The Great Commission

Thank you, Brother Vayle. And I want to say good morning to each and every one of you here. And it's certainly a grand privilege of being here in this Chattanooga area again to place my ... a part of my ministry in the help of you brethren to continue the work that has already been established, our Lord Jesus, to build upon this principle. And we are enjoying this meeting. Long has it lived in my heart, the last meeting that we were here together. And much waters went down the river since then, many things has been done, many battles has been fought and won for our Lord.

And this morning it's such a wonderful thing to be here at the table with you men and women, you fellow citizens of the kingdom of God, brothers and sisters of like precious faith. You're aware that I'm not a speaker; I just love to say what I can for His glory, knowing if I have a voice, I want to use what I have got for His glory. And I wish I was a speaker as Brother Vayle and many of you people, but God never called me for that. I was called for another type of ministry. And I wouldn't try to take Brother Vayle's place, or your place. It would be just as hard for me to take his place probably, as for him to take my place. So we just abide in our calling and do what we can for the great kingdom of God.

I'm glad to be back down in the good old South again. You know there's something about the southern states that I like. I was born on this soil down here, you know; so there's something about it, like coming back home. And I get way up in the North, they say “Hey, say fellow, you must be from the South.” I thought I spoke English until I went to England. I needed an interpreter in England worse than anywhere I ever was at. Every time I would speak, they would say, “What part of Texas you from?” I just couldn't make out. But when they talked, “Way down here,” you know, that real far.

I went to the corner one time in London. I was going down to find the Westminster Abbey. I'm not a mimic by a long ways, but I'm going to try to impersonate something. There was a gentleman standing on the corner with a cane over his arm, a regular English Cockney and I said, “How do you do, sir?” He looking over his glasses, spoke to me. And I said, “Could you tell me how to get to the Westminster Abbey?”

Frowned a little bit, looked at me, he said, “Certainly, ol' choppy,” he said, “you go three blowks this way, you turn three blowks that way, go straight ahead,” said, “you cawn't miss it.”

Brother David duPlessis is about the only one would understand that here, I guess, this morning. Oh, I knew I wasn't very much on the English. But I enjoyed being with men every where, because they're creatures of God.

And now, to try to.... As usually on a Christian Businessmen's Breakfast, I usually kind of preach a little bit to those fellows. But now before ministers I wouldn't try that, see. But I just want to read some Scripture. Because every gathering we are supposed to read the Scriptures and so forth. I think it....

Back in the early days when they used to meet, they broke bread, took the communion, every time they met. And I like that, too. Course, we're out of that practice. But I like to read just a portion of His Word, where if we don't get nothing else but this, this will be fine. It's found the last commission of our Lord. And a man's last will should be the one that's sufficient. And here's what He said to His church, the last words as He left the world. Found in Mark the 16th chapter, 14th verse beginning:

After he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them of their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; ... he that believeth not shall be damned.

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

If they ... take up serpents; or if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

So ... after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, ... confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

This is known as the great commission. It was the last words that our Lord spoke. And the first time He sent out His disciples, in Matthew 10, we find that He gave them a commission to go heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: as freely as you have received, freely give. And the last commission He give, to go into all the world, just continue as they did at the first: heal the sick and lay hands on the sick and cast out devils.

It's a privilege for me, brethren, to stand with men like you, shoulder-to-shoulder, in this great fight [Break in tape.] world called Christianity, and take my position by your side as a one who believes that that commission is still just as essential as it was the hour it was given. And in this great field that we are in, we find, many times, that we come with the order of different denominational phases of the Scripture. Some of them.... Christ's commission here was to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.

Now the Gospel doesn't only consist of the Word only, but through the power and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Cause the only way that it could be done, for these signs to follow, would be the Word to take life. So it would have to be the Holy Spirit that would give life in the Word to produce these signs. You brethren believe that.

Then after leaving the Baptist church and coming over with my Pentecostal brethren, because I seen that they had something; they believe this. But I found different denominations, first ... first group I found was what many determines, as many of you brethren, perhaps of the same denomination here this morning: Oneness. Well, that's what I thought they call them Pentecost for. Well then, I met some fine men.

Wasn't long after that till I found there was another group. And they were called the Trinitarian. Then I found another group, called the Jesus Only. Then they found the different factions like the Assemblies of God, and the Church of God, and the Church of Prophecy, all these.

Now here is where I want to explain to you brethren, see. I would not dare, in any means, to try to start something new. I believe that you brethren, and your fathers, back in the early days when they went forth with this blessing, forty years ago when I was a baby in my mother's arms. You never went forth under some little emotional mental work-up; you went forth with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And you founded something; you've laid down a foundation. God forbid that I'd be one man to try to build on any other foundation. If God laid that foundation, we build on that foundation, because I believe it's founded in the Word of God.

Therefore, that's the reason today that I don't belong to the different groups, or take sides with either one. I'm not here to take sides with groups; I'm here on a principle I'm standing for. And that principle is the kingdom of God. The Church of God's building on this principle of it here, here's Assemblies of God over here, and the Oneness in here, and different ones, how the groups are arranged around the interdenominationals. But it's all (should be, and I believe it is) built principally upon Christ. So that's the reason I don't take sides with the groups. Is to say, “I will be a Church of God.” That would be fine. I'd just as soon belong to the Church of God, as the Assemblies. And I'd as soon belong to the Assemblies, as I would the Oneness, or whatever it is. It doesn't matter to me. But there's one great storehouse, one great principle, that's Christ.

And that's why I stood with you brethren in this manner, that I could shoulder side-by-side with you and help you bear the burden, and stand the reproach with you, with a joy in my heart, to know that I took sides with what I think is right, based upon the Scripture. And when I come to the city, that's the reason I like to come on the interdenominational scale: that everybody is welcome, every person and every one. That's the way we like it.

And if a man has got to work, if he's a denomination or independent, as long as he's building on Christ, I'm shoulder-to-shoulder with him. If he's a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Presbyterian, or a Lutheran, whatever it is, I want to shoulder with him anyhow.

And may I drop this little thing to you brethren, as I know you're different denominations. I think.... I've never talked like this to a group of people, but in this locality here, and throughout the nation is becoming now. If the devil can keep us separated.... He's got us shooting at one another, so he's got an open target any where he wants to shoot. And what's the use of shooting; we're shooting one another? See, see. So he can just sit back and relax.

But did you ever.... Let me just give you.... If I have found grace in your sight through God, you take my word for this, brethren. If you want to be a blessing, and get a blessing; when a man has done you wrong, and he has absolutely justly ... I mean, he has done you wrong and you know that he has done you wrong. He has done you evil. Don't mention that; you take him to prayer before God. And don't take it in a way of just a selfish and say, “Well, I'm supposed to do this.” But stand with your shoulder to his shoulder, and stand in the presence of God our Father, way a prayer should be made, in the presence of God. Say, “Father, here's my brother, and he is justly ... he deserves punishment because he has done me evil. And I don't see why he did it.”

Then let God go to talking to you. And you'll see maybe, what that man has been through. The devil has twisted him up somewhere and caused him to do that, though he's absolutely wrong. Before you leave the Throne of God, you'll be feeling sorry for that man. You'll be sympathizing with that brother. And when you get back down to earth again, you'll go over to that brother and shake his hand, 'cause you know what he has been through. You can not stand with a mortal in the presence of God and condemn anybody, I don't believe, no sir, even if he is a rank sinner.

And what about a brother that has made a mistake? Though I say he's wrong. Sometimes he's accused wrong when he's not wrong. But if he is wrong, if we will take him to the Throne of God, stand there shoulder-to-shoulder with our brother, knowing he's a mortal, and maybe his destination rests upon our attitude towards him. When we come back from the Throne of God, we will realize that we're every one guilty, and we all need help, one from the other. And the best way to do, is pray.

Now, these great principles, the great church of the living God, if it wouldn't have to say, “Now we'll all belong to this organization, or that one,”—if they would unite in heart, one accord—there'd be a revival strike this world like it has never seen. If the people who have the Pentecostal experience would just unite in heart together, let their denominations run any way they want to. What difference does these little frictions and so forth, it's just the devil trying to keep the great church in a turmoil all the time. After all, in Acts 10:35 it's written that God is no respect of person or nation, but He has honor for those who serve God and do righteous, see. We know that's true: God respects the person that has got....

In the ministry I think this morning that it would be good for me to say this, to show you what an effect it has. The American people, you brethren, are in the hardest field there is anywhere. I've been in Africa, India, through ... practically the world over. But I have never seen a field so hard to battle as here—America. This needs missionaries worse than anywhere I ever seen in all my life. For an educated heathen is harder to deal with than an uneducated heathen. Heathen is an unbeliever. And you have that. And you got to battle here.... The missionary may have a lot of stuff to contend with, malaria and ameba and so forth like that. But he don't have the demon spirits to deal with. I mean those demons that's got into culture-minded men. Oh, you talk about something hard to deal with.

Recently I had a breakfast with a bunch of ministers. And I say this with respect, brethren. I would've rather had a breakfast with a bunch of witch-doctors (now that sounds horrible to say) than these men. I would of had a better reception, I'd a had a more agreeing spirit with a bunch of witch-doctors, many times, than I would with that bunch of ministers. Such a horrible thing. God deliver us from such.

We are so intellectual. Everything is moved away from the Spirit; it's the Word, it's Word, it's Word. God.... Sure, I believe in the Word, but if the Spirit don't agree with the Word, then you got something mixed up somewhere.

Look at when Cain, he was just as religious as and just as much with the Word as Abel was. It was a revelation that made the difference. They both worshipped, they both brought sacrifices, they both built altars, they both belonged to church, they both were sincere, they both worshipped. So God ought to respect sincerity and fundamentalism. Why didn't He respect Cain? But through revelation, Abel, being just, by revelation (no Scriptures in them days), God had revealed it to him that it wasn't fruit—apples and oranges—taking us out of the garden of Eden; it was blood, the life.

On their journey, the children of Israel, they come up against the children of Moab. Moab, the land of Moab was not infidelic; they believed in the same God that Israel believed in. And they were all organized together, tightly, great nation. Israel dwelt in tents that had no nation. I don't say this to be rude now; I say it for a point. Israel more like a interdenominational. It had no land of its own, as yet. And it was moving up.

They asked permission to pass through their brothers' land. And what did they get? Turned down. And they had Balaam come out and build his altars, seven altars. You notice he put seven clean sacrifices on it, bullocks. And he also put seven rams: speaking of Christ's coming. And down in the camp of Israel was just this same sacrifice.

So fundamentally, Moab was just as fundamental as Israel was. But the thing that they failed to see is what the world is failing to see today. And the prophet up there failed to see it. Balaam thought surely that a holy God would condemn a people like that. But he failed to see that smitten rock, that brass serpent, and the pillar of fire, the signs and wonders. God has always dwelt with people. Where God was, signs and wonders taken place. It has always been.

That's the way they look at the Pentecostal church today. Oh, they're all bunched up, they are this, that, and the other. But who isn't? Tell me one church that isn't. Look at our Baptist church, look at the denominations, and off-springs: the Free Baptist, a Hard Shell Baptist, Primitive Baptist, thirty some odd different sections of them. Just as bad as Pentecostal. And they fuss and fight with one another the same way. Look at the Methodist church. Even the Catholic church, any of them.

But what they fail to see.... They climb onto you brethren a lot of times, because the newspapers. You make a mistake, let one of our brethren make a mistake and do something immorally. Watch the newspapers across the country will spread it just as hard as they can. That's the devil. But let one of these other ministers do it, it hushed down.

But on the books of heaven it's just the same, that's right. The reason I take my shoulders with you brethren, there's a shout of the King in the camp. There's signs and wonders following these people. They make their mistakes, and they get a lot of isms, and a lot of nonsense. You know that, brethren; we might as well face it. That's right. We got a lot of things that goes on of impersonations and so forth that isn't right, but there's a real thing there too. That's right.

When Jesus came, He was just as fundamental as the Pharisees. The Pharisees couldn't believe it. But Jesus was fundamental. But there was signs and wonders following His ministry. Where the Pharisees had the Word just the same as He had, the same Word. But it's a spiritual revelation. Jesus witnessed to it when He come off the mountain, and He said, “Who does men say I, the Son of Man, am?” One said Elisha and one said it was a prophet, and so forth. But He said, “But who do you say?”

And Peter said, “Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Now the Catholic church says that Peter was the rock, and upon this rock the church is built. The Protestant church says it was upon Jesus, the rock. Not to be different (let them believe what they wish to, as long as it's on Christ), but I differ from both views. I believe that it was not upon Peter that the church was built; neither was it upon Christ, the church was built; but it was upon the spiritual revelation that He was the Christ, see.

“Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,” (some seminary, some school, some theology, some intellectual), “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father which is in heaven; upon this rock I will build My church.” The spiritual revelation, not by Word, not by denomination, not by creed, not by so forth, but upon spiritual revelation that Jesus is the Christ, I will build My church.

Now you might believe that in your mind; when you believe that in the heart, you got eternal life. Jesus said in Saint John 5:24: “He that heareth My Word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, has eternal life.” Take that word eternal and see what it means. Run it back in the Greek, you will find it's Zoe, “God's own life.” You got immortal life in you, because what? You have believed on Him being the only begotten Son of God and accept Him as your personal Saviour. Not by intellectual, but by a birth, how God has brought it down and revealed it to you by spiritual revelation.

Faith cometh by hearing. Faith is hearing, when you hear it. But faith isn't the thing. For instance, I'm here, I'm starving to death, and I ask you for a loaf of bread. And you give me twenty-five cents. That's the purchase power of a loaf of bread. Now I can rejoice just as much with the twenty-five cents as I could with a loaf of bread. But yet, it's not the loaf of bread. It's not the loaf of bread. But I can be happy with it. I will keep the twenty-five cents knowing, “Thank you, sir, my life shall now be saved.” But I haven't got the bread. You get what I mean? See, by faith you are saved, but it's a revelation of Christ that brings the results. You get what I mean? See, that's what I am speaking of.

That's what the world is hungering for. And the reason that the rest of the world isn't coming into the Pentecostal belief as we have it, is because it's our own attitude towards one another. That's truth, brethren. It's because that our indifference to each other. They see one talking against the other, one against the other, and this against that, and this denomination. They're scared of it.

I don't know what the solution is. I've tried it. One wants.... If this group will sponsor it, well, the rest of them have nothing to do with it. You can imagine what a position it puts me in? And I say, “Well, if I let this one, the other one won't. Then they won't come together.” So I thought, “Well, I will just go without any of them. I will go anyhow.” That's wrong. I found that to be wrong. Because in India I had the same thing. Where I guess twice the conversions that happened in Africa, at one altar call. But there was no one there to sponsor it, so where did it go? Back to the temples of Buddha, and so forth. You've got to recognize these organizations, and these places where they got the missions and so forth, to bring your convert to, and these churches throughout the country.

So you see what a predicament it puts me in when I try to stand independent? Oral Roberts told me that one time, see. He belongs to the Pentecostal Church of God, I believe, or Pentecostal Holiness Church of God, something, one of those. Anyhow, see, he's represented with a church. Where I stand free from the church, and yet with the church. I'm with the church, the real, the body of Christ through every denomination, trying to pull us together. I wanted to explain that to you so that you brethren would understand.

And now, if you go into a place and have a group of converts, just go and set a meeting up, say, “Here I am.” The people will come, that's right. “Where the carcass is, the eagles will be gathered.” But what if they become converts, then who's going to take them, who's there to catch it? Who's there to conserve that ... reserve that what you have already caught with the Gospel? Now who's going to pick up the fish? If they're laying on the bank, they will perish. Somebody has got to be there to do that. So you just.... I can't work without you, brethren.

Oh, if they could all be one in heart.

And for the same principle, and just tear down the little differences. Right here in this city today, Billy Graham can come to this city, and he will start off down here at this little tabernacle full of fifteen, twenty thousand, perhaps, or around, within the amount of time that I've been here. Why? Because they get themselves together, they're in one accord.

If they can do that by the letter, how much more should we do it by the Spirit? See, if a brother, if Oral Roberts, if some of the other brethren, would come to the city, let's go behind it. It's our duties to stand by our brethren, see. It's right. And then what does that do? It shows to the public.

If we don't, then what does it do to the public? You see.... Look at them, here, they got this guy in here, see. See what I mean? That's what takes place.

Now, the effects of a revival can long be felt if.... And it'll benefit the church of God. If we had hundred converts tonight, and one went to each one of you brother's churches, see, whatever it was. That's not just affecting only your church, your church, and your church, but it's affecting the kingdom of God through each one of these places.

There's where I am trying to build for, is here. Down here it doesn't matter to me if they want to be baptized this way, that way. What difference does that make anyhow? God give you the Holy Ghost with your peculiarities, He give me the Holy Ghost with my peculiarities. And God gives those the Holy Ghost who obeyed Him. Now who obeyed Him? See. There you are, see.

We just draw these little straws and things, and that's just what the devil wants. But I believe, my brethren, that there is coming an hour that when a real rank persecution will run us together, then we will be one; the church will come together. I believe it's all in the making of God, after painting this picture to you.

When Solomon's temple was built, it was cut out all over the world. And one block was sawed this way and one that way. But when they come together, every stone went to its place without a sound of a hammer, or the buzz of a saw. And it was the church of the living God.

And I believe that through the church of God of Prophesy and the other great church, the Lee College, or whichever it is here, and through you Assembly brethren, through you independent brethren, and through you Oneness brethren, and through all of you, that God is cutting out stones. Some day that Master Stone, that Rejected Stone.... When the church got so far up, they found out they had a freak stone; they couldn't find no place it fit. But they come to find out that was the chief corner stone. And it think, brethren, one of these days, we're going to realize that chief corner stone is the love of God, Christ, in our hearts, that'll bind every one of us together as one. Then the great church will be capped over and God will take it to glory.

In the services.... I might give you just a little view of some things that's happening so that you can see where our Lord God, the great Shepherd of the flock, how He does move in miraculous ways. I said this this morning so that you brethren could understand. If someone said, “Is Brother Branham a Assembly? Is he a Oneness?” Yeah, I'm Assembly, I'm a Oneness, I'm a Church of God, I'm a Pilgrim Holiness, I'm a Nazarene. I belong to Christ, which all of you belong to, you see. And so, I do belong to each one of you brethren. We're brothers together, see. And now, that's the way we want to live, that's the way we want to act.

In your family, your own children, there's hardly two of them that will agree with one another, but they are the same family, sure, they are. They might differ in features, they might differ in appetite, they might differ in every way, but yet they're one family. And we're the family of Christ. I'm not trying to say, “Jimmy, I'm with you. John, I'm against you.” I'm saying, “Jimmy and John, we're both in the same family.” You see what I mean? We're all working together on this farm to make a living for the family.

Now, that's the way I stand. If anybody happen to ask you, any time, you just let that be known, brethren. I'm having an awful time, awful struggle, it sure is. But I've got a hope that someday our blessed Lord will come.

The trumpet of the Lord shall sound,

and time shall be no more,

The morning breaks eternal, bright and fair;

And when His chosen Ones (Church of God,

Assemblies, and all)

When the chosen ones shall gather to their

home beyond the skies,

When the roll is called up yonder, I'll

be there.

I will be there with you brethren, one heart, one accord, never to be apart no more. That's the day we're laboring for.

How much time we got? [Someone says, “However much you want to take.”] Let me have just another ten minutes. Just for a testimony. Is it all right, brother; you all in too big a hurry?

I like to tell you a little experience somewhere, of something happening. Just along in the meeting, I do not like tell these things in the meeting, because it might sound personal. You brethren are men. You understand.

The meeting in India not long ago: I want to tell you the infallibility of visions. I'd had a vision recently of going over to India and into Africa. And the Lord had told me, He said, “You go to Africa first, then up to India.” And through some mix-ups and so forth, the manager said to me.... I don't want to refer as manager. I never say to Brother Vale, being manager. We've got one manager, that's the Holy Spirit, see. Brother Vale is my associate, he's my brother. He just happens to be making the arrangements for the meetings, and helping me along. And he is no more manager of my meetings than I am of yours, or.... The rest of you are the same. We're just all one great big family and one big body. We're not one above the other, we're all just the same; we're a unit of God working together.

And I wrote the vision immediately after I had the vision that morning. And then when the manager, as we call him that for the time being, had made arrangements to go into India. And he didn't kind of like Africa very much. So he said to me in Chicago, he said, “Brother Branham, let's just by-pass Africa and go on to India.”

I said, “That is up to you, brother, wherever the Lord wants me to labor, all right.”

I feel that, brethren, tonight in here. Whether we have.... I would rather be down here in this meeting with five people attending in that six thousand auditorium, and be in the will of God, than to have the place turning away five thousand every night, and be out of the will of God, see. The main thing is do the will of God, whether it's small, or whether it's great, whatever it is.

I just held a revival in a church that held twenty people, a revival. I don't have any television, I don't have any programs to sponsor or anything; people just pay the expense, and that's all there is to it, see, see. And so I don't want any of those things. If I do, I am obligated.

You think our dear Brother Oral Roberts, which is my bosom friend, and a real man of God. Do you think that Oral Roberts could come to a place and hold a meeting for two or three days, in a church that held twenty people? When it takes about seven or eight thousand dollars a day for him to thrive. Certainly, he couldn't. He would like to, but he can't do it. He's under such an obligation. Now I haven't got the brains to do what he's doing, and God knows that, so He lets Oral do that. He just keeps me this way where I can.... See, if we just realize our limit—what we can do. So then, I don't have to have money, so that's ... there you are, see. I can go anywhere He sends me.

If He wants me to go to Africa and preach to a hundred thousand people, He will produce the money. He has got all of it anyhow, so I don't have to ask for it, so He just gives it to me. If He wants me to go down to the old saint of Timbuktu, Gravel Switch, or somewhere, you know, and preach to ten people, amen, I will go and stay till He tells me it is over. So, that's the way.... I try to live that way. And I do not have nothing, no programs to support, or nothing, see.

Now I am not saying.... See, now that is my part. Now Brother Oral Roberts, God give him something else to do. And Brother A. A. Allen, and many of those other brethren, who has great radio broadcast and things, they got to have money. I help support them myself, see, I do all that I can, because I realize that's my brother. I couldn't fill his place, and I'm kind of glad that I don't have to, see. Because I haven't got the mental powers to work those things out, and so I just stay the way I am. As Congressman Upshaw used to say, “You can't be nothing that you hain't.” That's right. And the quicker we realize that, the better off we will be. You just be what you are. God wants you the way He made you, and just keep that in mind, and be just what.... If it's a doormat, be a doormat. I want to be the best doormat He ever had, if I have to be the doormat, or whatever it is in the house of God. Let me serve my office the best that I can for Him.

Now, so in Africa, he didn't want to go. And I said, “All right, we won't go.”

Then, on the road back I went to my room. And when I did, there was a light hanging there at the door. He said, “You go to Africa like I said.” I called brother back in a few minutes and said, “We're going to Africa.”

I waited for a year, and finally how I done it I don't know, but another way come up, I found my road on my way back to India. When I met Lisbon, Portugal, where I was to have a meeting there and go on over and had a healing service right in the shadows of the Vatican city in Rome. But while I was in Portugal, I fell sick, I didn't know why. I was out with the Governor, and I was having some fish. And they cook it in olive oil, and my, I was really sick. I was trying to be gentleman to eat it, but I tell you, I was white around the mouth; I was so sick of that old fish, and it cooked in olive oil. So, and he said, “Brother Branham, you look a bit ill.”

And I said, “I feel the same way.”

So when I went down to my hotel room, a doctor come up after while. Honest, I'm not trying to make remarks, but he had a pill there as big as the box atop of that thing, and wanted me to swallow it. I said, “Doctor, I wouldn't give that to my saddle horse.” I said, “It's so ... why, you couldn't get it down your throat.” I never seen such a pill in my life. And I said, “Can I break it apart?”

He said, “No, swallow it.”

And I said, “Well, just a minute till this sickness wears off.” I waited till he got out and throwed the thing away. But he was a nice man. And we talked a lot on the Lord Jesus, him being a Catholic. But we talked about the Lord.

And then, while I got so sick that night, Billy stood by me, and the rest of them had left me there. And I said, “Billy, I don't think I can make it till morning.” And I was just so sick, I just couldn't breathe no more, I was so sick, my breath wouldn't even come hardly, had to force my breath. And that way all night.

And the next morning, I started into the bathtub to take a ... bathroom to get in one of those big tubs, a towel twice the size of these tables. And so I was going to take a bath. There hung that light hanging there. And it said, “Didn't I tell you to go to Africa first?” And I fell on my face and begin weeping. Then I said, “Lord, just let me go somewhere and get me a little cabin out in the mountains, and trap, and hunt like I have always wanted to. I couldn't be Your servant, I haven't even got the mental powers to serve You.” I said, “I forgot all about that.” And I wrote it down, I got it. I thought I had it in my pocketbook now, but I haven't, but I have got it on paper.

Well, I went on, He told me to go on up to India, which I did. And then when I come back thinking for four years now that I disobeyed the Lord. And looking on that vision wrote out, which I have read it hundreds of times. The vision said that I would go to India first, and then back to Africa. But He told me to go to Africa first, and then to India, showing that God knew that I would fail Him, but His Word, what He says, can't fail. The vision actually reads that I would go to Africa first ... or, to India first and then back to Africa. That's where I am on my road to now, just as soon as I can get through with about twenty or thirty meetings I got between now and July, and we go to Africa. Brother, our dear Brother David duPlessis there, has been over, and talking to the brethren and so forth, to get together.

In India, I'd like to quote the meeting though, just what taken place. When we went in there, there was no unity. Brethren all separated. One church was sponsoring me and the rest of them wouldn't come in with it because they didn't like that church; see, there you are.

And literally, there's four hundred and seventy million people in India. And Christianity is the weakest religion they got, Christianity. With Catholic and all, we rate about third or fourth place. The Mohammedan is twice or three times our size. That's including all Christianity.

And when I got there, because this one church, their principle was, “Sell India to India, we need not the missionary, we need not the Americans.” When I landed at Bombay, there stood the Methodist bishop and many of the great men standing there. Said, “Mr. Branham, you coming to India, don't you come here as a missionary.” Said, “We know more about the Bible than you Yankees ever did know.” Now not critical, but that's the truth. This is an Oriental book, it's not a western book, it's an Eastern book. When you get the eastern view of it, you found a new book. That's right.

Said, “We had the Bible two thousand years before you was a nation.” That's right. Saint Thomas went down there. Saint Thomas church, I was at it when we was there. Sure, they've had the Bible two thousand years ever before we was a nation. And we got a western thought, trying to make it compare with an eastern, which is just contrary one to another. All the parables and things the Bible.... If you ever come in there and just find the way they live, you could see the Bible just open up a new book to you. Because it's an eastern book wrote in an eastern way of living. And we're a western people in a western way of living.

If the Lord willing, this week when I start preaching, I want to preach: When the East and West Meets. Now, no they wouldn't do it because they didn't like this other church because it wouldn't agree upon our brethren. Now to look at it, I said, “Well, that's right. Let's sell America to America.”

These the Indian people said, “We want to own our own property. We don't want the Methodist and Baptist and Pentecostal people over in America to own our property. We want to own it ourself, right here; let us have it.” Said, “You brothers come over and visit us.” That sounded all right, see.

But for me to be there like that, it wasn't all right. Those missionaries had sweated blood in there for years for the things that they've stood for. They died with ameba and with yellow fever, and black water fever, and everything else in there, to bring the Gospel. Should I turn my back on a thing that a man has established like that, for the kingdom of God? I'm his brother; certainly not. About their property, who does it belong to anyhow? God, that's exactly right.

But in there, for which I did, and they told me that they couldn't cooperate. That night ... that day the mayor of the city took me down to the temple of the Jains. And Jain, Jan, I forget, Jain. And they're a funny sect. They're more on the order of Catholic. They taken me in to their pope, sitting on a pillow. And just show you the tortures they go through. The men and the women sat making little mops. They wouldn't kill an ant, they can't work, they have to beg everything they get. Four hundred million of those Indians are almost.... There's about seventy million of them, I guess, that works, and the other four hundred million is beggars. And they mop the floor as they go, or the ground, to keep from stepping on an ant because they believe in reincarnation: it might be some of their people. They won't kill nothing, not a fly nor flea. A man operated on his own finger, and he died over it, because he wouldn't sterilize the knife that he operated on: afraid he would kill a germ; it might be some of his ancestors on the road back.

Now you can see the world living in ignorance like that, and we with the real Gospel—and our guns on one another. See what I mean, brethren. Us fussing, whether I should be a Church of God or Assembly of God. I want to be a child of God; that's it. Now, and a servant of God.

Notice, then in ... these men sitting there in that condition. They couldn't ... they couldn't shave, is a sin to shave. So they had to pull their beards out. And pull their hair out. And oh, the things they had to do, it was terrible.

There this pope sat there, as he was. And I heard there's seventeen, I believe ... or, seven or eight different ones represented there, and me coming in. Each one of them told me how little I was. Why, those Jains, they said, why, they begin before Genesis ever started. And they were so far superior to Christianity. And they have a lot of good points. Here's what that pope said to me, he said, “You people call yourself religious? And you use all your scientists over there, not to try to help someone, but to create atomic bombs to blow one another to pieces.” Was he right or wrong?

See, every lie has got a lot of truth in it. That's right. Now, if it's a real lie, just a right ... what we call the black lie, or the little white lie. The little white lie is the real lie. You can see the big black lie, but it's that little white one that has got a ... like the one that the devil told Eve, see. Just one little thing off the cater. That's what our churches are listening to today. They're saying, “Oh, you're right in your principle of baptism, you're right in this, and you're right in that.” But he fails to let you know you got to have love for that brother out there. Though he's right or wrong, stand shoulders with him, the kingdom of God, and the presence of God.

Now, watch this, how God works. And these fellows as they were sitting there, and I felt like, after they had all spoke ... or, several of them had spoke, I felt like I'd be a traitor to Christ if I didn't say something. And I stood up, I said, “Gentlemen,” I couldn't call them brethren; they wasn't. I said, “How could you ever accept the blood sacrifice for your sins and won't kill a flea?” I said, “How could you do it?” I said, “Blood is the antidote, blood was the one that brought us from the garden of Eden, and in the blood cell is life.

“It was life, perverted life that brought us to death. It'll take that same blood cell breaking to bring us back to life again. This is a perverted life. And I want you, brethren, no matter how well you try to patch-up and how well you try to do this, and how clean you try to live, and how righteous you try to live, it'll never work. This life in the beginning was condemned by God. And it ain't to be patched up, it's to die and to be born again. It has got to be a birth. There's no other way around it, see.”

Not be better, join church, quit your meanness. You can do all of that, and still not have eternal life, see. You can join church, you can belong to a denomination, you can live just as straight as a die; those Pharisees did, and Jesus said, “You're of your father, the devil.” See.

We're trying to put it on works all the time, something we can do, something we can build. God don't need our buildings. God needs our soul.

And there in that time, that night when I said, “Let God speak, the One that's God tonight.” And in the platform.... Now that you.... I'm doing this ... saying this so that you brethren would see the confidence you can have in God.

In that meeting that night, when they started, there was Rajas on pillows, and there was the Mohammedans, and the Buddhists, it taken me better than two and a half hours to even get to the stand where I was going to preach. The mayor estimated that if I stayed the three days ... or, the five days I was supposed to stay, that it to be five hundred thousand outside people in Bombay. They had heard, they had come.

And I thought, “Well, if these preachers don't want to cooperate, let them alone then.” But I made a mistake. I should have turned and come back till I got cooperation. Because that night when we went to the meeting, you couldn't give out prayer cards. There was no way of doing it. So we had the militia to kind of bring up one at a time. And then they....

There's thousands times thousands and thousands of thousands of people; who's going to be the first in the prayer line? People that you can't even talk to. But then when the Holy Spirit begin to reveal to them, and begin to tell them, I'd see what there was, spell their name out, I couldn't even pronounce it. The place....

Then I could feel coming in by the Holy Spirit, that it was ... they was thinking it was a telepathy. So I thought, “Lord, if You will just give grace.” About three or four had passed. A leper passed, had no arm, and I took him in my arms and begin to love him. He just wept when he seen that somebody cared for him. The world is dying for love, brothers. Now you take your brother in your arms, see if it don't make things a little different, see. That same love that worked on a leper will work on your brother that you think is wrong. That's right, now.

And I took him in my arms, and he cried. And about the second after that was a blind man. There'd been another blind man went through, told him who he was, where he come from, and everything. I said, “The Lord God has healed you, brother. Years ago He died for you and your healing is secured. If you just believe it now, go on, get well.” Two or three of the lepers had passed through, only thing I saw was who they were and what was.... I didn't say no more. That's all I say, is what I can see, and I just quit saying.

Then this one come through, a blind man. It told him who he was, said, “You're a beggar, you got two children, you got a wife, she's a thin woman, told what her name was, and her given name.” That was all right. And then when I started to pass him on through, a vision broke. Now, that's when the Lord is speaking. The other is what the man was doing himself. That's what you see on the platform; it's you doing it, not me. It's your own faith doing it.

Now, then when that broke, I looked and I seen the man standing before me, he looked a little grayer than what he was there, and he could see, his eyes was open, and he was rejoicing, and talking to people. That's the key note. There it was. I thought, “O God, there it is.”

There's no way, brethren. We're eternity bound people and we're going to stand in His presence together one of these days. I mean, face to face with Him. There's no way to explain it. When you know that it's going to happen, there it is. I have never seen it one time ever fail.

The other day, Waterloo, after that bunch of ministers so against me, and I was praying. I thought, “Lord, here I am in a predicament; I don't know what to do.” Hundreds of people sitting there, just as cold as it could be, standing there. And of a sudden I heard something. I thought it was an airplane coming in the roof. I looked around at Dr. Vayle and he was looking at the organ, he thought the woman had reversed the organ air. You come to find out, it was electric organ. And here it was coming from above, like a roar. And it come down, my coat begin shaking, it swept out over the building, the people just turned white and fell backward, with their heads back like that. A rushing like a wind, only it wasn't a wind, it was a sound: the Holy Spirit moving through the building ... shake. And we got it on tape.

And I thought, “The great Holy Spirit doesn't misbehave Himself anyway.” I thought, “I've never seen Him do nothing but what was in the Scripture.” And when I went home, I begin praying, “Lord, where would this be if the Holy Spirit acted like that?” In Saint John 12 we see where our Lord was praying and some of them said, when the Father spoke back to Him, said, “It thundered.”

God still lives, brethren. And we're looking for something a way out yonder, when we got it right now. This is it. Don't let it pass over you like it has through the ages. Like it did in the days of John the Baptist, they didn't know who he was. People don't know what this Holy Ghost is; it's not something to organize an organization over. Which, I'm not criticizing that, brethren; it's not something to fuss about. It's something to love and to worship. It's not to separate yourselves from one another; it's to bring one another together. We're using it as a tool. Not to better the kingdom of God, when we make ourselves different from each other. We got to make ourselves together with this. Then the real Holy Spirit will bring that to us, brethren. It's just got to; it's Christ's own love for us.

And notice, to the Indian meeting. There was a man; I seen him standing there like a blue shadow. And when the vision left me, oh, what a feeling, what a feeling. I knew then that it had to happen. It has got to happen, God said so.

Then I could take the floor, I could be boss then, as it was (Pardon that expression)—not me, but the Holy Spirit working, was the boss. If God would come today and show me a vision that George Washington is going to be raised from the presidential graveyard, I'd invite the world to come watch it done; exactly right. It'll happen if God said so. How can it fail. I'm forty-eight years old, I've seen visions since I was just a little boy of two, and never one time has it failed. To me it's God.

If I cannot get the world to see it, what difference? They never seen it in any age. But God is just, He sends it anyhow. Then when it's all over, they say, “Well, we didn't know that. Sure enough, did this happen? I didn't know it.” Oh yeah, it has always been that way. It's that way today, brethren; you listen. This is the hour, this is the day. You're looking for something out yonder, and the devil trying to place something off out yonder at some time, you're going to be in the Millennium before you know it. It's at the end-time now.

So then when this vision come and the blind man was seeing. Then he was still standing there. I said, “Now, to you gentlemen today,” we was in the Jains temple. “And you all were saying that you started before Genesis, and how insufficient this God was, and how that all of His disciples did this, that and the other,” so forth. And I said, “I know your thoughts. You're thinking that I am reading telepathy, because this is all you have ever seen, is right here. Now that's what is in your mind.” But I said, “Here is a blind man.” And the man has just witnessed that he went blind, which the Spirit told him, twenty years ago from watching the sun, he worshipped the sun. And he had been blind, his eyes was as white as my shirt. I said, “He has promised to get his sight back again, he will serve the God that gives him his sight. He's willing to change.” And I said, “You Mohammedans here, you are the greatest in number, [Blank spot on tape.] to come here and give this man back his sight.” There you are.

I wouldn't have said that for nothing, brethren, if God hadn't said so first, you see, the vision. I said, “Now, come and give him his sight.” And I said, “You Buddha worshippers, I challenge the priest of the Buddha to come give him his sight. Or you Jains, that we was in the temple today, I challenge any of you priests to come give him his sight. And he will worship the God that gives him his sight.”

Oh, brother! It was a quiet bunch, certainly it was. And I said, “What could you do? You'd tell him he was wrong in worshipping the sun. He's worship....” And I said, “I believe he's wrong. He's worshipping the creature ... creation instead of the Creator.” See? I said, “I believe he was wrong.” I said, “What would you Mohammedans do if you changed him? You would only change his way of thinking. What if you Jains took him? You'd change his way of thinking. What if you Buddhists took him? You'd change his way of thinking.” That's right, psychology.

But, brethren, I want to ask you something, what more would the Methodist do for him than the Baptist could do? We got the same thing in America, only we got one God we worship. But all the Baptists wants them all to be Baptists, and wants all the Methodist.... And the Pentecostal wants to make them all Pentecostals. Church of God wants them all on their side. And the Assemblies wants them all on their side.

What is it? Oh, they got to be baptized thus, this and that, or they got to say certain things, they got.... What is it? Psychology. I'm not one to hurt feelings, but, brother, I must be honest, this may be our last time we will ever.... [Break in tape.] It's true. And I said, “We got the same thing in America. Just from this church to that church. If the Church of God don't treat me right, I will join the Assemblies. Assemblies don't not treat me right, I will be a Oneness.” There you are. What is it? It's the same thing. Like pagans, heathen; it's true. Anchor yourself in Christ once, stay there; that's right.

Then, when I said, “Certainly, you could do no more for him, one from the other, no matter who it would be.” But I said, “You can't give him his sight, you Mohammedans, neither can you Jains, and neither can you Buddhists or any of you, can give him his sight. And neither can I give him his sight.” But I said, “The God of heaven, who raised up His Son Jesus, that you thinking is telepathy, has showed me a vision that the man will receive his sight. And if he doesn't, I'm a false prophet.”

“And now if he does, how many of you will raise your hands that you'll forsake your pagan gods? You see where your priest is standing? Every one of them, they're silent people; no wonder they're silent. I'd be silent too, if the God of heaven hadn't showed me something just now.” I said, “Now we will find out whether it's right or not.”

And everybody was quiet. I got the poor old fellow and pulled him to my bosom. I said, “Lord God, who made the heavens and earth, as it was in the Bible times, it has returned again. Let it be known today that You're God, and Your church shall prevail against every gate of hell. It shall be. And many of these men sitting here who's labored out here, thinking that these things belonged in another age, let them know that their labors are not in vain. They preached the best that they knowed how, under the circumstances, and the things they had to preach by. But now Thou has come on the scene....” (They don't interpret the prayer, of course.)

And praying to the Lord, I had him leaning against my bosom. When I took him away, like that, he let out a scream with all of his might; he run and grabbed the mayor of Durban and kissed him. His sight was as good as any man that's in here.

Then what happened? There he was standing there, he fell on his knees, he throwed his hands in the air, he wept. Thousands watching him. That man has testified even to the President of India. Which up at New Delhi, this coming October if I wish, they got a amphitheater up there that I could put a million people in, for a united effort all over India.

Then I said, “How many of you here will receive Jesus as personal Saviour? You Mohammedans and Buddhists and so forth?” Their hands went up everywhere, everywhere. And they made a rush, they pulled my shoes off, they tore my.... I was over an hour getting out of it, shredded clothes, five or six lines could not hold them back. They'd run under their legs and everything. Indians are superstitious: they want to touch you or something like that, trying to get in. Mother's even throwing their babies to try to get through to touch. I had to leave the city the next day because they couldn't hold them any longer, was no place to put them.

Jesus said, “Go preach the Gospel.” That's right. We've built around schools, organization, education. Nothing against it, that's all right, nothing against it. But He said, “Preach the Gospel.” He never said, “Build churches.” He never said, “Build organizations.” He never said, “Build schools.” He never said, “Have seminaries.” He said, “Preach the Gospel.” We turn around and done something else. That's the reason the heathens are in the shape they are today. That's the reason these things are.

But, my brethren, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob still lives today. That's right. He's the same God. It reminds me of one little thing I will say, and I've got to go then. If you have just a couple of minutes.

As everybody knows, I like to hunt. Brother sitting here from Northern British Columbia.... One day I come out of the mountains, with whiskers about that long, they're turning gray. There was big old slouch hat pulled down, overalls, and hadn't had a bath for over two weeks, and had twenty-one head of horses. And I guess I smelt worse than the horses did, been not taking a bath and dirty, and sweating. I'd been bear hunting up in the mountains. How the experiences that I had with God there will live with me till I die, be alone.

I was in a little place where they had a store, just about the size of half of this room; they had everything there. Young woman there, about thirty years old, had never seen a city in her life, in her life. So far back. I guess the first real hard top road would be Edmonton, by Edmonton. That'd be four, five hundred miles away. Been about two hundred miles, I guess. Two hundred miles to a hard top road. And then you leave that, then you got another one, a long stretch of it. Way up at East Pines, Northern British Columbia.

Standing back there, I was trying to pull the pinions on the horses and tighten up the.... A man come down through there, said, “Hello, Brother Branham.” That was him, a farmer. The Lord gave a vision, called him to the work, and now he's just returning from Cuba and on his road back again now, in the field.

I was down, in a way, Northern place, and a lady walked up, all that beard and stuff, the lady walked up and touched me on the back, said, “Aren't you Brother Branham?”

And I said, “Yes, Ma'am. How did you know me?”

Said, “I got your book.”

I said, “How did you ever get a book back there?”

It come twice a year, mail on a dog sled. Oh, they'll come from the East and the West at that great time.

Way up in the mountains one time in Colorado, I was hunting elk. Not to kill the game, just to be alone with God. You can have all your feather-edged Florida you want to; that's what man done to it. I like it the way God made it, see, just in its raw nature.

I climbed way high in the mountains, way high. Cause the elk had not come down yet, there was not enough snow to run them down. I was at least thirty-five or forty miles from a human being, way back between Bertha Pass and Rabbit Ear Pass, way back on the Troublesome River where I used to herd cattle when a boy.

I got a little thing I want to say right here about that. I used to, when they had the roundup in the spring, when we putting the cattle up on the Arapaho Forest.... The Hereford Association grazes the valley. And if you can raise a ton of hay and got a brand from the Chamber of Commerce, you can herd a cow on the Arapaho Forest in the summer.

So we herded down there, and our brand was a tripod, a big diamond ... a Bar Diamond was next to us, there which was Grimes. And all of you know Grimes, the race horse man; he worked about twenty men all the time. And ours was a small outfit; we had the last place of irrigation off of east fork of the Troublesome River, way up. So then, you know, the river is divided like this, and comes down from the north, east and west slope. Well, then we grazed that in there, a hundred and fifty, two hundred miles, through there, we grazed it.

So, they had a drift fence from the private owned property until the government property. Many time, if I sat there by day, and watch them when they was taking those cattle through. I sat with my leg around the horn on the saddle, as you all know, watching. And the ranger stood there counting those cattle as they went through. He examined those cattle.

Brethren, he did not look so much about the brand; it was the breed of the cattle. The brand could go in, it had something to do with it; but it was the blood of the cow, no matter what brand was on it. If that cow wasn't a thoroughbred Hereford, she couldn't go on that forest.

I think that's the way it will be at judgment. It'll not be whether you're Church of God or Assembly of God; it'll be the blood mark that'll tell the difference. No matter what kind of a brand you're wearing, it'll only be those who are born-again will go in.

Up on those mountains I watched. Come up a storm, and I got behind a tree and stood there for a little bit while the storm was going on. And all of a sudden, after the storm was over, I come out behind a tree; it'll storm a while, rain, then it'll snow a while, and then the sun'll come out and melt it off, and maybe it'll rain again.

And when I come out, it turned cold, during the time hiding behind this tree, and the sun was going down into the west. And the great eye peeping across this way, and there the rainbow come across the valley where the evergreens had froze with the rain. You know how the freeze on the tree. And the sun against this made a rainbow. And I looked at that rain....

My mother, my mother's mother come off this reservation up here. And my conversion didn't take the call of the deep out of me; I love the woods. So, I stood there and I started crying. I thought, “O great Jehovah.” As I said last night, “He guides my steps by His eye.” So then, there He is looking. There I thought, “Yes, the sun is dying in the west, the day is over, the rainbow represents the covenant, we're at the end-time.” You look anywhere and you can see God, if you just look around a little bit. You can see Him in the brother that you don't like so well, if you just look. You can see Him in the organization that you don't like, if you just look around, that's all. He'll be there, so do not worry.

And then I watched that and I started weeping. In a few moments I heard the old gray wolf call up on top the mountain, the mate answer down in the bottom. You know David said, “When the deep calls to the deep.” Deep begin calling to the deep. I heard the old bull elk, bugle. The storm had separated them. Through the mass of blowing, the timber falling, the herd had got broke up. They were bugling one to another to come back together.

The mate of the wolf was calling, “Let's come back together.” The eye was calling to the rainbow, “Let's come back together.” The Spirit's calling to the church, “Let's come back together. Let's unite.” God was there.

And while I was standing there worshipping, oh, I run around and around that tree as hard as I could go. Just to give vent to my feeling, screaming to the top of my voice, shaking my hand. You ever thought I was a holy roller, sure enough, if somebody had seen me. But, or maybe I was insane, running around and around that tree. But I was worshipping God. I see Him, everything is calling. The deep calling from the deep. Like the Spirit is now, calling to the church, calling to His body, “Let's come together. Let's be together, the sun's setting, it's later than you think. Come together.” [An exhortation is given from someone in the audience.] Amen.

Where did the Spirit speak? When the rainbow ... the sun called the rainbow, when the wolf called his mate, when the elk called its mate. Jesus is calling His mate, the church. God bless you, brethren. I'm here shoulder-to-shoulder with you at the throne of God to help you every way that I can. I'm your brother.