Power Of Transformation

It would be kind of hard for anyone to express themselves, in a time like this, to say how much I appreciate this privilege of being here this morning, and among you to minister the Word of God, which I'm sure you are acquainted with.

And I want to thank Brother Leo and Brother Gene, and all you people for this grand opportunity. And as I was hearing the first hymn to the last, there is something about that singing—it's a worship that you just don't find no more. It is always a great privilege for me when I come up here, about once a year or twice, to get to just fill yourself up with that goodness of them songs. And I was thinking this morning, when Brother Leo announced the song of “They Come From the East and West,” and about my wife singing that when I left to ... left her and Billy and Rebekah to start this great revival of ... a spearhead of it rather, as it swept the nations.

And I was thinking, as I looked across this pretty, clean-looking bunch of ladies, I remember Meda then was one of them. She was a little black-headed girl and now she is like myself; we're getting old and gray and our times are running out—and yet with this grand hope that we'll be gathered together again in Him, where there will be no more time, old age, nothing to hinder us or bother us.

I don't believe that I know any place that I have ever seen in my life, especially with this many people, where there was so many nice Christians, with this love. Don't never let that die among you, just remember it.

I used to have a little ... the saying amongst the people. My wife's name was Hope—my first wife, Billy's mother. They used to.... There was three of us then: that was Hope, and myself, and Billy. They used to call us “Hope, Faith, and Charity.” And so, seemed to have a burly faith, like, in those days to believe that this Word was true; and what God had promised, He would do. And, but you see, the greatest of this is charity, is love, like Brother Leo expressed this morning. Love—where there is tongues, it shall cease; where there is prophesies, it'll fail; but when charity, which is love, it always will endure, see.

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious Word

Shall never lose it's power,

Till all the ransomed church of God

Be saved, to sin no more.

Ever since by faith, I saw the stream

Thy flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme,

And shall be till I die.

I think there is nothing greater than love. And love, if we can't express it.... Now, we can say that we have love. We're just saying that. But when we can really express what we've said that we have, then we show it in ourselves. Now, we're not a perfect people. We make our mistakes. We do things that's wrong. But you see, love covers all of that. We're willing, when we see our mistakes, to come back and apologize to one another. That's warriors. That's really men and women that's gallant. Any man can go out to the battlefield that's got nerve enough to walk out there; but when he gets knocked down, then get up and try it again, see....

There used to be a song that a young man and young woman used to sing in the church:

If I fall or if I fail ... (See.)

If I fall or if I.... (I forget how it goes.)

Let me rise and try again;

Forgive me, Lord, and try me one more time.

If I fall, or if I sin,

Let me rise and try again.

Just forgive me, Lord,

And try me one more time.

And with as many as a hundred and twenty people here together, you are bound to find things sometimes that the enemy will sweep in among you, and through your minds, and start this, that. Just stop when he does it. Think back. Think of this morning. Think of the times when you're sitting together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Some of you are plumbers, and some are carpenters, and some this, that, and the other. You rub arms with the world each day when you're out there. But when you see those things, and great temptations rise, just remember these little sacred places, where you're sitting together with the only thing that lasts. Your jobs will fail one of these days. Your health will fail. Even your life here on earth will fail. But then, that won't fail. And if He's the center of all things, then let's keep our minds on the center post—what has drawed us to this.

My, this nice, clean-looking bunch of people! I don't mean so much your clothes (your clothes are clean, of course), and things, your faces. I think these little ladies here ... not a speck of lipstick on a one of them, all of them with long hair, young and old, middle-aged and all. Yes, see. Well, you just don't realize what a treasure you got here, see, in this little chapel service.

I want to thank Brother and Sister Shantz also, and for this privilege of being in their home. And this is their home, now that they have sold their property, I think in Canada, and have come down to sojourn with us. We don't have no more earthly possessions. We're seeking a city to come, whose builder and maker is God.

And I thank Brother Leo and Gene for the trueness they have been to the vision that was given to them when we first met. No doubt but what he's told you many times.

It's strange—I didn't see it just like this. I knew there was something ahead, when the young fellow came to me with a dream that he had had of a pyramid, standing up in this pyramid. And he climbed up to where I was at. And I was standing out in a saucer, a plate, or something like a light. He said, “Brother Branham, how do you get up there?”

And I said, “Brother Leo, God has to put a person in this position up here.” I said, “Now that you've seen, return back to the people, and tell them that you believe it's of God.”

And little knowing then.... When I had a place.... I love the boys, and I wanted to put them in a position where I could be with them. And they started making tapes.

But you see, as far as myself, they'd have still been making tapes, as far as I know. But what a greater thing God has did for them than to make tapes, see. “Most anybody can make a tape that's got the intelligence to turn on the tape recorder, or can sell. But it takes guidance of the Holy Spirit to guide a little group together like this this morning, and keep them together in harmony and unity, and still clinging to the message. God, may You ... may You grant to this people long life here on earth, happiness, and joy, and then enter into the joys of the Lord at the end of the road.

We are now ready for battle. The trumpets've sound. The hymns have been sang. Now comes the Word. I think, as I stand here that—you know, yes, you probably do—but to hear these comments of these young soldiers here (and myself getting old), and listen around ... and your faith and confidence, and what you've placed in, to believe the message that I have been given of God. Now, if it wasn't for you all, the message would do no good, see. It's got to be somebody to believe it. And as long as it's coming from God there's going to be somebody believe it, you see. God has made a way. He's fixed his great economy like that: that when He sends forth something, there is something there to meet that something. The deep responds to the call of the deep. It's got to be that way.

I like the word that Brother Gene used in prayer this morning, “in his august courts.” I feel that way when I cross that bridge down there, to come in where God is reverenced and respected, and.... Always keep it that way. No matter, when the enemy.... Now remember, don't forget this, Brother Leo and Gene especially. Now, you think Satan is going to let this go on like this without a hindrance? Oh, no. He sure won't. He is going to fly in, one of these days, just like a whirlwind. But when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of God raises a standard against it. Just keep lifting yourself up in prayer before God. Cling to one another. Hold to God, for if you love one another, it shows you love God. “...this will all men know that you're my disciples, when you, have love one for the other.”

And I thought a while ago, what beautiful singing, what fine voices, what a fine group of men and women, husbands and wives, young, old, and middle-aged, sitting together here. I thought, “Well, they ought to have it down in Prescott. They ought to be down there, and ought to have a little radio broadcast like that.” Then, you see, that would be just exactly what God has called these young men to do, see. The bride is being called out, see, called out. Now, my work is out here to call.

And then, things like this where you colonize yourselves together, and hold yourself—where you want to bring up your children, each one watching each day, like the eye of an eagle watching over their young—so that you won't.... If you see anything wrong, then you call that person aside, and pray over it, and things like that. Keep it pure, holy, so the Holy Spirit can have a place to visit.

God likes to be worshipped. And when you worship Him, it just isn't exactly singing a song, as we do, but singing it in the spirit of worship, you see. Then you feel the Holy Spirit bounce back.

And I see great big young men here. Just think of the day ... that group of young fellows sitting there, young boys and their little wives sitting along here; and big, rough men sitting there, and just cry like little babies. Why, look at today. They're out here on the street, living in adultery, and filth of the world, and things. And to think that you can come apart, and gather like this, where, as the psalmist said, “Behold, how sweet and pleasant for brethren to dwell together in unity. It's like the anointing oil that was on Aaron's beard, that ran to the hems of his garments.”

Which, that anointing oil, which ... you know what the anointing oil done? It preserved him to go in the presence of God, see. He had to be anointed with that oil before he went in the presence of God. And when brethren can dwell together in unity, it's likened unto that oil. We then enter into the presence of the Lord, with that anointing of brethren together in unity. Oil represents the Holy Spirit.

Now, can we have just a word of prayer before entering into the study of the Word. Heavenly Father, as our brother has expressed this morning, “the entering into the august courts of the Lord....” Now, Father, we realize, this group of people here, and now what I say, I'll have to answer for at the day of the judgment. And this is your children. Bless them, Father, continually. Bless Brother Leo and Brother Gene. May they be led by your Holy Spirit to guide these people, as we make this pilgrimage to the sunset. And then, O, Holy Ghost of God, guide us to the Son. Grant it, Lord. Break the bread of life to us through the Word.

And we're ... now, we realize that we're in battle now. We're putting on pieces of armour, out here on these soldiers, which they'll have to fight with in the hours that is left in life. And I pray, Lord, that You'll rightly place every piece where it belongs, where they can be shielded against the enemy whenever he comes against them. Grant it, Lord. We pray in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.

Now, I'm rather slow in speaking, because I'm not a trained minister. I know there is people here that's smart, intelligent, intellectual; and have laid that aside to come over now, and to break themselves down in humility. Great Paul, the apostle.... I think of his words when he said that “I did not come to you with the enticing words of man, because there you would place your faith in that. But I come to you in the power of the Spirit,” see. The great things that he knew he had, he laid aside.

And I feel this morning like—men here like Brother Hughy, and Sister Teacher here from the mission fields, and many of you people who are really intelligent, and smart—and I feel very little, to stand here with no more education than I have, before you, but I.... And then to see that you people like that would humble yourselves to them things, lay it aside, and sit down and listen to a person that hardly knows their ABC's—that makes great people out of you. It isn't he that can stick his shoulders out and walk out and...; it's he that can humble himself. I think character is measured by man—not by the muscles on his arm, or by the calluses in his hands—but the bag in the knees of his trousers where he's prayed. I think that's what makes men.

Now, I want to read this morning some of the Bible. I like the Word, don't you? Now, we've worshipped the Lord, and we'll continue to worship Him. Now let's worship Him as a cutting, sharp-edged sword, as it moves through us to find out where we're standing. And I say it, because this is one place I feel that I could teach the things that I want to say this morning.

And then, 'course Brother Leo, and Gene, and them, will exercise upon them when we leave, and will bring the points out—as I heard him so graciously mention in his message this morning, that he catches that. But you can't say it from the platform like this, or on them tapes. But see, just sit down and study them. Just keep studying them over and over.

It's hard to understand. So many people misunderstand it. And did you know, little flock, it is that way amongst all humans? It always has been.

If they could not understand our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, even his apostles, see, then how could we expect to understand it in this day, you see? He said.... He would say things that is straight, you know. And He wouldn't explain them; He would just say them. Said, like, for instance, “Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”

Now, what ... now, what if a ... what if a doctor had been standing close, or a nurse, or something, in that congregation, that day He was talking to? “Well,” they said, “This man is a vampire,” see. “Wants to drink his blood.” See, He never explained it; He just said it. But later on Paul came along, and explained it—how it was taking communion, you know—eating his flesh and drinking his blood. And so, He just said those things.

And finally, at last, the apostles one day, even after the resurrection, there was ... one was leaning upon his shoulder, John, He loved (he was a young man). And He said, “What is it to you if this man tarries till I come?” There went out a saying among them that John wasn't going to die till Jesus returned. Jesus did not say that. He just ... He said, “What is it to you if he does tarry?”

And then, of course, you read in the Word how that God then.... That was said for a purpose. These things are all for a purpose. God took that young John and lifted him up in the Spirit, and saw his coming, plumb over into the age that is to come, see. Said, “What is it to you if he tarries?” He didn't tarry him physical, but the word that He spoke through him brought us to this age where we are now, you see. So it all works together for good.

In Romans, a very familiar chapter, I want to take a few verses here and (about the first two or three verses—two verses, I think it is), and read; and in this try to explain it the best that I know how, by the help of the Holy Spirit. Romans the twelfth chapter:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

I thought that was so beautiful for this group this morning, what you done. Now,

And [“And” is a conjunction, as I understand.] And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

That's what we all want to do, is be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our mind, to do the perfect, and acceptable will of God. Now that we have been saved, as we are; and that we have been filled with the Holy Spirit, as we have; now we want the mind that was in Christ to be in us, that we might be transformed from the natural things of life, and be brought in to do the perfect will of God, by transformation of God's Spirit by his Word. Now, my subject is “The Power of Transformation.”

I may leave my Bible here. Now, it used to be, years ago, when I was a young man like these men, I didn't have to set down my scriptures and things when I was studying. But now, since I am getting old, why, I carry me a little book. And when I get something, why, I jot it down—have to put it on the scripture. And used to, I just had that line of scriptures right in my mind. I'd just come right down.

But, dear friends, I'm not young like you all this morning; but I am old, and I've been through many hard battles, see. And, by going through those hard battles, brings you where you are this morning, see. So I'm sure you understand that God has put me through it, that my life might open up a way to say, “This is it,” see. Then you all run over to that road. But before me, there was someone opened up the way for me to go, see. And we open up the road, one for the other.#32 And, as you see, sometime, an old veteran, getting old, and his marks all over him.... And, as Paul said one time, “I bear in my body the marks of Jesus Christ,” you see. How Timothy looked upon those marks, I guess, with reverence, as he commit it to young Timothy.

Now, “transforming....” I used to work for a public service company where we had transformers. And to “transform,” now, the word is ... the word means, in itself, something like ... to “transform” means something that's been changed—something that's changed from one thing to another. And as I want to speak, for the next forty-five minutes or an hour, on the transforming, I would like to use this text. And I may say some things in here that seems very strange. And, as Brother Leo has just said, take it and just study over it a little while, see. Just think of it for a little bit.

To be transformed is to be changed and made something different—like a tadpole is transformed from a tadpole to a frog, see. Once he looked like a catfish. He swims around, he's got a head, and his tail and everything looks just like a catfish. Then after a while he begins to lose. He loses the tail, and he's transformed from one specie to another.

I think that's what Paul must've had in mind when he said, “Be ye transformed by the ... by the renewing....” Let's see. Let me get that right. “And be not conformed [you know what conformed is], be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Renewing of your mind—the things that you once thought upon to be precious, lay that aside and be transformed to something else. What you was one time, to what you are now, see, “by the renewing of your mind, that you might prove that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Oh, that's what we all want to know—how to do it, see. We're here, we love Him, He saved us. Now we want to know what to do. And we're trying to take a little step this morning to raise up just a little bit higher. Sometimes we have to hit things that.... You just hold on for a few ... till we see what it comes out to be.

Now, in Genesis, the first chapter, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. We realize that the water and ... the Bible said, in the beginning, back there, that this ... the world was without form and was void. There was nothing but just a darkness of chaos. And what a horrible shape it must have been in! Nothing, but way into the darkness yonder, without light or anything, and the churning of the water. And that wandering star twisted around and around, the orbits out there somewhere. It must have been a terrific mass of something lost, like it was ... couldn't find its way. And that's what we become when we become wandering stars away from God—just without hope, without God, without ... just churning around out in darkness, not knowing when we ... where we're going.

And God took that great chaos of darkness, and transformed it into a garden of Eden, see, by his Word. That's how we're transformed—by God's Word. When God said, “Let there be light,” and that mass of creation out there come over in around the sun, and begin to revolve around the sun, and became a garden of Eden—because it obeyed the word of God. It done the perfect will of God, for it was transformed from chaos into a garden of Eden by the word of God.

Now, that's what we are here for. That's my message—has been all along—is the Word of God. We must hold to that, regardless of what other things take place. Always stay with that Word. Always check out your motives and objectives, if it is according to the Word of God. If it isn't, leave it alone, see. But if it's with the Word of God, and lines up with the Word of God, then that ... you hold to that.

Now, God sometimes—just like your little group here this morning—He lets it not happen just overnight. He lets.... God.... We're the one that gets in a hurry. God's never in a hurry. He just says it, and it's going to be; for when He says anything, it's got to be. It's just going to be. He lets it take its time.

He let the Hebrew children—them famous characters of the scripture that was standing on God's Word to be true—they said, “Our God is able to deliver us from this fiery furnace. Nevertheless, see, we won't bow to the image because it's against the Word, see. Although if He slays us, He'll raise us up again.” You see? And they ... He let them walk right up to the edge of this great furnace, and drop into it, before it seemed like He even paid any attention—like He wasn't even watching. But He's always watching though. He's always watching for this.

Now, God said, “Let there be light,” and six thousand years it took this Eden to come into existence, and we are taught in the scripture. For one day upon the earth is as a thousand years with God. A thousand years upon the earth is one day with God. So it took six thousand years to make this earth, and to bring it into an Eden. But you see, it was God, the great master of all intelligence, and He had in his mind what He wanted to do. Just like, when the men that built this trailer ... when the men that ... when you brethren here that designed this park, how you'd make it, it was in your mind. You kept working that vision out. That's the way God did about the world. He worked.... It was in his mind.

And if you notice, it come like, by evolution, like He was learning more all the time, making something greater and greater. But see, He was above it all, and just let it evolute up to that, you see. Everything He begin to bring upon the earth, from botany life, and fish, and so forth. It come on into birds, and the animals, and then something in his own image—a man—and stopped there, see, because it was up to his perfection of what He wanted.

That's the way you start. Like this trailer—you might lay the frame down, and you say, “What are you doing?” Like you, when you all moved the first rocks away from this corner here—“What are you doing?” See? It didn't look like it would be like it is now. It looks like a little Eden, because it was in your mind what to do, and you just kept working up.

Now, we want to be transformed ourselves by the renewing of our mind, see. Not what we have on this earth, what we are going to look for on this earth; but what we are coming to in the world that is to come. Transformed by renewing of our mind.

Now, six thousand years God taken to make this, and we see in Genesis 1.... Now, we see that in this, God had an objective that He wanted to bring to pass. And so many people, in teaching on Genesis back here in the first chapter, and second chapter and third chapter especially, it looks like that God repeats Himself. Or, He said ... He went ahead and said all these things that He did. Oh, “Let there be light, and let there be this, and let there come forth....” And there wasn't even one thing yet. Wasn't nothing. There wasn't a light. That old world was still floating out there in that darkness, covered over with water. But see, He had spoke his word, and then, that's when He was speaking.

Now, we notice here in Genesis 1, He said, “And He formed man in his own image. In his own likeness, in the image of God, made He ... He made him male and female.” See, He was making man. He just spoke the word. Then we find out, after many days had passed, maybe hundreds and hundreds of years, there was still no man to till the soil—nobody to till the soil. So then God formed man out of the dust of the earth, see. He had spoke the word, and then the word had to take place. Now, when He said, “Let there be light,” maybe there might have been hundreds of years, maybe eight hundred years, before there ever was a light. But it come to pass because God said so.

And God's going to have a church. I don't care how many dark ages we go through, and whatever more. He is going to have a church without spot or wrinkle, whether we're part of it or not. Because He has already said it was going to happen. It's going to be there.

And He commanded to transform it into the plant life. And every life that He put forth, He said these words, like, “Let there be a palm tree. Let there be an oak tree. Let there be a fir.” Look down in the desert where we live, down here in Tucson. Out on there, there is cactus: jumping cactus, all kinds of cactuses. Just thirty minutes from there, there's Sherman pine up on top of the mountain. Now, this cactus will not grow up there, and neither will that Sherman pine grow down here. Now, where was the intelligence that planted the seed? See? They had to come from somewhere—it was God's word, “Let there be,” and it was.

Now, we find out all this—after He had made it, transforming it into its kind and its life, and it was all put in by the word of God, the creator—it all ... we find out that this all headed up in a headquarters, called the garden of Eden. And God put his son and his son's bride over it all, see.

This great creation, see, he had a reason for it. He made everything so pretty. He made the flowers, and the life, and the birds. And there was no death, no sin, no sorrow, no sickness. And then all this great thing headed up into one big headquarters, which was the garden of Eden. And there He put his son, Adam, and Adam's bride, wife.

Now, you might say it was his wife. Potentially it was his wife, but he had never ... never really been his wife yet.

Like in the scripture we find out where it said, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost,” see. Now, it was his wife when he made the promise to marry her, or to have her; but yet it wasn't his wife yet because he had never knew her as a wife. So that's the way it was here. The reason I said God's son and his bride, Adam had never knew his wife as a wife; but yet it was his wife potentially. Just like the church now and Christ.

Now, then all could rest, because all of God's good word-seeds that He had spoke had brought forth of its kind. The earth come over. There was light. There was sunshine, when He let the sun shine. Now, why did He make the sun shine? He had in his mind, see, that if the sun don't shine, the flower won't grow that He speak into existence. He makes everything to meet its purpose, whatever it is. Like a tree—it bears a certain acorn, or it bears an apple. He makes the fruit of the garden, and so forth. It's all for his purpose, and everything had come to pass, and He had spoke it.

Now the only thing He had to do after spoken it, He—speaking it, rather—He could go to rest. Because He had spoke it, and it was ... all has to come to pass because He had spoke it. I don't know how much it had to go through before it come to pass—how many rejects, and whatever more—but it had to come to pass, because He said it would come to pass. He had spoke it.

The same thing it is about having a church here in the last days. He is going to have a bride. He is able of these stones to rise children to Abraham. If we don't follow Him, He'll get somebody else that will follow Him, see. He is going to have it, because He has already spoke it. Whatever He says, it has to be that way. It cannot change. It must come forth that way, because He said it would.

And all this great thing that He knowed would come to pass, after He had spoke it He could take a rest—everything under control. His seed was his word, and his word is a seed. Jesus said it was. And everything would be all right, because He had said for it to bring forth of its kind—transforming only to its kind, see. His word had to be of its kind. If He said a palm tree, He didn't mean a palm and oak mixed together. He meant a palm tree here, and an oak tree here, everything positionally in its place. Oh, if we could only learn that: that what part of the Word we are, we must take our place, no matter what it is.

I think of a little sister here in the wheel chair sometimes. How many faithful prayers has been made over her! Then we don't understand, so we just commit it to God. And she is a flower here among you, with her pleasantness and everything. See that we can get up and go around, how she would long to do that! But yet she is pleasant. Just the way she sits, I always get inspired to watch the little lady, see, because she.... We all believe in healing. We've seen God do miracles far beyond that, see. And she knows that, too. But she's willing to take her place,

see, whatever it is. That's what we want.

And I believe it was David said, “I would rather be a doormat at the house of the Lord, than to dwell in tents with the wicked,” you see. No matter what it is, take my place. Sometimes you have to separate from everything that's dear on earth to you, to take your position that God has called you to. I'm sure you can read between the lines what I'm saying, see. Sometimes the very dearest person on earth, you have to shake hands with them, and take your position in Christ to where God has called you, see.

But what's God doing? Transforming you from what you was—maybe a daughter, or a son, or whatever it is, from a lovely family sometimes. He places you somewhere else, because it's his way of doing it, see, by the renewing of your mind to obey the Word of God, regardless of what the price is, see. These things don't come.... It didn't call....

Our redemption wasn't a cheap thing. It was the Son of God had to die for us, see. It isn't.... Things of value come of great price.

To bring this message, it wasn't easy, see. No, it isn't. I had to forsake everything that was dear to me, even my own people, everybody. But, you see, the value of it is, you see, is to do the will of God, and to do that which ... knowing there is something in me. When they used to say.... Well, they was going to put me away. Thought I lost my mind, baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ, contrary to the church, and all these things. They said, “He's crazy!”

But, you see, no matter what they said, there is something has to be done. And God just takes a person, sticks him in his hand, and says, “Do this,” and you do it.

What a price it might have been to St. Paul. Taught under Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of the day. And they come down, and the very thing that he considered heresy, the things that he thought that was the worst things that could have happened to the church, he comes right around and becomes a partaker of it. What a strange thing! And how God works in wondrous ways—in strange, odd, ways—his wonders to perform.

When God had spoke it, He knowed his word was a seed, and it could ... it would bring forth of its kind. Now, it was commanded to bring forth only of its kind. And it'll always do that if man don't tamper with it. And so would God's church, and everything else, bring forth of the kind like it was at the first, if theologians didn't tamper with that Word, trying to put it somewhere else, or something else. God has spoke it. And no matter how much they can ... they try to contaminate and tamper it, and so forth, it's going to bring forth of its kind. There is just nothing to stop it. (I hope I don't sound like I'm yelling at you all. Is that too loud?)

And, see, now we find everything in order. God spoke it. And He said, “Let there be ... let there be ... and let there be an Eden, let there be beautiful flowers, let there be my son, in my own image, stand over there in the garden of Eden, and let his bride stand by his side.” Oh, how beautiful, what that was. And the Father ... He was a father, you see, so there come his own children coming forth. And He made a paradise for them. God loves to do things for his children. Don't you remember how you mothers...? And how, no matter how, if you had to allowance the table, if Junior needed a good pair of shoes that he liked, you'd do it, see. Whatever it was, to do something for your children! Dad, how you'd work a little harder to get something for the children, see. Well, that just shows that we're way down here a parent; He is the extreme parent, see.

And how much more.... No wonder the apostle said, “Eye has not seen, or ear has not heard, neither has it entered the heart of man, what God has for them in store that love Him.” We just can't conceive in our mind. We ... our mind isn't eligible of thinking the right direction. What God has for store in us that love Him, see. We ... I can imagine what it will be I can think what it will be, but I ... my mind's not capable of thinking how great it is. It's beyond that. Could you imagine what heaven will be, when we'll all be there, and young, and no sin, and no...? Oh, what a beautiful place! But see, it's beyond that, see. We.... It can't even enter the heart of man what God has for them in store. He spoke it, and it's going to be so.

Now, after all this beautiful layout that He had there of his.... I don't mean to say it in that word “layout,” but kind of like the.... Don't the mother, before the coming child, don't they call that “layette”? They get the ... all the little booties and everything ready, you know, just for the arriving of this little portion of love that God is sending. Getting.... That's what God did for Adam and Eve. He created this garden of Eden.

He had spoke it. It was in his mind, and when He says it, then it has to happen. Bear that on mind now. What He says, it must happen. See, He can't.... Nothing can hinder it. Nothing can keep it from happening. There is nothing can keep it from happening. God said so. That settles it. God said it: it's going to happen.

Now, He had all this in mind, and He said, “Let there be.... [Now, that's Genesis 1, see.] Let there be this, let there be that, let there be.... [He was sowing seed.] Let it be here, let it be here, let it be here.” And He knew it was going to be that way, because it cannot change. Now, that gives us faith then. And what He said here, it's going to be.

So let's let that seed fall into our hearts, that we might be the bedding grounds of that, see—into our hearts. And let us act out this place that he's placed us in, in the last days, see. Let the seed fall in our hearts, Lord. Let thy Word fall in my heart. Let there not be any unbelief. Like Abraham, when he was an old man, looked like impossible. “How they going to do that? How is he going to be this way?” He never considered that. He just received the word of God and went on, believing it. And God brought it to pass.

Now, God had said all these things, so He knew it would be. And it did. He brought forth of its kind.

Now that He had transformed, then, all the seed into the living creature and creation that it was supposed to be, it came up just as He said it would. He said, “Let it be....” Maybe hundreds and hundreds of years passed, but here we find it, a beautiful Eden, and the big birds a-flying. Them birds didn't have to die. And the wolf and the lamb were feeding together, and the lion, the leopard, and ox. And there was no killing, no death, no sorrow. And there was Adam and Eve walking in the garden of Eden, every seed bringing forth. It never could do nothing else. It never could do nothing else, because God said, “Let it be that way.” It had to be that way. Oh, how I would like to stop here just a minute to say.... See, there is where we are facing yet, the completion of that word.

Now, God said, “Let there be ...” and here it come up first perfectly, just exactly. Now this tree can only bring forth that tree. This tree can only bring forth this tree. And Adam, a son of God, can only bring forth a son of God, see? You get what I mean? It's every thing after its kind. And so God could say, “Well, I'll just rest now.”

And did you notice, it was very few words that God ever spoke actually from that time on? He committed it, after the fall, to his prophets, and they bring forth the word now, you see. God rested. He didn't have no more to do. They'd just go to his headquarters and knock on the door, say, “Father, what is it?” And He sends the word down by them, see.

He has a system, and the way of doing those things.

“Let it be just...,” and that's the way it was, everything of its seed bringing forth of its kind.

Now, when everything looked so pretty, and everything coming to pass just to what God had said, now here comes that slimy, dirty deceiver. Now, that's what I'm trying to warn you all here about. When you see God's seed begin to take hold, to grow, watch out for that fellow coming in, just as slick as he can be—quote scripture just to who wouldn't have it, see. Watch him, because he is a deceiver. I'm going to call it, instead of a conformer, being conformed, he is a deformer, deforming the things that's been conformed. He's a deformer, and he ... a deformer, or a perverter, or a corrupter of the original seed and the original program.

Now, you see, here, like in your group here this morning, you got a program you got a vision. Now, watch for that corrupter. Oh, he'll be sly, and slick as he can be, you see. But keep your vision, see. Keep holding to that.

Now, also we find out, that when he come in he deformed that seed. And he corrupted that seed by getting into the bedding grounds (which was Eve), and corrupting that seed with a corruptible seed before it could get there—to corrupt that beautiful garden of Eden, where heaven.... The only thing that that is, is just the restoration, where we are now. We are on our road back to that original beginning of the creation of God, back to the garden of Eden again—husband and wife, without any sin or anything, to live eternally. But the tran... the....

Now He wants us to transform our minds by the renewing ... or transformed, be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Now, Satan comes in, and puts in a deforming to the word, making it say something that it isn't. Now, that's what he did in the beginning. And now notice (This is going to sound awful strange this morning to people if I don't wait, and base too much thought here, before I get to....) My regular thought that I wanted to get to you is this: that the deformer came in. And as God had took six thousand years with the original word to bring forth every word of its kind, and everything that He made would be God's own word bringing forth of its kind; now the deformer has took six thousand years, and to deform that word of God. And what has he done? He's brought hisself to a new type of Eden—Satan's Eden. That's where we're living today.

How did he do that? How could it happen? Now, the striking part is how he did it. And that's where we have to.... What I'm here for, to lay this down before you, so that you can study of it now—and with the brothers here, and so forth, in the weeks to come—that you can see how Satan did this. And watch how cunning he is, and how sly he is.

Now, he deformed these seeds. Now, he could not destroy them; he just deformed them. Now, we realize that sin is righteousness perverted. It's just.... A lie is a truth misrepresented, see. Anything.... An adultery is the right act, that God ordained, just took in the wrong way, see. Anything.... And death is a perversion of life. Death just takes ... see, deforms life.

Now, he had six thousand years to do it, with his poison spray. And how did he do it? Now, this is the striking part, and listen close now. He did it by civilization. Now, that sounds strange, but that's what.... I'm going to make a statement here that will keep you guessing, maybe, for a few minutes. I hope not. But did you realize this (now, I'm not trying to support ignorance), but did you know that civilization, science, education, and the things that we cherish so great today, is the very instrument of Satan? Even civilization? Civilization never come by God; civilization come by Satan. Now I'll prove that to you by the Word just in a few minutes.

Civilization is not of God, for.... Let me show you. In this civilization, the more civilized we get, as we work through science, we are always killing ourselves, see. And this civilization has built up to its pinnacle now. And we got death in this civilization. We got sin in this civilization. We got sickness in this civilization. That can't be of God.

So, God, in the ... his great, own great kingdom that is to come, we'll have a civilization, but it'll not be anything like this. It won't be by science; it'll be a faith civilization by the Word, see. This scientific civilization we have is exactly Satan's trap, and that's what he has killed the people with. That's what he is killing us every day with. That's how, as we eat each day, instead of living, we die. They have so perverted everything to ... even take just so much of this, and mix it with this, and hybrid this, and that, that, till it's dying. It's a dying race. And no matter what you try to do, you die.

You seen that picture last night of those Africans. You know why? They never had penicillin. Them people live longer than we do. They don't even know.... Germs don't bother them, see. Why a germ would throw up his hand and surrender at them, see, because he.... See, he don't ... he ... they don't know why. They haven't all been.... See, we'll take science to figure out, like a penicillin, or something, they'll place in us to take this disease out; and it tears down something else, and makes a bedding ground for something else. See. Now he don't do that, see.

Now, many of you people come from farms. Anyone knows that a good healthy plant never needs to be sprayed. It's got a repellent on it, itself, of life. And a germ won't even get on it, on a real ... on a real healthy plant. It's this hotbed plant, it's this hybrid plant you have to baby.

For instance, some of you fellows here are Westerners here. Look back in the time of the old Longhorn cow. Today you say you got a better beef with your ... with your Hereford. Have you? You haven't. That old Longhorn cow, not taking up for the old girl, but she could ... she'd winter out here like a deer. Oh, she was skinny, and everything, but she was twice....

This Hereford—you pull hay under him when you take his picture, up to his tummy nearly, to show he's beef to the hock. And what is it? You turn him loose out there, he'd die. He couldn't winter it if he had to. You have to feed him, and everything else, to take care of him, baby him around. He's a hybrid, see. But a real, genuine, old Longhorn—just turn him loose.

That's the way today with our Christians. We got so many we have to soft-soap, to beg them, put them ... make them a deacon in the church, pat him on the shoulder, and make him some great position in the church. Or if you don't, why he won't ... he won't come in. If you don't let this one do this, and this one do that.... It's babying.

Could you imagine genuine Christians being that? They were rugged. They were burly. Could you imagine St. Paul being that type of a Christian? Could you imagine St. Peter being.... “Now, if you don't make me general overseer, well, I don't know, I might go join so-and-so.” They were rugged men; they were men of faith. They lived with God; they walked with God. They were men of few words. They served God day and night, constantly. You didn't have to spray them, and baby them, and offer them this, that, or the other. They were men—rugged.

They were genuine seeds, not hybred in denominations.

“If you ... the Methodists don't treat me right, I'll go to the Baptist ... the Baptist don't treat me right, I'll go to the Pentecostals. If they don't treat me right, I'll go back to the Catholics, or whatever more,” see. They.... It's a hybrid—have to keep them sprayed. “Yes, Doctor, Reverend, Brother so-and-so.” That ain't Christianity. Christianity asks no titles; it asks no favors; it only knows God. It's original seed. It loves God, and loves one another.

There's no spraying on them, and babying them, and patting them around, and saying, “Yes, well, this sister, well, I believe it's all right for her to have short hair; and this one not. And....” There's no such stuff as that, and let them get by with this. It's rugged. It's the gospel. Lay it out there—let it fall where it will. Christians love it.

“Must I be carried home to heaven on a flowery bed of ease; while others fought to win the prize and sailed through bloody seas?” Must I be patted on the back and this, that, and the other, and babied? I expect my place out here with the rugged. I expect not to come up there with no trophy scars at all. “I must fight if I must reign. Increase my courage, Lord,” see. Let me stand like a Christian; not to be a hybrid plant, have to be babied, and petted, and brought into something. You're not brought in, anyhow. Christianity—you're borned in it. You become a new creature. You're a seed of God that comes into the earth.

Now, we find out that he sprayed this poison spray. And that spray was the spray of modern understanding—education, science, and civilization—the very things that we cherish so much. Did you ever stop to think that our great enemy in the natural life today, among the nations, is communism? What is the god of communism? Civilization, and education, science. That's right, isn't it? That's what they live on, and thrive on, is science—scientific, sciences, a god of science. Now, if you would just.... And with the poison spray of this modern civilization—science and education—

now let me prove to you that education and civilization come from the devil.

Now let us turn back here and see, if you want to, to Genesis, the fourth chapter. All right. Now, let's begin with the sixteenth verse of Genesis, 4:14 here, or Genesis 4. Pardon me. Now notice, Satan.... You people that follow these tapes, with our brother here, now, you've heard me preach on the serpent's seed. And that cannot be denied. That was opened up in one of those seven seals. It was hid.

Now if children has come up under that kind, see, under that kind of teaching, that's what their parents was. They have the nature of their parents, their denominations and so forth. They have to believe that, see. They believe that because they're born under that parent. But today we're not born under that parent; our parent is the Word. And the Word....

Well, say, “I was borned under God, too.” For that age, but this is the climax age. This is the age beyond those denominations. There had to come forth, must come forth, God ordained it so, that there must come forth, them seven seals must be opened. It was supposed to be done in this Laodicean age. And I think beyond any shadow of doubt.... Not as we brag; we have no brag only on Jesus Christ, none of us. We only brag on Jesus Christ.

But we are thankful with the ... for the privilege of knowing by any ... beyond any shadow of doubt, God has chose us in this last days. And has proven it by the signs in the heavens and in the earth—and every one of them coming right straight back to the Word to prove that it's so—this age that we live in, the message, and how it is. We're not a cult. We're not a bunch of fanatics. We are servants of God that's been called by the Holy Ghost. You'll have all kinds of names tacked to you, but that don't mean it's so.

Now, remember, Satan's son was Cain. Now, I think you all been through all the tapes (which I see your libraries out here of them). Now, remember that Eve become pregnant by Satan, and in the same day.... We got a case of it in Tucson now, that a woman, if she becomes ... she lives with two men, she can have two different type of children. We know that. I knowed it in breeding dogs, and things, and so forth—if it's right away.

So, Satan, that morning perhaps, met this evil one, which was the serpent—not a reptile, but a beast—most subtle, cunning, smart, of all of the beasts. Just under man, and man is beast himself. And we're mammal, warm-blooded animal. And Satan was the next link here.... This serpent was the next thing to a man from a chimpanzee—stand between man and the chimpanzee. Now, science is looking for that missing link. And it's so hid by taking him down, and even not a bone in him looks like a man, see, making him a reptile.

Now, we find now, that this fellow found Eve in the garden of Eden—this young woman that knowed no sin, knowed not what her nakedness was—and he knew. He was smart, subtle, wise. And he told her the seed, the fruit was pleasant, and it was desirable. And when he lived with her that morning.... And then, see, then, the afternoon she persuaded Adam to do the same thing, telling him what it was. And then Adam deliberately—knowing he ought not to have done it—walked out with his wife, and did this act. Which, finally he would have come to it anyhow. But, see, it had to be that way: the wisdom of God. Because this then ... that displays his attribute to be a saviour, father, healer. You've heard me preach on that, see.

Now, if that hadn't have been done....

He just let them out there on free moral agency, to let them act. He couldn't make them do it and then still be just; but He could put them equal with Him, and free moral agency, and then let them do it themselves. And He knew they would do it. And so then, you see, then, when Adam lived with her, she brought forth twins. And one of them was of Satan, and one of them was of Adam, which was of God—Cain and Abel.

And that happens. We got a case there in Tucson now, that a white woman lived with her husband one morning, and that afternoon she lived with a Negro. And one of the little boys.... There was two little boys was born. One of them was a little kinky-headed Negro; and the other one is a blond-headed kid, real pretty. And think now—she is trying to make the white father take care of both children. And he said, “I'll take care of my own; but not his. Let the Negro man take care of his own child.” So you see, it's true.

There is always twins. And that's the reason (Don't forget this, little flock!) the church in the last days is going to be twins—so close that it'll deceive the elected ... Matthew 24:24, see. The church is going to.... It's a Pentecostal move. It's so much like the real thing, till it would deceive the very elected, if it was possible. A little later on, if I get the chance, I want to explain what ... how that election comes, see. It's going to deceive them because it's almost like the same thing, see—just two fathers, that's all. Same mother, same church, same movement, same thing—the bedding ground is the same where the Word falls. But one of them, like here, is perverted. You understand? Say “Amen” if you did.

See, one of them is a perversion because it's the wrong father. Which, I will prove someday if God'll let me, that denomination is the mark of the beast, see. It's the wrong father. It's stirring people to an organization instead of to the Word, see. It's the wrong father. It's a Cain move.

When I go home this time I'm preaching on the subject, “The Trail of the Serpent”—the beast at the beginning, and the beast at the end—trail him right through the Bible and show how he heads up, see. And you all get that on the telephone, you see, if the Lord permits us to do it.

And now, just watch how cunning that fellow is—how he's just exactly, just.... They're just like Judas and Jesus. They're both brothers in their tribe, like Esau and Jacob, and like the crow and the dove sitting on the same roost. And everything is a twin in this great warfare that we're in.

The enemy uses deception, like he did to Eve. “Oh, God has said ... surely, but ... but, surely....” See, trying to reason it beyond what God said originally, “Thou shall die.”

He said, “Yes, God said that, but surely....” See that spray over it? But what God says, God keeps. He don't need any help from Satan. He keeps it, so don't never be deceived by that. Now we notice, then, that it brought forth of its kind.

Now in Genesis, here we find out, after the spraying of this poison of knowledge.... Now, science is knowledge. And all we hear is science, science, science, science—the great subject in school, science. Today a better automobile, a better this, a better home, a better house, a better this, a better that—what are we doing? Dying all the time.

Created an automobile; we quit walking. Quit walking, we would turn to blubber. Well, we don't have men anymore; we have jellyfish. That's right.

And the woman—all she does, throw the clothes, and then press a button, there it is; when your mammy used to walk to the spring, and pack water, and chop wood, and boil over a kettle somewhere, and fix her clothes like that. And we're so soft, if we'd do it it would kill us. But we can't help it. This is the age we're living in.

Even science says now that little girls are coming into menopause, young women, between twenty and twenty-five years old. I meet them right in the line. And young men go through their middle age between twenty and twenty-five years old. My mother ... my wife went through about thirty-five to forty; my mother went through from forty-five to fifty, see. How they're degenerating in these last days! Because why? We're working more on science.

A hundred-and-fifty years ago the only travel a man had was by horse or by foot. And now he goes by jet, almost by a thought, see. Science has done it, and that's of the devil. Now you say, “That right, Brother Branham?” Yes, sir!

Let's take Genesis now, 4:

And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord.

Now, watch the first thing he done. (You tell me when you think we got enough here, because I'll just stop on this anywhere, see.) Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. There he made his mistake; and there is where you'll make a mistake, and there is where I'll make a mistake—the very minute we walk out of the presence of God.

Cain went from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

See how religious it was? Went around to the east side. East side.

And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bare Enoch: and Enoch built a city. [See, civilization.] He built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch.

And ... Enoch was born Irad: and Irad be ... and Irad be ... [blank spot on tape]

... took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other was Zillah.

And Adah bare Jabal ... the father of such ... dwelt in tents, and of such that has cattle.

And his brother's name was Jubal [I guess, J-u-b-a-l]: he was the father of such as handle the harps and organs. [See, music, science, see, coming in.]

And Zillah also bare Tubal-cain, an instructor of every a-r-t-i-f-i-c-e-r of brass and iron [in other words, kind of molding, putting it together]: and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah.

And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.

If Cain shall be avenged seven times, truly Lamech seventy ... sevenfold, or sevenfold.

Now, notice, as soon as they went out from the presence of the Lord they started building cities. They started making instruments. They started in science, to making brass, and iron, and playing music, and so forth, see. See? Now, where did it come from? Who went out? Cain, the serpent's seed! You understand it? Cain went out. And notice, he went out from the presence of the Lord and started working in science.

Now look where he is still working, see. Science, education, cities, culture—it's of the devil. Who started it? The devil. Who is it of today? The devil. Atomic bombs, and things to destroy us with.... We live in it, we have to live here. We are a being. We have to stay here. But God's great civilization won't have any of that in it, see. And science is taking the natural things and perverting it to do things that it wasn't intended to do.

And so is scientific religion. It takes the Word of God and makes a church organization out of it, instead of doing the things that it's supposed to do. They say, “The days of miracles is past.” The Bible said “He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.”

“There is no such a thing as divine healing.”

“Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature; these signs shall follow them that believe. In my name they shall cast out devils, they'll speak with new tongues. If they take up serpents, or drink deadly things, it won't harm them. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover. All nations, everybody, every creature. Lo, I am with you, even to the end of the earth,” end of the world, cosmos, the whole thing, end of the consummation. He's absolutely there.

And now, see, they take science, and say, “Oh, well, as long as we gather together, and join church, and we become this, or a good, straight member, we pay our....” See, it's not saying, “Oh, there is no such a thing as God.” You heard my tape on the false Christs in the last days, see; not the false Jesus. Satan knowed better than that, see—but false Christs.

“Christ” means the anointed one. And they are actually anointed. Anointed with what? The Holy Spirit, to do signs and wonders. And they do it. But see, when it comes down.... Now, we're in the last age; not back in the Pentecostal age there. We're over here in the last age. And the first age begin with the Word, which was Christ; and the last age has to end with the Word, which is Christ. And these other things—these shucks, and so forth, as I have explained—is just carriers of the Word, to serve its purpose until it comes into the full stature, see, of what the original grain was.

Now the twenty-fifth verse:

And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: for God, said she, has appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

And to Seth ... and to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: and then men began to call on the name of the Lord.

See how that serpent's seed went off into science, education, cities, and music, and great things, and education, and science, and so forth?

But the seed of the righteous one, who.... It was.... See, Eve didn't have a seed. You know that. The woman doesn't have the seed, the female. She has an egg, but not a seed. But she appointed him a seed, see, appointed by God's appointment. She took the seed. And the great seed, 'course from the woman was, that God gave.... See, God appointed her a seed, instead of the one that Cain slew. That ... the enemy, death, serpent's seed, slew God's seed, in perversion there, you see. God appointed through the woman a seed, which is Christ, see, to bring back the original seed again. You see it?

And so, you see, the perversion brought death, through education and intelligence. And what we call today science, and religion, and so forth; it brought death. But He appointed him a seed. And then men began to call upon the name of the Lord, and began to come back to the word again, see.

And remember, follow that seed, as we will track it in a few weeks, on this serpent. You follow that? It switches right through the scripture. Watch it. Them two vines grow right together, as you heard my message on the vine. They come right up together, and so close together that it would almost deceive the very elected if possible, in the last days when it come to the head. It puts forth a grain just like a wheat; but it isn't a wheat, see. It isn't. It's a shuck yet.

Now, see, their civilization, education (I think I've got about ten more scriptures, you see, wrote down there, but I think not to go through that.) But we understand by this, that education, science, and civilization is of the devil. That's right. It isn't of God. It is of the devil.

Now, I don't say you shouldn't have it. No, certainly not. A little later on, I can ... We'll prove that, that God.... Just like you wearing clothes, you women, us men. We wasn't supposed to wear clothes in the beginning. But, see, being that we live in this age we do, we must wear clothes, see. It's appointed to us to do that. We must wear them. But in the beginning we didn't have to, see, because we knew no sin. But now we have to.

Now we have to have automobiles. Now we must go to places, and visit, and so forth, in automobiles, and science, and so forth. But it isn't of God. It is not of God, educations, but they're.... God's form of education, civilization, science, is in its original condition, see. It goes beyond this what we're doing.

Now look. They take certain things, and put certain things together, and it makes a chemical that will destroy. Now, leave them in their right position, they're all right; put them together, you're all wrong, see. See? It brings death.

And when you try to take the Word of God and put it in religion of this world, you bring death to yourself. It kills the subject. See what I mean? It kills the person. You say, “Well, now look. You believe in God. Oh, now, you don't have to believe that, if you.... Our church....” Right then, that's the boom that kills the ... that kills the subject. You've got to let everything fall aside and take the Word only. Stay right with that Word. Don't leave. When God said so, that's just what it is.

I don't care what education can prove.

In the days of Noah they could prove there was no water up there in the skies; but God said there was coming some down, and it come. That's right. They say today there's no fire up there to fall; but watch it fall one day. “How we going to do this, and do that?” Watch God do it. He will. He said it would do it, and that seed will take a hold somewhere. Glory to God!

The only thing He is looking for today is a bedding ground—somewhere that it can bed. It'll start in somebody, and they'll pervert it, and spray it, like he did Eve. It started in Eve, for her to bed forth, and bring forth sons of God; not sons of Satan. But she was a bedding ground, and it fell in the wrong place. So will the Word fall in an unbeliever, or a doubter, or a skeptic. It'll make a church member out of them, but never a son or daughter of God.

You tell them to let their hair grow, they'll laugh in your face. You tell them to do this, or that, or the man to do it, they'll laugh in your face. It's not sons of God. It's the wrong bedding ground, yet they're holding the seed. See the false anointed ones? They're anointed, yes, with the Holy Spirit—speak in tongues, and do signs and wonders—but it's of Satan.

Jesus said, “Many will come to me in that day and say, 'Lord, Lord, have not I cast out devils and worked great mighty works and wonders in your name?' ” He said, “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity.” What is iniquity? David said, “If I conceive iniquity in my heart, God will not hear me,” see. Iniquity is something that you know that you ought to do, and you won't do it. You know better, but won't do it. It's iniquity, see.

You know that you should stay with the Word of God; but for the church's sake, or somebody else's sake, or something else, you'll stray from the Word of God, and do what the organization says. “Well, I don't know. My church says we should do it this way, and I believe it this a-way, see.” And it's right before you that you shouldn't do it. That's iniquity. “Depart from me, you that work iniquity.”

Look at the great St. Paul, in I Corinthians 13. He said, “Though I speak with tongue of men and angels....” Now you that want, or somebody want to lay onto that, that that's the evidence of the Holy Ghost! Paul said, “Though I speak with tongues like men and angels, and have not charity (like you all have here among you), I am nothing.” See, you can speak with tongues, yes, because it's the Word. A preacher can take this Word, and go forth and preach it, and say that Word, and that Word will grow. But the preacher could be a hypocrite himself. It's the Word, see.

But the true living creature of God takes all of the purposed Word. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out....” And you add something else with that, you got a perverted plant.

If I start out here with a wheat, and put a cocklebur with it, and would interbreed them together (if it could be done so by the pollen), and put it in there, I got a wheat-cocklebur, see. It looks like a wheat, and yet it's a cocklebur. It ain't genuine life. It can't reproduce itself again. See? It'll come forth, but it can't reproduce itself. A donkey can breed to a mare horse, and she'll bring forth a mule. But that mule can't breed back to a mule. It's a hybrid.

Let every word bring forth of its kind, see.

It can breed once, and the church can come as an organization once. But it can't rebreed itself. It brings out another organization. Lutheran can't breed to the Lutheran; it brought out a Methodist. And a Methodist brought out a Pentecostal. See? It can't rebreed back, because it's dead.

It can't start a revival. Where did God ever start a revival in an organization? Look over your history. He never did. It's the organization that forms behind the revival. When Luther, the man of God, came forth with the message of justification, behind him come the Lutheran church. They could ... never could build up. Then God sent a man by the name of John Wesley. There come a revival behind that. What'd they do? Organize it. Never could re ... bring itself again, see. It's sterile. Hallelujah! But the Word of God shall ever endure! That's right. It'll bring forth its kind.

Here come a Pentecostal along. He can't.... Look what it done—organized. It can't rebreed itself. They can have Oral Robertses, and everything else all over the country—it cannot do it. It'll hang right back to that old natural breed of the mule. It cannot!

No matter how many injections it has, it's still ... how many of the spiritual affairs it has, and whatever it has, and you ... now, you're adults, you know what I'm talking about. No matter how many husbands and wives it has, and whatever more, and how many little sisters it builds up out here in little churches and organizations, it cannot breed a revival. It's finished. It crossed up to the world from the Word of God, and it cannot reproduce itself again. God will raise up some other something and start his Word moving on. And if it organizes, it'll die too. That's right. It cannot reproduce itself, because it's a hybrid. That's correctly.

Look at your hybrid corn today. They say, “That's the best corn!” It's a killer. It's what's killing you. Your lives wasn't made for.... Your bodies wasn't made for that. Your bodies was made for the original grain. That's the reason your fathers and mothers, and so forth, lived longer. That's the reason they were tough men, seventy and eighty years old, was rough and tough. See? They lived on the natural things. Watch these old mountain men out here live on deer, and the original grains. Put a man in here in the city, here he comes along, a big slop at about thirty-five, forty years old. Soft? Certainly.

Well, I get off the subject, don't I.

Notice, but I'm trying to get it over to you—that's civilization, what we call culture. Culture! You hear so much about that. Now, did you ever hear what my estimation of culture was? It's a man that ain't got nerve enough to kill a rabbit, but can eat a bellyful of it after somebody else kills it. So I ... that's what I think of culture, you see. That's right, see.

We don't.... God don't come by.... It isn't culture a man into God. You don't civilize him into God. He is born a seed of God, from God, always was God, and can never be nothing else but God. You're not cultured into it.

Now, how he has his kind of Eden, and by a deformed seed Satan's made his great even ... his great Eden. Now what is it? Culture, science, beautiful churches, high steeples, fine polished preachers, education, Da.D., Ph.D., LL.D., doctor of literature, doctor of divinity, doctors—every time you pronounce that it just takes him that much farther from God, just throws him plumb away. And the congregations don't want somebody to stand up there and use the words of “hit,” “hain't,” and “tote,” and “carry,” and “fetch.” They don't want that. They want some beautiful something.

That's the same thing Cain had on his mind, their daddy, at the beginning. Offered flowers and fruits of the land, when God wanted sacrifice. The man with the revelation of God, it was blood; not a pear, or a peach, or a plum, or whatever it was—or an apricot, as they say now. It was the blood that brought us out of the garden of Eden, a degraded blood—a woman that let the seed of the wrong person be planted into the womb, and start it.

Now, we find.... To prove the message is just timely, what I'm speaking to you about, to prove it, look at the days of hybreeding today, trying to make a prettier specie. Look at hybreeding. Look in the plant life. Here last summer (It was this summer it was.), I had a little old wild flower (He was showing me out there a few minutes ago. It come on my mind.) a little wild flower I had in the bed there. I had to water that thing twice a day to keep it alive. It was a hybrid.

But it originated from another little yellow flower, which was put together with something else to make this flower. And that little guy stood out there, when you could dig ten feet in the ground, and couldn't find even enough moisture to spit, see. It was just living in the dust! And it was just as pretty, and it didn't have to be watered! It was original; it wasn't hybrid. There was nothing mixed to it. It was genuine flower.

And this was something mixed with it—have to water it, and pet it, and baby it, see. This you didn't. No bugs got on it. We have to spray it, and everything else, to keep them—and the flies, and gnats, and things off of them like that. If you don't, it'd kill them. You don't have ... a gnat wouldn't come near him.

Oh, that's a real, genuine, born-again Christian! You could tempt him with anything you want to, he's still a Christian. Tempt her, wherever you want to be, she's still a Christian.

A little lady ... from one of the brothers here, some of your people, their church, wrote me a letter the other day. Said, “Daddy don't want me to go to baseball, or, a basketball game, Brother Branham. We believe....” [She said was twelve years old.] Said, “Brother Branham, we believe you have the Word of the Lord, and what you tell us, now.” Said, “I kind of think Daddy is wrong.” But said, “What you say, I'm going to believe.” Now, that sweet little girl, see.

So I thought, “Well....” I said, “Honey, look. If you are a Christian, you're a Christian anywhere. No matter where you're at, you're still a Christian. But,” I said, “you see, on the basketball floor, what Daddy is thinking about, you hear them kids swearing, and carrying on like that. I still believe you'd be a Christian. But, you see, Daddy is more advanced in life than you are, see.

“Now,” I said, “now, you're twelve years old. And you said you had a little sister, four. Now she wants you to cut paper dolls. 'Oh, go on, I ain't got no time to cut paper dolls,' see. You're farther advanced than little sister.”

Now that's where the church ought to be today—further advanced in the Word of God. Not Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostals, Presbyterian, but advanced in the Word to sons and daughters of God. All right. All right.

The message being timely proved....

By science, by his science and research, you see, they have tried to pervert everything. Make a different seed, make a different something, make it prettier.

Look at our sisters. I remarked a while ago about how pretty they looked. Oh, you might stand them up out here in a world's contest with some of this Gloria Swansons, or some of these stripteases and things over here in California, and they'd miss it a million miles. But their name ain't on that book of fame; it's on the book of life, see.

A meek and a humble spirit is a great treasure to God. And the Bible said for our women to adorn themselves with a meek and humble spirit, subject to your husbands, and sweetness—that's what's a great price in the sight of God, see. That's right.

Not all this here that's.... What have they done? They, Max Factor has beautified women outwardly, which is of Satan. All that stuff is of the devil. Did you know that? Certainly. It's all of the devil.

Now, I remember my little wife when she was pretty and young. She didn't wear make-up. No. She come up.... I baptized her in the name of Jesus when she was in little knee dresses, like that, see.

But now she is getting old. She said, “I'm just getting so wrinkled.”

I said, “You know as you get older, my eyes get dimmer. I remember you the way you was. And I remember, and know in my heart, what you are going to be someday, see. With the quiet and sweet spirit that you have, God will get us together again over yonder. That's.... Then we'll never be changed then.”

So why....

But you see, in the days of Noah, when the sons of God saw the daughters of men were pretty, they taken unto them women for wives, see. The sons of God saw the daughters of men. Because they were sexy, and dressed like that, they lusted for the women. And they went for them, see. I'm thankful that you sons of God see beyond that, see.

How that women make themselves.... See, but what is it? It's all pretty. It's a hybreeding. Take some of them, wash their face, they.... You wouldn't know what you'd have, see, and that's right—maybe enough temper to fight a buzz saw, and nasty, and ornery, and filthy, and run around with other men.

I don't care what my wife.... I respect loyalty in any woman. When I was a little boy I always said if a Negro woman wanted to be loyal, I would shed the last drop of my blood to keep her that way, see. I respect what's right, the right thing. I've tried to live by that all my life. I was young then; now I'm old. I haven't changed my ideas a bit.

See,

science. In the same pattern Eve did, he also has done to the church, pervert her over. He carried out his plans today through his hybrid church, his modern Eden that we have today. We are living in a scientific Eden, Satan's Eden, a scientific Eden.

If you'd want to turn to it, in Isaiah 14:12—I'll quote it to you if you want to, if you want—12 and 14. Satan said in his own self, “I will exalt myself above the most High.” He'd have a kingdom that it would be.... Even the sons of God would worship him. And that's just exactly what he's done. He's done it through church—religion—like he started in the beginning. Religion! He's done it.

Also, as the prophet Paul seen in II Thessalonians, the second chapter, that he heads up in his great scientific Eden in this day—in scientific, in education, and civilization. And has made hisself ... and will finally head up in the Ecumenical Council, where all churches will have to bow to him. And see what it is? It's that spirit of delusion working among the people—sons of God which are made in the image of God, and daughters of men which is made in the image of men—has taken them under falsehood like he did Eve. And has formed hisself, through his own gimmicks of science, and education, and culture, till he's got himself a modern scientific death-Eden; where God, by his word, spoke, and he had an Eden without death—no science, no education like we have today, or no civilization.

You see it now? Understand it? See?

Now he's got his Eden. Look. All the churches worship him. In II Thessalonians here, he said, “That man who calls himself God, sitting in the temple of God, and all upon the earth shall bow down and worship him whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of the earth.” See? It's a modern Eden.

Now what's he doing himself? He's moving himself—Rome, his final great (eating) Eden place. You see where that pope come over here the other day? Did you notice all them thirteens that happened then? He spoke thirteen words, had thirteen taking communion, spoke in Yankee Stadium, which is thirteen. Everything was thirteen. And our nation's number is thirteen—appears in the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, thirteen stripes, thirteen stars, thirteen bars, thirteen numbers on the coins, thirteen stars on the coin, everything's thirteen—and a woman, see.

And here comes the pope, the head to the woman: the false antichrist to the false bride of science. Which, our world, our American eastern world here, (or western world), has led the world in science. Comes to her in his scientific church, and now all Protestants is bowing to him, see, on thirteen. You see it?

Everything is in a thirteen. Our whole nation, everything else, is thirteen—a woman's world. See, here we are. We got it. It turned into a woman's world in the garden of Eden; but it'll be God's world someday.

Notice, now. Now, also, these prophets and things has foretold it.

And now, all again has come like it was before God moved upon the earth. It's become a spiritual chaos. Certainly it has.

Here notice, the second Eden typed closely to the first—to deceive, almost to take the elected. Notice now, that ... I'm going to compare here just a few minutes. (Now, I'm going to have to stop, because it's eleven o'clock.) And so, listen, these two Edens.... How this Eden has tried to type—just like Satan did at the beginning to Eve in the real Eden, the first Eden—just watch them typed together now, see. We got (now everybody understand clearly) a scientific Eden we're living in, see. Now, it wasn't God's Eden. God's Eden doesn't come by science, education, culture. It comes by the word, see, calling all these things as though they were not. And notice in the garden of Eden, let's just compare them a little.

Now notice,

the man and his wife hid in the garden of Eden. The pair was naked, and didn't know it. Is that right? In God's Eden the pair was naked, and didn't know it. Now they are naked again, and don't know it. Revelations 3, the Laodicean church age, “Because thou art naked, miserable, poor, wretched, blind, and don't know it.” Now, in God's Eden they were naked and didn't know it; and now in Satan's Eden, by science and education, they are naked again and don't know it.

What a perversion! Look at today. Look at man, trying to wear his wife's underneath clothes. And she's trying to wear his clothes. And he's trying to let his hair grow like hers; and she is cutting hers off like his. Oh, my! Men trying to be women; women trying to be men. A perversion! That's the same thing the church is doing, same thing, the Laodicean age.

Notice, the reason that they didn't know they were naked in the beginning, there was a Holy Spirit veiled them from nakedness. They didn't know it. The Holy Spirit was over their eyes. They seen nothing but their brother and sister, see. Laws.... They didn't know they were naked—Holy Spirit. Now, the spirit of unholiness, uncleanliness, and lust has veiled them—education, science. Why, it's scientific. Wear shorts—it's cooler. The Indians teach you better than that. They wrap up in a blanket to be air conditioned, see. And put on them....

See, education has absolutely come back to a time.... The very thing that they think has brought them to culture and civilization, has put them back in ignorance again—worse than they was in the first place.

Schooling, education.... Look at schools. Look down there at the university the other night. Them boys.... How many babies is born by them young ladies there, to them young ladies each year at the university? You think ... you say, “This is street trash.” And them boys, them “twenty-one jewels,” they call them—with lipstick on, and hair banged, and rolled up on curlers, and hanging down there. They say that, and dirty-necked, filthy! You say, “Well, that's just street trash.” Is it? It's students of the university.

They got on a big drunk the other night, and they didn't know what to do. And so to have kicks (and drinking, and adultery, and everything like that wasn't enough for them), they broke the bottles and run up to women's door and knock on the door. They come ... punch them in the face. Put one girl's eye completely out, and a lot of them disfigured for life. You think they'd let that out? No.

Two of the boys riding up and down the street, and two young married women sitting on the steps. And they insulted the women. The cops picked them up and put them in jail. The dean come down there. And the whole thing is thriving on that university. That's the only works they got there. Said, “Them's my kids. You turn them loose.” They turned them loose. There you are. Civilization, education, leads to death, and chaos, and hell. You shouldn't listen to that stuff.

Notice, now.

Eve just had to take a little peep to see what the world looked like. You know, a lot of times we have to just wear a little bit of this, or ... you know what I mean. We have to take a little bit of a peep to see.

Now, in St. John, or I John 2:15, God said, “If you love the world, or even the love of the world, the love of God is not even in you.” The things that's out there are dead. You are circumcised, cut off from it. You don't want the things of the world. You're dead to ... they're dead. You don't want anything dead. It's rotten. It smells. How could a living something want something that's filthy like that? See? You are alive in Christ. The Word makes you alive.

My, when I think of it, in this day that we're living, called education—you can't even get in the pulpit unless you got a Doctor's degree, and so forth. It reminds me of a chaplain one time, coming out of the army. He said, “Brother Branham....” It was right after the first World War. Said ... the chaplain said.... Sergeant come by and said, “Chaplain, you want to ride out to the battlefront with me?” Out on the Argonne, out there from La Salle, Lorraine—it's France, you know.

And said, “I went out toward the Argonne Forest.” And said, “He was taking number of so many tanks had been blown up.” And said, “It was on an Easter morning.” Said, “I just got through. I walked through with a nurse, and she was giving those wounded boys an American rose—you know, one an American's used to. Them boys grabbed that rose, and just scream and cry, because they knew it come from home, see. It was from home.”

And that's the way I think we do the Word, see. Grab it. “Oh, God, it comes from home.” See.

“So I was feeling pretty up in my heart,” he said. “I went out there,” and said, “and the captain went on out to take a number of how many tanks had been destroyed, and things like that.” Said, “The Holy Spirit said 'Go over to that little rock!'” And he looked around. Said, “They threw that mustard, and chlorine gas,” and said, “just burnt all the leaves off the trees. There wasn't a living thing left.” And here it was Easter. He said, “What a Easter! What a Easter! When not even grass on the ground, not nothing.” And said something attracted him to a rock. He pulled the rock over. Said, “There was a little Easter flower under it. It had been kept under the rock all through the poison gas.” And said, “I thought, 'Oh, God, keep me under the Rock of Ages till all this poison is past, and let me bloom in that land yonder.'”

We could stop right here if you wish to, because I got so much here I'd never get to it anyhow, see, of things. So maybe I can come back again and get it to you. Oh, I just got through preaching the other day, “A Thinking Man's Filter.” You all read that, see ... produces a holy man's taste. Think, brethren. Whatever you do, think.

Ephesians 5:26, in there, said.... And we had talked about the word of “predestinated.” You see, that stumbles so many of them. It's God's word. He uses it. For we are predestinated by the word of God, and it.... In that, we.... When you're predestinated, why, it has to happen, because it is that God chose you, because He knowed what you'd do from the beginning.

And don't let the devil spray you with education, and poison, and stuff like that, you have to be modern, you have to be this. You don't have to be nothing but sons and daughters of God. And if you're born of the Word, you do.

Notice that spray. If you take a seed, a good seed, and you spray it, it'll kill it. And when they spray this denominational stuff over the top of you, it'll ruin the influence of the original Word. If they tell you you have to do this.... “Why, the other girls do it. The other men do it.” Don't you believe that. It'll ruin God's influence of his Word upon you. You know that.

Our text says “Don't be conformed [sprayed], but be transformed”, the seed that's in you.

People of today act like they don't even believe there is a God. Do you know that? They act like that. Now I don't want to call them fools, but they act like it. Because Psalms 14:1 says, “A fool has said in his heart there is no God.” You shouldn't call a person a fool, but they certainly act like they are. Because they don't.... They act like there is no God. This Word's just ignored.

Look. Here the other day they called me over in the room to watch.... Billy Paul, I believe, or some of them had said there was a religious program on the television. We don't have television, and there won't be one in my home. Never! But there was a.... You want them, that's up to you. But God told me not to do it. And when we moved in (I was renting from this sweet old sister up there), she had a television, because they had to have it for her to rent her house. And I let them look at religious programs.

So they called and said there was gospel singing on. And you talk about a bunch of Rickys! Up there acting like.... they're calling themselves gospel singers! It was a discredit to Jesus Christ to see the way they was carrying ... shaking themselves, and these Rickified haircuts, and everything, you know. It was.... It just looked like it was a mockery.

Cain was such a person. Religious indeed! Certainly. But he had the wrong seed in him, see. And therefore it brought forth the serpent's seed. Satan had hissed over this seed of Eden, and that's what brought forth a Cain. He put his poison upon him. He, Cain, knew the perfect will of God. He knew the perfect will of God. Cain knew it. Why? But he refused to do it. He proved then to be the serpent's seed. When he seen the perfect will of God, he refused to do it. He'd seen God vindicate Abel's message. He knowed that was the will of God, see. He seen God vindicate Abel's message. And what did God say to him? And he just.... He said, “Do the same. Worship like your brother and you'll do well. But you see, he seen the perfect will of God, but he didn't want it, see. He wanted to add something to it.

And these theologians see this Bible. They read it, but they don't want to do it, see. It shows it's serpent's seed. He had seen it vindicated, and so simply before the people.

But it seems like it's so hard for people to humble themselves to the Word of God. Don't you all find when you're talking, you women, to girls about wearing long hair—and they say, “Why you got your hair long? [See.] Why you wear your skirts down long?” You go to talking to them, they kind of give you the shoulder. Isn't that right? See? They know that's right if there, if there's any lady in them, see. They know that's right; but, you see, they can't humble themselves to that, see. That's what.... See how Cain did? He couldn't humble himself to the vindicated word of God. He couldn't do it.

Oh, even the Pentecostals say, “Glory to God! Hallelujah! I cut my hair, and speak in tongues.” Huh! That shows right there's something wrong, see. The seed is bringing forth something different. A seed cannot.... A seed of God cannot bring forth a bob-haired woman. It cannot do it. Just can't do it, because the Bible said so, see. It can't do it. No, sir. Now, it seems so hard to humble to God's Word.

Notice it in Genesis 4:6 and 7 (just reading off some scripture here). “Do as Abel did.” He said, “If you see what your brother....” Said, “Go ahead and do what Abel did. Do the same kind of a service that he did, and I'll bless you. If you don't, sin layeth at the door.” Now, sin is unbelief. “If you don't do as Abel did.... You seen I've vindicated him, and made him right. Now, if you don't do that, then it shows that sin, unbelief, lays at the door.” See?

And today they see what God vindicates. They see what God is doing. They see all these things happening. They know about it. God is showing his signs in the heaven above and on earth below, and all these things like that. And they see what's taking place. But they won't do it, see. Satan, serpent's seed—smart, come out of seminaries, educated to the spot; every word, everything, stand in the pulpit just as correct; and every word has to be exactly, the grammar has to be right, and everything like ... see? Sure, they can't humble themselves down, a guy like that, see. They just can't do it. They don't.... They just can't do it.

Now, if not, sin lies at the door—unbelief lays. Then he become willfully disobedient. And when you know to do good and do it not, to you it's sin. If you know what's right and you don't do it, see. Then he become willfully disobedient. After the word had been vindicated, then he crossed the separating line. Then he was ousted from Eden, when he crossed.... There's a line to where you just go so far, and if you would go any further over on the other side, you're out. You know that, don't you?

There's a line. If you don't believe it, read Hebrews 10:26. That's the scripture I was referring to there, see. “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin.” That's the New Testament. Is that right? If we sin willfully—after we receive the knowledge that's been preached to you, read to you, proved to you; after we see the knowledge of the truth, and you go ahead and unbelieve willfully—there is no more sacrifice for sin, but a fearful looking to the fiery indignation who shall devour the adversary. Is that right? See? You can cross that line.

Like the children of Israel did in their journey coming through the wilderness. Israel did the same. After they'd heard Moses' message and seen it vindicated, listened to a false prophet. They said, “Oh, now, look children. We're all the same. We should marry among one another, and we should do this....” And Moses had told them different, and seen God vindicate it. Because Balaam seemed to be a more instructive man than Moses was, see. He had come from a great nation, where there was great people, and was all organized together—the land of Moab: great armies, and great things that the people in them days would have feared.

And here come a prophet down. A prophet, anointed one! False anointed one, see, come down to a anointed one. Look how close. And taught the people, and many of them went after that. Don't you never forget that. See? Went after the thing that wasn't the Word, the vindicated, proven Word.

Don't let someone come in here and tell you something different. Watch what God is vindicating and proving.

Now, if them people looked back, and say, “Moses.... God appeared in the skies, and the man spoke into existence fleas, flies, frogs; took out of existence boils and diseases; opened up the Red Sea, and we come; and fed us manna out of heaven. Oh, that's our prophet!”

But here come another prophet down. “Glory to God! I'm a prophet, too.” Say, “Now, you all, I'll tell you, I ... you understand I use better grammar than Moses. And I am this way and that way,” see, and so forth. And the first thing you know, they fell for it. And every one of them perished right in the wilderness! Not a one of them lived! They never did. They won't be in heaven, not one of them. Jesus said....They said, “Our fathers eat manna in the wilderness.” See, Pentecostal is right, see. They had really come through all the experiences. “Our fathers eat manna in the wilderness.”

He said, “And they are every one dead.” Death is eternal separation. They'll never rise again, although they had been through all these experiences. Figurative speaking, they had spoke in tongues, and danced in the spirit, and everything.

But when it come to the showdown between the Word between two prophets—one of them on the Word and the other one off the Word—both of them prophets.... You understand? Say “Amen.” One on the Word and the other one off the Word, both of them prophets, proven to be prophets. But one was with the Word, see; false anointed ones in the last days, see. One prophet—both of them prophets—one on the Word, and one.... One vindicated by the Word, and the other one was not vindicated by the Word—Cain and Abel again. See the two, false ... false and true? All right.

But every one of them rottened in the wilderness and perished. Their souls are dead and gone. And they were right in the path of duty—going to church, and the very things that God ordained them to do—but accepted a false teacher who wasn't vindicated by the Word to be proven to be right. Yet he was a Doctor of Divinity, and whatever more you want to call about a real prophet, but wasn't proved spiritually by the Word, and by the signs of God. And they perished in the wilderness. Righteous, honorable, religious people died and will never be in heaven.

See where we got to walk? Understand? Don't let it slip.

Same as in the times Noah's seed-word erected a floating transformation from the earth to the sky. It sounded crazy to the people to have a little cult like Noah had. And he told them, said, “Thus saith the Lord. God has spoken, and there is coming a rain.”

Science, and the educated, and religious of that day said, “Look at that old quack. He's getting old. His mind is slipping,” see. But he was right, because he was a vindicated prophet. And then at the end time his message was truly vindicated. What would he do? He transformed from the earth to glory by an ark of the word that he was preaching. It was transformed. The scientific spray rotted the rest of them into judgment. They rotted upon the waters of the judgment of the flood.

What are people trying to do today, in this great scientific age of education? The Eden church restored again to its Eden scientific condition, instead of the Word.... Are you exalting the Word of God? Is people trying to exalt the Word of God, or are they trying to exalt themselves? Which is it? Wonder. The church....

His deformed seed—knowledge program—has caused the whole race again, by scientific, to be scientifically ignorant of the Word of God. Scientifically ignorant of the Word of God—that's a big mouthful isn't it? But they are. Say, “It can't be.” It was when Jesus came. The day that Jesus came, them men knowed that Word of God just by letter. Didn't they? Sure. But they were ignorant of who He was. when they'd seen God, on the wings of a dove, perform and do just exactly what He had said He would do. And He done just what the Word said. “If I do not the works of my Father, then don't believe me.” But He did just as the Word said He would do. And they were scientific men in them days, but scientifically ignorant.

To willfully sin,

lust had blinded. They need God's Word to show her ... to show her nakedness. In Revelations 3 said, “I counsel of thee to buy from me salve, that your eyes might be opened, that you might see your nakedness.” The salve is God's Word.

The healing of the eyes, that brings you from natural things of the world, and transforms you by the power of God, into his presence—then you see. You say, “I once was lost; now I'm found. I was blind; but now I see.”

It'd be different.... That's what the church's call is today, is, “I counsel thee to come buy of Me salve for your eyes, that you might be anointed with my salve, and then you'll see.”

Let the Holy Spirit come upon any person that's truly got something down there to.... A healing comes from the inside. Let that healing come from the Spirit that's in you. If it's a genuine Spirit anointing the genuine seed, it can't do nothing but bear a son or daughter of God.

But the genuine Spirit can come upon a cocklebur seed. The rain can fall upon a cocklebur and it will make it live; just the same as it falls upon a wheat and makes it live. But by their fruits you know them, see. And we're a fruit tree of God, bearing his Word. Jesus said, “Let a man deny himself and follow me. Let him deny his education, deny his knowledge, deny his degrees, take up his cross and follow me.”

People has lost their common thoughts of decency. (I'm running little scriptures down here, just for.... I was going to give myself about five minutes on it, ten, see.) People has lost their common decency among one another. They are ... they're not like they used to be. Men ... age ... of brothers, I hear, know ... and women. People don't act like they used to be, they've lost their common understanding. The mental ... the mental effect it's had upon the people of these modern scientific day that we're living in, has caused people to lose their natural reasonings.

They can't regard somebody, a woman, as a sister, and a brother. It's something filthy as soon as they....

And the women have to dress themselves so immoral, to get out amongst people. And they say, “I'm a good woman.” Well, what is she putting herself out there like that for? She is blinded.

Well, if your.... If one of these sisters here of a little age.... If your mother, or my mother, would have walked out on the street the way one of these women, they'd put her in the insane institution. She didn't even have enough mind to know to put on her clothes. Well, if it was insanity then, it's insanity now. It's still the same type of woman, see. But they've lost all their decency, all their understanding. They've lost their.... And with modern understanding, with culture and education, “It's healthier to be....” It's sinful, and death!

Notice. They are, oh, not like they used to be, when the....

And notice in the church life. It used to be, in the church life long ago, when the prophet had something to say, “Thus saith the Lord,” the people moved. They stayed right with it. They moved.

But now, “I don't like that guy. Vote him out.” See, they don't have understanding no more. The people just don't move by the Spirit of God anymore.

God's word is His Spirit. And His word comes to His prophet. And the word is supposed to transform you, from what the things of the world are, into the image of sons and daughters of God. And the word can only come through these prophets as they spoke. And it had to be compared with the Word and show that it was the Word. Then if you accept that word it'll transform you from a son of God or a daughter, or from a son of the world, the daughter of the world, to a son and daughter of God.

Look at you in here. How many has had that experience? Every one of us. We've had that experience because it was spoke, it was believed, and the Word came forth and fell into the bed of the heart, and there it growed right out of it, see—transforming yourself.

His Holy Spirit transforms the seed-word into its likeness. Like, if a pear tree brings forth a pear, an apple tree an apple, things like that, his Word will bring forth sons and daughters of God. That's what it is supposed to do.

One day when the world lay in darkness and chaos again, the Spirit of God moved upon ... and the predestinated seed, a predestinated seed, the predestinated—it was transformed. It took Isaiah 9:6. Now that prophet standing there: what a man that had a sway over the nations! The people, the religious people of his days, believed him. Not all of them. They never do. But this prophet.... They had seen that man speak things, and it was exactly right. What he said was perfect, and it come to pass. And here this man has to stand up before his people and say, “A virgin shall conceive.” Oh, out of reason! But you see, God didn't speak it Himself; he speaks it through his prophets.

Now there wasn't nothing wrote in the Bible about that. But this prophet stood up, said, “A virgin shall....” In Isaiah 9:6: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; his name shall be called Counsellor, Prince of Peace, mighty God, everlasting Father.” Now if “a virgin shall conceive,” that word was spoke, which was a germ. The bed has to be there to receive it in someday. He searched through the lands. There wasn't any. He went through the lands. There wasn't any.

And pretty near eight hundred years later that predestinated seed found a bed—and she come to growing.

Just like God did at the beginning: “Let there be light,” and maybe eight hundred years later come forth the light. “Let there be a tree.” It come forth like that again, everything that He said.

Here's a predestinated seed, bringing forth Immanuel, God with us. “And to Him shall the Gentiles seek,” and that's who we seek to today, Jesus. You see, predestinated seed.

Satan tried to spray it like he did Eve. He tried to spray it, but he failed, with his repellent on here. He was a predestinated seed. They couldn't take Him in to make Him a Pharisee or a Sadducee. They couldn't make Him belong to any organization. He was God's predestinated, spoken Word. Satan couldn't throw his unbelief on Him; He had a repellent on Him. God spray us with a repellent, is my prayer. That's right.

Then the Spirit moved on Him, and sent Him to Calvary, to the cross, to bring light in this day and light to all the predestinated seeds, to the church of this day—transforming sons and daughters of God into his presence.

Don't stumble at the word “predestination.” I've went through that, you see. I want to show you Ephesians 1:5, see. Just as you were ... look, just as you were in your father, as I said the other night, just as you was in your father at the beginning—if you wasn't, you wouldn't be here. But you see, it had to go to a bedding ground in order to bring you forth. And now you're his son; you're his daughter, see. It's a seed. And then, if you ever.... If you are a Christian now—a genuine, predestinated, seed—you was in God before there was a.... You always was in God: the germ of your life, which is an attribute of God, which was his thought.

Say, for instance, this pretty little lady sitting here, see. God said, “In the day there will be a girl. Her name will be so-and-so. She'll be this, thus, and this.” And even knowed to this very hour, she would sit and listen at the message, dressed in a red dress, see. That was his thought. Whoever your husband is, and whoever he is, and He would bring this together, and you'd sit here in this city at this day.

There could be no way for you to fail it, see, because you're growing. And as long as you're seed inside, growing, you have to produce just exactly what the seed said you would do. That's exactly. It's his word. He keeps his word. He watches over it.

You was in your father as a germ, and you come forth as a daughter. You, you, every one of you, brothers and sisters. You come forth. If you wasn't in your father, then you wouldn't have been here. And if you wasn't in God....

If you believe the message of the Bible, and the present message of the day, a vindication of it, the reason you're sitting here because you were predestinated to sit here. You wouldn't have been here otherwise. You would have been on the street, maybe drunk, some of you; and some of you out here and running around with some other man's wife; and you women out, married and running around with some other woman's husband, or something like that, see. But you were predestinated to be here, see. You can't help it. You have a father. He is God, and you were a seed.

And when He come to a place.... He's got you now to where.... You was in Him then as a thought. Now you are a person that can fellowship with Him, see. Like you was in your fathers at the beginning, but now you are sons and daughters, so you can fellowship with your parents. Now we're sons and daughters of God who can fellowship with our father, God, see. It's just as beautiful! Don't you like that?

Then you become like Him. And if we were sons, then you're attributes and was in his form at the beginning. And remember, if you was in Him at the beginning, and when Jesus (which is God, the Word made flesh and dwelt among us) then you were in Him, and stood the insults that He took.

You went to Calvary with Him, in Him. You died in Him; you arose in Him. And now you are seated together in heavenly places in Him, see.

If I'm an American, I stand all of her shame, I stand all of her glory. Ever what she was, I am. I'm an American citizen. I was.... I landed on Plymouth Rock. Yes, sir, I landed on Plymouth Rock. I signed the.... I was in the hall that morning when they signed the Declaration of Independence. I signed it with them. I'm part of her economy. I signed the Declaration of Independence. That's right.

I was with Washington at Valley Forge when he crossed the river. I was there that morning. I prayed with him. I was, you were, as an American. If you're an American, you was—for everything America is, you are. I hoisted the flag on Guam. I helped them do that. I took every fort. I bore her shame as a revolutionary. Whatever she was, I am.

And whatever Christ was, I am. What He is, I am. O, God! If He's considered a fanatic, so must I be. If He was a Beelzebub, by his works of his Spirit, I am too. Whatever He was, I am. Whatever He was, you are. We must be the makers of her immortality, her freedom or her fame, her glory or her shame. We must be that. We must be the church—the bride of Jesus Christ.

I lived with Him on the earth when He lived; I died with Him when He died; I rose with Him when He rose; I'm assembled, and am seated with Him now in heavenly places, because I'm part of Him. Wherever He is, there I am. “Where my servant is, there will I be also.”

Now, He can fellowship with us, and through us, and rest his Word with us—which we are a part of his Word.

We.... If He is the Word, and we are part of Him, then we are part of the Word.

And how can I deny I got a hand? No matter how much some idiot would (excuse me) ... some science would say that I haven't got a hand, I got a hand! I know I got a hand: I use it. And I know I got a God. I got a Saviour. I feel Him in my soul. I'm part of Him. That's what this Word says; that's what I am. And if I deny one part of this, that'd be like denying I got a hand, an ear, an eye. I couldn't do it and remain a human being in my right mind. Neither can I deny any of God's Word and remain in my right ... the right Spirit of God. I've got to take what the denomination says; or what God said about it, see. You cannot do it.

Now, transforming.... He can transform us through his Word, that we can rest because we are a part of it.

And now, there's many things—in talking about my natural birth—there's many things in my natural birth that I can't brag on. I'll tell you that, I ain't got nothing to brag on. My mother was a sinner to begin with. My father was a sinner. And they come out of a bunch of cutthroats, and gun fighters. And most of them died with their boots on, drunks and bootleggers, and everything else, out of Kentucky. My mother, a half Indian.... And I've got nothing to brag on. I can't brag on my family tree.

But, glory to God, there is one thing I can brag on—my second birth, which comes from Jesus Christ! I can brag on that parent that we have; for He is my Father, He is my Saviour, He is my Redeemer. I can brag on everything that He has done for me, because now I've become his son. I am no more a son of Charles Branham; I'm a son of Jesus Christ. That's right. I can brag on my birth now. I can't brag on my first birth. There is nothing.... I'm ashamed of that; but I'm not ashamed of my second birth. No, no—I'm not ashamed of my second birth.

How did He do it? By the washing of the water by the Word—that's right.

Truly predestinated believers stay with the Word, and they won't pervert it. It can't be perverted. Oh, sons and daughters of God, why can't we have this great fellowship, that we ought to have, with all the sons and daughters of God? We should have it; but they just won't do it, that's all. Because they're not truly sons and daughters from the....

See, as I said the other night (I was going to.... I had that wrote down here, but I haven't got time to get to it. I'm quitting now.),

that little inside of the inside, that's where you start—which is your soul. Then come from that, your spirit, and then you become a living being. Now, the living being has five senses to contact. The second has five senses. That's, the outside body, see, taste, feel, smell, and hear. The inside body has love, and conscience, and so forth, five senses. But the inside of the inside—the control tower—it's either God or Satan. And you can mimic any of these things. You can contact, like the ... like a Christian, or you could cast out devils like a Christian. But, the inside control tower—the beginning, the origin—isn't of God, it'll never return to God. You understand it? Did not Judas cast out devils? Did not Caiaphas, the one who condemned Him and put Him to death, even prophesy? But he couldn't stay with the Word. That's right.

Transformed from the church, and the world, into sons and daughters of God.

(Notice, just in closing now.) And now, how the wandering sons of God, wandering out there in the world, some of them this denomination, from denomination to denomination, like wandering stars—never stable—like a leaf on the water in the autumn. We used to see it, Leo, back in the East there. The leaves would blow down on it, and every little wind would blow it from this side to that side. But God wants us to be stable.

Anchored in Jesus,

The storms of life I'll brave;

Anchored in Jesus,

I fear no winds or wave.

See? whatever it is. Many of you remember the Inchcape bell, when you was in school—boy and girl in school.

Abraham and Sarah's body was transformed to meet the condition of the promised word. They were old. Abraham had received the promise, and Sarah, when he was seventy-five and she was sixty-five, past menopause. Lived with her since she was a girl—was a half-sister. And to keep that promise both of their bodies was transformed—from an old man and woman, to a young man and woman—to meet the promise of the day.

Glory to God! That makes me feel so good, see. I don't care what I was. I don't care how I come here. We can be transformed to meet the promise of this day, when we can dwell together in unity, and sweetness of the Holy Spirit, and live as brothers and sisters.

Enoch—his whole body was transformed to meet a type in God. And he was taken to heaven without even seeing death. Enoch was. Elijah done the same. Jesus' body was transformed from a dead, cold, form. Pulped, beaten until his bruises ... and his ribs stuck to his back. And his heart was run through with a spear, probably that wide, stabbed right through his heart. And blood and water came; even the moisture from his body left. And the blood run down the spear and off his feet, and trickled onto the ground. And He was so dead until the moon and stars said He was dead. The earth said He was dead, had a nervous prostration. The rocks shook out of the earth, and everything. Everything said He was dead. Even God hid his face. He was dead! But his body was transformed. Why? Because God said, “I'll not leave his soul in hell; neither will I suffer my holy One to see corruption.” There is no way to do it.

Some of these days our bodies may be stretched out in a casket. We may come.... You may come and look upon me laying in a casket. I may come and look upon you, might have to say the last words over you, or something like that. But you'll never keep us in the grave! They may lay rocks over you. They may bury you in the sea. They may do whatever they want to. But the transforming power of God in II Thessalonians said, “I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those that are asleep. For we say this to you, too, by the commandments of the Lord, that the trumpet of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. We which are alive and remain [as the song said this morning] shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air.”

The transforming power of God—that's taken us from the chaos of science, and education, and the things of the world, and the understanding of this modern day—has transformed us now into sons and daughters of God. And even death itself can never hold us in the grave. We'll be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. “Oh, you mean to say...?” I mean to say that that's the truth.

Jesus, that Word, stood on the earth, which was the Word, the one that was raised up and raised Lazarus. He said, “I am the resurrection and life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”

There's no way to stop the living Word of God. It's got to rise again.

And from out of this chaos of this modern, scientific Eden that we're living in—of culture, and science, and education, all this modern stuff—we'll rise. “This robe of flesh we'll drop, and rise, and seize the everlasting prize,” someday. We'll go through the air, and this'll all be over.

For the Word of God that's brought us from the modern thinking of our mind, transforming our mind into the renewing of our hearts towards God, and our spirits—that same Spirit that spoke that, has transformed us this far—and it also will take us into his presence, into his glory, with a glorified body.

“They shall build houses; they shall inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards.” In all of our scientific search, we plant a garden; our sons come along and take the fruit from it; and his sons comes and takes it from him. And they plant, and another one eats. And they build, and another inhabit. But, “long will be the days of my servants. They'll be there, and their offsprings with them. They'll build, and another will not inhabit. They'll plant, and not another eat thereof.”

What? The very God, the very prophet that the Word of God said, “A virgin shall conceive,” promised us this.

How do we get it? We are potentially there right now, see. Because God said so, it has to be. When He raised Lazarus there, said, “Don't think this is strange, for the hour is coming when all that's in the grave will hear the voice of the Son of man, and shall come forth, some to shame and some to life.” What is it? Transforming, transforming by the Word of God, making us sons and daughters of God, and will also give us life in the world to come. Oh my! What more could I say? Listen not to other things.

Covet not this world's vain riches,

That so rapidly decay,

Build your hopes on things eternal,

They will never pass away.

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

(Let's sing it.)

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

(Here He is.)

Build your hopes on things eternal,

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

When our journey is completed,

If to God we have been true,

Bright and fair our home in glory,

Our enraptured soul shall view.

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

(Be transformed.)

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Build your hopes on things eternal,

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Don't notice science, what it can prove, if it's contrary to the Word, see. Don't notice the church, what it says, if it's contrary to the Word. For we

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Times change, science changes. Hold that hand that can't change.

Build your hopes on things eternal,

Hold to God's unchanging hand!

Father God, in the presence of You, as we assembled here this morning, and has taken a lengthy, long-drawed-out message, and, O, Lord, I pray that you will place them seeds out in the hearts of these people. Remember, Lord, we pray, that we are frail, and our structure is frail, and we ... sometimes we don't know which way to turn. Dear God, You turn us. Lead us by thy great Spirit, Lord. Help us. Never leave us alone, Father. You promised You wouldn't. “I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. I'll be with thee.”

And Father God, we pray that You will guide our Brother Leo and Gene. Make them, Lord, the kind of leaders that You would have over this people here—not using their own thoughts, but let the great Holy Spirit direct them in what to do. Bless these men and women—these young children, like, Lord, to me—and I pray that you'll keep them in long life.

Let, if it be possible, Lord, let us live to see his coming. We believe we will, because we see everything is so close now. It's so close. Grant it, Father. We commit them to You, with ourselves now, to serve You in Jesus' name. Amen.

I'm sorry I kept you that long. Brother Leo.