The True and False Vines

Thank you, Brother Moore. Good evening, friends ... good afternoon, rather. And I want to thank the little lady for the song, the sister for playing it. That's my favorite, of all the hymns that I know, cause it speaks of our dear Lord Jesus, and gives to Him what He is: Deity, manifested in flesh. In the day that when we're ... have so many vain philosophies in the world. “Oh, He was a good man.” Some say, “Well, He was a prophet.”

Well, He was more than a good man. He was more than a prophet. A prophet's blood wouldn't save us. He was the Son of God—the manifestation. God manifested in the flesh. He was either God, or the biggest ... the biggest criminal the world's ever had. He was deity wrapped in a bundle of flesh. And He came down and gave His life for us.

And I'm so happy for that, this afternoon, to know that He included me in that redemption.

It's a privilege that I have above anything else that I could accept in this world. I'd rather be here this afternoon preaching the gospel, than to be the president of the whole world. If it was all governed under a democracy, and I was the president over it all, and had a guarantee of living nine hundred years, and remain in health and strength, and to be here this afternoon the way I am, swap places, I wouldn't do it for no amount of money that was ever had. I'd rather be standing right here with the love of God in my heart, trying to tell others about it than anything I know of in the world. I've peace that nothing else could put there, like Jesus Christ had.

Maybe I don't have the right kind of expression to give out, what I think about Him, and maybe I don't express myself right. Maybe my vocabulary could be better, but one thing I do know: I love Him with all my heart. And I know I'm talking to people that loves Him the same way.

And in this great crucifixion time, and resurrection time, how it seems to be that heaven just hangs near the earth during this time. I've always thought that Jesus' second coming would be in the spring of the year, just all resurrection. He was born in the spring of the year.

Anybody would think He was born December the 25th is mentally upset. How could the shepherds be on the hills of Judea in four foot of snow, watching their herds at night, or something like that. No, the real orthodox believers don't believe that. He was born along April, May, somewhere like that—in the springtime, like all other nature. He was the very creator of nature. He come with nature.

And so, I believe He was born in the spring. I don't know that He will come in the spring, but I have a feeling that it will be some beautiful spring morning when He appears. Whenever it is, I want to be ready, no matter what time it is. If it's midnight, or daylight, or spring, fall, winter, whatever it is, I want to be prepared to meet Him.

Now, this afternoon, you're so nice to come out here and sit in the auditorium. And, I look around, and I sometimes am wondering, friends, as I wonder: Where is the interest of the nation today for the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ? Just some few loving will come. Others, it's too hot to sit in a building like this in the afternoon for a hour, listen to a gospel sermon. But they would be willing to watch a television, or movie picture, or something like that, if it was right out in the boiling sun, or hot race of some sort, see. Where your treasures is, there your heart is also.

So, I'm so thankful that there's some that really love the Lord Jesus, and will come out on a hot day, or any other day, to listen to the gospel. To my opinion, the gospel never loses attraction to a believer. It's always the same gospel.

Someday, the Lord willing, I hope to return to this lovely place here in Shreveport, Louisiana. You've always been, as I said this morning in the tabernacle, a spot in my heart. And always on an afternoon, when we're having a campaign, Mr. Baxter, when he was managing the meetings and so forth, many others, he always let me have the Sunday afternoon, kind of relax myself, to speak instead of a healing service. Healing service, it gets you under a strain, and ... I don't know, it's something that I can't explain. But this way I just feel like we're just all home folks, and roll up your sleeves, and just eat like you would at home.

And so, that's what they used to say.

Reminds me of a fishing trip I was taking here some time ago up in the north woods. And I had a little tent up; I'd been fishing for trout. I don't know why I like water so well. I guess 'cause I was a Baptist, but I really like to get around where the water is. You know, the first thing the Spirit of God moved on was the water. We're about eighty percent water anyhow. So, I kind of like water somehow. I can hear that baptismal song that we sing at the Tabernacle:

On Jordan's stormy banks I stand

And cast a wishful eye

To Canaan's fair and happy land

Where my possession lies.

Bound for the promised land.

I'd just been ordained in the Baptist church about two weeks, and had a revival there in the city. Lasted for two weeks. We was baptizing five hundred converts on the river that afternoon when the Angel of the Lord come visible. The newspapers and things picked it up, and so forth—twenty-three years ago. And the voice that He spoke from there, it has done just exactly what He said He would do. And how....

I'm just so happy today, I could scream with all my heart to know that by grace I am a Christian: a child of the King. And you're my brothers and sisters. And we're fellow citizens of the same kingdom, journeying through this dark world, professing that we're pilgrims and strangers, and know nothing of it. For we look for a city whose builder and maker is God. For God'll not be ashamed to be called our God ... or, His people.

Now, may His blessings rest upon you. And this afternoon, I trust that God will meet with us. And just a little sermonette, as you would call it, I suppose. I'm not a preacher; I just like to look into the Word, read a few words of it, and express what the Holy Spirit will have. I never have notes, or anything to preach from; I just read a scripture. I just watch up and wherever I see it, I just let it out the way I get it. Sometimes it's pretty flat, but that's the way I get it. And just as I get it, I just give it out that way, 'cause I feel it isn't mine, then, it's His. And He just give it the way He wants it. It might not go to no one else but one person, but maybe that's the one He's dealing with, you see—just that one.

So, you brethren here, this afternoon, who are really called to be ministers and teachers and so forth, and just remember: I'm not trying to take your place. I'm just trying to explain what I know about the Lord Jesus because I love Him. And this that I give out will have to ... I'll have to answer for this afternoon when I meet the judgment. And you'll have to answer for this afternoon. And if I told something wrong, God'll make me pay for it. If I told right and you refuse it, then God'll make you pay for it.

So, may the Lord come and help us this afternoon, as we look into His Word.

First, before we can look into His Word, let's ask Him to show it to us. For He said over there, “I, Jesus, have sent my Angel to testify. And He'll take out.... Whosoever shall take out of this book, or add to it, the same shall be taken out of his part of the book of life. And the plagues that are written in this book will be added to him if he takes from or adds to.” So let us just teach the Gospel the way it is written. Shall we pray.

Father, in the name of Jesus, Thy Son, the lovely one, the fairest of ten thousands, the lily of the valley, and the morning star, the root and offspring of David, the rose of Sharon, the Alpha-Omega. O God, so many titles He had, yet in the wind-up, the Holy Spirit said He was Emmanuel: God dwelling with us. And we beheld Him, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace.

Now, we pray that You'll open the Word this afternoon, to us. We can read, but it takes You to open our understanding. And now, may our conscience be washed with pure water: the Holy Spirit. Renew our strength and our spiritual sight. Open up our hearts, break up the fallow ground. And move in and plant the seed of an old-fashioned revival that will start from this meeting and sweep out through Shreveport, Louisiana, and save the lost before Jesus comes. For we ask it in His name. Amen.

Now, in the book of Joel.... I just love to read these prophets. Someone says, “Brother Branham,” to me, not long ago, said, “why do you always go back to the Old Testament most always?”

Well, I never got a seminary experience to know how to ... with a lot of psychology to do anything or how to.... The only thing that I know to be sure that I'd be right, I take up the type. And if I know what the type looks like, I've got a good conception of what the anti-type will be. And what my shadow is, when I see it.... And the only thing that can reflect a shadow.... There has to be light to make a shadow.

How many times the 23rd Psalm has been misinterpreted by people. You'll hear them say, “Though I walk through the dark valley of the shadow of death....” It doesn't even read that at all. It says, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death....” Dark's not there at all, see. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadows of death....” And before there can be a shadow, there has to be a light to reflect the shadow. See what I mean? If there was no ... it was all dark, there'd be no shadow. So it has to be the light waiting there to reflect the shadow. And the only thing it is is just a shadow. And nobody's scared of a shadow, are we?

So, that's all death is to us since Jesus died in our stead. Death is a shadow—just something that we pass through, a little place, and that's all. Nothing can keep us from the promised land. God's already promised it to us. Jesus died for it. The Holy Ghost accepted us, baptized us, sealed us unto the day of our redemption. We're on our road. Everything's got to be all right.

Oh, my. If that don't take fear out of hearts, I don't know what will. To think that people was once scared: “Wonder if I can be able to hold out to the end.” Why, don't be scared of that. It isn't whether I held out, it's whether He held out or not. It isn't me holding out. If He held out, I'm already held out. That's right. He's holding me, not me holding Him, see. He was the one died for me, not me for Him.

And as this morning in the sermon, on the cross, that death had a stinger, until Jesus took the stinger out of death. The stinger's not in me anymore. It's not in you, the Christian. The stinger was in Jesus, but He robbed the stinger. He took it out of death, and carried it away to Calvary. So, we have no stinger in death.

No wonder Paul said, “O death, where is thy sting? Grave, where is thy victory? But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Joel, now.... I seen some of you turning in your Bibles. I was waiting for you to get it open. I want to read just a portion of Scripture, and have this portion under consideration for a few moments this afternoon. Don't forget tonight's service, the closing service. I wish you'd just get the sick all out, and gather out, and great host of people.

You know, this might be the last time I was ever in Shreveport with you, until I meet you at Glory. A lot of things ahead of me if God permits. Way in among the dark tribes of Africa, way into the jungles and countries of India, amongst witchdoctors, fire-eaters, impersonators. And don't think they won't charge you and'll challenge you right to the spot. Stand right there, just as brazen as they can be, and challenge everything. You'd better know what you're speaking about. That's right.

But I've always thought, since I met you here at Shreveport, and those dark hours would streak up when witchdoctors and things.... I thought, well, I had them all to raise their hands at Shreveport, and California, and different places, that they'd be praying for me. They're praying right now, see.

A little lady who was in the meeting from up in Arkansas, here not long ago, she and her sisters, and their husbands, a lovely family called “Babbs”—they're sitting here somewhere. Don't make them conspicuous to ask them to raise up or something. But, she said this morning, passing through over the tabernacle, she said, “Brother Branham, we pray every morning at four o'clock for you.” I was just trying to figure up what time that would be in Africa. That's just right. Just keep that hour going. That's wonderful. Now:

The Word of the Lord ... came unto Joel....

Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Has this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and let their children tell another generation.

That which the palmerworm has left has the locust eaten; ... that which the locust has left has the cankerworm eaten; ... that which the cankerworm has left has the caterpillar eaten.

Awake, ye drunkards, ... weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because ... the new wine, for it is cut off from your mouth.

For a nation is come up on my hand, strong, ... without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has ... cheek teeth of a great lion.

Now, in the next chapter, Joel the second chapter, this would be an horrible picture right here—the prophet speaking of the end-time—if it wasn't for this twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh verses of the second chapter. Listen, God giving consolation to the believers.

I will restore unto you the years that the locust has eaten, and the cankerworm, ... the caterpillar, ... palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that has dealt wonderously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.

And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed.

May His blessings be added to His Word now, as we think on these subjects for the next twenty-five, or thirty minutes. Let you out early, come back around five-thirty, so they'd be giving out the prayer cards and getting ready for a great service tonight.

Now, notice, in this reading, the setting of this scripture, Joel ... God was ... he was one of the last prophets. God was using Joel to foretell.... Or, God never does anything, any major thing, unless He foretells, and gives a time of warning before He does things. Joel seen the coming of the Holy Spirit. He saw plumb down into this day. He saw the coming of the Lord. Now, and in this part we're speaking of now, he was speaking of the days that, firmly I believe that we're living in now.

Now in the setting forth of prophecy, we have to notice that God uses many parables, such as.... Many times He said, like when Jesus at the inauguration, all the high places was made low. The mountains skipped like little rams and the leaves clapped their hands: many symbols in the Bible. And God has likened His heritage here on earth, His church, likened unto a vine. He's likened it unto many things. Likened to a woman.

And this time, He's speaking of His church, likened unto a vine. And in the vine, over in Kings, we find of a false vine. And the vines look almost alike. For instance, when Elijah was up at the seminary, the school of the prophets, and in there, he sent a man out who was supposed to be, now, a trained scholar with all of his teachings, to go out and get some food to sustain life. They were hungry.

A very beautiful type of today. When the church is hungry, God wants His children fed with the bread of life, not with some theory, but with the bread of life. Who—or what—is this bread of life? Jesus said, “I am the bread of life that came from God out of heaven.” Said, “Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness.” Hebrews ... or, John 6, “They ate manna in the wilderness, and they're every one dead. But I am the bread of life that come from God out of heaven. If any man eats this bread, he shall never die.”

Or, in other words, “I'm the tree of life from the garden of Eden.” And if they eat of the tree of death, they died; if they eat of the tree of life, they lived. The Holy Spirit guarded the tree of life until the atonement was made. And now the Holy Spirit is running the people to the tree of life.

Adam and Eve was trying to get to the tree of life; now their children are trying to stay away from the tree of life. The Holy Spirit was guarding it then, now it's bringing them to it. And they refuse to hear the Holy Spirit's voice, because the same adversary that caused them to sin in the beginning is keeping them away from the tree of life.

And Jesus Christ is the tree of life.

The woman, Eve, was the tree of death. We all taste of her being born in this world. And as sure as we're born of a woman, we've got to die. And as sure as we're born of a Man, Jesus Christ, we live forever. If you eat that you're sure to die. If you eat this you're sure to live.

Oh, my. I love those glorious words which anchors a human soul in a troublesome time like this, when nothing else can do it. It's come down till you can't put confidence in your nation; you can't put confidence anywhere. But on Christ, the solid Rock, I stand. All other grounds is sinking sands. Amen.

Say, go out and get some food, some porridge ... or, peas, it was, to make some porridge. And this scholar, perhaps graduated, Ph.D., goes out, and instead of getting food, he picked off of a vine. It looked just like a good vine, but instead of it being peas, it was wild gourds.

See, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the ways of death.” “Not all that saith unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter in, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” And this is the Father's will, that you should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be born again. “Except a man be born again, he will, in nowise, enter the kingdom.”

No matter what church you belong to, how good your mother was, how good your father, how good your wife or husband: “Except a man (singular, individual) be borned again, he will, in nowise, enter into the kingdom.” That's it. I hope that never leaves Shreveport. That lays here till Jesus comes, that a man must—not ought to—but must be born again.

This man picked himself a lapful of gourds and throwed them in a big pot, cooking it up, to give life, sustain life. What a type that is today of many places in the world today: cooking up something, all right, but what've you got in the pot?

And they come to find out, when they started to eat, there was death in the pot. One man cried out, “Oh, it's death in the pot.”

But they had somebody there that had a double portion: Elijah —goes over and gets a handful of meal, which, being at the school of prophets, was the meal-offering. They had a meal-offering. And he took the handful of meal, and cast it into the pot and said, “Eat as much as you want to, for it's life now.”

The meal-offering.... Any teacher knows that the meal offering, wave-offering, heave-offering, all the offerings, pertained to Jesus. The little meal-offering must be ground with burrs that cut every little speck the same. Every little grain of corn must be cut the same. And they had a handful of it. And that means Jesus Christ, the meal-offering, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And when Christ is put into death, death and life can't exist together, no more than daylight and dark can exist together. When the sun comes up, I don't care how dark it is, dark fades away. And when Jesus comes into a soul, no matter how haughty, high-minded, the type of person you've been, sin vanishes—no more of it. The things of the world just pass away from you.

Someone said not long ago, “Brother Branham, you believe we ought to do this and do that and train the people to do this?”

I said, “I live in a country where they have a lot of scrub oak. And in springtime, we never have to go out and pick them old leaves off. They stayed on all winter. The only thing to do is let the new life come in. The old leaf drops off. And when a man or a woman is borned of the Spirit of God, the old life drops away and the new life takes its place.”

Now, these vines, a true vine.... St. John 14, Jesus said that He was the vine, we were the branches. Many times in the Bible, you see that God liken His church unto a vine. Now, in order to properly understand this parable ... or, this prophecy, everything that's on the earth....

There's nothing new. Everything was at one time; Scripture teaches that. And every cult, and every fanaticism, and every formality, and every ism there is on the earth began in Genesis. You know that? Genesis means “beginning.” And in Genesis began everything: began the creation, began the trees, began the birds, began human life, began religion. Everything come from Genesis.

Now, let's take a little picture and go back. Just a while ago in the room I was reading to my boy, Revelation 17, of the old prostitute woman and her daughters, called Babylon. Babylon first began in Genesis. Then it appears over here in the days of King Nebuchadnezzar at the issuing in of the Gentiles. And then it appears at the going out of the age, in Revelations. Babylon was the first, began with idolatry. In the middle of the book, it's idolatry. It ends up in the end under the name of Christianity, but still idolatry.

Now, if it began in Genesis, it ends over here. Then salvation begins in Genesis. Impersonation begins in Genesis. Formality begins in Genesis. Everything began at Genesis. It's like a vine.

Now, there was two boys. We'll start.... Adam and Eve was pure. God made Adam out of the dust of the earth, taken from his side a rib, and made a woman. And she sinned, brought Adam into it. They both sinned. Then God drove them out. They had two children: One was Cain, one was Abel.

If I was going to speak here next week, there's one subject that I'd like to speak on: Three Questions Of God. “Where art thou?” “What is this thou has done?” And, “Where is thy brother?” “Where art thou?”—He spoke to Adam. “What is this thou has done?”—He spoke to Eve. “Where is thy brother?”—He spoke to Cain. Three questions God asked. Think of it.

Now, in coming out, there was two boys—after Adam and Eve —Cain and Abel. And they were both the children of the parent of Adam and Eve. Now, remember, both boys tried to find favor with God. And they made an altar. Now, here's the shocking part, now. Get right down to the bottom. Cain was not an unbeliever. Cain was a believer.

Oh, may the Holy Spirit now quieten us, get our attentions back in Genesis and let's live this picture. Cain was not an unbeliever. Cain was a believer. And if a believer is all that God requires, God was unjust condemning Cain and accepting another believer.

Cain was not a communist. Cain was not an infidel. Cain was a religious man. And notice, he came to worship God. He not only was a believer, but he was a worshipper. Not of a false cult, but he was a worshipper of Jehovah God. Let it soak now.

Notice: a worshipper of God. I've heard people say, “All you have to do is confess Jesus to be the Son of God, you're saved.” Devils done the same thing and they're not saved, you know. It takes more than that. The devil said, “We know who you are, the Son of God, the Holy One of Israel.”—publicly confessing.

Cain was a believer and acknowledged the Creator. Not only that, but he was a worshipper. Now, I suppose at the eastside of the garden of Eden, where the garden laid east in Eden, perhaps there where the great sword of the angel was flipping back and forth, the lightning guarding that tree. Cain and Abel out here working in the fields realized that they came from that lovely home. They were trying to worship God. And Cain built himself an altar, or a church; Abel built him one. Cain made a sacrifice; Abel made one. Cain knelt and worshipped; Abel did the same thing.

Now, if God only requires a faith in God, a confession, an altar, a church membership, a sacrifice, and a membership and a loyalty to the church, a part of your money, your time of worship, your sincerity of what you believe, then God, being just, would have to accept Cain.

Easter's soon coming, and this lovely city with others across the nation, there will be tens of thousands times thousands of dollars spent for Easter flowers that go on the altar. Why, brother, that's pagan. God never had an altar for Easter flowers; that's what Cain put on it. And coming Easter, they don't even.... The world has got even Easter, Christmas, and everything else, just a great day of commercial. Nothing about God in it. What in the world's Easter got to do with a rabbit, or a chicken, or a yellow duck, or something.

We're just as pagan as the heathens are, and worse than they are in Africa. Yet you put up with it. God help us to shun those things; as the sunlight of God's begin to bathe down and expose those things, let's walk in the light.

Easter don't mean putting on a whole lot of new clothes and get out. But members of churches will go and throw the whole altar full of Easter flowers, make their contribution to the church. Write a check out for several thousand dollars and give it in to the church so they can build, maybe, a new recreation room. You need a cry room! Pastor and all to be in it too. All right.

But there it is. Where did it come from? We see it here. Where did it come from? From Genesis it began: Cain.

Looky here. Here's these.... I want you to give me your attention now. Here comes these two vines coming up. They're still in existence today. Jesus taught the parable. Said, “A sower went forth and sowed seed; enemy come and sowed seeds behind him. One brought up weeds, the other one brought up wheat.”

He said, “Shall we pick them up ... pluck the wheat out ... or, the weeds out?”

He said, “No. Let them both grow together.

And as the church natural begins to get formal and ungodly, the church spiritual is receiving great gifts and powers from above. They're both going into seed. As the world gets more wicked, the church gets more powerful. I don't mean all that's called “church,” I mean the church! The borned-again believers, not by membership, not by this, but by one Spirit we're all baptized into one body. Amen.

Notice, them two spirits that was on those boys. Now, Cain was just as fundamental as Abel was. If God only wants.... If somebody was standing there saying, “Well, now look, Abel, are you going to be accepted? Well, why?”

“Well,” he'd say, “I believe in God.”

Cain says, “I do too.”

Well he said, “I am a ... I'm a worshipper of God.”

Cain said, “I am also.”

Abel said, “I give my offering to God.”

Cain said, “I did also.”

And he said, “I believe in God.”

Cain just said, “I do also.”

Abel said, “I offered my prayer to God.”

Cain said, “I did also.”

One was just as fundamental as the other. What caused it? Here it is: following up from last night ... or, from this morning: God by election elected His church.

Now, worship—yes. Here comes that weed, coming up. Here comes this one on this side, this vine. Both of them growing up together. Wish we had time, but you got to get back, it's getting late. Oh, my. I feel it coming, honest I do. I just feel, way down in my heart, a blessing hanging above us.

Look, I want you to be sure to see it. Here they are coming up, reaching up past the clouds. Look along through the Bible. They've always had true and false. And Jesus said, “In the last days....” Now, let me get this close to you. Communism is not the antichrist. Stalin, Molotov: they are not the antichrist that Jesus spoke of. Jesus said the antichrist would be so close to the real, it would deceive the very elect if possible.

The antichrist is religious. Let that soak just a minute. The antichrist is a Christian professing religion. Judas, the head of it, was a believer, added to the number, treasurer in the church, a brother, same church, went in and out among them, and was the devil himself professing to be a believer.

Shake yourself now a minute. May the Holy Spirit do it: Shake your conscience.

Notice, here comes these vines up. Look in the ark. There was a crow sitting on one side; a dove sitting on the same floor. The fowls stayed on the second floor. The creeping things on the bottom floor of the ark; second floor, the fowls; the top, Noah and his family. On the second floor—same ark, same room, perhaps the same roost—sat a dove and a crow.

The crow says, “I can fly.”

The dove says, “I can too.”

They turn the crow out, and the crow was satisfied to eat the dead carcasses. The dove could not stay out, for her nature was different. Amen. Any man that's ever borned of the Spirit of God and received eternal life cannot go back and eat the things of the world.

Don't be deceived. If you love the world, you don't love God. Jesus said, “He that says that he loves Me and keeps not My sayings is a liar and the truth's not in him.” And if you love God and the things have passed away, you've got everlasting life—sealed away by the Holy Ghost until the day of redemption. Amen.

Notice, oh, I think of it. Why can't the dove eat those dead carcasses? The dove is the only bird there is that doesn't have a gall. There's no bitterness about a dove. She couldn't digest it. And there's something about a man or woman that ever tasted of Jesus Christ can't taste the world no more. You'll spit it out every time. There you are.

Both of them can fly. Both of them's got churches. Both of them can sit on the roost, but there's a difference in them. Like there was in Cain and Abel—this side Cain, this side Abel.

Look at these spirits going on. Oh, how we come through Esau, Jacob. Why, Esau was far a better gentleman than Jacob. Jacob (if you excuse it, and God forgive me) was a little shyster. Yes. What was he? A little old lazy fellow. But, he was chosen of God. God done the electing in choosing Jacob. Esau taking care of his old blind daddy, and fed the cattle, and so forth like that, but he despised his birthright, and Jacob believed in it. Hallelujah!

There's the church today. One said, “Oh, that new-birth stuff, that there holy-roller stuff, there's nothing to it. Some of them love it, the others despise it. I'm glad to get it. Amen.

I believe in the new birth, being filled with the Holy Ghost. Without it, you're gone, brother.

Look. Now we could bring it out through. What a beautiful type of Israel. When they came out of Egypt, they were on their way up into the promised land. They were journeying out there in tents. They'd come up to the country of Moab. Moab: Where did it spring from? From Lot's daughter's child by her father.

Now, the Moabites were not unbelievers. They were worshippers of Jehovah God. Certainly they were. They even had a fine preacher over there by the name of Balaam—a prophet. But, like a whole lot of the hireling prophets, he was money crazy. Amen.

Selling their gifts, they're doing it today. Fine gifted things, out in the world to make money. It's a disgrace. Compromising, borderlines, one day in the world, the next day in the church. You can't do that. You've got to sell out, be borned again. Move plumb in as far as you can go. Stay off the borderline.

Notice, but here they come. Moab seen them coming. So, Israel, by Moses, sent some men on, said, “Ask Moab, our brother, if we could pass through the land.”

Balak the king said, “No, you're not passing through my land.” He refused them. “I don't want that bunch of people in my place. Keep them down there in the auditorium. Send them over to Jack Moore's.” All right. “But you're not going to pollute our bunch of people with your doctrine.” There you are.

Same thing, same spirit. God takes His man, but never His Spirit. The devil takes his man, but never his spirit. The same religious men that condemned Jesus Christ (priests, loyal men) are men standing in the pulpit today, having a form of godliness, denying the power thereof. Them priests are dead, but that spirit still lives. Look at it.

And they come up there and said, “No, they're not passing through our land.”

So, he called the preacher from over at the seminary ... or, the pastorate, and said, “Come over and curse this people for me.”

How in the world are you going to curse what God has blessed?

Now they were strictly an interdenominational people. They didn't have any land of their own, they dwelt in tents. Moab was a fine denomination. A nation settled down with kings, and so forth. But Israel wasn't that way. The other lands was all settled, had their kingdoms and homes, but Israel dwelt in tents. When they got a king they backslid—when they become a denomination. It's still the same way. That's right.

Oh, brother, that didn't hit good. I could feel that. But that's the truth. You have men that.... You laugh at the Catholic: it's pot calling kettle black. That's right. Can't do it. Denominations are set up by a bunch of men.

God never intended ... never organized one denomination; and never did, and never will. He's a King. He's the one to let.... That's right. I ain't got nothing against the denomination, or people in the denomination, but they dominate too much of the people.

Now, if you can find in the Bible where God ever organized or denominated a group of people, I want you to tell me; but, always against it. The same God lives today.

Now, notice this man, when he come out, Balaam said to Balak ... Balak, rather, sent to Balaam, and said, “Come over here and curse this people. I don't want them in my country.” Said, “That bunch of holy rollers, I don't want them in here.”

You say, “Holy rollers, Brother Branham?”

Yes, they were holy rollers.

“Can you prove it?”

Yes, sir. When they crossed through the red blood ... or, the Red Sea, saw the taskmasters dead behind them, poor Brother Doctor Moses got informal: throwed his hands up in the air and began to screaming and singing in the Spirit. And Miriam, the prophetess, she got informal and grabbed the tambourine, and run down the bank, beating and dancing. And the daughters of Israel followed her dancing, beating on tambourines.

If that ain't an old-fashioned, holy-roller meeting, I never seen one in my life. Amen. They were informal holy rollers. You don't want to believe that, but that's the truth. That's, “Thus saith the Lord—the Scripture.” Sure they were holy rollers; interdenominational holy rollers. That's that vine over here, though.

Now, when he called this preacher down to curse ... or, to hold a debate with them: “Show them that they're wrong. Come down here and prove it to them. Curse them. Shut their churches up. We ain't got no use for them.”

Same thing exists today. Same thing, religious people. Balaam, the borderline preacher, comes down, he looks over said, “Yep, them people, look what they'd done. Oh, my. I sure can put a curse on them. We'll sure show them where they're standing.”

So, he said, “Build me seven altars.” That's exactly what they had down in the camp of Israel: seven altars. That's God's perfect number. Said, “Offer seven bullocks, seven rams.” Just exactly the same offering they were offering down there. Said, “Bring out all the nobles of the land, the great men.” And they offered the same offering. The same kind of altars, the same amount of offering. The same kind. Built seven altars, seven calves, seven rams. And the dignitaries of the lands, the bishops, archbishops, and DD's, all stood around and worshipped God over the smoldering sacrifice. Brother, fundamental? Just as fundamental as Israel was. It's exactly right.

If fundamentalism is all God requires: There was Moab standing there, here was Israel, his brother, in the valley. Both of them worshipping the same God under the same sacrifice, and the same atonement. Hallelujah!

Look, the same thing exists amongst fundamental people. They say, “Brother Branham, we can prove we believe in the virgin birth, the death, the burial, the resurrection, the second coming, just the same as you do.” That's the truth. Don't tie with the fundamental people. They know what they're talking about—Scripturally speaking. Just as fundamental as you are.

[Break in tape.] ... and to justify and answer prayer. How's He going to answer prayer with this one trying to curse that one? Both of them offering the same sacrifice. [Break in tape.] use them today, offering the same prayer to the same Lord Jesus by the same blood that the bunch of so-called holy rollers offer.

That's the same thing happened there. It's the same two vines out of Genesis still moving up.

What was the difference? If this man is fundamental and this one's fundamental, what's He going to do about it? Which tribe is God with?

God vindicated Israel with signs and wonders. These people didn't have it. They had no signs and wonders. They had the supernatural. They had screaming, they had shouting, they had dancing in the Spirit, they had a pillar of fire, they had a smitten rock, they had a brass serpent for divine....