Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed

by William Branham

Thank you, Brother. Just remain standing a moment while we bow our heads for prayer.

Gracious heavenly Father, we are approaching Thee again this morning for mercy and for guidance of the Holy Spirit today, as it's dawned upon us that we should meet together this morning, and to teach Thy Word, and that we might know how to live in this present day, and what is the time of day that we're living. We'd ask Thy holy guidance to our thoughts, our hearts today, that You would direct us to every word that is necessary for us to know; that You would open our mouths freely and our hearts also to receive and—that which You would speak to us, and would close our mouths to the things that are not right— knowing that only You can reveal the Word of God.

And now, as I have to leave the little church right away now for the other parts of the world, I'm committing them to Thee, Lord, which they are part, the apple of my heart—as to say. They are the ones that's been begotten to You by the Spirit and by the Word of Truth, and I pray that You'll bless them, Lord, and keep them closely knitted together by the bonds of the love of Christ.

Bless our dear beloved pastor, the shepherd. We pray that You'll anoint him with the Holy Spirit of Thy Word and reveal to them and feed the flock.

That was once... Just a while ago when You showed the vision that the little tabernacle here...but to store up the food; that there would come a time when this would all be needed. When we seen Brother Sothmann and Brother Woods ready to cross over into another country to... But You said, "Store up this food here for the time." Lord, reverently I've tried to do that.

And now, this morning in this lesson that we have thought of, I pray that You'll cap it all off, Lord, to show that You're God, and this is Your Word and Your Truth. Grant it, Lord, that the people might feed thereon and grow fat as it was in the grace of God, that they would see that it's God's great mercy to us in this day. Bless all that's present and those who would like to be present, Father, and get glory to Thyself; for we ask it in Jesus' Name. Amen.

The Lord bless each and every one of you, now. And I believe just before we start, we have a little baby here—a Collins. I met the father just a few moments ago, and he had a little baby he wanted dedicated; and we want to do that now, if Brother or Sister Collins, one, will bring the little one forward so we can have the dedicational service for this little fellow.

Leaving, you know, why it causes... These are loyal members or—of the Body of Christ. You notice, I never said of the tabernacle—of the bodies of Christ, this body here, part of His Body. And they got a little fellow here they want dedicated. And this is always a job I think my wife envies me of —to hold the babies. Brother Neville, if you'll come forward, if you will.

"Bring Them In," all of us together.

Bring them in, bring them in,
Bring them in from the fields of sin;
Bring them in, bring them in,
Bring the little ones to Jesus.

I like that. See, bring them to Christ before the devil even has a chance. They're already presented to Him then for a life of service.

Does anybody know whether the Dauch family, any of them got down today or not—Sister Dauch? Brother Brown, are you here, Brother Brown? Yes, I'm glad... And the... Brother Dauch is still with us? Wonderful! Brother Dauch almost left us. See, we can't say too much or ask too much; he's already twenty-one years a-past the time that God told him to live. That's an ordinary lifetime, a-past the—time that God told him he could live.

But, we had a call the other morning that he was dying, and we rushed up there, and the Lord God was really good to him and spared him. Just... I think he's ready and just waiting the coming of the Lord. But, you know, we all hold on to one another. We just... The old fellow is like a—like a dad to me here. I remember him sitting right down here in the old tabernacle (the old part). When he—that Light flashed across on that water baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ, right out of there he come—and about eighty-seven or eighty-eight years old—on a stick; come right up here and said "I want to go right in there and be baptized." Somebody went and got him some clothes. He couldn't wait till the next time; he had to come right then, right then. So, I—I like that. He said the other day (I was talking to him)—he said, "Do you think I'm all right now, Brother Branham?"

I said, "Did you ever go to a doctor for a physical check-up?" He said, "Yes, sir."

I said... The doctor will put stereoscopes in his ears, and put them on your heart to see if your heart's beating right, and an electrical cardiogram, and then blood pressure, urine test and so forth— instruments to find out whether your physical being... Now, the way he does that, he looks back on a book where specialists on these different subjects...writes down... If this takes place, this is what's wrong.

And I said, "Now, the only stereoscope that I have is the Bible (see?)—for the soul." And I said, "I'm going to give you the test." I said, "St. John 5:24 said, `He that heareth My words...`" I said, "That isn't just sitting and listening to it; that's receiving it, receiving it. You believe it. Something inside of you tells you it's right. You've accepted it; you believe it; it's yours. `He that heareth (it's already yours) My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me...` You believe that?" He said, "I do."

I said, "Then I'll tell you what the Chief Doctor said: `He's passed from death unto Life, and shall no more come into condemnation or judgment.`" I said, "As far as I know, according to the Books, you passed the examination."

That old man, nearly a hundred years old, not a churchman at all, but just the first time that Light flashed across his path, he received It. See that predestinated Seed laying there? See, as soon as the Light strikes it, it comes to Life right quick.

Now, I know it's hot today and look like it's hard for me to call you people together for a service where you set jammed in like this, but yet I thought by the grace of God that I would have another service before I had to leave you all—for a short season, I trust.

And I've got to go now tomorrow night to Chicago to begin Wednesday. I thought I would get there a little early, if possible, and rest up a little before beginning a series of services. And I believe they've got it... Here, I was looking at it right here. It's advertised up there. It's called the Maringold Area—yeah, Marigold, Marigold, yeah Area —Arena. Marigold Arena—it's where it's to be held, beginning Wednesday night through Sunday. And the Full Gospel Business Man has a breakfast also on—on Saturday morning. And I don't know just exactly where they got that advertised where. No. Then Saturday evening's at the Lane Tech; I see here it's advertised.

Now, if you're around in that area or up there... It's to be a regular —it's just a regular evangelistic service like we have at any time; most of the Messages will be primarily on something that's been taught here, 'cause here is where we make our tapes. You see? Out there they can fuss, but if they get tapes made from here, that's up to them if they want to listen to any tapes. It comes right from here; this is our own pulpit. So out there, usually I try to pick around on something not very deep, because many of them are shallow in experience and what comes in... But here, I feel I have a right to say whatever God puts upon my heart to say it—from right here. So our tapes are all made from right here. See? And they're right in the room there now; you can see their heads up over the clouded glass in there, where they're sitting with their recorders.

Now, and if you want to come to the meeting, we'd be most happily to have you. You just... If you get there, don't just know where to go, why, just contact any of the Full Gospel people or Brother Carlson, and he will tell you that's... He can advise you—or the Philadelphia Church or any of them, they can tell you right how to get to the place.

Then I come back next Monday evening sometime—afternoon or evening. And Tuesday we go back to Arizona for our—to put the children in school and so forth. And then I don't know just exactly when to be back again because the Lord... I want Him to lead me on just what to do.

A very strange thing happened... I might as well... I know that this is taped, and I might as well place it on here. And right while visions and leadings of the Holy Spirit is moving, I like to strike just exactly while It's moving. That's... Now, in the last year it's been one—right along with one of the most highest time for visions that I've ever had in all my ministry—has been this last year—of things that has taken place, that you people know that is foretold before it happens, and it happens just the way it said.

Now, we come back here and to visit. The climate in this place I certainly don't like because it just breaks me down as soon as I get here. And I just... I can cross the top of the knobs up there and come down in this everything looks spooky, dark, and I just have to get out of it. See?

And the other day I was talking to the wife... But what brings me in first... What brings me in here is you people (see?)—this church. I tell you, of all the places I went in life, this is my favorite place to come preach the Gospel. And looks like that we can make a tape from here—it's ten times better than anywhere else. See, that's the reason I say, "Where God's a-doing something, then stay right with that." But, I think where the great thing is, that me failing to go out at the first time when He called me, and therefore, he makes it kind of rough on me when I come in. Obedience is better than sacrifice.

And then I'll be coming back and forth all the time, preaching in the tabernacle. And you people that's from out of town, you'll be notified. Billy Paul will be here, right in the office, and—and can be reached at any time through him. And we'll be coming back here to hold... And then the Seven Trumpets is coming up right away, the Lord willing. Seven Last Plagues and the Vials, and so forth, just as we can—get a little cooler weather or maybe or something, however the Lord leads.

And now, the other day coming in, I—there was a question brought up about something—about someone had given me a check and said personally, exactly, just to me and me only, tax paid, free, everything else. Well, we went and... Billy knew that I kind of had need of that check, and I—and he went and asked the attorneys if we could cash it. He said, "Why, he's an American citizen; why can't he cash it?" See? Says "`Tax paid and everything else—free.` Any citizen can do that."

So then, he couldn't be satisfied with that (Billy), so he goes to the public accountant, and he said, "Why certainly, he can cash that." Said, "He's a citizen of the United States." So well, he couldn't think good about that, so he called Merle Miller (that's the head of the tax association at Indianapolis that was our attorneys), and so (Ice and Miller) —and so, "Sure, it's all right. (See?) Sure he can have that check. It's made out to him—endorsing only." I can—only one can endorse it and so forth, and it couldn't be stamped without...

See, I don't cash no checks. That's what they got me for the other time. Somebody bring in a bunch of checks, and say, "Here, Brother Branham..." at the meeting. I'd say, "William Branham, William Branham..." Well, the government was taking care of all of that all the time. And I was signing them to myself and was paying the debts out there, but they said I owed delinquent taxes on all of it, anyhow— $300,000.00. So—so then, that's where the fuss came. So then, as soon as I put this check in, whammy! here come the agent right back. Said, "We'll reopen the case for him now." So it made it kind of rough.

And Brother Lee Vayle sitting here (I guess it is all right to say it) we just—he'd come down, and this fine scholared Baptist here (I baptized him in the Name of Jesus Christ here in the pool the other day)—Brother Lee Vayle. And so, he's really a fine man, a brother in Christ; he's preached for us here before, highly intellectually educated, and besides that, a Spirit-led man. When the Light flashed across him, he said he tried to get away, but just couldn't do it. So I baptized him right here the other morning. Couldn't stand it any longer, so we just come down here and put on our clothes and went in and was baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ.

Well, I thought being he had taken that fine spiritual food, maybe to talk a little bit, we would take some natural food. So we goes over to the Blue Boar, sets down and was talking. And the subject come up, "How do you let people talk about you like that?" Now, Brother Vayle is one of the finest man I ever knowed, but he's just a little too quick on the trigger, I always told him, you know. And so he—so I said... (Hope that's all right, Brother Vayle.) So he—I said, "Don't fly loose all at once; sit still. God's the One that's a-doing it."

He said, "Aw, it might be all right for you, " he said—he said, "but, well, he..." I believe he—he's so smart till that's what he's been meeting (those smart intellectual people), so he just knows how to pour it in there, and they ain't got no place to stand. That's all.

So I said, "Look, Brother Vayle," (we was sitting at the Blue Boar) I said, "David, one day after being throwed from the throne by his own son—run off the throne, mutiny, Israel divided, and David took off the throne by his own son—and was going out of the city, weeping. And a guy that didn't like his last day Message, you know; he didn't care for him, little old fellow, kind of crippled up, going along there making fun of him, and he spit on David. And that guard drew that sword, said, `I'll let the head of that dog stay on him that spit on my king?' David said, `Let him alone; the Lord told him to do that.` Spit on him; making fun of him and then spit on him. Said, `The Lord told him to do that.`" Well, we know the story, how it returned back. Brother Vayle thought that took a whole lot of grace to do that.

So no more than coming back and entering the office, the public accountant called Billy Paul and told him about this. So Brother Vayle went up the house with me, and I walked in; I said to the wife (long about sometime in the afternoon)... We went in a room. I said, "I got something to tell you, honey."

We had just been talking before I left. She said, "Bill, I know that God sent you out there; we all know that, but He never told you to come back." She said, "Now, that's where I'm worried about."

I said, "Well, I think it's for you and the children. It don't matter for me. I'm going to serve Him, Lord willing, wherever I go." And so, walked back, and I told her about it like that. So, I just turned around, laid my hat up, and somebody said something about, "Oh, this tax collector..." Just kind of raved it out—something like that. Not thinking of what I had told of Brother Vayle, I said, "Let him alone. Maybe the Lord told him to do that." I no more than said that, till a Light flashed on the wall and wrote across there (Brother Vayle and my wife sitting there), "Come on back to Arizona." With letters wrote across the wall, "Come on back to Arizona." That's right. So, here I go (Amen!) back to Arizona.

Now, this week has been a week of great blessings. We had private interviews this week of people who had been waiting since the Seven Seals. And I don't doubt but some of them of course was called in from out of the town—across the nation. But the morning before the interviews started, sitting in the room, the Holy Spirit let me write out exactly everything they knew, everything they wanted to ask, rotate the questions just the way they wanted to, and tell them their dreams and interpretations before they ever told me.

Now, the people are in the room here—there. And I go ahead and let them talk. They would say, "Well, Brother Branham, I come such and such."

I said, "Now remember, we have assembled here not for fellowship; we haven't come here to fellowship with one another. There is a question in your mind and your heart that you've—you've stumbled into and you don't know what it is. And maybe I'll be able by the help of God to do it." I said, "Remember, the Queen of the South had some questions too, when she came to Solomon. And the Bible said there was nothing revealed, or held back to what Solomon couldn't answer for." And I said, "A greater than Solomon is here, (See? That's right.) The Lord Jesus promised, `Wherever two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of them. And whatsoever thing they can think of or desire and shall ask, it shall be given to them.` And now your question is something you don't know about, something you don't know how to approach about, something you don't know what to do about."

And I said, "Again the Scripture said this, that the Angels of God are encamped about those who fear Him. So, in another world where the five senses does not declare... The five senses only contacts this world. If you had no feeling, you couldn't feel nothing. Feeling wouldn't mean nothing to you; that would be another world. If you had no sight, what you look at would be another world to you; you would know nothing about it. So these five senses is the only thing that God let us loose to. Now there is another one called faith. But by faith you walk up a ladder, and finally you can get so high until you break into another world, which is visions. There you can see; just like if you never knowed what this was you was feeling with your sense of feeling and never seen it, then your eyes come open, you could see it. It would be all mystery to that person who never could see. It would be a mystery to him. But yet, that's it."

And in there, the Lord... Before we got here, to people from across the country, everywhere—from north, south, west come in for these interviews, and as soon as they get through talking, just exactly the questions they would ask, the thing that they would ask about, I would say, "Watch here"; raise over and there was a piece of paper with every question, in rotate, just exactly the way they asked it (was going to ask it), their answer down here to the question—just the way it was answered out. The Lord is great; He knows all things. But yet, it taken me about three days to come out of that afternoon. What it was, such a tear-down.

And now, I thought to get it all before we left... And there is the proper way, the real way of... to individuals. Now, they's things can be said, and if the people here that knows that secrets of hearts that was revealed that would absolutely—it would be horrible; it would cause crime; it would cause somebody to shoot another, or something, if that be revealed right here at the platform like this, in a public—before the public. It would cause penitentiary offenses, and everything else that would...

But when you're sitting together like that, the Holy Spirit—just two of you together... But we understand this, that what they ask me is private. I say nothing about it. And what I say to them, it's up to them whether they want to say it or not. See? But it would be known between us—the interview. That's taking a person one by a time and sitting there until everything is completely settled (see?)—the Holy Spirit.

And then, to think of the grace of the Holy Spirit telling me all about it, to each one (a whole line of them) before they ever even got here; across the country, coming people I never seen in life. And write it out so that they would know, just a routine according to the questions the way they would answer it.

One brother had questions on the serpent's seed that I didn't get to answer just exactly 'cause their little half-hour was up. I hope that he got it all right—the answers to it on the paper. I... He had it wrote out, and he didn't get to all of his answers, so I just give him the writing back—the answers on the paper. If he hasn't, Billy Paul has it. And I know the man is sitting here; I just looked at him just a few moments ago. So if he wants to find that, it's wrote out on a piece of paper—your answers to your questions.

Now, oh how good the Lord is! I hope everybody is feeling good. And now, let us remember (and now when I pray for these handkerchiefs)—to remember Brother Dauch; he's a precious brother, and we want to remember him in prayer.

And I see Brother Ungren, but I can't see Sister Ungren anywhere, whether she's all right now... Yes, sitting right out from him, sure; yes. I'm glad, because we was called out the other night, just a emergency case of her and her daughter, Sister Downing, run off the road, and just the grace of God or they would both have been crushed to pieces right there. And here they come right on to church, got on a train and come on. I'll never forget you all. I love you. God knows that. I love you.

How across the country through slick weather... When I look at some brother here from Georgia and Alabama and different places, and Tennessee and around, where they ride their car down the road where the ice sliding back and forth like that, to come here for one service...

When I had that emergency call to Brother Dauch the other day, I didn't realize that Lima, Ohio was so far away. I thought that was a little skip, hop, and a jump. But my, I left here real early that morning, and never got there until 1 o'clock that afternoon, driving everything that the speed limit would allow and on dual highway. And I think how close that is to way down in the South where these other people come from—way out in the North and West, where they come.

I love you. And that's the reason I try to be deadly sincere here. And the old-timers... I see Brother Creech and them sitting back there now, and the ones that's been with me all these years and things, and how we come up together. I was looking at Mary Jo's picture (I believe it was a couple of nights ago)—just a little, bitty, tiny thing when we first met, and now she's married, I guess and got children. Brother Creech and Sister Creech—young, black-headed and Meda and I; and here we are gray and stooped over. See, there's something about people like that; it grips you. See? You—you want to stay with them. See? There's something another that always makes your mind pull back. Just giving them for examples to others that's here, young and old; we look forward for the coming of the Lord.

So this morning I have put it... God, I believe, put it in my heart to teach a Sunday school lesson here this morning, God willing, for a lengthy time. And I... This being my last service for a little while, as far as I know... And I want you to remember that Brother Neville here, left in the church in the charge of this tabernacle under the Holy Spirit—and he's left here, and he believes this Message and teaches It just the same as I do. Right.

And any time that you'd want to—you can see fit to come to hear Brother Neville, he certainly would do you good, I'm sure. He's a great servant of Jesus Christ. I've knowed Orman Neville since I was a little boy, and he hasn't changed one speck, only got closer to God. I remember when I first saw him on a... I was invited to his Methodist platform. And when I come back here to the tabernacle, I said, "Some day, I'll baptize him in the Name of Jesus Christ." And here he is with the Message now, going on—a real gallant servant.

And Brother Neville goes through many strains and heartaches that... He doesn't show it here at the tabernacle, but being that the Lord lets me have a little sight into people's life, I know what he goes through—whole lot of it. See? And he certainly goes under a lot of labor and strains and things. And you people here hold him up like Joshua and Caleb held up the hands of Moses as he's bringing the Word.

Love one another above everything. Love one another. Don't... No matter what the devil tries to say... Now, you're all one great, big, sweet group now, but remember my warning! See? Satan won't let that stay that way. No, sir. He will shoot everything, if he has to bring somebody in to make his target. He will bring some critic or unbeliever in, sit him down, and cause him to fellowship with you under the quietness and things, and then he will shoot that guy with some kind of poison stuff, and he will start through the church with it. Don't you take sides with it! Don't you have nothing to do with anything else! You stay right loving and sweet and kind to one another. Pray for that man that he will be saved too, or that woman, ever who it is. Just pray for them and stick one with another and stay with your pastor. See? He's the shepherd and you give him respects. He will lead you through, and— cause, he's ordained of God to do so.

Now, do you remember that? THE ENEMY WILL COME. And when he does, just cling that much closer together. And the one that the devil is using for an enemy will either get out or come in and be one of you. That's all. Don't never clan among one an—talk, make yourself clannish; we are one.

I couldn't say, "Left hand, I'm mad at you, I'm going to take you away because you're not a right hand." He's my left hand. I want him to stay there; even the little tip of my finger, I want it to stay right there, every little part of my body stay right there. And God wants us as a Body of believers to stay right exactly with one another, right it with one another.

And now, you've got tapes on that. You've got tapes on what we believe. You've got tapes on discipline in the church: how we behave ourself in the church of God, how we got to come here together and sit together in heavenly places. Don't stay home. If God is in your heart, you can't hardly wait for them doors to open out yonder to get in here to fellowship with your brothers. If you don't feel that way, then I tell you, it's time you got to praying, because we're in the last days where the Bible exalted us—exhorted us to—to "much more as we see that day approaching, to love one another with Christian love and Divine love, to assemble ourselves together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and love one another." "This will all man know you are My disciples when you have love one for the other."

That's right. Stay right together. If the brother, you think he's a little wrong (or the sister), say, "Lord, don't let me ever have the root of bitterness spring up, because it will affect him, and it will take the Christ right out of my life." That poison acids of malice, and jealousy, and hatred, that will just take the Holy Spirit right away from you. It will run Him from the tabernacle here. It'll kill the Spirit of God or drive it away from here, hurt your pastor; it'll do everything. See? Don't you do that! You just wax that much closer together. Draw up the... Take the buckle, as the brother testified (a minister) here the other night about having a buckle (seeing it in a vision). That buckles on the whole armor of God; just put it on, tighten up, move right up close to one another. Love one another anyhow. Talk nice about one another. Say nice things about one another, and then God will bless you.

Now this morning, the Lord willing, by His help and grace, I got quite a bunch of questions here—Scriptures rather. And now, before we approach It... (I think I heard the recorders click on in there.) We are going to bring the Message now, by God's grace. First, a word of prayer.

Lord Jesus, speaking to this body of the Church, that they should hold together with God's unchanging hand, their Absolute—the Word. Warning them as Paul warned his flock that there'd be wolves enter in. You're the same God today as You was then, and that enemy is the same. May this fellowship and bonds of love always exist amongst these people in Christ Jesus.

Help this morning, Lord, as we read the Word. May the Holy Spirit reveal It to us that the Church might be fully established in the faith that was once delivered to the saints, to hold them. And may, as You gave the vision some two years ago to store up the food—fine, healthy looking vegetables that I saw in the vision being stored here in this tabernacle, may we today receive a whole barrel full of that; grant it, Lord, or a tape load, that it might reveal Jesus Christ to us in the hour that we live to give us sustaining strength and spiritual strength for the task that lays ahead. Grant it, Father.

Bless these, Thy children. They're in here this morning, from many different parts of the nation. A hot, sticky morning, but yet we feel the Presence of the Holy Spirit in all this. We think of John Wesley, and Calvin, and Sankey, and Knox, Finney, and many of those, even without an electric fan, where people sat in halls and perspiration running down their faces. The women, well covered and dressed, sat in the audiences and perspired until their clothing was soaking wet, listening to the Word of God—feeding their souls. Now, we feel, Lord, that they are at rest somewhere yonder, waiting the coming of the Lord.

Keep us together, Father. Let the Holy Spirit guide us and direct us. Give us long life of service for You. Give us this great Message this morning that we're expecting out of Thy Word, that It might go to each heart. Make the lips that speak, Lord, speak Truth. Make the heart that hears be fertile to receive Truth. And may it grow into great trees of Eternal Life to be shining lights and read epistles of all man, that they might know that Jesus Christ has raised from the dead and lives among us. Make us so full of love and the fruit of the Spirit until other man and women, boys and girls can see the results of the Life of Christ still living in us after two thousand years from the great event. Grant it, Father, to honor Thee. We ask in Jesus Christ's Name. Amen.

Now, I want to read some out of the Scriptures. And I trust now, that you've got your pencils and papers and everything ready. Brother Neville, you're sitting still; I'm just going to take my coat off. Excuse me for taking off my coat, but this—this is awfully warm up here.

Now, I want you to turn to the Book of Colossians, the 1st chapter of Colossians. And then, while we read this, beginning with... I want you, when you go home, to read the entire chapter of these Colossians. But I want you to read this morning with me from the 15th verse, 29th inclusive. And now, just be as patient as you can, for I feel that in this here, if God will help me, will reveal and bring into your mind all these other things that I have talked on all through the days of the tabernacle; why I have said what I've said, and why I have done what I have done. This is why. Now, from the 15th verse.

"Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in the earth, visible... invisible, whether they be thrones,... dominions,... principalities,... powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should be all fulness dwell;—should all fulness dwell;"

Let me put a little emphasis on that again—this 19th verse.

"For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself, by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven..."

Watch where that reconciliation went.

"And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, you now hath he reconciled. In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy... unblameable... unreproveable in his sight: If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and not be moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is bound—behind of the afflictions of Christ in... flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the Word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hidden from age and from generation, but now is made manifest to his saints:... (Now, I want to read that verse again.) Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we might present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to the working, which worketh in me mightily."

Now, for a text, I want to take out of there this for a text, basing it upon the entire Bible, but I want to title this Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed. Christ being the mystery of God revealed. Now, I took it in order as a Sunday school lesson so we could all read together and have this fellowship together.

Now, God's secret mystery He had before the world began. Now back in the back part of God's mind, there was something that He was trying and was going to achieve, and He had a motive in doing it—in order to let Himself be expressed. Because first, there wasn't even a moon, star, atom, molecule, or anything; He was God. But He exactly wasn't God at that time, because God is an object of worship and there wasn't nothing to worship Him. So, in His great mind He wanted these attributes to be expressed. And in Him was love; in Him was to be Father; in Him was to be Son; in Him was to be a Saviour; in Him was to be a Healer. And all these great attributes that we see already expressed, they were in God.

So my opinion, the first thing that He made was Angels. And then they worshipped Him, and that made Him God. And He started from there (as in previous Messages I have tried to explain it, break it down)... And now then, when Angels began to worship Him... That was before there was even a molecule in the earth; there was nothing. It was all darkness; there wasn't no sun, or no moon, no stars, no nothing; then He was God. As He asked Job, "Where was you when I laid the foundations of the world? (See?) when the morning stars sang together, the sons of God shouted for joy?" Now... "Where were you?" See? That... way back before the earth.

Now, God had a purpose and a hidden mystery. And that's what I want to speak on to the church this morning: the hidden mystery of God that He had in His mind before the world ever began and how that it's unfolded itself right down to this present hour that we're living. See? And then you will understand clearly then (see?) on, I believe, what is being done.

God's great mystery of how... It's a secret. He kept it a secret. Nobody knowed nothing about it; even the Angels didn't understand it. See? He didn't reveal it. That's the reason under our seventh mystery, when the seventh seal was opened, there was silence.

Jesus, when He was on earth, they wanted to know when He would come. He said, "It's not... Even the Son Himself don't know when it's going to happen." See, God has this all to Himself. It's a secret. And that's the reason there was silence in Heaven for a space of a half hour. And Seven Thunders uttered their voices, and John was even forbidden to write it (see?)—the coming of the Lord.

That's one thing He hasn't revealed yet, of how He will come, and when He will come. It's a good thing that He doesn't. No. He has showed or revealed it in every type that's in the Bible.

Therefore, the entire Bible is the revelation of God's mystery in Christ. See? The entire Bible is an expression of one goal that God had, one purpose He wanted to achieve in the entire Bible, and all the acts of the believers in the Bible has been in type and expressing what God's great goal is. And now in this last day, He has revealed it and shows us. And God's help, we'll see it right here this morning— what the Lord has had in His mind all along and has expressed it. Therefore, you can see the great meaning of what it's been to know this, and then try to bring it to the people. See? And then you don't... haven't went into details and tried to explain it as God has revealed it to me.

Now, if you want to mark this down... I've got so many places I want to read from. And now, in the Book of St. Luke, the 24th chapter of St. Luke, we find out it's—it is—the two of the apostles on the road to Emmaus. And Jesus stepped out after His resurrection, and they were on their—their road to—over to Emmaus, going along the road thinking and talking and weeping on account of His—His death, and how they seen Him suffer for what they had thought was no value at all. They took their Lord and crucified Him. And they were going along there weeping, and He stepped out from the roadside and begin to talk to them about Christ.

He said, "Oh, fools and slow to understand. Don't you know that all the prophets and the Psalms...?" See? What was He doing?—identifying Himself to these apostles that all of the prophets, and all of the Psalms, and everything was Him, expressed. See?

And now, reason I never took to preach this morning was because I thought in teaching we would understand it better than just to take a text and skip over it; we would just teach it.

Now, He was saying that all the Psalms and all the prophets spoke of Him. Well there—therefore, that shows that all of the Old Testament, all of the New Testament, and all of the Psalms, the singing, the songs that were sung, were sung of Him.

Take the 22nd Psalm and sing it and compare it with the morning of the crucifixion. See? "My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?" "All My bones, they stare at Me. They pierced My feet and My hands." Yet, all those things there... Them singing that Psalm down there in the temple and crucifying the very One... See? See, those great religious leaders, those great man, those great teachers (and yet so blinded) that was reading the prophets and was singing the songs—and doing the crime that they said they would do. The same thing is taking place this morning.

Now listen close, because now I ain't going to even pay attention to what that clock says. I want you to get this. See? I don't care. See? So you can see here, basically in the beginning, the very thought that God had in His mind—He hid it from all of those scholars. And that just a number, a selected predestinated number—a predestinated people was the only ones that heard it.

And now, search back the scripture down through the age of the prophets and see if it wasn't the same thing. Now, and Jesus here referring them to the prophets and the Psalms. He said they all spoke of Him. See? And here these Jewish teachers, rabbis, doctors of the law, professors had did exactly like they had done before.

Now, notice. Again He said, "Search the Scriptures for they are they that testify of Me." Search the Scriptures—the Scriptures, the entire Scriptures. What am I trying to do?—to show you that this Bible is the thing that's right.

The other day, standing in a hospital room talking, a sister had asked me to explain about denominations—why we was against denominations—with some denominational people. You see, it's got to come back to the Word because the Word is God. See? And Jesus declaring the same here that the Word is Him. You can't make the Scripture contradict Itself. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And the Word... made flesh." See?

Now, here He says, "Search the Scriptures; they testify of Me. In them you think you have Eternal Life (and that's true), and they are the one that bear record of Me, and I'm bearing record of them. If I do not the works that's promised that I would do, then don't hear Me. But if I do the works and you can't believe Me, believe the works, because they testify that He is the Word."

Oh, it looks like it couldn't be any plainer. See? All right. Now, search the Scriptures. He said Moses and all the Laws and so forth, and the Prophets, and Psalms spoke of Him, and again He said the Scriptures testify of Him.

He is the principal theme of the entire Bible. If you read the Bible and don't see Christ in every verse of It, go back and read It again. See? If you can't see Christ in every verse of the Bible, then you read It again, because you have missed something. The Bible is Christ. He is the Word. When you read, "In the beginning God created..."—there's Christ. See? Every... From that to the "Amen" in Revelations is every Word testifying of Jesus Christ.

That's why these added books that's called II Book of Daniel and the Book of the Maccabees, Agges Purgatory and stuff like that... See, it's not spoke of in the Scripture. See? It doesn't theme up with the rest of It. There's no place to place purgatory in there. There's no place to place intercession of saints, and things; there's no place in there for that. There's no place for a denomination. There's no place for creeds outside of it—of the Bible. See? So when you see those things, they just don't come into the picture.

And that's why people has added those and got their—their jigsaw puzzle all mixed up. See? They can't make it right: "the same yesterday, today, and forever." But, if the thing's put together right, there's the entire picture of the fall and regeneration. The whole picture of creation, and God's whole plan revealed right in Jesus Christ. Amen! That's the whole picture set together, every little crook and corner. It's just like... Now, I don't mean to be sacrilegious by this, but it's just like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. That's why we've got pictures today that looks horrible. Say, "We are believers"—and a cow picking grass up in top of a tree. It don't work. That's when they say, "Aye, He's every way, but just of a certain... He's the same yesterday, today, and forever all but a certain thing." See? Then you ruin your picture. The Bible said he is the same.

St. John 5 or St. John 14:12, He said, "He..." he—anybody. "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." "Well, that was for another age." There you got your picture wrong again. You got a man fishing out in the desert for fish, in a bunch of hot sand where there's no fish at. See? See, you got to bring him back to where he's fishing at Galilee, where there's plenty of fish, you see. You got to make the picture look right. It's God's great picture, and there's only one way you'll see it, that when you see Jesus Christ. There's the entire Bible. He's the principal theme of the Bible.

Now, you realize that any of these places here you could take a text, and it's just hard for a preacher to hold his peace. He look like he want to keep going with it, but you got to get back to what we're teaching on.

In the history of the Bible... The Bible is a prophetic Book; It's a historical Book; It's a Book of love. It's a Book of songs; It's a Book of Life, and in there you find Christ. He was in the prophets; He was in the Psalms; He was in the history; and He also in the Bible is the things that is to come. So, He was before and too after. What does that make Him then?—the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And, you inject something in there that doesn't make Him the same yesterday, today, and forever, Brother Lee, where do you go to? You got an awful picture there. For He was the history (see?), and He is the Prophet; He is the Psalms; He is everything. And if you can't make Him everything and the same, where—what's your picture look like? Do you see it? All right.

He is the same. He was the prophets—He was in them; He was in the Psalms; He was in the history; and He is the things to come, the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrew 13:8, if you're writing it down). He should be then... He should be the principal... If that's what He is—and we believe it, don't we? Then, if He is that, then He should be the principal theme of our talking, of our thinking, of our singing, of our walks; He should be the principal theme of our life. If He's the principal theme of the Bible, and the Bible is in us, then He should be the principal theme of everything that we do, say, or think—should be Christ. Is that right? All right.

Since we think this, since He's been made the Head of all things to us—Colossians said so here. He's the Head of all things to us for He was made for us, which we are considered all things. You say, "What about the sinner?" He was made to be the Judge of the sinner, if he don't accept it. He was made the Glory for the believer who does accept it. So there thing... All things was made by Him and for Him.

And it takes the night to express the glory of the day. It takes the vessel of dishonor to express the love and care for the vessel of the honored. It takes an evil woman that would wear immoral clothes and sell her morals to express the virtue of a decent genuine lady. See? It takes the crook and a thief in a man to express the genuineness of a real believer, of a real Christian. It takes the hypocrite to show up the believer—what he is.

So, all things was made by Him. And since He was made—all things—made for all of us; all things was made for—by Him, then since that is true, we should make—our identification should be with Him. We should be identified, ourselves, with Him because He has identified Himself with us. We should be identified with Him. How?—by living for Him. Not just a confession.

So many people take a confession and say... I say... It's got to this place now: "Are you a Christian?" "I'm Methodist." Well, that's a long way from being—making yourself known as a Christian. Now, look what the Methodist does. "I'm Baptist." Well, look what the Baptist does. "I'm Catholic." Look what they do. See?

But, the only way that you can actually be a Christian is for Christ to identify Himself in you. How... We got some a-stinger there. I hope everybody on the tape gets that, too! See, see? You say, "I'm Pentecostal." That don't mean a thing. It's Christ identified in you; that's when He has recognized you.

Say, "I spoke with tongues." Devils does, too. "I shouted." The Mohammedans, Buddhas, and everything shouts. The Indians scream at the snake dance. See? Sure. They all do. Cults, clans and everything else scream and holler. They holler and shout at a baseball game. But when Christ is identified in you, identifying Himself, then you are Christ- like; which the word Christian means to be Christ-like. There is your identification. All right. Now... And since He is our identification, then we should be identified with Him by living for Him.

Notice, God has had a threefold purpose" in this great mystery secret. God, in His great mystery secret that He had before the world began. He's got a threefold purpose in it. And now, what we want to go upon this morning is: What is that threefold purpose? See? Now, I believe by the help of God, Who's present, and—He will show it to us.

Now, if He had this threefold purpose... We want to find out what is this threefold purpose. The first thing was that God wanted to reveal Himself to the people. He couldn't do it as a great Jehovah God who covered all space, time, and eternity. He could not. He's too great to ever be revealed to people, because it would be too mysterious. How could that great Being that never did begin... that after you went beyond the cycle of a-hundreds of billions and trillions and trillions of years of light space, and on out into the infinite, into the eternity, and a great Creature that was all that, and still is.

But, what He wanted to do, He loved Fatherhood, for He was a Father. And the only way that He could express it was to become a Son of man. That's the reason Jesus kept saying, "The Son of man." See, they didn't know what He was talking about, many of them. But now, you get it? He wanted to express Hisself. That was one of His great threefold purposes—was to express Himself, identify Himself with human beings, to reveal Hisself in Christ.

Secondly: to have the pre-eminence in His body of believers, that is, His Bride, that He might live in people. Now, He could do that in Adam and Eve, but sin separated them, so now there had to be someway to get it back again. Oh, my! Oh, now, this—this is rich to me, just to even think of it! See? See what God's purpose was?

Now, why didn't He just keep Adam and Eve like that?—then He would have never been able to express His fullness, His full attribute, because... He could have been a Father there; that's true, but also He's a Saviour. You say, "How do you know He was?" He is, because I've had the experience. See? See, He is a Saviour, and He had to express that, and how could He do it?—only through Christ. How could He be a Son?—only through Christ. How could He be a Healer?—only through Christ. See, all things are wound up in that one Person— Jesus Christ. Oh, my!

When I—when I—when I think of it, I—I just see denominations pass off the scene and everything else just going. See? When I see God's great purpose—revealing Himself, and having... First, to reveal Himself in Christ, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and then to bring that fullness of Godhead bodily into a people that He could have the pre-eminences, the oversight, the leading.

And the other night... If you didn't get the tape that I here one night on A Prisoner of Jesus Christ—Paul, a Prisoner... See? When God gets you to being His prisoner, then you can't do nothing but what the Spirit says do.

Paul, with all of his great intellects—he was taught by Gamaliel to be a great priest or rabbi someday. And he had high ambitions. He was intellectually a great man—great authority, great man in the nation. But, he had to sacrifice every bit of it (see?) to become part of the Word, to express Jesus Christ. He knowed what it was to say... He had a notion to go to some place (some brethren had called him), but he was forbidden by the Spirit to do his own will. Oh, if people half spiritual can pick that up! See? He was forbidden to do his own will. He only could do... "The Spirit forbid me." See? He was a prisoner to Christ.

Then, this little fortune-teller one day, who he knowed—Paul knowed he had power to cast that devil out, but he could only do it as God willed it. Day after day she followed him, crying out after him, but one day the Spirit gave him permission. Then he rebuked her— the spirit that was in her. See? He knowed what it was to be a prisoner.

Moses: his intellectuals, he had to lose them in order to find Christ, to be a prisoner. Then when God got all the world beat out of him and all the mighty man that he was, and stand in the Presence of that Pillar of Fire that day, he was found just speechless. He didn't even—couldn't even talk, he said. God had a prisoner, then. See? You won't try after your own searching. Then God had to endue this man—endow him with power enough that he could go down there. And he said, "Lord, I told Pharaoh what You said, and he wouldn't do it."

He said, "Then take this, thy rod (God speaking; that's God's Word); go out there and point it toward the East and call for flies." And flies come into creation, because He had a prisoner that Pharaoh couldn't pay off with nothing. Nobody else could turn him no way. He was a complete prisoner in the chains of God's Word, bound up wholly to THUS SAITH THE LORD.

Oh, if God can get His prisoners like that! Now, that's when He can express the pre-eminence. You see? He's got the man or the person so that he knows nothing but Christ. You get what I mean? All right. That's secondly.

First, to express Hisself completely—God in Christ. Second, to have the pre-eminences by this in His Church (which is His Body, Bride) to... He could have the pre-eminence to express Himself through them. All right.

And thirdly, to restore the kingdom to its rightly position that fell by sin by the first Adam, back to where He walked in the cool of the evening with His people, talked with them, fellowshipped with them. And now sin and death had separated them from His Presence and His entire expression. Do you read it?... before the foundation of the world to express all of His attributes—what He was.

Therefore, if any trinitarian here would just let yourself loose a minute, you can see that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is not three gods; It's three attributes of the same God. See? It's expression— Father, He was... He wanted to be a Father. He was a Father, He was a Son, and He is the Holy Ghost. And the Father and the Holy Ghost is the same Spirit. Don't you see? You get it?—not three gods. The devil's told you them things to make an idolater out of you. See? It's One God expressed in three attributes: to be Father, to be Saviour, to be Son, to be Healer (see?)—is His expression.

I want to coast just a little bit so that even people listening to the tape will get the idea, that can see. It would take me around, around that clock, just each one of those subjects. But, I hope I'm making it clear enough that you can see what I'm coming to. See?

God, expressed in Jesus Christ, Who was both Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—the fullness of the godhead bodily."

Now, the complete fullness of the godhead bodily dwells in His Church—the preeminence. All that God was, He poured into Christ, and all that Christ was is poured into the Church—the believers, not denominations. We'll get to that in a few minutes, and it'll take it out of your mind forever, See? Show you what causes that by the help of God, if He will just permit it to us.

What's His purpose now?—Express Himself as a Son (see), and now—that in Him might dwell the fullness of the godhead bodily. I've got Colossians laying here, right before me. See? That... All through the Scripture, that's what God's purpose was.

Then, if through this Life of this Son, His cross (the Blood, it says here, of His cross), that He might reconcile to Himself a Body, a Bride (which is Eve—second Eve); and God give it in a type like He did Moses and all them (the same thing He did in Adam and Eve, giving a type), that they were Christ and the Bride (He is the second Adam; the Church is the second Eve); and as long as the second Eve compromises against the Word, isn't she doing the same thing the first Eve did? Trying to say it... "Well, it was for some other age." And we'll get to that in a few minutes—whether He said that it was for another age. How can it be another age when He is the SAME yesterday, today, and forever! But, God has purposed that and hid it from the eyes of the prudent and wise and revealed it to the predestinated—babes— who were predestinated to receive it.

That's the reason... Watch down through the age. Where over that Light hits some, they turn it away and flashed it away, and great intellectuals and them great priest standing there... There was rabbis from... great teachers and authority like... different ones like Nicodemus and them, man polished in scholarship, and he couldn't even understand it. And there was those great priest stood out there, and rabbis who were taught in that Word. My, they knowed it intellectually! And He said, "You are of your father, the devil, and his works you'll do."

Think of it!—holy man. You couldn't put your finger nowhere on their life, or their father's life, or their grandfather's life, or their great, great, great, great, great-grandfather's life. If they did, they died in shame; they stoned to death. But here stands Jesus calling that group "a bunch of devils"—religious people.

Now. Oh, the great revelation now! Now, to restore back His kinship. To bring back... Now, He had to let them get lost; you understand it? He had to let them sin, put them on free. He could not make them sin and remain God and then punish them for something He made them do, but when He put man on partnership with Him, then let man act as a free moral agent... See? The same thing that He's got you on today. See? See? You act any way you want to; you're a free moral agent.

So therefore, if He put the first like that, He has to put the second like that, He has to put everyone like that—or He acted wrong in the first place. See? But everybody is on that same basis.

Now, notice Him. In bringing that back and letting that man do that, and knowing that he would do it (knowed he would do it), but what did it do?—it displayed His attribute as Savior. And the whole purpose then is left in Jesus Christ to become God Himself, to take the penalty of His Own Law (death), to die to redeem the wife that was lost by rejecting Him.

When Eve went away from the Word, she went away from her mate. And when the church goes away from the Word to a denomination, she rejects and commits fornications with the world of man's wisdom—rejecting the authority of God's Word. Does that sound clear? The Bible said committing spiritual fornications. Any word in the Bible that's rejected or if any self-interpretation put to It, it's absolutely rejecting and committing adultery against the God that is your Husband. An adulteress never enters the Kingdom of Heaven, we know that. Now see, that's what Eve done at the first place.

Now notice, again. Now, what's the threefold purpose?—manifest Hisself in Jesus Christ; to come into the Body by Jesus Christ to have the preeminence to what?—restore back Eden, bring back that which lost. That was the only thing out of order. All the rest of His things was in order.

But He had to let—put man on free moral agency to fall, so that He might be a Saviour to display what's in Him (see?)—His attribute of Saviour. Something had to be lost, and the very thing that man fell and became lost, He become the Saviour of that, taking His Own law. And He could not do it as that great Jehovah that covered all space, time. See, He couldn't do it, and He had to become a man. And He took kinship with the man that was lost (Amen!) and become a man. God made flesh! Hallelujah! Think I'm excited, but I'm not. Something inside.

God became from God and become me, to take my sin upon Him that He might make me Him. Amen! Back to His great purpose of sons and daughters of God, for He is a Eternal Father. That attribute was in Him (see?) so that had to be displayed.

Now, see the whole threefold purpose? See?—to express Himself. He wants to become... Now, the world is lost. Now, He has to express Himself in a Man to become a Saviour through the reconciliation of the Blood from His cross. Now, He had to become that to die, in order to save and to bring Hisself back into the Church to have the pre- eminences in His Church.

Now remember, it cannot and will not, and never will be, and never has been a denomination. He has to have the pre-eminences and He is the Word. Amen! How can any creed be injected in it? It turns the church into a prostitute. To take any man's words or any creed or any denomination, if it quickly is marked in Revelations 17 as a whore and harlots: the Roman Catholic Church being the whore and the Protestants being the harlots. It's exactly as clear as any person can read it. We've come through the Church Ages, and you can see that in those tapes if you desire it. Exactly. And anything that joins itself with a creed outside of the Bible is a whore in the sight of God. Done the same thing Eve did—got away from the Word, which is Christ. Oh, my! All right.

Now, we see His mystery He had hid in His mind before the foundation of the world. Now, would you just like to read a little of this? Let's just read it. Have you got plenty of time? We'll read it. Now, let's just all turn just for one reading anyhow, to the Book of Ephesians, and let's begin at the 1st chapter of the Ephesians, to read. And now, as the Sunday school lesson goes on now, in this threefold manifestation of Christ, let's read. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God... (Now watch, it's not addressed to the world, but)... to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:"

How do you get into Christ Jesus? by joining church?—by birth! By one spirit (I Corinthians 12) we are all baptized into one Body. See? All right. That's the ones he is talking to; that ain't addressed to the outside world. We can't talk to the sinner on this, 'cause he knows nothing about it. Paul didn't address it to no sinners. He said, "This is to that—that—that group there that is in Christ Jesus."

"Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings... (where about?)... in heavenly places in Christ:"

Heavenly places. Oh, how I wish I had time! Here I've got it marked right here in my Bible about heavenly places. What is heavenly places? Heavenly places (just for a moment) is the believers' position in Christ. See? Where the believer stands in Christ—in heavenly places.

According as he hath chosen us... (listen close)... chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,... (When did He choose us?— before the foundation of the world, when His great hidden mystery, His great secret... He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.)... that we should be holy and without blame before him in... (what?)... love: Having... (a what?)... predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.

Predestinated—there's the mystery. See? Before Christ or anything else was ever on earth (you see His great mystery?) that He chose the Bride, knowing Eve would fall from disbelieving the Word—knowing that she would fall, but He would choose a Bride that would not fall, that would hold to that Word regardless of what all the rest of the world had to say about It; they would hold to that Word. They were predestinated to stand there. The adoption of children by Jesus Christ predestinated the Church to that great glorious stand.

Now you see the secret? What to?—to restore fallen Eve, as she was a pre-figure of the church. And now notice, as God opened up the side of Adam and took out Eve by his own flesh and blood, and divided his spirit from masculine to feminish—to feminish and put it in Eve, took the rib from under his side and made Eve out of it; so God did the same thing, taking out of the side of Christ the Blood and the water, (and Christ is the Word), and taking the Word and making up His Church—Eve. See? Back to Himself again redeemed by the Blood that was drawn from His Body! You see it now? God's great mystery being unfolded that's been hid since the foundation of the world, but prefigured it all the way down through. Now, watch. We find that— that He did that. And here in Ephesians and many other places... But that will give you enough to...

Now, down through the ages He has been slowly unfolding this mystery. Can you see now? Now, down through the... how that He... What happened in the prefigure now?—He opened Adam's side and took part of his flesh, which was Adam, to make Eve. The Bride has to be the Word, for He is the Word. She cannot stand on creeds; She cannot stand on denomination; She cannot stand on good behavior; She has to stand alone on the Word, because She's part of It; She was taken from Christ. See?

And to be sure that the whole Rapture now... Luther was a part; Wesley was a part; the prophets was a part. If they aren't a part... just in the revelation that they was making up the Body: feet, toes, arms and so forth until the Head (which we'll get to that in a few minutes, see?) that makes the entire Rapture. It's the Body of the Word, which is Christ. Amen! Outside of that, you're lost. I don't care how good you are, or what your relationship is, or what your fellowship is, or what your organization is—you're lost outside of that Word being in you!

"If ye abide in Me (the Word), My Word abide in you, then you ask what you will," because you and the Word are the same. He has the pre- eminence. He's got the rulership. You're a prisoner to Him. The world is dead. You have nothing more... You see the rest of the people living the way they do, You're a prisoner; you're yoked with Him. "My yoke is easy." (Yoked with Christ, with His Word.) "I do that only which pleases the Father. And if you can't believe that I am He, then believe the Word." So perfect.

Notice. Notice now, down through the ages, He's been gradually letting this out, slowly unfolding the mystery through the prophets and through the types. Now, we can just go on to that... and expressing Himself.

He expressed Hisself in Moses. Look at Moses: borned in a time of persecution of the children. He was borned to be a deliverer. He was hid in the bulrushes just like Jesus was taken down into Egypt. He came out; he went up on the mountain, come back with the Commandments. Jesus went up to the mountain—His first sermon (Sermon on the Mount), come back down with the Commandments: "You've heard them say them old times, `Thou shalt not commit adultery.` I say to you, whoever look upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery." Law-giver; Priest; King; Leader—just exactly.

He expressed Hisself in Joseph - borned amongst denominations (His brethren). They hated him without a cause because he was spiritual. He saw visions; God was with him; he could interpret dreams, and his brothers hated him. He was sold for all—by his brothers by almost thirty pieces of silver just exactly like He was sold by Judas Iscariot, one of His brethren, by thirty pieces of silver.

He was throwed into a ditch and supposed to have been dead. That's right. The father and them was told that be was dead. And he was throwed into this ditch, taken up and went to the right hand of Pharaoh. In the dungeon —how he suffered there, and there was two saved. Their butler and the baker—one of them lost and one of them saved, rather. And the butler... One of them was lost and the other was saved. Just as on the cross, when He was in His prison house— attached to the cross for our sins (we become a prisoner)—one thief was lost and one was saved. See? Just exactly.

Then he become at the right hand of Pharaoh, the king, that he dreamed and had the vision that he would set at the king's feet, and all authority in Egypt was given to him. His vision had to come to pass. He might have studied of it many times while he was in that prison down there, his whiskers growing out, and so forth, but he studied that some day his vision had to come to pass.

Though it lingered, it's got to happen (as I spoke last night, or night before—Wednesday night here at the service). See? It has to happen. When God says so, it's got to happen. It's a vindicated prophet, and it has to come to pass, 'cause it is God's Word, and the Word comes only to the prophets. The word prophet means a revealer of the divine written Word, as same as it does a forth-teller (see?), a seer.

Notice in the seer how that when, you know, he's coming forth, he's divinely a-vindicated by foreseeing and it comes to pass. "If there be one who's a prophet, will speak to you and tell you certain things that's going to happen, and if it don't happen, don't listen to him. But if it does happen, then I'm with Him. You better fear him, because I am with him." See? That's exactly. There's the a- vindication. There, where you know whether it's the Truth or whether it isn't. God is speaking back through His Word to His people, by people.

See, God only speaks through man. "I am the vine; ye are the branches." The vine doesn't bear fruit. The branches bears the fruit of the vine. Notice, it's always been that way.

Now we find Joseph then that when... No man could touch or come to Pharaoh without first seeing Joseph. No man can come to the Father only by the Son. And when Joseph left the throne, they sound the trumpets; every knee bowed! "Joseph is coming forth!" Glory! Someday every knee will bow and every tongue will confess—when He leaves the throne of His Father (see?) to come forth. Everybody will bear witness that He's the Son of God. You either... It's too late then; do it now.

Now, we notice that through the types... We can take even David (as I spoke of a while ago) going off his throne, rejected by his own people, going up the same mountain (Mount of Olives) as he was going over to his prison. He was going to his prison house because he was rejected of his brethren and of his own people. He went up weeping. That was the Spirit of Christ in him to be rejected as he looked up over Jerusalem and wept and said, "Jerusalem, how oft would..." A rejected king. Eight hundred years later, the Son of David stood on Jerusalem—up there above Jerusalem, rejected, and wept over Jerusalem and said, "Now, your hour has come." See?

All those things type Him (just in type), but yet the mystery was hid. Them man didn't know what they were doing. They only knew that they were led by the Spirit to do something. Now, holding it back in the last days for the great revelation—but expressing it. Expressing Himself in Moses, and David, and Joseph, and Elijah and on down through. You—we could take each one of those prophets and bring their lives out and show it expressed Jesus Christ perfectly, exactly, yet never giving His secret in full, waiting for to make it known in the last days, as He promised, waiting for it to be fully comprehended (see?) before He could express it. If He told the whole thing... because the Bible's written in mysteries; Jesus thanked the Father for it (see?), that It was wrote in mysteries.

Now, the coming of the Lord is in mystery. We don't know when He's coming, how He's coming, but we know He's coming, See? And so was all the mysteries of God waiting for this last day. After it's already been completed then He reveals; He shows what He's done. Oh, my! Never gave His mystery in full.

It's just like this, comparing the Seven Seals. Now, when God used Martin Luther for the coming out—for that first church (that church age), and when He used John Wesley, He gradually brought them out and was revealing in them that church age. When we—anyone goes back through the Bible now and find out... But in the last days...

The reason that was such a tremendous thing, that He spoke of it here and showed those Seven Thunders and Look and Life—my Life magazine there, packed that "circle of cloud and light" there that they could not understand and don't know it yet, but here telling, "Go there and wait for these mysteries to be revealed" in here months before it happened; and then it happened exactly the way He said it would do.

Did you notice in that picture even that Angel on the right when He was being materialized, coming down, with His wings back and His head setting sideways? There it is right there in the picture. Just exactly; months before it happened, told here that He's going to bring the Body of believers together to reveal—take up them lost ends.

Here come Luther through. He only preached justification, just pounded away in that age. He didn't know what the age was. Here come Wesley through. He pounded his age through. See? Lot of our false come from it. The other churches raising up. And here come Pentecost, pounding away. They organized and went right back into death again (as we'll get to it in a few minutes)—right back into death.

And then, comes the revelation of the mysteries to reveal what it's all been about, where these little doctrines—like Luther brought out catechism and everything else; and Wesley brought this, that and the other, and these other things; Pentecost brought organization just the same and "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" baptism and things; not knowing any different, 'cause... Then come back in the last days and pick up all these mysteries and clearly explain it—reveal it. Why? It's all of the last days when this great mystery that God had in His heart is being revealed.

Do you get it? If you fail, come back to this tape again. I don't know how much longer I'll be with you. Remember this is the Truth of THUS SAITH THE LORD. It's the Truth. It's the Scripture.

Like the seven mysteries of the Seven last Seals—the mysteries of them. The Seals had done been broken, every age had come down, and there they left a lot of scattering. And God, not willing that it should be scattered, He comes back and picks up those things, those doctrines they started, and brought it on out and revealed the whole thing—same thing He's doing now in revealing the mystery of Christ, how He was God's three-fold purpose for the Church. Oh my! Let it out; reveal!

Reveal, Webster says, is to make known—make known, and especially, Webster said, in divine Truth—that revelation means. Revelation: it is Christ's way of making Himself known to His Church.

Now, we're going to say... "Now, Brother Branham, you're just saying this..." Now, we won't say... just say this. Now notice, He made Hisself known to Peter... Now, if you want to mark this down, and if you want to read it (we'll read it, if you want to): Matthew 16:15 and 17. I'll quote it. When He come from the Mount Transfiguration He said, "Who does man say I the Son of man am?" "Some says, oh, they think You're Elijah, and some says You're one of the prophets, Jeremiah or some of them."

But that wasn't what He asked. He said, "Who do you think that I am, now?" Now there's the church He's talking to. See? "What does man think that I am?"

Today: "He's a philosopher"—just social religion. "He's a good man. We believe His teaching's right. It's a subject to be lived by. I think it'd make us all better if we did. We ought to have our churches, our so forth." That's a Santa Claus, like a Santa Claus story.

It's not expression of some church that we should express something. It's a life that you don't live yourself, but He comes in you and lives by Hisself, and you become a prisoner to any human intellectual being at all. You're led by the Spirit. How do you know?

Now, you say, "I might know I was losing my mind. Maybe a man that loses his mind does that." But, if you have the mind of Christ, Christ expresses Himself through you. Shows that it's Him and not—you've not lost your mind. Some people under illusions of things goes out and becomes insane. Well, that... We know that's wrong. That's the devil trying to impersonate the real thing before it gets here. There's always a bogus. See? But a real man is to lose his own thoughts and his own thinking, not come up blindly like that. No, sir, You come up with your right senses and Christ takes you over and expresses Hisself. And now to the world, you're an insane person. Now, if you're insane, you're actually insane, then there's nothing—the devil can't take you in complete control. He will make you do everything contrary to this Word, but when Christ takes you over, He will express that Word right through, because it's Him. He is the Word! Then you can see the expression of Christ. Not some illusion of some sort, but a real genuine Christ, expressing Himself right through you. How beautiful!

Now, watch. He said, "Who do you say I am?" He's asking the Church—His twelve. Out of the millions of that day, He asked twelve—His Church.

In the millions in the days of Noah, He asked eight. See? And He said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of man (see?), wherein eight souls were saved." I don't say going to be eight saved, now—don't get that all wrong. I never said that. I don't know how many's be—going to be saved in that—that last moment to rapture that little group. It'll be a small group, I'll tell you that. "For strait is the gate and narrow is the way, and but few there'll be that'll find it."

But when the great ransomed Body through all ages comes up, then, that's going to be a great throng there! Revelations 7 express it: "a great number which no man could number"—through all the ages that's come up, them that's walked in the Light of the Bible as far as It was revealed to them. And now, we know that Wesley had more Light then Luther did. We know Pentecost out-shined Wesley. See? Certainly it does, because it just gradually let loose as it did down through the prophets and so forth till it was perfectly made known—the godhead bodily in Christ.

And now, the Christ in the Church is just being made known. The whole thing is the revelation of God to take Eve back to her right position again with her husband (notice), and God is the Husband of the Church, and the Church is His Bride.

Peter, when he called, said, "Thou are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

Now watch, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona (that which means son of Jona, see?)—blessed art thou, for flesh and blood never revealed this to you (you never learned it from some school), but My Father which is in Heaven has revealed it to you." Notice, what He said to him: "Upon this rock..." that's Peter, the predestinated Seed of God that had received this Light and give him the keys to the Kingdom. "Upon this rock of revelation of Who Jesus Christ is..." He's the full, manifested God. "Upon this rock..." Not of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and Him being the second person. "Upon this rock I'll build My Church, and the gates of hell will never shake it down—never prevail against it. (See?) I'll build My Church upon this rock"—a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Look, Christ in you makes Him the center of Life of the revelation. See? Christ's Life in you makes Him the center of the revelation. Christ in the Bible, makes the Bible a complete revelation of Christ. Christ in you makes you the complete revelation of the whole thing. See, what God's trying to do?

What is the new birth then? You say, "Well, Brother Branham, what is the new birth?" It is the revelation of Jesus Christ personally to you. Amen! See? Not you joined a church; you shook a hand; you done something different; you said a creed; you promised to live by a code of rules—but Christ, the Bible. He is the Word that was revealed to you. And no matter what anybody says, what takes place—it's Christ. Pastor, priest, whatever it might be—it's Christ in you. That is a—the revelation that the Church was built upon.

You say, "Well, I'm a Lutheran"; "I'm a Baptist"; "I'm Presbyterian." That don't mean one—don't mean [Brother Branham snaps his fingers—Ed.] that to God, not a thing, not a snap of your finger. What is it?—it's Christ being revealed, and He is the Word. And when the Word is revealed, It expresses Itself. See? That's God's purpose for Jesus Christ, was to express Himself, to take His Own laws and live by His laws, and fulfill His laws by death. Christ, God died in flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh that He might bring to Himself a glorious Bride, redeemed back, that will believe only in the Word of God and not swap It, like Eve did, for intellectual conceptions of man. You see it?

That's Christ's idea. That's God's idea. The new birth reveals this. And if a man says he's borned again and try to place these promises of Christ in this last day to some other age—making Him Christ yesterday, but not today—then that man or that person has been in a delusion by Satan. And if that man says that he believes that, and it doesn't manifest itself through him... Jesus said in Mark 16, "These signs shall follow them that believe; into all the world, and to every age." Casting out devils, and speaking with tongues and all of these great manifestations of gifts that would follow, that they shall— not that they maybe, they ought to —they will. And heavens and earth will pass away, but His Word won't!

So it's Christ expressing Himself in the individual, whether he's intellectual or whether he don't know his A-B-C's. Half the apostles didn't know them. But they knowed Christ! They never taken heed to Peter and John, knowing that they had been out of some seminary. They said they taken heed and noticed that they had been with Christ when they healed the lame man (see?) at the gate. They knowed they had been with Christ.

The new birth is Christ—is a revelation. God has revealed to you this great mystery, and that's the new birth. Now, what are you going to do when you get all that group together, where the revelation is perfectly in harmony and God expressing it through His Word by the same actions, the same things that He did, making the Word manifest? Oh, if the Church only knew its position! It will one day. Then, the Rapture will go—when it knows what it is.

Now notice. You say, "Brother Branham, but that—that ain't..." Oh yes, it is, too. It is the Truth.

Did you notice? Paul never knew Jesus physically. Paul never knew Him. The only way that Paul knew Him was by a revelation—by a vision. Is that right? Paul only knew Jesus by the revelation, just like Peter did.

Peter had seen Him in flesh, but he didn't know Him by flesh, 'cause Jesus said so. "Flesh and blood didn't reveal it to you. Even My Own Life didn't reveal it to you, but My Father which is in Heaven has revealed the thing to you—that He is the Word of God. And upon this rock I'll build My Church." Peter didn't know Him by flesh.

Man walked and handled Him and everything else. Paul had something greater than any of the apostles did. See? They said, "Well, I— I've got more of a revelation than you, Paul, because, you know, I walked with Him. I went fishing with Him, one day. I heard Him talk. He sat in a boat with me and after He told me, `Let's go over here and fish in this place, and we'll get more fish.` And we did it. See? See, we seen Him do things."

But, Paul saw Him after He was dead, buried, rose again, and expressed Hisself in the Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel! Knowing... Paul, being a Jew, would have never called that "LORD" unless he had seen the expression that He was back the same yesterday, today, and forever. He said, "Paul..." in other words, "I'm the same God today that I was yesterday. Here I am in the same Light, the Pillar of Fire, that Moses talked to in the burning bush." No wonder he could separate the Law from grace over in the Book of Hebrews. He met that same Pillar of Fire. He said, "I'm Jesus, Whom you persecute."

And here He is today in the same manner! For the same Pillar of Fire expressing Himself and vindicating Himself the same, revealing the mystery of God that's been hid since the foundation of the world! See it?

Paul only knowed Him—knew Him by revelation. Peter knew Him by revelation. He walked with Him, talked with Him. Therefore, you can set in this Word... Now, I've just said that He was the Word. Now, a scholar can sit down and read that Word till he can just tie your mind up in anyway (see?), if he wants to do it; 'cause he's smart, brilliant. Get a Catholic priest, or not so much as that as a real good trained theologian in the Bible, Brother—a Baptist, or a Presbyterian or something; he will make you think that you don't know nothing. See? When it comes to talk... Why? See? Because that he has knowed Him in the flesh—the Word.

But the only way that you're saved is by know Him by revelation! If I can take... I can take the Presbyterian doctrine and tie you Pentecostals till you won't... I can take the Baptist doctrine and show you Pentecostals a million things that you know nothing of. That's right. But that's not it; that's not His Church. That's not His Church. His Church is Himself revealed! Amen! Do you see it? And expressed by the Word Itself that He is God.

How can you say, "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" then and be baptized in it? Heathens. Right. How can you say you know Jesus Christ (He is the Word), when there's not a Scripture in the Bible,there's not a place where anybody was ever baptized in the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?

And you "Jesus Only" people, just using the name "Jesus" for baptism—I'm personally acquainted with four or five Jesuses, myself. So, you see what your denominations lead you into? That's the darkness, the expression of Cain, who brought fruits in instead of blood. But the revelation come through the Blood, through Jesus Christ, Who is the Blood of God—created Blood in the womb of Mary.

And Paul knew Him by revelation. That's how we know Him today, is only—the only way you could know Him. Not say, "I'm Methodist." That means nothing. "I'm Baptist." That means nothing. "I'm Catholic." That means nothing. But by the revelation that God has revealed the Word to you. He is the Word, and the Word... How do you know It's revealed?—It lives Itself and expresses Itself through you. Oh!

Churches has long forgotten that great revelation. That's right. Revelation of the Truth, they have forgotten it. They went to... Now, when Luther raised up, he was a great man. He had the revelation of that day. But what happened? A bunch of "Rickies" got in—flat top haircuts (as we call them today)—and Rickettas and all of them, they got around there, and—and the first thing you know it's that...

That expression—if you only—only knew the numerology of the Bible and knowed what "Elvis" or "Ricky" means to the Scripture! Just like... Why did Jesus say... "There's nothing to that" (your name). There isn't? That name could only come in this last days for this last days people. Why did Jesus change Abram's name to Abraham, then? Sarai to Sarah? Why did He change Saul to Paul? Why did He change Simon to Peter, and so forth? You see? Certainly it means something. That name could not be spoken till this day. That's the reason we've got this hellish thing we've got in the earth today, because of such things. The whole human race is corrupted. It's gone. See? And that's why it is.

Notice now. He was all right; he was in his day—Luther. And he had the revelation, but as soon as he left, look what they did. Wesley had a message; look what it did. The old early Pentecostals had a... Look what they did. They got a bunch of man together just like... Exactly the same thing that God, by grace, sent Israel a Pillar of Fire, a prophet, a sacrifice and showed Hisself among them and brought them out of Egypt across the Red Seas. And they wanted a law so they could have great dignitaries, they could have something to do into it. And what did they do? They was left in the wilderness for forty years to wander, and not one of their organizations ever went over.

Caleb and Joshua, the only two that stood out and said, "We're able to take it." They... Look at the Word of God. Every one of them died in the wilderness. And Jesus said they were eternally gone. Right. After He had showed His blessings and power in their ages, like Luther and Wesley and so forth. Did He?

Said, "Our fathers eat manna in the wilderness." And He said, "And they're every one dead"—that's eternal separated from God. Their carcasses perished in the wilderness. See? They're dead. "I'm the Bread of Life that come from God out of Heaven." They couldn't see it. They just couldn't see it.

All right, church has long forgotten it. They accepted intellectual message—intellectuals, membership, knowledge instead of the revelation of the Truth of the Word.

Now look here. They say today, "Do you believe that God commissioned us to go into all the world, heal the sick and preach the Gospel and cast out devils?" "Oh, oh, yes, I suppose that's right, BUT..." You see?

A lady talking to me the other day, she said, "But, all the churches are in harmony." I said, "There isn't one of them in harmony with the other." There was a Catholic standing there. I said, "How about you? You're a Methodist and that's a Catholic. Are you in harmony with one another?" I said, "This pope trying to unite them together, that's a good thing for all that kind of people. But the Church of God has nothing to do with it"—not a thing. It's out from the whole bunch. Yes, sir. You wouldn't unite that together. And one believes in something and the other. Methodist takes sprinkling; the Baptist takes immersion—and both of them's denying the Holy Ghost in Its fullness of the power.

They said, "We received the Holy Ghost when we believed." The Bible said, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" There's the difference. See? That's right. See? And they say, "We're the Catholic church. We started early; we did this." The Methodist say, "We are based upon the Bible." Jesus said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Now, where's it at? "The works that I do shall you do also"—every creature, every person that believes in Him. Now, where's it at? That's His Words. "Heavens and earths will pass away, but My Word shall never fail." Now, where's it at? See?

Oh, it just shows... What is it? It's a hybrid condition. Now, look here. You take a big fine grain of corn—it's hybrid—and you take that hybrid corn, it's a pretty corn. But you plant it. What do you get?—a little stalk comes up like this and turns yellow and wilts down. That's the way every denomination is when it's hybrid with man's words, mixed with God's Word. It'll come up to the signs and wonders, and what Jesus said about believing the Word, and it turns yellow and say, "We can't accept it," and go back.

Just like all them other spies did that went over and looked at Canaan. They come over there and said, "Oh, we look like grasshoppers in the sight of them! We can't take them! The Amalekites, and all these— what they're going to do!" And they went back. And Caleb and Joshua, being thoroughbreds (Amen!) by the Word of God, knowed God said, "I give you that land." They said, "We're more than able to take it."

It depends on where you're borned from. If you're borned of the Word of God, God's Word has the pre-eminence in His Church. That's what He died for. That's His purpose, that He might be able to achieve to have His pre-eminence working in His Church. Let the Word of God shine forth first, no matter what anything else looks like. I don't care if the intellectuals says this, that or... That has nothing to do with it. God's Word said so, and we're more than able to take it! "If I preached that in my church," a minister told me, said, "I'd be preaching to four posts in the church." I said, "I'd preach to that." God's Word said so. We can do it. God said do it. Amen!

Oh, here they excuse themselves for this. See? That's why they're blind to the Message of the end time, this last days when God is proving Himself. They try to class it as some kind of a spiritist, or some—oh, what would I call it? Some mental illusion or something on that order. See, they try to make it something that it isn't, just like they did when He was here— when Jesus was here. They called Him Beelzebub, a fortune-teller. Now, they say it's kind of like a—like a mental telepathy. See? When they know that He can stand there and look upon the people and discern the very thoughts that's in their heart! The Bible said so. Well, does not Hebrews the 4th chapter says, "The Word of God is quicker and sharper than a two- edged sword and can discern the very thoughts of the mind"? And He was that Word. And when that Word is preeminence in the man, the same thing takes place again, for it is the Word. Amen... see how you can stumble over this from now on. There it's so perfectly plain. See? All right.

That's why they're blind. Same as it was in the days Christ was on earth. Oh my! They stagger the same way. They said, "He's Beelzebub." They seen He could do it, so they said, "He's just a... He was born an illegitimate child, and kind of a odd fellow. He's just got possessed with some devil. He's a Samaritan over there, and he's got a devil in him. That's how he does that."

Jesus said, "I'll forgive you for that." (See, calling the Word of God—the works of God an evil spirit.) He said, "I forgive you for that, but someday the Holy Ghost will come, and one word against It will never be forgiven, neither in this world or the world that is to come (or that great day); it will not be forgiven." So you see, that's written plain in the Scripture; so when people come to that day, no matter how intellectual, how big a denomination they belong to, it's condemned; they have to be! They've blasphemed the Holy Ghost, calling it holy roller and something another that has an untasty name or something like that. And God's Church had to bear it all the time.

Even Paul before Agrippa said, "In the way that's called heresy which means crazy, that's the way I worship the God of our Fathers." That great intellectual scholar had to come to that place, "in the way that's called 'heresy.'"

Why? It was revealed to him. That Pillar of Fire hanging before him, said, "I am Jesus, the great God that was in the wilderness yonder with Moses. I am He, and it's hard for you to kick against the pricks."

Then Paul standing there, know that the life was laying at stake, he said, "The way that's called 'heresy,' that's the way I worship the God of our fathers." It was called that because it was revealed to him what the great Truth of Christ was.

And today, people say, "It's a denomination."

It's Jesus Christ, the new birth revealed in you that He has the preeminences, that He might express His Words. And anything that He's promised in this last day, He can bring it to pass through His Body as He's working. Amen. It's just exactly the Word of God made manifest. Notice. All right, same as in the days of Christ. God holds the key to this revelation of Christ Himself. You believe that? Schools of theology can never find it. Jesus said so (if you want to read it now) in St. Matthew 11:25 and 27. "I thank Thee, O Father God of heavens, that Thou hast hid this from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and revealed it to babes such as would learn." See, see?

I don't care... Look at them scholars of that day, those Jews, very fine man, their organization of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians and whatever they might be (see?)—all of their great organizations that Jesus said, "You're blind; you lead the blind; well did Isaiah speak of you: `You have ears and can't hear, and eyes that you can't see.` Cause Isaiah said this in the Spirit, therefore the God of Heaven has blinded your eyes. You're doing like Eve did—accepting the intellectual side and know nothing of the Spirit of God. Therefore, won't they all fall in the ditch, both the leader and the blind, too?" The leader will fall with the blind, because he's blind also. The leader fall—is blind leading the blind. They both fall in the ditch. And God alone holds this key.

He expressed the same thing in a previous Scripture awhile ago when I read it, when He said, "Who does man say I the Son of man am?" And Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." He said, "Blessed art thou Simon, the son of Jonas. Flesh and blood never revealed this to you. My Father which is in Heaven... Upon this revelation here alone, I'll build My Church. The gates of hell will never prevail against it." See?

Now, you see. So therefore, there's no school, no theologian, no teachings in the Bible, among any school that knows anything about it. They cannot know nothing about it. It's impossible for them to know anything about it. God has hid the senses of knowing it from the very elected teachers and everything else. It's a personal, individual affair with the person that Christ is revealed to them. And if you say, "He has been revealed to me," and then the Life that Christ produced here in the Bible (that same Life is in Him) does not produce Itself in you, then you got the wrong revelation!

If I put a life of a pumpkin into the life of a pear tree, it would bear pumpkins. "By their fruits you shall know them." It's exactly right. And if the first—you put a tree (a grape vine), and it put out a bunch of grapes (the first shoot it put out brought grapes), the next one brought out lemons, the next one brought out pears, the next one brought out apples, there's some kind of a grafted affair in there that's bearing its own life.

Every denomination will bear a life of itself. But if that original vine ever puts out another shoot, it will bear grapes like it did the first time. And if the Life—the Life of Jesus ever puts out another body of believers, it'll bear the fruit that the first one did; they'll write a Book of Acts behind it, 'cause it'll be the same— the same Life. See, what I mean? You just can't get away from it. It's the Life of Christ in you, been injected in you by the Holy Spirit Itself, living Its Life through you. Blind leaders of the blind...

Notice, God holds this key alone. No theologian can tell you. It's not known; it's hid from them. They know nothing about it. Cause the schools... "Well," you say, "I got a Ph. LL.D." You only make... To me and I believe unto God and to any real, true believer, that means you're just that much farther away—you just backed off. God is not known by education; He's not known by how to explain it.

God is known by simplicity and of revelation of Jesus Christ in the most illiterate person. See? Not your theology. It's a revelation of Jesus Christ. "Upon this rock, I'll build My Church"—no other rocks accepted; no other things accepted; no other Roman rock; no other Protestant rock; no other school; no other nothing; but on exactly the revelation of Jesus Christ in a new birth. He is born in there and injects His Own Life, and your life is gone, and the Life of Christ is projecting Itself through you with the pre-eminences to the people that they see the very Life, and works, and signs and wonders that He did is doing the same thing through you. Outside of that, the rest of it's not even called to at all.

Watch God's great revelation unfolding. By lack of this revelation why we have so many different divisions among us and so much mockery. So much division among us, is because the people lack that revelation. See, they lack that revelation—the teachers.

Paul, after his great revelation of Christ, said in I Corinthians the 2nd chapter... Be sure to read that as you write it down. Watch! Oh, he said, "I never come to you with wisdom" Look at that man who did have the wisdom. Look at that man who had the scholarship. "I never come to you with them kind of a-words." (I Corinthians, the 2nd chapter of I Corinthians.) Oh, I wish... Well, let's just read it. Can you stand a minute, and let's read just a verse or two? I'd just like to read it so you—you wouldn't be—it would get even the people on the tape to turn back to it, anyhow, it will give them a chance. I Corinthians the 2nd chapter. Listen to this great apostle here, Paul, the intellectual servant of God. Let's looky here.... I, Paul,... when I come to you, came not with excellency of speech,... of wisdom, declaring to you the testimony of God... (I never said, "I'm Dr. So- and-so.) For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my beseeching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and... power:—of the power.

There, see there's the Gospel. See? Jesus said, "Go ye in all the world and preach the Gospel." Didn't say, "Go teach," He said, "Go preach." In other words, demonstrate the power, and these signs shall follow them. Just teaching doesn't do it. It takes the actual Spirit Itself demonstrating these signs. See? Listen to this. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.

Oh my! See, to change the man. Not what I can explain away and say, "He's not the same," when He is the same. If I do that, it shows to me... It—it... Surely a man tell me that, would show me he don't have the revelation—the three-fold revelation of God. See? And now...Howbeit... in weakness... among you that are perfect: yet we're not with the wisdom of the world, but of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in... mystery,... (See, the threefold mystery of God)... even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew:... (None of the priests, rebbis—rabbis [pardon me], or anything knew anything about it)—for had they known it, they would have not crucified the Lord of glory.

You say, "You're wrong about rabbis and preachers there." Who crucified Him? Oh, on and on and on we could go; read it (see?) on... save time, 'cause we got just... not getting late yet, but we just got plenty here to say if the Lord will help us.

Now, lack of this, now... And Paul, this great intellectual man, never tried to express his great theological terms upon the people. He humbly accepted the Word of the Lord, and he lived the Word so that it expressed It. He lived so, so godly until they seen Jesus Christ in him so much, till they wanted his handkerchief to take it and lay it upon the sick. There's the Life of Christ. Not what some... "Oh, you see, Elijah done that a long time ago—laid his stick—but oh, that was the days of Elijah!"

Now, the world thought that. The intellectual priest and things, and churches of that day thought that, but to them believers, they knowed different. They seen the revelation of Christ that was in Elijah: same thing that was in Paul, expressing the same kind of Life, 'cause he was a prophet. See? He foretold things that happened exactly the way it was, and they knowed that was God's identification of a prophet. And they knowed that he was God's prophet. You couldn't shake them from it at all.

Even when they seen Peter foretell those things that come to pass, they said, "Just let his shadow pass over me." Amen! That's the Church. That's the ones that believe it. Yes, sir.

Is revealed by... What did Paul say? "Because I got a Ph., LLD., so forth they believe me"? No! He said, "I forgot all those things. The wisdom of man" said, "had to die. And I know Him in the power of His resurrection. That's what I come to you as, with the demonstration of God's power." What was it? Making Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.

The same works that Jesus did, Paul did the same. And they seen God, the great Father, that had demonstrated in the burning bush, that had demonstrated It to Paul, and here it was being demonstrated; and He is the same in every age. God's threefold manner—yesterday, today, and forever. What?—Redeemer in His Church; pre-eminence in the coming Kingdom. Amen! You see it? Just as perfect as it can be.

Oh, notice. The Holy Ghost is the only Revealer of the divine revelation of Christ. There's no school can do it; no scholar can do it, no man, how well educated, how godly or anything else; there is no man can do it. I could sting hard here. How many is Christians, borned again? (raise up your hands) filled with the Holy Ghost? All right. Here we go then. All right.

Notice, and He will only do it to the predestinated. "All the Father has given Me will come, and no man can come except the Father give him to Me first."

Look at them priests saying, "This man's Beelzebub. He's a fortuneteller. He's a devil." And that little old woman walking around there living with six husbands. She was living with five and had the sixth one then, and Jesus said, "Go get your husband and come here." She said, "I have no husband." Said, "Yes, you've got six. You've had five, and the one that you're living with now is not your husband." She said, "Sir..." What?—that Light struck that Seed.

When it struck them priest, they said, "This man is a fortuneteller." See? No Life there, hybrid. You come up as far as organizations, but died from there on. But this woman's not a hybrid.

She said, "Sir, I perceive..." I can see her big pretty eyes shine up like that, tears running down her cheeks. "Sir, I perceive that you're a prophet. I'm looking for a Messiah, and when that Messiah comes, He will do this very same thing. He will tell us these things." He said, "I am He." "Oh Lord..." She left her pot, "Here He is! Come see a Man who has told me the things..." What was it?—that Light struck that Seed. That Life was there. It come forth.

Same thing today. But the theologians say, "Now, wait just a minute. I'll find out if So-and-so... if Pastor Moody said or... What has Pastor Moody got to do with this, in this day? Pastor Moody lived in his day, but not now. Certainly not. Luther lived in his day, but not in the day of Wesley. Wesley lived in his day, not in the day of Pentecost. Pentecost lived in their day, but they're a long ways from this, in this hour. We're in the last hour. Sure. Their organizations and scrupled up proves that it's not there. The Word has never been correctly vindicated just only in It's strength. Seeds, denominations... they make the denominations and then put them old gypsum weed seeds in with that genuine wheat—died right out. Crop went to gypsum. That's right. Green briers and nettles (see?), went on back to that; it died right out. Then they broke the field up and started over again, planted some real seeds and some of them come up and it choked it out.

But then, God said in this last days He would bring out a people washed in His Blood. And they were predestinated to be there; they've got to be there. God said so. And It would reveal... And the very sign I was—Malachi 4, and what he would do—restore back again, bring back in the last days these great things that He promised. He would bring the revelation. What is—what is he to do? (Malachi 4?) Was to bring back the faith of the fathers to the children. See? That's right—to bring that same thing, the same Pillar of Fire in on the scene; the same signs, the same wonders, the same Jesus: making Him the same, preaching Him the same, vindicating Him the same yesterday, today, and forever. "I will restore" saith the Lord, "all the years that the Methodist worm, and the caterpillar worm, and the Baptist worm, and the Catholic, and all them worms eating that—that faith down to become a denominational stump where there's no seed left in there. But I will restore again," saith the Lord, "all the years..." What?—"all the signs and wonders that they have forsaken. I'll take it right back to that original Tree again, and I will restore It," saith the Lord. That prophet was a-vindicated prophet. His words has to come to pass. Amen.

The Holy Ghost alone is the Revealer of the divine revelation of Christ and has been in all ages. Remember, all ages! Who did the Word of the Lord come to?—prophet alone. That's right. Is that right? And the prophet had to be vindicated first. Not 'cause he said he was a prophet—because he was borned a prophet and proved to be a prophet, and everything he said was exactly on the Word and come to pass, then everything else let go. See? It was... The Word of the Lord came only by the Holy Ghost. The Bible said, "The man of old, moved by the Holy Ghost (see?) wrote the Word."

Look, John the Baptist would never had known Jesus if it hadn't been for the Holy Ghost pointing Him out. Is that right? John the Baptist, that great prophet that come forth and said, "There's One standing among you right now. There's an ordinary man standing here somewhere; that's the Lamb of God." John said then, "I bore record—I bare record I saw the Spirit of God (the Holy Ghost) descending from Heaven like a Dove, and It went upon Him, and a Voice said, `This is My beloved Son in Whom I'm pleased...`" What was it? The Holy Ghost said, "I'll point Him out."

That's the only way you'll know Him today; only way you'll get the three- fold revelation of God is for the Holy Ghost... And the only way it can ever be, is you're predestinated to see it. If it don't, you'll never see it. If you're not predestinated to see it, you'll never see it, 'cause that Light can flash and you'll go away and make fun of it and explain it away by some intellectual conception when the very God Himself manifesting Himself and proving it. See? But, if it ain't upon you to see it, you won't see it.

God never just said, "I'll choose this one, choose that one," but He knew by His... reason He could predestinate is because He's infinite, and He—He knows... He's infinite, so therefore He knowed everything. He knowed the end; He could tell the end from the beginning. He's God. If He can't do that, He's not God. Yes, sir. He's infinite. All right.

John would've never known Him (no, sir) had the Holy Ghost not pointed out. See how God hides His mystery to the high educated and everything? Look, every one of them people saying... in simplicity reveals it to whom He has predestinated to see it. Look there. Others standing by and never even seen the Dove. They never heard no Voice. For it was only sent to that predestinated Seed. "Predestinated?" Certainly he was predestinated. For Isaiah, 712 years before he was borned, in the Spirit raised up out of these human senses and said, "There's a Voice of one crying in the wilderness, `Prepare the way of the Lord and make His...`" Then if Isaiah could see it, couldn't Malachi see the same thing?...?... predestinate that last prophet to sealing off all the prophets of the Old Testament with that main—that great prophet standing there at the end of the age. See? He's saying, "It's predestinated?" Certainly he was. Malachi saw him, too.

Jesus said, "If you can receive it, this is he who was spoken of, `I send My messenger before My face (Malachi 3) to prepare the way before Me.`" See? Sure he was predestinated to see that Message. No wonder he could look yonder and see that Dove coming down, that Light that was in the wilderness with Israel, coming, moving down. The God Himself saying, "This is My beloved Son in Whom I'm pleased to dwell in." God and man becoming One. "I bare witness," John said, "I beheld Him, the only begotten of the Father. I'm a witness of it." Amen!

There you are. Simplicity. When an old preacher... His father—his father was a great theologian, you know. He come out of school. Look like he would've went back to his father's denomination. That wouldn't be in the will of God.

When God touched him at his birth back there... and he received the Holy Ghost three months before he was born. Yes, sir. When Mary went up there and little John was six months old in his mother's womb and hadn't ever—them little muscles had never moved yet, and Mary was afraid. The little muscles were growing, but she couldn't feel no life—Elisabeth, his mother, rather. And when Mary come up and grabbed her and hugged her, put her arms—laid hands on her... That's it! "God has spoke to me, and I'm going to have a baby, too."

"Are you and Joseph married?"

"No!"

"Mary, how can this be?"

"The Holy Ghost shall overshadow me, and there'll be created in me. And I shall call His name Jesus. He will be the Son of God."

And as soon as that word Jesus spoke, little John began to leap and shout, jumping around in his mother's womb. She said, "Blessed be the Lord God, for whence comes the mother of my Lord." The mother of my Lord! Oh my! "Whence comes the mother of my Lord, for as soon as your salutation come into my ears, my baby leaped in the womb for joy."

No wonder he didn't want no seminary! Something to indoctrinate him with something or 'nother! He had a important job. He was a man of the wilderness. Went out into the wilderness and waited. God told him out there, said, "Now..." and revealed to him. (Oh, there's your revelation again!) "And I'll tell you Who He is. You're a prophet. The Word's to you. You know who you are. You've got to come." (That answers the question from last Sunday. See?) "You know who you are, John. Keep yourself quiet. Don't say nothing. Go on out there, and when you see this One, there'll be a sign coming from Heaven like a Light; a Dove will come down. That'll be Him when you see Him."

That's the reason when Jesus walked out in the water, John looked over and he seen that Dove coming down, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God! There He is! He's the One that'll take away the sin of the world!"

Jesus walked right straight out in the water to him. Them two eyes of John met them two eyes of Jesus, (They were second cousins by flesh. Mary and Elisabeth were first cousins.) Their eyes met one another. There was God and His prophet (Amen) standing there. John said, "I have need to be baptized of Thee. Why come Thou to me?" Jesus said, "Suffer it to be so now, but remember, thus it behooveth us to fulfill all righteousness."

Why did John do it?—because He was the Sacrifice (John was a prophet; he knowed), and the Sacrifice has got to be washed before It's presented. Oh, and he suffered Him, and he baptized Him, And when he had, lo, the heavens opened. Oh my! And that Dove come down upon Him, and a Voice said, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I'm pleased to dwell in." King James puts it "in whom I'm pleased to dwell," so it just any way you want to turn it around—same thing. Dwell in it. "This is My beloved Son in Whom I am pleased to dwell" (or to dwell in, either one you want to put it—same thing). All right. We see then it was revealed to him. Others standing there didn't hear nothing about it. The Holy Ghost alone reveals it.

Same when He reveals Himself to Paul, another predestinated Seed. There was Paul going around... He might have said, "If I can get a hold of that bunch, I'll tear them to pieces, because I'm Dr. Saul. I come up under Gamaliel. (I come from the Moody Bible, or some other one. See?) I'm a scholar. I know what I'm talking about. I'll tear that bunch of holy rollers to pieces. And I tell you, great holy father, you just give me the permission to go down there, and I'll arrest every one of them noisemakers down there. All this divine healing stuff, we'll stop it." Put it in his pocket and said, "I'm on my road down." And that day... My! About 11 o'clock in the day, a Light shone in his face, and he fell to the earth.

Why?—he was a predestinated Seed. God said, "I have chose him. I'm going to show him what great things he will suffer for My Name's sake. I'll send him to the Gentiles and disgrace him in every way that they can be—this disgraced, but yet he will bare My Name."

Paul went down there till he got all of his ecclesiastical stuff cut off of him (down at the backside of the desert for three years and a half—down there in Arabia)—until he learned the Word and the Word become he, and he become a prisoner. Here he come back in chains of love, "All my seminary experience is gone! I'm a prisoner to Jesus Christ, (Amen!) Philemon, my brother, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I only can speak and say what He tells me."

God needs prisoners today that will prison yourself to His will—to His Word. That's what Paul was. No matter how much intellectual he had learned, he had knowed God by revelation. Yes, sir. The intellectual went all the way out of the business then, when the revelation come. Which upon... the rock the Church is built. Yes, sir.

Notice, he was a predestinated Seed. The Holy Ghost alone shows you Who He is. There's no man... they'll make you Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and everything else out of it. See? But the Holy Ghost will reveal Him as the Lord God of Heaven made manifest, that that is (oh!) Him.

Now notice: not prophets, not kings, not nothing else, but here for the first time, God was revealed in Christ in the fullness of the godhead bodily in human flesh. That's the revelation. Oh my! Going to sing you a verse, now.

Nations are breaking;
Israel's awakening;(Are they?)
The signs that the prophets foretold;
The Gentile (church in its denomination)
their days are numbered,
With horrors encumbered,
Return, O dispersed to your own.
(You're kicked out of them.)
The day of redemption is near,
Man's hearts are failing for fear;

(All of their Hollywood jokes ain't covering it up. Like a little boy whistling, going by the graveyard at night.)

Be filled with the Spirit,
your lamps trimmed and clear;
Look up, your redemption is near.
False prophets are lying;
God's Word they're denying,
That Jesus the Christ is our God;
(That's right.)
This generation spurns God's revelation,
But we're walking where the apostles have trod.
The day of redemption is near;
Man's hearts are failing for fear;
Be filled with the Spirit,
your lamps trimmed and clear;
Look up, your redemption is near.

Get the revelation, Brother. This generation's spurning God's revelation, See? False prophets are doing that. By their fruits you shall know them. They're hybrid. They're bred into an organization instead of the Word of God, the revelation of God revealing Himself through Christ, Who is the Word.

Oh my! We could stop here, but—if—get it again when I come back, if you want to, and I... You want to go ahead? That's up to... Just a little... I'll hurry, so... take time enough that you'll... You've got some time to rest after this. All right.

Same. Notice that predestinated Seed—the Holy Ghost alone shows you Who He is—no prophets, or kings... And here God is manifested in flesh. Here is the fullness. He is completely revealed and made known to the world. Oh my!

Look on Mount Transfiguration, when the testimony of God Himself... "This is My beloved Son. Hear ye Him." There stood Moses representing the Law. There stood Elijah representing the prophets. But they passed away, and He said, "This is My beloved Son; hear Him." There was three represented there: the Law, the Prophets, and Christ. And He said, "This is Him." God fully... Not manifested in the Prophets, not manifested by Law, but manifested in Christ. He is.

Christ has mercy. The law put you in jail, but couldn't get you out. The prophets is God's justice to condemn you and kill you for it. That's right. But Jesus is God's love and revelation to let you know to a predestinated Seed that He had called you. "This is Him; hear Him." No, the fullness of Godhead is made known. This secret of mystery is now revealed, that God is manifested. God and man become One. The anointed Man, Christ. What does Christ mean?—the anointed One. The Anointed that was anointed with the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Oh my! How can people doubt it?

Where once, partly, Moses had Him; partly, David had Him; oh, my, but here He is manifested in the fullness: Deity Himself, standing on earth—God, in His fullness to die for the sin of the people that He might bring to His Church a sanctified Life, that He might have the pre-eminence in fullness in His Church to manifest every promise in these last days that H promised for the last days. See? What was... Listen now. Are you... Just teach yourself a little now.

Watch. What was Jesus manifested for?—to show God. He was God; He had to be. No man could die. No prophet could die. He was God. He was the God of the prophets. He was the prophets. He was the kings. He was the history. He was He that was to come; He that was, He that is, and He that's to be in this day. The same yesterday, today, and forever. He was manifested for that purpose. And through that purpose He achieved a Church, that He, the fullness of God might bring to pass every promised Word of God in these last days when He gets the pre-eminence (preeminence in the Church), the position, His place in the Church. Jesus said, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he also, even more than this shall he do, for I go to My Father." See? That was His purpose. There was the manifestation.

And now today, He wants to get somebody that can so see it, that they can let the Word... See, Jesus so seen it, so—was so perfectly born for the day, until God expressed every move that He made. He was God's revelation —God revealed. Now He sanctified with His Spirit and Blood a promise in this last day be revealed.

Now, it's easy to go back and pick up what these other fellows has left off here in the last days, and by His Holy Spirit reveal all the mystery of the Seven Seals. See? He's expressing Himself. That's His purpose. That's why He died. That's the second fold of His threefold manifestation. First, to express Himself in Christ and then He expressed Hisself through the Church, and the same thing—Christ was the Word. And the church becomes the Word when it lets the Word go through them. But when they accept the hybrid denomination, how can the Word go through it? It's grounded, then it causes a short and blows a fuse. See? But when the current is flowing freely (the Word of God), It expresses Itself. "The works that I do shall you do also." And in the last days it shall come to pass, "Behold I send to you Elijah, the prophet, and he shall turn the hearts of the children back to the faith of the fathers."

And in there, there will be a time come forth when He can express Himself in fullness of His godhead (Deity) through His Church—have the preeminences in this Church. Oh my! What? The anointed Man, now the anointed people (oh my) to bring back the anointed Bride and the Bridegroom. Anointed by why?—accepting what Eve turned down (and Adam), coming back with the anointing of the Word, because He said, "My Word is Spirit." See? Anointed with the Word. What Eve turned down, He comes back and we accept. See how that hybrid condition again... Just exactly what he done to Eve. He told Eve, "Don't you do this, and don't you do that, and you can't do this and that."

And Satan said, "Oh, oh, you know..." But she turned around and listened to him. But the Eve in the last day's not going to do it, because She's predestinated not to do it. Yes, sir. God's going to do it. He knows... He will have... He said His spot—Church will be there without spot or a wrinkle. She's going to stand there in the splendor of Him—His Word made manifest. She will be a token to the world. She will be an... She will be something to the world that the world can look and say, "Well,..." The rest of the world say, "Ah, she's a holy roller. She's the second cousin. She don't belong to our group." I know. That's a good thing. She belongs to this group up here.

A man said the other day to me (standing and talking)—he said, "Well, what denomination do you belong to?"

I said, "None."

"What?"

"None," I said, "I belong to a Kingdom."

"Well, how do you join that?"

"You don't join it; you are borned in it."

"What kingdom is that?"

I said, "The mystical Body of Jesus Christ. By one Spirit we're baptized into this Body—borned of His Spirit, then we belong to a Kingdom. And our lives are not Americans; we're not Germans; we're not nothing; we're Christians. We are settled and walk in the Spirit of love slave (from the things of the world) and our rights to the world we sold out and bought this Pearl of Great Price, and walk and let the Holy Spirit manifest Itself. That's what His real Church is. That's what you are, or what I am, if we'll let ourselves go and serve God by His Word and not by what some creed says.

Notice, the anointed Man, the Christ Himself here (oh God) is made known. But now look, But—but now... Why?—He has the preeminences. God, fully manifested in Jesus Christ. God's great secret of His revelation, this great Light of revelation has always blinded the wisdom of this world.

In the days of Jesus Christ (when He was here on earth) it had blinded them. They said, "Why, you even make yourself God! You make yourself was God Himself. See, they don't get it.

And by the way, some of you might... I've heard infidels one time told me that Jesus never did say that He was the Son of God. He sure did. He certainly did. You just don't know your Bible. What did He say to the woman at the well? See? What did He tell her?

"I know Messiah cometh, and when He comes He will do these things."

He said, "I am He that speaks to you"—and to Paul also and to different ones.

Notice. But now, the Church has the pre-eminence. God's great secret has always blinded the wisdom of the world. They can't get it. They just don't understand it. Satan don't understand it. None of the rest of them understands it, but just those who are predestina