For you who've just tuned in, and are not familiar with the name Brother Branham, he was the angel or messenger to the Seventh or Laodicean Church Age.
According to Jesus Christ in Revelation chapters one to three, the Gentile dispensation was to contain within itself nine distinct dispensations. These were: Pentecost, where the saints held and understood the faith delivered by God, pure and undefiled. Seven Church Ages. And this present dispensation, wherein the apostolic faith has been restored, of which the denominations know nothing.
God sent an 'angel' or messenger to each of the Seven Church Ages. The revelation of the Message of each of these men was the baptism of the Holy Spirit or new birth for THEIR Age. The first messenger or 'angel' was Paul to the Ephesian Church Age. He was the prophet who wrote the New Testament. The messenger or 'angel' to Laodicea, the Seventh Church Age, was William Branham. Brother Branham was also a prophet. It was his ministry that RESTORED the apostolic faith as foretold by Jesus in Matthew 17:11, by Malachi 4:5-6, and by Peter in Acts 3:21-23.
The LAST Sign promised before the end of the Gentile dispensation, according to Jesus in Luke 17(:28-30), would be God, veiled behind the flesh of another man: a sinner saved by grace, revealing Jesus Christ the same, yesterday and today, and forever. Discerning the thoughts and intents of people's hearts, 'as it was in the days of Lot'. Raising the dead, restoring sight to the blind, casting out demons, healing cripples, and even cancer ... by the power of God.
Such miracles attracted the attention of the people of Israel and Samaria in the days of Jesus. Their purpose was to attract a crowd to hear a Message. Among every crowd we find true believers, un-believers and make-believers. Although multitudes were blessed with physical healing, loaves, or fishes, a tiny minority called the elect or true believers were the only ones to whom the Message of Jesus was directed.
In Acts chapter two, Peter said, 'You men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, was a Man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know'.
Jesus was only sent to Israel. But God is no respecter of persons. And He promised to reveal Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, before the end of our dispensation, by these same miracles and wonders and signs that He showed to Israel.
Of course, in OUR day, He was not veiled by a sinless created Man, 'as it was in the days of Lot;' or behind a sinless virgin-born Man as it was in the days of His flesh. TODAY, God hid behind the veil of a sinner saved by grace, a born-again man. And did you know: that every true Christian is without sin! Every one who is born-again is sinless.
Sin is unbelief in the revealed Word of God.
'All you Gentiles, hear these words:- William Branham, was a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did again by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know: revealing Jesus of Nazareth, the same, yesterday, and today, and forever, by the same signs and wonders that identified Him to Israel.
You say, you don't know! Then go down to your local library, or Christian bookshop and read what his critics, the unbelievers, say about the ministry of Brother Branham. They don't deny the dead were raised to life, or any of many thousands of miracles, wonders and signs only God could have done by him. These things certainly happened. They've been filmed, photographed and broadcast around the world. It's his doctrine they hate, because It's Scriptural. It exposes their un-belief in God's unchanging Word. It condemns them.
Why did God perform so many miracles and wonders and signs by His humble prophet, around and around the world? It was to attract a multitude to hear a Spiritual Message, and see God vindicate His Word. Believers, un-believers or make-believers, could not fail to testify to the reality of the Supernatural they witnessed. Brother Branham's Message is Jesus Christ in Word Form, It is the fullness of the Word.
The revelation of the Seven Seals brought Christ back to earth in Word Form. Not a Man, but the fullness of the Word.
Jesus told us not to look for a man. He said, 'If they say I'm in the desert or some secret place, believe it not. For as lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; that's How My parousia will be'. Zechariah said, 'It shall be Light in the evening time'. And Light is faith; It's UNDERSTANDING.
The same Gospel Light that shone out of the East has been RESTORED in the West, through the ministry of the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6, the late William Branham whose ministry restored the hearts of the Gentiles back to the faith of our apostolic fathers.
Do you see it? Jesus promised God would send us a prophet with a ministry of restoration to the pure Bible - before the NWO and all these horrors we can see on the horizon come upon the world.
Like Abraham's servant, Eliezer, who was sent to call a bride from among his own people for his promised son, Isaac; God sent Brother Branham to call a Bride in these last days, from among His nominal people, the worldly church, for His promised Son, Jesus Christ. If you can see that, God bless you. The Message in this day is: 'Come out of Babylon, and be filled with the Spirit'.
Now we'll consider three fascinating verses in Revelation 20. 'I saw an Angel descending from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he overpowered the dragon, that old Serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, until after the Millennium: then he must be liberated for a short time'.
I've heard it said, that the art of successful short story writing is not what you put in, but what you leave out. But It's all in the Bible. Nothing can be added to or taken from the written Word. That Word is our death warrant, unless Its meaning is revealed to us personally. In other words, we must receive faith, or the mind of Christ in us, before the written Word of God can impart Its full blessings.
Now this mighty event that's about to happen soon, will definitely take place before many more years, as it precedes the Millennium. Jesus taught us in Matthew 24 that the generation which saw Israel restored to Palestine would not die-out through old age before the Millennium comes in. During the Millennium, Satan will be bound, and he'll be helpless.
Now I've never heard the Millennium preached in any denominational church, as if it were a reality to be expected in our day. Always it's placed way off in the future. It seems as if most ministers don't want any Millennium interfering with their retirement plans. they're looking forward to enjoying their superannuation - thanks very much!
The Millennium is a thousand-year period on earth. It comes after Armageddon destroys all life. It's like the seventh day in Eden, when God rested and watched the Word spoken manifest His creation. We're still in time in the Millennium. It's before the General Resurrection and White Throne Judgment. And before the new heaven and new earth, which is eternity.
Those who are Bible students will know that God does everything in threes, sevens, tens, twelves, twenty-fours, forties, and fifties - those unbroken numbers. God runs His Messages in numerals of the Bible in those numbers. If you get something inconsistent with one those numbers, you'd better watch out. Your understanding won't come out right.
You Bible students know that the feasts of the Old Testament were a shadow and type of things that must come to pass in the New. And there were three compulsory Feasts in Israel. One needed a genuine reason to miss attending these feasts in Jerusalem, where God met with Israel - under the blood of the lamb.
The first Feast was Passover and Unleavened Bread. It represented Calvary, where the real Lamb of God, died as our Kinsman Redeemer. God's Word requires a life for a life. Christ surrendered His Life in our place that whomsoever will might receive His Life, Which is the Holy Spirit, and live with Him for eternity.
The second Feast was the Feast of Pentecost, which as we've already discussed, was a type of the Gentile dispensation. It commenced on the last six days of unleavened bread. Six is an imperfect number. It represents man and signifies that the pure faith once delivered to the apostolic saints would become polluted.
Bread is the staff of natural life and represents Jesus Christ, the Word and source of eternal Life. Leaven represents sin - something added to, or taken from, the pure wheat flour, or Word. As the Pentecostal Feast had within it seven rests, so the Gentile dispensation would contain Seven Church Ages, made-up by seven portions of part-word delivered by seven angels or messengers: one man to each Age. Finally, in the Seventh Age, God sent another prophet, like Paul, the Messenger to the First Church Age. His ministry has RESTORED the faith of St. Paul, to prepare a Bride for the Rapture. This was the late William Branham.
God had to bring the Church back here to where it started. Back to the apostolic faith. All Seven Church Ages are over. We're going into what? - Eternity. Eternity, where there's no such thing as numbers, and times. No more sevens; no more threes. Amen! Oh my! You see it?
The third and final compulsory Feast is the Feast of Tabernacles. This consisted of seven days, plus an eighth day. The first six days represent man's journey on earth, where he's labored against sin. The seventh day is the Millennium, the thousand year rest, or sabbath. It's the honeymoon of Christ and His Bride. This is what the true Bible believer is looking forward to soon.
Following the seventh day of one thousand years comes the eighth day. But there is no eighth day! The eighth day brings us back to the beginning, back to the first day. It's a restoration back to eternity where Adam's race began before sin entered. A NEW heaven and NEW earth.
Now before the Millennium, an Angel comes down from heaven with the key to the bottomless pit. This is the Holy Ghost. It is Christ. On the first Easter Sunday, He came forth with the keys of hell and death. Amen! God, manifested to die on the Cross. The grave couldn't hold Him, hell couldn't hold Him. He had the keys, He was a conqueror: conquered both hell and death. When He was on earth He conquered sickness. He conquered everything. He conquered superstitions, and ascended on High with the keys jingling at His side. He returned on the Day of Pentecost and gave the keys of the Kingdom through Peter to the Church. Keys (plural) - representing a different Portion of faith for each of Seven Church Ages which together make Christ, the fullness of the Word.
Those are faith keys. Christ is building His Church on the rock of faith in His Word. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter turned the keys and unlocked the Kingdom, which is the new birth, to the Jews. He turned the faith keys and unlocked understanding to the Samaritans next, and later-on to the Gentiles.
In these last days, the mystery of God is finished as God promised It would be, through the ministry of His prophet, William Branham. The revelation of the Seven Seals gave us the perfect Interpretation of the Word. That faith will enable His Bride to overcome all things, even the grave. For the true Church of this day will not die, but change in the atoms. Peter had the Keys of the Kingdom or new birth.
We too have the Keys of the Kingdom, which are the Keys of death, the new birth: 'He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath eternal Life, and shall not come to the judgment but is passed from death unto Life' (John 6:24).
But we also have the key of hell (or the grave). Praise God, the Bride in this day will not see the grave. It's His promise. Jesus said, 'My Word is Spirit, It is Life. And we have the fullness of the Word. Jesus said in Revelation 22:17-19 that the Spirit and the Bride say the same thing. That's the answer to Christ's prayer in the Garden. He prayed we would be one with Him and the Father, through the common faith or understanding of His Word.
One Word contrary to God put mankind out of the garden and into the grave. Our key is the fullness of the Word that makes the end-time Bride immune to the grave.
This is the key by which God binds and looses. Faith in His Word. What we speak according to His Will on earth, turns the lock in heaven. And can never fail.
Now, Christ comes down and with this great big key and a chain, He casts Satan into the bottomless pit, and binds him throughout the Millennium. It's faith in the Word which casts Satan into the Abyss, and locks Him up. But what is the bottomless pit, and what is the chain by which Satan is bound?
The bottomless pit is something without foundation. Satan is a liar and the father of lies. His doctrine is not build upon the faith of Jesus Christ and the apostles. As Jesus told Peter, He's building His Kingdom on the rock of Spiritual revelation from the Father. Satan is building his kingdom on deception. He's added to and taken from the Word. So close it would almost deceive the very elect if it were possible.
Satan's bound a thousand years, so he can't deceive the nations. Satan is a spirit, and you can't bind a spirit in handcuffs and manacles. So it's not a link chain, but a chain of circumstances that has Satan bound during the Millennium. He's powerless until he get someone to believe Him. Satan will be there all right, but he'll be helpless because all of his subjects will be in the grave until the general resurrection which follows the Millennium. Satan cannot tempt or even harm the saints during the Millennium, for we're all glorified.
Yes, when Satan is sealed up, 'the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea' (Habakkuk 2:14).
Praise the Lord, this is the hope of the Gospel: to be like Jesus. Not only in character, but to have glorified bodies like His own glorious Body, and to be with Him. Not in spirit only; but in the flesh, and for eternity.
We have so very much to be so happy about. God has remembered His people and honored His Word, by sending a prophet to this scientific age of scientific people and scientific churches that don't even believe in prophets. He's revealed Jesus Christ the same, by the same signs and wonders He performed in the days of His flesh, only more of them, warning His people to run to the Word before judgment. There are some who will receive His message. radioa20.html
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