A Trial

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1 ...portion of scripture. And my subject tonight is to... I think that Jesus Christ never had a fair trial in Herod's court before Pilate. I don't believe He had a fair trial. And I think in the next forty-five minutes, let's give Him a trial, because He's in question again.
And now, one of the main things that He's questioned on is His Word. Now I believe that Word. So I'm going to read tonight from the most disputed spot in the Scripture. That's Mark, the l6th chapter.
And now, if we was pledging allegiance to the flag, or if we was hearing the Star Spangled Banner, we'd all stand. And I think if we can do that in commemoration of our fine nation that we have, we surely ought to do it to the Word of God. So let us stand just a few moments while I read from the Word:

2 Mark, l6th chapter of St. Mark, beginning with the 9th verse. Let us listen close as we read these verses.
Now we're right at the resurrection time; we're at the time where our Lord had just risen from the dead and was appearing to the ... in different forms to the people. Now the 9th verse begins like this:
Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first unto Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept.
And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not.
After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.
And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them.
Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
They shall take up serpents; ... if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, ... they shall recover.
So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, ... confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

3 Now let us bow our heads just a moment for prayer. And I'm going to ask, if it's all right, that if Brother Marvin Smith (who was so kind to us yesterday, and had me in the prayer line with him last night), if he'll ask God's blessings on the words that I've just read. Brother Smith. [Brother Smith leads prayer.] Amen. Thank you. You may be seated.

4 So many of my friends here, that I'd like to mention them all, but I... Just as Brother said, we don't have time to do it. Brother Outlaw there---real bosom brother friend of mine, from Phoenix---and Brother Moseley. And so many different ones, that I just can't hardly have time to recognize each one. But I'm sure you understand, I don't want to pass you.
Now on this Word: we are confronted tonight, and I just want to say a few things about this scripture. Everywhere we go we find this the most ... where the unbeliever picks on.

5 Here some time ago... Many of you know Morris Reedhead. He's the president of Sudan Missions. That's one of the largest fundamental missions in the world. He and Don ... I can't call his last name. He's the pastor of one of the big Baptist churches in Chattanooga. He came into my house in Jeffersonville and said, "Brother Branham," said, "We understand that you were Baptist."
And I said, "Yes, sir. I was ordained in a Missionary Baptist church."
He said, "And I hear you're associating with the Pentecostals."
I said, "Yes, sir. I'm one of them."
He said, "Well, I want to ask something." Said, "They claim to have the Holy Spirit." Said, "Do you think that's the Holy Spirit?"
I said, "Yes, sir."
He said, "Well, the only thing I can't understand, what all that screaming and shouting and carrying on like that...?"
I said, "Well, if you can't put the steam to rolling the wheel, it'd blow it out the whistle, that's all." I said, "If they could ... that's why I'm with them." I said, "If you could only get that thing in operation, and that enthusiasm moving out there to winning souls, it'd conquer the world." But I said, "That's why I'm there."

6 He said, "Well, when I was little boy," he said, "I had a call from God. And mother washed over her washboard to send me to school." And said, "I ... well, I thought when I got my BA," said, "I ... there I'd find Christ," but said, "I didn't." And said, "Now, Brother Branham, I've got enough degrees and honorary degrees to plaster your wall." And said, "Where's Christ in all of it?"
I said, "I'm not the one, brother, with the grammar school education, to say the teachers is wrong. But," I said, "they were right in what they said, but they wasn't ... there's some more of it."
And he said, "Here's why I'm here." He said, "In the school we educated a fine Indian boy from India. I think he learned to be a... I think it was maybe, civil engineering or something, he had mastered in. He was going back to help his people."
He said, "I took him to the boat, or, the train where was he to go catch the boat he needed to go back to India. And I said, 'Son, while you're going back...' said, 'now you're all fit, and got your education, go back to your people.' Said, 'Why don't you take a real living God back, and forget that dead prophet, Mohammed, that you worship?'---

7 the boy, being a Mohammedan.
"'Well,' he said, 'sir,' he said, 'what can your Jesus do for me any more than what my prophet can do?'"
"Well," he said, "our Jesus gives you life; your prophet can't do it."
He said, "But he promised to do it." He said, "You know what we Mohammedans are waiting for, is to see you Christians do what your leader said you would do."
He said, "What's that?"
He said, "Well, your..." Said, "See, Mohammed only promised life after death. But," said, "Jesus promised that the things that He did, you'd do also."
And he said, "Oh." He said, "Well," he said, "you see, they did do it."
He said, "They? We're talking about thee---thee, now."
And he said, "Well, now, sir," he said, "I tell you." Said, "You've read the New Testament?"
Said, "Oh, many times; through and through."
He said, "For instance, what scripture are you referring to?"
"Well," he said, "many places. John 14:12, and so forth," and said, "Mark l6."
He said, "Well, now." He said, "You see, Mark 16..." Said, "We learn that, really, some of the scriptures, that it's not authentic." He said, "Mark l6, from the 9th verse on," he says, "it's not found in the oldest of manuscripts." He said, "It's just added."

8 Now, really! I wonder where you'd get that at, if there happens to be a critic near. Why, I've studied twenty years in Bible history, see. Certainly. Irenaeus and Polycarp and all of them recognized it, see. Certainly. It certainly was added. The Vatican didn't add it. Certainly not. But this ... these real writers said Jesus said this---authentic writing.
And so he said, "From the 9th verse on, it's not inspired."
That Mohammedan said, "Well, then, Mr. Reedhead, what part is inspired, then?" He said, "I want you to know that all the Koran's inspired, not just part here and part there." What a defeat! So he said, "Well," he said, "well, if that part's not inspired, how do I know the rest of it's not inspired?" Now, there's a good...

9 He said, "Well," said, "Jesus raised up from the dead, and Mohammed's in the grave."
He said, "Has He raised up from the grave?" He said, "If He did, He would be in you to the consummation, and the works that He did, you'd do also."
And Mr. Reedhead said to me, he said, "Brother Branham, I didn't know what to say."
He said, "Why, Jesus did raise from the dead."
Said, "You've had two thousand years to prove it, and 90% of the world hardly knows anything about it." Said, "Let Mohammed raise and the whole world will know it in twenty-four hours."
That's right. If you'd been to his grave, some of you missionaries, every four hours they change the guard of the horse there---white horse that he'll ride down the world when he raises from the dead. But we don't have to wait for Jesus to raise from the dead. He's already raised from the dead.
So he said, "Prove it. He promised it, if he raised from the dead." So he said, "Well, how do you know?
He said, Mr. Reedhead said, "He lives within my heart."
And he said, and Mohammed lives within my heart." Said, "Mr. Reedhead," said, "Mohammedan religion can produce just as much psychology as Christianity."
He said, "Then I kicked the dust, Brother Branham, as a defeated Christian, and promised myself that I'd come talk to you," see.

10 Why, all that Bible's inspired! God watches over His Word. God's got to judge the world some day. And if He's going to judge it by the church, what church will He judge it by? If He judged it by the Catholic church (you Catholic would say so), which Catholic church, then---the Greek Orthodox, the Roman, or which one? If He judged it by the Baptist, you Methodists are lost. If He judged it by the Methodist, you Baptists are lost. If He judged it by the Pentecost, you're both lost, see. He isn't going to judge it by any church. He's going to judge it by Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the Word.
St. John, the 1st chapter, said, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God ... And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." Therefore, He'll judge it by Jesus Christ, and He is the Word. The Bible said He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. God being infinite, in the beginning, with His infinite wisdom, knowledge, divided His gospel in each age.
We find out that the churches get it all messed up, and then God sends His prophet on the scene. And the Word of the Lord comes to the prophet. How do they know it is? It's a vindication of the message of that age.
Now, when ... what,

11 when Moses came (as was promised that he would come), what if he come with Noah's message? It wouldn't have worked. Moses could not have built an ark for the saving of the people. The Word of God that was promised for Moses' age, was the Word that had to be vindicated. In the age of every seer and every prophet, it's been the same.
But we find the people living in a glare of another light. As Jesus said, "You garnish the walls of the tombs of the prophets, and you're the one that put them in there." See, they build up something over a message, and live in that glare of that light, and refuse to walk in the light that is of the day.
That's what the reason they refused to know Jesus Christ when He came. That's why Jesus exhorted them, saying, "Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they that testify of me." But they had got so many creeds and things, and their traditions, that Jesus said, "You've made the Word of God of no effect by your traditions." And that's the way it's been in every age. God will judge the world by Jesus Christ.

12 And many times you see what it is: we people try to have our own interpretation of the Word. They say Mark 16, from the 9th verse on, is not inspired. Why isn't it inspired? God doesn't need any interpreter. He's His own interpreter. God does His own interpretation. And the Bible said it's of no private interpretation. God said at the beginning, "Let there be light, and there was light." That don't need interpretation. He said, "A virgin shall conceive," and she did. That don't need any interpretation. She did it. Although, when she did it, and the time that she did it, the people were so full of creed till they didn't understand it. It went right over the top of their heads.

13 It's did that in every time, and it'll do it again. Now, we find out that's right. The people does that.
Christ and the church ... we find in this day that we're living, there's nothing different from any other day. Man ... the church is always praising God for what He done, and always saying what He's going to do, and ridiculing what He's doing. That's always been the history of the church. And it's the same way tonight.
It's because that man-made theories get into it, and get it all mixed up. And when the true Word speaks for itself, see, they're so full of creed till they are so blinded by that glare, they can't accept it.
Why, the reason that the Lutherans, that the Methodist ... when you Methodist people... This fine Methodist boy here just sang a moment ago, when that boy... What was the reason? See, the Lutherans was living in the glare of Luther. And that's the reason Methodist's message didn't go over well. And when the Pentecostals come along, they was all living in the glare of Methodist, until the Pentecostals come along. But you see, all this... If you just look into the scripture, watch the church ages and what each one's to do, you'll find out right where we're living. We're living in this age.

14 Now, upon the basis of this criticism, so much, of the Word of God, I want to take this text tonight, and call it "A Trial." Jesus didn't get a fair trial, in the days of Herod in the days of Pilate. But in this day, I want to see, tonight, in this little group of people (if you'll sit with me), I want to see that He gets a fair trial, because He's still the Word. He's still the Word. How many agrees with that? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And the Word's still God. And He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. So let's see that He has a fair trial.

15 Now, I'm going to make this like a courtroom, if you'll just suffer with me. I know it sounds kind of unusual, but we're just a little gathering here now, that we want to bring this Word, which I claim is God's Word. And I'm here to defend it. And now, we're going to bring it to a court trial, just exactly like it was in the days when Herod give Him a trial, Pilate ... before Pilate's court. We're going to bring Him before the court of this Ramada room this 1964---April 27th, l964.
Now, we're going to make this a court, and you are the judge and the jury, you court. I'll be the moderator, and we're going to make this like a court trial. And at the end you make your decision, as any jury has to make up its mind for the verdict. And then your action from hereafter will prove what your verdict is. No matter what you say now, your action will prove your verdict.
Now the case is today, friends...

16 I'm going to act as a moderator now, and then I present a real court case, and give Him a trial, if you'll bear with me for a few moments and pray for me.
Now, the case is the Word of God versus the world, the world that doesn't believe it. And the case is the Word of God versus the world. The cause for the indictment is breach of promise. That's the ... breach of promise is the cause for this case.
And now, I understand that in a regular court trial, that the prosecuting attorney always represents state. I think that's right. In this place, the prosecuting attorney represents the world. And the prosecuting attorney is Satan, and he's representing the world in this court here this afternoon. And the defendant is God and His Word, because God is always the Word. And the defense witness is the Holy Spirit. And the prosecuting attorney's witness is Mr. Unbeliever, Mr. Skeptic, and Mr. Impatient. These three comes up as a witness for the prosecuting attorney, which is Satan, that represents the world.

17 Now let's call this court to order, and now let's call the prosecutor. Let him call his first witness to the stand to testify against the Word.
And now, listen close. Now, I might not be able... In hurrying, trying to get this through in thirty or forty minutes, I might run over the top of something. But if I do, may the Holy Spirit reveal it now, as court is called to order. Remember you are both judge and jury.
And now, the prosecutor calls his witness, first witness to the stand to testify. And he calls Mr. Unbeliever, and he takes the stand to testify. Mr. Unbeliever claims that all the Word of God of God's promises, is not true. That's his complaint, that God's Word cannot be relied upon, all of it. Part of it's all right, but all of it... He claims that he is a believer, Mr. Unbeliever. But he claims he is a believer, and he says that all of God's Word cannot be relied upon; it's not truth.

18 He claims that he visited a so-called Holy Ghost meeting, where people were claiming Mark l6 to be the truth. And many people claimed that they had been healed when ... where it says in Mark 16, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." And this man says that he claimed that he believed God. He listened to this so-called Holy Ghost preacher, and he ... this Holy Ghost group, that was giving all kinds of testimonies.
And he had been sick in his body, and he had these people to lay hands upon him at this Holy Ghost meeting. And that was two months ago, and not one thing has happened yet. He's just as sick as he was the time that he had hands laid upon him. He hasn't changed one bit. He's just as sick as he was. Therefore, he says that God is not just to put such a scripture as that in the Bible, when He isn't sufficient to back it up. It isn't right for Mark 16 to be in the Bible, because that... He proves that God does not keep His Word, and he wants to indict God for putting such a promise as that in His Word. All right, we'll have him step down.

19 And now, we'll have Mr. Skeptic to come up next to testify. Mr. Skeptic takes the stand. And he says that he'll tell the truth. He claims that he is a believer. And he said he had been sick for a long time, that his is a ill effects from a great disease that he'd had. And then he heard someone testify on the street of having a godly pastor, and this pastor of this church preached and said that James 5:14, "If there be any among you sick, let them call the elders of the church. Let them anoint them in oil and pray over them. The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and God shall raise them up. If they did any sin it shall be forgiven them. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that your... The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

20 And he said that he went up there as a believer. He wants to tell this court this, that "I went up there with all sincerity, and I had this so-called godly pastor of this church, that many claimed that when he anointed them with oil and prayed over them... And the pastor said hisself that God answered that word, and that word of James 5:14 was true. And there was many testifying that it was true." But he went up, and the pastor (godly man) anointed him with oil according to James 5:14, prayed over him. And that has been six months ago, and he hasn't had any results at all. He's just as sick as he was at the beginning. So Mr. Skeptic says that that cannot be true. Mark 16 is not true, and neither is (John), is James 5:14. It is not true, because that God fails to keep His Word. If this be the Word of God, then God fails to keep His Word, 'cause with sincerity, as a believer, he went and let the pastor that the others claimed they were healed by, anoint him and take him through the same motion that he did the others. And six months ago, hasn't had one bit of results of any kind. Therefore, he also wants to bring indictment against God for putting such rashal promises in His Word, that He won't stand behind. (Getting quite a case here, aren't we?) Let him step down: Mr. Skeptic.

21 Now the next witness is Mr. Impatient. He's a rascal. Now he's
going to step up, and he's going to give his testimony. And he takes the stand, that one day while reading Mark's gospel, the 11th chapter (not 16th, now), the 11th chapter, the 22nd and 23rd verse, that it reads like this, "If you say to this mountain, be moved, and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you have said shall come to pass, you can have what you've said; and when you pray, believe that you receive what you ask for, you shall have it."
He said he's been lame in his feet, walked on crutches for about twenty-five years. And when reading this scripture... And had been taught by his pastor that all scripture was given of God, and was inspired. Therefore, if he said to this mountain, "Be moved," and don't doubt, but believe that what he said would come to pass, he could have what he said. And when he prayed to believe that he'd receive what he asked for, it would be given to him.

22 Now, he says he prayed, and with all sincerity. And said that he'd be able to lay his crutches down and walk away from that place. And he honestly, with all of his heart, he believed that what he had said was right. And he... That has been almost five years ago, and he's just as lame as he ever was. "Now, if God then," he says, "would keep His Word, then why don't He keep His Word?"
Now, I'm only giving three passages of scripture there, or three witnesses, but I'm going to let the prosecuting attorney call some more. Now, we let Mr. Unbeliever, he testified; Mr. Skeptic, he testified. Unbeliever testified, Mark 16, and Mr. Skeptic testified against John, or James 5:14. And Mr. Impatient, he testified against Mark 11, Jesus Himself speaking. And Mark 11:22 and 23, he testified against that. Now we're going to ask Mr. Impatient to step down.

23 Now, as we've all somehow or other been in courts... Now the prosecutor's got to nail down his case. So the prosecutor comes up to nail the case down---the one that represents what? The world, Satan. He takes the stand. So he claims to this court this afternoon, or this evening... He wants the prosecutor ... the devil wants this court to understand that these men are believers, and that this word is actually written in the Word, the Word of God---so-called, he says---that this is written. And he claims that it comes from different places in the scriptures. And these men are witnesses that it isn't so.
And he wants to say to this court (the prosecutor does), that he wants this court to understand, that God is not just to put such rashal promises as that in the book for His believing children to accept; and then He's not able to take care of, vindicate, what He promised He would do. And he has three witnesses here. And three witnesses is a confirmation, as we know in all Scripture. And he has three witnesses from three different places in the Scripture that God is not justified in placing such things as that in His Word, so His dear children will look upon it, and try to accept it and believe it like He said; and then God let them down coldly.

24 Also, he claims that these children with all sincerity is doing this, these people, and they are defeated. True believing children are defeated by the Word of God, so-called, that they claim these things because it's written in the Book, and somebody else injected them into it, and it isn't the Word of God. And the Bible cannot be trusted. For here's three different places, and three testimonies, to prove that it's wrong. Now he's nailing his case down. For he, the prosecutor, wants to appoint, call the attention to this court that these men here, accepted this Word with sincerity, believing it was the Word of God, and God has failed to honor their faith.
Further, he wants to claim that they are believers because they say they're believers. Yet again, the prosecutor wants to try to call the attention to this court, this afternoon. Yet God promises again, in another place in the Scripture, that all things are possible to them that believe. And it's written. That's another case. All things ... no matter what it is ... all things are possible to them that believe. And these men claim to be believers. I want the court to understand, the prosecutor at the stand, now, is nailing down the case.

25 Yet again, He claims to be alive after His death; that Jesus claims to be alive after His death. And the prosecutor wants to ask this court, "Have you seen Him after He raised from the dead? Where's the nail scars in His hands? Where is the crown of thorns that was placed upon Him? Where's the marks in His forehead? And where is He at, if He's raised from the dead?"
And then again, He says in Hebrews 13:8, that His Word says that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The prosecutor wants this court to remember that. Then, where is He if He is? He wants to see Him. Again, he claims that it's not so. He claims that Luke 17:23 is not so; he claims that Revelation 3 is not so; he claims that Mark 4 isn't so. He claims all these scriptures of His resurrection, that it's absolutely false. He wants to point that out---that it's false.

26 And He also claims that both heavens and earth will pass away, but not one tittle or jot from His Word will ever fail. And the prosecutor wants you to understand, court, this afternoon that he has witnesses here to prove that they're wrong. Now he asks the court to consider this, while we're thinking.
Now. We ask the prosecutor, now, if he's finished nailing down his case, quoting the scriptures claiming they're not right, witnesses that they're not right, that they're not inspired, they're ... nothing to them, they cannot be relied upon, they cannot be trusted. He's got witnesses to prove it---that they cannot be trusted. Now we got quite a case on our hands.
Now let's let the prosecutor and his witnesses step down.

27 Now we will call the defense witness, which the defense witness has a right to testify to, for the defendant. And now the defense witness, which is the Holy Spirit, let's have Him step up, and hear His testimony. The first thing, now as you've heard what the prosecutor has said---you've heard what his witnesses said, you've heard the scriptures, you've heard them read. And here's the witnesses that they're not true.

28 Now, the Holy Spirit, as I say, which is the defense witness, He's called. The first thing He wants to call ... the defense witness (Holy Spirit) wants to call to this court's case that the prosecutor is not interpreting the Word right to you. He wants to call your attention, too, that this prosecutor that's giving you the interpretation of the Word, that's representing the world and unbelief, is the same interpreter that Eve had at the beginning. He misinterpreted the Word just a little bit.
Now I might stop here in the court just a moment, to say this: if God caused all this sickness and sorrow and death upon the earth, if He had to do it because of His justice to keep His Word, He cannot be just and not keep His Word. He's got to keep His Word to be just. It's becoming to His holiness. It's becoming to Him.
And if Eve ... not just ...

29 Satan did not ... the prosecutor did not misinterpret the whole thing. He just misinterpreted a word or so, and it caused death to strike the whole earth. And every hospital, every siren ever rung, every death that ever died, every struggle, every man on the battlefield, every poor little, sick, afflicted baby and all, was caused by disbelieving just one word of God's Word. And if it caused all of this for disbelieving one word, how you going to get back disbelieving one word? Got to be something that God has to judge the world by, and that's Jesus Christ, the Word. You must believe it all.

30 Notice. He said that he, that these men has been listening to the wrong interpretation of the Word. The prosecutor is not ... interpreting it wrong, is interpreting it wrong to you, just like he did to Eve. The promise is only to believers; not make-believers, skeptics, or impatient people. It's only to believers.
And let me say this. If there's anybody should know whether these fellows are believers or not, it should be the defense witness, because He's the quickener of the Word. He... Just like your body: your body is a piece of flesh. But unless the spirit is in there to quicken that body, it's dead. And so is the Word dead unless the Holy Spirit quickens that Word. And if He's the quickener of the Word, He should know whether these fellows really are believers or not. I think we've got a good defense witness. He should know whether it's right or not because... He makes a good defense witness, because He's the quickener of the Word.

31 Again, the defense witness wants to call the attention of the Word that's in question here, that we have just read, that the prosecutor is trying to get a case of indictment against the Word. Defense witness wants to call your attention, that it never set any certain time for deliverance. He never said when. He just said, "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." He didn't say they'd jump up right then. The Word doesn't say that. James 5:14 said, "When you're anointed with oil," he said, "the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and God shall raise them up." He didn't say they'd jump up right then.
It didn't say ... Mark 16 didn't say they'll lay hands on the sick, and there'll be a miracle performed. He just said, "They shall recover." It promised it.
Now, see if it's been... Some of these unbelievers has been misinterpreting the Word to you. Saying, "Well, this one was prayed for. Why didn't he get up? I was at the meeting. I never seen nothing happen." See that interpreter they got? see what they're listening to?
The defense witness wants to show to this court this afternoon, that the Word didn't say they would jump up right then. It said, "They shall recover." That's what He promised. He never said any certain time. And that was only to believers.

32 And the defense witness also wants to call to your attention here, this afternoon in this court, that the Word of God is said by Jesus Christ to be a seed. And a seed can only grow when it falls into the fertile enough ground to quicken the seed. And if this seed falls into a ground, and is fertile with faith, it's got to quicken it. But if there's nothing there... Just like if you wanted a blood transfusion, and you went to a turnip, stuck a tube in yourself and in a turnip, how you going to get any blood? There's no blood there. No more can the Word of God ever be quickened in an unbeliever's heart, or a skeptic. It's got to fall into genuine faith that believes that heavens and earth will pass away, but that Word shall never fail. Like Abraham, who called things which was not as though they were, hoped against hope. He believed God.

33 Now, we find that this defense witness wants to call this to the attention, that the Word is a seed that a sower sowed. It's written in the Scripture, that the Word is a seed, and a seed must fall. And the Scripture says some did fall on stony ground, and the birds of the air taken it away. Some fell just long enough to get enough roots to spring up, and the thorns and thistles choked it out. But some did go in good ground and it brought forth a hundredfold. He wants to call your attention to that.
And He wants to say that if this Word, in this Holy Ghost meeting where people were having hands laid on, it only applies to believers. There's no promise in here but eternal separation from God, to unbelievers. It's only to believers.
Someone said to me not long ago, said, "I don't care how much... I don't believe."
I said, "Certainly not. It's not for unbelievers; it's for believers, they that believe."

34 Now, the defense witnesses, defense witness rather, wishes to call a witness. He has a right to call witnesses, too. So the defense witness wishes to call his first witness against this, and for the Word.
We're going to call Noah to the platform this afternoon, before this court, to give testimony for the defendant. Noah was just an ordinary farmer, but he was a prophet. And the Word of the Lord comes to the prophets. The Bible said so. And Noah lived ... wants to testify that he lived in a very scientific age, greater than the one we live in now. He lived in a time where they could build a pyramid, build a sphinx, which we cannot do. We haven't the machinery to do it with.
And Noah lived in a great time, and he lived in a scientific time. And then he says that the Word of the Lord come to him, after him being a vindicated prophet---that the Word of the Lord come to him and said, "Prepare an ark, for it's going to rain." And it had never rained in all the history of the world. And upon his testimony, and his witness for God... And he said God told him so, and all that was out of this ark would perish.

35 And the scientists could shoot the moon in that day, with their radar and so forth because Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Noah...," same kind of an age. He said that they could prove that there was no rain up there; and that Mr. Unbeliever here, and Mr. Scoffer, and Mr. Skeptic, that they constantly haunted at him and made fun of him for believing such a rashal thing. They were ... claimed to be believers back there, but he said, "God didn't say a thing like that."
Yet he was a prophet, and the Word of the Lord come to him and told him to do it, and he went preparing an ark. He got ready and built the ark. After he had the ark completed, and Mr. Skeptic and Mr. Impatient, and those walking around the ark...
You see ... you say, "Did they live back there?"

36 Listen, God takes His man, but never His Spirit. The Spirit that was upon Elijah, come upon Elisha, and on down, and on down. The Spirit was upon Jesus, come upon the church, and on and on. And the devil takes his man, but never the spirit. The same spirit (religious spirit) exists right down. Like it was on the Pharisees, it's right here in Tucson, Arizona, just as unbelieving and just as creedy and traditional as that was. Not only here in Tucson, it's world over. And so is the Holy Spirit just as real tonight as it was at any time---Jesus Christ.

37 Notice, he wants to say that these people made fun of him for being such a delinquent person, that would have no more mind and no more intelligence than to believe that water would fall from where there is no water at, and never had fell. But yet, Noah said he held steady and believed that it would rain, because God said so. He knowed that God was able to do anything that He said He would do. Therefore, he built the ark. And after the ark was completed he sat in the door of the ark.
And they said, "Now, you fanatic (Mr. Unbeliever, Mr. Scoffer, the defense witness, or the prosecutor's witnesses)..."
He said, "They passed by me."
And they said, "Now your ark's built. Now you got your doors in it. And where is your rain?"
But it looked pretty bad he said, at times. "But yet I knowed that God was able to keep His Word. He never said when it was going to rain. He said it would rain. That's all there was to it. He never said when it would rain; He just said it was going to rain. And I knew that it was going to rain because He had me to build the ark. And I sat steady."

38 And then we find out, that on May the 10th, he went into the ark one morning, and the door closed behind him, and no one could open it.
Then Mr. Unbeliever, Mr. Skeptic, they walked around the ark and laughed at him and made fun of him, and said, "Now you old fogy, you closed that door, and I suppose you expect us to believe that something else closed it. We know your tricks. You're no more than a magician. And you're just one of these here kind of a guys that tries to play tricks, and it's some kind of a hoax, and you closed the door."
But he said, "In the midst of all that, I was there. I seen the hand of God close the door."
Then the first day they said, "We'll see if it rains." First day it didn't rain. Second day it didn't rain. Third day it didn't rain---on till the seventh day.

39 And I'd like to stop here on Noah's witness, and let you know this: that there'll come a time that, when men and women ... the church will be going right ahead preaching and believing they're getting saved, when the door will be closed, just like it was then. If you're not in, you get in now, 'cause God will close the door and there'll be no more mercy. He said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of man."
Remember, one time even the disciples said to Jesus, "Why does the scribes say that Elias must first come?"---them disciples.
Jesus said, "He's already come, and you didn't know it." And they understood it was John the Baptist, that done been here on earth, and done been beheaded and went up to glory. And the thing that they were looking for was already in the past.
And one of these days men and women will cry out, but it'll be too far. It'll be too late, the door will be closed. Jesus said it would be that way.
The virgins come and knocked on the door and said, "Let us in." They wanted to get some of that oil. But they ought to've got oil when oil was being given out. They knocked on the door. It said they were cast into outer darkness where there'll be weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. (I'm only trying to make that little side-line of the defense to the court, now, of the Word.)

40 Now, Noah said, "But after 120 years, one morning the clouds began to rise, and the rain came. God promised it. He never said when it would happen. They thought it was going to happen that same week that He told me. And I had an idea it could happen that week. And I was sure when I got the ark finished that it would happen, but it didn't happen. But I sat steady, because God made the promise. He never said just the day it's going to rain. He said it would rain." So he, the witness, steps down.

41 Second witness comes up, which is Father Abraham. We'll call him. He said, "Oh yes, I know Mr. Scoffer here. I know Mr. Unbeliever, Mr. Skeptic. Oh, that Mr. Impatient! I was a prophet, also, in my day. And the Word of the Lord came to me and said, "Separate yourself from these people, for you're going to have a baby by Sarah, your wife. She was sixty-five years old and I was seventy-five. She was about twenty-five, thirty years past menopause. I married her---she was my half-sister. I married her when she was just a girl, and I a boy. Ten years difference in our age, and I married her. She became my wife. We'd lived together all these years, and she was barren and I was sterile. And yet, being a prophet, the Word of the Lord came to me and said, "You will bear a child by Sarah."
Well, when I told Sarah that, she went downtown and got some yarn and made the booties, and got the pins ready and everything. And twenty-eight days passed and I said, "How you feeling, honey?"
Said, "No different." But I held steady, because I knowed it was the Word of the Lord. That's right.

42 We went over to see the doctor, and he run us out of the office. An old man seventy-five years old and a woman sixty-five going to have a baby? You know, when you take God at His Word, regardless of what your condition is, He made the promise. And he said, "I went to the doctor, and the doctor ran us out of the office.
"'An old man like you?' Said, 'Watch him, he's a little funny in his head.' Said, 'There's something wrong with the old fellow.'
"And the scoffers begin to walk around and say, 'Abraham, where is that son that you was going to have by Sarah after the first month? There's nothing wrong with her, so they tell me.' The first year passed. Nothing happened. 'Abraham, father of nations, how many children do you have now?' Ten years passed, still no different ---scoffers.

43 "Mr. Impatient, he kept pointing his finger at me, 'You see, there's nothing to it. Why, if there's something to it, you'd had that ten years ago. You ought to've had that baby in ten years.' "
But he said, "I held steady, because I was fully persuaded that what God said... God never told me when I was going to have that baby. He said I would have it.
"But after twenty-five years, when I was a hundred years old and Sarah was ninety, the baby come on the scene. [He's a very good witness.] I waited twenty-five years. I never staggered at the promise of God by unbelief."
And we claim to be Abraham's children and can't wait from one night to the other. Just proves we're not. That's right. Watch, we get on the wrong side.

44 "See," he said, "I waited twenty-five years. God didn't tell me 'Next month Sarah is going to conceive.' He said, 'You'll have the baby.' And I was fully persuaded, no matter how old I got. And I knowed that I would see it happen, because it was to be my child. [Amen] Nothing's going to harm me. Old age, sickness, death, or nothing else can do it, till that promise is fulfilled. And I staggered not at the promise through unbelief.
"But every day when Sarah said, 'I feel a little better,' I got stronger. Every year when she said, 'Well, I didn't have it this year.'
"'Then you'll have it this year.'
"'I didn't have it last year.'
"Well, we'll have it this year."
That went on and on, and on and on, year in and out, for twenty-five years.
"And one day, I seen her turning back to a young woman. I began to see my strength coming. And the baby was born, twenty-five years later."
The Word never said when he would have the baby; but said he would have it.
Abraham, I know you could testify a lot, but step down, I want another witness.
All right,

45 the defense witness now will call up his third witness. That'll be Moses. And Moses said, "When I was borned, I was borned a prophet." He wants you to know that gifts and callings are without repentance.
No matter how many books you read out of these stores that says that God doesn't do that, the Bible still remains true: that gifts and callings are without repentance. You're born in this world what you are.
And now, notice. Moses, he had a sign to go down and show to the people, and there was a voice to follow that sign. Yet when he went down with a God-given sign (Now don't fail to get this, court.), when he went down with this God-given sign that come from God, Pastor Pharaoh tried to smear his God-given gift by making him say it's magic. He had somebody to do the same thing, some magician, and tried to make his God-given sign a cheap magic trick.

46 All Pastor Pharaohs didn't die in that day, see---"Some kind of mental telepathy, some kind of a power of Satan." And the thing of it was, they called up some cheap magicians and done the very same thing that he did.
"But," he said, "that didn't shake me, because I knowed that the voice that spoke to me was a scriptural voice in that tree. He said, 'I have heard the cries of my people, and I have seen their affliction, and I remember my promise.' And the voice..."
Although it was very odd in that day for a thing like that to happen, they had all kinds of magic tricks they could do. And God give him something, a sign that looked like it was some kind of a cheap magician trick, to try his servant. (O God!) But he held steady, because the voice that commissioned him was a scriptural voice, and he knowed it was God.

47 And you know we're promised that same thing in the last days---the same thing to repeat again---them Jambres and Jannes to come back to withstand the true thing when it's in operation? But their follies will be made known.
So, he tried to take some carnal impersonator, somebody that tried ... went around and tried to impersonate the gift that God give him to make it look like it was some kind of a cheap outfit.
But Moses wants you all to know this afternoon, as he testifies, that no matter how shady that the pastor tried to make his gift look like---that it was shady and some kind of a cheap magician trick---he knew it was the Scriptures, because it was the voice of God that told him, and he stood firm. And he wants you ... to let you know that it was a long time after that, but God kept His Word, and brought him right back to the place to where He said he would come with the children of Israel. Moses, step down.

48 Let the defense witness call another witness; and we're going to call Joshua. Joshua has a wonderful testimony here that he'd like to give.
He stilled the people, he said. When Moses called out one out of every denomination to send them over to the promised land, to find out whether the land was really there or not... They'd just been told that. By faith they'd walked that far.
So Moses pulled out a Presbyterian, Lutheran, Pentecostal, and all. He got one of each one, and took them over to the promised land. And when two of them come back with the evidence, you know what happened? The whole group begin to doubt it. When they seen the opposition was so great (the other side was so great), " Why," they said, "We look like grasshoppers up beside side of them, them Amalekites and Hittites," and so forth. And said that "We ... why, we look like grasshoppers. We can't do it."

49 And Joshua wants to testify, "I stilled the people." He said, "Be still," at Kadesh-barnea, the judgment seat. He said, "Keep still, all of you. Let me bring your ... this Word to you. God told us down yonder, through Moses and through ... or through Abraham, that this land was ours. He sent a pillar of fire among us, that talked to our prophet here in a burning bush. And what this prophet has said has been true. And God told us He'd already give us the land. We are more than able to take it, 'cause it already belongs to us." He said, "I stilled the people, and got them quiet."
But you know what? It was forty years later before they took the land. They were only about two days' journey from Kadesh---they'd have been over in the promised land.

50 May I stop here a minute? You Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists, or you Pentecostals: fifty years ago we'd have got the promised land, but you got to fussing among one another: making organizations out from one side, and this and getting this, one this and getting this, and a new revelation, instead of following the Word. And now we've been fifty years this side the full promise.
But remember, it was forty years but Joshua wants you all to know that God kept His Word with a brand new generation. He took the promised land just as it was promised, 'cause he stilled the people on the Word of God to let them know that God made the promise; that this prophet they were following was not a false prophet, because the things that he was doing was exactly with the Scripture. No matter how falsely Pharaoh said it was, how falsely magicians tried to say it was; how that they could do the same thing, and everybody do the same thing.

51 And Joshua wants to you to know that there was a man in there wanted to make an organization out of them. His name is Dathan. And he and Korah... And they raised up, said, "There's more holy men than you."
God never does deal with groups. It's individuals. He cannot change. What God does the first time, He has to ever remain that same one. Here, look. God's first decision to save a man was by the shed blood of an innocent one. It's never changed. God never changes.
We've tried to build cities for them. We've tried to build towers. We've tried to educate them. We've tried to denominate them. And we get further away all the time. Is there only one place that man can fellowship. That's under the shed blood of the innocent one. That's the only way we'll ever believe it. Only way we can get together is under the shed blood of the innocent. God never changes His way. God, in no time, ever did deal but with one individual. He won't save you because you're Methodist, or because you're Pentecostal. He'll save you as an individual, not as a group. He never does do that. He saves individuals, one. Just one person He deals with.
Moses cried before the Lord, and the Lord said, "Separate yourself, Moses. I called you by this message." And He let the world swallow them up. So Joshua wants you to understand that also.

52 Now, after Joshua steps down, we'll call another witness right quick, so we won't take too long. I want to call Isaiah. I could call hundreds, but I'll just call just a couple more and then quit.
Isaiah, the prophet, he said, "In my day the Lord vindicated me as His prophet. [And we know that the Word comes to the prophet.] And then everything that I said, God honored it and made it come to pass. From a little boy up, everything that was said come to pass. I was vindicated amongst the people as a prophet.
"And then one day God give me the most rashal thing to say that I could think of. He said, 'A virgin shall conceive. I'm going to give him a super sign. I'll give Israel and the world a super sign. They want signs, so I'll give them a super sign: A virgin shall conceive.' And me, being a vindicated prophet, making such a rashal thing as that. But I knowed that it was God's voice."

53 And you know, you might say this... Isaiah might testify to the court this afternoon and say this, that pretty near every virgin there was in Israel got baby clothes ready, because she was going to be the girl that had it. She was going to be the virgin. Every one of them got ready. And one of them knowed the next month she was going to conceive (but a virgin), she's going to be a virgin, conceive, because Isaiah, the prophet, was a vindicated prophet. Whatever he said in the name of the Lord come to pass. And now he says, "A virgin's going to conceive."
And the women got their little girls, "My daughter'll be that one."
The other one, "This [the Pharisee] ... she'll belong to this group."
"She'll belong to this group."
"She'll belong to that group." All these say ... every one of their daughters is going to have this baby, because the prophet said it was.
And that generation passed. Isaiah died. The promise didn't come to pass. But eight hundred years later... God didn't say when the virgin would conceive. He just said she'd conceive. He wants you to know that: that God didn't say, "In this generation," or "At this time," or a certain time or certain thing, this virgin shall conceive." He just said, "A virgin shall conceive." It was eight hundred years later, but that virgin conceived. See, God keeps His Word. Do you believe that? It was time for her to do it.

54 Now, I could call all kinds of defense witnesses here, with the defense witness, rather, to give witness. I could call people out of here. But if this court will pardon me, may I have the privilege of being the next witness?
I'm not going to talk about Moses, and something that happened back there, or something that happened fifty years ago, or something that happened a hundred years ago, or five hundred years ago. I'm going to talk about something that happened now. I want... I believe, and I want to be the next witness to testify today, that the Word of God that's promised for this day---not the day of Moses, not the day of the disciples, not the day of Luther, not the day of Pentecost, not the day of Methodist,

55 but this day---I want to give witness to it on the stand.
And if you'll pardon this personal thing, because it has to be a personal witness and it must be true, because I know who is the one we're defending, and He'll know whether it's truth or not. I believe that we're living in the last days, and the message of another day will not fit this day. It cannot. It's got to be the message for today (not for what it was ten years ago), the message for this hour, the message for this generation. The Word speaks it. And then if the Word promises, there has to be something vindicate it.
And that's the reason they failed to receive Jesus when He first come upon the earth, is because they were living under a tradition. And Jesus told them, said, "Search the scriptures. They testify of me."
Said, "We're Moses' disciples."
He said, "If you were Moses' disciples, you'd believe me, for Moses wrote of me. Look in the scripture."
And those blind traditional men... Yet good men, holy men. No one could put a finger upon them---they were priests. They lived an example. They were men that you couldn't put a finger on, 'cause if you did they'd be stoned. They were good men. They were bound to be good men by law. And they were raised up from generation to generation. Their sons and grandsons and great grandsons all had to be priests, Levites. And yet the men---in them trainings, that never knowed nothing else but seminary and the Bible---and was so blind they failed to see Him.

56 Could it be possible that we entered that again? Remember, the same scripture said we would (that's exactly right), said we would do it.
Now. As a personal testimony... Sometimes we get things so set together, that we're so starched on this---that this is the creed, this is the thing we must do---until we miss it a million miles. And I suppose we'll do the same thing, 'cause the Scripture said we would.
Now, as something personal---don't let it reflect. I trust it's just because I'm at the witness stand to this court. I believe that we're at the hour of the coming of the Lord. I believe that these earthquakes and things that we're having, this moon that... They're up here at the observatory and things. They're watching this moon. It's squirting bloody-looking eruptions from the inside of it. Jesus said that the moon would be turned into blood, and there'd be earthquakes all over the earth in them days before His coming. He claimed that the day would be sitting just exactly the way it is.

57 And I believe, court, I want to say something to you this afternoon, that I don't see one thing to hinder Him from coming right now. That the world... Now, if I had time, I could prove it to you, is sitting perfectly, even by names and position the way it's supposed to be sitting when He comes. When is the hour? I know not. No one knows. But, He said, "When these comes to pass, look up." Israel's in her homeland. Everything's sitting just exactly right for His coming.

58 Now, when I was a little baby ... My people, 'course being Irish descent perhaps we were formerly Catholic, but my father and mother didn't go to church at all. In a little mountain home, up in the state of Kentucky, one morning, April 6, 1909, in a little old house that didn't have any windows in it (just a little door-like to let the light in), when the Lord Jesus permitted me to come to the earth, being the first-born of my mother and father (her fifteen, my dad eighteen).
And on a little straw tick... I guess you people around here never knowed what a straw tick was. But ... how many ever know what a straw tick was? Well, what part of Kentucky you from, see? So then, a straw tick, on a little straw tick with a shuck pillow, that one little bed in the room... One little room, and a little kitchen, was just about ... the whole thing together wouldn't be twenty feet altogether---little old log cabin, no floor at all, a table made out of a stump.

59 And there, in that little room, when Jesus Christ permitted me to come to the earth... I can only say this by testimony of my parents, which was not religious. But they didn't have no lights like we have here, not even a coal oil lamp. I don't know whether you ever knowed what a grease lamp was or not. Take some lard, and put it in a can, and put a little piece of flannel in it and light it, and it'll burn. The light that early in the morning wouldn't show enough light to let mama see what I was, looked like.
And they opened this little window on the side towards the east, where some robins was sitting in the bushes out there singing as it was breaking day at five o'clock. And when they opened up the window, a pillar of fire (light) came moving through the window, and come and hung over the little bed. My mother screamed. The mid-wife was there. We had no doctor, and the mid-wife was there. They didn't know what it was.

60 About two weeks after that, I was carried up to a little Baptist church, called Possum Kingdom, and a minister held me in his arms and dedicated me to God. The mountain people didn't know what to think about that. They told him they thought maybe Mama was just out of her head, or just thought that.
Three years later, we come to Indiana and Papa got a job. He was a rider, breaking horses for the ranchers and farmers and so forth. He come out there to break some hackney ponies for a rich man named O. H. Wathen, lives on the Utica Pike. He's a great owner of the Colonels, and also the R. E. Wathen Distillery, and all them in Louisville, and O. H. and R. E. And daddy was breaking saddle horses for him. And then he got hurt, and he went to being a private chauffeur for him.

61 And at the age of about seven years old I'd entered school. And one September afternoon... I hate to say this, but I'm on the witness stand. My father, being a real Irishman, a strict Kentuckian, he made his own drink. And I was packing water to this little still that he had. And I couldn't go fishing at the back of the pond. I was crying, packing water about a city block from a barn, where the horses stayed. And I was packing water there, and I come up to cool the coils on that still for that night.
And I sat down under a white poplar tree and was crying. Little dirty face, hair hanging down, corncob under my toe to keep them from big stumps, you know, and going along like that, coming from school. All the rest of the boys was out at the old ice pond fishing. I was sitting there crying. I thought, "Why do I have to do this? Them other children don't do that."

62 And what it was, a noise came into that tree like a wind turning, like a whirlwind. And I got up and looked back. And I'm on the witness stand, remember. There was a voice spoke from that, said, "Don't you never smoke, or drink, or defile your body. There's a work for you to do when you get older." It scared the life out of me. And I went on. Things begin to happen. Things begin to prophesy and taking place. And now, when... I was a little boy then, about seven years old.
Then about seventeen years after that I was ... had become a minister, a Baptist preacher of the Missionary Baptist Church. Dr. Roy E. Davis ordained me as one of the local pastors, give me rights, then, by the state to marry, bury, baptize, so forth. And the Missionary Baptist Church burned down, which I was assistant pastor at the time. And Mr. Davis come back to Texas, which he was of Davis mountains, and down near Van Horn, Texas. That's where they come from. And so, while he was gone I started to take over the congregation. Got a tent, and I began to preach in the city (just a boy preacher).

63 And I had a baptismal service down on the river, along 1933, on the middle of June---about the sixteenth or eighteenth of June. And standing out there... It'd been so hot for weeks. Hadn't had no rain for two or three weeks, and the country was burning up nearly. And there was, I guess, around seven or eight thousand people on the bank and I was ... walked out in the water with my seventeenth candidate to baptize. And when I baptized, started to baptize, I said, "As I baptize thee with water, may the Lord Jesus..."
When I said that, something struck me and said, "Look up." And as I turned to look, after the third time it said it, a place about fifteen feet square was churning up and down in them brassy skies. And down from there came that same pillar of light that come in when I was a little baby, that spoke to me in the burning bush, or the bush back there that day, and come into that bush, and come hung over where thousands of people...
Newspapers packed it all across the nation, plumb into Canada. We got the clippings, "Mystic light appears over local Baptist minister while preaching, or baptizing."
And that voice came down and said, "As John the Baptist was sent forth to forerun the first coming of Christ, so will your message forerun the second coming of Christ."

64 How could it be so? How could it be so? It looked like it would be impossible. Then when it spoke a few days from that and said... And I began to see these visions, and things that always happen. It scared me. My brethren said to me, said, "That's of the devil." My Baptist brethren said, "That's of the devil."
I said, "You know, I'll just be standing," and I said, "the first thing you know, it'll go into, like a trance-like or something." And I said, "I see things that always happens. He told me twenty-two years before that bridge went across there, how far it would go across, when it would go across, and how many men would lose their lives. And it was perfectly every time."
And some of them said, "That's the devil."
And I got away, and started crying and praying one night. I said, "Lord Jesus, you know my heart, I love you. Let me die. Don't let me have any ... the devil to have anything to do with me. I'd rather die than be a false witness of you."
And it was at that time when this light returned again and showed me the scripture, that in this day this thing's supposed to happen. Here it is laying right here in the scripture now. It's been thirty-three years since that time, but I'm a witness that it's the truth. I'm a witness of these things that it's truth.

65 And may I call the attention of this scriptural blind prosecutor (Now this is going to sound ridiculous. Scripturally blind, this prosecutor is.), that in the book of St. Luke, the 17th chapter and the 30th verse, Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom..."
You want to know where this man, that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever? You want to know where the nail scars and the prints and things? Any hypocrite could do that. 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. I want you to know that St. John 14:5, Jesus said, "He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also." I want you, also, to know that John the (14th), 15th chapter says that "I am the vine; ye are the branches." And how can the branches bear any other kind of a life or fruit than that was in the vine?

66 How can you people say that the apostolic age ceased? Where do you get it? How can a vine come out and bear ... today can go out and bear a orange, and this day bear a pumpkin? It would have to change its life. In Malachi, the 3rd chapter, God said, "I am God, and I change not." What He was then, He is today. And He always was, and always will be.
I want to call your attention, that the prosecutor is trying to tell you that He said, "I was," or, "I will be." But it's wrong. He said, "I am the same yesterday, today, and forever." This prosecutor's misinterpreting the Word.

67 Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into all the world (in Mark 16 here), and to preach the gospel to every creature. How far? All the world. It never has reached it. Every creature. It never has reached it. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them to the end of the world. They'll lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."
I want you to also know that Peter on the day of Pentecost, who had the keys to the kingdom, when he stood up in Acts 2:38, he said, "Repent every one of you, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is to you, to your children, and to them that's far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."
When did the apostolic age cease? There's the commission, to all the world, every creature, every one that believes. I want the court to understand that, that that's God's promise.

68 I want you to also understand, this blind interpreter to the people doesn't understand the Scripture. He said here in Mark the 17th chapter and the 30th verse, He said, "As it was in the days of Sodom..." Now go back. Jesus was referring to the same Genesis that we're referring to. "...in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man."
Now go back and look what it was in the days of Sodom. Then see where we're at. And see what's supposed to happen now. In the days of Sodom, when Abraham, which was a type... We only, being dead in Christ, take on Abraham's seed and are heirs with him according to the promise. Any of you in the court this afternoon knows that. Watch Abraham. He received all kinds of signs. Everything from the supernatural God in the form of a light, going between sacrifices. He received Him in a voice, and so forth.
But the last sign that Abraham received upon the hills of Sodom, just before the Gentile world was destroyed, was God, Himself, in the form of a human being. You understand, court? There was three messengers come up to him---three messengers---and he went out to meet them. Two of them, a modern Oral Roberts, and Billy Graham, goes down into Sodom, and preached the gospel, and blinded them with their gospel.

69 But this one that sat back there, that eat the flesh of a calf, drink the milk from a cow, and eat bread, and Abraham washed his feet, and He sat there---a man. And He said... Now remember, his name had been Abram a day before that, and had been changed to Abraham. And Sarai had been changed to Sarah. And watch Him, what He says, "Where is your wife Sarah [S-a-r-a-h]? Abraham [A-b-r-a-h-a-m], " where is your wife Sarah?"
He said, "She's in the tent behind you." She hadn't come out, like women today do, and have to show themselves. But she was in the tent behind Him.
He said, "I'm going to visit you according to the time of life."
And Sarah doubted it in her heart, and said within her heart, "These things can't be," 'cause, you see, as ... family relations had been far from them. He was a hundred years old, and she was ninety. Said, "Me have pleasure with my lord, and him old, too, out there? How could it be?"
And this man, with his back turned to the tent, said, "Why did Sarah doubt, saying, 'These things can't be'?"
And Abraham called Him Elohim. If anybody knows what Elohim means? The all-sufficient One, God Almighty, Himself, manifested in the flesh. How did Abraham call Him that? Because he seen that that man was the Word.

70 Now the Hebrews the 4th chapter, the 12th verse, says that the Word of God is sharper than a two-edged sword, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And when Jesus came and performed that miracle by discerning their thoughts that was in their heart, they called Him Beelzebub.
But the Word in those prophets, always was able to foretell and to discern. That's the Word for that day. That's what identified them as prophets. And remember, He promised that the world would be in that condition, and would receive that sign again before His coming. Now notice, in Luke 17 here, He said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of man," when the Son of man is being revealed.

71 Will you pardon me for another minute? Let me open something to you here, just a minute, court? Will you permit this, as I'm a witness? Did you notice here? He never said, "When the Son of God is being revealed." He said, "Son of man." Jesus come with three titles: Son of man, Son of David, Son of God, all the same person. That ... it's just like the Trinity---Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Not three gods; one person, the three attributes of God.
Now, see, just like I am three persons. I am to my wife a husband. I am to my daughter sitting here, daddy. And my grandson sitting there, I am grandpa. Now, my wife only has claims on me as her husband. And my daughter here can't say, "Husband," because she's my child. My grandson cannot call me "Daddy." Why? He has no claims on me as daddy. He might call me that, but it isn't so. He is my grandson. Yet I'm the same person.
It's God unveiling Himself, bringing Himself down so He can be... He was above in a pillar of fire. Then He was manifested in His Son, Jesus Christ. And now revealed to us by the Holy Ghost. Watch. When He comes...

72 You know what "Son of man" means? Look at Ezekiel the 2nd chapter, and you'll find it. Ezekiel 2:1. Jehovah, Himself, called Ezekiel the prophet, "son of man." He called all the prophets, "son of man."
And why, then, did Jesus call Himself, Son of man? Because He had to come in the way that the prophet said He would come. Moses, in Deuteronomy 18:15, said, "The Lord your God shall raise up a prophet like me." And He come to reveal Himself to the natural seed of Abraham as "Son of man." And they called it the works of a devil.
So has the royal seed. That sounds harsh, but ... corrective, and it's love. The royal seed today's done the same thing; tried to call it mental telepathy or some devil.
It's the Son of man, Christ. That was Christ in Ezekiel, Christ in Moses, Christ in David. It was Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever. What?---the Word being made manifest by these prophets.

73 Listen to it, court, before you make your decision. The Word comes to the prophet. Jesus said that your law says that your ... that them the Word of the Lord come to is gods. And Jesus admitted they were gods. He said then, "If you can call them, and recognize them your lords, being gods who the Word of the Lord come to, the prophets, how will you condemn me when I say I'm the Son of God?", when He is the vindicated Word of that hour.
They said they believed the prophets. And here was the Word in fullness, and still they didn't believe it because they had their creed and their tradition.
Watch now, court, before you make your decision. Let's go just a little farther. Watch. The Son of man, they called Him a devil. But they wanted to make Him king, you know, by force.

74 Look, when blind Bartimaeus run after Him said, "Thou Son of David, have mercy," he got what he asked. But when the Syrophenician woman (a Greek, Gentile) run after Him and said, "Thou Son of David," He never even raised His head. She had no claims on Him as Son of David. He was no Son of David to her. But when she said, "Son of God," or "Lord," which is Son of God, she got what she asked for.
See, the Gentiles has no claim on Him as Son of David. He was King. He's Lord to us. And when He revealed Hisself as Son of man, as the Scripture said He would be, no sir, they rejected it. He wasn't no prophet. They couldn't believe it. They hadn't had one for hundreds of years, and they couldn't believe Him be a prophet.
When He told the little woman about how many husbands she had (and her in that condition), she was ordained to life. She said, "Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. Now I know when Messiah cometh... We haven't had a prophet for hundreds of years, but I know when He comes that's the sign He'll do, 'cause He'll be the Word. He knows what's in my heart."
He said, "I am he that speaks to you." And her testimony caused the whole city to come to Christ. Right. They all believed.

75 Now look, as Son of David, He was with the Jew. But the Son of God... Now look, Son of man, prophet, see. Son of David, king. They recognized Him, not a prophet. They wanted to make Him king. They wanted to be delivered out from under the Roman Empire.
But then in the church age, He's called the Son of God. Now anyone knows that God is a spirit. Is that right? And the Holy Ghost is the Son of God, supernatural. Son of man was a prophet, a man. David was a king. But God is a spirit. And in the church age He's revealed as Son of God. We believe that. You don't believe He's the Son of God, you're lost. He's the Son of God to the church age.

76 But bear me record. The seventh church age, which is the Laodicea church age... Will we admit that this is the Laodicea age? Remember, He, the Word, was put out of the church. Is that right? Put out of the church, and He was on the outside trying to get back in. "I stand and knock at the door."
And you say that "I'm rich and I'm ... have need of nothing and..."
"Knowest thou not that you're miserable, blind, naked, wretched, and don't know it?" He was on the outside---the Word.
What is it? Our traditions. Our Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal tradition has rejected the Word, and it can have no cooperation nowhere. Everybody's "hands off" of it, and want to call it an evil spirit.
And do you understand that Jesus said in the last days before the coming of the end-time, that He would be revealed again as "Son of man," not "Son of God"? And that fulfills Malachi 4, and all these other promises of Abraham? The last sign that Abraham received, he was waiting for a coming son, and the last sign that he was to receive was God revealed in a human being. And Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Lot, Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man."

77 Now, will you forgive me for me to make a little deep statement here. I want to ask you theologians something. Search back through the Scripture, through Bible history. As you've been telling me this week, you was a Scripture-reading man. And also that you ... the apostolic age is finished, and that you knowed all the history of the church. I want you ... to call this to your attention. God forgive me for breaking this out, if it's not right to do it. The world is sitting exactly time for it.
The world never was in such a time as this, as in a Sodom condition. Last week in Florida, the state of Florida, sixty-something percent of the school teachers was put out of the school for homosexual. Forty some-odd percent increased over California over last year, homosexual. The schools, the seminaries, everything is full of it. And she's sitting exactly where it was in the days of Sodom. God will be obligated... If He don't punish this nation and this world for its sins, He'll be morally obligated to raise up Sodom and Gomorrah and apologize for burning them. Look at the hour we're living in.
Think now a minute, court, before you make your decision.

78 Now Jesus never said, "In the days when the Son of God will be revealed." He was revealed in the church age. But the church has put Him out. Then He would be revealed as Son of man, "when the Son of man is being revealed"---God manifested amongst the human being like it was then, Son of man, prophetic.
Malachi 4 is promised a seer to come forth with a voice. Not Malachi 3, now, "Send my messenger." Malachi 4. Now don't get them confused, 'cause you do, you'll miss it. Malachi 4 was not Malachi 3, "I send my messenger before my face." But Malachi 4, when this messenger comes, the world is to be burned and the millennium sets in, the wicked is burned as ashes, and the righteous walk out upon the ashes of them. That never happened in the days of John, see. Malachi 4.
And watch, there's to be a sign. And that sign must be a scriptural sign.

79 Jesus said, "I come from God. I go to God." He was the pillar of fire that was in the burning bush.
They stood there one day and said, "You're a man not over fifty years old."
He might have looked a little older than He was, really was. His ministry was heavy. And the Bible says, "There was no beauty we should desire Him.", Probably a little bitty fellow. He said, "You say you're not over fifty year...? Well, you're not over fifty years old, and say you've seen Abraham?"
He said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." He said, "I come from God. I was that pillar of fire in the wilderness. I come from God." He was made flesh, the Son of God. God overshadowed a virgin, created a blood cell, that brought forth His Son, which God housed in that Son. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. "...and I go to God."
After His death, burial, and resurrection, Saul was on his road down to Damascus and was stricken down by a light, that pillar of fire. Do you think that Jew would call anything, some kind of an illusion, "Lord"? When he looked up and seen that pillar of fire, he knowed that's what his fathers had followed out of Egypt. He said, "Lord, who are you?"
He said, "I am Jesus." He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

80 And the scriptural voice that spoke in Moses' bush, and Moses stood pat on it, so was that a scriptural voice that spoke in the bush at seven years old. I still stand, and say it's the truth. Because Moses seen that Word had to come to pass, I see this Word has to come to pass. The Son of man has to be revealed---exactly what it said. Notice, it promised that. Not Son of God; Son of man, see. Son of man, Son of David, and Son of God.
But after the days of the church age, when He's put out, then He reveals Hisself again as Son of man, 'cause we, being dead in Christ, we take on Abraham's seed, and we are his royal seed. How many admit that, that the church is his royal seed? Well, you see, what He did to Abraham, He's doing the same thing?

81 Now, pardon this. Now you fellows that say you know history so well, tell me when in the history of the church has there ever been a leader that went to you out there---with you Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, whatever you might be---when was there a man sent to you with the ending of his name with h-a-m until now? G-r-a-h-a-m. You've had Sankey, Moody, Finney, Knox, Calvin, but never a h-a-m like Abraham. And G-r-a-h-a-m is only six letters. A-b-r-a-h-a-m is seven letters, God's Word, perfected.
Now, remember, this person that was in the days of Abraham... Now Abraham was his ... was the elected. He wasn't in Sodom; he was called out of Sodom. That messenger that visited him never went to Sodom. But the ones went down to Sodom, watch what they did.

82 Watch what this one did to the church elected. And Jesus called your attention to the same thing would happen in the last days, when the Son of man would reveal Hisself in human flesh, the Word, knowing the secret of the heart. As it said, it's a ... more powerful than a two-edged sword and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, like all the prophets did. Like Jesus did Himself, and was called Beelzebub. And rejected here again in the last days.
I wonder if that blind interpreter ever thought of that? I wonder if he'll ever realize that these scriptures that's been prophesied for this day has to come to pass? How many do you believe it must be at this time? That God's Word, though it linger---yet all these things, these church ages pass, and it's been hundreds of years since we've ever had it---but it's promised to be here.

83 He's revealed Himself as Son of God (Son of God, the Holy Ghost), baptized the Pentecostal church, and the churches down through, and brought down signs, wonders, miracles, like He did. They seen God in great visions and everything. But never has the church ever seen the Son of God manifested in human flesh, that would reveal the thoughts that's in the heart, till this age. And that was the age that seen Sodom burn and the promised son return. I wonder if that blind interpreter of the Scripture ever thought of that? I want the court to remember that.
Remember, no matter how much it lingers, yet it's got to happen. It's going to happen.

84 These witnesses testify, has absolutely testified the truth, that it is so. God said, "They shall lay hands on the sick; they shall recover." But the outside world wants you to believe as soon as you lay hands on, you must ... the crippled legs must be straightened, you must jump up and down. He never said that. He never promised that.
He said, "The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and God will raise them up." He never said when. "They lay hands on the sick; they shall recover." He never said when. He said, "When you pray, believe that you receive it, and it shall be given to you." He didn't say when.

85 Now, if we are real genuine believers, when these scriptures are ministered to us, there's nothing can tell us any different. There's nothing can say that it's wrong. How many could raise up, how many infidels, how many unbelievers, how many could explain this, that, or the other---God keeps His Word. And Mark 16 is just as inspired as John 3:16. The whole thing's the Word of God. Every word of it's inspired. All of it is God, if you just read it the way it says.
I want to call the church to the order of the day to find out, before you call anything a devil, you better remember the promise of this is to be in this day. See, remember that, 'cause one word against the Holy Ghost is never forgiven in this world, neither in the world to come. And you see the Holy Spirit, Himself, manifested, doing the same thing.

86 I'm looking at a little woman sitting here in front of me. I think she's a Presbyterian if I'm not mistaken... Was at my house not long ago. She had till Wednesday to live---cancer. Sitting in the room, I just happened to spot her sitting by a friend of mine. And she was given till Wednesday to live by the medics of the city. They're puzzled now. Here she sits tonight, looking fine and healthy, and still living. You're thankful for it, aren't you, sister? Raise your hand, if that's right. Here she is, setting right here, see. Dying, and given till Wednesday, about several months ago. And now the doctors are amazed to think... What happened? It was "Thus saith the Lord." His Words are still true.

87 When this scripture says here, that these signs shall follow them that believe... If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover, if you'll believe. These signs shall follow the believer. They shall... He never said when. And if you're a real believer, there's nothing could separate you from that.
Listen to Abraham's testimony. Listen to the rest of their testimonies. How many hundreds could I call on the scene today, and show you that God keeps His Word, regardless, if you'll believe it, and stand there, and know in your heart that it's going to come to pass.

88 When this little lady we're referring to... Now somebody was telling me a few minutes ago (excuse me), was telling me a few minutes ago, coming through the dinner line out there, said, "Brother Branham, don't you remember this little lady here? Your prayer of faith to her not long ago? She was, years ago, was dying with a cancer. Is that woman sitting present? Somebody pointed her out to me. Raise up your hand, if you are sitting here somewhere.
A little woman coming through the line, some man, gray-headed brother, was pointing her out to me, said she was dying with cancer. And here she lives now. Is that lady in the building here, now? She was in the dinner room a while ago. Yeah. There's Mrs. Waldrop back there, that was standing dead in the line fifteen years ago, seventeen years ago. With her doctor with a x-ray there that cancer had eat her heart out, but it was "Thus saith the Lord."
Let the critics rise and say what they want to. I'm a witness that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. What He was then, He is today. He's not "I was," "I will be"; He is now (present tense), the same yesterday, today, and forever. And Jesus and His Word is the same, and He is the Word.
Do you believe it?

89 What did He say? These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover. Before we say this to court, you are the jury. You've heard the case. How many witnesses could we call? No matter how many other witnesses the prosecutor could call, these words testify against him. He misinterprets the Scripture. How many believes that the words are true? How many's a believer? Raise up your hand. All right.
The Bible said this, "The prayer of faith shall save the sick. God shall raise them up. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover."
Now look, each one of you. Through this broken up little message, you've drawed some conclusion. Down in your mind, you've made up your mind, 'cause that's the jury. And the way you act from hereafter, that'll prove what your verdict is, see. The way you live from hereafter, will prove just what your verdict is. Now if you go out and say, "Well, I'm just as sick as I was when I come in," there it shows just what kind of a verdict you've made in this court this afternoon.

90 I think He's had a fair trial. He's had ... been brought up as the Word. He's been proved as the Word. He's been identified as the Word. If I die this night, the words that I've said is truth. The world knows it. The scientific world knows it. That same pillar of fire, the same angel of the Lord... How many's seen the picture of it? It hangs in Washington DC, the only supernatural being was ever photographed. If I die this night, and I never see you again, what I've said is the truth. And God has testified of it, that it's the truth. And here's the scripture says it's supposed to be now. Then call it a devil if you want to. That'll be between you and God, see.

91 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and He's identifying Himself as He promised. Much more could He say here in these last days, as Son of man, making Himself known among His people, in the form of His people---not Son of God, not Son of David, but Son of man. The Son of God was a supernatural. Like Abraham. He seen voices, and heard things, and seen lights, and so forth. But just before the promised son come, God revealed Himself as a man in human flesh, and read the thoughts that was in Sarah's heart in the room behind Him. How many says, knows that's the scripture? Very good.

92 And He said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of ... coming when the Son of man shall be being revealed. The Son of man being revealed, not the Son of God in the church age. He's put out of that. Now He's the Son of man revealing Himself. The Word is becoming flesh among us. Oh, my friend! Open your eyes, court, before you make your decision. Make your decision, and believe it with all your heart. He's justified in writing this in the Scripture. He's justified in what He says. I can prove it. I know He's right. God does prove it.
He needs nobody to interpret, say, "This is that," "This is that." He says He'll do it, and He does it, and that settles it. He's His own interpreter.
Do you believe that? How many's believers? Then raise up your hand, say, "I'm a believer." I want every believer in here to stand to your feet. Unbeliever remain seated. Believers stand to your feet.

93 In this court, before it adjourns, I want to thank the Lord that this court has made up its mind. The jury has come to this verdict, that Jesus Christ is justified in putting these things in His Word. When it's truly interpreted in the light of the Word, it is the truth. How many of you, court, believe that? Raise your hand, say before God, "I believe that it's the truth. I believe that it's the truth." Now how many...? Would you put your hand down, say, "I am a believer in what you've said. I believe it to be the honest truth. It's the Word of God."? Raise up your hand. All right.

94 Now, I want you to reach right across the table, and lay your hand on another believer. Put your hand right across the table, and lay it on another believer.
Are we believers? What did He say? "These signs shall follow them that believe."
Court, have you made up your mind? Say "Amen, my verdict has been reached." Is that right? "Amen." That the Word of God is true? "Amen." Mark 16 is true? "Amen." Then, "These signs shall follow them that believe." They'll have to recover. He said so, did He not?
Now, the way you pray at church, you pray for the person you got your hands on. They're praying for you. And these signs shall follow them that believe. What will happen? Your action from this hour on will prove what your true verdict is. Now bow your head, every one of you. Now pray for the person that you got your hands on.

95 Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I call this to Your attention again. These men and women has claimed by their testimony that they are believers. They have stood, and they are laying their hands on one another. Lord, we believe Your Word, that in this great day of education---this great day of going on of ethics and all the educational systems---yet in the midst of all of it Your Word remains true, just the same.
And we've called witnesses in this court, this afternoon, Lord, to give You a fair trial. Not a mock trial, not a mock like Herod give You, or one of the others. We're giving You a fair trial here, and proving... And Your people has made up their mind that the Word of God in 1964, this hour that we're now living, that You're just as much God as You ever was. And every word that You promised is the truth. And they've got their hands laying on one another as believers. They're praying for one another. And You said, "These signs shall follow them that believe. If they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover." You never said when. You said, "They shall recover."
Now, them being...

96 . As I, being the moderator, and these people being the jury, also the judge, they have give witness to this, Lord, by moving to one another's hands, and praying for one another.
Now, their actions hereafter, will certainly prove what their verdict is. May there never be one complain among them anymore of ever being sick of this sickness, or whatever bothers them now. May they know that God promised He'd do it.
Sometimes He lingers, as He did in the days of Noah, He did in the days of Moses, He did in all days. But He never told the Pentecostal people, "Go up to the city of Jerusalem. In twenty-four hours I'll give you the Holy Ghost." He said, "Tarry there until you're endued with power from on high." He never said, "One day, two days. ten days." He said, "Stay until you're endued with power." Lord, they stayed until the evidence spoke back through them that it was the Holy Ghost of God.
Now, may of these people who has their hands upon one another, who stands this court this afternoon in the presence of God, in the presence of His Word as I've read it... And we testify to this, that we believe that He keeps His Word. And may each one be healed in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

97 Now, all of you that believe that from this hour, that a believer that stood to their feet as a believer, and you a believer, that you've testified and give witness before this court this afternoon that you believe that He's just and He keeps His Word... No matter how long it tarries, it's got to happen.
Do you believe it? Raise your hand. Do you accept it? God bless you. I believe it with all my heart.
Now let us bow our heads just a moment.

98 Is there a person in here that's been an unbeliever, a person that's not a Christian? I want to give you the opportunity to walk up here to this, before this court, and make a confession and say "I have been a doubter all my life, but from this day on, I accept Jesus Christ. I know that the Bible said that in the days ... as it was in the days of Jonah, was in the belly of the whale for three days and nights. They said to Him, 'Give us a sign.'

99 "He said, 'A wicked and an adulterous, a Sodom generation, seek after a sign, and they'll get it. They'll get a sign. For as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and nights, so must the Son of man be in the heart of the earth.'
"These disciples that we read about was misunderstanding, when they wouldn't believe those who had seen Him after He was risen from the dead. We've seen Him. We know that it's true. He is risen from the dead. We believe it.
"And we're living in the days, like it was in the days of Jonah, when the cities were perverted into evil, and Jonah come forth out of the whale's belly as one from the dead. And today, we believe Jesus Christ has raised from the dead and is making Hisself known down through the church age as Son of God. And now, fulfilling His promise in the last days, to reveal Hisself to Abraham's royal seed, as Son of man."

100 God bless you. With our heads bowed now, quietly and reverently, while we sing one verse, "I love Him," I love Him, because He first loved me." And if you're not a Christian, and you want to become one and to take your stand, tonight, with the Lord's despised few in this evil day, like it was in the days of Noah, like it was in the days of Sodom, come forth while we sing with our heads bowed, and everybody praying.
I love Him, I love Him
Because He first loved me,
And purchased my salvation
On Calvary's tree.
Now, let us keep our heads low, now, as we hum.
Think of it. Think of it. Can you shake yourself just a little bit? The very God that made the promise, He's here making it known, right on earth today, proving it. Here's His scriptures. Nobody has to interpret it. It's already interpreted. And He purchased my salvation. Won't you accept it?
Now, if you're already a Christian, and you'd like to live closer to God, let's raise your hands while we sing it again, with our heads bowed, want a closer walk with God. You believe this to be the truth, that we're living in the last days.
I love Him,.........
God be with you, friend. Don't fail. Don't fail. Believe Him.
..........I love Him.
Mean it with all your heart. Now, surrender yourself. He is the Word, the Word for this day.
Because He first loved me,
And purchased.........