I Will Restore

I thought I was going to get to eat again. I laid a Bible down here somewhere. Show my confidence in people ... [Someone speaks to Brother Branham.] Yes.... When a soldier will lay his sword down ... but it's around his friends.

I was thinking, coming along the line, just a few moments ago, to come up to the breakfast, and I was speaking with a man who was a Baptist, had just come into this marvelous full gospel way. And we were talking about Baptist theology, and he said, “Brother Branham, what do you think about it? It seems to get farther away. Many of them are coming in.”

And I said, “They certainly are a good church (the Baptist church), nice people, and they have good teaching.” I said, “But it's just like taking a bird, and you put him into a cage and give him orthodox food (a lot of vitamins to make good wings), but you got him in a cage.” So that's it. What good does it do to make him good strong wings, if you're going to keep him in a cage? Might as well not give it to him. So, I like it out somewhere, like ... where you can fly free.“

Sometimes I think I fly a little too free. You know, you can excuse that by being an Irishman. Someone said (talking about their nationalities).... I said, “Well, if He will save an Irishman, there's hope for the whole world, 'cause they're just up and down,” and I said, “especially from Kentucky.”

And this man happened to be a Kentuckian, and he said, “Well,” he said, “I can prove that Paul was a Kentuckian.”

I said, “How is that?”

Said, “'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.' He was a real Kentuckian.”

To be assembled this morning, here at this breakfast, with such men as I am assembled with—and women—it certainly is a privilege that kings of the earth don't have. Because on assembling like this, we have a promise that the King of kings will be with us: “Wherever two or three are gathered in My name, I will be in their midst.” And I just love that.

I'm thinking: The last time we gathered here, I believe it was, we didn't get anything to eat. You remember that, Brother Browning? We just sat around and talked, but we had a spiritual feast. That's much better. And this morning, seems like that the Lord's given us a double portion: something to eat for our stomachs and all ready to get food for our hearts. And we're grateful to Him.

I'm grateful to you brethren, the sponsors of this meeting, that's assembled here this morning, and for this Christian Businessmen, who I love and speak for them much. We was coming along this morning on the line, and I said something about the Christian Businessmen with all of us being ministers and their wives. Brother Moore said, “No, there'll be some Christian Businessmen.”

Someone we were talking to said oh ... something about the Businessmen, and they said, “Why, they took Brother Branham; that's the only denomination he belongs to, is the Christian Businessmen.”

I said, “I'm getting to be such a fanatic that I believe that's about the only one that'll receive me.” I said, “I'm just such a crank anyhow, that I believe just the Christian Businessmen are the only one. They can shove me from one to the other, you know, because they represent them all.” But we're happy to be here with the Christian Businessmen, and the ministers, and their wives, and all the visitors, if there be any with us that's not ministers and not in the fellowship.

This has been a great time for me here in Phoenix. So sorry that I had a throat the way I have it. But I.... This is just about my fifth month now without hardly a day or night off, but what I've been in a service—constantly on the go.

And you know, I read a piece of paper the other day in our ... article, rather, in one of our local papers. It had the picture of the famous evangelist, Billy Graham, and it said up at the top, “Wearing Thin.” And he had made a statement that (amongst some theologians) that he wasn't a [unclear words] like he used to be, that he believed that some of the Bible really to be not inspired, and a few.... Said he might pretty soon leave the field of evangelism and become some ... take some kind of offerings for some great college or something on that order. Which to me, I don't believe he said it. I got better confidence in a man of God like Billy Graham, than to make a statement like that.

The papers makes a lot of statements that's not true. I don't believe Billy said it. But if he did say it, I would say that one thing would be, like Billy, would be like it is with many of our other evangelists, and with myself—and I hope you read between the lines what I'm saying—sometimes our zeal burns up our wisdom. We try to go too long, too hard; we get wore down. You get to a place you can't think right. Seems like.... Oh, I don't know. Sometimes when I get to feeling like that, I'll just kind of be glad when I hear the trumpet sound. I think it'll all be over. There'll be no more struggles, no more heartache coming home. You know what I mean.

You don't know what it is until you go through it once. I know you can wear down. Jack Coe wore just a little too thin once. And if you don't watch.... Tommy Hicks was wore thin, pretty thin, and you know that. Just as soon as he comes from overseas, somebody grabs him here and there. He's had a breakdown.

I know I wore awful thin one time. And I'm getting thin again. But how can you sit still when thousands are calling and pulling from everywhere? I thought, “Well, Lord....” Last fall when I come back from Brother Bonn of the Christian Businessmen over on the little time of vacation, I thought, “Well, Lord, I'll step in the harness and stay until You call me.” And it's overdone it—the cause of these things. I would rather die in the harness than out of the harness.

So, when we're thin, and wearing thin, and so forth, as I've just stated, you get tired. My throat's giving down, but to come into a time like this where we sit in a little gathering.... And I wonder if the Lord don't just let us get all tore up sometimes, where He can just mold us, and fashion us, and make us a little different, and bless us, and kiss us on the cheeks, and say, “My child, I'm right with you and I'll give you just a little encouragement; go ahead.”

Now, I would like to approach a subject here that I know is entirely too much of a subject for me, and before ministers, anyhow, that I'm kind of a little ticklish about approaching it ... a little skittish, I should've said. But I trust that you'll bear with me till I express my thoughts on a Scripture that I want to read out of the book of Joel, the 1st chapter, a verse, and the 2nd chapter, a verse: the 4th and the 25th. In Joel the 1st chapter it said:

That which the palmerworm has left has the locust eaten; ... that which the locust has left has the a ... [I beg your pardon, I'm reading it wrong.] That which the palmerworm has left has the locust eaten; and that which the locust has left ... the cankerworm has eaten; and that which the ... [I mean] the caterpillar has eaten; that which the caterpillar has left has the ... cankerworm has eaten has the caterpillar....

I'm all mixed up again. Standing here with tears in my eyes and shaking, I.... Well, I will read it again.

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

And then over in Joel 2:25:

I will restore unto you...

Now, let's just bow our heads. Our precious Lord, as a bunch of pilgrims and strangers, we humbly bow in Your presence, first of all to ask You to forgive us for all of our trespasses, and to say within ourselves that we are unworthy of any blessing that You should give to us.

And we have come this morning as a group of people under the old oak tree, as it was, to sit around for a little time of fellowship. And I pray Thee, God, to be merciful to us and to give unto us that which we have need of. May the great Holy Spirit now come among us, and come among each of us, and give us the food from the Bible that we have need of. Bless this group of men, Lord. Bless this gathering. Bless the revival, and the Christian Businessmen, and for everything that's been done or said during this meeting. And we pray that in the end we'll hear these wonderful words, “It was well done, My good and faithful servant. Enter into the joys of the Lord.” We ask in Jesus' name, amen.

Now, may the Lord add his blessings to His Word. And now, on this subject that I would just like to briefly say, because I know we got lots of things to do, and it's ten minutes after ten.

You know, there's none of us just alike. If we should all go up this morning and they'd gave us a fingerprint, we'd find out there is no two fingerprints exactly alike. That's known. They claim there's no two people got noses just exactly alike. We're so different one to the other and in many make-ups. But we can certainly agree that we're all humans.

And in our religious beliefs, we find the same thing. We find that some believe one thing and some another, but I've always tried to make it a policy to never try to cross up anybody, to do anything wrong. When I come out of the Baptist church, I never went across the country telling what a bad bunch of people the Baptists are. I'd go across the country telling what a fine bunch of people the Baptists are, because they are. I might not agree with them just on everything, but I certainly would take one of them before I would take an unbeliever, before I would take a communist, or.... As long as they are mentioning the name of the Lord, though I wouldn't believe with them, I certainly.... We might not believe on every principle, but we believe on Christ, and that's the main thing.

I wouldn't mean to speak evil of the Baptists, or the Presbyterians, or not even to the Catholics, because there's Catholic people who I believe are saved. God has made it so simple to us that “He that believeth on Me....” See. And there's many of you.... I wouldn't believe the system of the Catholic church, but I believe in the Catholic people. I don't believe in the system of maybe the Baptists, or Presbyterian, or even the Pentecostals sometimes, but I believe in their people, because they are my brothers and sisters.

Now, in our short message that I have just.... The first time I've ever tried to write down something, just a point that I want to make [unclear words] because, not only to preach.... I didn't come to preach, I just come to speak to you. And I preach by inspiration—I try to—but in speaking like this, I just want to talk to you.

But there's four great things here that I want to mention, and that is....

Joel, the prophet, who was God's eagle, who climbed up into the sphere of God, and saw the day coming. Peter quoted him on the day of Pentecost in Joel 2:38. He said, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.” And Joel saw that coming. And if Joel's prophecy was so accurate, that it saw Pentecost many hundred years before it ever happened, then surely the prophecy that he has given to this day, we could say would be accurate. But the thing I want to speak on is this: the four great destroyers.

First, it was the palmerworm, and the next was the locust, and the next was the cankerworm, and the next was the caterpillar. Them were destroyers, and what they were destroying was the heritage of God, the vine.

And if you will check closely on your insects, those three ... or, those four insects are the same insect in a different form: the caterpillar, and the locust, the cankerworm, and the ... I mean, the.... I get them mixed up.

The first was the palmerworm, and then the locust, and then the cankerworm, and the caterpillar. We are told that that is the same insect in just different forms coming down.

Now, if Pentecost was God's vine, which was the new vine that had grown up, then these four destroyers has been the one that's eat the vine down. Now, let's find out what Pentecost had and find out what we got lacking, and then we ought to find out what the destroyers are, who they are, or what's did it.

Now, the first thing that Pentecost produced was brotherly love. It tore down the middle wall of partition and made a brotherhood to such a way that they had everything in common in the Bible days—a brotherhood. Paul spoke of this brotherhood, and he gave all the gifts of the Pentecostal church, and then said in I Corinthians 13 that “Though I speak with tongues as men and angels, and have not this love (which brings the brotherhood), I am nothing. And though I have the knowledge to understand all the mysteries of God, I am still nothing without love (the love of the brethren).”

Jesus said, “This will all men know that you're My disciples, when you have love one for the other.” Pentecost had that. I'm speaking Pentecost, meaning the first group of the apostles and the disciples. They had that brotherly love. They wasn't greedy. They sold everything they had for the furthering of the church. They was so together till even when one heard the other one died, they said, “Let us go and die with him.” Such a feeling.

Now, Jesus spoke of this and said that ... Paul did, rather, and said, “Let brotherly love continue.” That was in the first church. But something taken place. And there was a fellow come in by the name of a palmerworm. And when he began to eat on that vine of brotherly love, he cut the very sap line of it. Because it don't make any difference how smart we are, how much we think we know, or how much we want to be different from somebody else, and as long as that brotherly feeling isn't among us, we are fighting a losing battle. That's right. We can't win. There's no way for us to win.

And now, in the Pentecostal church of today, comparing the two and what's happened.... Now, if you'll notice the routine of the gifts: the first is a gift of wisdom. (Thank you.) The first is the gift of wisdom. That is the best gift of the group. And if we don't have wisdom, we won't know how to use knowledge—is the second gift. And if we can't use the second gift without wisdom, how are we going to use the last gift—interpretation? or next to the last—speaking in tongues? Our zeal has eat up our wisdom, and our zeal for our denominations and our enthusiasm has eat up the wisdom off of the vine—brotherly love.

It's all right, and you brethren, the reason I said for you to come this morning, I want to speak to ministers.... It's all right to have denominations. There's nothing against that. But when denomination isolates himself and separates his fellowship from his brethren, that old palmerworm has eat the life out of it to begin with. That's right.

When we get to a place, if you want to differ with a man.... Why, there's a man that I know that I could see eye to eye with, as close in Scriptures as anybody in the world is Brother Moore, sitting here. But oh, do we get times when we're a million miles apart. But did that ever touch us? No, sir. Hearing him.... With a little wife over yonder, answering the phone so much till she's got almost a nervous breakdown.... Called last night, crying on the phone. And he loves me well enough.... Not because he gets a penny of money, no, sir. But he flies on an old Lockheed plane and everything else, to get over here to be with me a little bit. I don't believe the night would ever be too dark or the rain would ever fall too hard, but what I'd climb and crawl through the jungles to get to him. It's a love. And yet, we wouldn't agree on Scriptures by a hundred miles on millenniums and so forth like that, or on security of the believer. But that don't make it. I'm even.... Even in our difference, I am elected associate pastor to him. I'm so glad that the palmerworm hasn't touched us yet, Brother Moore.

Now, I'm just saying that for an example. And if we could do that between two men, why can't every brother do it? I might have a right to say things against the church and....

I went to his church here not long ago. And I thought he never would invite me back. Oh, I come to find out, that godly bunch of little saintly women he had there, was bobbing off their hair and wearing lipstick. I tore the thing apart. Sure did. But I thought he wouldn't ask me back. But you know what? There was such anointing of the Holy Spirit around the vine, till that old palmerworm couldn't touch it at all.

You know, there's an electric fence, like. That palmerworm can't get over that fence. That shock of the Holy Spirit of love, it'll kill him every time, brothers. And if we need fences to build, it oughtn't to be denominational fences; it ought to be love fences to keep the insect out, to keep the palmerworm out, for he is the devil's number one destroyer.

I don't care what a man believes. Whatever he believes.... Now, he's got a right to come right back and tell me he don't believe little things that I believe. I got a right to say little things that he doesn't believe in this church, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Presbyterian, even to the Pentecostal, see. Whatever.... I'm with the Pentecostal people; I am Pentecost. I don't belong to the Pentecostal denomination, because Pentecost is not a denomination; it's an experience. Did you hear that Lutheran say awhile ago?

Now, we took into the Baptist sitting over there coming down. I believe there's another Baptist looking at me there with a checkered tie on, or was, see. It is an experience. And the trouble of it is, we let these insects get in and tear us to pieces. And there is the number one killer. That's what's eating our Pentecostal experiences today.

Now, the next great thing come up was the locust. And he was the one who was to destroy the unity of the believers. In the Bible there were.... In Pentecost there was a unity. And these people were with one heart and with one accord. And Paul said (I believe, in Romans the 7th chapter) that there was nothing could separate us from the (8th chapter of Romans) from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. There was nothing....

I've never expressed this before between Pentecostal people or anyone. But seeing the tremendous strain that's been on me, that's why I come to do it this morning. It's the mightiest church on the face of the earth. And it is the church.

There's only one church. Many of the them are still branded Baptist, Presbyterian....

But I might not look like it this morning, but I used to herd a few cattle. And up there in Colorado, where we graze on the Arapaho forest, and bring the cattle down on the Troublesome River Association ... Hereford Association grazes the ... has the ranches down on the Troublesome River. At roundup time at the spring, when we brought the cattle up to put them on there, many times have I sat there with my leg across the horn of the saddle, and watched the ranger count those cattle as they went through. And I was amazed to look; some of them had the Lazy K brand on them. Some of them has the Diamond Bar brand on them. Ours was the Tripod. But others was different brands. The ranger.... The brand didn't make much difference, but every one that passed through that gate had to be a registered Hereford.

That's what I think it'll be at the day of the judgment: it won't be whether you're a Methodist or Baptist or Presbyterian, what brand you got on you, but it'll be a born-again experience is the only thing that we'll ever need to go through.

So not only among the Pentecostal denominations, but all denominations, this great palmerworm has broke down brotherhood. It's did it with the Lutherans. It's did it with the Baptists. It's did it with the Presbyterians. It's did it with the Nazarenes. It's did it with the Pentecostals. It's always been that old worm in there to make them isolate themselves. “We got it. You ain't got nothing.” What a pity.

Recently at a meeting, where a Lutheran group of people.... A dean of a college had Brother Moore and I there, and he so differed with me. But what got him was in the supernatural. And he called me out to have dinner with him. And there was pretty near as many as there is here at this breakfast. And then, when we got through eating and was explaining to him, he wanted to know “What we Lutherans have....”

And I said, “Well, do you say....”

He said to me, “Do we Lutherans have anything?”

I said, “Sure. You have Christ.” I said, “I'll make it to you in a parable. A man once planted a field of corn. And he went out in a few days, and he looked, and there were two little sprouts sticking up like this. And the man begin to praise God for a field of corn.” I said, “Did he have corn?”

He looked at me, said, “Well, perhaps, in a sense he had corn.”

I said, “He had corn, potentially.

By and by, that corn matured. And after while it become a tassel.“ I said, ”The first two leaves were you Lutherans, first Reformation. And after while, along come the tassel. That tassel looked so pretty. It looked back down to the leaf and said, 'I haven't got nothing to do with you. I'm a pretty tassel, and you aren't nothing but just an old green leaf.'“

But if the truth was known, the very life that was in the leaf has made the tassel. And it has to have the leaf to drop its pollen to further on, towards maturity. After while the ear come, had grains on it: the Pentecostal—restoration of the gifts, like the one that went in the ground, the return of the power of God in fullness, showing Christ alive, at Pentecost, through the gifts and manifestations of the first church.

But you know, when this ear of corn come on, it looked back to that tassel and say, “You ain't got nothing. You ain't even in it. And you old dead Lutheran leaves down there, there's nothing to you.”

But brother, remember, the ripeness in the grain come out of the leaf also, in the tassel. It's nothing but a corn, further matured. So, don't laugh at the Lutheran and the Baptists, Methodists. Remember, it's a further maturing of the ear.

But now the thing about this, we've had that in our minds so long, until it has created another thing. And we've got fungus growing out all over the ear. You know what fungus is? You know what fungus is and what brings it, You see. It's something wrong, something wrong with the tree that has fungus on it. It's got a disease.

And Pentecost has got a disease. It's got a lot of fungus growing on it. That's right. In all of our churches—got fungus growing on it. We've let the old palmerworm come along with his stinger, break down brotherhood, break down unity among us. Paul said in the Bible that he wanted us to all speak the same thing. He wanted us all to be in unity.

I got a little note right here I was going to read on it. All the operation of the gifts and so forth.... And in unity they stood as one great big union church. But we find out that that church stayed that way, with brotherhood, and they loved not their lives unto death. They went down in martyrdom. Many of you men here who is scholars, you've read of the ... well, the early ages of the church, and books like Foxe “Book of Martyrs,” and so forth, and many other church histories. And how that they stuck together; nothing could separate them.

Then during the dark age, they come forth with an organization. They come forth with a man-made policy. The locusts begin to fly then. The same devil that broke up brotherhood is trying to break the unity of men. And they made their first organization, and that was the Catholic church. God's church never was organized until Catholicism. And then it was a forcing, that you had to do it or they pulled them apart with ox, they burned them, they fed them to lions, they done everything. And they forced in a false unity. The locusts begin to sting. And it's too bad. After the caterpillar had got into the Pentecostal church and broke up the brotherhood, then the locusts comes around after that, and begin to sting us to organize different little groups to break up our unity. That's one of the destroyers.

If the old general council, when the Pentecostal move was first brought in, issued in by speaking with tongues (the bottom of the gifts, bringing it up), if they would've just stayed put and would've never organized, and just let it be a Pentecostal fellowship instead of any organization, we'd have been a million times better off, brethren. And let it stay an experience and not a denomination....

Now remember, I'm stating myself; I'm not against the denominations. It has to be that way or God's Word wouldn't have said it would be that way. If these caterpillars and bugs are going to eat the church, they're going to eat it. That's right. God said so. That's just as plain as He said He'd pour out His Spirit. What God says for one thing, whether it's good or evil, it's going to be just that way. But I'm just bringing up something to your view so you can see.

Now, the caterpillar begin to eat ... or, the locust, rather, and he broke up against unity. And they organized the first church. Luther organized the second, and on down through the age, and it's constantly one organization.... And when you do, you tear down the very principle of brotherhood. Brethren, to my opinion, if we are mentally right, we don't ... we see God's Bible and look out upon the thing, and you see that it's that way. We are not divided; all one body, we. One in hope and doctrine, one in charity. What are we going to do about it? Here we are. Could we help it? No, sir. God said so; that's it.

They could not help doing it. I wonder, when we stand before Jesus at that great day.... And as the patriarchs stood before Joseph, and they condemning themselves, “We knew we did this. We should not have done this.”....

And he said, “It was all for the good.”

I wonder, really, if all our differences and other things, when we come that day and say, “Oh Lord, if I'd have knowed that, I'd never done this.”

But, what if He'd just say, “Well, it was all for the good. It might preserve life in some way.”

But, to think, that old locust, what it done.... And then another thing that they had back in the Bible times, now, besides brotherhood, perfect brotherhood, perfect unity, they had a worship of one true God. And it's too bad that we got away from that.

Now, in the day of the early age, there come a time when they set up a pope and made him a god, give him a triple crown: the jurisdiction over heaven, purgatory, and hell. I've seen his crown. I looked at it myself. And they begin to come to a man worship. And they set up from the worship of the one true God to a false earthly god and got priests in there and called them “Father”—ghostly father. The Bible plainly told us: call no man “father” but God, and to worship no man but God.

I wouldn't want to say that it was a grand privilege, but I was given the privilege to be interviewed by the Pope, when I was in Rome. And I seen many diplomats, and great men, and kings, and potentates, monarchs, and have met them. And they told me different things I should do, and how I should address them, and when I went to them, “Your honor,” and so forth, and “majesty,” and so forth, I was to say. So I asked this person what I was to say at three o'clock the next afternoon when I was to meet the Pope of Rome, the head of the Catholic church. And he said, “The first thing you must do, would be, bow down on your knee, and kiss the ring, and call him, 'His Holiness.'”

I said, “Just take it off the list.” I would not pay that respect to any earthly man [unclear words]. If he is a minister, or reverend, or elder, whatever he wishes to be called, all right, but never do worship to a man. That's right.

But they had the worship of one true God. In that little faction, they set up in the program (which many of you historians know) of making the trinity three different Gods. They had one God the Father, with a long beard. I've seen the pictures right at the Vatican. They had another one, God the Son, with a younger man. And a little bird flying around like a dove, call him the Holy Ghost.

Now, they lost sight there of the true picture of the one true God. God is not three gods. God is one God. God has three offices, the trinity—the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—but it isn't three different gods. If it is, we're pagan. But that never started in the early church; they knowed different from that. It started in the middle age, when the unity of brethren was broke up, and the love.

Now, of course, we people today, we believe that there's three; the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost is the three persons of the one true God. It's three offices, not three Gods. But that same.... Listen now, we think that was ridiculous in the Catholic church, but we brought it right down here at Pentecost and tore yourselves to pieces with it: set up another organization, started something else.

Instead of coming like brethren with brotherly love and with unity, the first one begin to see that the three Persons of the Godhead was in one Person, Christ Jesus; He was the manifestation of God in flesh, not another man. And then you set up and got the little dogmatic idea of the oneness, you call them. Then you started on that, begin to harp on it, and you made God one like your finger, one, and you know that's wrong. You better scholars know better than that. But what was it? It was because the palmerworm begin to eat first. Instead of sitting and reasoning together.... When I come into the factions of the Pentecostals, they set a table bigger than that, with their heads around, “You go this, and you can't go to this. You preach for them, you can't preach for me.”

I said, “We are brethren. Absolutely.”

And if the Oneness faction hadn't have went off to one side, and made an issue out of it, and would've stayed with their brethren, and let the Holy Ghost anoint them, that thing would've never scattered and broke up brotherhood the way it did. But what happened? The locusts begin to fly. It broke up brotherhood. You had to have a little unity of your own. Unity is not an isolated thing, brethren. Unity is for the whole body of Christ.

It started in the early days. Paul said, “When I come among you, one has this and one has that. One said, 'I'm of Cephas.' and, 'I'm of Paul.' Was Cephas crucified? Was you baptize in the name of Paul?” Why, that thing had already started. It was eating into the church.

But they had in the beginning the unity of the one true God. Just a few days ago I got a letter from Africa, Brother Junie. Now, I want you to know that there's two factions of them there. They have a triune baptism. And one side baptizes three times: once for the Father, once for the Son, once for the Holy Ghost, face forward. Said, “Jesus, when He died (we're baptized in His death.) and He fell face forward.”

The other one said, “Silly. When Jesus died, they bury a man on his back.” So, they baptize him three times backward: once for the Father, and once for the Son, once for the Holy Ghost. And they split up. My goodness, brethren, can't you see? Don't you understand? Let it be a vision to you. What difference does it make? When we have lost our feeling of brotherhood, we're in a terrible shape [unclear words]. Do you get it? But these little things that break out, then somebody grabs it, and “We'll make us a unity.” That's not unity; that's pure petty jealousy. Get what I mean? We need real Christian, apostolic unity. Yes, sir.

Paul said, “Some preach for one thing and some preach for gain, and what difference” said, “as long as Christ is preached.” He had a right to call out and said, “I know that after my departing grievous wolves will enter in, and some among you will raise up with perverse things and so forth.”

But John, trying to cap it all, said, “Oh, keep Christ, the unity of Christ, the love of God in our hearts. Little children, love one another.”

I believe we have to go through these things before we can really see the real meaning of them. John, who was the one who wanted to call fire down out of heaven and burn up Samaria that day because they wouldn't give them something to eat, the same one become the very funnel of love. I wonder, brethren, if some day in all of our differences, when we really see the vision that God's trying to get before us, if it just won't break us right down at one another's feet [unclear words].

Another thing that they had in that day, was absolutely astounded a Bible teaching. [Break in tape.] That was one of the things they had which the palmerworm and the caterpillar.... And did you notice, it's the same insect all the way down. Now, this old devil cankerworm has come in, and he crawls in the skin too, you know, cankers you up. Once they ever find a little thing and when he does, it don't make any difference what somebody else tries to say, he'll just hold to that, and he'll isolate his little group into something, “but this is it.” Brother, it ain't, “This is it.”; this is “that.” That's the thing. A fellowship, a true Bible teaching; not going out after one thing or another. We've got genuine, Spirit filled, Holy Ghost brethren.

If I would direct my message towards one of them, I'd be a hypocrite. I don't speak against things the Baptist church does this, the Methodist church does that, and this does that or this does that. I'm not preaching just to men; I'm preaching against that devil of a cankerworm, that's trying to get a hold of mankind. And we see it. I brought this so that we could lay it out before you each other, that we could see that these destroyers was predicted to come and eat the vine down.

Now, we know the Holy Ghost is here. We know the Holy Ghost is life. But, brethren, do you realize it's only working in a stump? Did you think that? Do you realize that's a part, my friends? The Spirit is only working in a stump. The Bible said it would be a stump. What is it? We've got disunified body. We've got brotherly love scattered from side to side. Way down in the heart of every born-again man, this morning, in their hearts they want to embrace one another. They [unclear words] want to do it. There's many a preacher here in Phoenix that belongs to the churches of different denominations would love to walk in here this morning, and take the Oneness, and the Twoness, and the Threeness, and forget their differences, and [unclear words] Christ is in their heart.

But what is it? What's keeping them from it? Their organization. If they get caught in that bunch, they're excommunicated. That's a false unity; the Bible said so. That's right. God never did organize His church. Now, don't be against that. God said it had to happen. But the thing of it is among all of us, let's be brethren. [Blank spot on tape.]

Then we find out all these great things, and here we are just stumped. Here this vine will start, and when it does the palmerworm will cut down the brotherhood.

What comes next? That's where the palmerworm died and turns into a locust, and he goes to stinging. Then the locust goes, and in comes the cankerworm. The cankerworm leaves, and here comes the caterpillar to get what's left, see. Right back to the stump it goes. And, brethren, the point with the life coming up from the root, Christ Jesus (because He was the root and offspring), we, by our indifferences, have let these things cut us and keep us a stump.

“Is there any hope then,” you say, “Brother Branham?”

Blessed be to God, “I will restore, saith the Lord. All the years, the blessings, that the cankerworm, the caterpillar, the palmerworm and everything that's eaten down....” And brethren, as a middle-aged man, as a preacher of the gospel, and your brother, which loves you with Christian love, I'm looking to see the day, soon, when those cankerworms and caterpillars will be sprayed with God's insect powder and [unclear words] and every church will embrace one another: men shall be brethren.

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And now, for a real thought of this: If God said these insects would eat down His heritage, can't you see, brethren, divine healing, why it doesn't operate right? Can you see how gifts don't operate right? The spirits, they'll get in the church and some with tongues will speak irreverently. Some of them pay no attention to it. Others will say, “That message wasn't right.” They let this go and that go.

Then the gifts will come and they say, “Oh, Jones said, 'This was this and this was that.'” It's the Holy Spirit, truly, but it can't get through to produce itself. These little insects are keeping it down. That's the reason we can't have real.... Why, this great power that's in the church, should have swept her from sea to shining sea. The great church of the living God should be every power [unclear words].

What does it? Just as soon as one raises up, here comes the caterpillar and starts boring on. But one great thing: God said it would be that way. We see it. And God said, “I will restore.” I'm looking for it. God bless you.