Christ's appearing is NOT the mighty Angel
We update studies as the Lord Jesus leads us. You can find the latest update of this study at ChurchAges.net
Christ does nor appear as a Man. He is revealed in His Word. He appears as He walks through the pages of the Bible.
- God appeared NEAR brother Branham but not IN him
- The supernatural cloud was just a sign in the heaven
- Christ will not come in the desert
- There were two clouds above Flagstaff
- The cloud does not fulfill Revelation Chapter 10
- The Angel comes down AFTER the mysteries are revealed
- The Message foreruns the Second Coming not the prophet
- The mighty Angel comes down to perform the resurrection
- After the resurrection come the 7 Thunders
- The 7 Thunders also utter to the Jews
- When Christ appears then we have to appear with Him
- The appearing and the coming are the same thing
God appeared NEAR brother Branham but not IN him
When Jesus takes on an angelic body as the Angel of the Lord, also called the Archangel, or the mighty Angel of Revelation Chapter 10 then He can intervene on earth without it being a Coming of the Lord or an appearing of the Lord.
Brother Branham used the word "appear" on many different occasions.
As the Pillar of Fire, God appeared above brother Branham as he baptized in the Ohio River in 1933.
Notice, the Pillar of Fire was above him (or near him) but not in him.
55-0227 THE HEALING OF JAIRUS DAUGHTER
I was baptizing them down at the end of Spring Street in Jeffersonville, Indiana, in the Ohio River, when... nearly seven or eight thousand people standing on the bank, bear witness, that two o'clock in the evening, June, 1933, how that a Pillar of Fire come down out of heaven, and hung over where I was standing.
The "Courier Journal," and "The Times News"... no, it was the... [Brother Branham snaps his fingers--Ed.] Oh, I'll get the name of the paper just in a minute, [He snaps his fingers again--Ed.] if I could think of it, the Louisville paper: great article: Mystic Light Appears Over Local Baptist Evangelist While Baptizing At River. Very mystic thing, people could not understand. Many fainted at the Presence of It.
The Angel of the Lord come right down and hung over where I was.
Thus the Angel of the Lord, Who is God in the form of an Angel, appeared in 1933.
65-0725 The Anointed Ones At The End Time
I wasn't the One that appeared down on the river; I was only standing there when He appeared.
I'm not the One that performs these things and foretells these things that happens as perfect they are;
I'm only one that's near when He does it.
I was only a voice that He used, to say It.
It wasn't what I knew; it's what I just surrendered myself to, that He spoke through.
It isn't me, it wasn't the seventh angel,
oh, no; it was the manifestation of the Son of man. It wasn't the angel, his message; it was the mystery that God unfolded. It's not a man; it's God.
The angel was not the Son of man;
he was the messenger from the Son of man.
Brother Branham stood near the invisible God Who was discerning the thoughts.
Brother Branham is a prophet which makes him a son of man.
Only Jesus is the Son of man, the Messiah.
Brother Branham makes it clear that he is not the Son of man.
Message-preachers wrongly claim that the supernatural cloud of 28 February 1963 was the appearing of the Angel of Revelation 10.
But, 17 days after the cloud was seen, brother Branham was still waiting for the Angel of Revelation 10 to appear.
63-0317E The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
And here He returns back in the 10th chapter
after the coming time, that all the mysteries is to be finished, and the Seals are to be broke,
and proclaiming that its time is no more. And he said, "When the seventh angel has begin to sound,
THEN the mysteries should be finished and time for the Angel to appear.
We're close, somewhere.
Notice. The Angel does not appear to reveal the mysteries.
The Angel only comes down after the mysteries are finished.
But the cloud was seen high in the sky, as it never came down, before brother Branham revealed the mysteries of the Seven Seals.
God appeared to Abraham and spoke with a human voice, discerning Sarah's thoughts just before the promised son Isaac came.
GENESIS 18:1 And the LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Brother Branham had an amazing gift of discernment.
In 1946 an angel came to William Branham which launched him on a spectacular supernatural ministry that revived the Pentecostal movement. One of the outstanding features of this ministry was God's incredible ability to use brother Branham's voice while God, who was invisibly near brother Branham, discerned the thoughts of people from 1946 - 1965. Often, brother Branham was unaware of what he had said and would ask the person if he had spoken the truth.
1964-0618 THE PRESENCE OF GOD UNRECOGNIZED
I stood in South Africa, where I had some two hundred thousand people at the Durban race track, and when they seen one time that happen like that, after explaining it to them, just in a little mild form; and they seen one thing take place, of that revealed, and twenty-five thousand people was instantly healed at once.
They taken seven van loads, trucks as long as from here, six- and eighteen-wheelers like that, and piled them full of old crutches and things.
Heathens, that didn't even know which was right and left hand.
And the next day, Mr. Sidney Smith, the mayor of Durban, called me and said, "Go to your window, out towards the Indian Ocean, you'll see something you never seen." There was the police escort coming down with seven of those big van loads, with hundreds of people walking behind it, the day before was in the stretchers and cots and the carriers that they had, singing, "Only believe, all things are possible." A week before, there, they were in war with one another, native war. And there they was walking, arm in arm, hand in hand.
Why? They recognized the God of Heaven had APPEARED before them in the form of His Word.
This meeting at the Durban racetrack took place in 1951.
So God appeared in the midst of His people in 1951.
Ever since 1946 when the angel came to brother Branham, God had been appearing in the midst of His people.
God did not start appearing to the people as the cloud of 28 February 1963 that was above Flagstaff in Arizona.
That cloud was too high, at 42 kilometers, to be in the midst of the people.
No human voice spoke on that occasion.
William Branham was not even present as he was still 200 miles away in Tucson, preparing to go to Houston where he preached on 4 March 1963.
A year and 2 months after the cloud was seen high in the sky, he was still waiting for the Son of man to appear.
64-0415 Christ Is Identified The Same in All Generations
I want to ask you a question. Want you to look at me. Remember, as firmly as the Scripture says this, Abraham never saw one more sign until the son came into existence. That's the last sign Abraham saw. There's always a sign. Let me tell you, Church, here is your last one.
The appearing of the Son will be pretty soon.
1965 was the last year of his life. So in 1965 he was still waiting for the Lord to appear.
So Jesus never appeared during the lifetime of brother Branham.
1965 Church Ages Book Philadelphian Church Age The Salutation
But let me say this. Our Lord is not defeated. Men claim to open the door to God and shut that door, but they are liars. All that the Father has given Him will come to Him, and he that cometh to Him in no wise will be cast out; He will lose NONE of them. John 6:37-39.
And when that last elected member to the body of Christ comes in, then will our Lord appear.
The "Seven Church Ages" book was published in 1965.
The Lord will only appear when the last Bride member has come in.
So, by 1965 the Lord had not yet appeared.
A photograph taken in Houston in January 1950 showed God appearing as a Pillar of Fire above the head of William Branham.
This indicated that the fulness of God was near him, not in him.
Brother Branham refers to the "halo photograph" of 1950 as the "appearing of the Lord Jesus among us".
63-0623M Standing In The Gap
And now, after the great time come of the healing of the sick, the casting out of devils, and the raising up of the dead; which we're all witnesses, and so is many doctors and great man of the earth.
And the appearing of the Lord Jesus among us, that in the sign there as you see, I guess on the wall, wherever it is, of the Angel of the Lord.
(This was the January 1950 “halo” photograph from Houston where the Lord Jesus appeared )
We need to prepare for Jesus Christ's Second Coming by being able to see Jesus illuminated in His written Word that has been revealed by brother Branham before we see Him appear in His glorified Body to catch us up to Heaven.
The supernatural cloud was just a sign in the heaven
Appearing has different meanings in the Bible.
MATTHEW 24:30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:
65-0718 TRYING TO DO GOD A SERVICE WITHOUT BEING THE WILL OF GOD
And then in that great observatory, so that the world will be without, they're still wondering what happened. In Tucson, them big observatories took the picture of it up there; still wondering what happened. What is it? They still put in the paper, "Does anybody know anything about what, how it could have happen?" There is no fog up there, there's no air, there's no moisture; thirty miles high in the air. Oh, my!
"There shall be signs in the heaven above. And when these things take place, earthquakes in divers places,
then shall APPEAR the sign in the heaven, of the Son of man."
"That day," in Luke, "the Son of man will reveal Himself again; being revealed, Hisself." And the world will look like Sodom and Gomorrah. Oh, my!
The supernatural cloud was just the sign that God was about to reveal the Seven Seals.
Notice, there is no mountain below the cloud.
This cloud never appeared above Sunset Peak.
The sign of the Son of man appeared 42 kilometers high in the sky as the large supernatural cloud formed by 7 angels on 28 February 1963 at sunset in north Arizona. It was photographed just north of the city of Flagstaff. This cloud cannot be the mighty Angel of Revelation Chapter 10 as it never came down but stayed at that height. Brother Branham was 200 miles south in Tucson so there was no one under the Cloud for it to come down to. Brother Branham only heard about this cloud about 3 months later.
Eight days later was brother Branham's commission as these same 7 angels appeared invisibly to him at Sunset Peak, near Tucson, as he alone saw them and no cloud was formed.
Then came the event from 17 March to 24 March 1963 when brother Branham revealed the mysteries of the Seven Seals.
Jesus, as the Son of man was revealed as He walks through the pages of the Bible.
As a result, we are able to understand how God thinks.
Do you love what is written in the Bible or do you criticize the King James Version of the Bible in some way?
What you say about the Bible is what you say about Jesus because He is the Word of God.
Criticize the Bible in any way and you will not be part of His Bride.
At the First Coming, John the Baptist revealed Christ as a Man on earth.
But Jesus, as a Man, was rejected.
So God has a different plan for the Second Coming.
God is not going to reveal Jesus as a Man again until our bodies are changed and we are like Him.
I JOHN 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:
but we know that, when he shall APPEAR, we shall be LIKE him;
for we shall see him as he is.
When Jesus appears in His glorified Body then you will also have a glorified body.
But before Christ appears in His glorified Body, He wants to find out if you love His thinking and His revealed Plan.
Before this Coming or appearing of Christ in a physical Body, God wants to see if we are keen to search out and agree with how Jesus thinks.
The Bible is our record of the thoughts of Christ. The "Word" is simply the expression of His "thoughts".
Brother Branham was used by God to reveal the thoughts of Jesus that are hidden away in His Word by making the mysteries of Scripture understandable.
DANIEL 12:10 ... but the wise shall understand.
The Bible also calls the second Coming of Jesus the appearing of Jesus when there is a judgement of reward and Saint Paul and each Bride member will receive a crown.
II TIMOTHY 4:1
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;
II TIMOTHY 4:8
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Christ will not come in the desert
Sunset Peak is in the great Sonoran Desert.
The 1963 cloud was never at Sunset Peak.
There are three points that have badly misled so many Message believers:
First, they think the cloud of 1963 was the mighty Angel of Revelation 10. This is wrong.
The Angel comes down after the mysteries are revealed. He does not come down to reveal the mysteries.
63-0317E The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
And when the Seals are broke and the mystery is revealed, down comes the Angel,
the Messenger, Christ, setting His foot upon the land and upon the sea with a rainbow over His head.
Secondly, they think Jesus Christ appeared in the desert region of Sunset Peak as a cloud. This is wrong because He will not appear in a desert.
Even more important, the cloud was never at Sunset Peak. It was 200 kilometers north of Sunset Peak and it appeared 8 days before brother Branham met the 7 angels at Sunset Peak on 8 March 1963. No cloud was formed on 8 March 1963.
Sunset Peak is in the great Sonoran desert.
MATTHEW 24:26
Wherefore if they shall say unto you,
Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth:
behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
Thirdly, Message believers think that brother Branham's quotes are the absolute. They think that truth is established by splicing some quotes together. This is wrong.
1963-1201 AN ABSOLUTE
That's the way it is in Christian life. There is a stopping place, and there is a going place.
God's Word is that absolute.
You can only prove a doctrine if you take what brother Branham said and can then join many Scriptures together to prove that point. Then you believe it because the Bible says so, not because brother Branham says so.
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.
62-0318 THE SPOKEN WORD IS THE ORIGINAL SEED.2
Now, all these things I've said, if they don't jive with the Bible, or dovetail with God's Word, they're wrong, they're wrong,
65-0801 THE GOD OF THIS EVIL AGE
… so that the peoples that has believed the Message
that the Lord Jesus has given me for this hour, might know what's taking place,
and placing it in the Scripture.
We have to prove brother Branham's teachings from the written Word.
You must prove what you believe from Scripture.
The great cloud that appeared on 28 February 1963 has generated much controversy in the Message circles.
This is not surprising as brother Branham was not there, never saw the cloud, and months later when the cloud photograph was shown to him, he got the date wrong and thus drew a wrong conclusion.
This mistake was emphasized when the “Revelation of the Seven Seals” book was published in 1967 and then reprinted in 1993. The editor claimed the seven angels left brother Branham and formed the cloud. Totally untrue.
(In those days there was no internet and the sermons of brother Branham were largely spread by printed books, as well as the audiotapes).
But the angels left him at Sunset Peak in the morning of 8 March and the cloud was seen in the evening of 28 February at Flagstaff about 350 km (200 miles) north of Sunset Peak.
We Christians can serve God with rash enthusiasm as we set out to do God a service.
But our service at times is not in His will. That is why God calls us unprofitable servants.
LUKE 17:10 So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
Calling the “voice of the seventh angel” the “Voice of God” is unwise sensationalism that confuses us further.
God does not make mistakes. Brother Branham is human and thus does make mistakes at times.
63-0630 THE THIRD EXODUS
... for they can hear plainly the God's Voice, calling, through His Word
... Listen to the Bible, the Voice of God calling to you in this day.
The Bible is the Voice of God.
There were two clouds above Flagstaff
On February 28, 1963, seven angels supernaturally formed this big cloud as a sign in the heaven.
It was too high to be formed of water vapour as 99% of the water vapour is below a height of 20 km.
Brother Branham was not present below the cloud as the hunting season would only open the next day on 1 March 1963.
If he had been hunting on 28 February he would have been breaking the law.
He still preached in Houston on 4 March before leaving to go hunting. In addition, on 28 February a powerful Thor rocket had been exploded four hours previously, off the coast of California, fired from Point Mugu, a secret experimental missile launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force base. Its smoke and debris also formed another cloud at the same altitude of 42 kilometers.
Message believers ignore the fact that there was a second cloud on that day.
There had to be a smoke cloud to fulfill a prophecy of Saint Peter. Wonders in heaven is what we would call high altitude events.
ACTS 2:19 And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire,
and vapour of smoke:
Water vapour makes a rain cloud. Smoke vapour makes a smoke cloud.
The smoke cloud is the smaller of the two clouds. The smoke cloud was about 20 miles behind the big supernatural cloud.
Eight days later the seven angels appeared to brother Branham, while hunting near Sunset Peak, on 8 March just before the hunting season closed on 10 March. They came to him invisibly and commissioned him to reveal the Seven Seals. They then departed invisibly and they did not form the cloud when they left him. No cloud was formed or photographed on the day that the seven angels came to him. Brother Branham knew nothing about the cloud until it appeared on the back cover of Life magazine on 17 May 1963, almost three months later.
Then a factual mistake was made.
He assumed that the seven angels formed the cloud when they left him.
This was a typical human error of faulty recall of past events.
This mistake was repeated by the publishers of the first Seven Seals book in 1967. There, written in the introduction, it states that the seven angels came to brother Branham on 28 February 1963 -- in which case he was hunting illegally as the javelina pig hunting season opens only on 1 March.
The Seven Seals book also claimed that the cloud photograph, shown in the Seven Seals book, was what brother Branham was referring to during the book. That is incorrect. When brother Branham preached the Seven Seals he knew nothing about the cloud photograph and did not refer to it at all.
A reprint of the Seven Seals book in 1993 claimed that the seven angels formed the cloud when they left brother Branham. That is incorrect. The 7 angels only formed the cloud eight days before they met brother Branham.
An earlier prophecy of an explosion and the seven angels coming to him was fulfilled, NOT on 28 February 1963 but 8 days later on 8 March. This prophecy never involved a cloud.
No one was checking the facts.
Thus the cloud, right from the start became a focus of factual error, and this encouraged intense speculation and much propaganda. The biggest weakness amongst Message believers is their ability to run off with a quote and never check the facts or the Scriptures.
Look at this "fake news" poster that many Message-pastors believe and preach. Christ will not appear or come in a desert. The cloud was never at Sunset Peak.
By believing that brother Branham’s quotes are infallible, they turn him into a second Pope.
Thereby, in our lukewarm age of the Laodiceans, we simply become too lazy to search for truth and thus make up our own variation of what we want to believe. Thus, variations of the Message are mutating like a dangerous virus as the Message groups splinter into more than 100 different varieties.
62-1007 THE KEY TO THE DOOR
That's what gets things scrupled up, you see. That, they claim in here that some brethren up there that said that I sent them up there, and they're preaching that men should leave their wives and hunt for their spiritual mate,
and that I am perfectly infallible.
That there's nothing... And, oh,
some of the awfullest things you ever heard.
Calling brother Branham infallible is awful. It opens the door to many man-made guesses that produce the different variations of the Message.
Brother Branham is revered by many but understood by few.
The few who want to be Scriptural.
So the speculations started.
Many presented the great cloud as the Second Coming of Jesus. In 1969 a denominational church painted “JESUS IS COMING” in huge white letters on the side of a mine dump in Johannesberg in South Africa. This was changed and re-painted as “JESUS HAS COME” by people who called themselves Message believers.
They then compounded this error by no longer taking Communion because Jesus said we must do it until He comes, and according to them He had already come. People were encouraged to give up their jobs, as these preachers claimed that the rapture would happen in February 1970.
Religious extremism is easily ignited by a wrong spark, but like all fires it is not easily put out.
So after the 1970 fiasco, the Coming of the Lord was then proclaimed to be in 1977 in line with certain quotes, such as
The Laodicean Church Age
The Laodicean Age began around the turn of the Twentieth Century, perhaps 1906. How long will it last? As a servant of God who has had multitudes of visions, of which NONE has ever failed, let me predict (I did not say prophesy, but predict)
that this age will end around 1977.
1977 was obviously not a good prediction. Human predictions seldom are. In their emotional attachment to quotes, the so-called Message believers saw no need to check the many 1977 quotes against Scripture.
Mass hysteria and social pressure engulf people.
Inventing the future is dangerous.
But human imagination can always find wiggle room. Propaganda is so easy to spread.
The cloud, if it was not the Second Coming of the Lord, then had to be the coming of the mighty Angel in Revelation Chapter 10, because brother Branham, according to their interpretation of a certain quote, had to be on earth when this Angel came down. There was no Scripture to state that fact. But a quote is seen as superior to Scripture in most Message circles.
The cloud does not fulfill Revelation Chapter 10
So, let us look at this great event in Revelation Chapter 10 to see what the Bible says.
REVELATION 10:1
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head,
and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
:2 And he had in his hand a little book open:
and he set his right foot upon the sea,
and his left foot on the earth,
Somehow Message believers became convinced that Rev 10:1–6 was fulfilled by the great cloud that was photographed in 1963 at a height of about 27 miles up in the sky over Flagstaff in Arizona.
Let us compare the cloud with the coming down of the mighty Angel in the first two verses.
But there is little, if any, similarity between the cloud and the mighty Angel of Revelation Chapter 10.
The first picture below is an artist’s rough impression of the mighty Angel that John saw in Revelation chapter 10. The first photograph shows the great cloud of 1963. The second photograph shows that there were actually two clouds. (Message believers never seem to mention this second cloud). It does not suit their theories.
The cloud has no feet, certainly not any feet that look like pillars of fire. There are not two pillars of fire.
The head is parallel to the ground as if the person is laying flat in a horizontal position. The person represented by the head of the cloud is certainly not standing upright.
There is no sea in the photograph. The Californian coast is probably about 500 miles away. A person who is 27 miles high cannot have his feet 500 miles apart.
There is no open book in the cloud photo. There is no book at all. There is also no hand to hold a book.
No face is visible in the original photograph of the main cloud, certainly not a face like the sun. The cloud appeared on the back cover of Life magazine on 17 May 1963. No face was obvious in this original photograph.
When a photostat was made of the back cover of Life magazine, shadows appeared inside the cloud which made it look like the face of Christ. This was because some light had accidentally entered the equipment.
Many compared this face in the photostat to Hoffman’s painted head of Christ.
It is unlikely that the apostle John saw a photostat in his vision. But the mighty Angel’s face was like the sun, so using shadows to indicate the face does not match this Scripture.
Message preachers are used to manipulating quotes so they quickly learned to manipulate the photostat.
The photostat was manipulated - flipped, inverted, and converted to grayscale.
Many people manipulate (rotate) the original photo to make the face look upright.
Then a face gets painted in.
Please do not accept manipulated pictures. Like the following two pictures:
and
These can lead to deception. Many people in Africa got deceived by such manipulated pictures of the cloud.
The face in the cloud is looking down onto the Earth. There seems to be a judge’s wig on the head.
A rainbow over His head? This is not obvious from the original cloud photograph that was taken over Flagstaff, Arizona by Doctor James McDonald, a scientist at the observatory.
"Clothed with a cloud". The cloud only represents the head. There is no body and thus no clothes other than a Judge’s wig and a girdle across His chest.
“A mighty angel come down”. The cloud never came down. It moved across the sky from west to east remaining all the time, for the 28 minutes that it was visible after sunset, at a height of about 27 miles (42 kilometers) above the ground. About 85 photographs were taken and they were all high up in the sky.
Seven angels came invisibly to brother Branham on Sunset Mountain. His mistake was to guess that when they left him they formed the cloud as they flew away. He knew the cloud was supernatural. His mistake was the date.
Brother Branham was not present under the cloud. That is a significant fact that we must consider.
The Message believers have inertia. They keep holding to this error of the angels leaving and forming a cloud. It never happened that way, but they cling to the quotes that say it did.
In the church of the Laodiceans, we are told to be zealous to repent of our errors. We must not superstitiously hang on to them.
The church of the Laodiceans means that that the Laodiceans make up their own form of worship.
We are not saved by desperately believing brother Branham’s mistakes. We only have to believe him when he says things that are Scriptural.
The 7 angels never came down on the day of the cloud. They remained high in the sky.
Thus the cloud does not fulfill the description of the mighty Angel in Revelation 10.
The Angel comes down AFTER the mysteries are revealed
Why do Message believers believe that the cloud is the mighty Angel of Revelation 10?
This belief is based mainly on the misinterpretation of one quote :
63-0317E The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
And when the Seals are broke and the mystery is revealed, down comes the Angel, the Messenger, Christ, setting His foot upon the land and upon the sea with a rainbow over His head. Now remember,
this seventh angel is on earth at the time of this coming.
Message believers are thus convinced that brother Branham has to be on earth when the Angel of Revelation 10 comes down “clothed with a cloud”. From this quote, that seems to be a plausible conclusion. The only cloud that was associated with brother Branham was the cloud of 1963. So they have to believe that the cloud was the Angel. There is no other incident that can be the coming of the Angel when brother Branham was still on earth.
But look carefully. “And when the Seals are broke and the mystery is revealed, down comes the Angel”.
The Angel will only come down after the Seals are broke,
not before the Seals break.
The cloud was photographed on February 28, 1963. Brother Branham only revealed six of the Seven Seals about three weeks later between 17 March and 24 March 1963.
When the cloud appeared on 28 February, brother Branham knew very little about the Seven Seals and at that time did not even have a commission to reveal the Seven Seals.
Brother Branham went to Sunset Peak on 6 March 1963 to go hunting. The hunting season only opened on 1 March. Brother Branham preached in Houston, Texas, on 4 March, and only went hunting after that. The seven angels came to him on 8 March just before the hunting season closed on 10 March, and it was then that they gave him the commission to reveal the seven Seals.
So the cloud could not be the Angel coming down as the mysteries of the seven Seals had not been revealed by 28 February. Brother Branham was not even at Sunset Mountain at that time.
Now, look at this quote carefully.
He said, “This seventh angel is on earth at the time of this coming”.
What does brother Branham mean by “this coming”? That is singular. One coming.
But he has actually just spoken of two “comings”.
Let us read the previous paragraph as well.
63-0317 The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
it is a Book, a mysterious Book. It's a Book of Redemption. (We'll get into that in a little while.) And now, we know that this Book of Redemption will not be thoroughly understood: it's probed at through six church ages, but at the end, when the seventh angel begins to sound his mystery, he winds up all of the loose ends that these fellows probed at, and the mysteries comes down from God as the Word of God and reveals the entire revelation of God. Then the Godhead and everything else is settled. All the mysteries: serpent's seed and whatevermore is to be revealed. (The mysteries come down)
Now, you see, I'm just not making that up. That's what... It's THUS SAITH THE LORD. I'll read it to you out of the Book: the sounding of the seventh angel's message, the mystery of God should be finished that's been declared by His holy prophets. That's the prophets who has wrote the Word. At the sounding of the seventh church age, the last church age, all the loose ends that through these church ages have been probed at, will be wound up together. And when the Seals are broke and the mystery is revealed, down comes the Angel, the Messenger, Christ, setting His foot upon the land and upon the sea with a rainbow over His head. (The Angel comes down)
Now remember, this seventh angel is on earth at the time of this coming.
Which coming? The coming down of the mysteries, or the coming down of the Angel?
Let brother Branham answer the question by turning to the next page.
63-0317 The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
And here He [ the mighty Angel ] returns back in the 10th chapter
AFTER the coming time, that all the mysteries is to be finished, and the Seals are to be broke,
and proclaiming that its time is no more.
So the mighty Angel comes down after the mysteries are revealed.
Brother Branham finished revealing the mysteries by the end of 1965. Only after that date could the mighty Angel come down.
62-1230 IS THIS THE SIGN OF THE END SIR
But, this One didn't come from the earth.
He come down from Heaven, BECAUSE the mystery is all finished.
And when the mystery is finished, the Angel said, "Time shall be no more," and Seven Thunders throwed their voices out.
He does not come down to open the mysteries to brother Branham.
He comes down because the mystery is finished, it has all been revealed to the Bride.
The Bride is able to understand the Scripture.
63-0317E The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
Just as John was giving his message, the same time that Messiah come in the days... John knew he would see Him, because he was going to introduce Him. And we realize that in the Scriptures over in Malachi 4, there's to be a one like John, an Elijah, to whom the Word of God can come to.
And he is to reveal by the Holy Spirit all the mysteries of God and restore the faith of the children back to the faith of the apostolic fathers.
Restore back all these mysteries that's been probed at through these denominational years.
Now, that's what the Word said. I'm just responsible for what it said.
So brother Branham has to reveal the mysteries. So he had to be on earth for the coming of the mysteries.
He said,
"This seventh angel is on earth at the time of this coming"
“This coming” is singular.
Brother Branham is only on earth for one of the two comings.
He has to be present to receive the mysteries as they come down.
Therefore, since he is only present for one of the two comings, he will not be present when the mighty Angel comes down.
Revelation Chapter 10 deals with two angels.
Revelation 10: 1 – 6 deals with the mighty supernatural Angel which is Jesus when He appears as the Angel of the Lord.
But He only comes down when the Book is open and can be understood by the Bride and the mystery of God has been revealed by the seventh angel who is a human messenger.
So the seventh angel, mentioned in Revelation 10: 7, who is brother Branham,
has to be on earth when the mysteries come down from God as his commission is to reveal the mystery of God.
He reveals the mysteries in order to take us back to the Book of Acts.
63-0317E The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
Now, we see that this seven-sealed Book now, is the mystery of redemption. It's a Book of Redemption from God. Now, all the mysteries at this time should be finished at the sounding of this messenger.
Now, here's the angel on earth
[Revelation 10: 7],
and another Angel, mighty Messenger come down
[Revelation 10: 1 – 6].
See, this angel was a earthly angel, messenger. But here comes One down from heaven: a rainbow, covenant. See? Only Christ, it could be; just exactly like it was in Revelations 1st chapter, standing in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks with a rainbow to look upon as jasper and sardius stone.
Do both these angels have to be on earth at the same time?
63-0317E The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
And here He returns back in the 10th chapter
after the coming time, that all the mysteries is to be finished, and the Seals are to be broke,
and proclaiming that its time is no more. And he said, "When the seventh angel has begin to sound,
THEN the mysteries should be finished and time for the Angel to appear.
We're close, somewhere.
The cloud was on 28 February. This quote was preached about three weeks later on 17 March.
He speaks of the coming of the Angel in the future, something that is close.
He insists that the mighty Angel can only come after the mysteries first come and brother Branham has finished explaining them.
Having the Angel come down in February before the mysteries of the six Seals are revealed in March is completely back to front.
63-0318 The First Seal
Takes the Book and... of Seals and breaks them and shows the seventh angel,
for this alone, the mysteries of God, is the ministry of the seventh angel.
Now, we just come through the church ages with even history and prove that. See? It is the angel's message of the seventh church.
All right,
reveals all the mysteries that's been in the past, all the things in the past:
Revelations 10:1-7. That is to be.
This last sentence is all future tense. Why?
The seventh angel has to be on earth to receive the coming of the mysteries because this is his main ministry.
By revealing the mysteries, his Message prepares the way for the coming of the great Angel.
This is 18 days after the cloud:
brother Branham puts Revelation 10:1–7 as still to be fulfilled in the future.
What does this tell us?
Brother Branham’s spectacular ministry in the past was just attracting attention for what was to be the climax of his career.
Thus Revelation 10:7 mainly involves his future revealing of the Seven Seals.
But it is the Bride who must gain these deeper insights into the mysteries so that we can start to understand the Scripture.
One month before he died and brother Branham is still looking forward to the "shout" (the Message) being some time in the future.
The "shout" was not when brother Branham understood the revealed Word of God.
The "shout" is when the individuals in the Bride are able to prove their beliefs just from Scripture.
65-1127 I HAVE HEARD BUT NOW I SEE
Dear God, in this solemn moment, it's going to be a time like this when there really will be a clap of thunder someday, and the Son of God shall descend from the heavens with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall rise.
63-0627 JESUS CHRIST THE SAME YESTERDAY TODAY AND FOREVER
And we see all these great signs upon the earth, that's appearing;
and the identification of the Son of God, dealing in the flesh of His Church, to carry on His work.
God, may human hearts quiver. May sinners quake. And may there be a repentance, and may there be such a healing, tonight, of both soul and body, that men and women, everywhere,
will come out from unbelief,
separate themselves and believe on the living God.
I commit myself to You, Lord, as Your servant. I commit this church to You.
I realize, Lord, no matter how much You would anoint me, if the people does not believe it, then it cannot be done.
We both must work together as a unit of belief of God, and of the honor of the Word of Jesus Christ, to see these things happen.
Brother Branham's ministry will only be a success when the Bride are able to understand what he was talking about. It was not enough for brother Branham to become Scriptural. The Bride must also become Scriptural.
The Message foreruns the Second Coming not the prophet
He left the scene in 1965 but after that, his Message will continue in the days of his voice.
In the days that his recorded messages and printed sermons are available.
In the almost 60 future years, after he had gone home, we have had time to grasp the significance of his preaching. We should then be able to base our beliefs on Scripture. We need these insights from his teachings to get back to the beliefs of the apostles and to prepare for the coming of the mighty Angel.
William Branham, the man, is not the key issue. It is the message that he preached that is important.
That is why Christ who is the Word, in the form of a supernatural cloud, was photographed when brother Branham was not even there.
The revealed Word is the important issue, not the man who revealed the Word.
JOHN 3:30
He must increase, but I must decrease.
The famous words of John the Baptist. He introduced the First Coming of Jesus and set the benchmark for the prophet whose Message would introduce the Second Coming of Jesus.
John pointed out Jesus as a Man who walked around amongst men.
Brother Branham pointed out Jesus as He walks around through the pages of the Bible.
But there is a big difference. It is not William Branham who foreruns the Second Coming, but his Message that will do so.
61-0316 The Church Choosing Law For Grace
…The seventeenth person I baptized, all at once I heard something say, "Look up." And I looked, and here come that Pillar of Fire circling down out of the heaven. Stood right over where I was at and said, "As John the Baptist was sent to forerun the first coming of Christ,
your message will forerun the second coming of Christ."
Please notice the mistake that was introduced by the publisher in the 1993 edition of “The Revelation of the Seven Seals”.
The photograph of the Pillar of Fire over brother Branham’s head has the angel making the statement
“As John the Baptist foreran the first coming of Christ, you will forerun His Second Coming”.
Brother Branham never made that claim. It is incorrect. His message will forerun the second coming of Christ.
He left the scene almost 60 years ago, but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel we can hear his recorded sermons and get our beliefs straightened out. Thus his Message is the important issue. Not himself.
As a mortal man, his days are limited but his Message will live on in the future days, long after he had gone home. The publisher unfortunately wants to emphasize the man. That is not a good idea.
Consider another mistake made by the publishers.
The Bible says “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel”.
That is how the booklets used to be printed. Suddenly today the booklets and tapes have become “The Voice of God”. This is not correct.
The expression “the Voice of God” never appears in the New Testament.
So we were never promised the Voice of God in our age. Again, the publishers follow their own opinion, which is not based on Scripture, in their attempt to elevate the man William Branham.
Sensationalism breeds extremism, error, and exaggeration. We need calm heads and cautious advice.
Let us continue to prove that the cloud is not the Angel of Revelation 10.
After the cloud was photographed, brother Branham continued to place the coming of the mighty Angel of Revelation Chapter 10 as a future event.
63-0318 The First Seal
What about the hour has come that when His Bride must be taken away? What, that the hour has come that time shall be no more?
The Angel is ready to set one foot on land and the other on the sea
with a rainbow over Him, with feet, and say, "Time's run out."
Almost three weeks after the cloud and the Angel is still getting ready to stand on land and sea. Thus the cloud could not be the coming of the Angel.
The mighty Angel has two feet.
The cloud has no feet.
Thus once again the cloud does not fulfill Revelation 10.
That earlier interpretation that some Message believers propagated claiming that the Angel had come to stand on land and sea meant Rome and America (whatever that means) now looks foolish. The Angel had not yet come down although the cloud had been seen for 28 minutes and then disappeared.
Rome is represented by a woman, not the sea. The sea was the restless 70 million people in western Europe around 1620.
Land represented America in 1620 when there were no more than 10 million Native Americans because of Spanish smallpox that had killed so many. Today there are 330 million Americans, which is more than the 200 million people in Western Europe today. So, land does not represent the America of today.
63-0318 The First Seal
I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud:... a rainbow... upon his head, and his face was... the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Now, we saw the same thing, which was Christ. And we know Christ is always the Messenger to the Church. All right. He's called a Pillar of Fire, the Angel of the covenant and so forth.
And he had in his hand a little book opened:... (Now, the Seals had done been broke here. We're breaking them now; but this, the thing's opened.)...
and he set his right foot on the sea, and his left... on the earth,
Brother Branham was busy revealing the Seals.
But the opened Book means that the mighty Angel only comes down when the mysteries of the seven Seals are all revealed.
63-0317 The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
But then in the last age, all these mysteries are to be solved and handed out, and
the Seals are to be opened by the Lamb and revealed to the Church, and then time is no more.
The mighty Angel can only come down and say that "time is no more" after the Seals are revealed. Not before the Seals are revealed.
A reminder.
62-1230 Is This The Sign Of The End Sir
The other angels was messengers, men of the earth. But this Angel... These, that said, "To the angel of the church of Laodicea," "To the angel of the church of Ephesus," messengers of the earth; see, men, messengers, prophets, and so forth, to the church.
But, this One didn't come from the earth.
He come down from Heaven, BECAUSE the mystery is all finished.
And when the mystery is finished, the Angel said, "Time shall be no more," and Seven Thunders throwed their voices out.
The mighty Angel of Revelation 10 will only come down when the church, the true believers, have finally understood the mystery of God.
The mystery of God is fulfilled when the seventh church age believers have been able to return to the beliefs of the first church age.
The mighty Angel comes down to perform the resurrection
In 1964, a year after the cloud was seen, the Angel had still not come down. Brother Branham was looking for the Angel in the future.
64-0119 SHALOM
" And when the great Director comes down and bears that stick down, then, "time shall be no more." When that Angel, of Revelation the 10th chapter, puts one foot on land and one on the sea, and a rainbow over His head, He swore, "time shall be no more."
When that time comes, you will rise up from among the dead.
While the rest of them lay there, you will go in.
The mighty Angel raises the dead who are then part of eternity, as time is over for them.
They no more dwell in time.
64-0119 Shalom
But, remember, if it goes plumb into the shadows of death, "I am the Resurrection and Life; I'll raise him up again." And when the great Director comes down and bears that stick down, then, "time shall be no more."
When that Angel, of Revelation the 10th chapter, puts one foot on land and one on the sea, and a rainbow over His head, He swore, "time shall be no more."
When that time comes, you'll rise up from among the dead.
While the rest of them lay there, you'll go in.
"Land and sea". That is where the dead Christians from the seven church ages have been buried.
When this mighty Angel speaks it is the voice of the archangel who comes down to raise the dead that are buried either on land or in the sea.
He stands on land and sea as He has complete authority over both and can call up His saints from their graves.
This is the King, the triumphant roar of the Lion of Judah, who demonstrates His ultimate power by defeating our greatest enemy, Death. The resurrection is the great triumph of Jesus over Satan.
REVELATION 10:1
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
:2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
:3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
Both expressions “cried with a loud voice” and “when he had cried” can be associated with death and resurrection.
JOHN 11:43
And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
Lazarus rose from the dead.
MATTHEW 27:50
Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.
:51 And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
:52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
The Old Testament saints rose from the dead.
The loud cry of this mighty Angel in Revelation Chapter 10 is the voice of the archangel that produces the resurrection of the dead saints from 2000 years of church history.
I THESSALONIANS 4:16
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,
with the voice of the archangel,
and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
63-0421 Victory Day
We've all got a victory. We've fought through many victories. And a great victory is coming just soon, right around the corner. Our complete V-day will be soon, when the Son of God shall break the skies,
and scream with the Voice of the Archangel, and He shall come again. And the graves shall open,
and the dead shall walk out.
April 1963, two months after the cloud, and brother Branham says that the Archangel shall come again, sometime in the future, for the resurrection. So the cloud was not the Archangel.
REVELATION 10:3
And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and
when he had cried,
seven thunders uttered their voices.
The seven thunders only utter after the dead have been raised.
I THESSALONIANS 4: 16
… and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
I CORINTHIANS 15: 52
…and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed.
After the resurrection come the 7 Thunders
The seven thunders must utter after the resurrection to guide us through the supernatural process of having our bodies changed so that we can walk on air when the Lord calls us up at His Second Coming.
62-1230E Is This The Sign Of The End Sir
I don't know. I don't know, sirs. I'm only honest, with you, as my brothers. I don't know. Is it--is it time? Is the minis-... the mystery all finished? Has the sounding all over?
Is that really them seven thunders, fixing to utter out something, that the little group that is gathered together will receive a rapturing faith, to go in the rapture when He comes? "For we'll be changed,"
as quick as those Angels come, "in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye; and shall be caught up together with those that had sleep, to meet the Lord in the air."
The seven thunders will give us rapturing faith which will change our bodies. People who believe that the seven thunders have uttered have preached rapturing faith for decades, but they are still in their same bodies, or they have died. So their theories have only succeeded in dividing the end-time Message believers, but they have not worked in terms of producing the rapture. If you have faith for healing, you will be healed. So if you have rapturing faith you will be raptured. No-one has been raptured. Thus no-one has received rapturing faith. Why? The seven thunders can only utter after the mighty Angel comes down and raises the dead.
There were 40 days between the resurrection of Jesus and the Old Testament saints and His Ascension to Heaven.
So, there will probably be 40 days between the resurrection of the New Testament saints and the catching up of the Bride to meet Jesus in the air, as He takes them to Heaven.
We will need those 40 days to learn from the 7 Thunders how to change these bodies into glorified bodies.
63-0318 The First Seal
And at the end of the Pentecostal age we are supposed to receive, according to the Word, as God help me tonight to show you through here, that we are to see--receive
a messenger that will take all those loose ends out there and reveal the whole secret of God for the rapturing of the Church.
And
then there's coming forth seven mysterious thunders
that's not even written at all. That's right. And I believe
that through those seven thunders will be revealed in the last days in order to get the Bride together for rapturing faith; because what we got right now, we wouldn't be able to do it. There's something we've got to step farther; we can't have enough faith for divine healing hardly.
We've got to have enough faith to be changed in a moment and be swept up out of this earth, and we'll find that after a while, the Lord willing, find where it's written.
All the mysteries are revealed first. Then the seven Thunders utter.
So the seven Thunders will enable the Bride to take on their new bodies. It will not just be some clever doctrine.
Your new body will not have a belly button which is the mark of the beast on our bodies.
There are many different Thunders-doctrines that are doing the rounds, and that helps to split up the Message churches even further. But none of them have produced a new body for any believer, and all of them refer to doctrines that are written in the Bible. What the 7 Thunders say was never written in the Bible.
We can know their function, what they do, but we do not know their content, what they say, until after the resurrection of the dead.
The 7 Thunders also utter to the Jews
Now comes a big complication.
The 7 Thunders also utter to the Jews, and enable Elijah to stop the rain while he and Moses interrupt nature during the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.
63-0321 The Fourth Seal
Now, we had him coming last night with his great sword to kill. We find out that he gets killed with the Sword too, the sword of the Word. God's Word, sharp, two-edged sword slays him, puts him right down.
Wait till them seven thunders utter their voices to that group
who really can take the Word of God and hand it there. It'll slice and cut.
And they can close the heavens;
they can shut this or do that, whatever they want to. Glory.
When the Lord did not come in 1977, then the preachers were swept energetically into a tide of speculations on the seven Thunders to cover-up that the predicted coming of the Lord in 1977 had been a disaster. But all their theories are wrong. Whatever their different theories are, they are all linked to Scriptures that are written in the Bible. Thus these cannot be thunders. The content of what the 7 Thunders say, is not written in the Bible.
The Thunders will give the Bride rapturing faith, and they will give the Jews power to interrupt nature. Thus they utter at the time that the Bride goes up, which will be a real demonstration of power over nature, because that is when the Gospel returns to the Jews with an impressive display of power to disrupt nature.
In addition, the coming down of this mighty Angel is a rather complex issue as well, because He comes for the Jews, and for the church. God can always manage to do two or more things at one time. He is the Master at multi-tasking.
63-0317E The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
Let's turn to Revelations 10 just a moment, so you'll get a understanding before we get into it. Now, this is at the end time, for listen.
... I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow... upon his head,...
If you notice that's Christ (See?), 'cause He in the Old Testament was
called the Angel of the Covenant, and He's directly coming to the Jews now, for the Church is finished.
See? All right.
... and his face... as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
You remember that Angel in Revelations 1? Same thing. Angel is a messenger, and
He's a Messenger to Israel.
See?
The Church has been raptured.
See? Now,
or fixing to be raptured. He comes for His Church.
When the church has been raptured, the mighty Angel deals with Israel. But just before the rapture, the mighty Angel deals with the church.
How can the mighty Angel come down for both Jews and Church? He must come down at the changing-over time when the Gospel leaves the Gentiles and goes back to the Jews.
The main event that occurs at that time is the resurrection of the dead believers from the 7 church ages.
You can have all the theories in the world, but the event which triggers the end-time events will be the resurrection of the dead. The 7 Thunders will be a happening, some specific events, not just some theory.
REVELATION 10: 1
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
:2 And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,
:3 And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and
when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
The seven thunders are a total mystery. But here they are placed after the resurrection. Thus they will apply both to the church and to the Jews.
63-0324E The Seventh Seal
Now, why? Let us prove it. Why?
It is the secret that no one knows about.
John was forbidding to write about it, even, even write a symbol about it. Why? This is why there was no active in--activity in heaven; it might give away the secret. Do you see it now? If it's so great it must be included, because it has got to happen, but when the seven thunders...
Now, notice, when the seven angels come forth to sound their trumpets, there was one thunder. When Israel was gathered, there was a trumpet. When time shall be no more, the last trumpet... One thunder, but here is seven straight thunders right in a row: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, that perfect number.
Seven thunders in a row, uttered not... making just--just one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, straight. Then heavens couldn't write that. Heavens can't know about it, nothing else, because there's nothing to go on. It's a relaxing time. It was so great till it's kept secret from the Angels. Now, why?
If Satan should get a hold of it, he might do great damage.
There's one thing he don't know. Now, he can interpret anything he wants to, and impersonate any kind of a gift (I hope you're learning.), but he can't know this. It's not even written in the Word.
It's a total secret. The angels, everything shut up.
If they made one move it might give something away, so they just shut up, quit harping; everything stopped.
The seven Thunders is TOP SECRET.
Yet message preachers broadcast their Thunders opinions. Humans have a strong desire to be considered clever. If they knew the truth about the Thunders they would be silent, because that is how God wants it. Since they have so much to say, they are obviously wrong.
63-0324E The Seventh Seal
"When will it be, Brother Branham?" I cannot tell you. I do not know.
But one of these days, if we never meet again on this earth, we're going to meet yonder at the--at the judgment seat of Christ. And you'll find out that in that room, the revelation coming from God (just like all the rest of them has), that them... One of the mystery of that Seal, the reason it wasn't revealed, it was
seven thunders that uttered their voices,
and there it is perfectly,
because nothing knows anything about it;
wasn't even written. So we're at the end time; we are here.
Brother Branham did not know when the Thunders would utter nor what they would utter.
That is to be a total secret until after the resurrection.
63-0317E The Breach Between The Seven Church Ages And The Seven Seals
But then in the last age, all these mysteries are to be solved and handed out, and the Seals are to be opened by the Lamb and revealed to the Church, and then time is no more.
After the Seals have been revealed to the Church, then the mighty Angel will come down and say that time is no more.
When Christ appears then we have to appear with Him
COLOSSIANS 3:4
When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory
Message believers claim that the cloud was the appearing of Christ, or the beginning of the appearing of Christ.
Their claims are rather fuzzy when you try to puzzle out what they are actually saying.
If the cloud is the appearing of Christ then they have to insist that a difference must be drawn between the "coming" and the "appearing" of Christ. Brother Branham emphasized this difference in 1962 but before 1962 and after 1962 he used the appearing of the Lord to mean the same thing as the coming of the Lord.
Let us first see where the coming and the appearing are the same thing.
Then we will consider the Melchisedec ministry of Christ to explain a difference between the words.
64-0531 The Oddball
Depends on what you're wound on. See? So, may the Lord Jesus Christ, the Shepherd of the flock, ever keep your hearts so wound into Him, that,
when the great Shepherd does appear, we'll appear with Him.
1964, long after the cloud was photographed, and brother Branham is still waiting for Christ to appear.
So obviously the cloud was not the appearing of Christ.
No one appeared with Christ on the day that the cloud was photographed. Brother Branham was not even there. Nor were the rest of us. Most of today’s believers were probably not even born in 1963.
65-0718M Trying To Do God A Service Without It Being The Will Of God
Show us the paths that You have ordained that we should walk. And give us of Thy grace and love, that we might follow those paths and instructions with all of our hearts, that we might be found, that day, in Christ, blameless,
for we believe, Lord, that His appearing is soon.
(1965 and he is still waiting for Christ to appear)
TITUS 2:13
Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
60-1211M The Ten Virgins And The Hundred And Forty Four Thousand Jews
It'll be a secret coming, no one will know when it's going to happen.
We're commanded to be ready and watching. We don't know what hour. But, whatever it is, we'll not prevent any of these back in here; for,
just as soon as Jesus APPEARS, the whole watch rises. Dead or alive, doesn't matter!
When Jesus appears then the resurrection occurs.
There was no resurrection in 1963. If it was so, then brother Branham missed it because he died later in 1965.
60-1209 The Sardisean Church Age
O Father, when we look at Calvary, that takes all the greatness away from us, we--we know nothing else then but Christ and Him crucified. Then when we see that He raised up on the third day according to the Scriptures, for our justification,
returned back forty days later in the form of the Holy Spirit, to abide with us UNTIL His visible appearing in the skies at the end time.
And we see that end time approaching real swiftly now. And we're the most happy people, Lord, because that--that You have given us this great privilege.
If the cloud, high up in the skies, was the visible appearing of Christ then the Holy Spirit no longer abides with us.
The Holy Spirit was to abide in the church until the appearing of Christ in the skies. The visible appearing of Christ in the skies signals the end of the church ages as the Bride joins Him in the air
The appearing and the coming are the same thing
The second coming will only happen when the last Bride member is in.
1965 Church Ages Book Sardisean Church Age Judgement
"I will come on thee as a thief."
Ancient Sardis was constantly harassed by bandits that swooped down from the hills and pillaged the people. Thus they knew only too well what the Spirit was saying in that the coming of the Lord is as a thief.
Vigilance and preparation alone will suffice to be ready for His coming.
Now we know that this is a message for the false vine,
for the COMING of the Lord will be as it was in the days of Noah.
The eight saved were well aware of the impending flood, and being aware were prepared and saved. But the world of the ungodly was swept away. Though they daily were in contact with the righteous and heard the truth, they turned it aside until it was too late. Those completely carnal people in that ancient period type out today the nominal Christians whose lives are full of earthly things, and take pleasure in them to such an extent that they
have no desire for the Spiritual, and are not at all aware of, nor readied for His APPEARING.
The Church Age book was published in 1965 and he says that the Lord had not yet appeared.
(This is 1965, long after the cloud was photographed).
He speaks of the coming and the appearing of the Lord as one and the same thing.
I JOHN 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
Our bodies will only change to be like His glorified Body after the resurrection of the New Testament saints.
The Smyrnaean Church Age
When the church allowed herself to move away from the original, like Adam and Eve, death set in.
There is no strength in her. She has become a monstrosity.
The minute the church moved toward form and ceremony,
and toward priesthood by organizing the ministers into a group that decided leadership apart from the Holy Spirit and His Word,
that very moment death entered and she started to get sick,
and as she got sick she changed to a powerless group of people whose only weapon was argument.
She could produce nothing in the Spirit, for her hopes were built on program and not on faith in His Word. They sowed program so they reaped program. They sowed perversion so they reaped perverted children.
The modern priesthood are the pastors who run the church according to their own opinions.
Their weapon is an argument as they weave a cobweb of quotes (with huge gaps because there is no Scripture to prove their ideas) around some fuzzy idea.
A very fuzzy idea is “He began to appear in the cloud and is now appearing more and more to His Bride”.
Brother Branham does not make that statement. The doctrine is not established from Scripture.
People are now content to believe what is not in the Bible, just like the denominations.
The early church never believed such a thing.
So, believing that does not take you back to the early church.
The Ephesian Church Age
I said that the True Church would always try to be like it was in the Book of Acts.
That is exactly right. But we have discovered that the Word also teaches
an invasion of error until there is a complete blackout of truth in the last day when the Lord is about to appear.
Pastors are not even mentioned in the Book of Acts, so they certainly did not dominate the early church.
The word “pastors” is only mentioned once in the New Testament.
Pastors are not called shepherds in the Bible.
To put them in charge of a church is unscriptural, as it is a denominational tradition.
But with their emphasis on elevating quotes as more important than Scripture, Message preachers are causing a blackout of Bible Truth. Thus Jesus, Who is the Word, stands outside every church of the Laodiceans. The Bible does not say there are any exceptions. Most Message believers are convinced today that it is their regular attendance at a Message church that will save them. Hence their complacency as they rattle off some quotes which appear to justify them. But ask them to prove their beliefs from Scripture and they cannot because the Word is no longer in the church. They then compound their error by condemning those who disagree with them by quoting the Bible. Message believers no longer focus on believing what the early church believed.
The early church believed Christ would come on a cloud, not as a cloud.
Scripture uses the word "appearing" to also mean "coming".
I JOHN 2:28
And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
MALACHI 3:2
But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:
I TIMOTHY 6:12
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
:14 That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable,
until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Believers must only fight the good fight of faith until the Lord appears. Then they will be in an immortal body, immune to Satan.
If the cloud was the appearing of the Lord, then the fight of faith is over and we no longer have to fight. This is obviously incorrect. We need faith more than ever. We must fight until we receive a new body.
I PETER 1:7
That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory
at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
II TIMOTHY 4:1
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing
and his kingdom;
:2 Preach the word;
be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
:4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Interpretations of quotes instead of proving the quotes from Scripture.
When the Lord appears, it is judgement. He will judge our beliefs by the Bible, not by quotes.
II TIMOTHY 4:8
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
56-0304 Making A Way
When you're sick and tired of this whole life, and you love the appearing of the Lord Jesus better than you love your food at the table, or your wife, or your children, then there's a crown laid up for you,
not a crown, a gold crown they put upon your head, but a body free from pain of...
crowned in the glory of God,
crowned in the immortality of Jesus Christ.
That's what's laid up for you, that the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give you it that day. That's the day we look forward to. God has made a way of escape for every one of us, certainly He has.
Our crown of righteousness is our future immortal body. That is the real prize that we wait for.
We will only get it after the resurrection of the dead when our bodies are changed.
When the Lord appears, you will get your new body and ascend to meet Him.
I THESSALONIANS 4:16
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:
and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Surprisingly, many Message believers are convinced that this all happened with the cloud.
But there was no voice of the archangel as the dead never rose.
There was no trumpet heard to tell the Bride to rise up to heaven.
Those who make these claims are still on earth almost 60 years later.
I CORINTHIANS 15:52
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound,
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
We are changed just after the resurrection, not before the resurrection.
There is no gradual appearing. There is no gradual change. It all happens in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye.
Numerous other Scriptures use "coming" and "appearing" as the same thing.
HEBREWS 9:27
And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
I PETER 5:4
And when the chief Shepherd shall appear,
ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
I JOHN 3:2
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that,
when he shall appear, we shall be like him;
for we shall see him as he is.
None of us are like the cloud. So the cloud was not His appearing.
65-0829 Satan's Eden
O God, to think that one of these hours, one will be going to visit the other, and be caught up. "Two in a bed; will take one, and leave one. Two in the field; I'll take one, and leave one."
May not one who sit here tonight and heard the Message, may not one of them be lost, from the least child to the oldest person. May their holy desire be only for God and His Word.
We know not what hour He may appear,
This is 1965, almost three years after the cloud, and brother Branham is still waiting for Jesus to appear.
He does not say that He did appear as a cloud.
He does not say that He is secretly appearing in some ongoing transformation that will take about 60 or so years.
65-0718E Spiritual Food In Due Season
Now,
if He appeared to us in a physical body, looked just exactly like Hofmann's Head of Christ
at Thirty-three, and blood running out of His hand, and so forth, nail scars all over Him,
I wouldn't accept it.
No, no. No, no.
When He comes, Hisself, "Every eye shall see Him, every tongue shall confess Him; and as the lightning cometh from the East unto the West,
so shall it be." See? We don't believe these cults and clans. We believe God is the Word.
There is no appearing in a desert in some physical form that we can see that looks like Hoffman’s head of Christ.
When He comes it will be public. You will not need anyone to tell you.
63-0324E The Seventh Seal
We are living at the last hour. By the grace of Almighty God, by His help,
to His people that they might look forward to the soon appearing of Christ.
"How long, Brother Branham?" Maybe twenty years, maybe in fifty years,
maybe in a hundred years; I don't know.
And maybe in the morning, maybe yet tonight; I don't know.
And anybody that says they do know, they're wrong. See? They won't know.
God only knows.
This is after the cloud. He is still looking forward to the appearing of Christ.
63-0804E Jesus On The Scene
May the loving Holy Spirit take them, lead them to water baptism, and to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, then sealing them into the Kingdom of God
until the Coming and the appearing of the visible body of the Lord Jesus
to catch away His Bride. They are Yours, Father. May the great God of the Shekinah Glory be with them now and forevermore. In the Name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.
Here brother Branham uses both words in the same sentence.
63-0825M How Can I Overcome
And now,
at the Coming of the Lord Jesus,
those who are really loving His Coming, that's living for it;
when He appears in the sky,
the Church that's
dead in Christ shall rise,
and those will be changed in a moment
Notice how he uses “appearing” and “coming” interchangeably. They mean the same thing here.
Jesus will never just come in a desert area. His Coming will be universal.
Another variation of this theme is to say He appeared or began to appear to us as the great cloud. That implies that He is invisibly with us in some deeper dimension (some secret chambers), and since then His Presence is appearing more and more in our midst. The Bible says don’t believe this.
63-0319 The Second Seal
And now, just before the coming of Christ, the Bible said there would be false christs arise and would claim to be Christ, and would say, "Lo," the people say, "He's in the desert." Don't believe it. "Lo, He's in the secret chamber." Don't believe it. "For as the sun shineth from the east unto the west,
so shall the coming of the Son of man be." See? Yes, He will appear, and it'll be a universal thing.
This is preached after the cloud was photographed over Flagstaff, which is not in the Great Sonoran desert.
"He will appear".
"It will be a universal thing".
He links it to the Coming of the Son of man.
He says Christ will appear in the future and it will be universal.
Not in a secret dimension, not in the desert of Sunset Peak where brother Branham was hunting. Notice how he uses both words "coming" and "appearing". They both have the same meaning here.
This is after the cloud was seen. He is not claiming that the cloud was the appearing of Christ.
He is saying that Christ will appear, universally.
Message believers only stress the quotes of 1962 that draw a difference between the appearing and the coming. They cannot fit in with all the other years when he kept saying on numerous occasions that the coming and the appearing are the same thing.
62-0728 God Has A Provided Way
... But it passed by you, and you didn't know it. Even the disciples said, "Why does the scribes say Elias must first come?"
Said, "Elias has already come and you didn't know it." Goes over your head and you don't know it. Don't miss it. The Holy Spirit, Christ is here.
Now, remember these two words before I leave you:
the appearing of Christ and the coming of Christ is two different things.
Christ is now appearing in the fullness of His power.
His coming will be afterwards: His appearing before His coming. God be merciful.
1962. This is before the cloud.
And Christ was appearing in the fullness of His power.
1962 was the only year that brother Branham emphasized the difference between the appearing and the coming of Christ.
Before 1962 and after 1962 he used the words “appearing” and “coming” interchangeably.
62-0729 Perseverant
Now, most gracious Father, these people have set still this afternoon. These that are in here, they've listened because they have a reason. They've come to find Your mercy.
You've APPEARED before us in a great phenomena, and showing that You're still Jesus and that You're here.
This is 1962. Before the cloud appeared. Jesus is appearing in their midst.
But the supernatural Light was appearing in their midst way back in 1950.
1950-0713 Obey The Voice Of The Angel
But the last time it appeared just before going out... I always worked. I become the pastor of the little Baptist church at Jeffersonville, which still stands today. I never would take up an offering. I never took an offering, in my life. And I didn't believe... And I was able to work, and why couldn't I work. And I was the Indiana state game warden.
And one day I just come from patrol, and I walked into the... my place, and I was praying that night about one o'clock, between one and three. And I noticed in my room, a Light begin to spread across the floor. And I wondered where It come from.
I looked up, and that same Light that APPEARS in the meeting,
Way back in 1950 and the same Light appears.
God kept appearing throughout the many years of his ministry.
But there is still the future appearing of Christ in His glorified Body, which we call the Second Coming.