7 Seals and 7 church ages start together

We update studies as the Lord Jesus leads us. You can find the latest update of this study at ChurchAges.net

 Jesus expects us to understand the patterns in Scripture

The 7 church ages tell us what was right and what was wrong in the 2000 years of church history.

The church started brilliantly in the first church age as the apostles revealed the truth that was believed by small local churches that were each guided by a group of local elders.

This was in opposition to the pagan worship that was always centred around a temple and had a priest in charge of the temple-worship.

When the apostles died the churches began to copy the pagan example.

By church age 2, a priest had became the unscriptural head of each church. A Bishop then became the head of the priests in a city. An organized hierarchy of elevated preachers took control of the churches.

Then, completely unexpectedly in church age 3, the political emperor Constantine became the head of the church when he stopped persecuting the Christians.

Under Constantine, the churches were forced to accept the unscriptural word “Trinity” at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, so that the pagans would feel at home in the church. The pagans worshipped many trinities of gods and godesses. Paganism and worldliness entered the church.

A typical Egyptian trinity.

More unscriptural words followed like “God the Son”, “Christmas”, "25 December", “Good Friday”, and “Lent”, etc.

In church age 4, the church followed human leaders into the corrupt Dark Ages where Roman Catholics murdered tens of millions of dissenters who opposed the corrupt Popes.

The church taught that you had to conform to church teachings and be in submission to the Pope in order to be saved. The Bible was therefore banned.

The Reformation of Luther in church age 5 began the restoration of the apostolic truths from church age 1.

Martin Luther in Germany, around 1520, restored salvation by faith in Christ alone. The King James Bible was translated into English and checked for about 160 years. By 1769 it was printed as the absolute truth.

In church age 6, Englishman John Wesley around 1750 restored holiness and outreach that led to the great missionary age that was based on the King James Bible. Tens of thousands of missionaries left England and Scotland to take the Gospel to the unsaved nations.

Pentecostals restored the gifts of the Holy Spirit, starting in Wales in 1904 and Azusa Street, Los Angeles in America when church age 7 started in 1906.

But these reformers never got away from the spirit of church organization and its elevated leaders which would keep increasing until it suppressed the Bible truth of the King James Bible at the end and crippled the church.

A hierarchy always has one person above the others. This is Nicolaitanism.

60-1209  THE SARDISEAN CHURCH AGE

Now, notice, they did not bring back the Holy Ghost revival; they brought back a new church age. They brought back a snatched-out one; escaped one from the Roman hierarchy, to make a Protestant hierarchy. That's the only thing they did. Jumped right out of the skillet into the fire, see. It's right. Exactly.

Between 1947 and 1965 William Branham in America revealed how the wise virgins can understand the written Bible once he had explained the symbols and patterns in the King James Bible to us.

MATTHEW 17:11   And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

MATTHEW 24:27   For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

The growing Light of the revealed Scriptures, after the darkness of the Dark Ages, went from Germany to England to America. East to West. Jesus is the Word. Jesus is fully revealed at the end as He walks through the pages of the Word.

The last three church ages restored back the truth of the first church age apostles.

The Revelation of the Seven Seals taught us how to understand the King James Bible because the 7 Seals put more emphasis on the errors in the church.

DANIEL 12:10   … but the wise shall understand.

We cannot claim to be part of the wise virgins unless we can understand the mysteries of Scripture.

For example:

GENESIS 1:5   And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Why are night and afternoon left out of the day?

Why was nothing in the second day declared to be good. It was God’s handiwork.

How was there light on the first day if God only made the Sun on the fourth day?

The Bible is full of these interesting questions that we should be able to understand.

Jesus expects us to understand why 12 and 7 baskets of rejected scraps were collected after feeding the 5000 and 4000. Why did he emphasize the rejected scraps?

MATTHEW 16:9   Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?

:10   Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand,

and how many baskets ye took up?

In the Tabernacle of Moses there were 12 loaves of Shewbread and a 7-branched candlestick. The pattern of 12 and 7 repeats. The arrangement of this funiture forms an obvious cross that points to Calvary.

So, what does the 12 and the 7 indicate? What does it tell us about the future?

In your spine there are 7 neck vertebrae and 12 vertebrae attached to your 24 ribs.

The 7 neck vertebrae represent the seven Gentile church ages.

The 12 chest vertebrae represent the return of the Gospel to the 12 tribes of Israel when the church ages end in great tribulation.

Humans have 24 ribs and there are 24 elders around the throne in Revelation Chapter 4. God is trying to tell us something.

The four chambers of the heart represent the four beasts around the throne of God when Jesus sits on the throne of your heart. The heart symbolizes your deepest thoughts and desires.

REVELATION 4:2   And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

REVELATION 4:4   And round about the throne were four and twenty seats:

and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting,

clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

Blue stars represent the Old Testament patriarchs from the 12 tribes of Israel.

The red stars represent the 12 apostles with Paul replacing Judas.

There are four beasts around the throne in Revelation Chapter 4.

Your heart has four chambers.

REVELATION 4:6   And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

Eyes speak of intelligence.

“Before”. They know the future.

“Behind”. They know the past.

REVELATION 4:7   And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

Hopefully you can start to realize that God’s New Testament throne or dwelling place is the born-again heart of repentant sinners.

MATTHEW 6:10   Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

The human heart is the only place that reflects God’s Heavenly throne.

The Seven Seals track that spirit of antichrist

The First Seal reveals the white horse rider of religious deception, "that spirit of antichrist".

The Bible never says, “The antichrist”, as if he is an end-time politician.

I JOHN 4:3   … and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

Antichrist is a spirit that was already present at the beginning of the church.

That spirit of antichrist would ride through the 2000 years of the seven church ages, changing the Scriptures and adding unscriptural ideas until God lost his name. You cannot find one name for a Triune God Who is three Persons.

Religious deception could only be opposed by the Scriptural truth of the Word of God that the apostles established. The Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Jesus Christ.

This horse rider represents a succession of church leaders, that today are called the Popes.

That is a disaster.

This spirit of the succession of church leaders was copied by the Protestant pastors who each developed their church hierarchy on a father-and-son business model.

The Pope is the head or figurehead of the Roman Catholic church, just like Hitler was the figurehead of the Nazi party.

The Pope "was" which means the Popes go back to St Peter as they claim, falsely, that Peter was the first Pope.

Thus they claim, falsely, that there always "was" a Pope.

"And is not". The Pope dies.

"And yet is". A new Pope is elected.

The Popes are the longest line of rulers in the Western world.

The Reformation was not based on succession in a church. Wesley had nothing to do with Luther. His was a separate movement.

In 1906, Pentecost did not start with the Methodists that sprang up from Wesley.

Brother Branham separated from the Pentecostals who wanted nothing to do with him.

There is no succession of the previous church in the search for truth.

God begins a new movement when unscriptural error binds the previous movement.

The hierarchy of the old system strenuously opposes the new movement as their income is threatened.

MATTHEW 9:17   Neither do men put new wine into old bottles: else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

The Second Seal revealed that the Roman Catholic church combined with politics.

Political power could use the violence of the army, symbolized by a sword, to kill and enforce obedience to the church leaders. The Ox is the beast of slaughter. The Dark Ages lasted for hundreds of years, symbolized by the young Calf having time to grow into a strong Ox. Brave Christians were killed in their tens of millions by the Roman Catholic church.

The Third Seal revealed that the Reformation flowed into the Industrial revolution which made the world rich with factory-based production of goods once the steam engine had been invented.

The church adopted Big Business methods so that it would also get its share of the riches.

One talented man as the head of a business is a good way to grow the business.

The Protestants elevated a pastor to be the unscriptural head of the church, as a copy of the Roman Catholic priest or Bishop. Pastors became business men. Much wealth flowed into the churches. Pastors claimed that the tithes belonged to them. Ambitious men strove to become pastors which opened up a door to wealth for them.

The pagans always had one man as the head of each of their temples. The churches copied this pagan practice. The bigger the church, the wealthier the pastor.

These three manifestations of the antichrist spirit overflowed into the Fourth Seal where church leaders rejected or corrupted the truth of the inspired eagle-age revelations.

Churches preferred to stay with their man-made human church systems and their human church heads. That way they grew in numbers and in wealth.

But the good points of the Oil (symbol of the Holy Spirit) and Wine (the stimulation of revelation) are mentioned.

Human scholarship restored salvation by faith, holiness, and missionary outreach.

This was the Man age. Gifted artists, authors, and musicians sprung up.

Talented translators were inspired to choose the right documents and correctly translate them into the King James Bible. This Bible was checked for about 160 years before being published in 1769.

The Fourth Seal is difficult to place

Then we come to the Fourth Seal, a difficult Seal because it mainly deals with death in great Tribulation.

But before that there is the voice of the flying eagle that tries to make us Scriptural.

Not the presence of the eagle-prophet himself, but his recorded voice.

62-0318  THE  SPOKEN  WORD  IS  THE  ORIGINAL  SEED  1

My mission, I believe, that God has called me for. I have to say some personal things today, because that's what I told you I'd do, see, and tell the world. My mission, I believe, to the earth, is (what?) is to forerun the coming Word, see, the coming Word which is Christ.

Brother Branham does not forerun the Man Jesus in the flesh.

He foreruns Christ as the Word of God by revealing the Bible mysteries to us.

64-0823  QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS.1

But those who can accept the Word in Its fullness, not me preaching It, because It's the Bible says so. Those who accept that is free, because they--the Word's already been judged.

62-0908  PRESENT  STAGE  OF  MY  MINISTRY

… hope He will crown my ministry of this, of letting me take the clothes of the Word, and dress His Bride in the clothes of the Word,

Fourth Seal has two parts.

First, the voice of the fourth beast, the eagle.

The Pentecostal eagles restored the gifts of the Holy Spirit but they rejected the revelation of the Bible mysteries.

This tape-recorded voice of William Branham was sent to make us understand the King James Bible which is the voice of God. Brother Branham is not the Voice of God, he is the voice of the seventh angel.

The Bible was first written by the apostles in the first church age.

REVELATION 6:7   And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

A voice is not valid unless it is Scriptural.

Thus the 7^th church age saints must return to the first church age beliefs.

The way up is down.

MATTHEW 23:12   And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

The apostles wrote the New Testament.

GALATIANS 1:9   As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

We cannot disagree with the New Testament in any way.

So, seven church ages are wrapped up in four Seals.

But the antichrist spirits in the churches are moving in the opposite direction.

The Fourth Seal places the foolish or fooled virgins of the churches into great Tribulation where they are killed.

REVELATION 13:15   And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

The image of the beast is the gathering together of the Protestant churches.

The wise virgins have to leave the earth during the Seventh Seal. They must first change into their immortal bodies that are outside of time. That mystery-change from mortal to immortal will be revealed by the seven Thunders.

The Thunders will show us how to leave both time and space so that we become eternal and be caught up to Heaven. They can never die again.

Each horse continues to ride through the church until it reaches the 3.5 years of great tribulation.

As the pyramid narrows, the three spirits have to combine.

There are many antichrist spirits. They have risen to power in the church as the circumstances changed to suit them.

I JOHN 2:18   Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come,

even now are there many antichrists;

whereby we know that it is the last time.

Antichrist spirits caused much damage to Bible truth when they each rode separately through the church over the ages.

Imagine the darkness when they combine, which is what they are doing now.

Then there will be the final world ruler or dictator who will be the last Pope (probably Peter II). Peter the Second.

But the Seventh Seal is outside of time

REVELATION 8:1   And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

Silence. There is nothing you can say.

In Heaven. The Seventh Seal comes from above, not from anyone on the earth.

So, it will be a complete puzzle until it happens.

We have to step out of time to understand the Seventh Seal. Thus, your body must first change.

But, if we miss the Seventh Seal then we will be killed in great Tribulation.

Herd instinct forces individuals to conform to a church. That is not the way it should be. You should be free to question any church doctrine.

REVELATION 6:8   And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.

The Holy Ghost leaves the earth to catch the Bride up to Heaven.

When Life leaves, Death enters to produce great Tribulation.

Do not follow the church herd that cannot prove their beliefs from Scripture.

No prophecy says anything good about the end-time church.

No parable says anything good about the end time church, whether it is a Message church or a denomination.

Do not follow a pastor who is the head of the church. There is no Scripture for that.

DANIEL 12:1   And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time:

REVELATION 13:15   And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

The Beast is the Roman Catholic spirit of denomination.

The image of the beast is the gathering together of the Protestant churches.

The life-blood of organization is money.

Church leaders speak with authority. They can condemn those who disagree and cast them out.

Now they kill the influence of people who dare to disagree by means of character assassination.

In great Tribulation they will have the political power to kill people.

Two obvious spirits are operating in the modern church:

An organizing and dominating spirit that copies the Roman Catholic mother church form of organization by elevating a man to be the head of the church that has to conform to the beliefs of the church leader.

The Spirit that guides individuals who are moving towards small groups that are each ruled by a group of local elders who are subject to the King James Bible.

Only the 1^st church age is important in 7 church ages

The 7 Seals is a bigger issue than the 7 church ages as the 7 church ages are contained in the first four Seals.

The seventh Day was basically silent as God rested. The 7^th Seal gives us a hint of this because it is silent.

If we want to be part of the 7^th Seal then we must not try to make a name for ourselves.

There is no Ego or self-praise in Silence.

Rearranging the letters in “silent” gives us the word “listen”.

We have two ears and one mouth. So, we should hear twice as much as we speak.

Look at the example Jesus set as a young Boy of twelve.

He first heard what the doctors had to say. Then His questions revealed the errors in their thinking. A powerful technique.

LUKE 2:46   And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.

The first church age had the truth in the morning of the church ages.

In the evening of the church ages, at the end of the seventh church age, we must be restored to the apostolic truth of the first church age.

Church age 1 reflects Day 1 in Genesis.

Day 1 had lots of light (symbolizing God's truth) but also some shadow was forming, symbolic of losing the love of God’s truth.

In terms of truth,

we must see (the meaning of Scripture) but not be seen ourselves (our opinion is not important),

because we too cast a shadow of error.

The errors of people who corrupt the truth can be bigger than the truth they present.

Preachers like to threaten: Don’t you dare say that the prophet can make a mistake!
62-1007 THE KEY TO THE DOOR
 ... that I am perfectly infallible. That there's nothing... And, oh, some of the awfullest things you ever heard.

They have a certain amount of truth but mix that up with big errors.

Any error that is mixed into the truth is pollution of the truth.

Message preachers make up wrong doctrines: The 7 Thunders have uttered!    (Brother Branham never said that).

I am the pastor and thus the head of the church. (Unscriptural).

The tithes belong to the Pastor. (Unscriptural).

Shadows (symbolizing errors) are really enlarged in the evening time as the sun sinks low on the horizon.

The evening-time message gets really distorted by message-believers who do not prove their beliefs just from Scripture.

That is why the Bible says nothing good about the end-time church.

Only the first church age is really connected to the 7^th Seal because the Coming of the Lord only happens when the first church age is resurrected.

The first church age will only resurrect after the 7^th church age has returned to the first church age.

The Lord does not come while we are in the seventh church age.

We must duplicate the beliefs of the first church age.

The church ages only match the first Week in Genesis on the first Day when there was light.

We must only reflect Scripture not our church opinions

The secret of success of the first church age is that they only reflected the light of the New Testament, written by the apostles, as It fulfilled the Old Testament.

The first church reflected no light of its own because the moon has no light.

“Moonlight” is not actually the light produced by the moon as it is just reflected sunlight.

In reality, there is much darkness and little light when we see a picture from space.

When sunlight reflects off an object, then we can see it.

The Pope’s first title is “Bishop of Rome” and his second title is “Vicarius Christi” which means "In the place of Christ".

That is totally wrong. Christ took our place on the cross. No man can take the place of Christ.

God wants no man between you and Him. No man stands in the place of Christ.

The moon represents the church as it has no light of its own. It can only reflect sunlight.

But, put the moon between the earth and the sun and the moon's shadow blots out the sunlight.

All saved Christians are priests. All priests are equal. Only the High Priest is above a priest.

No man must be elevated up to stand between you and God.

Any man who wants to be above you has a Roman Catholic spirit of darkness.

A good Christian motto: Never above you, never below you, always beside you.

That is what brother or sister really means.

A signpost tells you where to go. You must keep walking in the Way of Scripture, not standing around and praising the signpost.

The sign post gives you direction. Move in the same direction that the first church age moved.

The prophet is the sign post. He revealed the Word of God which is the Way that we must walk.

JOHN 14:6   Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:

63-0324  THE SEVENTH SEAL

We don't want never put a man in it.

You forget anything about me. I am your brother, a sinner saved by grace, not fit to live;

that's exactly the truth; and I ain't saying that to be humble; that's facts.

There's nothing in me, not one sound thing at all.

But the grace of God has let my poor dimming eyes look beyond the curtain of time and see those things yonder, and I come back.

[See things in the future. Seventh Seal and seven Thunders]

There's no great man among us.

We're not great men, not great women--we're all brothers and sisters, all the same in the same bracket. We're no great.

One don't make one greater than the other one--not a thing at all to do.

No, sir. But we're just all human beings.

SARDISEAN CHURCH AGE  -  CHURCH AGE BOOK  CPT.7

Now we can see that Jesus Christ is revealing Himself through the ages by His Spirit in the messengers. They are as Moses was to the children of Israel. As he had the revelation for his day, so each messenger had God's revelation and ministry for that day.

…

God is in His people--all of His people, for if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His. And He is the Word. That would be the Word recognized in the people. But He has placed a special leadership in these men of His own choosing and through the determined counsel of His own will.

They appear once in each age.

Please note. There is no return ministry for brother Branham.

Each church age messenger appears ONCE in his age.

When the church (moon) is elevated above people so that it stands between God and man, then the church causes darkness to smite the earth.

The present Pope Francis was a humble man in Argentine.

He is trying to downplay the Pope’s title of Vicarius Christi (in place of Christ) as he does not think it is suitable.

Meanwhile message-people are pushing brother Branham’s quotes to be in the place of the Bible, which is Jesus.

When the quotes replace the Scripture instead of explaining the Scripture, this is darkness.

When brother Branham is elevated to the Godhead as the “Voice of God” in place of (vicarius) Jesus, this is Roman Catholic darkness.

MATTHEW 6:23   But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.

If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

Once you corrupt truth, you cause tremendous damage.

Notice how pastors emphasize their own opinions.

Only the first church age was the foundation of truth

The first church age is the foundation for the First Seal and the Seventh Seal that happens when the last or 7th  church age is restored to the first church age.

The full light of the first church age is easily represented by the light that hit the earth as the clouds dispersed on the first Day of Genesis 1.

Notice the similar pattern in Genesis Chapter 1 to the Seven Seals.

The seventh Day is separated from the first six Days.

Our first problem occurs on Day 2 because God says nothing good about Day 2.

It is as if God is telling us to STOP and think about this unusual omission of the word "good".

That is when God created a veil of safety around the earth to protect it from harmful sun rays.

He caught up some water and separated it into invisible hydrogen and oxygen gases.

GENESIS 1:6   And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

This represents that we are dependent on the invisible, protective presence of angels and the Holy Spirit.

We depend upon our obedience to the Word of God that forms a protective veil around us.

We need that heavenly protection, guidance, and inspiration from above.

PSALM 127:1 (A song for Solomon)

Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

But what is not good is that we can ignore God’s guidance and follow human leaders and their man-made systems instead.

We can ignore and contradict the Word of God if we want to.

Our free-will to go our own way is our biggest weakness.

When people want to go their own way, that opens the door for a human leader to become the head.

There will always be ambitious men who want to be the head of the church.

The Pope is the head of the Roman Catholic Church and he is the only Dictator in Europe.

It is human nature to elevate the leader.

Putin has elevated himself to be the dictator of Russia, the world’s biggest country.

Putin is also the richest man on earth from all the Russian money that he has stolen.

This is the Nicolaitan spirit.

“Nico” means conquer in Greek. “Laos” means the people in Greek.

Nicolaitan means conquer the people.

The leader loves the power and the money. The power to take their money.                                                                        .

2^nd  church age set the foundation for human leadership

This was not God’s plan.

ISAIAH 55:8   For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.

:9     For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God’s leadership is Life. Only God can create Life.

So, human leadership could only end in Death.

The Second Seal of the church’s unscriptural political power and leadership grew out of the Nicolaitan spirit of elevated human leadership that was established in the church during the second church age.

At first, in the second church age, having an elevated human religious leader as Priest who was head of a church, or a Bishop as head of all the churches in a city seemed harmless.

The First Seal saw the antichrist spirit rise through human leadership until he controlled religious deception that will keep riding through the church.

REVELATION 6:1   And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

REVELATION 6:2   And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

The crown was the famous triple crown worn by the Popes.

A crown elevates a man above other men. God does not want humans to be elevated as the head of the church. Jesus is the head of the church.

But in the Second Seal there were severe persecutions of the church by pagan Roman Emperors which scattered many believers and stopped them forming big churches. This awful persecution was stopped by the Roman Emperor Constantine in AD 312 which started the third church age.

As a result, the grateful church happily accepted Constantine as their actual leader, though he was a politician.

By now they were used to having a man as the head of the church.

Who cares if he is a politician. He had stopped killing them. So, they were convinced that Constantine was God’s man.

Churches always see any material advantage as being God’s will.

That enables the church to be easily fooled. The foolish virgins.

In addition, Constantine had the might of his army on his side and as such he could dictate to the church.

But within a hundred years the previously persecuted Roman Catholic church began to persecute pagans and then persecuted any Christians who believed differently to them.

The Second Seal of the church gaining political power happened. Tens of millions of opponents of the Roman Catholic church would be slaughtered like oxen during the Dark Ages.

Very subtly, Constantine gave the beautiful Lateran Palace to the Bishop of Rome as well as lavish donations of wealth. Thus he bought the Pope. It paid the church leaders to accept and obey the will of Constantine. The church became a money-making business. People were keen to pay to get into Heaven.

The Roman Catholic church grew to become a Big Business. The Vatican is the world’s wealthiest organization today.

This is a picture of the big, lovely Lateran Palace. The official headquarters of the Roman Catholic church.

A look inside the Lateran Palace. Quite spectacular.

The person who has the money becomes the head of the church. That is how a business operates. The one who pays the money is the boss.

If the Pope agreed with Constantine, then he got to keep this beautiful building which really raised the Pope's prestige amongst the other churches.

In AD 325 the politician Constantine forced the church to accept the Trinity doctrine of the pagans so that Christians and pagans would have the same belief.

Thus, they added the unscriptural words “Trinity” and “Father and Son are of the same substance” to the Bible.

“God the Son” which is also unscriptural soon followed.

The unscriptural “Good Friday” claimed that Jesus died on a Friday.

But Jesus had to be three nights in the tomb.

Since He rose on Sunday morning, He had to die on Thursday.

Then He was in the tomb for Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. So “Good Friday” contradicted the Scripture of three nights.

MATTHEW 12:40   For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

By AD 350, Pope Julius I copied the pagan sun god’s birthday on 25 December as the birthday of Jesus.

Christmas was originally called the mass of Christ.

Protestants think that they do not celebrate a Catholic mass. The Catholics fooled them with Christmas which is Christ’s mass.

So, the saved Protestants are fooled into a pagan celebration, and join the foolish virgins.

Paganism and unscriptural words entered the church and this was a deadly blow to truth.

As error grew in the church, truth died.

Soon the church also began to kill the people who disagreed with them.

Death was taking over.

Church-Christianity was all about Big Business. The Protestants copied Christmas from the Catholics and turned it into the biggest money-spending celebration of the year.

REVELATION 6:5   And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

Weighing out the Word of God and salvation as if it is a commodity like wheat and barley that has to be paid for.

Wheat and barley make bread. The Bible is the Bread of Life.

REVELATION 6:6   And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

But through all the financial greed and corruption of the churches, God would protect the oil of the Holy Spirit and the wine which is the stimulation of revelation. There would always be some true believers who could escape from the errors of their church age.

They will be despised by the churches but they will understand the mysteries of Scripture. That is what makes them the wise virgins of Matthew Chapter 25.

DANIEL 12:10   …but the wise will understand

The churches were always going to be fooled by Trinity, Good Friday, Christmas, 25 December, Lent, and having an elevated man as the head of the church. That is what makes them the foolish virgins. They were fooled by their church heads. Saved, but fooled.

That is why we have 45000 different kinds of churches that are all claiming to be right.

Human leaders would introduce more and more unscriptural errors into the church.

The final fate of the churches, who glory in justifying unscriptural beliefs, would be Death in the 3½ years of great Tribulation.

That is the end of the Fourth Seal.

REVELATION 6:7   And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

William Branham began recording his sermons in 1947 when the tape recorder became available. His voice was recorded from 1947 to 1965 as he revealed the mysteries of the King James Bible. Those who live in the seventh church age must use his quotes to explain and understand the Scriptures.

Once he left the scene at the end of 1965 then we were left with his recorded voice. Thus, from 1966 onwards we have been living in the days of the voice of the fourth beast. Because he was the messenger or angel to the seventh church age who tried to restore us back to the first church age beliefs, these last almost 60 years are also known as the days of the voice of the seventh angel.

REVELATION 10:7   But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.

Many Message churches made the fatal mistake of using his quotes to replace Scripture.

They developed doctrines that the early church never believed and thus fooled the message-people who thereby became foolish virgins. Saved but fooled.

Then the antichrist spirit who unites religious deception in the church with political power and Big Business demonology will ride his pale horse into great Tribulation. He kills one-quarter of the earth’s 8 billion people, which is 2 billion. That is about how many people claim to be Christians. So, his main target is the foolish virgins who were unable to puzzle out the mysteries of the King James Bible. They will die a horrible death as the word Hell is mentioned.

REVELATION 6:8   And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

Thus the second half of the Fourth Seal deals with the awful time of great tribulation.

The church of the Laodiceans made up their own beliefs. As a result, they die horribly.

REVELATION 13:15   And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

The image of the beast is the Protestant copy of the elevated Roman Catholic leaders who are above the church.

Protestants elevate the Pastor to be the head of the church. He controls all the money. Money is the lifeblood of every organization.

He speaks with authority because he has the power to banish any opposition.

Dissenters are destroyed by character assassination.

When great tribulation starts, the church leaders will have the political power to kill all opposition.

The second Day is not called Good

It is a puzzle that the second Day of Genesis Chapter 1 was not called "Good".

This upper water that was above the atmosphere God split into its components of invisible oxygen gas and hydrogen gas to form an unseen protective layer of gases above the atmosphere.

The next picture shows the layer of gases that surrounded the earth.

The warmth from the sun spread through this layer so that the temperature was the same everywhere.

Rain depends on hot meeting cold. (Your hot breath has water vapour and it condenses on the cold glass of the car’s windscreen in winter to make water droplets that form a mist on the glass).

The whole protective layer of invisible gases was at the same temperature and had no hot or cold areas. Thus, no rain formed.

With no hot and cold regions, there were no seasons. A comfortable temperature was everywhere.

All the second church age had to do was to follow the New Testament beliefs of the first church age.

But each church wanted one man to rule them.

This was a Nicolaitan spirit, which God hates.

Nico means conquer. Conquer the laity or congregation. Make them follow a man instead of God's Word.

And competitive Christianity arose with certain churches claiming to be better than other churches.

The head of a bigger church expected smaller churches to be subject to him and believe what he said.

The Bishop of a city expected any new converts to fall under his authority and protection.

Bishops became famous and their opinions became more important than Scripture.

If you leave part of a curtain in the sunlight, it will fade faster than the part of the curtain that was not in sunlight. Sunlight has harmful ultraviolet rays that cause damage. The protective layer of gases absorbed the ultraviolet rays. Only the harmless heat and light from the sun reached the earth. With no ultraviolet rays and other dangerous sun rays to cause damage, men lived longer. Methuselah made 969 years old because he lived before Noah's Flood.

So, an ideal earth had been set up. No hot and no cold. No rain, just a gentle mist to water the plants. No harmful rays from the sun. Life would be comfortable and people would live for hundreds of years.

But men had no desire to serve God under these relaxing and pleasant conditions.

Look at the lifestyle of wealthy people today. Their money enables them to live comfortably but often does not make them into better people.

A lot of money can even do us harm. Two billionaires could easily pay $250000 each for a ticket to visit the Titanic wreck in June 2023. That seemed to be an exciting idea until the colossal and unforgiving deep sea pressure crushed their small submarine or submersible craft. Having a lot of money led to their unfortunate deaths. Money is not always a good thing.

This is similar to the second church age. Instead of just following the beliefs of the original apostolic church, people began to change and modify the Bible to suit themselves.

They wanted one man, a Bishop, to be the head of the churches in each city.

That was unscriptural. But people relaxed and allowed it to happen.

As the Bishop became more elevated and more important, he imagined that he could change communion bread into the literal flesh of Jesus which he claimed would give you eternal life if you ate it. People began to rely on the communion bread to be their means of salvation. By continually eating this round wafer, they believed that they would be saved. Thus they fooled themselves. Only the Bishop could perform the miracle that turned the bread, that was in the form of a round wafer, into literal flesh.

Sometimes the round wafer even had the IHS symbols of the Egyptian trinity of Isis, Horus, and Seb.

This made the church dependent on the Bishop and exalted him to be the head of the church.

     I H S    

Notice how far the Bishop had moved them away from Scripture.

The church then believed what the Bishop said, not what the Bible said.

Elevating a man to be the head of the church was just opening a door for error to come in. Then the Bishop of Rome began to believe that he must be elevated above other Bishops because he falsely claimed that he was the Successor of Saint Peter (who was never in Rome).

The succession of Popes forms the trail of the serpent that is waiting for their head, final man of sin who will be the last Pope. Probably Peter the Second. He will not be elected by the cardinals, but he will come in by flatteries.

DANIEL 11:21   And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.

The beast is the Roman Catholic denominational system. The Pope is the figurehead of the church and represents the church.

REVELATION 17:8   ... when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

By falsely claiming that Peter was the first Pope, there always was a beast whose figurehead is the Pope.

The Pope dies and is not. But a new Pope yet is elected.

The succession of Popes is the longest line of rulers in the Western world.

So, a lie became the truth if enough people repeated it. Claiming that Peter was in Rome would be continually repeated. Eventually, everyone began to believe that it was the truth.

The Protestants also copied this Roman Catholic idea of the church head having a successor when they decided on a father-and-son pastor team. This kept the money in the family.

GENESIS 1:8   And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

The firmament was the sky or atmosphere between the water that covered the earth and the higher up protective layer of invisible gases made from water.

The second Day veil rained down for the Flood of Noah

The protective layer represented the water of the Word. The need to be Scriptural.

The two invisible gases hydrogen and oxygen represent the Old Testament and the New Testament.

The Word of God is invisible but as long as we live in subjection under the Word of God then we are safe.

Here we come to a frightening discovery.

God did not call the achievements of the second day “good”. Why not?

Before the Flood, men lived long lives under the ideal conditions of no cold or hot regions and no rain or storms or strong winds.

But they responded to all this comfort by being dedicated to evil.

Rather like many wealthy families who raise up children with no real financial worries and then find their privileged children are attracted to drink, drugs, immorality, and crime. In 2023, the son of a King and the son of a President admitted to having been involved in drugs. Their rich and entitled upbringing had not made them better persons.

Making life very easy for the people did not give the people a desire to serve God.

GENESIS 6:5   And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The result of the protective layer of gases around the earth that made life so easy and comfortable was that mankind took it all for granted and simply became evil. That is typical of human nature.

Consequently, when God decided to wipe out mankind, all He had to do was recombine the hydrogen gas and oxygen gas and form water. Thus, the protective gases disappeared as they formed water which rained down to drown the earth in the days of Noah's Flood.

Mankind abused the goodness of God Who had provided them with a long, easy lifestyle and a protected, comfortable existence.

Humanity then lost their layer of protection which was the upper layer of water that had been turned into gases. Ultraviolet and harmful sun rays could then reach the earth and damage living cells.

Hot and cold regions collided to form rain, storms, and high winds.

After a few centuries, men only lived to 70 years instead of over 900 years.

Therefore, God never called the second Day “good” because this protective layer only lasted less than 2000 years after sin entered Eden.

Then God had to eliminate His protective layer because mankind had become uncontrollably evil.

God had planned to give sinful man a long life but was forced to change His plan to cut mankind's lives short.

This was essential for the survival of people in a wicked world that hastens to its own destruction. It was the only way that God could limit human evil but it was not a "good" thing that God enjoyed doing.

Imagine if Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini and Mao Zedong had lived for 900 years.

When we misuse God’s goodness then we ask for trouble and provoke God to wrath.

This is an unhappy consequence that is not “good”.

61-0101 REVELATION CHAPTER FOUR.2
Now, we find out that a covenant then is a "token," a token. God said it was a "token" here, didn't He?
I do set my bow in the clouds, (That's after the destruction of the world, destroyed by water; all flesh, besides Noah, was destroyed.) and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
Not "Me and the world." The world's a "kosmos."

But this is "between me and the earth." God said, "I made that earth. And I so evilly entreated it, that I just turned it upside down and flashed her to pieces. And I oughtn't to have done it, maybe."

He said, "I was even sorry, it was such a horrible thing."

What do you think it will be when He comes in His anger now? Be right, sinner friend.

Spiritually, the churches lost the covering of the King James Bible when they criticized It and made over 100 different translations of the Bible. If there is one defect in the King James Bible then it cannot be a veil of protection for us. As a result, the churches no longer have an Absolute truth as a foundation for their faith.

Let us compare the second Day to the second church age.

Strangely enough, God says nothing bad about the second church age of Smyrna because they had such a hard time.

REVELATION 2:10   Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

This was an age where the true believers had to suffer. Prison. Tribulation. Death. Life was tough.

A sad reflection on human nature is that when men had an easy life due to the protective veil made on the second Day then they became sinful and had to be wiped out.

In the second church age the opposite occurred when they had a harsh time that inspired them to serve God with devotion.

Sinful mankind serves God better in hard times rather than easy times.

That is not a good reflection on human nature.

“Tribulation ten days” refers to the ten-year persecution started by the pagan Roman Emperor Diocletian in AD 302. It was the most vicious of the ten persecutions launched against the Christians by the pagan Roman emperors. Diocletian sought to stamp out Christianity and destroy all the Bibles. He almost succeeded.

But this persecution scattered the Christians who had to flee for their lives. They ended up in small local groups in remote places and this stopped them from denominating like the other Christians who formed bigger churches with a Bishop in charge. Elevating a holy man above the church was a Nicolaitan spirit which God hated.

REVELATION 2:6   But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

“Nico” in Greek means “conquer”.  The congregation is referred to as the “laity”.

Conquer the laity means for a holy man to be elevated above the congregation so that he can dominate them. God hates that church structure.

An ambitious leader was not interested in a small local group. Thus, a small scattered flock ended up being ruled by a group of local elders.

Being free from the dominating leadership of one man, these small scattered groups were unnoticed by historians but they pleased God. In a small group that is taught by different elders, individuals have to learn to think for themselves.

There is no herd-instinct caused by peer pressure that forces people to conform to church beliefs.

I PETER 5:1   The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed:

:2     Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

:3     Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.

The elders led by example.

The persecution and killing of true Christians were the only way that God could keep the true believers scattered and thus free from the evil denominational structure that was emerging in the one-man-controlled churches.

This hardship was essential for the survival of apostolic truth, but it was not pleasant, it was an endurance.

Not a good time for the church as they endured many savage persecutions.

It was a time when the church was dropping its guard and allowing error to take over the leadership of the church. Christians fell complacently asleep instead of looking out for the subtle entrance of error and stopping it.

This was the start of even bigger problems.

The second church age saw the evil and error of declaring a man to be the head of a church, slowly taking over the church.

Thus in this second church age God begins to focus on the deception of one-man-headship of the church that was flooding into the church.

The exposure of church error is the focus of the Seven Seals.

All this awful religious error to the church that was now subject to human opinions was not "good".

So, in the second church age that was deserting the Scriptures, God switched the focus over to the Seven Seals.

The First Seal had begun the subtle ride of the antichrist spirit as the rider of the horse of religious deception.

He would continue to  ride for all the seven church ages and come to his dominating peak performance as the head of all the churches at the end of the seventh church age.

Meanwhile the copycat Protestants are being mislead by their own church pastors as the New Testament never placed a pastor in charge of a church. The scene is being set for great Tribulation.