21-0108A_THE CHOOSING OF THE BRIDE_ Message of the Hour Believers Tabern...

21-0108A_THE CHOOSING OF THE BRIDE

THE CHOOSING OF A BRIDE

LOS ANGELES CA

65-0429E

   

THE.CHOOSING.OF.A.BRIDE_  LA.CA  V-2 N-28  THURSDAY_  65-04

9E

  1      `    Lots of sick people. I can't get to all of them at once. But, listen.

2    I'm certainly happy to be here again, tonight, in this beautiful auditorium, amongst this wonderful group of people. And we was coming in, out there, a few moments ago, the people standing out on the street said they couldn't get in. And I said, "Well, maybe I can get you some room." And they wouldn't let them come down. So I'm sorry we don't have enough room for them. They said the basement was full, also. And so we are sorry about that. But we're happy to be here, and happy to see all this fine group of ministers, the businessmen here, and all you delegations from different parts of the country.

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  3      I had the grand privilege of speaking this morning at the breakfast, which I certainly cherish to be an honor to speak before such fine people. I was on a subject of: The Shuck Won't Be Heir With The Wheat. I didn't get to finish it. And it was not the--the brother's fault. He tried to get the management to let us stay a little longer, but he just wouldn't do it. I certainly appreciate that, Brother Demos. That's very, very nice. I certainly thank you for your kindness, each and every one. But they just wouldn't let us do it. So we just had to--had to close off. I'll pick that up, some other time, to finish that up: The Shuck Will Not Be Heir With The Wheat. Did you understand it, you that were here? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] I hope there was enough that it would be understood.

 

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  4      Now, I know, tonight, there's a panel, also, so I don't want to keep you here long enough that you'd miss that. Because, I do think that was certainly an asset to--to the Pentecostal-believing people, that panel we saw the other night. Such a fine bunch of men, such wonderful answers, straight. It made me feel real good, to see that. I trust that the Lord will bless it, tonight. And ever who that looks, may they believe. That would be my sincere prayer.

 

THE.CHOOSING.OF.A.BRIDE_  LA.CA  V-2 N-28  THURSDAY_  65-0429E

  5      And so many reports coming in, today, from in the mail and by calls, of so many being healed in this meeting. I was so glad of that. That, that's, to see people sick, that's kind of my ministry.

6    I--I get up here to preach. I, you know, I'm not a preacher. But I, with this, my Kentucky grammar, "his, hain't" and--and all those words, so I--I can't say as what we call a modern preacher of today. I--I couldn't take that place, because I--I have no education.

7    But I do like to express what I know about It, to others, or what I feel that I know about It, to others, how I've learned It, how He is to me. He's all my life, all that I could ever expect to be, and so much more than I ever thought, that I'd ever have a friend, hardly, on the earth, when I was a little boy. But I certainly am thankful for great friends today.

8    [A brother says, "Having a little trouble hearing back there, Brother Branham. Get in closer."--Ed.] Oh, I'm sorry. I--I'm kind of out of focus here, somewhere, he said.

 

THE.CHOOSING.OF.A.BRIDE_  LA.CA  V-2 N-28  THURSDAY_  65-0429E

  9      Now, to get right straight into the service, let's turn for some Scripture readings. I--I always like to read the Bible, because It's the Word of God. I believe that. And I believe It to be God's infallible Word. And now I have a few Scriptures written down here, and some notes that I'd like to refer to, for a few moments, maybe for forty-five minutes.

10    And then we'll get out in time to go see this wonderful panel again tonight. And I trust that God will continue to bless you right on through. And I know what you got to do. And I'm supposed to drive to Tucson, yet, tonight, see, so you can imagine. That's ten-hours drive.

11    And I'm leaving for overseas, and I've got to get a yellow fever shot on test in the morning at the government. So I--I got to get over there. I had the postponement, the other day, and they're not going to take no "no" for an answer again now. And I got one more tetanus and typhus to take, and my boosters.

 

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  12      So, I so thankful for this opportunity, and--and this fine meeting we had prior the convention. It certainly did thrill my heart. You're a fine bunch of people. I trust that God will bless you.

13    When the great hour ever... That great monster laying up yonder, that flipped hisself over in Alaska, a few days ago, threw its tail up again this morning, along about, down around in Washington. He could head this way, mighty easy. And if the Holy Spirit ever tells me definitely...

14    Someone has been answer... asking me that, "Is it going to happen here, Brother Branham?" No, I don't know that. I just don't know, until I do know. That's the truth.

15    I always want to be honest with you. I just not going to presume, take any ideas, or some, what I believe, or something like that. When I tell you, it's going to be. Well, He's got to tell me, first, and then I'll tell you. I--I know the whole world is in a shaking condition. We're at the end time. But one thing I've tried to be...

 

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  16      Brother Shakarian was saying this morning, how he used to go through the prayer lines, and reach down there and get those cards before the people would come up, and look at them, and see whether--whether I told them what they had wrote out there. They write all kinds of stuff on their prayer cards, you know, and he just wanted to see if it was right. He said, out of the hundreds that he had checked, there had never been one wrong. [Brother Shakarian says, "Never one wrong."--Ed.] There never will be one wrong, see, because, as--as long as it's God. If I ever project myself into it, then it's wrong right there to begin with.

17    Little girl whose father is setting, listening at me now, come to me, not long ago. She had a dream. She said, "Brother Branham, what does this dream mean?"

18    I said, "I don't know, sister. I'll have to find out, if the Lord will tell me." So I went on and tried to ask the Lord, and He never did tell me.

19    The little girl come back again. She said, "Well, now where is the interpretation of my dream?"

20    I said, "Come here, honey, sit down." I said, "Your father and mother are very good friends of mine. See? And they've come all the way from Canada, retired, and sojourned here with me. They believe this, what I'm trying to say. And I've never said anything wrong to anybody, willfully, in my life. If I... I think I know what the dream means. But until I see that dream myself, and then He tells me what it means, I can't tell you. See, if I just make up something, there might be a time where you needed me between life and death, and then you wouldn't know whether to believe me or not."

 

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  21      If I tell you anything in the Name of the Lord, it's truly that. That's Who told me that. And so far, of all these years, throughout the world, and around the world, It's never been wrong one time. Cause... And, now, you know a human being can't be that infallible. It takes the Spirit of God to do that.

22    And now I have a Message that I'm responsible for. And many times I've been considered, amongst the people, well, maybe someone who just didn't sit down and think a minute, that I was a--a, oh, an awful person, I didn't like people, and I was always cutting them. And that's not so. That isn't so. I love people. But, you know, love is corrective.

 

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  23      If your little boy was sitting in the street out there, and you said, "Junior, dear, I don't want you out there, but..." And cars buzzing by him, and you brought him in. He run back out again. Why, you should correct him. If you love him, you will. You have to.

24    If you seen a man floating down a river, towards a falls, in a little boat, that you knowed that boat was going to sink when he hit the falls, would you say, "John, you, maybe you ought to think a while, maybe you might not make it"? If I know he's not going to make it, I'm going to almost jerk him out of the boat, if I can, because it's love that does that.

 

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  25      And now, in these Messages that I speak, I never try to bring in any doctrine, or so forth. I--I do that in my own church. But out here amongst men and women who are different denominations with different ideas, I just try to take in a mild form, explain; but enough to where if you're born of the Spirit of God, I believe you'll understand what I mean, among Christian men, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, whatmore.

 

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  26      Now, tonight, I want to turn to Genesis, the 24th chapter. I want to read the... beginning with the 12th verse of the 24th chapter of Genesis.

And he said, O LORD God... my master Abraham, I pray thee, send me good speed this day, and shew kindness unto my master Abraham.

Behold, I stand here by the well of water; and the daughters of the men of the city come out to draw water:

And let it come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down the pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also: let the same be she that thou has appointed for thy servant Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou has showed me kindness to... unto my master.

 

THE.CHOOSING.OF.A.BRIDE_  LA.CA  V-2 N-28  THURSDAY_  65-0429E

  27      And then in the Book of Revelation. That's the first of the Bible, Genesis. Now, in the last of the Bible, I want to read in the 21st chapter of Revelation, and the 9th verse.

28    We know what this Scripture of Genesis here... You read the whole chapter, if you wish to. It's God sending out Eliezer. Or, Abraham sending out Eliezer, pardon me, to select a bride for Isaac. And the beautiful Rebekah came out, and in perfect answer to the prayer that--that Eliezer, the servant of Abraham, had just prayed.

Now in the 9th verse of the 21st chapter of Revelations.

And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, and I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

 

THE.CHOOSING.OF.A.BRIDE_  LA.CA  V-2 N-28  THURSDAY_  65-0429E

  29      Now I want to take for a subject, tonight, for that: The Choosing Of A Bride. And this is, if my brother that records here will, this is the tape that you can go ahead and let out.

30    Now, in this, it doesn't exactly mean that I'm speaking this to this congregation present, but these tapes go around the world. They're translated in, practically, oh, a great deal of the languages, even into the heathen lands around the world. We send them tapes, free, on a society of the church. And they're translated. And all out through the jungles of Africa, and to India, and around the world, goes these tapes.

Now, choosing a Bride!

 

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  31      In many things of life we are given a choice. The way of life, itself, is a choice. We have a right to make our own way, choose our own way that we want to live.

32    Education is a choice. We can choose whether we're going to be educated, or whether we are not going to be educated. That's a choice that we have.

33    Right and wrong is a choice. Every man, every woman, boy and girl, has to choose whether they are going to try to live right or not live right. It's a choice.

Choice is a great thing.

34    Your Eternal destination is a choice. And maybe, tonight, some of you will make that--that choice, of where you'll spend Eternity, before this service ends tonight. There'll be one time, that, if you turned God down many time, there'll be one time you'll turn Him down the last time. There is a line between mercy and judgment. And it's a dangerous thing for a man or a woman, boy or girl, to step across that line, for there's no return when you step across that deadline. So, tonight, it might be the time that many will make their--their decision, where they will spend the endless Eternity.

 

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  35      There's another choice that we have in life, that's, a life's companion. A young man or young woman, stepping out on life, has--has been given a right to make a choice. The young man chooses. The young woman has a right to accept or reject it. But it's still a choice, on both sides. Both man and woman, they have a right to choice.

Also, you have a choice, as a Christian.

36    You have a choice of the church, here in America, so far, that you can go to. That's your own American privilege, to choose any church that you want to belong to. That's a choice. You don't have to go to any of them, if you don't want to. But if you want to change from the Methodist to the Baptist, or the Catholic to a Protestant, or so forth, there's nobody can tell you or make you come to any certain church. That's our--that's our freedom. That's what our democracy is. Every man can choose for himself. Freedom of religion, and that's a--a great thing. God help us to keep it as long as we can.

 

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  37      You have also a choice. Whether... When you choose this church, you can choose whether you, in this church, whether you will choose a church that will guide you to your Eternal destination. You can choose a church that has a certain creed, that you might think that creed is just what you want. Or, the other church has their creed.

38    And then there is the Word of God, you have choice of. You have to make the choice.

There's an unwritten law among us, of choosing.

39    I believe it was Elijah, one time, up on Mount Carmel, after the showdown, in a great hour of the crisis that we're just about to come to right now. Perhaps, it may be to you or I, tonight, that we make this choice, like the Mount Carmel experience. Frankly, I think it's going on, worldwide, now. But there will soon be a time where that you'll have to make a choice.

 

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  40      And you men here, of your denominational churches, just believe this, that the hour is right on you, when you're going to make a choice. You're either going to go into the World Council, or you're not going to be a denomination anymore. You're going to have to do that, and that choice is coming soon.

41    And it's a dangerous thing to wait till that last hour, too, because you might take on something that you could never shake out of it. You know, there is a time when you can be warned, then, if you step across that line of warning, then you're already marked on the other side, branded.

 

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  42      Remember, when the jubilee year come, and the--the priest rode with his trumpet sounding, that every slave could go free. But if they refused to accept their freedom, then he had to be taken to the temple, to a post, and an awl bore him through the ear, and then he served his master alway. It was put on his ear as a type, of hearing. "Faith cometh by hearing." He heard that trumpet, but he didn't want to listen to it.

43    And many time, men and women hear God's Truth, and see It vindicated and proven, Truth, but yet they don't want to hear It. There's some other reason. There's some other choosing that they have, than to face up to Truth and fact, therefore their ears can be closed to the Gospel. They'll never hear It again. My advice to you, when God speaks to your heart, you act right then.

44    Elijah gave them a choice which they should. "Choose you this day whom you shall serve. If God be God, serve Him. But if Baal be God, serve him."

 

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  45      Now, as we see that all of the natural thing is a type of the spiritual things, as we went through in our lesson this morning, as the sun and his nature. That was my first Bible. Before I ever read a page in the Bible, I knew God. Because, the Bible is written everywhere in nature, and it just corresponds with the Word of God: how the death, burial, resurrection of the nature; and the sun rising, crossing, setting, dying, rising again. There's so many things that we could type, God in nature, that we have to bypass, for this Message.

 

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  46      Now, if the spiritual or... The natural is a type of the spiritual. Then, the choosing of a bride, in the natural, is a type of choosing a Bride, the Bride, in the spiritual.

47    Now, it's a serious thing when we go to choose a wife, a man, for the vows here is until death do we part. That's how we should keep it. And you take that vow before God, that only death will separate you. And I think we should. A man in his right mind, that's planning a future, that he should choose that wife very careful. Be careful what you're doing. And a woman choosing a husband, or accepting the choice of a husband, should be real careful what she's doing, and especially in these days. A man should think and pray before he chooses a wife.

 

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  48      I think, today, what's got so many divorce cases now, that we lead the world in America, in divorce cases. We lead the rest of the world. There's more divorces here than anywhere else, this nation, and supposed to be, and thought of, a Christian nation. What a reproach, our divorce court! I think, the reason of it, is because that men has got away from God, and women has got away from God.

49    And we find, that, if a man prayed and a woman prayed over the matter; not just look at a pretty set of eyes, or big strong shoulders, or such as that, or some other worldly affection; but would look first to God, and say, "God, is this Your plan?"

 

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  50      I think, today, there's so much cheating, just like in school. When--when the kids come by, of a morning, many of the kids in the neighborhood, that--that friends of mine, will come by and say, "Brother Branham, will you pray for us? We're having a--a test today. I--I worked all night, and I don't seem I can--can get it settled. Pray for me." I think that any school kid, if you would, if... And the parents at the table of a morning, you could. Say, "Mother, John has got a test today. Let's pray for him now." I think it would beat all that you could ever do in any other way, or looking over on somebody else's paper and cheating. I think if you just come out and pray over the matter.

 

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  51      And if we would study what we're doing when we're going to get married, when we choose our wife, our husband, if we'd study it over! A man should pray earnestly, for he could ruin his entire life. Remember, the vow is "until death do we part," and he could ruin his life by making the wrong choice. But if he knows what, he making the wrong choice and is marrying a woman that isn't fit to be his wife, and he does it anyhow, then it's his fault. If the woman takes a husband and knows that he's not fit to be a husband to you, then that's your own fault, after you know what's right and wrong. So, you shouldn't do it until you thoroughly pray through.

 

THE.CHOOSING.OF.A.BRIDE_  LA.CA  V-2 N-28  THURSDAY_  65-0429E

  52      The same applies by choosing a church. Now, you must pray over the church that you are fellowshiping in. Remember, churches carry spirit.

53    Now, I don't want to be critical. But I realize that I'm an old man, and I got to leave here, one of these days. I've got to answer at the Day of the Judgment for what I say tonight or any other time. And I, therefore, I got to be dead earnest and truly convicted.

54    But, you go into a church, and if you'll watch the behavior of that church, you just watch the pastor awhile, and you'll usually find that the church acts like the pastor. Sometime, I wonder if we just don't get one another's spirit in the stead of the Holy Spirit. You get to a place where a pastor is real radical and carrying on, you'll find out the congregation is the same way. I'll bring you to a church where I see the pastor stand, jerk their heads back and forth. You watch the congregation, they do the same thing. You take a pastor, just gulp down anything, usually the church will do the same thing. So, if I was choosing a church, I'd choose a genuine, fundamental, Full Gospel, Bible church, I was choosing one to put my family in. Choose. I looked...

 

THE.CHOOSING.OF.A.BRIDE_  LA.CA  V-2 N-28  THURSDAY_  65-0429E

  55      The boys, the other day, Brother Shakarian's son and his son-in-law, taken me up here to pray for a young fellow, singer, dandy boy. Just come back... Fred Barker, that was his name, just come back from a trip. And they called me, that, "Fred was dying." And then, 'fore I could get in the house, another message come, "He may be dead right now." And he said he had had a--a hemorrhage in the brain, and he was paralyzed, and--and he was dying, and his wife wanted me to pray for him.

56    And I thought, "Oh, if I try to fly, he'd be dead 'fore I get there, and may be dead now." So, I called quickly and got the little lady on the phone. And--and we got the phone hooked up, and to Fred's ear. He couldn't swallow. They was giving him artificial swallowing. And when we prayed for him, he said, motioned, take it out of his throat. He could swallow. The doctors didn't believe it. They took it out, and he could swallow. He was setting up, the other day.

A church; choosing a church.

 

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  57      Phone call just come in, a while ago. This morning, a member of my church, which is really a Baptist woman out of Louisville, she died early this morning. And my church at home, a real group of consecrated men, assembled themselves together and went down, before the undertaker embalmed her, stood over her, prayed until life come back in her. And she is living, tonight. The elders of my church, why, they been taught to believe that all things are possible, come to God sincerely.

So, you must make the right choice.

 

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  58      Again, the kind of woman that a man would choose, will reflect his ambition and his character. If a man chooses the wrong woman, it reflects his character. And what he ties himself to, shows truly what's in him. A woman reflects what's in the man when he chooses her for wife. It shows what's down in him. No matter what he says outside, watch what he married.

59    I go to a man's office, and he says he's a Christian; pin-ups all around on the walls, that old boogie-woogie music going on. I don't care what he says. I don't believe his testimony, because his spirit is feeding on them things of the world. What, say, if he would marry a chorus girl, or what if he would marry a sex queen, or just a pretty, modern ricketta? It reflects. It shows what he has in his mind, of what his future home is going to be, because he's took her to raise his children by. And whatever she is, that's the way she'll raise those children. So, it reflects what's in the man. A man that takes a woman like that, shows just what he's thinking of the future.

60    Could you imagine a Christian doing a thing like that? No, sir. I could not. A true Christian will not look for such beauty queens, and chorus girls, and sex queens. He'll look for Christian character.

 

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  61      Now, you can't have all things. There might be one girl that's real pretty. And the other girl, maybe she's a... her statue looks better than this one. And you might have to sacrifice one for the other, but, if she's not the statue of a lady, of a woman. And, she, I didn't care whether she's pretty or not. You better look at her character, whether she's pretty or not pretty.

62    Now, for, it is becoming, if a Christian would choose a wife, he ought to choose a genuine, born-again woman, regardless of what she looks like. It's what she is, what makes her. And then, again, that reflects his own godly character, and reflects what's in his mind and what's going to be in the future, for his family will be raised by such a woman, for the future plans for his home.

63    If he marries one of these little modern rickettas, sex queens, what could he expect? What kind of a home could a man expect to have? If he marries a girl that ain't got enough moral about her to stay home and take care of a house, and wants to work out in somebody's office, what kind of a housekeeper will she be? You'll have baby-sitters and everything else. True.

 

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  64      Now, I'm not much of this modernistic taste, of women working. When I seen these women with these uniforms on, riding around in this city, on motorcycles, as police, it's a disgrace to any city that will let a woman do that. See? See? As many men that's without work, it shows the modern thinking of our city. It shows the degrading. We don't have to have them women out there like that. They ain't got no business out there like that.

65    When God gave a man a wife, He gave him the best thing He could give him, outside of salvation. But when one goes to trying to take a man's place, then she's about the worse thing that he could get a hold of. Now, that's right. See?

Now we can see the spiritual application.

66    I--I know that's bad, you think it's bad, but it's the Truth. We don't care how bad it is, we got to face up to the fact. That's what the Bible teaches. See?

 

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  67      Now, we here see plainly the spiritual plan, of God's planning for His future Home with His future Bride, comes into view now.

68    If a man marries a sex queen, you see what he's looking for for the future. If a man marries a woman that won't stay home, you see what he's looking for in the future. And I one time...

69    This sounds awful. I just feel to say it. And I--I, usually, if I feel to say the thing, I ought to say it. And it's usually God's way.

70    I--I used to go with a rancher that I worked with, to buy cattle. And I noticed the old fellow always looking right in the face of a heifer before he went to bidding. Then he turned her head, and looked back and forth. I followed him along, watched him. And he looked her up and down, if she looked all right, the statue. Then he turned and looked her in the face, and sometime he'd shake his head and walk away.

I said, "Jeff, I want to ask you something."

He said, "Say on, Bill."

71    And I said, "Why you always look that cow in the face?" I said, "She looks all right, a good--good heavy cow."

72    Said, "I want to tell you, boy, you got a lot to learn." And I--I realized it after he told me. Said, "I don't care how she's made up. She might be beef, plumb to the hoof. But if she's got that wild stare in her face, don't you never buy her."

Said, "Why so, Jeff?"

73    "Well," said, "the first thing is," said, "she'll never stay put." And he said, "The next thing is, she'll never be a mammy to her calf." And said, "They put her in a pen now, the reason she's fat. You turn her loose, with that wild stare, she'd run herself to death."

74    I said, "You know, I kind of learned something. I believe that applies to women, too." Right. Right.

75    That wild, starey, ricketta look, better stay away from her, boy, all that there blue stuff over top her eyes. And I didn't... I wouldn't want that. I don't think that's becoming to a Christian. I don't care how much the television and paper says it's pretty. It's the most horrible-looking, hideous sight that I ever seen in my life.

 

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  76      When I first seen that, here at Clifton's Cafeteria, one morning, at a breakfast. I seen some, them young ladies come up. Brother Arganbright had just come in, and I. And he had went downstairs. I looked, and that girl come in. I thought, "Well, I--I--I--I don't know." I never seen it before. It was some kind. Oh, it looked like she was cankered, you know, just kind of funny-looking. I'm not saying that to be funny. I'm--I'm saying it. You know, I've seen leprosy. I'm a missionary. I seen all kinds of freaks, you know, of how diseases. And I was going to walk up to the young lady and tell her, "I--I--I'm a minister. I--I pray for the sick. Would--would you like for me to pray for you?" And I had never seen anything like that. And then, here come two or three more, in. I kind of stepped back then and waited.

77    And Brother Arganbright come by, so I said, "Brother Arganbright?" He may be here. I said, "What's the matter with that woman?" See?

And he said, "That, that's paint."

78    I said, "Well, my, my!" See? I thought they ought to have her in a pesthouse somewhere, you know, keep it from breaking out all over other women.

 

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  79      But, you know, you have to plan, look, pray, when you're choosing. For, we see, by this, the Word of promise. She, the bride that a man would choose, is going to reflect his character. It reflects what's in him.

80    Now, could you imagine a man, filled with the Holy Ghost, take something like that to be a wife? [Congregation says, "No."--Ed.] I--I--I just don't see it, brother. Now, maybe I'm just an old crank. But, you know, I--I just can't understand that, see, notice, for it's going to reflect what's in him. She is going to help him make his future home.

81    Now, then, when we change back now for a moment, to the spiritual side. And when you see a church that's in the world, acts like the world, anticipating in the world, partaking of the world, counting God's Commandments as if He never had wrote Them, then you--you can just imagine Christ ain't going to take a Bride like that. Could you imagine taking the modern church today for a Bride? Not my Lord. I don't... I could hardly see that. No. Remember, now, a man and his wife are one. Would you join yourself to a person like that? If you would, it would certainly kind of disappoint my faith in you.

 

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  82      And, then, how about God joining Himself to something like that, a regular denominational prostitute? You think He would do it, "Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof"? He would never do it. She must have His character in her. The real, true born-again Church must have the--the character that was in Christ, because the husband and wife are one. And if Jesus did only that which pleased God, kept His Word and manifested His Word, His Bride will have to be of the same kind of character. She could not, by no means, be a denomination. Because, then, no matter how much you want to say, "no," she is controlled by a board somewhere, that tells her what to do and what she can't do, and, many times, a million miles off of the true Word.

 

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  83      It's too bad that we ever got away from the real Leader that God left us to lead the Church. He never sent state presbyters. He never sent a bishops, cardinals, priests, popes. He sent the Holy Ghost for the Church, to lead the Church. "When He the Holy Ghost is come, He will lead you into all Truth, reveal these things to you, that I have told you, bring them to your remembrance, and will show you things that is to come." The Holy Spirit was to do that. Now, the modern church hates That. They don't like It, so how could she be the Bride of Christ? The people of today is choosing a modern denomination. What it does, it only reflects their poor understanding of the Word.

84    I don't mean to hurt, but I mean to let it go deep enough till you'll look at it.

 

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  85      I've married many couples, but it always reminds me of Christ and His Bride. One of the weddings that I performed here, some time ago, it--it was quite an outstanding thing in my life. It's been several years ago, when I was just a young minister.

86    My brother was working on the--the P.W.A. I don't know whether anybody ever remembers that, yet, or not, anybody as old as me. And that was a--a project that the government had. And my brother worked up, about thirty miles. They were digging out some lakes, a project for the conservation.

87    And there was a boy worked up there, with him, from Indianapolis, about, oh, about a hundred miles above Jeffersonville where I--I live, or lived. And there was a... He said to my brother, one day. He said, "Doc," he said, "I--I want... I'm going to get married, if I just had enough money to pay the preacher." He said, "I--I got enough money to get my license, but," said, "I haven't got enough money to pay the preacher."

88    Doc said, "Well, my brother is a preacher, and--and he--he may marry you." He said, "He never charges people for things like that."

He said, "Will you ask him if he'll marry me?"

 

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  89      Well, that night my brother asked me. I said, "If he's never been married before, either one of them, and their everything is all right." He said, "Well, yeah, I'll ask him." And I said, "If it is, tell him, come on down."

90    So, when Saturday come along and the boy came down. Been a great thing for me, to always look back upon this. I'd... Rainy afternoon, and an old Chevrolet car, with the headlights wired on with a baling wire, that drove up, out front. Just a while after I had lost my wife, and I was bach'ing, two little rooms. And--and Doc was up there with me, waiting for them.

91    And--and a boy got out of the car, and he certainly didn't look like a groom, to me, or would to anybody, I guess. Yeah. I could bare... buy a pretty good pair of shoes, for a dollar and a half. And he had on a pair, was run over. And his trousers was real baggy. And he had on one of these old moleskin jackets. I don't guess some of you older people would remember. It looked like it had run through a washing machine without being rinsed, and it was streaked, tied up like this, and the corner up.

 

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  92      And a--a little lady got out on the side, with a little, oh, some of them little checkered-look dress.

93    I don't know. I made a mistake on calling that kind of goods, one time. Gingham, I believed it's called. And so it was a... I said it wrong again. I--I'm always doing it. And I said...

94    She got out of the car, and they come up the steps. And--and when they walked in, the poor little thing, she... I guess, she, just about all she had on was a skirt. And she didn't have no shoes, hardly, on. She had hitchhiked from Indianapolis, down. Had a little hair hanging down, back, in long, kind of a plaits down her back. Looked very young.

And I said to her, "Are you old enough to get married?"

95    She said, "Yes, sir." And she said, "I have my written permission from my father and mother." She said, "I had to show it to--to the court here, to get my license."

96    I said, "All right." I said, "I'd like to talk to you a little bit before we perform this wedding." They set down. The boy kept looking around the room; needed a haircut real bad. And he kept looking around the room. He wasn't listening to me. I said, "Son, I want you to listen to what I'm saying."

Said, "Yes, sir."

And I said, "You love this girl?"

He said, "Yes, sir. I do."

I said, "You love him?"

"Yes, sir. I do."

97    I said, "Now, have you got a place to take her after you marry?"

Said, "Yes, sir."

98    I said, "All right. Now," I said, "I want to ask you something. I understand, you're working up here on this P.W.A."

And he said, "Yes, sir." That's about twelve dollars a week.

I said, "You think you can make a living for her?"

He said, "I'll do all I can do."

99    And I said, "Well, that's all right." And I said, "Now, what if he gets out of... What if he loses this job, sister? What are you going to do, going to run back up home, to mama, papa?"

She said, "No, sir. I'm going to stay with him."

100    And I said, "What, sir, if you have three or four children, nothing to feed them, and you haven't got any work. What are you going to do, send her away?"

101    Said, "No, sir. I'll struggle right on. We'll make it, some way."

102    I felt little. And I seen that he really loved her, and they loved one another. I married them.

 

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  103      Then I wondered where he taken her. A few days, I asked my brother, Doc, where it is. He said, "Go down to New Albany," a little city below us.

104    And down on the river, where I had some tin laying up, where I went every day when I--I was a lineman. So when the rest the fellows, they all sit around, told jokes and things, I'd get in the truck and run down on the river and pray during that!...?... And read my Bible, under a big piece of tin where an old iron works used to be. There's a bunch of old boxcars setting down there.

105    And this fellow had went down there and got one of them boxcars and sawed him a door in it. And had taken a newspaper and tacky buttons.

106    How many knows what a tacky button is? There's no Kentuckians here, then. It's, take a piece of cardboard, put a thumbtack in it, a little sprig. And then push it in the... That's a tacky button.

 

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  107      So, they had put it all over. And he had went up there to iron works and got him some stuff, and made a step, to come up. And got some old boxes, and had him a table. And I thought, one day, "I'll go down and see how they're getting along."

108    About six months before that, I married E. V. Knight's daughter to E. T. Slider's son. E. V. Knight, one of the richest men there is on the Ohio River, and, oh, runs the great factories through there, making these prefab houses, and so forth. And--and Slider, E. T. Slider, is the sand and gravel company, millionaires' children. And I had married them.

109    And I went back in a place, practiced it for about two weeks, and going back in a booth and kneeling on a pillow. And all the pomp and everything I ever went through, nearly, had to go through, to marry that couple! And when they come out, why, they was... This other little couple just stood there in a little old room where we had a little couch and a folded bed, but they both was married by the same ceremony.

 

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  110      And then, one day, I thought I'd go down and visit this rich couple. They didn't have to work, their fathers were millionaires, had built them a nice home. Frankly, this E. V. Knight, up, here on the hill, his doorknobs are fourteen carat on his big palace, so you can imagine what kind of home they live in. They didn't have to work. They had a nice Cadillac give to them every year. And just, only children, and they had just everything they wanted. When I walked up one day...

111    Now, how I got acquainted with them, one of their friends was a good friend of mine. We all kind of chummed together. And that's how I got acquainted, when they wanted me to marry them.

 

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  112      So I went up to visit them. I got outside my old Ford, outside, and walked up the steps. And--and I got up, a little bit too close, and I heard them. And they were really fussing. They were jealous of one another. They had been to a dance. She was a very pretty girl. And she was kind of one of these beauty queens. She took many prizes around there, and won some cars and things, for being beauty queen. And I looked at them, and one was setting in one corner and one the other, fussing about some boy she had danced with, or some girl, something.

113    When I come up, they jumped up real quick and grabbed one another across, floor, and their--their hands, across the floor, come walking over towards the door. Said, "Why, hello there, Brother Branham! How you getting along?"

Said, "All right. How you all getting along?"

114    And, "Oh," he said, "I--I... We're very happy. Aren't we, honey?"

And she said, "Yes, dear." See?

 

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  115      Now, you see, you're putting on something that isn't real. Now, you can't get warm by a painted fire, like some of these churches trying to paint pentecost, of something that happened a thousand years ago or two thousand years ago. You can't get warm by a painted fire. Pentecost is just as real today as it was then. See? Yeah. The Fire is still falling. It ain't a painted fire. It's a real Fire.

116    So, they, just there they was. See? I--I wouldn't want to live like that.

 

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  117      "Oh," I thought, "you know, just down over the cliff there and over on the river, there's where this other couple wound up." I thought, "One Saturday afternoon I'd slip down there and see how they was getting along."

118    So I, dirty on the face, and dirty overalls on, my tools on. I thought, "I'll slip up on them." I slipped on, like I was watching for insulators being cracked by the lightning or something, and as I walked alongside the telephone wire, the electric cables along the river. And there's the old Chevrolet, was setting out front. About a year later, after I had married them. And there was a--a... The door was open, and I could hear them talking. So this sounds like a hypocrite, but I walked up close enough till I could listen, see what they was saying. Stood there. And I just want to know, for myself.

119    I like to find out and be sure I know what I'm talking about. That's the way I do about God's Word. Is It the Truth, or isn't It the Truth? Will He keep His Word, or doesn't He keep His Word? He doesn't keep His Word, then He's not God. See? He does keep His Word, He's God. See?

 

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  120      And so I want to see how they was getting along. And I slipped along the side, real easy. I heard him say, "Oh, honey, I wanted to get that for you, so bad."

121    She said, "Now, look, sweetheart." She said, "This dress is all right." She said, "Why, this is just fine." Said, "I appreciate that. But you see..."

122    I slipped around, so I could look in through the crack, where the door been shoved open there in the boxcar. And there he was, setting in there, and her on his lap; and his arm around her, and her arm around him. And he had one of these old slouch hats, and had put a little hole, mashed it down, the top, and pulled out his pay check, in that. He--he was laying it out on the table. Said, "So much for groceries. So much for insurance. And so much on the car." And they couldn't make their ends meet. Come to find out, he had seen a little dress up there in a window, been looking at it for a couple weeks, that cost a dollar and something. He wanted to get it. Said, "Well, honey, you'd look so pretty in it." And he said...

123    She said, "But, honey, I--I got a dress. I--I don't really need it." See? And that little queen...

 

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  124      I backed off, and looked up. I could see the--the steeple on top of the other house. I stood there and looked, a few minutes. I thought, "Who is the rich man?" I thought, "If, Bill Branham, if you want to take which place, where would you go?" For me, I'd take not that pretty thing up on top the hill. I'd take this character down here, as a real homemaker, somebody that loved me and stayed with me, somebody tried to make a home; and not bleeding you for everything, for fineries; and somebody that was with you, part of you.

 

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  125      That's always stuck with me, of how that was. One chose a beautiful girl, the other one chose character. Now, that's the only way you could choose. First, look for character and, then, if you love her. Fine.

126    Notice, God's first Adam didn't have any choice, for his wife. He didn't get a choice. God just made him one, and he didn't get to choose her. So we find out that she led him astray from God's Word. He didn't get to pray over the matter. He--he--he isn't like you and I. He didn't get a choice. And again, by doing that, she led him from his rightly position as being a son of God. And she did it by showing him a more modern way of living, something that they really shouldn't have done. But the character of her showed that she was wrong. Her motives and objectives were simply wrong. And persuaded him, by her reasoning, that the modern new light that she had found, which was contrary to God's Word, was a better way to live.

 

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  127      And how many women today, and vice versa, men, that could pull a good woman away from God, or pull a good man away from God, by trying to tell him, "This religion, you pentecostal boy! That religion," they say, "oh, That's old-fashion. It's old fogy. Don't you believe That." You better pray hard before you marry that girl. I don't care how pretty she is. Same thing to a man.

128    She persuaded him out of the will of God and caused him to do something that he should not have done, and, by it, caused death to the whole human race. That's why the Bible forbids her to teach, or to preach, or to handle God's Word, in any manner.

129    I know, sister, many of you say, "The Lord called me to preach."

130    I'm not going to argue with you. But I'm going to tell you, the Word says you not to do it. "She shall not teach, or usurp any authority, but to be in silence."

"Well," you say, "the Lord told me to do it."

131    I don't doubt that one bit. Did you hear my Message the other night about Baalam? Balaam got the first, straight-cut decision of God, "Don't do it." But he kept on fooling around till finally God told him to go do it.

132    God might permit you to preach. I don't say He didn't. But it's not according to His original Word and plan. "For she is to be under obedience, as also saith the law." It's true. Therefore, she's not supposed to do it.

 

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  133      Now, notice again how the natural bride types the spiritual. The Word says, that, "She was made for man, and not man made for her."

134    Now I'm going to speak, and why, in a few minutes, on the Bride of Christ, but I'm trying to show you the background of it.

135    "Woman was made for man, and not man for woman." That's the reason, under the old laws, that polygamy was legal. Look at David setting down there with five hundred wives, and the Bible said, "He was a man after God's own heart." With five hundred wives, and Solomon with a thousand, but not one of them women could have another husband.

 

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  136      You get my tape on Marriage And Divorce. That, up on top the mountain at Tucson, here not long ago, I was up there praying about it. They dismissed the schools, to watch that Pillar of Fire circle the mountain and go in a funnel, back and forth, up and down. People around here knows it, there and saw It; and it when He told me the Truth of this marriage and divorce, questioned. If there's one side going this way, and one going that way, there's got to be a Truth somewhere. After those Seven Seals, He showed what was the Truth of it.

 

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  137      Notice, now, she could not have but one husband, because, "Woman was made for man, and not man for woman." That whole five hundred women was just David's wife, and it was a type. When Christ sets on the Throne in the Millennium, His Bride will be not one person, but it'll be tens of thousands, the Bride, all in One. And David had many wives, as individuals, but only all of them together was his wife. Like the whole Body of believers is the Bride of Christ, 'cause It's She, the woman. He was the Man. Now, we were made for Christ. Christ wasn't made for us.

138    That's what we try to do today in our textbooks, is try to make the Word (which is Christ) suit us, instead of us trying to make ourself to suit the Word. That's the different.

 

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  139      When a man chooses a certain girl out of a family, he must not rely upon beauty, for beauty is deceiving. And beauty, modern worldly beauty, is of the Devil.

"Oh," I hear someone say out there, "be careful here, preacher!"

140    I say that these things on this earth, that's called beautiful, is absolutely of the Devil. I'll prove it to you. Then, in the light of this remark, let's search God's holy Word, to see if it's right or not. And some of you women wants to be so pretty! See where it comes from. In the beginning, we find that Satan was so beautiful till he deceived Angels. And he was the most beautiful Angel of all of them. Showed, it lays in the Devil. Proverbs said, Solomon said, "Beauty is vain." That's right. Sin is beautiful. Certainly, it is. It's attractive.

 

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  141      I want to ask you, and say something here to you. I want you to notice, a few minute. Of all of the species in the world, birds, animals, we find that on the animal life, all besides human, it's the male that's pretty, and not the female. Why that? Look at the... Look at the deer, the--the beautiful big buck with his horns, and the little muley doe. Look at the--the hen, the little, speckled hen, and the big beautiful-feathered rooster. Look at the male bird and the female bird. Look at the mallard duck and the female. See? And there isn't one specie in the world, that's made, that can deceive and stoop as low as a woman.

142    Now, sister, don't get up and go out. Just wait till we hear the end of This. See? See?

143    There is nothing, no female besides a woman, could be immoral. You call a dog "a slut," you call a hog "a--a sow," but, morally, they got more morals than half the movie stars there is out here. They cannot be nothing else but moral.

 

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  144      And the woman was the one that was changed over, for the perversion. That's right. See where the beauty takes her to? Now, that's why that, today, we find that women is on the increase of beauty. You take Pearl O'Brien, you ever see her picture? Supposed to be American's great beauty. There isn't a school kid out of any school but what would have her in a--a back row. Did you know it's supposed to be that way? Did you know the Bible speaks that that's the way it's going to be?

145    Do you know the fall came by women at the beginning? And fall... The end is going to wind up the same way, women coming into authority and ruling over men, and so forth. You know the Scripture says that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] You know, the day that she puts on man's clothes, and bobbed her hair, all those things are contrary to God's Word. And you know she represents the church? ["Yes."] When you watch what women are doing, you'll see what the church is doing. That's exactly right. Now, now, that's just as true as the Word of God is true.

 

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  146      No other female is made that can stoop like a woman can. And yet, through that, being made an off-...

147    She was not in the original creation. All other females is in the original creation: bird, male and female; animals, male and female. But, in human life, God only made a man, and He took from him. And a woman is the by-product of a man, because God did not institute such a thing. Search the Scripture. Exactly right. God, no, sir, in His original creation. She was put out there.

148    But if she can hold herself right, what a greater reward she has than man. She's put on a testing ground. Through her come death. She's guilty of all death. But then God turned around and used one to bring Life back again; brought His Son through the woman, an obedient one. But a bad one is the--the worst there is; there's nothing can be as low.

 

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  149      Cain, Satan's son, thought that God accepted beauty. He does today. Cain was Satan's son. "Oh, now!" you say. We won't go into details on that, but just let me settle it for you. The Bible said that he "was of that evil one." So, that settles it. All right. Now, he was Satan's son. And he thought that, bringing in an altar and making it real pretty for worship, that's what God would respect.

150    They think, think the same thing today. Certainly. This, "We build a great building. We'll have great denominations. We'll make the biggest building and the finest-dressed people, the most cultured clergymen." Sometimes God is ten million miles from it. That's right. Yet, it's a church.

 

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  151      So, if God just respects worship, sincerity, sacrifice, Cain was just as just as Abel. But it was by revelation, that he understood that it was not apples that his parents eat.

152    I'm going to say something here that don't sound good for a minister, but I'm going to say it, anyhow. I hear these other ones saying things, so saying little jokes. I don't mean it. I said this, though, "If eating apples caused the women to realize they were naked, we had better pass the apples again." See? See? Uh-huh. Forgive me for that, but just so that it'll change. I've got you tied up here, and talking about the women, and so forth. I--I--I want to relax you a minute, for what next is to come. Now, notice, you. It was not apples. We know that.

 

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  153      The church has become in these days, with its achievement, like all other man-made achievement, is becoming scientific. They're trying to make a scientific church, by the attraction of pictures and great steeples. And it's too bad that the Pentecostal got into that rut. You'd be better off with a tambourine, down on the corner, and the Spirit of God around you. But you're trying to compare with the rest of them, because you denominated. That's what did it. See? Churches is trying to be scientifically.

154    And remember, as man achieves progress by science, he's killing hisself every day. When he invented gun powder, look what it done. When he invented an automobile, it killed more than the gun powder does. Now he's got hisself a hydrogen bomb. Wonder what he's going to do with that? Right.

 

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  155      And so is the church, as it tries to achieve by science, by man-made scheme, it's taking you farther away from God, and into death, more than it was at the first place. That's right. Don't choose your church the same way you did your wife. See? What science did for her was a marvel, but you better keep away from your church on that; he made paints, powders, and all these other things. Choose by character of His Word.

156    Now let us compare the natural bride of today with the so-called church bride of today. Compare a woman, going to get married today.

157    Now, just look what science has done for her. She comes out, first, with her hair chopped off, with one of these Jacqueline Kennedy hairdo's, see, or something like that. And you know what the Bible said? The Bible actually gives a man, if he wants to, the right to put her away in divorcement, if she does that. "She's a dishonorable woman, that'll cut her hair." The Bible said so. Right. Didn't know that? Huh? Oh, yeah! I preach too much in California for you not to know that. That's right. Oh, yeah! What good does it do me? They do it, anyhow. You can't take the pig and change his name, make him a lamb. Notice.

 

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  158      You're going to hate me after this, but you're going to know the Truth. See?

159    Look. Let's compare it. Here she comes up with a whole lot of paint, something that she's not, a modern bride. Wash her face, he'd run from her, maybe. Scare you to death, take all that stuff off of her. And so is the church with a big, painted front, a complete theological Max Factor. Uh-huh. Both has a--a beautiful, false face on them, man-made beauty and not God-made beauty. Not much character in either one.

160    Notice, just like Satan, enough to deceive by, compare the modern bride now with her: wears shorts, wears paints, cuts off her hair, wears clothes that look like men, and listen to a pastor that told her that was all right. He's a deceiver. He'll suffer for it in the regions beyond. That's right. Doing that to deceive, to be something that she's not.

 

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  161      That's the way the church does, gets big DD., Ph.D., LL.D. So you say, "Our pastor is this, that, and the other," maybe know no more about God than a Hottentot knows about Egyptian night. That's right. Right. Some theological seminary experience out there, and knows no more about God than nothing.

162    Modern church and their theological paint, have their women all with their glory shaved off, by their some ricky and a pastor that they got, like a Jezebel if there ever was one. Bobbed hair, shorts, paints, all fixed up in a theological taste, that's the way the church stand. Right. But her spiritual character is far from that being the homemaker that Jesus Christ is coming to receive.

 

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  163      If any Christian would marry a woman like that, it shows he's fallen from grace. His taste of God and his taste of a home, what a home ought to be, is far, when he choose a woman like that. No, sir. She sure wouldn't fit a Christian's taste. Her spiritual character is the lowest ebb, dead, in denominational beauty and lust of the world.

164    That's exactly where the church stands today, sold her Word-given character to Satan, for a scientific man-made religion. When, she had the right, as a church of God, to stay with the Word of God and have the Holy Spirit working among, welding the Body together with the Word and love of God. Instead of that, she sold out her birthrights, like Esau, and took a denomination, let her do it, anything she wanted to, right, just to be popular like her mother did at Nicaea Rome. God's Word!

165    Oh, how it's entered into our Pentecostal realm! It's too bad, but it did it.

 

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  166      Notice, just a minute, a nun in a Catholic church. That woman, to become a nun, and takes that last veil, she is absolutely sold out to that church. She is (soul, body, and spirit) property of that church. She has no mind of her own. She can't have, when she takes that last veil, no mind of her own, no will of her own. See out here, that Satan makes them his bogus, like the true.

167    The true Church of Christ, the Bride, is so sold out to Him and His promised Word, till the very mind that's in Christ is in you. What a different!

168    And we find today, that, the modern church, a modern world church. The modern world church and also that the spiritual Church are both pregnated, to give birth to sons.

169    One of them, a denominational birth, is going to be give, one day to these days, at the World Council of Churches, which will produce to the world the antichrist, through a denomination. That's exactly the Truth. I may not live to see it. I believe I will. But, you young people, remember that you heard a minister say that. That'll finally wind up. And that is the mark of the beast, when she forms that World Council of Churches. And she'll give birth to her son, the antichrist.

 

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  170      The other is pregnated by the Word of God and will bring forth the Body, the finished Body of Jesus Christ, which is the Bride. The Body of Christ isn't finished yet. How many knows that? A man and woman is one. And Christ is one Body, the Word. The Bride will have to be the rest of that Body. And the two, together, makes the one Body again. Like Adam was at the beginning: man, his wife, are one. Now, She, the true Bride, so sold out to Him, that She use no mind of Her own. His mind, of course, is His will, and His will is His Word.

 

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  171      Now look at the so-called bride chosen by man, and compare the spiritual to the natural of today, a modern Jezebel bewitched by her Ahab, Max Factor beauties, everything. Look at the church, the same way, but a prostitute to the Word of the living God; big denominations, big buildings, big money, big salary, all sold out. Men standing in the pulpit endorsing that that's all right, and let them get by with it. Just deceit, that's all. Truly a blind Laodicea Church Age, just exactly what the Bible said would be. "Said, 'I am rich. I set as a queen. I have need of nothing.' And knowest thou not that you're poor, miserable, blind, wretched, naked: and don't know it." If that isn't THUS SAITH THE LORD, Revelations 3, I've never read It. That's what she is, and don't know it! Think of it.

 

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  172      If you'd tell a man or a woman, on the street, that was stark naked, and tell them they were naked, and they say, "Tend to your own business," why, there's a mental deficiency there somewhere. There is something went wrong with their mind.

173    And when you can read the Word of God, how that people should do, and this baptism of the Holy Ghost that we have today, and, people, why, they look at you as if you were crazy. You tell them, "You've got... They got to be born again. They got to believe the Bible."

 

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  174      They say, "That was a Jewish fable, for years ago. Our church has the way." Wretched, miserable, blind, naked, and don't even know it. What a... And the Bible said that that's the condition they get into.

How could a true prophet ever miss seeing it? I don't know.

175    Drifting right into all of our churches, everywhere. Just look at it, just in the modern trend. "The old whore and daughters," of Revelations 17, giving to the "poor, blind, miserable" people her doctrine of theology contrary to the Word of God. "And they found in her the souls of slaves, and men and women of--of everywhere." Instead of attracting the people...

176    Christ does vindicates His Word, which attracts the people. He don't attract the people at churches that are attracted by big denominations and big doings, and great big carry-on's and fancy things. But the Word of God attracts the Bride of Christ.

 

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  177      Now notice. It's interesting to--to notice how that--that the church tries to attract the attention of the people by fine robes and dressed choirs, and bobbed-haired women and painted faces. And they think... And it sang like an Angel. Lie like a devil, run around all night to a dance like, think nothing about it. And that's what they think, "It's all right. That's beautiful." But, you see, that's false-made. That's not the Word of God.

 

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  178      While, the true Bride attracts the attention of God, by keeping His Word. Now notice. Now let us notice Christ.

179    You say, "Well, now, wait a minute, what about this beauty you're talking about?"

180    The Bible said, in Isaiah 53:2, that, when Jesus come, "There was no beauty of Him, that we should desire Him." That right? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] There's no beauty. If He would have come in the worldly beauty, as Satan is today, the people would have run around Him and accept Him the way they do the church today. They would have believed Him, received Him, as they do Satan today. Certainly, they would. But He didn't come in that kind of a beauty, but He always comes in the beauty of character. There, Christ wasn't a beautiful, great, strong, stout Man. God doesn't choose that kind.

 

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  181      I remember one time a prophet went up to--to take a king, to make a king out of Jesse's son, to take another king's place, Saul. And so Jesse brought him out, his great, big, fine boy. He said, "The crown will look right, on his head."

182    The prophet went to pour the oil on him. He said, "God has refused him." And He refused every one of them, till he come to a little, old stoop-shouldered, ruddy-looking fellow. And he poured the oil upon him, and he said, "God chose him." See? We choose by sight. God choose by character.

183    Character, there never was a character like Jesus Christ. It lives in you and manifests Him. We see it's true. It's not worldly beauty of Him that attracts His Bride. It is His character, the character of the Church, that Jesus looks for; not where it's big buildings, where it's great denominations, where it's big membership. He promised to meet with wherever two or three are gathered together. Truly. That's where the true believer rests his hopes, is upon that Word of God being vindicated in Truth, what is. Choose by His Word, not a worldly-loving group. They hate that.

184    No wonder she is divorced from Him, because she's missed His revelation, and she don't have it. He cares not for her, the way she acts and does, and how much of this worldly stuff she has.

 

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  185      He's looking for her character, the character of Christ. Now, just a moment now. That's it. He chooses a Bride to reflect His character, to which the modern churches of today certainly misses His--His program here, a million miles, 'cause they deny This to be the Truth. So how could it be? Now, He's looking for the day for that Bride to be formed, Hebrews 13:8, just exactly like It was, like He was. It's got to be His same flesh, same bones, same Spirit, same everything, just exactly built up, and them two then become one. Until the church becomes that, they're not one. The character of Him, the Word, for this age, must be molded. She must be molded like He is.

 

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  186      Now, in closing, I want to say the reason that I said these things, and I'll--I'll close. The other night, about three o'clock in the morning, I was awakened up.

187    I take any of you to answer this. Have I ever told you anything in the Name of the Lord but what it was right? It's always been right. [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] So help me, God knows that's true. There is no one, nowhere in the world, of the thousands of things that's been told, that He has ever missed one word of it. Always been perfectly come to pass.

188    Even to when I was at Phoenix, the other day, or about a year ago it was, and told you about that Message on--on What Time Is It, Sirs? And told you, "Seven Angels would meet out there," and be the opening of these Seals, and what. And there the--the Life magazine packed the article of it, this great Flame going up in the air, thirty miles high, twenty-seven miles across. They said they couldn't make out what it was; don't know yet. And men setting right here in this building tonight, was standing right there with me when it happened, just exactly what It said. He told me the things was coming to pass, and happened just exactly. How each of those Seals opened, and told the mysteries that had been hid down through them ages of the reformers and so forth, just perfectly.

 

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  189      How, standing up on top the hill, men, three or four of them standing right here present now, yes, more than that. Going up the hill, the Holy Spirit said, "Pick up that rock." We were hunting. He said, "Throw it up in the air, and say, 'THUS SAITH THE LORD.'" I did. Down from there come a little funnel of wind. I said, "Within twenty-four hours, you'll see the hand of God." Men setting right here present now.

190    The next day, about ten o'clock, standing there, I said, "Get ready. Get under the car there," a veteran. I said, "Something is fixing to happen." It was a clear sky, right up in a big canyon. Down come a whirling Fire from Heaven, just as hard as It could scream, hit the walls like that. I--I was standing right under It. I took off my hat, held my head. It come about three feet or four feet above me, and cut a ditch plumb around that wall like that, and blasted. And went back up in the air, and whirled around again, and come down, three times, even had cut the tops of mesquite bushes out, for two hundred yards. Hear them fellows saying, "Amen"? They were there when it happened, see, and made three blasts.

 

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  191      When they got out from under the cars and everything, come back over, said, "That would hit you, there wouldn't been a greasy spot."

192    I said, "It was--It was Him. He was talking to me." God speaks by a whirlwind. See? And there was that same Pillar of Fire that you see on the picture, standing there.

And when It went up, they said, "What is it?"

I said, "Judgment is striking the West Coast."

193    Second day from there, Alaska like to sunk. See? It struck once, there, the first blow.

194    Where, you have to do something, to symbolize it. Like a man put some salt in a cruse, and throwed it in the water, and said, "THUS SAITH THE LORD, let there be sweet water." And another one, Jesus picked up water and poured it into a jug, and--and made wine out of it.

195    You have to have something, to symbolize. That's what that was, that went up in the air and come down. That started that little whirlwind. Within twenty-four hours, It had shook that mountain till it cut a ridge around it.

 

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  196      Rev. Mr. Blair sitting here, I'm looking right at him now, he was up there and picked up some of the pieces of it, and so forth. Here is Terry Sothmann, them, and standing here, and Billy Paul. And brothers, some of many of these others setting in here, that was right there to see it happen when It tore it out.

197    That's not fiction. That's the truth. That wasn't back in the Bible days. That's now. See? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] That same God that's always showed me these things, and they've come to pass, exactly to the letter. Never have they failed one time. Now I'm bragging on Him.

 

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  198      A few weeks ago, I was in a vision. And I was standing up on a--a high place, and I was to see the preview of the Church. And I noticed, coming from my... I was standing more like this way, facing the West. And coming this way was the lovely bunch of women, real nice dress, long hair fixed nice in the back, sleeves, and skirts down neatly. And they were all in a marching tune, like, "Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before." And as they passed by, I stood, and there was Something there, some Spirit, was God, and said, "There is the Bride." And I looked, and my heart was happy. And She went around this way, and passed around behind me.

199    After while, when she come back this way, It said, "Now the modern church will come into preview." And here come the Asian church up. I never seen such a filthy bunch.

200    Here come the other churches up, of the different nation. They looked horrible.

 

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  201      And I--I say this because I'm duty bound to tell the truth, before God. And when He said, "Here comes the church of America now, to be previewed." If I ever seen a bunch of devils, it was that. Them women were stripped naked, with an old gray-looking thing, like a color of an elephant's hide. And they was holding it in front of them, with no upper part on it at all. And they were doing this kind of stuff, that, these--these dances that these kids do out here, that twist and stuff, and that kind of music going on. And when I seen Miss U.S.A. come up, I almost fainted.

202    Now, this is THUS SAITH THE LORD. You believe me to be His servant. You believe me now. I wouldn't say that for nothing in the world. There's not enough money in all the world to get me to say that if it wasn't true.

203    And when she come by, that was the filthiest-looking thing I ever seen. I thought, "God, as hard as preachers and we brethren have labored to get You a Bride, and that's the best we could do." She was twisting, holding this in front of her, like one of these hula skirts of a thing, holding it in front of her parts, her lower part, like this, dancing and twisting like these kids do out here on the... on these vulgar shows that they have, twisting. That was Miss Christianity of America.

 

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  204      So help me, by the help of God, that's what it looks like in His face. I--I just... I start... I could have fainted. I thought, "All the trying, and the preaching, and the persuading?" Every one of them with bobbed hair, and they were twisting and carrying on, holding this in front. They come around, where I was standing there with this supernatural Being. I couldn't see Him. I'd hear Him talking to me; was right around me. But when they turned this way, they hold this. And just twisting and laughing and going on, carrying on like that, holding this in front of them.

205    Now, me standing in His Presence there, and His servant. "And of all I tried, that's the best I could do?" I thought, "God, what good did it do me? What good did it do? All the crying, and begging, and persuading, and the great signs and wonders and miracles that You showed. And how I stood there, and go home and cry after preaching to them and things, and what good did it do me? And then I have to present something like that for You, for a Bride?"

 

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  206      And as I stood there, looking, she passed on by. And you can imagine the back part of her, with nothing on, holding this in front of her as she went shimmying by, like that, to this twist, throwing her limbs out like that. And, her, oh, it was vulgar, how she was carrying on, her body shaking around like that. Now I...

207    You say, "What does it mean, Brother Branham?" I don't know. I'm just telling you what I seen.

208    And when she passed by like that, I looked at her. Oh, I just got real faint. I just turned around. I thought, "God, I'm condemned. There--there's no need of me trying any now. Just might as well quit."

209    Mrs. Carl Williams, if you're setting here, and that dream that you told me about, a while ago, that you had the other night, that's been bothering you, there it is. The steering wheel is taken from my hand.

 

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  210      Then, I just thought, "I--I just might as well forget it." I was gone.

211    Then, all at once, I heard It coming again. And coming up on this side come the same Bride that went around this a way. Here come them little ladies again, and each one of them was dressed in their national garb from where they come from, like Switzerland, Germany, and so forth, each one wearing that kind of garb, all long hair, just exactly like the one at the first. And here they was coming, walking. "Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war." And when they passed by the preview stand where we were standing, just all at once, every eye went that way. And then they turned back, and on they went, marching, and just as they started to going right up into the sky.

212    This other one went up to a brink of a hill and went down, like that.

213    These started marching right up into the sky. And when they went to marching, I noticed a couple of little girls in the back, looked like they might be of some foreign girl, like Sweden or Switzerland, or somewhere. They started to look around, and got... I said, "Don't do that! Don't get out of that step!" And as I screamed like that, I come to, in the vision, standing there with my hand out like that. I thought, "Well..."

 

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  214      That's the reason I said what I have, tonight. I want to ask you a question. Is it later that we think? Could She already be called and chosen, sealed away? There won't be one extra one, you know. Could it be possible? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

215    Remember what I said, other day at the breakfast. In the pollen of breeding male and female, there's a million germs goes forth, million eggs goes forth. But there's only one of them live, and, yet, they're every one just alike: one out of a million. Every one of them, the same egg and the same kind of germ. One of them lives. The rest of them die.

216    No one can tell which is the one that's a ripe egg, and, oh, what about it. God has to decide that, whether it's going to be a boy or girl, blond or brunette, or whatever it's going to be. God decides that. Not the first one meets, but the first one God has decide. Maybe one come up here, and one... If you ever noticed, in the test tube, to see them come together. I've watched it. God has to decide that. One, every one of them, just alike, but by election. The natural birth is by election. God takes one out of the million.

 

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  217      When Israel left Egypt, on their road to the promised land, they were approximately two million people. Every one of them was under the same sacrificial lamb, or they wouldn't have lived. Every one of them listened to Moses, the prophet. Every one of them was baptized to him, in the Red Sea. Every one of them danced, the women with Miriam, up-and-down the side of (when) the seashore, when God destroyed the enemy. Every one of them stood with Moses, and heard him sing in the Spirit. They, every one, eat manna out of the wilderness, that dropped down from Heaven. New manna, every night, which is a type of the Message, every one of them eat from it. But, out of the two million, how many made it? Two. One out of a million.

218    There's approximately five hundred million Christians in the world tonight, counting Catholic and all. Five hundred million so-called believers in the world. If the Rapture come tonight, that would mean... if one out of a million was the count. I don't say it is. But if it was, five hundred people, in the next twenty-four hours, would be missing. You'd never even hear of it. There'll be that many missing, anyhow, can't even be counted for.

 

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  219      Then it could be, happen to us, friend, like it did when John the Baptist came. Even the disciples said, "Why did the Scriptures say, why do the--the apostles or the prophets say, why does it say that Elias must first come and restore all things?"

220    He said, "I say unto you that Elias has already come, and you didn't know it."

221    One of these days we could be left setting here, "What about the Rapture before the tribulation sets in?"

"It's already come and you didn't know it."

 

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  222      All the Body, sealed in, just keeping It in step. I ain't saying it's that way. I hope it isn't that way. But, friend, when it lets...

223    If we got a feel in our heart, tonight, that we should straighten up our lives, and the things that we have done, let me advise you, as a minister brother. I'm going to say this for my first time, over the pulpit. I've stretched out farther tonight, on This, than I have on anything else, any time, anyhow, before the public, because I've had a great freedom in these meetings. If you believe me to be God's prophet, you listen to what I've told you. If there's one little tinkle of feeling in your heart, you go to God right now. You do it.

 

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  224      Stop just a minute, men. Look at your--your creeds that you serve. Look in your churches. Is it just exactly with the Word of God? Have you met every qualification? Say, "I'm a good man." So was Nicodemus, and so was all the rest. They--they were fine. See? That don't have nothing to do with It.

225    And, women, I want you to look in the mirror, and look what God requires a woman to do. And see in God's mirror, not in your church mirror now, in God's mirror; and see if you could qualify, in your life, the spiritual Bride of Jesus Christ.

226    Ministers, think the same. Do you cut corners here, to save somebody's feelings over yonder? Would you do this if it wasn't... and they'll put you out of the church? If you are feeling that way, my dear brother, let me warn you, in the Name of Jesus Christ, flee from that right now.

227    And, lady, if you can't measure up to the qualification of a Christian, not as a nominal Christian; but in your heart, and your life is patterned exactly like God's marriage certificate here says it has to be.

228    And, church member, if your church isn't like that, can measure up to God's qualification of His Word, get out of it and get into Christ.

 

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  229      That is solemn warning. We don't know what time, and you don't know what time, that this city one day is going to be laying out here in the bottom of this ocean.

230    "Oh, Capernaum," said Jesus, "thou who exalted into heaven, will be brought down into hell. For, if the mighty works had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, it'd have been standing to this day." And Sodom, Gomorrah lays in the bottom of the Dead Sea. And Capernaum is in the bottom of the sea.

231    Thou city, who claims to be the city of the Angels, who has exalted yourself into heaven, and sent all the dirty, filthy things of fashions and things, till even the foreign countries come here to pick up our filth and send it away, to your fine churches and steeples, and so forth, the way you do. Remember, one day you'll be laying in the bottom of the sea, your great honeycomb under you right now. The wrath of God is belching right beneath you. How much longer He will hold this sandbar hanging out over that? When, that ocean out yonder, a mile deep, will slide in there, plumb back to the Salton Sea. It'll be worse than the last day of Pompeii. Repent, Los Angeles.

232    Repent, the rest of you, and turn to God. The hour of His wrath is upon the earth. Flee while there's time to flee, and come into Christ.

Let us pray.

 

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  233      Dear God, when, in my spirit, is shaking, my heart is dropping teardrops of warning. Grant, O God, that men and women will not think of what I've said as a joke, and the church people will not think of it as something that was prejudice or against them. May they see, Lord, it's in love.

234    Thou barest me record, Almighty God, that up-and-down this coast I've went, year after year, proclaiming Your Word. Bear me record, O God, if it would happen tonight, I've told the Truth. Thou knowest this vision of the Bride is the Truth. I've took Your Name by it, Lord, and said it was THUS SAITH THE LORD. And I feel that I'm conscious, Lord, of what I'm doing.

235    So I pray Thee, Lord, in Jesus' Name, let people shake themselves, tonight, and flee from the wrath that is to come, for Ichabod is wrote over the doors and over the nations. A black check mark has come across it. The Spirit of God is grieved away from it, and they're weighed in the balances and found wanting. The feast of King Nebuchadnezzar has repeated again, with drunken parties and half-dressed women, calling themselves Christians.

 

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  236      O God of Heaven, have mercy upon a sinful world and a sinful people, Lord, as we are tonight. God, I'm trying to stand in the breach and ask for Divine mercy, that You'll speak into this crowd tonight and call Your Bride to attention, Lord, to march not by the sign of any creed, but by the sound of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grant it, O God. Let it be known, this night, that Thou art God, and Thy Word is Truth. While, solemnly, in the face of this people, we call them to attention of Thy Word.

237    In the Name of Jesus Christ, I pray for them, Lord. They have seen You, beyond any shadow of doubt, move across their crowds and tell them what's in their heart. And Thou knowest, Lord, that, right now, what's going on. Thou knowest that to be Truth, O God. And I pray Thee, in Jesus' Name, let the Holy Spirit intercede again, Lord, and pull from this audience, Lord, those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Grant it, O God. I pray with all my heart.

238    These people, naturally, Lord, would give me the last penny they had, to support the Message. They'd do anything that they could. But, O God, when it comes to coping with It, and coming into It, I pray, God, that this will be the night that You'll reward them and pour down Your Holy Spirit upon this convention. And may there not be a frolic or jumping around, but a weeping and a crying, and a repenting, holding onto the horns of the altar, while we see judgments roaring beneath us, tonight. Grant it, God. I pray as sincerely as I know how, in the Name of Jesus Christ.

 

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  239      My brother, sister, I--I don't know what more to say, if I found grace in your sight, by the power of God, if you believe me to be His prophet. This is the first time in public I've ever said that. But I feel a strange warning of some sort. I'm not prone to this. You know I'm not. I don't act like this. I hesitated to speak that Message and say those things. I run sideways and everything else, to keep from doing it. But It's been said, and It'll stand at the Day of the Judgment, as a witness that I've told the Truth. That's THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD!...?...

240    Oh, Pentecost, run for your life. Flee to the horns of the altar and cry out, before it's too late, for an hour will come when you can cry and it'll do no good. For Esau sought to find a place, of his birthright, and couldn't find it. I commit you, oh, California. Oh, convention of the Full Gospel Business Men, who I love, who I've left and strung to, with all my heart, I commit you to Jesus Christ, tonight. Flee to Him! Don't let the Devil ever cool you off from This. Stay right with It until you're, every one, filled with the Holy Ghost, insomuch, that will make you come to this Word, that will make you women straighten up, that will make you men straighten up. If you'd say you've got the Holy Ghost, and won't cope with the Word, it's another spirit in you. God's Spirit is on His Word, the Messianic, the anointed Word. The Bride must be a Messiah-ette, the anointed Word.

 

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  241      Let us stand to our feet, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you never hear my voice again... But, God willing, I'm setting to Africa, in a few hours. I may never return. I don't know. But I tell you, with all my heart, I've told you the Truth. I haven't shunned to declare to you everything that God has told me to say. And I've said It in the Name of the Lord.

242    It's a solemn moment. I don't know how to express it. I've tried to leave the pulpit three or four times, and I can't do it. This is a solemn hour. Don't you never forget it. This is the time that, maybe, God may be making His last call. I don't know. He'll make His last call, some day. When? I don't know. But I'm telling you, according to that vision, it looks like that that Bride is about finished.

243    Look at the nominal churches coming in. When the sleeping virgin come for Oil, she failed to get It. The Bride went in. The Rapture went up. "While they went to buy Oil, the Bridegroom come."

244    Are you asleep? Wake up, quickly, and come to yourself. And let us pray, each one, like we were dying at this minute, in the Name of the Lord. Let's, each one, pray in your own way.

 

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  245      God Almighty, have mercy upon us. Lord, have mercy on me. Have mercy upon us all. What good does it do, no matter what we do, if we fail in these things? I stand and ask for mercy, O God, before this great city sinks beneath the sea and judgments of God sweep this coast. I pray, God, that You'll call Your Bride. I commit them to You now, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.