The Presence
of Jesus Christ
The Parousia of Christ
BY
Brian Joseph Kocourek
Pastor
Grace Fellowship Tabernacle
(513) 932-2156
The Parousia of Christ
During the ministry of William Branham, there
were two things that caused more controversy among the denominational and
Pentecostal churches than anything else, and these were:
#1)
Brother Branham's use of the term Vindication:
"That, God has a One man Message and He deals
with One man only". This caused much of the clergy to alienate brother
Branham, which was due mostly to professional jealousy.
#2) Brother Branham's
teaching on the Godhead, for He did not
teach as the Oneness or Jesus Only, nor did he teach a
Trinity. He said, I
stand in between them. I do not believe in a Trinity where there is three persons, and he also said, neither do I believe that Jesus is One like your finger is
One. In fact most people seem to
think he was oneness, but he denied being oneness. When he preached the Godhead
Explained, E-74 he said, Many of you people listening to this
would say, "Brother Branham is a Oneness." I am not. I think you're
both wrong, both oneness and trinity. Not to be different, but it's always the
middle of the road." These two doctrinal issues were the "Rock
of Offense" that kept brother Branham from being accepted by the Church
world in His day. Why is it that the Trinitarian Cult chasers brandish brother
Branham as a Oneness and yet the Oneness think he is
Trinitarian. It is because he was neither of these two schools of thought? He
stood right between them, and they could not discern the difference, but they
knew he didn't preach it like they do. He was not Oneness,
neither was he Two-ness or Three-ness. But he believed there is One God who had
a Son. Not God the Son, but the Son of God. It should come then as no surprise
that amongst the very followers of William Branham, these same two major
doctrines have caused more controversy and have been attacked more than all
others.
Doctrine #1) Again Vindication
is the issue: Not so much that it was God who backed up William Branham's Message,
for all Pentecostal people believe that God works out of heaven and does
fantastic things. They will even allow for God to come down to do certain
things, but the understanding that this Vindication comes in the form of God's
Personal Presence with His prophet, and that this Presence was referred to by
Brother Branham himself as the Appearing of Christ has become the central
doctrinal debate within the "Message clergy" because it comes into
direct conflict with their understanding of the Second coming of Christ as they
have always perceived it, and this is due to the fact that they do not
understand Godhead correctly.
DOORS
IN DOOR 65-0206 119 And then you see His appearing, His
Presence, and what He does. He's always with His people, His Bride. He's
courting her. Someday there's going to be a wedding supper.
Doctrine #2) Godhead : Again, most people who have
come into the "Message" have come from a Trinitarian background. The
problem is that they have left the Trinitarians and became Oneness in their
thinking, until perhaps 99% of the people who claim to follow the message today
are Oneness in their thinking. This is due to the fact they have failed to
really listen to what brother Branham taught us on the Godhead. And because of
professional jealousy amongst the clergy again, we see the same alienation of
those who have stood by what Brother Branham has taught pertaining to the
correct understanding of the Appearing and Godhead.
From pp. 202 [Identified
Christ of all ages], 64-0617 brother Branham said, "The Presence of Jesus Christ, which ought to
illuminate the church, to know that in this last days where creeds and
denominations and isms and everything has got the Word all smothered out,
and Jesus the Word on the outside of the church, [Rev 3: 20, James 5: 7-9, John 12: 48, 2 Thess
1: 7-10 , Matt 16:27,] and to see Him
come right back among the people and identify Himself as He promised,
"in the last days when the Son of man is being revealed." He was
revealed in the baptism; He was revealed in Divine
healing; here He is in His last attribute. Remember, that was the last
thing that Abraham saw before the fire fell and Judged the
Gentile world, and before the promised son came on the scene, Isaac.
This is the last thing that the Christian church will see, in the sign of
miracle, until the appearing of Jesus Christ. If God has give me favor before
you, believe me in the Name of the Lord, there is nothing else left in the
Bible to be done but take on the mark of the beast; and you have the Seal of
God. And What did Abraham call
him? He said, Shall not the Judge of the earth do
right? So we see that the Judge has once again come down in the Form of The
Word to judge amongst the Living and the dead. For if He must bring forth a
resurrection, then He must have already chosen who will come forth and He is
here to execute this Judgment. This is why in his Message [Perfect Faith]
he could say "I'm standing before the White Throne, now."
Again we notice brother Branham's gift of
discernment. And what is discernment but a judging. And Who Judges but a Judge.
And this is why brother Branham made such a point in showing the people the
Picture in [Life Magazine] of the
Cloud of angels which made up God's White Wig, which he called the "Supreme
Judge". Unless the people can see that the Judge is here, they won't
understand the last attribute that God is manifesting to them before we are
caught up to meet Jesus His Son in the air. We shall study this more in the
chapter on the Glory [Doxa] of Christ.
I hope you enjoy this book. I will publish more
chapters as the Lord permits. God bless you.
" This is my
ministry, see, to declare Him, that He's here!" [From
That Time PP. 227]
These eleven words could very well be the most
profound statement that Brother Branham ever said, and yet the majority of people who claim to follow his message simply
pass over these words and do not understand what he was trying to tell them.
In [ACTS 13:41]
Paul not only used these same words, but he let us know that this was speaking
of a future time. He prophesied that there would come
a ministry in the end time that would declare the very Presence of the
Resurrected Christ among the people, and although Christ would vindicate
His own Presence among the people at this time, they would still refuse to
believe it. "Behold you scoffers, be
astonished and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye
shall utterly refuse to believe, though a man fully declare
it unto you."
The scripture tells us a man will fully declare
the ministry of the resurrected Lord Christ among the people, yet the people
who hear him will refuse to believe this declaration. "He came to His Own and His own received Him not."
The Message of Christ's Appearing went forth from the lips of God's anointed
servant William Branham to the Pentecostal people and God Himself backed up
this Message of His own Appearing, showing infallible proofs of His
resurrection and Presence, yet even those who claimed to receive Brother
Branham and claim to believe every word he said, reject the very message he
brought. I have heard these same men on their own tapes call this Presence of
Christ, "just another doctrine" and some have even called it
"Puke" because in their ignorance they could not pronounce the word
"Parousia". Others have even called it "garbage". To think that these men know what this word means and yet would
call the very Presence of God, "Garbage or Puke". Jesus
Himself said, "To speak one word against the
Holy Ghost when He comes will never be forgiven, no not in this world or the
world to come."
The scripture says, "Had they known who He was, they would not have
crucified the Lord of Glory". So in their own ignorance
they crucified Christ. And since the scriptures can not be broken, [Hebrews 6:4-6] tells us that this will repeat
again in this last days. " For it
is impossible for those who have been once for all enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly Gift (The Lord Christ Himself) and were made partakers
(companions) of the Holy Ghost, having fallen away, it is impossible for them
to renew themselves again, seeing that they crucify the Son of God afresh and
put Him to an open shame ( public disgrace)."
Now brother Branham taught us that [Hebrews 6] refers to Christ
in the Form of the Word in the last days. So we see then that these men will be judged for their blasphemous
words and yet they claim that they have always known Christ is here, for, say
they, " He's always been here. I know He's here because I can feel
Him in my heart." They are simply deceived by their own
indoctrination and as the scripture calls them, "Ignorant in their our own conceit."
Brother Branham said in His message entitled 'A
DECEIVED CHURCH' "But as
Brother Branham said that his ministry was to
declare that Christ is here among us. Now, if Christ
has always been here, as some people
preach, and if the people also knew it, then, why would God send a
prophet forth to declare something that was already known. God has never
wasted His time sending forth a Messenger with a Message that the people
already knew. From the [TOKEN pp. 73] (3-8-64) He said, "When you see signs going on, and no Message behind it, just
the same old school of theology and on down, that wasn't from God. But where
there is a sign showed, a message follows it."
He said, "This
is My Ministry, see? To declare Him! That He's
Here!" Now most of the people that follow the Message of
God's servant William Branham believe the Message of the hour is,
"God sent a prophet! "They believe
that the Message was to get you to see who brother Branham was. Now, I would
like to ask, since when has God sent forth a Messenger to declare himself.
Since when has any Messenger of God come forth with a Message, "Look,
here I am. God sent me!" Even Jesus said, "If I bear
witness of myself, my witness is not true." So for brother Branham
to come and preach about himself would make himself
not true just as Jesus said. So then what is the Message? He said, ""This is My Ministry, see? To declare Him! That He's
Here!"
Now this is a two fold Message. Number 1) To declare Christ, and Number 2
) To declare His very Presence among us. I am sure that he said what he meant and he meant what
he said. He didn't come just to pass on more Pentecostal teaching as some would like you to believe.
His whole Purpose in Life was to declare Christ, that He has
come down with a shout, which he said was a message to gather the bride
to Christ the Word, to get her ready for a rapture.
Now in examining what he
said, we must know what it means to declare
something. The word declare
is a Greek word exegesis meaning to lead forth into view;
to make clearly known, to reveal. The scripture speaks in various places
that the Son of Man is to be revealed in the last days, yet
why is it that they will accept the fact that God has sent a
prophet, but they will deny the very ministry that the
prophet says he is sent to bring? Brother Branham's Message was surely greater
than the Pentecostal message that had preceded
him by many years. If you would just stop
for a moment and examine the theme of His Message to
the End-time Bride, you will find even the titles of his sermons
a sure give away as to his real purpose.
1) [A GREATER THAN
SOLOMON IS HERE] Now why would he preach this? What is his
purpose? Was he pointing the people to Himself, or to the same One that John
pointed the people to. Christ among us. John said,
"He's standing in your midst and you don't know it."
2) [IDENTIFIED
CHRIST OF ALL AGES] What does
it mean the Identified Christ? How is Christ to
be identified? Who does the
identifying? How does it take place? When
is it to take place? Why is it to take place?
3) [THE MIGHTY GOD UNVEILED BEFORE US] The word unveiled let's us know that which was
hidden comes into plain view, that which was a mystery is now
revealed. So the Mighty God must now be in plain view. And if in plain view, then He must be here to be viewed or on display.
Then we must ask the question, How is He to be
unveiled? The answer lies in this very Message
brother Branham preached.
4) [WHO DO YOU SAY THIS
IS?] And that is the question. Many
don't know who is here. Who was brother Branham
speaking about? It could not have been himself, because when he uses the word
THIS it refers to another, not self. Who was that other if it wasn't Christ
Himself? Also you will note, if he spoke of Jesus back there he would have
said, Who do you say that was? But he is bringing it
into present tense.
5) [THE UNRECOGNIZED
PRESENCE OF GOD] This title alone
ought to let you know that He is here but unrecognized.
Why is He unrecognized? Because they expected Him
to come another way.
6) [WHO IS THIS
MELCHISEDEC?] Notice the emphasis is on WHO IS THIS, which
signifies that he was pointing to someone. If he was speaking only in a
historical sense he would have said, WHO WAS THIS or WHO WAS THAT?) I believe
Brother Branham was trying to show us the same One Who came down and indwelled
the body of flesh in Abraham's day is here today doing the same thing.
7) [LOOK]
Brother Branham preached this sermon shortly after he preached the Seven Seals
and he began by saying, "now a person says "LOOK" when he
wants you to see something that he sees but that you don’t".
8) [CHRIST IS THE
MYSTERY OF GOD REVEALED] The emphasis
is not that Christ was the Mystery but that He is
the mystery that is being revealed here now, among us. If this was referring to
a historical Jesus of 2,000 years ago, he would have said, "Christ was the
Mystery of God Revealed.")
9) [WHAT SHALL I DO
WITH THIS JESUS CALLED CHRIST?]
That is a fair question to ask you today as you read this book. What will you
do with this Jesus Who is here?
10) [LOOKING UNTO
JESUS] Now how could we look unto Jesus if He is somewhere
else and can not be seen?
11) [JESUS
KEEPS ALL HIS APPOINTMENTS] And what
appointment do we expect in this last hour. He's here
keeping His appointments as He declared in His Word. As you
read this book you shall see many of the things we shall examine
these in detail later in this book.
12) [CHRIST
REVEALED IN HIS OWN WORD] The answer as to how He has revealed
His Presence and Himself to us in this last hour
is exactly what this message declares. He is revealed in His own Word.
As we can see, the
central theme of His entire message was to declare CHRIST,
and His Presence among us. But the Pentecostals
have rejected His message in favor of there old worn out message.
From [Q
& A ON THE HOLY GHOST] 59-1219 PG. 425-75,
he said, "When the Holy Spirit comes in and reveals the
Truth of anything and proves it by His Own Presence and by His Word,
you can’t expect the Pentecostal people to say I’ll agree with
it! You’ve got to stand alone like Luther did, like Wesley did, like the rest
of them did."
Now he said that His ministry was to declare
that Christ was here among us, and the word
"declare" means: To make known openly by an explicit or clear
statement to show or reveal. So what was he saying when
he said, ""This is My
Ministry, see? To declare Him! That He's
Here!"
Brother Branham is telling us that His whole
ministry was for one purpose and one purpose
only, and that was to introduce or declare Christ's Presence.
His great commission was thus, "As John the Baptist foreran My
first coming, so shall your Message forerun my second."
John the Baptist's ministry was for one purpose
and one purpose only, to introduce Christ. Now, would John's ministry even be needed if everyone had
already known that Christ was present? Wouldn't brother Branham's statement
be considered absurd if he came with a message
to tell us what we already knew? Does not the
word Declare tell us by definition that it is to "Make fully
known", something that wasn't known. Brother
Branham was saying, " My ministry is
to declare Him, that He is here."
Just before he said these most notable words, he
said the following. E-102
"How many knows there’s a difference
between the Appearing of Christ and the Coming of Christ? It’s
two different words. Now’s the Appearing; the coming will soon be. He’s Appearing in the midst
of us, doing the works that He once did, in His church. Now you are
a part of that church, and by grace you believe. I am a member of that Church.'
" Now if we truly believe
that brother Branham was God's ordained Messenger for this age,
then we must examine carefully what he was trying to tell us.
If in fact Christ has always been here,
then what do we need a prophet to tell us what we already know. In [JOHN 1:18] we read " No
man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of
the Father, He hath declared Him." As Scofield noted,
"He hath literally led Him forth into full revelation. The
example we see of this declaring is in Jesus' answer to Philip in [JOHN 14: 9] He that hath seen Me hath seen
the Father. Jesus went on to say that this declaring of the Father
would repeat.
CONVINCED
AND THEN CONCERNED 62-0521 E-31 031 Now, John was so
sure that he was going to see the Messiah, till he said, "He's in our
midst now." Now, watch. Notice. There's a great
big difference in the sign of Jesus appearing, and then Jesus coming. There's two different
words, means two different things: the
appearing of the Lord, and the coming of the Lord. Now, the appearing of the Lord is now, when
He's appearing in His people, His Spirit working among them, proving that it's
Him with them, getting them ready for the rapture, for the coming of the Lord
to catch away His--the Bride (See?): the appearing
and the coming. All
right. Now.
END
TIME EVANGELISM 62-0603 50 030 Same thing today, when
you see His work. Now, we have already seen and
are witnessing the appearing of the Lord. Now
remember, appearing and coming is two different words: to appear and then to come. Now is
the appearing; He's already appeared in these last days, right here with us in
the last few years. Now, it's a sign of His coming. He's appearing in His
Church in the form of the Holy Spirit, showing that it's Him, 'cause people
cannot do these things that you see the Holy Spirit doing; so that's the
appearing of the Lord. Now, you remember, it
spoke both places, "appearing" and "coming."
LETTING
OFF THE PRESSURE 62-0609E E-58
058 But
if you can beat all that away from you, say, "Lord God, I believe just
exactly what Your Word says, and I believe (as we preached last night), that
the appearing of the Lord comes before the
coming of the Lord," for it's just
two different words altogether. See? Now's the
appearing, as He promised in the
last days that He'd be with us.
IT IS I
BE NOT AFRAID 62-0611 E-81 081 You know,
there's a difference between the appearing of
Christ and the coming of Christ. That's two different
words altogether. He's appearing now in His church. We see Him; we know it's
Him. It's the Holy Spirit. See? We know it is.
BE NOT
AFRAID 62-0620 E-66 066 There's a different word used. The appearing of
Christ and the coming
of Christ (See?) it's, two different words
altogether. See? Now, Christ is appearing in these last days in His
church, bringing His church together in unity, and faith, and power in the
Word, all together; that when He returns He will find the same church.
WE WOULD
SEE JESUS 62-0627 E-76 076 Civilization has
traveled with the sun. The sun rose in the east, and the same sun, s-u-n, that
rises in the east is the same s-u-n that sets in the west. We've had a dismal
day, as the Bible said, neither called day nor night--enough to join church,
and to do good, and so forth. But it shall be light
about the evening time. And the same S-o-n, Son of God, that rose
yonder in the east on the eastern people, and showed His blessings and power...
It's been a dismal day, but now on the west coast... If we go any farther, we
go back to
FROM
THAT TIME 62-0713
E-102 102 How
many knows there's a difference between the
appearing of Christ and the coming of Christ? It's
two different words. Now's the appearing, the coming will soon be. He's appearing in the midst of us, doing the
works that He once did, in His church. Now, you're a part of that church, and
by grace you believe. I am a member of that church.
GOD
HAS A PROVIDED WAY 62-0728 E-81 Now, remember
these two words before I leave you: the appearing of Christ and the coming
of Christ is two
different things. Christ is now appearing
in the fullness of His power. His coming will be afterwards: His appearing before His coming.
Again we see in [1 JOHN 1:1-3] "That which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we
have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of Life. (For the
Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto
you that Eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
that which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, that ye may have
fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship with the Father, and with His Son
Jesus Christ. " The purpose for this study then as now is to invite
you into this fellowship which comes from the "Presence"
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who has once again in
this last day come down to earth and has manifested His
PRESENCE among us in a way which He has not for over 2,000 years.
He has returned, once again veiled in the Pillar of Fire. Misunderstanding
surrounding this "PRESENCE" have resulted
in many questions being asked through-out "The Message".
Hopefully this study shall answer some of
these questions and quell some of the commentary as well. This study is in no
way all conclusive on the matter but is meant to
be only a help to those who have questions concerning this Great
event: "His Presence".
We shall refer to the Greek word Parousia through
out this study by it's English equivalent (Presence).
The word "Parousia" actually
means "the act of arrival and subsequent
presence." It focuses the attention not on the arrival but
on the events after the arrival, or the
Presence. It has been used to refer
to Christ's Presence here among us. It has been called a new doctrine by some, but it
is not. Actually the doctrine of the Parousia
or more commonly known as "The Presence" is
as old as the bible itself. Jesus, in the book of
Matthew spoke of it, Luke spoke of it, Peter and
John both spoke of it and so did Paul. This Revelation
of Christ and His divine Presence that was to strike
the earth in one final Glorious manifestation to the Gentiles
before His second coming, was lost during the dark ages of church
history. The Catholic church did the most to hide this Glorious
Truth during her thousand year reign in which she taught that
Christ was here ruling through her, Vicariously. The Pope was to be God's mouth piece to man on
earth, and it was through this blasphemous pretense that Christ's
Presence was displayed and established in the earth. This was man's
darkest hour.
As the light started coming
back after Martin Luther, we see in the age of man, various
ministries rise up who began to understand that Christ was to come
in the form of the Holy Ghost in the closing hours of humanity.
In 1897, the notable
Christian author J. B. Rotherham
of
Another author, Israel P. Warren DD of
Portland Maine, wrote in His book [The
Parousia] 1879 in pp. 12-15 "We often speak of
the second advent, the second coming, etc., but the Scriptures never speak
of a second Parousia.. Whatever was to be it's
nature, it was something peculiar, having never occurred before and being
never to occur again. It was to be a Presence differing from and
superior to all other manifestations of Himself to men, so that It's designation should properly stand by Itself, without
any qualifying Epithet other than the article, "The Presence".
"From this view of the word it is evident,
I think, that neither the English word coming, nor the Latin Advent, is the
best representative of the word. They do not conform to It's
etymology; they do not correspond to the idea of the verb from which It is
derived; nor could they appropriately be substituted for the more exact word, "Presence".
In the cases where the translators used the latter, nor is
the ratical <root> of them the same. "Coming" and "Advent" give most
prominently the conception of an approach to us, motion toward
us; "Parousia" That of being with us, without reference
as to how it began. The force of coming or advent ends with
arrival; that of Presence begins with the arrival. Coming and advent are
words of motion whereas Presence shows rest. The space of
time covered by the action of coming or advent is limited,
it may be momentary; that of Presence is unlimited. Had our translators
done with this technical word "Parousia" as they did with "Baptisma" transferring it unchanged, or if translated
using It's exact etymological equivalent, "Presence" and had It been
well understood, as It then would have been, that there is no such thing as
a second "Presence,"' I believe that the entire doctrine would
have been different from what it now is. The phrases, "second
advent," and "Second coming," would never have been heard. The
church would have been taught to speak of the "Presence" of the Lord,
as that from which It's hopes were to be realized, whether in the
future or at the remotest period, that under which the world was to be made
new, A resurrection both Spiritual and corporeal should be attained, and
justice and everlasting awards administered," ....He continued, "The
word Parousia became the official term for a visit of a person of high rank,
especially Kings & Emperors visiting a province."
Before we move on to other authors of ages gone
by who knew that there was to come a Parousia of
Christ, I want to just stop here and reflect upon a few things already said.
First of all
From his message called [Unrecognized
Presence] 6 - 18 - 64, Brother Branham said, "Working for this one purpose; for you to
recognize the Presence of Jesus Christ, See? If He is present
then, why everything is settled. He made the Word,
He's here to confirm it." And then he said in the same
message, "If we
could realize He is Appearing
to us in these meetings for one purpose and that's to release our desires
that we have in Him to us. But we've got to recognize His presence. And how
you recognize His presence, is when the promised Word for this age is made
manifest."
In 1909, Scofield wrote
in His [Bible edition] that
the Word Parousia speaks of Christ's' Personal
Presence. (see page 1212). Also, any [Greek Lexicon]
will give you the same definition. Brother
Branham used the word "Presence" himself quite
often in referring to this great Appearing of Christ in this
last hour. But as always, there are some who would throw off and
say, "His Presence" is only some doctrine. But I say, It should not be looked upon as merely a
doctrine as it is dealing with the very Person of Christ Himself. It
should be referred to as a doctrine only
in the same way we would say that "JESUS" is "The
Doctrine". You can not say that Jesus is only a doctrine, anymore than you
could say "His Presence" is only a doctrine?
The fact is, God HIMSELF has come down in
this last hour in a very special way in which He
has not been here for 2,000 years. Br. Branham said in
[C.O.D.] 54-0103 pg. 102-263, "Just think, the very Lord Jesus that was back in
the days of the Apostles is right here now. And It's
just winding up the end of the Gentiles. A great move is going on amongst the
Supernatural believers because we believe that God is Here."
You might ask, "How was He here in the days
of the Apostles?" People tend to
misunderstand Brother Branham in this area the most. Their
thoughts go back immediately to Jesus in His
flesh walking the shores of Galilee, not to the One Paul met
on the road to
[THE
MESSAGE of GRACE] PP. 176 Brother
Branham said, "There's
only one thing different in Him being here this morning than He was amongst the
people at
In fact he said in, [SPIRITUAL
FOOD IN DUE SEASON] pp. 167 " Now, if He Appeared here as a physical body, looked
just exactly like Hoffman's head of Christ at 33, and blood running out his
hand, and so forth, nail scars all over Him, I wouldn't accept it." He goes on to say, "we
don't believe these cults and clans. We believe God is the Word."
From the message entitled [THE
TRIAL] 4-27-64, he said, "We don't look for nail scars, we look for the Word made manifest."
He continued, "The
Life of Christ returns in the form of the Holy Ghost,
not a nail scar. The corporal Body's sitting at the right hand of God to make
intercession. But the Holy Ghost has come to carry on His Work."
Brother Branham even quoted people who were
looking for Jesus to come in bodily form and in HEBREWS
chptr 3, 57-0901m, pp. 99-73 he said, "I thought He was a man, has scarred hands; that they claim
is Appearing in meetings now, with nail scars in His hands and His head.' No,
No, not that Body, not in that body. See? He's now a light. Saul, when he was here on earth, He said, I
come from God I go back to God. He was the Angel that led the children of
William Branham was neither Oneness,
nor was he Trinitarian. He used the
phrase quite often, "God changing His mask." In Our opening statement to this study, I quoted from
[1 John 1:1-3]. The very Source of Life that John spoke of is the
very Presence of God Himself, and He is here.
Notice what John was trying to tell the
people of his hour. "That
Eternal Life that was with the Father and was manifested unto us. "
The very Life of God had come down and had
literally manifested Himself to the people. GOD Declaring
Himself. And how did He do it? Through a body ( a
mask, a veil ) called Jesus. This is exactly what Jesus was
telling Philip in [John 14] when He said, "He that has seen me has seen the Father," then
He said, "Believe me that I am in the
Father, and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the very works (
vindication) sake."
Again in [1 John 1:3]
"That which we have seen and heard, declare
we unto you, that you may have fellowship with us." John tells us that the only way we can have true
fellowship is to receive the declaration of God's Presence
and the manifested Life (through vindication) which has come
down into our midst. God's very personal
Presence among His people. I believe the
reason people miss this, has to do with expectations. Why did the
people miss Messiah at His first coming? They didn't
expect Him to come the way He did. And today, not many people will argue and say God is not
here, but when you tell them He is here in a different way than He has been
through the Church ages, they will habitually fall back to their past theology
that says, "He's always been here." But, as we see in [1 John 1:1-3], The Fountain of Life Himself
has once again returned to earth in the same way He was Present in the
first Church Age.
From [I
KNOW MY REDEEMER LIVETH] pp. 47, 4-10-1955,
Notice here, brother Branham is telling us that
it takes the new birth to be able to recognize
His Presence. People have a difficult time
being able to separate the Baptism of the Spirit from the Baptizer
Himself. [Ephesians 1:13-14] speaks of
the Baptism that is needed to prepare us to receive the very Presence of
God which Paul speaks of as the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the
knowledge of Him in Vs [15-17].
One of the greatest Keys to
understanding our day and it's Message was introduced in the Seven Church Age Book. That
key is Alpha has become Omega. Let me use an
illustration from the scripture as we will read
from [John 1]. Now this let's us know
that His Presence among us is more than mere
Doctrine, for it says, " In Him was Life and
the Life was the light of men. And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from
God who's name was <Wm. Branham>. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. ( The Angel told him, "If
you can only get the people to believe you".) He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that
Light, which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the World was made by Him,
and the World knew Him not." ( Didn't
brother Branham teach us that the Logos that went forth from God as a Light
created the world?) And this is the condemnation,
That Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than That
Light, neither cometh to the Light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he, that doeth Truth, cometh to the Light,
( submits his own thinking to the Light) That his deeds may be manifested, that they are wrought
( have there source ) in God."
From the [Seven
Church Ages] brother Branham said, "On the Isle of
Masterpiece 172, The Alpha and Omega is the
same. He said, "I am Alpha and Omega." He
never say anything in between, "I'm Alpha
and Omega, the First and the Last." That's it. The first ministry and the last ministry is
the same. The first Message and the second--last Message is the same thing.
"I'm--I was in Alpha; I'm in Omega."
"There'll be a day that won't be called day nor
night, but in the evening time it shall be Light." See? Alpha and Omega;
it's become the first and the last. Oh, my, brethren, we could stay a--hours on
that.
Then what was the first message?
For if we knew what the first message
was, we will then know what the last message is to be. People have been debating this question for over
2,000 years. What was the message to the first age? Again from the
CA book we read, "Paul was the first
Messenger. Remember, Paul come at the end of the Age. All Messengers come at
the end of the Age." So the question
then remains, "What was Paul's Message? To find the answer let's turn to Paul's'
own testimony in the book of Acts. Here he tells us that the Pillar
of Fire came to him and he heard the Voice of
Jesus which spoke and said, "I have Appeared
unto thee for this Purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these
things which thou hast seen, ( The Pillar of Fire returning to
earth) and those things in which I will Appear unto thee."
[See Acts chapter 26]
We see then, the Message of Paul was the
declaration that Jesus Christ not only had risen from the dead, but
that the Spirit of God that had been in Him, had returned back again as the
Pillar of Fire. Brother Branham said, " How many know
that Jesus today, is the Pillar of Fire that followed the children of
Again in [THE
UNITING TIME AND SIGN] pp. 97 he said, " Never before
since the early church Age was the Pillar of Fire ever among the people.
Never before, since the early church Age, did they ever see the things that we
are seeing today. And this was only made possible when God sent the seven Seals
and give us a sign by it and sent Seven Angels down out of Heaven and come to
bring back that scattered Word in them denominations and tie it back into the
Word again, to bring down His Holy Spirit."
Now, these statements surely must cause us to
ask some questions. For instance, why would
brother Branham say, "To bring down His
Holy Spirit" if the Holy Spirit has always been here
throughout the Seven Church Ages? Again, why would brother Branham say "My ministry is to declare Him, that He is
here." if He, (God's Presence), has
been here all along? In fact brother
Branham also said, "After almost 2,000 years He has visited us again." Why
would he say such a thing unless He hasn't
been here for the past 2,000 years in the same way that He is here
now?
Now if you are looking at the
Message with the Glare of another age, you will say that he was
talking about the Jesus of 2,000 years ago and your mind will
picture the Body with nail scarred hands. But, if you have
correctly believed brother Branham when he told us to not look
back, and to not look forward but to see what God is
doing right now, then all of these message titles point to
one thing. He's here, Alpha has become Omega. The One
Who Appeared to Paul in the first age has come back again in this last age to
wind up His work.
From [The
Message of Grace]pg. 30
he said, " There's only one thing different
in Him being here this morning than He was amongst the people at
In fact brother Branham said, in [Just
One More time Lord pp. 52 "Man
is always thinking back on what God did, and looking forward to what God will
do, but ignoring what God is doing". And he also said in
his audio letter to brother Vayle, " If they only
see it in the hour past there's no hope for the church. The church must see it
in the present tense. So God sends his prophet to manifest
present tense of it."
And He also said from His Message [False
Anointed Ones] PP. 219 He said, "I AM sent
me." I AM, not I was, or will be, I AM, present tense, the Word now. Not
the Word that was or Word that will come, the Word that's now.... and
then he said in PP. 233, "For
it is impossible for those which were once enlightened and didn't move
on with the Word as it come to pass... They're
dead, gone." This is why it is so important to understand the Alpha
and Omega principle that brother Branham laid out for us. He said this was
the very first principle he learned as a Christian. What God did in the first
age He is obligated to do in this last age. Then, if we can look at what God
did in the first age under the Pillar of Fire ministry of Paul, and how He did
it, we then will see what He has done under the same Pillar of Fire ministry of
William Branham in this last hour, and what He is continuing to do after
brother Branham went off the seen.
Remember he taught us that there were Three Exoduses and all three were under the Pillar
of Fire and leadership of a
Vindicated Prophet. Moses, Paul and Wm. Branham.
And as you can see the people have missed the whole purpose of this last time
Exodus.
THE
UNVEILING OF GOD 64-0614M 297 Notice the same Pillar of Fire that sent
Moses, the same Pillar of Fire that was on Moses that wrote the Bible, the same
Pillar of Fire that Paul met on his road down to Damascus, and Paul wrote the
New Testament... Remember, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they only wrote what
they seen, but Paul had the revelation. He pulled it out, for he had met the
Pillar of Fire, himself. And, think, the same... There, Joseph, all them wrote
what went on, everyone wrote back in that day. But when Moses came on the scene,
he had the revelation. He had met the Pillar of Fire, and it was revealed to
Moses how Genesis. He had wrote the first four books
of the Bible; Moses did. Is that right? For he met God in the
form of the Pillar of Fire, veiled in the Pillar of Fire.
Brother Branham was concerned for the people
because they were not recognizing what God was doing in their midst, but they
were looking forward to the Second Coming and backwards at a Pentecostal glare
of another age and they were failing to see the very Presence of God in their
midst, as we have already explained. If your memory serves you right you will
remember that when brother Branham was caught up beyond the curtain of time he
was told that He and His message would be judged. And He asked the question, "Will
Paul and His Message be judged?" And the angel answered, yes. Then
brother Branham said, " I only preached what Paul preached,"
and all those people who were looking on said, "we're counting on that
brother Branham." Now as Paul said in [Gal
1: 8] " if we or an angel (
a messenger ) from heaven preach any other Gospel than that which has already
been preached, let him be accursed." Then brother Branham's Message to
us in this hour had to be the same Exodus Message. In fact in [2 Thes 1: 10] Paul tells
us there is coming a day when Christ will come in a way in which He will be
glorified in his saints, because he says, His (Paul's) Gospel will be believed
in that day. So here we see that day and that Message is Wm. Branham's Message
today.
Now in following up with this thought on Alpha
and Omega we read in [Luke chapter 4]
concerning the beginning of Jesus Own Ministry in the first age, " And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed
from Him for a season and Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into
Galilee. And there went out a fame of Him through all the
region round about. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
And He came to
Now you will notice, at this
point scripture tells us he closed the book and handed it back and said,
"This day this scripture is fulfilled in your
ears. Notice, Jesus never continued reading where the
Scripture continued. It read, "To proclaim the
acceptable year of our Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God." Notice how the first part of this sentence
pertained to His first coming
but the second pertains only to His second
coming and therefore He could not possibly have read it. He paused
and said, "This day this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears."
2,000 years separated by a comma.
In referring to Christ's presence here
among us brother Branham said, "I've
read the Scripture with a dozen or more evidences that we're living in the last
days, the generation that will see Jesus Christ return to earth, and I say to
you tonight, again! 'This
day this Scripture is fulfilled in your sight.'"
Again we hear brother Branham saying in the
Message Jehovah
Jireh PP 174, "The Appearing of Christ and then the coming of Christ.
That's two different things altogether, the Appearing and the Coming. He's
Appearing now, working with us in the form of the Holy Spirit, making it just
perfect; the church. It has to."
And so, we must ask ourselves, if God has come
in what brother Branham and Scripture calls an Appearing, in what way is it
perfecting the church as He says here. And of Course we find in Scripture that
the Word of God perfects the church or Bride. So it is in the form of the Word
that perfection comes. And when that which is perfect comes,
then that which is part must cease.
And brother Branham in quoting this in the COD
book, 1005-56 he said, "When that which is
perfect ... and we have today by God's help the perfect interpretation of the
Word with Divine vindication." Then later in the same
series of questions he said, " when
that which is perfect is made known." And then he said,
"Now is there anything perfect but God? And then he said, "And
the Word's still God. " So we can see
once again His focus was to get the people to see God in the form of the Word
in our midst has come. And that is why he said, don't look back and don't look
forward but look to what God is doing now.
Now we know that we can not worship God apart
from Revelation. But what if our revelation is a wrong
revelation. In [Romans 12] we are
told that we receive our transformation by the renewing of our minds. So we can
see we are dependent upon a Word to give us a change of the body. That is what
[1 Thes 4 : 15 - 17]
is all about. The Lord Himself descends with a shout which is the Message
getting us ready for a rapture.
Brother Branham told us that when Word cell is
piled upon word cell, it will build a word body, "And
if you were ordained from the beginning of the earth to that Word, every Word
will come right on top of the Word. Like a human cell will not have one human
cell, and the next the cell of a dog, and the next the cell of a cat; it'll be
human cells. But it's got to have a cell first to start with. Is that right? say, "Amen." [Congregation says,
"Amen."--Ed.]
Well, if it is the Word
cell to start with, the other Word cells are ordained to make it a full
body. "Well, if it is the Word cell to start with, the other Word cells are
ordained to make it a full body".
Then in other words, when Word is piled upon
Word, upon Word, it will take a hold of every fiber of our bodies. So we are
dependent upon the piling upon of the Word to take a hold of every fiber of our
bodies in order to get our change. But what if our minds are
renewed by a wrong understanding. By a corruptible
word rather than an incorruptible one. Then won't our change also be
corruptible? That is why it is essential to have a word come forth that is
vindicated by God to be incorruptible. [1 Peter 1:
23] tells us "being are born again
not of a corruptible seed, but by an incorruptible, by the Word of God which
lives and abides forever." So we see here a person can be born
again of a corruptible seed.
And we know that [Mark
4 & Luke 8] tells us that the word is a seed which the
sewer sewed. But we are told two sewers went forth sewing seed or Word. The Son of Man and the Devil. So then One
sewed perfect Word Seed and the other corruptible word seed. And this word
corruptible comes from a Greek word Phthartos whose
root word is phtheiro which means something that is
liable to decay or perish being death - doomed and refers to the "withdrawal
of Life".
Without the Shout there will be no change of the
mind which then there could be no change of the body which then there could be
no resurrection of the dead nor could there be a
catching away. So the Shout starts the whole thing in motion. And Jesus said,
"As a man thinks in His heart so is He and out of
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh."
So then if God Himself comes forth with a shout, this can only be a declaration
of Himself. And that is exactly how we are to receive our change. In [1 John 3: 2] the scripture tells us, " Beloved, now we are the sons of God, but it does not Appear what we
shall be, but we know that when He Appears ( At His Appearing) We shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He
really is. " So we see here that we receive our
change by seeing Him as He really is. In fact in
So we see that the Word is what brings about our
change and if we are to receive a change that is incorruptible it must come by
a Word which also is incorruptible. That is why it is so important for God
Himself to come down. Br. Branham told us that Christ Himself is our Elijah of
today. He said, Christ is the Messenger to this Age.
And as we know he speaks to us through the lips of His Prophets. So God comes
down with a Shout which is a Message which is a declaration of Himself. As He is He speaks. And we are caught up into the
Revelation of Himself and this brings about our change. In [Ephesians 1: 17]
Paul tells us that God will send forth the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation in
the Knowledge of Him, that we might know what the hope or earnest expectation
of this calling from God is. Br. Branham defines this for us in the Series, [Seventy
Weeks of Daniel] pp. 67, "The Spirit of Wisdom comes into the church by the Revelation of the Holy
Ghost bringing the church in and revealing what day that we are living in. Just
the same as Gabriel come to Daniel, the Holy Spirit comes to the church in the
last days to reveal these great deep secret things. Do you understand
now?"
In [1 Corinthian 1: 4
- 10] we see that Christ sends us a special dispensation of Grace
also spoken of in [1: Peter 1: 13] that
is to enrich us or like fertilizer does other seeds. It is to help us to
grow up into Him in all things. He tells us that this is to help us so we come
behind in no spiritual gift which is a spiritual endowment or understanding in
order that we might be able to see and perceive what is taking place at the
Unveiling or Revelation of Christ. So we see the essentially of Christ among us
in the form of the Holy Ghost bringing forth His Word to quicken us and change
our mortal bodies to immortal. We also find that the Word will
bring forth a righteous Bride for a Righteous God. And the Word righteousness
comes from an old English word, right - wise - ness. So then if we are a
righteous people it is because we are a rightly wise people, or a people with a
correct Word. Again, He said, " Who is perfect
but God and what is God but the Word, that's [John
1: 1]. And we see that It is by this same
Word that we are to be changed and caught up.
The emphasis is not on the baptism any more but
the Baptizer, Himself. Paul spoke in [Ephesians 1:
15 - 17] about the Spirit of Wisdom coming to ones who were already
prepared by the baptism in verses [13 - 14].
So then we can see the Message brother Branham spoke in this hour takes us
beyond the baptism of the Holy Ghost right into the very Presence of the
Baptizer Himself, Who is the Holy Ghost. In fact that is why there is so much
flack amongst the Pentecostal element in this Message. Br. Branham warned us
this would come in
[Q
& A on the Holy Ghost] pg. 19 "Now, when the Holy Ghost comes in and reveals the Truth of
anything and proves it by His Own
Presence and by His Word, you can't expect the Pentecostals to agree
with it. You've got to stand alone like Luther did, like Wesley did, like the
rest of them did."
I hope by now that you can see clearly by
scripture and by God's vindicated prophet that
Christ is here now, in a way He hasn't been for nearly 2,000 years. The
next few paragraphs will deal with 11 reasons why He
is here now.
1) He is here to make ready a prepared
people. [Luke 1:17 Ephesian 1: 3 - 6, 17
- 21, 1 John 3: 1 - 3, 2 Cor 3: 18,
2) He is here to gather His Elect &
claim His Inheritance [ Matthew 3: 11 - 12,
13: 28 - 31, 41, 24: 31 Mark 13: 27, Luke 3: 17, Ephesians 1: 10, 2 Thes 2: 1, ]
3) He is here to save the righteous from
perishing.
[ 2 Thes: 1 & 2 ,
13 1 Peter 1: 5,9,10 end time Revelation bringing salvation. 2 Peter 2: 12 - 13
while they feast with you. 3: 9, 1 Thes 5:9, 2 Thes 2: 13Titus 2: 11, Hebrews 2: 1 - 4, Hebrews 9: 28,
]
4) He is here to save the Elect from
deception. [Matt 24: 3 - 5, 11,
24, Mark 13: 5-6, Eph 1: 17-18, & 4: 14, 2 Thes:
1: 7 - 12, & 2: 2-3, 10 - 12, 2 John 8 - 10, 1 John 2: 19 - 20, 28, Luke
21: 8, 2 Tim 3: 13, Rev 13: 4 - 10, 14 - 16, 19: 20, Matt 13: 1- 17 Mark 4: 11
- 12, Luke 8:10, 1 Tim 4: 1 - 2, 2 Tim 3: 1 - 9, 4: 3-4 & 8]
5) He is here to seal in the wise Virgins.
[Matt 25: 1-13, Ephesians 1: 13 - 18, & 4:
30, 1 peter 1: 3 - 7] ordained to pass the end time
Faith test (Faith is a Revelation, there's Only one Faith, Revelation,
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, These ordained to pass the test <Godhead
etc.> but those who fall away from THE Faith, THE Revelation of Jesus
Christ are Reprobate concerning THE Faith, The Revelation.
6) He is here to separate the chaff from
the wheat.
[Matt: 3:11-12, 7: 15-23, 13: 24-30, 36-43,
47-49, 25:1-11, 2 Thes 1: 7 - 12 , 2: 3, 10 - 12, 1
Tim 4: 1, Hebrews 6, 1 John 2: 19 - 21, 28, 2 groups, Luke 17: 26 - 37, 2 Cor 4: 3-6, 11: 1-4, Gal 1: 6, 2 Tim 3: 1 - 9, 4: 3-4, 8
]
7) He is here to raise the dead. [1 Thes 4: 15 - 18, 1 Cor 15: all Ephesians 1: 17 - 23, Gal 2: 1, Acts 1: 9-11,
Matt 27: 51-53, Col 3: 4, Deut 30:3, Luke 20: 36 children of the resurrection,
John 11: 24-25, Acts 24: 15, 21, Rom 6: 5, Phil 3: 10-11, 2 Tim 2: 18, Rev 20:
5]
8) He is here to change the living.
[1 Thes 4:15-18, I Cor 15: all, 2 John 3: 1 - 3, 2 Cor
3: 18, Roman 12: 1-2, Col 3: 4, 1 Cor 13: 9 - 12, 2 Thes 1: 7, 10-12, Acts 3: 19-21, 1 Peter 1: 7 -9, 13, 2
Peter 1: 1-4, 10-12, 1 Cor 1: 4 - 10, Matt 24: 30
]
9) He is here to put us in a rapture. [1 Thes 4: 15-18, ] See also transformation and
change.
10) He is here to Glorify His saints
[2 Thes 1: 7, 10-12, 2:
14, 2 Cor 3: 9-10, 18, 4:6, 1 John 3: 1-3, 1 Cor 1: 4-10, 13: 9-12, Romans 12: 1-2, Matt 16: 27, 24:30,
25: 31, Luke 2: 32, 21: 27, John 17: 5, 22, 24, Acts 22: 11, Romans 5: 2, 8:
18, 9:4,23, 1 Cor 2: 7, 15:43, Eph 1: 14, 17-18, Phil
4: 19, 1 Peter 1: 7, 8,11,21, 4: 13-14, 5: 1, 4, 10, 5: 10-11, Col 1: 27 why
should there be this hope of Glory? 3: 4, 1 Thes 2: 12, 1 Tim 3: 16, Heb 1: 3, 2: 7,9,10, Jude 1: 24]
11) He is here to Judge the Living and
the dead. (Investigating Judgment) A Judge!
[ Rev 3:
14-21, James 5: 7-9, John 12: 48, Matt 3: 12, 7: 15-23, 13: 24-30, 36-43,
47-49, 25: 1-11, 2: Thes
1: 7-10]
Now there are various other questions that have
risen as a result of certain people trying to teach this Message of Christ's
Appearing without really understanding it. As a result many fanatical doctrines
have been superimposed which have caused much distress among Message believers.
The following questions and answers should help to quell some of these questions
that have arisen as a result of wrong understanding.
[QUESTION]" Some people have said that the second coming
is taking place right now. Is this true?
[ANSWER]" Yes, but not per'se
! What is taking place now is the
Appearing which Br. Branham said "it's a sign of His Coming.
Brother Branham said in the Seven
Seals, pg. 308, "Christ's
first coming, a mortal. He comes three times. Christ is in three. See? Watch
how he comes, he's a four. Watch Christ.
First coming, He come a mortal to bleed and die. Is that right? That's His
first coming. The second coming is the rapture. We meet Him in the skies,
immortal. His third coming, He's the incarnate God (Amen. Yeah.), God Emmanuel
to reign on earth. That's right. Only three...
He Comes three
times. Christ is in three. So, the second Coming
in itself must be as His first one was and the third
one will be and that is in His Corporeality. In other-words, He will come in a physical
manifestation just as He did His first coming. Notice the type in
Gen 18: when "Elohim" Appears" to Abraham. The
sign of discernment is performed. Then
after the burning the promised son comes to earth. Luke
17:30 says this is to repeat. However, many of the scriptures we've
associated with His second coming are actually referring to
His Appearing, which is essential to the actual
fulfillment of The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice at His First Coming, He
comes to earth a mortal. He is on earth
when God descends like a dove from heaven and incarnates Him on earth.
God then leaves Him in
Matthew 17:1-2 ] His third Coming
which is His last, He then Comes to earth from heaven already
the Incarnate God. [Rev 19 & 20 ]
[QUESTION]
You say, He must return in a physical form as He did
the first time. If this is true, what was Paul telling
us in [ II COR 5:16 ] when
he said, "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh:
yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now
henceforth know we him so no more."?
[ANSWER]
Remember the disciples on the road to
Emmaus? Also when Jesus appeared to Peter
and the Brethren who were fishing? What did these
appearances have in common? The Bible tells us they did not recognize Jesus. But then He did
something that made Him manifest in His true
Character. He broke the bread a certain way. Now today
He has come and has broken the Bread of Life in His own
certain
If you'll notice further down in vs.[18-21], Paul is speaking of a
relationship which does not exist by mere acquaintance only,
but rather is a ministry imparted to us which reconciles us
back to Him. Now this ministry of reconciliation is needed because we have been separated from Him. The word Reconcile is
from two words "Re": a prefix meaning (anew or again), and the word
"Conciliate": which means to
(assemble, unite,). This then is a Word ministry
which will unite or assemble us again. This Word of reconciliation then places us in a
position of Ambassadorship as we see in Vs [ 20].
Thus as Ambassadors, we
represent our Sovereign while resident on foreign soil, thus separated from the
one whom we represent. Therefore, it is a
Word of reconciliation because the reconciliator
Himself is not present. Thus by Word, we are brought into a relationship to our Sovereign. As we have at His
first coming a reconciliation of man to God or
(The Word). God used Jesus (the complete manifestation
of His Word) to bring man back to His Word. Now He has come as Word (Logos) to assemble or
unite us to the Complete manifestation of His Word namely Jesus.
When Jesus was here in flesh at His first coming, no man knew
Him, or Who He represented, by looking at His flesh. Some Greeks had heard that God was
descended and they went to meet Him, but when they saw only a man,
they went away discouraged. The Bible tells us that
after His resurrection, He appeared unto many. If you
will notice, on many occasions He was not identifiable in His flesh,
It was what He said that made them take note that
"This was the Christ". If they did not know
Him after the flesh then, how is it that they
will know Him by His flesh now. "As a man thinketh
in his heart so is he", and "out of
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh".
So we don't really know any man by his flesh but rather
by what he says, for this is what bears witness to what he is and
what he stands for. So we do not know, and will
not know Jesus after the flesh but by a perfect Word
description. After all He is the Word. In fact
He is the complete manifestation and the perfect
interpretation of the Word.
[QUESTION]
Are you then saying, that unless we somehow are
given a clear description by word of Jesus that we
wouldn't really recognize Him if He was to make Himself visible in flesh?
[ANSWER]
Precisely. That is what the ministry of His Appearing is all about. God has
come down in form of Logos to reveal or unveil Himself
to us. In this ministry He, as the Spirit of Truth, is
to lead us into all truth. He is The Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation that gives us The Knowledge of Him.
Without this ministry, we could not be caught
away, for we would not even be aware of the day or season of the
catching away and thus would not be prepared for such a great event. We'd still
be holding onto our own ideas of what is to take
place and we would surely miss it. Let me use an illustration to bring out my
point. Eliezer was sent
to bring a bride home to a promised son Isaac. He met a
woman at the well who received him and his ministry. By word
he proceeded to tell her of this groom who had
sent him to bring her home to him. The more he spoke of this groom the
more she longed to meet him. By word then, she
received this promise and was caught away to meet going to
meet for when they arrived she lighted off the camel and ran into
his awaiting arms. Now she was a virtuous woman
and a woman does not keep her virtue long by running
into the arms of complete strangers. This then would truly be
out of character for her to do, had she
not already known Him, before she actually met him in flesh.
[QUESTION]
Are you then saying that the Appearing is an introduction to
His coming. And without it we would still
be wondering How, when, where, by what etc.
[ANSWER]
Yes, you are very perceptive. The Appearing is that portion of time or season, an epochal season whereby we are
ushered into a transitory state, a rapture. It is the
season where after coming out of
[QUESTION]
Then, What you are saying is there is a difference
between the appearing and the coming.
[ANSWER]
Yes, Brother Branham said it in various places, for example in
the Message
[END TIME EVANGELISM]"
he said "Now, we have
already seen and are witnessing the appearing of the Lord. Now remember, appearing and coming are two"
different words, to appear and then" to come. Now is the appearing, He's
already appeared in these last few days. Right here with us in the last few
years. Now, it's a sign" of His Coming."
Notice that he cautions us to
remember that these are in fact two different words and two different
events. He says that it is a sign of His Coming.
Remember the parable of the thief, if the good man
had known what hour the thief was coming he would not have suffered his
house to be broken into. This sign of the appearing is a
sign given that an epochal season is in process or in motion. But remember, it is a sign only, it is not the event
itself.
[QUESTION]
Well, if our Lord Himself is here in the form of a Pillar of
fire or shall we say as Logos, What more could we want.
What more can the actual body of a man add to us.
[ANSWER]
First of all we have two questions here. Let's take the last one first. You
ask what more could the Body of Jesus
add. Apparently you are aware that we receive our
change under the Shout, Voice and trumpet which
are three stages of the rapture. This is true. However the Seventh
seal goes plum into Eternity as a continual unfolding or as Brother
Branham put it, Like a Roman candle, one ball of fire
goes up and out of it comes another and another and on it
goes plum into Eternity. Now also remember that we are changed from Glory to
Glory and thus the meeting in the air is a
further Glory from the Appearing and the wedding supper is a
further glory from the meeting in the air. The whole thing is an adding
Word upon Word upon Word or from Glory to Glory
beginning with the Appearing and swinging right into the Second Coming.
The Millennium is a Glory beyond the Wedding Supper
and New Jerusalem is a further Glory beyond the Millennium.
Now the first question which we chose to answer
last is "If God in the form of
Logos or Pillar of Fire is now on the scene, what more
could I want". Remember, God was also on the scene in the days of Abraham and Abraham still
longed to see his Promised Son. The promise
to Abraham was not complete until the
actual physical arrival of His son, Isaac. We are still
under the promise as we have not
actually crossed the
On the other hand, the oneness people, though
few in number are closer yet still way out in left field. Where the trouble
seems to lay is what to do with this Corporal
body. Trinitarians want to deify the body and make it a second person in
the Godhead while oneness want to eliminate it all together
and put it's importance only in a historical sense (in other
words since He came from God and went back to God they
feel that the body is of no further use or importance in the
economy of God. It is this lack of understanding which caused the Jews to kill
Jesus. The answer to this understanding is in
the Word of God. God being invisible wanted to show
His love for His children. As an invisible one He
knew that they would have trouble receiving His love. He then, in order to show forth His love, made a body
in which He might outwardly express His Love for His
Children. The invisible God thus became
visible. In other words, Jesus Christ is the full and complete interpretation
of the expressed thought of God. God expressed. The
outward manifestation of God. Every characteristic, every attribute,
every thought that God ever had, He formed into
a sperm and egg and placed it in the womb of Mary. As
this body begin to grow it took on the full character
and complete fullness of what God had in His thoughts to begin
with. Therefore the Word which began as a
thought one day became flesh and God could now make visible
His expression of Love for His children. He now can receive our love in a
way which we could not love Him as an invisible
One. It gives a direction to channel our love. A focal
point. Then the body of Jesus being man is more than
just man, it is God manifested or made visible. Thus the One who created this body is
gathering a bride to bring to this body and He thinks so much of this
body, He will incarnate it again at the meeting in the air.
[QUESTION]
What you are saying then, is that we have had our thinking all
wrong for many ages, so God had to Appear on the scene once again to
straighten out the mess we had gotten ourselves into and to
bring us to a place where we could truly receive Jesus as our Head and
Husband.
[ANSWER]
My, how quick you learn. Yes, Even at His first coming He was looking for a
Bride but the church was in no condition to really be received as one. Paul
reprimanded them in Galatians for returning back to law so soon after they had
come out from under it. It took more than a prophet to return the hearts of the
children to their first love. It took the God Prophet Himself. He wanted our
hearts and our minds. How ironic in an age where women strive for personal
freedom that He has come for a Bride who has completely, willfully, and
joyfully surrendered all of her rights to Him. She has even come to a state of
letting her thinking go. Perfect rest because of perfect
trust.
[QUESTION]
My, what a beautiful picture! So what you are saying is that He is here to
ensure that she doesn't fall like the first Eve fell.
[ANSWER]
Correct! As she becomes more aware of His Presence she enters more and more
into a state of rest. She completely trusts Him to bring her into a state of
rest. She completely trusts Him to bring her in and fulfill every promise that
He has given to her. In the first Exodus, Moses commanded the people to
"Stand Still and see the salvation of God."
But they got antsy and wanted something in it to do themselves.
Ruth, another type of the Bride was told by her bridegroom Boaz, to "rest
until the morning." And in this third exodus we are told to be at rest
also. Br. Branham said that there is "relaxation under the seventh
Seal." He said, we must "Let go and let God."
[QUESTION]
Then, what about winning souls to Christ and all these things that have been so
important to us all these years? Where does this fit in if we are to be resting?
[ANSWER]
Well, that's just the point. Jesus said I do nothing unless my Father shows me
first. How often have we tried to do God a service without it being His will. Jesus told the Pharisees that they would compass land
and sea for one proselyte and the result would be someone who was now twofold
more a child of hell than he began. Br. Branham said, "The Bride will have
'Thus saith the Lord or she will keep still." She is to "lay in the presence of the Son to ripen." So, if God is
truly in it, we will definitely see results. Now remember, results are not numbers.
What were the results of Jesus' preaching to the totally lost?
[QUESTION]
I'm beginning to understand more clearly now than ever before. This last day
Bride is not concerned with trying to work her way into favor with God, she
knows she is already in His favor, so she is resting in what He has done for
her and she ministers back to Him what He has shown her already as Jesus did
when He was here in flesh.
[ANSWER]
Yes, she loves Him so much that she is only concerned with pleasing Him. As any
good wife will do, her first service is to her husband,.
She's not interested in what her neighbors got going. She then becomes in
perfect image of Jesus Christ for that is exactly what He did while here on
earth in flesh.
[QUESTION]
Oh, I see! And we must come into this same image of Him before we can leave
this world. Well, how does this come about? I mean, how does the Holy Spirit Who is in our midst bring this to pass?
[ANSWER]
Brother Branham said, "the right mental attitude
toward any Divine promise of God will bring it to pass." This is not
works. Remember, God must show it first, then your
attitude toward it will bring the result. Just before the children of
From His Message, 182 I HAVE HEARD
BUT NOW I SEE 65-1127.2E, brother Branham said, " Now, He promised that He would do that same thing again, just
before the world would be burnt, and the world would be in a