The Church Ages - The 7th age, Laodicea, part 4

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The church of the Laodiceans is not the church of God

Revelation 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write

The Laodiceans make up their own final church doctrines and traditions. "the church of the Laodiceans"  is not the church in the city of Laodicea like the previous five church ages. This is a church age dominated by the unscriptural human thinking of the last age church leaders.

The "church of Ephesus" was the true example of Christianity that was meant to spread to the other church ages. This was the New Testament beliefs of the apostles.

Revelation 2: 1  Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write;

The final church age of Laodicea is supposed to be restored back to the first church of Ephesus. Thus God never intended there to be a church of  Laodicea, the city representing the last church age.

But the peoples' reliance on human leadership in each of the in-between five church ages caused each age to go wrong The churches left the example of the apostles and each age went IN its own different direction.

Human leaders in each age invented their own specific errors due to their wrong reactions to their own different  circumstances in history. Thus each age was partly Scriptural and partly unscriptural in different ways. Thus none of these next five church ages was the proper example for the last church age.

Revelation 2:8   And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write;

Revelation 2:12   And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write;

Thus it was the recorded as the "church in Thyatira", the "church in Sardis".

Revelation 3:7   And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write;

But the final church is not called the "church in Laodicea".

The final church is supposed to be restored back to the apostolic beliefs of the church in Ephesus, the first church age. The final church is supposed to be the restoration of the Ephesian church age.

1965   Church Age Book -- Laodicean Church Age

(God) is sending a vindicated prophet. He is sending a prophet after almost two thousand years. He is sending someone who is so far from organization, education, and the world of religion that as John the Baptist and Elijah of old, He will hear only from God and he will have "thus saith the Lord" and speak for God. He will be God's mouthpiece and HE, AS IT IS DECLARED IN MALACHI 4:6, WILL TURN THE HEARTS OF THE CHILDREN BACK TO THE FATHERS.

He will bring back the elect of the last day and they will hear a vindicated prophet give the exact truth as it was with Paul. He will restore the truth as they had it.

And those elect with him in that day will be the ones who truly manifest the Lord and be His Body and be His voice and perform His works.

But instead of following the seventh age's messenger, William Branham, back to New Testament Bible beliefs, the last church age lost direction. Rather like the legs of Daniel's vision of the Gentile image that split up into ten toes. This is the effect of Rome's denominational influence on the Message churches that have splintered up into numerous competing church groups.

We are either restored to the scriptural first church age beliefs OR we return to unscriptural beliefs and practices as Protestant daughter harlots of the unscriptural Roman Catholic mother harlot.

Take your choice.

Thus our final church age has been made up by the ideas and opinions and traditions of the Laodiceans themselves, not with the Bible.

The Laodiceans have made up their own church rules, doctrines, and beat-music worship. Drums and electric keyboards are in the church today, but drums are never mentioned in the Bible.

Man-made religion reaches its peak in our day. We think we are so clever.

But just consider how many different 'Message' churches there are, all different, yet each claiming to be correct. They obviously cannot all be correct.

To our shock and horror, we discover that in this final age, God is against the Laodicean church which He describes as apostate.

But there is one spark of hope.

God is trying to help saved individuals to escape from the coming wrath of the Tribulation.

The Bible does not criticize the seventh angel (messenger) to the church.

But that is only one man in a world of nearly eight billion people.

This reminds us of Noah's day when, from all the world, only his family of eight were saved during the Flood.

Luke 17:26   And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man

The family of Noah represent the foolish virgins who are saved before the Tribulation starts, but die in the Tribulation in their family or church-group experience. They are however saved from hell, and will eventually make heaven on Judgement day.

But even this number of eight is rather big.

Only one man, Enoch, escaped the Flood by being caught up to heaven.

Genesis 5:24   And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

This is a warning to us.

Being caught up to meet the Lord in the air is a personal experience with Jesus and the Bible. It is not a family or church-group experience.

Enoch was not following some inspired human leader. Enoch's personal closeness to God did not get his wife, children, or friends taken up to heaven.

William Branham had the most spectacular ministry in the supernatural during this last church age. But when he began to reveal the mysteries of the written Bible, people in the churches either rejected him, or else his followers twisted up his quotes into unscriptural opinions.

But brother Branham is the only person from our Bible-forsaking age who is not criticized.

For the rest of us in Laodicea, God is scathing in His criticisms and rebukes. The Spirit does not say one kind thing to this age.

Revelation 3:14   And unto the angel of

the church of the Laodiceans

write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

God’s biggest objection to our last church age is that it is not His church any more. We have made up our own Laodicean church. Ours is the "church of the Laodiceans", the church belonging to the people of Laodicea, not the "church of God".

Pagan and Christian combine to make Christmas

Laodicea means people’s rights. And we stress our own rights about what we want to do and how we want to interpret quotes. We demand the right to dress and worship God in a way that suits us.

We think we have the right to bend reality to fit our personal perceptions.

If we like Christmas on 25 December, then that is how it must be. Even if the Bible never asked us to celebrate the birth of the Lord. Even if "Christmas" is the Roman Catholic version of "Christ's mass". Even if 25 December is the Roman sun god's birthday, first established by the Christian-killing pagan Roman emperor Aurelian in AD 274.

In Laodicea, who cares that all this is unscriptural? We demand it as our right to celebrate Christmas. Our children love it. And we demand the right to keep our children happy, even if it means being unscriptural.

That way we look very holy and religious despite the fact that we have deviated from Scripture.

We don't care if the wise men went into a house (not a stable) and saw a young child (not a baby). We want to believe that the presents of the wise men went to the Baby Jesus in the manger. We have no desire to be strictly Scriptural.

Matthew 2:11   And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child

with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him:

We don't care if Jeremiah told us not to copy the pagan "christmas" tree.

Jeremiah 10:2   Thus saith the LORD,

Learn not the way of the heathen,

:3   For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

:4   They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

We think we impress God by sticking the name of Jesus onto a pagan custom. We actually make God sick.

Is God interested in a "birthday" for Jesus every year on the 25th day of the 12th month? The so-called Christmas time.

Galations 4:9   But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

:10   Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

Galations 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

An annual "Christian" celebration made Paul feel that he had actually wasted his time on so-called Christians who had this mentality. If Paul felt that people with the desire for annual celebrations had wasted his time, imagine  how sick this kind of belief and behaviour makes God. And God has had to put up with the pagan sun god birthday since AD 274, as well as the Roman church adopting it around AD 350 as the unscriptural Christ's mass.

Only two murderers, Pharaoh and Herod, ever celebrated a birthday in the Bible. Not a good example to follow.

Luke 2:8   And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

December 25 is midwinter, which is freezing cold in Palestine. No shepherds could be out with their sheep at night.

So to claim that Jesus was born on 25 December is a complete contradiction of the Scripture.

That is how lukewarm we have become towards the Bible.

We love our Christmas church tradition so much that we happily contradict the Bible.

1965   Church Age Book - Laodicean Church Age

You have more Bibles than ever, but you are not doing anything about the Word except dividing and hacking it into pieces, taking what you want and leaving out what you don't want. You are not interested in LIVING it, but debating it. I would sooner you were cold or hot.

If you were cold and rejected it, I could stand that.

If you would get white hot to know its truth and live it, I would praise you for that.

But when you simply take My Word and don't honor it, I in return must refuse to honor you. I will spue you out for you nauseate Me."

53-0403 The cruelty of sin, and the penalty that it cost to rid sin from our lives

And every man or woman that goes to church... Today I was thinking of the cathedrals a ringing out, and the bells a tolling, and so forth like that; and people going to the church, and making ready, and the women buying their Easter hats and so forth. What has this come to? My, how I can't understand where a rabbit (Easter bunny) has anything to do with the resurrection (See? No, sir.), or

how a Christmas tree has anything to do with the birth of Christ. It's pagan, friends. We've got off the path somewhere.

That's right. But now a real born again man or woman realizes, because there's life within you, tells you that that's wrong.

56-0311A The True Vine and False Vines

The world has got even Easter, Christmas, and every thing else, till it's a great day of commercial, nothing about God in it. What in the world's Easter got to do with a rabbit, or a chicken, or a yellow duck, or something?

We are just as pagan as the heathens are

and worse than they are in Africa. And yet, you put up with it.

God help us to shun those things.

As the sunlight of God begin to bathe down and expose those things, let's walk in the Light.

60-1207 The Pergamean Church Age

And now... and they made a big feast up there and invited the Nicolaitanes to come up. Oh! Isn't it perfect? "The teaching of Balaam you have in you." See, telling Pergamos what they had, the big races. There they thought that... These Nicolaitanes thought, "Well, now, that's fine.

This big feast is celebrated annually?

Yes." So then with the invitation to the so-called archbishop, or whatever he was then, and everything, they taken to make it a continual thing: to bring in fornications, bring in adultery, forming up the Catholic church; which is every Protestant denomination a member of it, organization. God has no organization, and hates the very name of it. The Bible said so.

And when they did that, what happened? They--they said now... They had to have a spiritual application, so they changed the (Lord Jesus) S-o-n of God's birthday from April (Which all good scholars know, and anybody with spiritual revelations, that He was born in nature time like when lambs and everything else is born: in April.) way back up to the 25th day of December.

And still worship Christmas,

now it's Santa Claus. And what... Oh, mercy. See?

Still more pagan festivals added to it. That's just all. There you are, invited, Balaam. "You have the doctrine of Balaam among you."

There it is. (O God, just reveal it, Father.) See? The birthday from April until...

Now, the historian says that "All evidence that Jesus was born in the month of April when all other life comes forth." But they've changed it back to the 25th day of December, five days after (see?) after the pagan god,

so they could put their ceremonies together: paganism and Christianity. And Catholicism is nothing in the world but a bunch of pagan superstitions and Christianity's off-casts put together. That's right. That is true. And the Protestants that knuck' to it is just exactly the daughter of the mother prostitute.

That's exactly.

Now, God help us to be real protestors against anything that's not godly.

61-1217   Christianity versus Idolatry

Celebration of Christmas, pagan, devil-worship.

64-0719   The Feast of the Trumpets

There is that Roman empire, bound there by what? The ecclesiastical powers. Which, Rome, pagan Rome become papal Rome, and was bound there in its traditions of Christian.

What part of Christian, and superstitions it had of Rome putting together all these;

worship of women, and all these other kind of stuff, and Christmas days, and holidays, and holy days, and things. It's been bound with that tradition that it cannot let loose, because it's against Christian principles.

Still the same ungodly, pagan spirit!

And that spirit caught into the nations of the world, according to the prophecies of Ezekiel and the rest of the them.

Christmas and Trinity are two powerful Roman Catholic ideas that help to unite all the different churches together.

Somehow Santa got associated with Christmas.

But just move the 'n' in Santa to the end of the word : Satan.

Look how easily the Devil has fooled us.

The Bible must be more important than the church

So today we have 45000 different denominational and non-denominational churches. This is a real spiritual swamp of human rights. And God vomits every church out of His mouth, which is where His Word is.

"Amen" always comes at the end. "So be it". We are the last church age.

God’s Word is faithful and true. That will never change. But if we forsake being strictly Scriptural then we cease to be faithful towards Scripture.

Revelation 17:14   These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings:

and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Looking ahead to Armageddon, the people who are with Jesus have to be called by Him but in addition, they have to stay faithful to this calling if they want to be chosen.

Being called by God to salvation will save us from hell.

But if we want to be saved from the Tribulation we must be chosen as the Bride of Jesus.

He is the Word. So we must be faithful to the Word.

We have to choose what the Bible says, rather than what the church says.

The final exodus is to come out of the church and follow the revealed Bible as individuals.

Matthew 20:16   So the last shall be first, and the first last: 

There must be no difference between the first and the last church ages. Thus we must be restored back to the New Testament beliefs of the apostolic church.

Matthew 20:16   So the last shall be first, and the first last:

for many be called, but few chosen.

Many hear brother Branham's message that is to restore us to the beliefs of the first church age. But few will be faithful and prove their beliefs from Scripture.

Thus only those few will be chosen to be in the Bride of Christ.

Matthew 7:14    Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life,

and few there be that find it.

The way is narrow.

Any idea that you get from brother Branham's quotes has to be followed through the verses of the Bible before you can believe it.

Very few will find this pathway to truth.

Most will simply interpret selected quotes

to suit their own opinions.

Adam was the first perfect man but he messed up as he deviated from God’s Word. He listened to Eve.

A woman symbolizes a church. Today we listen to what the church says, not what the Bible says. So we are also messing up.

But Jesus was a perfect Man Who stayed perfect. 

As He came out of the river Jordan, the Holy Spirit came down like a Dove and rested on Him. The secret of His success was His continual submission to the Spirit and Word of God.

John 1:32   And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove,

and it abode upon him.

:33   And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending,

and remaining on him,

the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.

The Spirit rested on Him as the anointing. The Spirit never went into Him as He was always full of the Holy Spirit.

He was the Lamb of God Who would always be obedient to the supernatural Dove. The human Man in complete submission  to the supernatural God Who lived within His Body.

Colossians 2:9  For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

This was the beginning of the creation of God.

The first perfect Man from Whom God would produce the rest of His final born-again creation. Jesus set the pattern for the rest of us.

We must repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. We come up out of the water and then seek for the Holy Ghost baptism.

Acts 2:38   Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

:39    For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

The Holy Ghost will guide us into the full truth of Scripture.

John 16:13  Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,

he will guide you into all truth:  for he shall not speak of himself;

We must not be obsessed with our own rights and our own likes and dislikes. Self must die.

1 Corinthians 15:31   ... I die daily.

A person full of the Holy Spirit should not speak of himself or herself.

That person should just speak from the Scriptures.

The Holy Spirit can then guide us through the Bible as we learn to be Scriptural in our doctrines. With the written Bible as our Absolute, the Holy Spirit can guide us to understand the revealed Scriptures.

Ephesians 2:10   For we are his workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus unto good works,

We become a new creation when we are created in union with Christ Jesus.

Revelation 3:15   I know thy works,

that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

Our church age has an enthusiasm to serve God. We do many good works. We go to church. We praise God. We are keen on evangelism. Churches are involved with education and community service. There is much charitable outreach to help the poor and the suffering.

We do whatever the church requires of us.  In our own eyes we are just fine.

Slowly, without realizing it, we have come to serve the church, rather than serving God in a Scriptural way. We learn the ways of the church, rather than the way of the Bible.

We refuse to believe that God is unhappy with us because we focus on being good church members. We are such fervent church members, so keen to help others, so involved with church activities that we cannot even begin to believe that God is not very pleased with us.

But today, men esteem their own words above Scripture.

Obsessed with our many good deeds, and our personal salvation from hell, we cannot see that our failure to understand the mysteries of Scripture is an important item that is missing. It simply means that our church leaders have made us ignorant of much of the Bible by hiding the revealed Word from us.

This has effectively stopped us thinking for ourselves which makes us ever more dependent on the church.

65-0218 The Seed is not Heir with the Shuck

Notice, see how close it looks. Matthew said, Saint Matthew 24:24, said, that, "The two spirits in the last days,"

the church spirit of the church people, and the Bride Spirit of the Bride people,

"would be so close together till it would deceive the very Elected if it was possible." That's how close.

John 4:24   God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The mysteries of the Bible are revealed at the end

The Bride must know the truth of Scripture.

When asked why Jesus twice wrote in the ground with His finger when a woman was to be killed, church-goers shrug off the mystery. It is just a detail, it is not important, it does not affect my salvation etc. All these glib phrases to cover up the church-goers'  ignorance of Scripture. Learning the Bible is hard work that takes dedication.

In our soft, lazy age we do not apply real dedication to understand Scripture. That is what makes God more than unhappy with us.

He told Daniel that the prophecies would be sealed until the time of the end.

Daniel 12: 4    But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words,

and seal the book, even to the time of the end:

many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

Knowledge increases exponentially today thanks to the internet and computers.

People rush to and fro in cars, trains, and aeroplanes that were unknown in Daniel's day, but as a prophet he could see these at the end time, in visions.

So we are obviously approaching the end time.

President Trump has recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. This is fulfillment of prophecy.  God is turning back to the Jews. So we are close to the end of the Gentile age.

Thus we should have enough revelation of Scripture to understand the difficult Bible passages.

The Book of Daniel has to start unfolding or unsealing at the end.

But church-goers are ignorant of so many mysteries in the Bible.

Why did Matthew and Mark report one angel at the empty tomb. Luke and John wrote of two angels. What were they trying to tell us?

In John, Jesus told Mary not to touch Him.

John 20:16   Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.

:17   Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not;

But in Matthew, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary held Him by the feet.

Matthew 28:9   And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail.

And they came and held him by the feet,

and worshipped him.

These events have a deeper spiritual significance. We need to know.

But we are not interested in knowing because our church does not know. So we live in the shadows of the ignorance of our church, too scared to think for ourselves. Church-goers are almost proud to claim that they do not know what many passages of Scripture mean.

Why must an individual stay in ignorance just because the church leader is ignorant? This attitude of the church makes God sick of the church. If we try to find out truth the church stops us, because church leaders do not want their ignorance exposed.

So the church becomes a barrier to prevent truth being revealed.

Church-goers live good lives, but they have no real love for the deeper mysteries of Scripture. They think that the Bible is a Book that has verses that can be ignored, changed, or contradicted when it suits them.

John 4:24   God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

The churches focus on serving God in Spirit. But they have forgotten that God also wants them to know the truth of Scripture in order to worship Him in truth.

Trying to worship Jesus as part of the Trinity does not impress Him.

1 Corinthians 2:16   But we have the mind of Christ.

The church claims to have the mind of Christ but then cannot explain so many passages of Scripture. If you cannot explain many Bible passages, then you cannot have the mind of Christ. Because Jesus knows what the Bible is talking about.

It is a sad irony that in the days of the  voice of the seventh angel, who came to reveal the mysteries of Scripture, we seem to know less and less about the Bible. And we are not really interested in learning about the Scriptures. We are more interested in parroting a quote.

Quotes replace Scripture as the foundation of our beliefs.

The voice of the seventh angel has become the "Voice of God", even though the "Voice of God" was never promised in the New Testament. So we change Scripture to suit ourselves and promote William Branham to the Godhead.

But God will not give His glory to another.

Isaiah 48:11   ... and I will not give my glory unto another.

The churches take what they want from Scripture and leave out what they don’t want.

The church is no longer hot, no longer God’s voice to the world. No longer fervent to be Scriptural. God wants us to be completely Scriptural (hot). Or He wants us to have nothing to do with Scripture (cold).

That way we are not hypocritical because we would not pretend to believe the Bible. Then nobody who wants to be a Christian would follow us in any way, since we reject the Bible.

It is by believing bits of the Bible and also rejecting bits of the Bible as "trivial, or not important, or just a detail, or as wrongly translated" that we make God sick.

The "hot" of believing some Scripture added to the "cold" of contradicting or ignoring other Scripture, makes us lukewarm.

We must believe all the Bible or else just leave it alone.

Picking the bits and pieces out of the Bible that suit us, is a disaster. Eve left out one bit of God’s Word and doomed mankind.

Daniel 11: 14   .... also the robbers of thy people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision; but they shall fall.

Human leaders love to exalt themselves, but that is the downfall of the believers. Following a man robs you of your personal relationship with Jesus.

Daniel 11:26   Yea, they that feed of the portion of his meat shall destroy him,

Meat is doctrine. Eating only a portion of the Bible-meat leads to destruction. It must be all or nothing.

When you believe something unscriptural then you have been robbed of the light that comes from God's Word.

Revelation 3:16   So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

God is speaking to the church. Modern day Christians have such an elevated opinion about themselves that they cannot accept that God is rejecting their church.

Each one says that their church is fine, and that all the other churches are wrong. But God describes the whole age as a single church. And He vomits our whole church age out of His mouth.

His mouth is where His Word is.

So our church age simply refuses to be brought back to the original Scriptures of the New Testament.

Notice carefully.

He does not say He will spue out an individual.

The Bible says each individual must endure to the end.

Matthew 10:22   And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake:

but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

"He" is an individual.

"Saved" from what?  Not from hell. That happened when we repented and accepted Jesus as Saviour.

But if an individual endures to the end of the age that person will be saved from the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

It is the church that is spued out.

1965  Church Age Book - The Laodicean Church Age

Then what is wrong with these people of the last day? THEY HAVE GOTTEN AWAY FROM THE WORD. THEY ARE NO LONGER FERVENT ABOUT IT. THEY ARE LUKEWARM ABOUT IT...

... For seven out of seven ages, I have seen nothing but men esteeming their own word above Mine. So at the end of this age I am spuing you out of My mouth. It is all over.

Every church has adopted man-made beliefs and organizational methods with a one-man human leader. Every church binds the people with certain unscriptural ideas. Every church gets people to follow and obey the human leader rather than Scripture.

God is not interested in the "group-think" ideas of the church.

1965   Church Age Book - The Laodicean Church Age

Have you ever noticed how the people who lead others astray bind them closely to themselves by fear?

They say that if the people don't do what they say, or if they leave, then destruction will follow.

They are false prophets, for a true prophet will always lead one to the Word and bind the people to Jesus Christ and he won't tell the people to fear him or what he says, but to fear what the Word says.

God's Word is in His mouth, and the church is no longer fervent about the Word.

Believing some of the Scripture and ignoring or rejecting other portions of Scripture has made the church lukewarm towards the Bible.

We are influenced and manipulated by others in our desire to belong to a church.

Babylon thrives on forced submission to an exalted leadership.

64-0629  The Mighty God unveiled before us

...that God is calling an exodus, to come from behind the fleshly curtain who tries to impersonate,

who tries to join church;

not Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, altogether, but Pentecostal churches.

It is an individual affair. It's you and God. You have to go in, not your group, not your church, not your pastor, but it's you who has to go in.

This is the heart of the matter.

Brother Branham revealed the truth that each one of us has to receive a personal revelation of the revealed Scripture.

The consequences of our choices produce reactions.

Then we are no longer free as we have to counteract all these unforeseen happenings. Thus our church-experience takes over and removes us from the personal experience that we initially had with Jesus when we first got saved. Demanding to be free, we easily become a slave of our habits and of our longing to be accepted in a church.

We do not know that we are in a sad spiritual state

Revelation 3:17   Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods,

and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

The church is no longer the mouthpiece of God, it is its own mouthpiece.

In our materialistic age we become obsessed with the lust to make money.

We never have enough. Always chasing more in terms of wealth and material goods.

We take on better-paying jobs even if we are more unhappy in the work. We consider our income and possessions to be the sign of God’s blessing.

We feel complacent in our church. We have arrived. All is well. We need nothing, certainly no correction.

"And knowest not".  Yet we are totally ignorant of our true state.

The mental mechanism for uncomfortable facts is denial, distraction, tantrums, and what-aboutism. Anything but facing painful truths about ourselves.

If we are unable to admit that we are wrong, we will never be put right.

The people really believe that they are safe and on fire for the Lord in their church. Yet God is totally unhappy with the church.

This is the saddest miss-match.

The people are just totally unaware that God is rejecting the very church that they are desperately hanging onto for their own safety.

"Wretched". This is when endurance becomes a trial instead of a blessing. We are scared of hard times. Sales of anti-depressants soar. Mental illness. Sedatives. Unknown fears. Alcohol consumption rises. People are more unsure of themselves. Lured by the lust for more wealth, we keep aiming higher and working harder, but never quite getting there. When we pause to reflect, we realize that something is missing. So we strive harder to fill the emptiness. But it is always there, wretchedly nibbling at the edges of our mind.

"Miserable". This makes people objects of pity. They seek safety in church attendance, but do not know the curse of church organization. Brother Branham's quotes are no longer proven by running his ideas through the written Scripture verses. To make it worse, 'message' preachers now claim to interpret the seven Thunders and the Seventh Seal which are not even written at all in the Bible.

So faith is no longer built on what is written.

Somehow we know that we should be like the early church.

But we do not resemble it in our actions or our beliefs.

Between our modern-day reality of competitive "Churchianity" and the ideal of the New Testament church, there lies a sad gap.

At times it just feels like we are striving to put on a show to impress others that we are the best.

Trying to be the best makes anyone miserable.

"Poor". In knowledge of Scripture. We are a poor copy of the early church as our beliefs diverge from theirs. The spiritual power that they had makes our modern church look poor in comparison.

"Blind". This is the really stinging rebuke. Knowing the mysteries of the written Word should enable us to unravel the Bible truths. But people have gone for the unwritten Word of the seven Thunders and the seventh Seal. Not only have they got that wrong, but those wrong beliefs stop them from understanding the mysteries that are written.

To him that hath not, even that little shall be taken away. The more they chase error, the less truth remains in them.

Matthew 13:12    For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance:

but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

But those who took brother Branham's quotes back to Scripture have uncovered spiritual patterns that enable them to understand more and more passages of Scripture.

"Naked". Like Adam and Eve trying to hide behind a fig-leaf religion of human opinions and excuses as a covering.

53-0403 The cruelty of sin, and the penalty that it cost to rid sin from our lives

And then when I see there, then, when they come out, and God knew that they could not stand before Him. And He knew. And they were hiding, hiding back in some bushes,

yet covered up, but they knowed their covering wasn't sufficient.

Adam and Eve could not cover their sin and error.

Two clouds were above Flagstaff

Too many 'Message-believers' are wrapped in the robes of their self-righteous doctrinal errors that are based on unwritten Thunders. They turn the Cloud, which was the sign of the Son of man in the heaven, into the descent of the Angel of Revelation Chapter 10. Yet the Cloud stayed at an amazingly high altitude of about 42 kilometers.

65-0718  Trying to do God a service, without it 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."

Matthew 24:30   And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven:

They also cannot explain why there were two clouds.

The above photograph was taken from near the city of Winslow which was in the path of the clouds on 28 February 1963.

Below is a picture, NOT a photograph, that shows how the two high clouds were briefly visible for 28 minutes at sunset over Flagstaff which is 200 mile north of Sunset Mountain (or Sunset Peak).

Brother Branham got to Sunset Peak six days later and knew nothing about the clouds.

The seven angels that visited him on 8 March formed no cloud as they descended and then ascended invisibly.

Message-followers (an unscriptural label just like "in the Message" is also unscriptural) insist that the Angel of Revelation Chapter 10 came down while brother Branham was on earth.

1964-0119 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 will rise up from among the dead.

While the rest of them lay there, you'll go in.

A year after the Cloud and brother Branham was still waiting for the Angel of Revelation 10 to come down. The Angel is going to perform the resurrection. Thus this mighty Angel is the Archangel.

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.

In the last month of his life he was still waiting for the Archangel to come down. So the Archangel, the mighty Angel of Revelation 10, never came down when brother Branham was on earth.

In the last month of his life, he even put the "shout" into the future. But the "shout" was his message of revealing the mysteries.

1965-11-27    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.

So after his death, the Bride will be listening to his recorded voice, and slowly getting the revelation of the Bible mysteries for themselves.

The "shout" was thus not when brother Branham preached. The "shout" will be when the Bride takes his revelations to Scripture, and is able to prove the Truth from Scripture.

Thus Message-preachers create a false reality that the Angel had to come down while brother Branham was alive. They interpret a quote in a way that makes Scripture fade from the minds of the people. Because you cannot prove that the Angel of Revelation 10 came down, 60-odd years ago, from the Bible. But only the Word can cover us.

This is the quote used to "prove" that the Angel came down when brother Branham was on earth. (Even though it contradicts the quote from the last month of his life on 1965-11-27 where he was still waiting for the single Thunder, the shout, and the Angel to come down).

63-0317   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.

But read carefully.

The Angel only comes down "when the Seals are broke and the mystery is revealed". He completed the revelation of the mystery of God in December 1965 which is the same month that he died.

So the Angel could only come down after that.

Now read the full quote:

63-0317   The Breach between the Seven Church Ages and the Seven Seals

...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.

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. Now remember, this

seventh angel is on earth at the time of this coming.

There are two comings.

The mysteries come down to reveal the entire revelation of the Bible. This ended in December 1965 when he was killed.

Then after the mystery of Scripture is revealed, down comes the Angel.

So for which coming must the seventh angel be on earth?

Obviously the coming down of the mysteries of God.

Let us confirm that by reading three more paragraphs later.

63-0317   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. That's right.

The Angel comes after all the mysteries are finished.

This was 17 days after the Cloud was photographed, and he is still waiting for the Angel to appear. So the Cloud was not the coming down of the Angel.

Covering yourself with an interpretation of a quote is futile when there is another quote that contradicts your opinion. Your quote-covering disappears to display your Biblical nakedness, as there are no Bible verses to prove your point.

As the church loses it spiritual covering of truth, so the natural women of this age expose their body parts. The modern women simply symbolize the modern church.

True believers will have a hard time

Revelation 3:18   I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

Faith in the written Word comes at a price.

Truth is rejected. Isolation and condemnation are the travelling companions of those who try to be Scriptural. The fiery furnace of affliction puts people off from being Scriptural. Ours is a soft, lazy age that is complacently compromised. Nobody wants to be unpopular in their church.

Remember the three Jews who refused to bow down to the image of the prophet Daniel in Babylon.

If you want to make the Bride you have to refuse to bow down to the Message-image of brother Branham as the "Voice of God". Only the King James Version of the Bible is the Voice of God, that tells us what to do and what to believe.

You have to refuse to place brother Branham's quotes above Scripture. He came to reveal Scripture, not to replace Scripture.

You must refuse to believe that the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily. Nebuchadnezzar thought that about Daniel. That wrong spirit has never died.

But there will be some individuals who will dare to build their faith on the written Scripture.

The churches will not help them much in that regard. The churches prefer to condemn people for being Scriptural.

But God says that if you want to, He can anoint your eyes with the salve or ointment of the Holy Spirit that will enable you to trace your beliefs through the verses of the Bible.

Then you will be able to see the truth of the "difficult" Bible verses.

Revelation 3:19   As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

This is what makes our age so difficult. Not only does the church not help us to find Bible truth, but when as individuals we seek that revelation from God, then God rebukes and chastens us.

So we get hammered by the church and by God.

But this is evidence of His love. That simply means that the church has taught us so much wrong that we have a large amount of errors to put right. We have many wrong doctrines and habits that we have to correct.

It is not enough for us just to repent. We must be zealous about repenting.

We must be keen to learn what our mistakes are. If we must be zealous to repent, then it means we have a lot of repenting to do. That means we are doing and believing a lot of things wrong. It is the end result of listening to Message-preachers and their manipulation of quotes. Unless we do a lot of repenting, we will only be fit for the Tribulation.

Revelation 3:20   Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

This is the church door.

This is the church of the Laodiceans.

We have made up our own clever beliefs. Who cares what the Bible says?

Why do we not care? Because we have pushed the Bible truths out of the church. We no longer want to know what the Bible says on certain issues.

This is one of the saddest verses in the Bible. Jesus outside His church.

The knocks are the knocks of life. Through the hardships of life, God is trying to speak to individuals. Warning them that the church is a deception, a "group-think" trap that combines truth-and-error which is designed to take them into the Tribulation.

"If any man hear My voice". The Word of God,

the Bible, is the Voice of God.

People may be saved from hell by their initial repentance, but belonging to a church is not going to save them from the Tribulation.

Jesus is appealing to individuals.

The church is too wrapped up in its cozy and complacent religious traditions and man-made beliefs.

Are there any individuals who want to live by the Bible?

Individuals who regard the Bible as their Absolute, and who want to know what all the Bible verses mean. Only these individuals will be part of the Bride.

So our major problem is to overcome the wave of unbelief that makes Christians deviate from the Scripture.

This is the separating time for the wise virgins who say, "We must know all that is in the Bible".

After all, the Word is our Husband.

The foolish virgins just yawn and lazily say, "Must we know all that is in the Bible?"

"We are not really interested in all the Bible. A bit here and a bit there is fine".

The Thunders are an unwritten and thus unknown mystery

Revelation 3:21   To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

You have to overcome the wave of unbelief and lack of interest in Scripture that is sweeping through the world.

You have to line up brother Branham’s quotes with Scripture so that you can prove your revelation just from Scripture.

The seven Thunders are not written in the Bible. Thus we cannot know what the seven Thunders say.

62-1230   Is this the Sign of the End Sir?

Now, look, when it is time for the seven voices.

Then it's time for the seven voices, when the Book is completed,

of Revelations 10 to be revealed.

The seven voices of the Thunders can only be revealed after the written mysteries of the Bible have been completely revealed.

64-0830   Questions and Answers, part 4

Have the seven thunders which equals seven mysteries already been revealed? ...

No, they were revealed in the seven Seals; that's what the thunders was about.

This is the key point that is missed.

When preaching on the seven Seals, brother Branham revealed what the seven Thunders are about, what their purpose or function is. He did not reveal what the Thunders say.

The function or purpose of the seven Thunders is to get the Bride into their new bodies so that the Bride can be given rapturing faith. We cannot be raptured in these old bodies of ours.

63-0318 The first seal

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.

The seven Thunders will also utter to the two prophets to give them their supernatural power over nature.

63-0321 The fourth seal

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.

Revelation 11:6   These have power to shut heaven,

that it rain not in the days of their prophecy:

Church Age Book -- Laodicean Church Age

He will reveal the mysteries of the seven thunders in Revelation 10 which are the

revelations contained in the Seven Seals.

So the function of the Thunders was revealed in the Seven Seals but not their content.

At the end of the seventh Seal he declared the content of what the seven Thunders say to be a total secret.

63-0324   The seventh seal

What happens is that those seven thunders that he heard thunder and was forbidden to write, that's what the mystery is laying behind those seven consecutive thunders rolling out.

... 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.

... 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.

... it was seven thunders that uttered their voices, and there it is perfectly, because

nothing knows anything about it;

wasn't even written.

If you say that you know what the seven Thunders uttered, then you are just fooling yourself and others.

Revelation 10:4   And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.

The seven Thunders are not written in the Bible, so you cannot know what they uttered.

We only serve God when we can follow our beliefs through the written verses of the Bible.

62-1230   Is this the Sign of the End Sir?

But it is the seventh angel that had this type of Message.

What was it? Notice his type of Message,

"Finishing all the mysteries of God, that are written in the Book.

" The seventh angel is winding up all the mysteries that's laying loose-ended, all out through these organizations and denominations. The seventh angel gathers them up, and finishes the entire mystery. That's what the Bible said,

"Finishes the mystery of the written Book."

Do not follow a man but follow Jesus as the Word of God

Brother Branham never came to reveal the mysteries of what the seven Thunders uttered, because these mysteries are not written in the Book.

Let us consider two disciples of John the Baptist. These disciples when they heard John speak, followed Jesus.

John 1:35   Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;

:36   And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

:37   And the two disciples

heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

It you get a revelation from brother Branham's preaching, then you must follow that idea through the verses of the Bible.

But certain followers of John stayed with John's quotes and never followed Jesus. So when John made a serious mistake by doubting whether Jesus was the Messiah, these disciples just repeated his wrong quote.

Matthew 11:2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples,

:3   And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

Jesus never criticized John for his mistake. But the Bible never mentions those two disciples of John again. So being a disciple of John and clinging onto John's wrong quotes did not help those two at all.

From this we learn that following a great man is not a great idea.

When they repeated John's quote like a parrot, they did not impress Jesus at all. He expected them to be Scriptural. He corrected them by quoting Scripture. Thus the disciples of John should have corrected John by telling John what the Scriptures said on the topic. But they were too scared of John's reputation.

They believed that, "You cannot correct the prophet".

And the Bible never refers to them again.

So history repeats itself today. If we have heard William Branham speak then we will be able to follow his ideas through the written Scriptures.

62-0318 The Spoken Word is the Original Seed, part 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,

We cannot just believe a quote.

Remember brother Branham predicted that America would be destroyed by 1977. That never happened.

But many Message-preachers now conveniently forget that they enthusiastically preached that Jesus was coming in 1977.

Some quotes were then interpreted as Hillary Clinton winning the 2016 Presidential election in America. That also never happened.

Brother Branham seriously believed that he stood under the Cloud when it formed. But the Cloud was over the city of Flagstaff, eight days before the angels came to him at Sunset Peak, which is 200 miles away from Flagstaff. So brother Branham did make mistakes. He was human.

As was the case with John the Baptist, making mistakes did not mean that he was not the end time prophet.

These mistakes by brother Branham simply mean that we must check what he says.

But those disciples of William Branham who just parrot his mistakes will simply walk away from Scripture like John the Baptist's two disciples did.

But you have to overcome. It is a struggle.

Most Message-believers have been fooled into replacing Scripture with quotes. People have been fooled into interpreting quotes in a way that contradicts Scripture.

There is no easy path to understanding the written Bible.

Let us look at the first Gentile kingdom of Babylon where the worship of the image of a holy man was enforced.

In Babylon, Daniel was given the name of Belteshazzar.

Daniel 1:7   Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar.

Daniel 4:8   But at the last Daniel came in before me,

whose name was Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god,

and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods:

Nebuchadnezzar believed that the spirit of the holy gods was in Daniel. So he built a golden image of Daniel to be worshiped. That is why Daniel was not required to worship his own image.

Daniel 3:5    That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick,

ye fall down and worship the golden image

that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:

Nebuchadnezzar called Daniel by the name of his god, Belteshazzar. So the image of his god was actually an image of Daniel, which is why Daniel was not there. They could not make Daniel bow down to an image of himself.

The first Gentile kingdom of Babylon thus came in with the forced worship of a holy prophet.

The last Gentile kingdoms of today will go out with the forced worship of the Gentile prophet by the Message-believers.

William Branham is claimed by Message-followers to be the "Voice of God". This error on their part makes him infallible and promotes him to the Godhead. His quotes are now believed to be more important than Scripture.

1965   Church Age Book - Laodicean Church Age

I want to make one more comparison between the Laodicean prophet-messenger and John, the prophet-messenger who preceded Jesus' first coming.

The people in John's day mistook him for the Messiah.

John 1:19-20,

"And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not; but confessed,

I am not the Christ."

Now this last day prophet-messenger will have such power before the Lord that there will be those who mistake him for the Lord Jesus.

(There will be a spirit in the world at the end time that will seduce some and make them believe this.

Matthew 24:23-26,

"For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

Behold, I have told you before.

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.")

The seven angels came to brother Branham at Sunset Peak, which is in the Sonoran desert. So that was not the coming of the Lord.

But don't you believe it. He is not Jesus Christ. He is not the Son of God. HE IS ONE OF THE BRETHREN, A PROPHET, A MESSENGER, A SERVANT OF GOD. He needs no greater honor bestowed upon him than that which John received when he was the voice that cried, "I am not He, BUT HE IS COMING AFTER ME."

Notice, Jesus as the mighty Angel of Revelation Chapter 10 comes down after brother Branham's ministry.

Near the start of the seventh church age, during the 1920s, the communists promoted Lenin from being the prophet of the revolution to being god of Rodina, the Russian Motherland. This was done soon after Lenin's death in 1924. It compensated for the fact that under Stalin the communists were moving away from the teachings of Lenin. The more they deviated from Lenin's teachings, the more they glorified Lenin.

We humans are not very bright. We keep repeating the serious mistakes that others have made before us.

64-0823   Questions and Answers, part 2

Some say Brother Branham is the Son of man. I thought the Pillar of Fire was the Son of man. Am I mistaken?

Well, that's a good question, very good.

But I am not the Son of man, but a son of man. There's quite a difference.

Jesus Christ was the Son of man, the Son of God, the Son of man, the Son of David.

65-0725   The Anointed Ones at the End Time

"In the very day that the Son of man is revealed." Revelations 10:1 to 7, read it when you get home, "the seventh angel's Message, opening up the Seals." What is it?

Not the angel is the Son of man;

but the messenger is revealing the Son of man.

Can you get it separated now?

That's where it seems to be so hard for you, you see.

Not the Son of man, Himself;

but the seventh angel, the seventh messenger, is revealing to the public the Son of man,

because It's left the shuck.

In the days of Babylon, only three individuals stood up against that mass "group-think", religious error of worshiping a man, the prophet Daniel. These three were thrown into a fiery furnace.

Russians who dared to disagree with their prophet Lenin were shot or imprisoned.

Will you be one of the few today who refuse to place brother Branham's quotes above Scripture, and thus you will end up in the fiery furnace of rejection, condemnation, and dislike by the Message-believers?

Revelation 3:22   He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Remember, the Spirit does not say one kind thing to this age.

The Spirit is speaking to the "church of the Laodiceans" from outside the church. Thus there is no safety inside the church.

We all have a lot of repenting to do.

The Holy Spirit alone can guide us into all truth. Can you hear Him speaking to you from the pages of the revealed Bible?