation that was Jews and they were blind and missed Him, because, they were looking for Him, but He come so simple that they went plumb over the top of it, like that. And there that great queen, humbled herself and come and accepted the message. “And she'll stand in the judgment,” He said, “and condemn that generation.”
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Now you see the three classes always? The book, the dead were judged out; another book, the Book of Life-them who had their names in the Book of Life. You say, “If your name is in the book of life it's all right, huh?” No, sir!
Look, Judas Iscariot had his name in the Book of Life. Now say that's wrong! Jesus, in Matthew 10, gave them power to cast out devils, and sent them forth to heal the sick and to cleanse the lepers and raise the dead. And they went out and returned back, Judas right with them. And they cast out devils and done all kinds of miracles and returned back and said, “Even the devils is subject unto us.”
Jesus said, “Don't rejoice that the devils is subject unto you, but rejoice because your names are written in heaven,” and Judas was with them! But what happened? When it come down to the Elected group to go up there at Pentecost and really receive the Holy Spirit, Judas showed his colors. He will be there in the judgment.
So the books was opened, and the Book of Life was opened, and every man was judged thus. Now the bride's standing there with Christ to judge the world.
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Don't Paul say, “Dare you [talking to the bride], having any matter or grievance against each other, that you go to the unjust law. Don't you know the saints shall judge the earth?” There you are. The Saints is going to judge the earth and take it over. That's right!
You say, “How in the world is a little group like that?”... I don't know how it's going to be done, but He said it is going to be done. So, that just settles it as far as I know.
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Now, notice the rest of the dead (the church members: dead church members) lived not again until a thousand years. And then at the thousand years, they were gathered. Another resurrection come, which is the second resurrection, and they were gathered. And Christ and the church, the Bride (not the church, the Bride), Christ and the Queen (not the church), Christ and the Bride stood there. And they were separated like the sheep from the goats. That's right. There's the church members come up.
And if they heard the Truth and rejected the Truth, then what's going to be said, when the big thing is spread across the canvas when even your own thoughts will be there, what you thought about it? How are you going to escape, and it right there on the canvas of the skies in God's great television, and there's your own thoughts rebelling?... Your own thoughts will speak against you in that hour!
So if you speak one thing and think another, you better stop that. Get your thoughts on God. Keep them pure and stay right there with it, and speak the same thing all the time, see. Don't say, “Well, I'll say I believe it. But I'll go find out.” You believe it. Amen.
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Notice, these type, the reason they die out, they go through the purging of trial of the tribulation because they're not actually under the Blood. They claim they are, but they're not. How can they go through a trial to purify them when the bleach Blood of Jesus Christ takes every symptom of sin and stuff away from you? And you are already dead, and your life is hid in Him through God and sealed in there by the Holy Ghost?
What are you going to be judged for? When are you going to get your purification? What do you have to be purified from, when you are perfectly in Christ, sinless? What is the judgment for?
But it is the sleeping bunch that them people can't make out.
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Now, they haven't done it for years, see, but this is the hour of revelation, see, being revealed-just at the coming of the Bride, the last winding up, the last things are coming, it's coming to an end friends, I believe.
When? I don't know. I can't tell you, but anything... I want to live tonight like if it was tonight, I'd be ready. He might come tonight; yet He might not come for twenty years. I don't know when He'll come, but whenever it is... And my life might be over tonight. Then whatever I have done here is finished at that hour. I've got to meet Him in the judgment the way I went down here. The way the tree leans, that's the way it falls.
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Remember, when they went to buy oil, they... “Oh,” you say, “Now, wait a minute, Brother Branham. I don't know about that.” When they went to buy oil, when they come back, the Bride was done gone, and the door was shut. And they knocked, and said, “Let us in, let us in,” but they were out in outer darkness.
Now, if you want a type of that, now look: “In the time of Noah,” Jesus said (referred to it). Now in Noah's time they went into the ark, but they were carried over during the time of the judgment. But that didn't type Christ's Bride. Enoch typed the Bride.
Enoch... Noah went over through the Bride, went over through the tribulation period, and suffered, and become a drunk, and died. But Enoch walked before God for five hundred years, and had a testimony he pleased God with rapturing faith; and just started walking right out and went up through the skies and went home. Without even tasting death. He never died at all!
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That's a type of we which are alive and remain shall not prevent, (or hinder), those same type of people that are asleep; that fell asleep on account of the human age and the state of human age. They died back there, but they are not dead. They are sleeping! Amen! They are asleep; not dead! And the only thing it needs is the Bridegroom to wake them. “And we which are alive and remain shall not hinder those that's already fell asleep. For the trumpet of God shall sound and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them and will meet the Lord in the air.” “And the rest of the dead lived not for a thousand years.” There you are. They went through the tribulation period. What was it? Like Enoch.
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You know, Noah watched Enoch. For when Enoch come up missing, he knowed judgment was at hand. He got to hanging around the ark, but Noah didn't go up. He just lifted a little piece off and rode over the tribulations. He was carried through the tribulation period, to die the death. See? But Noah was carried through; Enoch was translated without death, a type of the Church being caught up with those who are asleep, to meet the Lord in the air, and the rest of the church is carried over into the tribulation period. I can't make nothing else out of it, myself. Enoch raptured-no death.
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Now. Let's start studying a little now. Get down here, less I just keep on that we never will get into this Seal. Now, notice. Let's take, now... because we're going to have a long... Maybe tomorrow night or the next night, hit a Trumpet now and then, because the Trumpet sounds at the same time as the Seals. It's just the same thing-the Church Age opens-it's just the same thing.
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Now a trumpet always denotes war, or otherwise, political disturbance, the trumpet does; a political disturbance and that causes war. When you go to get messing in politics, and get them all messed up, like we've got it now, look out. War is at hand.
But see, the kingdom still belongs to Satan. He has still got this part in his hand because why? It is redeemed by Christ. But He is doing the part of the Kinsman Redeemer taking his subjects, until the last one's name is put on that Book, has already received it, and has been sealed away. Now, have you got it? Then He comes from His throne, His Father's throne, walks forward, takes the Book out of God's hand from the throne and claims his right. The first thing He does is call for his Bride. Amen! Then what does He take? He takes his opponent, Satan, and binds him and casts him into the fire out there, with all them following him.
Now remember, it wasn't Russia! No. The antichrist is a smooth fellow. Just watch how smooth he is. He's smart. Yes, sir. It just takes the Holy Spirit, the only thing can outdo him.
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Notice, trumpets means political disturbance, wars. Matthew 24, Jesus spoke of it. He said, “You'll hear of wars and rumors of wars...” See, all the way down through. You remember Jesus speaking that: “wars, rumors and wars, and rumors and wars,” and plumb on down to the end. Now that's a trumpet sounding.
Now, when we get on the trumpets, we'll go back there and pick up each one of them wars and show you that they followed them churches. We'll show you they follow these Seals. Wars and rumors of wars. But trumpet denotes political disturbance; whereas Seals deals with the religious disturbance, see.
A Seal is opened, a message is dropped. And then the church is always so set up in its own political ways and whatever more, and all of its dignitaries and when that real message drops down, that messenger goes forth, and he shakes them to pieces. That's right. It's religious disturbance when a Seal is opened. That's what's happened.
Yes.
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They get all at ease in Zion. The church gets all settled down and... “We've got it all made.” Just like the church of England-they was all settled down. The Catholic church-all settled down, and along come Luther. There was a religious disturbance. Yes, sir, sure was.
Well, the church went on off with Zwingli, and from Zwingli come on down to different ones, and to Calvin. And after awhile the Anglican Church settled down, and it was just at ease. And along come Wesley. There was a religious disturbance. That's right. See, it always denotes a religious disturbance.
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Now, the Seal. Let's just read it a little bit now. I want to get this. We'll read... I get to talking.
And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals [What happened?], and I heard, as it were the noise of a thunder,...
Oh, how I'd like to dwell on that just a few minutes! I hope now that all of the people that know these things and are waiting for the consolation of the Lord will now study real close, and on the tapes also that you'll think of this.
The first thing happened, when that Lamb broke that First Seal, a thunder roared. Now, that's got a significance. It's got a meaning. It's a meaning. Nothing happens without a meaning. All right, a thunder, a thunder roared. I wonder what that thunder was.
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Let's read a little bit. Let's turn to Matthew... No, let's take St. John first. St. John, 12th chapter, and just hold it a minute. St. John, the 12th chapter, and now let's begin with the 23rd verse of St. John 12. Now listen here now real close; then you won't have to wonder no more what it is.
And Jesus answering them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
See, you're at the end of an age there. His ministry is ending, see. “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.” What about the hour has come that when his Bride must be taken away? What if the hour has come that time shall be no more? The Angel is ready to set one foot on the land and the other one on the sea with a rainbow over Him, with feet and say, “Time has run out.” And besides that, He raised up his hand and swore that time would be no more when this happened. How perfect it is-a sworn affidavit to the Church! “The hour has come, that the Son of man should be glorified.”
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there... also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.
Now is my soul troubled;...
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You say, “Well, Him coming to the end of the road, and you got trouble?” What does it make you think when some great spiritual something happens that troubles you? Oh, my.
Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
The people said, that stood by, that heard it, they said... it thundered:...
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Then when the Lamb took the Book and broke that First Seal, God spoke from His eternal throne to say what that Seal was to be revealed. But when it was placed before John, it was in a symbol. When John saw it, it was still a mystery. Why? It wasn't even revealed right then. It cannot be revealed until what He said here at the end-time. But it come in a symbol.
When it thundered, remember, a loud clapping noise of a thunder is the voice of God. That's what the Bible says, see-a clap of thunder! They thought it was a thunder, but it was God. He understood it, for it was revealed to Him, see. It was a thunder.
And notice, the First Seal opened; The First Seal, when it was opened in the symbol form, it thundered! Now what about when it's opened in its reality form?
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It thundered as soon as the Lamb struck back the Seal. And what did it reveal? Not all of itself. First it's with God, next it's in a symbol, then it's revealed, three things, see. It's coming forth from the throne. First it can't be seen, heard, or nothing. It's sealed up. The Lamb's blood paid the price. It thundered when He spoke it out. And when He did, a white horse rider started out. And it still was a symbol.
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Now watch. He said it would be known in the last days, but it comes forth in a church symbol. Do you understand it, church? [Congregation says, “Amen.”-Ed] It comes forth in a symbol of a church that... They know there is a Seal, but just what it is yet they don't know, because it's a white horse rider. And only is to be revealed at the last day when this actual Seal is broken. Broken to who? Not to Christ, but to the Church.
Notice, now... Oh, my, that just makes me tremble. I hope that the Church truly understands it. What I mean, you people-I'm going to call you Bride. Do you understand it?
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The Voice is a thunder. The Voice came from where? From the throne, where the Lamb had just left as intercessor. Now He is standing here to take His position and His claim. But the thunder came from the inside of the throne-thundered out! And the Lamb was standing out here. The thunder, where the Lamb had left-left the Father's throne to go to take His own throne. Glory. Now, don't miss it, friends.
We all know, as Christians, that God swore to David that He would raise up Christ to sit on His throne, and give Him an everlasting kingdom here on the earth. He did it. And Jesus said, “He that overcomes the antichrist and all the things of the world shall sit with me on my throne as I have overcome, and have sat down on my Father's throne.”
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Now some day He rises from the Father's throne, and goes to take His own throne. Now He comes forth to call His subjects. How is He going to claim them? He has already got the Book of Redemption in His hand. Glory! Oh, I feel like singing a hymn:
Soon the Lamb will take His Bride
To be ever at his side,
All the host of heaven will assembled be (to watch that);
Oh, 'twill be a glorious sight,
All the Saints in spotless white;
And with Jesus we shall feast eternally.
Oh, my. Talk about sitting now in heavenly places, what will it be, if we can feel this way sitting down here on earth before the rapture comes, in this condition that we're in now, and we can enjoy it; stand up around walls and stand in the rain just to hear this. What will it be when we see Him sitting there? Oh, my. Oh, it will be a glorious time.
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He left the Father's throne; came forth, His Son, to be the... He is the Son of David. That's what Israel thought He would do then. Remember the Syrophenician woman said, “Thou Son of David”? Remember blind Bartimaeus, “Thou Son of David”? And Jesus knowing what the plan was, yet they didn't know it. They tried to force Him to make Him take the throne. And even Pilate asked Him. But He said, “If my kingdom were of this world, then my subjects would fight. My kingdom is above.” But He said, “When you pray, pray ”Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, here like it is in heaven.“” Amen. How glorious this great thing.
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He left the Father's throne to take His own throne. He now has come forth from His intercessory work to claim His own throne, His redeemed subjects. That's what He came forth from the throne to do. It is then that the lion-like creature said to John, “Come see.” Watch. Are you reading it?
... one of the seals, and I heard, as if it were the noise of a thunder, and one of the four beasts...
You know what the beasts were. We took them: one like a lion, one like a calf, one like a man, and one like an eagle. Now, this first beast said... Watch, each time there's a different beast, until them four horse riders pass. There's four beasts, and there's four horse riders.
Notice, each one of those beasts announce: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. We are going to get back in and prove which one is Matthew, which one is Mark, which one is John, each one as they went.
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Now, notice, one of the beasts saying, “Come see.” He heard the noise of a thunder, and one of the beasts said, “Now come see.” In other words, here stands the Lamb, and John is standing out there watching it happen. The Lamb come up from the throne, like He had been slain-blood all over Him. He was the one that was found worthy, and when He reached over and took the Book, then everything began shouting, screaming, and carrying on, see, because they know Redemption was paid for.
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Now, He has come to claim His own. So He takes the Book, stands out there before John, and He pulls it back, breaks the Seal, pulls the Seal down. And when He pulls the Seal down, a thunder clapped through the place. And when a thunder clapped, no doubt John might have jumped up in the air, when a thunder roared. And then one of the four beasts said, “Now, come and see what it is, what is revealed beneath here. [Oh, my] John, write what you see.”
So John goes to look, see what it was. John goes to see what the thunder said. It's then that this creature told John, “Come see what the mystery is under the First Seal.” The thunder, the voice of the Creator, has uttered it. Now, He ought to know what's there. Oh, my.
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But think, now he wrote this; but when he started to write those other seven thunders, he said, “Don't write it.” He had been commissioned to write everything he seen. But when these seven thunders over in Revelation 10 uttered, he said, “Don't write them at all.” They are mysteries.
We don't know what they are yet. But in my opinion they will be revealed right away. And when they do, it will give faith for that rapturing grace for that Church. We've just moved through everything that we know of. Through all the dispensations we've watched everything. We've seen the mysteries of God. We have seen the appearing of the great gathering together of the Bride in the last days. But yet there's something in there that we just can't enlighten ourself with. There's something or other.
But I imagine when those mysteries begin to come forth-God said, “Hold it back now. Wait a minute. I'll reveal it in that day. Don't write it at all, John, because they'll stagger over it. Just let it go. But I will reveal it in that day when it has need to be.”
They never uttered for nothing. Remember, like the little drop of ink, everything is for a purpose. Everything is for a cause. Notice, the Creator uttered; and he heard this Voice, and he went to see.
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But now the Lamb is showing John in the symbol of a church scripture-like-for the Church to know-what to write. He's just showing him, saying, “Now don't tell this, just what it is. Don't go down, John, and say, 'Now this is just what this is. Now, what is under this seventh seal...' Don't go down and tell that. (For if I tell John that, then all down through the age the whole plan will be broken.) It's a secret!”
He just wants... His coming... He said, “Nobody's going to know when I'm coming; I'm just coming,” that's all. It ain't for my business to know when. I'll just be ready, see?
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Then he said... Now John went forth. He thought, “I'm going to see it now.” And what did he do? When John went forth, what's he got to do? Now he's got to write this to the Church Age. That is what he's supposed to do-write it to the Church Ages. “Write what you see of these seven golden candlesticks at the beginning. Write to this Church and tell them.”
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All right, and a thunder went off. John knew it was the voice of God. And then the lion-like creature said, “Come see what it was,” and John went forth, now, with his pen to write what he was going to see.
Now, he never seen exactly what it was. He never understood it. But what he saw was what God was sending to the Church for a time. Now He's got... He will, He always does, He makes it plain when it's time to make it plain. But He didn't make it plain then. Why? Because He was going to keep it a secret until the last age. And the sounding of the last angel's message was to gather up these mysteries; see, it makes it clear.
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But what John saw, he just seen a white horse go out with a rider on it; so that is what he wrote down. That's what he said, “Come see.” So John went to see what he could see to write to the Church. And when he did, he saw a white horse, and him that sat on it had a bow, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. And there was given to him a crown. And now, that is all John saw, so he just wrote that down.
Now see, that's in symbol. That is the way the Church has received it; but with the promise that at the last day He'd reveal it, show what it is. God help us to understand it.
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Church Ages... but it is not made fully known till the seventh message of this last Church Age. Notice, he starts... This messenger of the Seventh Church Age, if you will notice it, he doesn't start a denomination like the rest of them did. Remember he doesn't start, no, if you find out, he's against it.
Was Elijah against it? Sure he was. Was John against it (with Elijah's Spirit)? What kind of a Spirit did Elijah have on him. He was... Nobody knows much about him. He was just a man; but he was a prophet. He was hated. My! And what time did he rise? Right in the time of the popularity of Israel, when they'd all went worldly. And he got out there. And he was a woman hater. He sure was. And he loved the wilderness. That was his nature.
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Then them people ought to knowed when that fellow come out there with that same spirit on him. Come out there, this John, not dressed all up like the celebrity, as I said last night. They kiss the babies, and marry, and bury, and so forth. But this man come out as a wilderness man. What was he? He loved the wilderness.
Another thing he done, he hated denomination. He said, “Now, don't you begin to say, 'We belong to this or that,' for I tell you God is able of these stones to rise children to Abraham.” He was no compromiser. Said, “Did you go to see a reed shaken with the wind?” Not John! No, sir.
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What did he do also? Just like Elijah had told Jezebel, he told Herodias. He walked right up to Herod's face and said, “It's not lawful for you to have her.” She chopped his head off for it. She tried to get Elijah. That same spirit was in Jezebel was in that woman. And the same thing is in the Jezebel church today-the same thing.
Now, notice it. What a great lesson we find here. And now, it looks like those people would have knowed. John began to bawl them people out, and stand there, look like they would've knowed that was that Spirit of Elijah. They should have understood that that's what it was.
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Now, we find out, and have through the Church Ages, according to the scripture, that we are promised a return of that Spirit just before the end-time. Is that true? [Congregation says, “Amen”-Ed.] Now, and notice, you'll notice the nature of it. Now, he will not start another Church Age like Luther, and Wesley, and all of the rest of them did. He won't start another church, because there is no more Church Ages to come. There won't be any more. So he must be against it, because his Spirit will be just exactly like they were back there-the same Spirit.
As I said last night, it pleased God to use it three different times. That's His number, three, not two; three. He's already used it twice, now He's going to use it again. He said so. He promised it.
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Now notice, He... notice now when He did. He's not going to start a denomination because the Laodicea Church Age is the last age. And the messenger of the seventh angel, which is the seventh messenger to the Seventh Church Age, is the fellow that is going to reveal, by the Holy Spirit, all these mysterious things that is going to... How many was here last night? Let's see your hand. I guess I won't have to read it over then. You know just where it's at-the 10th chapter, see. All right.
All right.
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The reformers came to reform the last fallen Church Age preceding them. Then after the reformers come and reform the Church Age from where it was and went back into the world, then they start a new Church Age. They have always done it. Always. Now, we went through that. See?
In other words, here had been a Catholic church age, the Roman Catholic church. Along come Luther, a reformer. He's called a reformer. And what does he do? He starts out there, to hammering away, and when he does he protests the church. And the first thing you know, what does he do? He builds the same thing that he come to drive out of, another church.
Then they have another Church Age. Then the first thing you know, here comes... The Church Age is in such a mess, along comes John Wesley, another reformer. See, builds another Church Age. Get what I mean? Another Church Age was built up. They're all reformers.
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Notice. This last message of the last Church Age is not a reformer, he is a prophet; not a reformer. Show me where one prophet ever started a Church Age. He is not a reformer; he is a prophet. Others was reformers but not prophets. If they would have been... The Word of the Lord comes to the prophet. That's the reason they continued on in the baptism in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and all these other things-because they were reformers and not prophets.
But yet they were great men of God and saw the need of the day that they lived in. And God anointed them, and they sent out there and tore those things to pieces. But the full Word of God never come to them because they was not prophets. They were reformers.
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But in the last days, it will have to be a prophet to take up the mysteries of God that they would have because, the mysteries would only be known by the prophets. Has to be this fellow come. See what I mean now? It can't be a reformer; it's got to be a prophet because, it has got to be somebody that's gifted, and set there that catches the Word.
Now them reformers knowed that there was something wrong. Luther knowed that that bread wasn't the body of Christ, and so he preached, “The just shall live by faith,” and that was his message. And when John Wesley come along, he saw that there was sanctification, so he preached sanctification. That was his message, see. The Pentecostals brought in the message of the Holy Ghost, and so forth. But in the last days, in this last age, the messenger is not to start any reformation, but is to take all the mysteries that those reformers left off and gather them together, and solve them to the people.
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Let me just read it again. It sounds so good to me I like to read it.
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow... upon his head, and his face was... the sun, and his feet as pillar of fire:
Now we saw the same thing, which was Christ. And we know Christ is always the messenger to the Church. All right. He is called a pillar of fire, the Angel of the covenant and so forth.
And he had in his hand a little book open:…
[Now, the seals have done been broke here. We are breaking them now, but in this the thing's opened.]
…and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
And he cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he... cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. [My, the complete.]
And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write:[write what? What they said] and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. [Don't write them, see.]
And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea... lifted up his hand to heaven,
And sware by him that lives for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that are there, in there, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:…
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[Watch! Don't forget this now, as we go.]
But in the days [days] of the voice of the seventh angel,...
That last angel, earthly angel. This angel come down from heaven. It wasn't him; he come from heaven. But He's speaking here of the voice of the seventh angel. Which, angel means a messenger. Anybody knows that. And a messenger to the Church Age...
... in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery…
[Seven seals, all of it, all the mysteries]
…of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.
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The entire mystery is unfolded. That's the ministry of that angel. See, so simple people just drop over the top of it. But here it will be perfectly vindicated everywhere. It will just be perfectly known. Everybody that wants to see it can see it. That's right. But those... Jesus said, as He said when He come, said, “You got eyes and can't see. Isaiah said you did. You got ears and you can't hear.”
So we find out that... That scared me. I looked back there at that clock and I thought it was ten o'clock. But I got... it ain't even nine yet. All right. Oh, my! Let's get it now!
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Notice (I love this). Others were reformers, but by being great men of God, seeing the need of the day, and brought forth reformation. But Revelation 10 said his message was to reveal; (not reform), reveal the secrets; reveal secrets. It's the Word in the man. Hebrews 4 said that, “the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to... asunder, and a revealer of the secrets of the heart,” see. This man is not a reformer; he is a revealer. Revealer of what? The mysteries of God. Where the church has got it all tied up and everything, he's to come forth with the Word of God and reveal the thing out because, he is to restore the faith of the children back to the fathers. The original Bible faith is to be restored by the seventh angel. Now, oh, how I love this. All the mysteries of the Seals that the reformers never understood fully, see.
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Now, look at Malachi 4 just a minute. You just mark it down. He is a prophet and restores the original faith of the fathers. Now we are looking for that person to appear on the scene. He'll be so humble that ten millions times ten millions will... Well, there'll be a little group that will understand it.
Remember the other day when John was supposed to come, prophesied a messenger before Christ come, a voice of one crying in the wilderness? Malachi saw him. Look, the 3rd chapter of Malachi is the coming of the Elijah that was to come and forerun the coming of Christ. You say, “Oh, no, no, Brother Branham, it's the 4th chapter.” I beg your pardon. Jesus said it was the 3rd chapter.
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Now you take St. Matthew, the 11th chapter and the 6th verse. He'll say this (11th chapter, I believe it's the 6th verse-4th, 5th, or 6th, right along there). He said, “If you can receive it, [He was talking about John], this is he who is spoken of, 'I'll send my messenger before my face.'” Now read Malachi 3.
Some of them try to apply it to Malachi 4. No, sir! That's not it. Notice, Malachi 4, as soon as that messenger goes forth, the world is completely burned, and the righteous walk out in the millennium on the ashes of them. So you see, if you put that being him back there, then the Bible tells something that wasn't so. We got two thousand years and the world hasn't burned up yet, and the righteous living in it. So it's got to be in the future.
Oh, my. If you get over here in Revelation and see what that messenger at the end of this age is supposed to do, then you will see what it is. He must be a prophet. He has got to catch these ends that these reformers didn't see, and place it in there.
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How can Matthew 28:19 compare with Acts 2:38 without the spiritual revelation of God? How can these people say that the days of miracles are past and so forth like that, without the revelation of God?-the only way they'll ever know it, know whether it's right or wrong. See? But they've come through seminaries...
I hope we have time to get into that. I want to hurry, because I don't want to keep you here over a week (you know what I mean) on this opening these Seals. I've got one day, and I'd like to have prayer for the sick on that day if I could.
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Now look, Malachi 4, he's a prophet and restores the original faith of the fathers. At the end-time, when the tribulation period comes (now here is a little thing we are going to reverse back a minute) where the three and one-half years or Daniel's seventy weeks, the last half of Daniel's seventy weeks, which is three and one-half years... Now, we... How many remembers that from the Church Ages? There's seventy weeks determined. Look how perfect it was. Said “Messiah will come, and He will be cut off for a sacrifice in the midst of the week, and the obligation will cease.”
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Then there is still three and half years waiting for the Messiahic doctrine to the Jew. And God does not deal with the Jew and the Gentile at the same time. He deals with Israel as a nation; Gentile as an individual. He isn't taking the Gentiles for his bride; He's taking a people out of the Gentiles, see. Now, He deals with Israel as a nation. Now, there she sits right there now as a nation.
I got a letter from Paul today, Paul Boyd, and he was telling me, said, “Brother Branham, how true it is. These Jews still have a funny feeling towards the Gentiles, no matter what's happened.” Sure they will. They ought to,
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when Martin Luther made the proclamation that all Jews ought to be run off, and their buildings burned down because they were antichrist. See? Martin Luther made that statement himself in his writings.
Now, Hitler just fulfilled what Martin Luther said. Why did Martin Luther say that? Because he was a reformer, not a prophet. God dealt with that prophet, blessed Israel. He said, “Whosoever blesses you will be blessed, and who curses you will be cursed.” How can one prophet stand and deny what the other prophet said? He can't do it. It's got to be in harmony.
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That is the reason they class... See, Germany is supposed to be a Christian nation. And the way they treated Israel, they still got a stick on their shoulder-and you can't blame them. But just remember. If there are any Jews sitting here, don't you worry. The day is coming! God can never forget them. They were blinded for our sake.
You know He said, to the prophet... The prophet cried out and said, “Will you forget Israel?”
He said, “Take that measuring stick, and how high is the sky? How deep is the sea?”
He said, “I couldn't measure it.”
He said, “Never can I forget Israel.” That is his people, his servants. And the Gentile is only a few taken out of there for his bride. Exactly right! That's the bride.
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Now, there's seventy weeks was determined, perfectly, as Daniel said that the Messiah would come and would be cut off in the midst of the week. Jesus prophesied three and one-half years. Now, in the middle of this three and one-half years of Daniel, in the middle of it He was cut off. And now the last part is the tribulation period where the Gentile church is... Oh, this is great! Now don't miss it. The bride goes in with the groom, then after the millennium walks out upon the ashes of the wicked.
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Let me show you something, here. While we've just got it in mind, let's just show you what it says, what the Bible says. And we can't deny this being the Word of God. If we do, then we are an infidel. See, we got to believe it. You say, “I don't understand it.” Neither do I, but I'm looking for Him to reveal it. Look.
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud [like the Americans and so forth], yea,... all that do wickedly, shall be stubble [It's going to burn.]: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
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How have you got eternal hell in there then? See, it's the last days when these things are being revealed. There's no place in the Bible says hell is eternal. To have... to be an eternal hell, you'd have to have eternal life to stay there. There's only one form of eternal life, and that's what we're struggling for. Everything had a beginning has an end. Hell was created for the devil and his angels, and will be consumed and done away with. That's right. See? But when this takes place, it neither leaves them root or branch.
But unto them that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in that day that I will do this, saith the LORD of hosts.
Where's the wicked going to be after the tribulation? Ashes!
Remember... the laws of Moses my servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
Behold, I will send to you Elijah the prophet before the coming of that great and dreadful day of the Lord:
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Amen! Here's the Old Testament closing out like that, and here's the New Testament closing out with the very same thing. How're you going to keep it away? Can't. Look, “I will send to you Elijah, the prophet before that day comes:”
And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
There you are. That's the Word of the Lord. He's promised it. It must come.
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And now, if you'll notice how this happens... it's beautiful how God does it. The bride goes forth with the groom, and then after that, the wicked is burned with unquenchable fire. And after the world has been purified, reproduces itself...
Everything has to do that-has to go through a state of purification. Volcanic will break forth in that great last time, and the world will burst, and belch, and go forth. And all these cesspools of sin, and all that's upon the earth, will be molded into nothing. It'll burn with such a fervent heat that it'll be... Like that bleach that sends the color of the ink back into its original creation. So will the fire from God be so hot that it will turn every filthy thing back to its condition again, when Satan and all sin is burned up, and everything. And then she'll come forth as beautiful as she was in the garden of Eden. That's right. Oh, that great hour laying just ahead of us!
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During the tribulation period (here's what I want you to notice now, a little thing I've dropped in here), during this tribulation period, after the Bride has been called out, and the church goes through the tribulation period, the hundred and forty-four thousand is called by the two witnesses of Revelation eleven. Now look, they'll prophesy one thousand two hundred and three score days, clothed in sackcloth.
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Now, we know this Roman calendar has... We've got twenty-eight days sometimes, and thirty and thirty-one, but actual the calendar reads this: thirty days to every month. Right. And take a thousand, two hundred, and three score days and put thirty to it, and see what you've got. Three and one-half years exactly on the dot. That's the time. That's the allotted time for the Messiahic message to be preached to Israel, like it was back there. When He returns back and makes Himself known in a symbol, that when He comes...
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When Joseph was taken down into the country and was rejected by his brethren because he was a spiritual man... He could see visions and interpret dreams. And when he did, he was taken down into the country and was sold for almost thirty pieces of silver.
He portrayed Christ exactly, because it was Christ's Spirit in him. Notice what happened then. And notice that when he did this, he was put in a prison. And one man was saved and the other lost-exactly Jesus when He was in prison on the cross. One thief was saved and the other one was lost. Exactly. Throwed into a grave, supposed to be dead, and was took up and ascended to the right hand of Pharaoh, that nobody could see Pharaoh without seeing Joseph first. Jesus sits at the right hand of God, and no man can come to the Father except by the Son. That's right.
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And notice, every time Joseph left... when Joseph rose up from that right hand of that throne... Watch! Glory! There sat Joseph by the right hand of Pharaoh. And when Joseph raised up to leave that throne, the trumpet sounded. “Bow the knee, everybody! Joseph is coming!”
When that Lamb leaves the throne yonder on His days of mediatorial work, when He leaves the throne up there and takes that Book of Redemption and walks forth, every knee will bow and every tongue confess! There He is!
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Notice, and when Joseph, rejected by his brethren, he was given a Gentile wife. Potiphar had give him... or, Pharaoh had give him a Gentile wife, and he bore Gentile children-half Gentile and Jew. They give a great symbol that when Jacob was blessing them-Ephraim on one side and Manasseh on the other-he crossed his hands and give the younger child the blessing. And the two kids was added unto the twelve tribes, which was only ten at that time. And he blessed them in Jacob himself. And Joseph, his prophet son, standing there said, “Father, you've done wrong.” Said, “You put your right hand blessing on the young child, where it ought to've went on the older.”
161 He said, “I know my hands is crossed, but God has crossed them.” Why? Israel, having the rights to be a bride, rejected and sold her birthrights, and it went from the old son, Israel, to the new, Gentile; and the blessings went from there through the cross to the younger.
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But notice. After that, see, through that... when all... he took his bride. But when them boys came down to buy food... Oh, it's such a beautiful picture. I'm off of the Seal, but I just got to say it, see, because you'll get the picture better, I believe.
Notice. Now, when they come down to buy food, you know Joseph recognized them right away. And Joseph was the son of prosperity. No matter where he went, he always prospered. You wait till He comes to the earth again-wait till our Joseph comes. “The desert shall blossom as a rose, and the Sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings.” Oh, my! All that cactus around Arizona will unfold into beautiful trees. It'll be beautiful.
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Notice, here he comes forth, and he plays a little trick on them there. And he sends and he says, “Is my father still living?” See? He wanted to know if that boy's father was living.
He said, “Yes.”
He knowed that was his brethren. But did you notice? When he got ready to reveal himself to his brethren, and he found little Benjamin, which had been born since he had been gone... and that represents these Jews as hundred and forty-four thousand that's gathering right there now since He's been gone. And when he returned, he said... He looked at Benjamin. His heart was about to break. And remember, they didn't know he could speak Hebrew. He was taking an interpreter. He acted like he was an Egyptian, see.
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And then when it was made known... He wanted to make hisself known. He kept looking at little Benjamin. And remember, he dismissed his wife. She was in the palace when he made hisself known to his brethren. And the Gentile Bride, the Wife... After Jesus being rejected by His own people, He has taken a Gentile Bride and will take her from here to the palace, to His Father's house in glory for the wedding supper, and will slip back down to make Hisself known to His brethren, the hundred and . There He stands! And remember, look at the symbols. Perfectly.
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And when he come back to where this was, he looked down to them and he said... begin to look, and they begin to talk. They said, “Now Reuben, you know that we're in for it now. See? Because, you know what we done? We got this boy in this fix. Now we oughtn't to have sold our brother.” That was their brother standing there, that mighty prince, and they didn't know it.
That's the reason Israel can't understand Him today. It isn't the hour yet to know it. And then he... they thought he couldn't understand Hebrew, but he was listening right at them. They said, “Now we're in for it.”
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And Joseph, when he looked at them, he couldn't stand it no longer. Now remember, his wife and children was in the palace at the time-the saints gone out, out of the presence-and he said, “I am Joseph, your brother.” And he run over and grabbed little Benjamin, fell on his neck, and began to cry. And he made hisself known.
Then they said, “Now, we know we've got it coming, for we sold him. We was the one who sold him off. We was the one who tried to kill him. Now we know he'll kill us.”
He said, “No, don't be angry with yourself. You only done it to preserve life. That's why God sent me down here.” And when He makes Hisself known, the Bible says, as we come to it, when He makes Hisself known to the hundred and forty-four thousand there-the little Benjamin of the day and the remnant of those Jews left there-when He makes Hisself known, they will say, “Where did you get those scars? What are they doing in your hands?”
He will say, “Oh, I got them in the house of my friends.”
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Oh, then they'll realize that they have killed the Messiah. But what will He say? The same as Joseph did it: “You did it to serve life, don't be... save life. Don't be angry with yourself.” Because that the Gentiles would not have been brought in, if the Jews hadn't have done that blindfolded trick. So He saved the life of the Church with the things that they done. So there you are. That's the reason today they can't understand this. It isn't the hour.
No more than we could understand these things until the time comes for it to be understood. Oh, my.
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Seven thunders of revelation-may He show the Bride how to prepare for the great translation faith. Now, (let's hurry up, because we haven't got but about fifteen, twenty minutes yet.)
Now, what does this “white horse” mean? Let me read this. I've been so far off. Excuse me for getting off my subject, but I'll read the verse again, the two verses.
And I saw when the Lamb had opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come... see.
And I saw, and behold a white horse…
[Now, we're going to the 2nd verse]
…, a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given... him [he didn't have it then], unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
[That's all of that. That's a Seal.]
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Now let's find the symbols. We found what the thunder means. That is perfectly, we know that. The thunder was the voice of God when the Seal opens.
Now, what does the white horse mean? Now, here is where the revelation comes. I am just as positive of this as I'm standing here and knowing this is the Word. I have read every book on it I could find. And with a... The last time that I was... tried to go through it, just teaching it, about thirty years ago, I took the book... Somebody had told me that the Adventists had more light on the second coming of Christ than any people that they knowed, so I found some of their good books, to read them. I got Smith's book on “Daniel's Revelation.” He said this white horse that went forth was white, and it symbolized a conqueror, and in this conquering...
Many of you Adventist brethren here knows the book, and many of you others, also, by reading it. And others, I read two or three. I read... I can't call... There's two more books I read, and both men agreed that that was right. Them's fine teachers, supposed to be some of the best, with the best light. So I thought, “Well, if I don't know, I'll just say what they said, try to teach that way.” They gave a very good explanation of it, what it really meant.
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And he said, “Now here is a white horse, and a white horse is a power-a charger.” And said, “The man that sat on that was the... white horse was the Holy Spirit that went forth in the early age and conquered that age for the kingdom of God. He had a bow in his hand, which meant like Cupid. He shot the arrows of love into the hearts of the people, the love of God, and He conquered.”
Now, that sounds very good; but it isn't the truth. No, sir. It wasn't. White does mean righteous. We realize that. The white means righteous. The teachers taught it that it was the Holy Spirit conquering in the first age. But my revelation by the Holy Spirit is not that way.
My revelation by the Holy Spirit is: Christ and the Holy Spirit is the selfsame person, only in a different form. So, here stands Christ, the Lamb. We know He was the Lamb. He is standing here with the Book in His hand, and there goes the white horse rider. See? So, it wasn't the Holy Spirit.
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Now, that is one of the mysteries of the last days, how that Christ can be the three persons in one. It is not three different people-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-being three gods, as the Trinitarians try to tell us it is. It's three manifestations of the same Person. Or you might call it three offices. If you're talking to ministers, you wouldn't use office, because... (I happened to think I'm on tape. So, I'll tell you...) Of course Christ couldn't say, “I'll pray my office, and He'll send you another office.” We know that. But if you want to make it... it's three attributes of the same God. Not three gods; three attributes of the same God, see. And so, how could Christ be out there with a white horse conquering and standing here with a Book in his hand? It isn't, though; it isn't Christ.
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Notice. Now, the Holy Spirit, in the revelation... And Christ is... the Holy Spirit is Christ in another form. That's right. Notice, it is a Lamb that opened the Book, and the Lamb is Christ. And Christ is not seen any more from then. But He is seen in the Book of Revelation, the 19th chapter, coming on a white horse. If you would like to read it, let's turn to Revelation 19:11-16. Let's read it right quick, while we're... If we've got enough time, I hope, so it will make it just a little better to us. (19:11) Begin at the 11th verse and read down including the 16th.
And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse…
[not on the earth; in heaven, see]
…; and he that sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness does he judge and make war.
His eyes were flames of fire, and on his head was many crowns [look at the diadems]; and he had a name written, that no man knowed, but... himself.
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I wish I could stop on that just a minute. Oh, my, I got a good notion but maybe [unclear words]. Nobody knows it. Did you ever know that the name of Jehovah is not correct? Anyone knows. Dr. Vayle, you know that's true. The translators could never translate it. It's spelled J-U-H-V. J-V-H-U, I mean. It isn't Jehovah. They couldn't touch it. They don't know what it is. They just called it Jehovah, but it wasn't His name.
Look. Every time a victory is won or something goes on, a name is changed.
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Look at the days of Abraham. He was first Abram, and never could have that baby until his name was changed to Abraham. And Sarra, S-a-r-r-a, could not have nothing but a dead womb until her name was changed to S-a-r-a-h.
Jacob means supplanter-deceiver-and that's what he did. He put sheepskin on hisself and deceived his prophet father to take the birthright. He put poplar sticks in the water, speckled them, scared the cattle when they was pregnated with their young, to make speckled cattle and sheep. Nothing but a deceiver. But one night he caught a hold of something real, and he knowed it was real. And he stayed with it and held on until he overcome. And his name was changed and called Israel, meaning a prince with power before God. Is that right? Every overcomer...
Simon was a fisherman. But when his faith caught and knowed that was Jesus-when he told Him he was the Messiah, and told him who his name was, and what his father's name was-he was overcome and changed from Simon to Peter.
Saul, a good name. Saul was a king one time in Israel, but Saul didn't fit an apostle. It might be all right for a king, but not an apostle. So Jesus changed his name. From what? From Saul to Paul. Look at the sons of thunder and on down.
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And Jesus, His name on earth was Redeemer-Jesus. When He was on earth, He was the redeemer, that's true. But when He conquered death and hell, and overcome them, and ascended on high, He received a new name. That's the reason they holler the way they do and they don't get nothing. It will be revealed in the thunders.
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Notice, the mystery. He is coming, riding. There's got to be something to change this Church, you know that. There has got to be something! Notice. No man knowed but Himself. Now, notice, no man knowed but Himself.
“And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name was called The Word of God.” [Oh, my.]
Notice.
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
And he had on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
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There comes the Messiah! There He is; not this fellow on this horse back here. Watch the difference. Here He's standing with the Book in His hand here! The redemptive work is just... He hasn't took his place yet.
So, it was not the Christ that went forth, the Holy Spirit. Not disagreeing with them great men. No, sir, I don't do it. I wouldn't want to do that, but this is what my revelation of it is, see. If you have got something different, well, that's all right. But it ain't all right with me, see. I believe it this way.
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Notice. Christ is not seen anymore, see, from the time there. But He is on a white horse. So if this guy is riding a white horse, he's only an impersonator of Christ, see. Did you get that? Notice, the rider on the white horse don't have any name. He might use two or three titles, but he hasn't got any name. But Christ has a name! What is it? The Word of God! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh,” see?
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The rider has no name, but Christ is called “The Word of God.” That's what He is. He's called that. Now He's got a name that no man knows, but He's called “The Word of God.” This guy isn't called nothing, see, but he is on a white horse.
The rider has no arrows for his bow. Did you notice? He had a bow, but there is nothing said about having any arrows. So he must be a bluffer. That's right. Maybe he has got a lot of thunder and no lightning. But you find out Christ had both lightning and thunder, for out of His mouth goes a sharp two-edged sword, and He smites the nations. And this guy can't smite nothing, see, but he's playing the part of a hypocrite. He is going forth riding on a white horse, going out to conquer.
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Christ has a sharp sword, and watch. It comes from His mouth. The living Word. That's the Word of God revealed to His servants; like He said to Moses: “Go stand there and hold that stick out yonder and call for flies,” and there was flies. Sure. Whatever He said, He done it, and it come to pass, His living Word. God and His Word is the selfsame Person. God is the Word.
Who is this mysterious rider of the First Church Age then? Who is he? Let's think of it. Who is this mysterious rider that starts forth in the First Church Age and rides plumb on out into eternity, goes to the end?
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The Second Seal comes forth and goes right on out into the end. The Third Seal comes forth and goes right on out into the end. Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh-every one of them winds right up out here in the end.
And at the end-time, these Books that have been rolled up, all this time with these mysteries in them, it's broken. Then out comes the mystery, to see what it is. But actually they started forth at the First Church Age because the First Church Age received the message, like this.
“The white horse rider went out,” see? Who is he? He is mighty in his conquering power. He is a great fellow in his conquering power. Do you want me to tell you who he is? He is the antichrist. That is exactly what he is.
Now, because, you see, if an antichrist... Jesus said that “the two would be so close together until it would deceive the very Elected (the Bride), if it was possible.” Antichrist, it's the antichrist spirit.
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Remember in the Church Ages, when we opened the First Church Age, back there, we found out that the Holy Spirit was against the certain thing that got started in that Church Age. And that was called “the deeds of the Nicolaitanes.” Do you remember it? “Nico” means to conquer. “Laity” means the church, the laity. Nicolaitanes-to conquer the laity. Take the Holy Spirit out of the church and give it all to one holy man. Let him be the boss of all of it. You went through it-Nicolaitanes.
Notice, Nicolaitia was a saying in one Church, it become a doctrine in the next Church Age. And in the Third Church Age it was a forcement, and they had the Nicaea Council. It was then made a doctrine in the church.
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What was the first thing happened? An organization from it. Now, is that right? Tell me where the first organized church come from. Roman Catholic church. Tell me if Revelation don't say, in the book of Revelation, 17, “that she was a whore, and her daughters were harlots.” That is the same thing that organized with her-harlots “taking the abominations, filthiness of their fornications for doctrine; teaching for doctrine the commandments of men.”
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Notice, look, he starts out to conquer. Notice, he has no crown. (The white horse rider, I'm speaking of here, see.) A bow and a crown was given him afterwards, see. He had no crown to start with, but a crown was given him. Notice, later he was given a crown. Yeah, three of them-three on one. That was three hundred years later at the Nicaea Council when he started out a spirit of Nicolaitia to form an organization among the people. And then it kept on going on, going on, and become a saying. Then it become a doctrine.
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You remember Christ speaking back to The Church, said, “Thou hatest the deeds of these Nicolaitanes which I hate too.” Trying to conquer-take the holy Scriptures... Just only one holy man, he can forgive all the sins and everything. And we just read where Paul spoke of it. “That thing would sit in the last days, and he couldn't be revealed till the last days. Then he that letteth will take the Spirit of God out of there, and then he will reveal himself.”
Today he is under the disguisement of a white horse. Watch how he changes from that white horse in a few minutes. He not only become a white horse, he becomes a beast with many heads and horns. See? The white horse-he's a deceiver now, and that's the reason the people haven't known it all this time. They thought it-but here it is now. It's going to be revealed by the Scripture.
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Notice, when Nicolaitia, see... antichrist is finally... he's incarnate in a man; then he's crowned. When he starts off as a Nicolaitia spirit in the church, he is a spirit. You can't crown a spirit. But three hundred years later he become a pope. Then they crowned him! He had no crown to start with, but he got a crown later, see, when that spirit become incarnate, see. He become a man. The Nicolaitane doctrine become a man, then they could crown him. They couldn't do it because it was just a doctrine. Glory!
Notice, and when this Holy Spirit that we have becomes incarnate to us, the one that is in our midst now in the form of the Holy Ghost, becomes incarnate to us in the person of Jesus Christ, we will crown Him King of kings and Lord of lords. Amen. That's right, see.
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Now, remember, about the time Christ come on the throne, the antichrist come on the throne-Judas. About the time Christ went off the earth, Judas went off the earth. Just about the time the Holy Spirit come back, the antichrist came back.
You know John said over here: “Little children, I would not have you ignorant [you know, about the antichrist], which, he's already come and working in the children of disobedience.” The antichrist then-there he was-begin to form in there the Nicolaitane spirit to make an organization.
No wonder I hated that thing. There you are. It wasn't me; it was something in here. There's the thing. It's come out. Do you see it? I was all around the sides of it. I couldn't see it until now. I know it now. There it is-that Nicolaitane spirit God hated. And now that spirit become incarnate and they crowned it. Here it is right here, what the Bible said they would do with it-perfect. Oh, my.
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Incarnate, he become a man and then they crowned him. Read, notice... or read rather, how Daniel said “he will take over the church kingdoms.” Would you like to read it? We've got time to do that, haven't we? All right. Let's go back to Daniel just a moment. Turn back to the book of Daniel and we'll read just a moment. And we won't be, maybe another fifteen or twenty minutes, or thirty, or something. All right. Let's get Daniel the 11th chapter, and let's take the 21st verse. Here's Daniel. Daniel is speaking now how this fellow is going to take over.
And in his estate shall stand up a vile person [Rome talking], to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom [now, watch]: but he shall come in peaceable, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
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That's exactly what it done-what Daniel said this antichrist would do. He will fit the people's place. It will fit their menu for this day for the churches. For in this Church Age they don't want the Word, Christ; but they want church. The first thing... they don't ask you if you're a Christian. “What church do you belong to?” “What church?” They don't want Christ, the Word. You go tell them about the Word and how to straighten up, they don't want that.
They want something... just live any way they want to, and still belong to the church and retain their testimony, see. So, he fits the menu just exactly. And remember, he was finally called “she” in the Bible. And she was a prostitute and had daughters. It just fits the bill of the day-what the people want. There it is.
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God has promised it. When the Word is refused, then they are turned to their desires. Let's read Thessalonians again. I want you to watch here just a minute. We read it awhile ago, II Thessalonians 2:9-11. It said that they would... turning down, rejecting the truth, they would be given over to a reprobate mind, and would believe a lie and would be damned by it! That is what the Holy Spirit said.
Now, isn't that the desire of the church today? You try to tell people they have to do this, that, or the other; and they'll let you know right quick they are Methodists, Presbyterian, or whatmore-they don't have to paddle in your boat. See? Certainly! They want it. And God said, “If they want it, I'll just let them have it. And I'll actually make them believe that that's the truth, because I'll give them a reprobate mind concerning the truth.”
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Now, look here what the Bible says also. “As Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses... , so will these guys in the last days with a reprobate mind concerning the truth; and shall turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness, denying the Lord God.” Now you see where it's at! Not only Catholic, but Protestant-the whole thing. It's all the whole organized world. That's that white horse rider, under the way of a white, righteous church, see, but an antichrist. It's got to look like... on a horse even, just like Christ is coming on a horse. All anti-“so close it'd deceive the very elect...”
Here he is. He is the antichrist. He started riding in the First Church Age. Now he rides on down, on down through every age. Now, watch him.
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You say, “Way back even in the apostles' time?” He was called Nicolaitia there. Then in the next Church Age, then he become a doctrine in the church. First he was just a saying, then he become a doctrine.
Swell, celebrity people, fine dressed, highly educated, polished, didn't want all that carrying on in the church. No, they didn't want all that Holy Ghost stuff. Must be a church... And we all... go through the Nicaea Council and so forth at Rome. Then when they come there, they took the church, took paganism (Rome and Catholicism, or, paganism), pagan Rome and a few superstitions; and took Astaroth, the queen of heaven, and turned it to be Mary, the mother; make intercessors out of dead people, and so forth; and took that round kosher wafer, which is still put round on there and called it the body of Christ because it represents the mother of heaven. And the Catholic passes it by, and crosses himself because that light burning in there is supposed to be the kosher, which is turned to God by the power of the priest, when it is nothing in the world but just plain paganism! That's right.
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I just don't understand it. Well, yes, I do. I understand by the grace of God. Now, notice. Oh, my, how they can do that. And they are given their desire. No, that's true. You don't have to do that. No, sir. If you don't want to do it, you're not forced to do it. If you don't want to tally up to God's way of living and things and worship, you don't have to do it. God don't make nobody do it. But let me tell you something. If your name was placed on that Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world, you'll be so happy to do it, you can't wait for the minute to do it.
Look here. You say, “I'll give you to understand I'm just as religious...” Well, that might be true. Who can say them priests wasn't religious in the days of the Lord Jesus? Who can say Israel wasn't religious in the wilderness
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when they was eating...
“God's blessed me so many times...”
Yes, He did them, too. They didn't even have to work for their living. He fed them out of the heavens. And Jesus said, “They're every one lost, and gone, and perished.”
“Our fathers,” they said, “ate manna in the wilderness for forty years.”
Jesus said, “And they're every one dead”-eternally separated, see. He said, “But I am the Bread of Life that come from God out of heaven. If a man eats this bread, he'll never die.” See, He is the Tree of Life.
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Notice just how... And when Jesus come, those priests, they come up there, very religious. Boy, nobody could say they wasn't nice men. My, they walked to the line of that law. Everything that church said, they did it. If they didn't, they were stoned. And so, when they walked out, do you know what Jesus called them? John called them, “You bunch of snakes in the grass. Don't you think because you belong to that organization you got anything to do with God.”
And Jesus said, “You are of your father, the devil.” He said, “Every time that God sent a prophet, what happened? You stoned him and throwed him in the grave. And now you go out there and polish his grave.”
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Isn't that the same thing that Catholic church has done? Look at Joan of Arc, and St. Patrick, and all the rest of them. They are the one that puts them in. And then dug Joan of Arc's body up and throwed it in the river a couple of hundred years later. And burned her for a witch. “You are of your father, the devil, and his works you do.” That's exactly. It will go all over the world. Right.
That's what Jesus said. And you think it's all right. It looks pretty good, that white horse; but look what you got. That is exactly what's riding it.
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Now, but He said “they wanted it, so He would give them a strong delusion.” Remember, this prostitute of Revelation 17, she is the Mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots. And John admired her, just like this man wrote... Wait we get here and watch him watching this horse, here. See, but you noticed she was... What happened was this: that he admired her with great admiration, but the mystery was that she drank the blood of the martyrs of Christ. A beautiful church-set there decked in purple and gold-and she had a cup in her hand of filthiness of her fornication.
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What is fornication? It is unrighteous living. That's her doctrine she was giving out-taking the Word of God and making it of non-effect with some “Hail, Mary”s, and all this other kind of stuff and giving it out. And the kings of the earth committed fornications with her.
“Well,” you say, “that's the Catholic church.” But she was the mother of harlots, the same thing that she was. There you are. What happened? When the reformer died and his message died out, you organized it, and put a bunch of Rickys in there and started the thing right back to live the way you wanted to. You didn't want to stay with the Word. Instead of moving right on with the Word, they stayed right there: “This is it.” You don't do that. That's it-Him up there.
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Notice. (That's one thing. We want to hit just a couple more places before closing.) He is the prince that was to destroy Daniel's people. Do you believe that? (Now, I am going to make this... if you just help and be lenient with me for a few minutes. I'll make it just as quick as I can, but I want to make it positive, all right, because the Holy Spirit give me this just as certain as I'm standing here, see.)
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Now, look, let's take... go back to Daniel again, just a minute. I want to read something. Of course, if you don't go back, it's all right. I want to read Daniel 9. Daniel 9, and I want to read the 26th and 27th verse of Daniel 9. Watch if he isn't the one to destroy Daniel's people and what he is going to do.
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off…
[See, that's the threescore and two weeks, he'll be cut off out of the seventy weeks]
…, but not for himself: but for the people and the prince [that's the hierarchy here] that shall come shall destroy the city... the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with great flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
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I want to ask you people something. After Christ was cut off from the earth in the three and a half years of his ministry, and what destroyed the temple? Who destroyed it? Rome. Sure. Constantine, or, I beg your pardon, Titus, the Roman general. He destroyed the prince. Now, notice. Watch this fellow come right on down. Just watch him.
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When Jesus was born, the red dragon in heaven stood at the woman to devour her child as soon as it was born. Is that right? Who was it tried to devour the child when it was born? [Congregation says, “Rome” —Ed.] There's the red dragon. Here is your prince. Here is your beast. There they are, every one of them, just the same-devour the child. God caught it up into heaven and sat on his throne. That's where Christ is now till the time appointed, see. Now, watch what he shall do.
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I believe I was talking to somebody here-it might've been Brother Roberson-today, or somebody I was talking to about this, (about... not this here, but just on this same thing). I believe I preached on it here not long back, what will happen to this United States on this money situation, see. Well we are now paying our debts on taxes that will be paid forty years from today. That's how far we are behind.
Did you ever turn on “KAIR” up there or “Lifeline” and listen to it, see, from Washington? Why, we are completely busted. That's all. What's the matter? The gold is all housed up, and the Jews hold the bonds. It is going to be Rome.
Now, watch. We know who owns the big department stores, but Rome has the greatest part of the wealth of the world. The rest of it the Jews have. Now watch this. Now just listen to this how the Holy Spirit brought this out for me.
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And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week [Now watch]:and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the obligation to cease,... for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even unto the consummation, and that determined shall be poured out upon the desolate.
Watch. Oh, what a shrewd thing he is! Here he is. Now we got our picture and know that he's Rome. We know that he's a white horse rider. We know that he went forth as a doctrine. Then what was pagan Rome? Converted into papal Rome and crowned.
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Now, watch. In the end-time-not in the early days when Christ was preaching-but in the end-time, the last part of the week, where we just took the seventy weeks of Daniel... And Christ has prophesied for the three and one-half years, and three and one-half years are yet determined. Is that right? And this prince in that time is to make a covenant with Daniel's people, which is the Jews. That's when The Bride is taken out. She won't see it.
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Notice. In the last one-half of Daniel's week, the people makes a covenant. This prince makes a covenant with Rome; makes a covenant with them no doubt for the wealth, for Catholic and Jew holds the wealth of the world.
I was in the Vatican. I've seen the triple crown. I was supposed to have an interview with the pope. Baron Von Blumberg got it for me for a Wednesday afternoon at three o'clock. When they took me to the king, they took the cuffs out of my trousers. That's all right. They told me never to turn my back and walk away from him. That was all right. But I said, “What do I have to do before this guy?”
They said, “Just go in and kneel down on one knee and kiss his finger.”
I said, “That's out.” That's right. No, sir. I said, “I'll call any man a brother that wants to be a brother. I'll call him Reverend, if he wants to have the title of that; but to worship a man-that all belongs to Jesus Christ.” No, sir, I'll kiss no man's hand like that. No, indeed.
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So, I didn't do it, but I got to go all through the Vatican. Why, you couldn't buy it with a hundred billion, billion dollars. Why, you... And just think, “The wealth of the world,” the Bible said, “was found in her.” Oh, just think of the great places, the billions times...
Why did communism raise up over here in Russia? It just makes me sick at my stomach to hear so many preachers hollering about communism, and they don't even know what they're crowing about. That's right. Communism ain't nothing. It's a tool in the hand of God to bring revenge upon the earth for the blood of the saints. That's right.
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And after The Church is taken away, Rome and the Jews will make a covenant with one another. The Bible said they would, with the holy people. And now notice, they'll make it, because why? This nation is going to be busted, and the rest of the world that's on the gold standard is busted. You know that. If we are living off of taxes, due bills, for forty years from now, where are we at? There's only one thing can happen. That's to call in the currency and pay off the bonds, and we can't do it. Wall Street owns them, and Wall Street is controlled by the Jews. The rest of it's in the Vatican. And the Jews has got the rest of it in Wall Street with the commerce of the world.
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We can't call it in. And if they could do it, do you think these whiskey guys, and all these tobacco people, with billions times billions of dollars a year...? And write off all their income tax for old vulgar pictures and things like that? Go out in Arizona there and buy millions of acres of land, or thousands, and dig them big wells at fifty thousand dollars and pay it off with income tax?
And they'll put you in jail if you don't pay yours; but they write it off, and throw up wells and send bulldozers in. And what do they do? They put housing projects in there. And the next turn around with their money they made (they got to make an investment), and put houses, projects in there, and sell them for millions of dollars. Do you think them guys is going to compromise to change the currency?
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Like this fellow down here in... (what's his name?) Castro did. He done the only smart thing he ever did do then, when he destroyed the bonds-paid them off and destroyed them. Notice, but we can't do that. These guys won't let us.
The rich merchants of the earth hold it, and there is only one thing to do: the Catholic church can pay it off. She's the only one that's got the money. And she can do it, and she will do it.
And in doing this, to get it she will compromise with the Jews and make a covenant. And when she makes this covenant with the Jews... Now, remember, I am taking this from the Scriptures. And now, when she does this and makes this covenant, we notice, in Daniel 8:23 and 25 “he will cause craft to prosper”-and craft is manufacturing-in his hand.
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And he makes this covenant with the Jews. And in the midst of this three and one-half years, he breaks his covenant as soon as he gets the thing wrapped up and gets the money of the Jews tied up. And when he does that... Oh, my, oh, my. He is called the antichrist until the end of the Church Age, for he is the... he and his children are against Christ and the Word. This man's called the antichrist. Now, he is going to hold the money. And that's where I think it'll come in. (Just a minute. I'll say this, then I want to go back to it a minute.) He's called the antichrist, and will be called the antichrist in the sight of God until the end-time. Now, but then he'll be called something else.
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Now, when he gets the money all under control, “then he'll break this covenant with the Jews,” as Daniel here said he would do it, “in the midst of the last half of the seventy weeks of Daniel.” Then, brother, what will he do? He will have all of the world trade and the commerce-a pact with the world-because he will hold the wealth of the world completely!
And during that time, them two prophets will rise on the scene and call that hundred and forty-four thousand. Then what will take place? Then the mark of the beast of Revelation 13 will set in, because he holds all the commerce, trade and everything of the world. And what will take place then? The mark of the beast will come in, that no man can buy or sell except him that has the mark of the beast. Thank God, The Church will be enjoying a great three and one-half years in glory. We won't have to go through that.
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Now, notice, at the end-time-at the end of the Church Ages, now-he is called... he and his children are called the antichrist, 'cause anything that's against Christ is antichrist. And anything that is against the Word is against Christ, 'cause Christ is the Word. Now, he's antichrist. Then in Revelation 12:7-9, “when Satan is cast out, the accuser...” (You can put that down, 'cause I want you to read it. We haven't got time now because it's twenty, fifteen till ten.) But in Revelation 12:7-9, “Satan, the spirit, the devil, which is up there now, accuser of our brethren... (All right?) The Church is taken up, and Satan is cast out. When The Church goes up, Satan comes down. Then Satan incarnates himself in the antichrist and is called the beast.”
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Then in Revelation 13, he sets the mark down. See, “when He that letteth”... Only now... Christianity is left on the earth in its purity is because Him that letteth... Remember back here in Thessalonians, “sitting upon the temple of God, calling himself God; forgiving sins on earth? And that will go on, and iniquity shall abound, and on, 'cause he won't be known yet until his time to be revealed is called.”
Then The Church shall be caught away. When it is caught away, then he changes himself from an antichrist now, my, oh, my! The church, the great church and that... Now he becomes the beast! Hmm... mm... I wish I could make people see that.
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Now, remember, the antichrist and the beast is the same-self spirit. There's the trinity. Yes, sir. It's three stages of the same devil power. Remember, Nicolaitia, see. It had to be incarnate before it could be crowned, see. Now, watch this. Three stages: first stage he's called antichrist; second stage, he's called the false prophet; third stage, he's called the beast.
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Notice, Nicolaitia, the antichrist teaching, that started in the days of Paul against God's Word-antichrist. Then, he is called again the false prophet, which when the teaching become a man, he was a prophet to the teaching of the hierarchy of the Catholic church. The pope was the prophet to the false word, and that made him a false prophet.
The third stage is a beast, a man that's crowned in the last days with every power that pagan Rome ever had, because the seven-headed beast-dragon-was cast out of heaven and come incarnate in the false prophet. There it is, he had seven crowns, and he was cast out and thrown into the earth and the sea. All right.
What are we saying? Who is this rider, this horse rider? Do you know what it is? It's Satan's superman.
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I went the other night with two brothers sitting in this church now (Brother Norman, back there, I believe, and Brother Fred). We was over to hear a man teach on the antichrist-a well known man, one of the best the Assemblies of God have got. And his interpretation of antichrist was that they're going to take a vitamin of some sort out of a man, and transfer this life out of a man into a great image that is going to step a city block at a time. And that's the... Could you imagine a man filled with the Holy Ghost under such delusions as that (or claimed to be), when here is the Bible that says who the antichrist is? It's not a... It's a man!
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Notice, this rider is nothing but Satan's superman, the incarnate devil. He's an educated genius. Now, I hope you've got your ears open. They was trying one of his children out not long ago on a television cast to see if he wasn't smarter than the next man to run for President. However, he has got a lot of wisdom. So has Satan. He tries to sell it. He sold it to Eve, and he sold it to us. We've been wanting a superman. We've got it. All right. The whole world is wanting a superman. They're going to get it. Just wait until The Church goes up, and Satan is cast out. He'll incarnate. That's right. They want somebody who can really do the job. He'll do it.
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Educated. This is Satan's superman, with education, with wisdom, with church theology of his own word, of his own making, and he rides his white denominational horse to deceive the people. And he will conquer every religion of the world, because they're all going into the confederation of churches and the world confederation of churches. And they already got their buildings built and everything sitting right in line. There ain't one thing left. Every denomination is stuck right into it-the federation of churches. And what is backing it? Rome. And the pope's now crying, “We're all one. Let's come together and walk together.”
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And these people, even some of you Full Gospel people, deny... have to deny your evangelical teaching to take such a step as that. What have you done? So blind to that denominational thing, you've rejected Truth. And Truth was set before them, and they walked away from it and left it. “And now they've been given over to a strong delusion to believe a lie and be damned with it.” That's exactly what it is. And the antichrist takes it all. And the Bible said “that he deceived all-a-double l-all upon the face of the earth whose names were not written under those Seals from the foundation of the world!” Now if the Bible said he did it, he did it.
They say, “Well, I belong...” There you are. That is just exactly. It's the same prostitute institution. It's the same system that started in the beginning, which is antichrist throughout. I'll hear from it, but that's... It's the truth. I expect to.
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Now, notice, he'll conquer, and almost has, in his grip right now while he's still antichrist, before he becomes beast. You talk about cruel punishment. You just wait. Watch what them that's left here on earth will have to go through with. There will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. For the dragon, Rome, spurted water out of his mouth to make war with the remnant of the woman's seed that was left upon the earth after The Bride had been selected and took up. And the dragon made war with the remnant. It didn't want to come in, but was hunted down.
And the real Church'd go through that if it was possible. But you see, they are done under this Blood by the grace of Christ, and it's not possible. They have no tribulation period. The next thing for The Church is Rapture! Amen and amen!
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Oh, how I love this! Let me tell you. We are telling what a conquering he is going to do, and he is really going to conquer. He's already done it. It is just already sewed up, that's all! They will sew up for the money-filthy lucre. Exactly. They love money more than God. Everything they think about now is how much money has he got. What is it? You know it's been said lots of times: “Give the church the money, and she'll revolutionize the world. Give the church the money, and she will send evangelists all over the world.” And what will she do? “She will conquer the world for Christ.”
Let me tell you something, my poor blind friend. The world is not won by money, but by the blood of Jesus Christ. Give God men who's gallant men, will stand there on that Word, live or die. That will conquer. There'll only be one thing that can conquer: those that's got their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world. That's the only thing that will hear it. Money won't have nothing to do with it-send them farther into the denominational traditions.
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Yes, with educational genius, he'll be. He will be smart. My, my, my, and all of his children around him will be smart-Ph.D., LL.D., double L.D., Q.S.D., A.B.C.D.E.F. on down to Z. They'll have it all. Smart. Why? It's after the order of Satan. Any shrewd craftiness against the Bible is of Satan. That's exactly what he took Eve with. Eve said, “Oh, it is written. God said for us not to do that.” He said, “But wait. Surely God won't do it, but I will open your eyes and give you some wisdom.” She got it. We've been wanting it, and we got it too, this nation.
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Notice, he will conquer the whole religious world. He'll conquer... make a covenant with Daniel's people. Here it is both in the Gentile and in the... Daniel's people, the Jews, through the last week. And here we are. Even draw it out on boards, and you see it perfectly there's where it is. Thank God. There he is. That organizational system is of the devil. And that's no punches pulled on it either. Exactly.
It is the root of the devil. Now, not people, not people in there. Them are God's people, many of them. But you know what? When we get over here to... we get these trumpets sounding, the next time I come by, these trumpets sounding... And remember when them last angels... that third angel come across, “Come out of her my people!” When that angel flies, at the same time that message drops here for the last trumpet (last angel's message), the last Seal opens. All happens at the same time. Yes, sir. It all seals up and goes over into eternity.
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Now, watch, at the same time that this guy is a-conquering (then I'll close), God's going to do something then, too. Let's not just give Satan all the credit here, see. Let's not talk about him altogether, see. While this great thing is going out there-this great system winding in these organizations in a union so they can pool themselves together and stand against communism... and not knowing that God raised up communism to conquer them. Sure. What made communism rise in Russia? Because of the impurity of the Roman church and the rest of them. They took all the money there was in Russia, and starved the people to death, and give them nothing instead, and live just like the rest of the world.
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I was down in Mexico not long ago and seen them poor little children. Any Catholic country is not even self-supporting. There is not a one of them! Show me where they're at. Any Catholic-controlled country can't even support its own self. France, Italy, and all of them, Mexico, wherever you go, they're not self-supporting. Why? The church took everything they have. That's the reason Russia kicked it out.
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Watch what is taking place. I know this myself. I'd stand down there, and you'd think the golden jubilee was on to hear the bells ringing. Here a poor little woman coming down the street, dragging her feet, and a father packing a baby, and two or three of them crying-she was doing penance to some dead woman up there. Had her... thought she could go to heaven by. Oh, what a pitiful thing.
Then I seen standing down there... Here come... Their economics, they're so poorly balanced. The church takes everything they got. Here little Pancho, maybe Pancho Frank, he comes down, and he's a brick mason. And he makes twenty pesos a week, but it will take the whole twenty pesos to buy him a pair of shoes. That's their economics.
But now here, what about then, if he being a mason and a bricklayer, and making twenty pesos a week... Just saying-I don't know what he makes, but say that kind of economics, the way it's balanced up.
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Notice, now, if he makes twenty pesos a week, here comes Chico, see (which means “little one”), and he works out there for about five pesos a week. And he's got ten kids to feed. But there'll be somebody knocking on his door to take about five of those pesos, or four of them anyhow, to pay for some grease candle to burn on a million dollar gold altar for his sins. There you are. That's the balance of economics. That is the way their countries are. The thing takes it all. The church takes it all.
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She's just got it in her hands, that's all. Her, with the money of the Jews and that covenant-the Bible said they'll take the whole thing. And then he becomes a beast. He breaks his covenant, and he ravishes and tears out the rest of that woman's seed like that, and spurts water out of his mouth, makes war. And there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth; and The Bride is getting married in Glory at the same time. Don't miss it, friends. God help me, I want to be there. I don't care what it costs. I want to be there.
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Now, notice, in the same time this is going on-just before this takes place rather, on the earth-God has promised, while all them scruples of denominations arguing their differences about their creeds, God promised that He would send us a true prophet of the true Word, with a message to return to the original Word of God and the faith of the fathers, to bring down the power of the Holy Ghost amongst the people, and the power that will raise her above these things and take her in there with the same Word.
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The same Word being vindicated of Jesus Christ that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. “Lo, I am with you always, even to the consummation. And the works that I do shall you do also. I'll be right with you. A little while and they won't see me no more, because they'll organize themselves and scatter out. But ye will see me, for I will be with you. I'll even be in you unto the consummation.” And He said His indignation will be poured out after the consummation. There you are.
Oh, God! Who is that white horse rider? You're not blind. You see who it is. It's that antichrist and that deceitful spirit that has gone on and crept in.
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See, God just keeps repeating it. He shows it as a man going forth with a white horse and with his bow and no arrow. He is a bluff. He has no power.
You say, “The power of the church...” Where is it at? What do they do? They say, “We're the original church.” The original church cast out devils, healed the sick and raised the dead saw visions, and everything else. Where is it now? See, the bluff -bow with no arrow. That's right.
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But you see, when Christ come, a sword went forth from His mouth like a lightning flash. It went forth and consumed His enemies and cast away the devil. It cut away everything else. And come, His vesture dipped in blood and on His thigh was written “The Word of God.” Amen. Here He comes with His army, coming from heaven.
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That white horse rider has been in the land all the time. He will change from antichrist. He does that and becomes to a false prophet. See, he first started a antichrist, the spirit; then he become a false prophet. Then later, when the devil is cast out, he's incarnate then with the devil. Three stages: the first, he is a devil to begin with-a spirit of the devil; then he becomes a false prophet, teacher of a false doctrine; next thing, he comes as the very devil himself, incarnate, see. There he is. And at the same time that this devil falls out of heaven and becomes incarnate in a man, the Holy Spirit goes up and comes down incarnate man. Oh, my. What a time.
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Tomorrow night, God willing, the Second Seal. Do you love Him? [Congregation says, “Amen”—Ed.] Now, do you believe it? [Congregation says, “Amen”—Ed.] (I just shut the tape off.) I am going to hear from that, you know that, but I expect to. Let me tell you something, brother. I just now know for one time in my life why that Spirit has always warned me against that organization.
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I am grateful to the Lord God for showing me these things. I know that it's the truth. There it is, revealed right there. Here he rides right down through the age and comes right out here and displays himself right down here just as perfect as he can be, see. That's him. Now we're not deceived on that. Now you got your eyes opened. Stay away from that kind of stuff. Love the Lord with all your heart, and stay right with Him. Yes, sir. Come out of Babylon.
[Blank.spot.on.tape] Three things: proved by the Word, shown by a picture, manifested by the works of the Spirit, vindicating that It is the Word.
Let the Word come upon these handkerchiefs, Lord. Heal the sick. Heal every sick person that's present, Lord, and those out there that writes in and calls in.
Father, at this hour, there's another healing that should be done right now, and we go on to healing service. But, Lord, it's that soul, we want that just in order, Lord. And these things must come.
We pray, God, that You'll take these words now that has been said, and make them real to the people. Let them see It, Lord. Being pinched for time, and, You know, Father, so I pray that enough has been said that the Holy Spirit will take It and reveal It into hearts. Those who are writing the Scriptures down, may they study Them. Those who are making tapes or—or—or hearing the tapes, may they study It; not put their own interpretation to It now, but just study the Word. Grant it, Father. In Jesus' Name, I commit it all to You, and for Your glory. Amen.
[A brother prophesies. Congregation rejoices] Amen. Oh, thank you Lord. [Congregation continues rejoicing.] Oh!
If there is somebody here that don't know Him, in pardon, do it now. Hear that straight, strong rebuke. If you ever expect to draw nigh, do it now, for days after this.
What if that was the breaking of that Seal? What if that was the Angel that sent forth there, that blasted (almost) me off of the ground, the other day, standing back there, when three witnesses are standing close. That I told you before I went, “There would be an explosion that would almost send me up.” And I was caught up by seven Angels, and come eastward. The thing like to shook me from the ground.
Is that right, Brother Norman, Brother Fred Sothmann, who was standing with me when it happened, above Tucson? And the—the... Setting, picking the burrs off of my clothes, exactly what the vision said. And it was south of... towards Tucson. If that's right, raise up your hand, Brother Fred, Brother Norman. There they are. Stand up on your feet, so the people can see that you were there, a witness. I never heard anything like it, in my life.
And, immediately, they didn't hunt, the rest the day. I begged Fred, the next morning. He don't know this. I begged him to go out hunting, kept saying, “Do it. Do it.”
But He said, He told me back there, “He won't do it. You're going East, right now.”
And them seven Angels! The first blast, she opened. Yeah. What if it is? We're at the last hour. See?
I love...
(Let's worship Him.)
I love Him
Because He first loved me
(Let's stand.)
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Let's cleanse our hearts now, brothers, as we bow our heads. My sisters, I've talked awful to you, but I've done it in godly love. I've done it because I loved you; about wearing long hair, and dressing and acting right. I've done it because of godly love. Let's pure our conscience now while—while the Clorox of God.
In the morning, may be too late. He may step forth. These things coming forth like this, brethren, might be the end of the mediatorial office. Did you ever think of that? Well, I don't know it is. I don't say it is. But what if it is? What if it is? What about it? There's no more redemption; it's gone, at that time. I hope it's not, but there is a possibility that it is.
I love Him, I...
(Cleanse us, Lord.)
... love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Blessed be the Name of the Lord. Glory to God. I love that sweet feeling. Don't you feel That? Just the Holy Spirit, like, bathing around you, walking around with It. Oh, how wonderful! Oh, think of His mercy!
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Don't forget It, friend. Don't forget It. Take It home with you. Stay with It. Hold It on your pillow. Don't forget It. Stay with It. God bless you now.
Brother Neville, your pastor.