Paradox

Good morning, friends. It's a privilege to be here again this morning. And they told me they'd had a special meeting, and had made some minutes. And they wanted me to come hear those minutes, of what . . . if I had anything to say for or against it. About . . . said there was something about interviews, they'd had some trouble. I think that's grand, like that. I accept that. That gets me a chance then that I can. . . .

There is so many. I guess there is around six hundred on waiting lists, right now, see, of special interviews. And I'm morally obligated to my word, to stay with each one until we hear from God, for that person, see. And then if you do that, you might have one fellow right on the waiting list there for . . . or maybe with that one person, waiting for two or three weeks for that one person, see, till we actually hear from God; coming together, praying together, going back, separating, coming back together, praying together, till we have “Thus saith the Lord” for that person. Well, in that time, see, there is other things.

Now this way—the way I understand it right—that each one will write their requests, whatever they are, and just hand it in to me. And let me have it, and then let me pray over this request. Then I can call these people to where. . . . Was that the way it was? [Brother Neville says, “Amen.”] Now, that's fine. See, and then maybe while I'm waiting with this one person, I could get a hundred, two hundred people, right in this one, this group right here, where I'm waiting on one. Because that way, it'll give me a chance then to get to see more people. I really like that. Ever who fell on that idea, well, I believe it was pretty good. That's fine.

And so, now, this has been kind of a great week for me, these last couple weeks. I have been out before our Lord, as you understand.

But, I think, before we start the service, I think. . . . One, I know. I got a grandson here somewhere in the building, and perhaps. . . . If he's a Branham, he's disorderly, running around here somewhere, maybe, so he's the one to have to take these instructions. So he's around here somewhere. I think there is a dedication service, and for other mothers who have their little ones. Well, if Brother Teddy, I believe it is, will come to the piano, and we're going to sing our familiar old dedication service of babies, “Bring Them In.”

Now, many people, in many churches, they sprinkle the babies. And we try to follow just the trend of the Bible, just as close as I know how to follow it. Now, there is no place in the Bible where they ever sprinkled an adult, let alone a baby. And nowhere there was ever . . . sprinkling was ever ordained of God, a baby or adult.

But there is in the Bible where they brought little children unto Jesus, and He lifted up His hands and laid them upon the little ones, and blessed them, and said, “Suffer little children to come unto me.” Now that's our way of doing it here. And now, as His servants, we just take them before God in prayer; and if there is anyone here that's got your little baby that has not been dedicated.

We don't believe in baptizing, in any form, those little babies, because they have no sin. They are born in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies, but they have nothing to repentance of. And baptism is unto repentance and remission of sin. So their baby has nothing to repent for; and when Jesus died on the cross, He cleansed all sin. And now when we get old enough to know that we got to repent for what we've did, then we are . . . and recognize that Christ died for us. That little baby can't recognize that, that Christ died for him; but when we are old enough to recognize that Christ died for us, and then we are baptized then unto His death and raised to His resurrection. Lord willing, next Sunday I'll get on that, if God willing.

Now, therefore, we bring them and dedicate them. Any mothers, any church, any creed, any color, anything else, we dedicate all little children to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, Brother Teddy, if you'll let us sing this, “Bring Them In,” if you will. All right, let's all together now:

Bring them in, bring them in,

Bring them in from the fields of sin;

Bring them in, bring them in,

Bring the little ones ones to Jesus.

In the vision I had, just after the going of my mother, that's what I was leading, a song, was “Bring Them In,” when the little children . . . was bringing. Will you come, Brother Neville?

I know this boy. Billy says, “Don't you drop him. Don't you drop him.” Here, this is William Branham, there is three of us standing here together, William Branhams, three generations, three names. He's looking me over this morning. There's something about them that's kind of innocent-looking, you know. He's William Paul, Junior, and so we are grateful, I am this morning, to give to the Lord Jesus, from the arms of his father (my son), the grandson, for a life of service, blessings upon the father and mother.

Let us bow our heads.

Our gracious, heavenly Father, I know I'm getting way up the road when I hold my grandson in my hands.

But I'm thinking of Jacob, when he brought his grandchildren between his knees, when he was an old man, Ephraim and Manasseh; blessed those children, and imparted to them the spiritual blessings that lasted even to this day. How he crossed his hands from one to the other taking the blessing from the Jew to the Gentile, in the cross. Let the God of heaven come near now.

This grandson that You have given to me, Lord, through my son and my daughter-in-law—I'm thinking of she being barren, to raise no children, and coming down that day from Yakima, Washington, when she was crying, and said, “I wish I could have a baby.”

Your Spirit came into the car, and there I said, “You shall have it.” And today I hold this fine little boy in my hand—your spoken word, your promise.

Now, Lord, in simplicity of our actions, we place this baby by faith in the hands of the Lord Jesus; that Him, being here in the form of the Holy Spirit, will take the baby into His arms and His care, and will guide it through life. Give it health and strength, a long life, if You tarry. And may the baby be used to your glory. May the power of the living God rest upon the child. If he lives to be a man, and Jesus tarries, may he preach the gospel. The power of God that gave him to his mother and father, may it never depart from him.

Bless his daddy and his mother. May they be raised . . . may he raise this baby in the Christian atmosphere. That all possible human training that they can do, this baby shall have it.

Now, little Billy Paul Branham, Junior, I give thee to Almighty God in dedication, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

There is something about little babies, that I think is so sweet!

I remember Loyce, she cried and clutched her hands. She is real nervous. Loyce has come up out of great tribulation, just a little Kentucky girl that had rather a hard life. And one night Jesus appeared to her, standing in the cold. And she come running up to the house around midnight, her and Billy, after they got married. And down by the side of the duofold there, I put my arm around her and led her to the Lord Jesus.

She wanted babies so bad. They had been married several years. And coming down from Yakima one day, she was kind of weeping. It had been a. . . . The Holy Spirit came in and told her of a female trouble that she had had, the reason she could not have any babies. Then the Holy Spirit came again, and cursed that female trouble and give her the blessing. I dedicated him just now.

There is a. . . .

I have some little things wrote out here, that I want to say first, before we read the text. First, is future meetings, I have written. That is next Sunday, the Lord being willing. I know it's getting icy and bad on the roads.

And we got people here that come from Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, and Ohio, and Illinois. And this little group of people are made up from everywhere.

Some of the people tell me, say, “I passed by your church down there, Billy. Mornings there there's licenses from all over the country here.”

I say, “Yeah.”

One here and one there, that's the way I think the bride will be. “Two in the field; and I'll take one, leave one,” so forth.

And I don't want the people to drive them icy roads.

And I know, too, right after Christmas now, I'll be leaving in the field, the Lord willing. I got about fifteen different services set up now.

And I want to announce, on next Sunday, the Lord willing, I want to teach on a very outstanding message to me. I've been studying, this week and the week before, on Bible history. And I want to speak on the subject of “Christianity Versus Paganism (Idolatry),” next Sunday.

And then the next Sunday is Christmas Eve day, next Sunday . . . and Sunday, a week, I mean, pardon me. Sunday, a week, is Christmas Eve day. Now if I give out for a message, and those, some of my dear friends, come from Alabama and Mississippi and Georgia, and around like that, the little children will sure be disappointed on the night of Christmas. And if the Lord puts upon my heart to bring the Christmas message to the church, I will then, if God being willing, I promise everyone that's out of town, see, I'll send you the tape myself, see, so you won't have to leave your kiddies out for Christmas Eve night. And then I'll send you the tape, at my compliments of the meeting. And just remember that.

Another thing, you know, you can't expect everybody to believe everything you say. It just doesn't work that way.

I forgot this morning, rushing away quickly, on account of getting down here. I happened to look up. . . . Brother Wood brought my wife and them down. I looked up, and it was almost time to start the service down here, for me to come in. And they told me, Billy called me last night, and said they wanted me here this morning, to hear these minutes read from the last meeting.

I was going to bring a history, just to try to straighten something that I've said. No matter how clear you try to make it, still there is someone doesn't get it. It's about altars in church, see. Someone said, “Brother Branham don't believe in an altar in a church.” I do believe in an altar at church, see. But altars was not the place where people come to pray. There never was an altar call made anytime in the Bible. There is no such a thing.

And I want to bring you, I will next Sunday, in the history of the early church, that. . . . The reason there was no altars in the church, because falling prostrate at an altar is a pagan form of worship, and is not a Christian idea at all. Now, I will speak on that, also, next Sunday. But there was no altars in the early church to make altar calls. There was nothing but just a hollow room. That's all. No crucifix, no nothing, there was nothing in the room but just a flat floor. The people were . . . the Pentecostal church in the early days, as I will bring you from many different historians, next Sunday, the Lord willing. And I want to bring it to you from Ironside's Early Pilgrim Church, and from Hislop's Two Babylons, from Pre-Nicene Fathers, The Nicene Council, oh, so many of them, Hazeltine's writings of the early church, and different ones, you see, to show you that nowhere. . . .

Even in Ireland, where I have visited in the church that the Catholics call a Catholic saint, St. Patrick; but was absolutely not one speck of history nowhere that says that. St. Patrick was nothing but a protester of the Roman church. There is nowhere, no one can produce any history that will show that he was a Catholic. All of his schools was in Northern Ireland. Then when this Catholic emperor come in in England, he put to death ten thousand of St. Patrick's people. And the church is still standing there today, his schools, all in Northern England.

And where you hear them say, “St. Patrick run all the snakes out of Ireland,” you know what it was, the historical facts of it? He believed in Pentecost, that had power to pick up serpents, take up serpents. And that's the reason it got started.

And Peter being crucified, head down, in Rome, there's not in the martyrology. And I've searched every one, everywhere, and read of historians, everything I know of, and there is not one Scripture that said either Paul or Peter was ever killed in Rome. It's dogmas. It's just been started by the first Roman church, and it's not truth. There is a whole lot. I'll get in that next Sunday.

Then another thing I have so much, hear about. Someone told me, a great outstanding preacher, he said, “Brother Branham, why don't you leave them women alone?” He said, “You know, people regard you as a prophet. Why don't you teach them high spiritual things?” That man may be sitting present. If it is, I want you to get this, brother. “Why don't you teach them high spiritual things, where you climb, and let them climb there; instead of telling them about not cutting their hair, and the kind of dresses to wear?”

If you are here, or hear the tape, brother. . . . If I can't get them out of kindergarten, how am I going to teach them algebra? They haven't got the decency and morality about them to even let their hair grow out and wear . . . dress like ladies. How're you going to teach them spiritual things? Don't know the first . . . don't know ABC's. And try to teach them something high, give them a college education when they don't know ABC? Let them learn ABC's first, and then we'll go on to that.

Now, last week you had a great man here at the pulpit, to take my place. That was Brother William Booth-Clibborn, which is known amongst all the preachers to be the prince of the preachers. Great man, great, great preacher. Frankly, he is one of the best there is in the lands, anywhere. The man can preach the gospel in seven different languages, so you can imagine what he is. And he is a full gospel preacher.

He was the one that stayed with me in that debate with them seven Church of Christ preachers that time. And if there ever was people I felt sorry for, it was them men after he got through with them. I never heard such in my life. They even got up and started to walk away. He met them at the door, said, “I thought you wanted to talk about divine healing?”

And he is so flat, though, just so awful flat. He just called them everything he could—“ignoramuses” and everything, you know. So, he is real flat, and that's the only thing about him. If he'd just season that knowledge with some love, it would be different, you see. And he may be here. Yeah, but I mean that, you know, like that—if he'd just be real sweet about it. But, oh, my, he's an Englishman, and he just really can get so stirred up.

But he met them at the door, and pointed his finger in their face, said, “You ever jump on him again,” (that was me) said, “I'll expose you before the public, and I really will make a bunch of donkeys out of you,” he said. I've never heard of them since, see. I don't blame them. I'd stay away also. Yes, because you'll never get a word in edgewise around Brother Booth.

A wonderful preacher, fine man, good Christian, clean, moral man, as far as I know anything about him, and knowed him for years. I got to hear his tape, what he preached on about how holy and high God was, and how we were born in sin; and what could a man ever do that would bring . . . could tell God what to do, see. And that really was wonderful.

Now, the reason I was gone at this time, I had had a week of fasting and prayer, which had led me to have a decision.

And I got a little switch here, supposed to be somewhere, that will censor what I didn't want. Oh, here we are. This is it—what I want on tape, and what you don't want on tape. So, brethren, if your tape is a little messed up, well, don't. . . . You can cut that part out. Now, but in there, that way, so many taking, when Brother Mercier and them had . . . the only ones who could take tapes, why, I'd have them to censor them out there before I would let them go out. But in this, anybody can take them now, you see, anybody that wants to take them can take them. And so I have to censor them myself, from this switch right here, what I don't want to say, or let go out over the tapes.

Because, there is some things I can tell you all here, that I certainly wouldn't want to get out with the people. Because, let them alone. If the blind leads the blind, they all fall in the ditch, anyhow, you see. So, just don't offend them. Like Jesus said, “Don't offend them Pharisees.” Said, “If they want some tribute money, go down and cast the hook in the sea, and get the first fish, and take the coin out of his mouth, and go pay them.” Said, “Don't offend them, just let them alone.”

But in all of my life, since I have been a little boy, the Lord has always given me visions, which we are acquainted with here at the church and, I am sure, in the land where these tapes will travel also, of visions. And with this open Bible before me, and before God who I stand, I have never knowed of one of them failing. They've always been perfect.

And I had a vision a few weeks ago, about three weeks now this coming Tuesday, that drove me to my knees, and out into the wilderness to fast and pray. And I put on (being it's cold) heavy insulated underclothes that I use on hunting trips so I wouldn't freeze up around there in my cave and in the woods. And I went up, not. . . .

Someone said, “Well, Brother Branham, did you go up to seek? You ought to have went up to seek a vision from the Lord.”

I said, “No, you don't go. . . . You don't do it that way. You can't pull nothing out of God.”

See that's the reason people keep saying, on interviews, saying, “Ask the Lord. Just stay with it! Just stay with it!”

I had a word of the Lord to take to Brother Neville, about prophesying over everyone that comes by this altar here. God told him . . . really called him down about it, see. Don't do that. You'll shove him out in the flesh and then you'll have a false prophet, see. See, let him do just as the Spirit leads him to do, see.

Don't try to pull nothing out of God, because you can't do it. He'll only speak. . . . Like Balaam, the hireling prophet, said, “I can only speak what God puts in my mouth. Otherwise, I can't say it.”

And that's the same thing, I like this system they got now, so that I can find out just what the Lord would have do. That's very good.

But Jesus went to the wilderness to fast after the Holy Ghost had come upon Him. John bare record, seeing the Spirit of God come upon him, and He was filled with the power of God, God in Him. And then He went into the wilderness to fast, afterwards. Not before, for the Holy Ghost to come on Him; but He went in and fasted after the Holy Ghost came on Him, see.

And now, in the vision, I might say this. I mentioned it once. I was going to cut it off the tape, but I believe I'll just leave it on.

It was about three o'clock in the morning, I suppose. I had gotten up, and I looked where in front of me, and I was coming down to the Jordan. Looked like I was standing on the map of Palestine, and I was coming down to the Jordan. And seemed like I could hear the song, “I'm going down to the Jordan,” someone was singing it. And as I drew near the river I looked back and seen which a-way I had come, and I was two-thirds of the way there, to the Jordan. And I looked across Jordan, and I said, “Oh, praise God, just on the other side is where all the promises lay! Every promise lays in the promised land.”

And then I came to myself. I thought, “Could I have possibly have . . . could it have been that I was a-dreaming, because it's nighttime?” See, a vision is something that you see with your eyes open. Just like a dream, you're looking right at it. And you're conscious that you're standing, like here on the platform. And you're standing here, but yet look like you're in a dream. You can't explain it, there's no way to do it. See, it's God's works. And God's ways are unexplainable. They have to be accepted by faith.

And then as I sat there a little bit, beside this chair, then, all of a sudden, here it come back again. Then I knew then that it was vision. And then when I come into the vision again, it seemed that I was lifted up and sitting on a highway, a narrow highway, with some brother. I never knew who the brother was. I looked around. I said, “Now I am sure and know this is a vision, the Lord God is here.” And seemed like everybody was afraid. I said, “What's everybody so afraid of?”

And a voice came and said, “There is such danger in these days. There's a great hideous thing that's death when it strikes you.”

And I heard the weeds a-mashing down, and I looked, and here come a huge monster snake crawling through the weeds. I thought, “Now, knowing this is vision, then I shall see what this animal or this beast is.” And he crawled up on the highway. And as soon as I got sight of him, I knew it was a mamba. Now, a mamba is an African snake, which is the most deadly bite of all things there is. There's nothing as poison as a mamba. And the snake, of course, represents sin, death, see. And there is the. . . . We have in this country the rattlesnake, and the copperhead, and the cottonmouth moccasin, many of those snakes, that, if you're in a bad health and one would bit you, it would perhaps kill you, if you didn't get aid of some sort right away.

And then we go into Africa and India, and we find the cobra. There's a black cobra. He's a bad snake, he's a death-bite, too. And there's the yellow cobra, which is far beyond him. And the yellow cobra, the patient dies with such a horrible death. It dies from suffocation. It paralyzes the breathing system. And they can't breathe, they can just open their mouth and gasp, trying to, and die like that. And that was the type of snake was just one lick from getting Billy Paul when we got the snake, in Africa.

And then comes the mamba, he's death. Just when he. . . . He's so fast you can't see him. He goes over the top of the weeds and propels hisself with the back of his tail. Just “sssst” and he's gone! Hits you in the face, usually. Stands up high and strikes hard. And when he hits you, you've just got a few breaths till you're finished. It don't only paralyze, get in the blood stream, it gets nerves, everything. You just die just in a few seconds. Them native boys, track boys, you can say “mamba,” and they'll butt their heads together, scream, because it's death just in a few seconds, see, when one hits you.

And here he was on the highway. I thought, “Well, this is it.” So I looked at him. And he looked angry at me, and he licked his tongue, and here he come. But when he got right close to me. . . . He would run up fast, and then he would get slower and slower, and just quiver and stop, and then something would hold him off. He couldn't bite me. And he would turn around on the other side, and try to approach from this side. And he would get back and get a start, and he'd swish right towards me, get slower and slower and slower, and then to a stop, and then shake like that and move back. He couldn't strike me.

Then he turned and looked at my friend, and away he went after my friend. And I seen my friend just jumping way in the air, and over him and over him and over him, trying, and the thing was striking at him. I thought, “Oh, if it ever hits him, it'll be instant death. No wonder everybody is so scared, because when this thing hits you it's an instant death.” And it was just striking at him like that, and I threw my hands up, I said, “O God, have mercy on my brother!” I said, “If that serpent ever strikes him, it'll kill him.”

And just then the serpent turned to me when I said that, and looked at me again. And a voice came from above me, and said, “You have been given power to bind him—the worst, or any.”

And I said, “Well, God, what must I do?”

He said, “There is one thing you must do, you must be more sincere. See, you must be more sincere.”

I said, “Well, God, forgive me for my insincerity, and let me have sincerity.” And when I raised up my hands to Him again, there was a great something came over me, just lifted me up, seemed like that my whole body was charged with something.

And I looked at the serpent. And then he started towards me, and he couldn't do it, yet. And I said, “Satan, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I bind you.” And the serpent, a blue smoke flew out of him, and he curled up and made that sign like an S, capital S made backwards, an and sign, &. And means bind this one or anything below him, because he was the worst. Blue smoke fell out of him, and his tail choked his own self to death around his head, when he made this backward S, that and sign, & (like a conjunction, you see), choked it to death. And the brother was free.

And I went over and mashed on it. I said, “Now I've got to find out about this, because it's vision.” And I hit on the thing, and it turned like that, looked like a handle, a glass handle on a pitcher, and just made it solid crystal. And I said, “Think of that, how quick! That blue smoke was life. And everything had left it, all the elements, and it's turned to glass.”

And just then a voice came again, and said, “You can unbind him, also.”

So I said, “Then, Satan, that I might know, I unbind you.” And when it did, he started coming to life again, wiggling. And I said, “I bind you back, in the name of Jesus Christ.” And when it did, the smoke flew out of him again, and he choked hisself right back again and turned to crystal.

And then when he did that, that voice said, “Now you must be more sincere than what you are, to do this.” Then it left me, and I was standing in the room.

A few moments, I heard a clock go off, and my wife was getting up. The children, you know how it is, I guess, at your house: one, “What am I going to wear today, Mama? Where are my books? And what did I do?” You know. Just like any home, you can't hear yourself think, hardly, for all of them trying to get ready at once.

And so I slipped off into the den room, and I got down on my knees, and I said, “Lord Jesus, I don't know these things. And what must I do? And the children will be calling me to take them to school in a few moments. What must I do?” And I looked around, and my Bible was laying there, and I said, “Lord, if You will forgive me. . . .” I do not believe in just opening up the Scripture, and taking something out of the Bible and saying that, but, there is times that when God can comfort you by such a thing. And I said, “Lord, in this case of emergency right now, before your Spirit leaves me, and I don't know what to do. The kids will be an hour yet, before they'll be gone. Would You just show me? If that was something You're trying to get to me, heavenly Father, then let me know.”

And I took this Bible and just pulled it open like that, and my thumb was laying at I Corinthians, the fifth chapter, the eighth verse, when something reads something like this. “When you come. . . .” I was planning on taking a fast, to the Lord. I'd told Him I'd go out and fast. Said, “When you come to this feast. . . .” Which, a fast in the body is a feast with the Lord. We know that. “So when you come to this feast, don't come with the old leaven or the leaven of malice, and so forth; but come with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth,” just exactly what He had told me in the vision. God is my solemn judge. “Come with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, that is the Word.” Then I seen what He meant.

Years ago, when I seen the Bible come down (I got it wrote right here), come down, and a hand came from heaven and pointed down to Joshua, and read the first nine verses, and stopped there. That's Joshua, come to the wilderness, but never did . . . he was ready. . . . When he got near Jordan, God called him out, said, “This day I'll begin to magnify you before the people. And then he took the children of Israel across Jordan, to the land where . . . give them, divided to them, the promised land.

I went to the woods, and prayed and prayed, and fasted. And, now, I went back to that tree where I had met . . . where those squirrels was, that you've heard in other messages, see, where those squirrels was. And standing there, along about three or four o'clock in the morning, after I had staggered through the brush with what light I could see, to get to the tree, coming early because I was led there. And then I met Him. God, help me to ever live true!

I'm going to read my text now. I have taken for a text this morning, wrote down here somewhere (oh, here it is), Joshua, in the book of Joshua, the tenth chapter. To you who are going to read behind me, the tenth chapter and the twelfth verse.

And I just have one hour. And then I think, I'm not sure, but I believe Billy said he give out prayer cards this morning, said, “There wasn't very many, but some people wanted to be prayed for.” And anybody got prayer cards, raise up your hand now. That's right. Okay, that's fine. All right.

Now, the twelfth verse of the tenth chapter of Joshua.

And now remember, now, in the future, next Sunday I want to speak on “Christianity Versus Idolatry.” And then I'll tell you from then, about whether the Lord leads on for the Christmas message or not. It seems like that I have a message on my heart for the people at Christmas. And then I'll tell you from then.

Now, beginning the reading at the twelfth verse of the tenth chapter of Joshua.

Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and . . . Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.

And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. [Listen now.]

And there was no day like that before . . . or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.

And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp at Gilgal.

May God add His blessings to His Word. Now I wish, if it be the will of the Lord, that you tarry with me for a few minutes. I want to take a subject, strange, odd, upon reading such a scripture. I want your attention and prayer during this time. I want to take the subject of one word: “Paradox.”

And, first, I'd like to explain maybe what a paradox is. In the Webster's dictionary, it says that a paradox means “something that's incredible, but true.” That is a paradox. Something that's almost completely out of reason, couldn't be so but yet it is, that's a paradox. And I want to rest a few minutes on these words, a paradox.

Now we have many things that we could refer to as paradox. One thing that I would like to refer to, is this world itself is a paradox. Its standing is a paradox.

Last night I was talking to my daughter, Rebekah, that's in high school. And I was studying here in the Scripture, and was telling her about reading this verse here. And she said, “Daddy, Joshua actually stopped the world, didn't he?”

I said, “I don't know what he stopped. He stopped the sun.”

She said, “He could not stop the sun, because the sun doesn't travel.”

I said, “The reflection of it travels across the earth, though, and he stopped that.”

She said, “Well, then God stopped the world.”

I said, “Then, to the agnostic, what happens if the world happens to stop and loses gravitation? It would shoot through space like a star, and missiles of it would be falling for hundred billions of years in space.”

But the Bible said that the sun stopped, and held its place for a whole day. I believe it. I believe it. It's unreasonable and incredible, but it's the truth.

Pray tell me then, which is the top side of the world, the North Pole or the South Pole? How do you know, if you're in space? You say, “The South Pole is down under us.” They think the North Pole is down under them, see.

It's standing in a space, in a little circle of air, as it's turning some thousand-something miles per hour. Because, there's twenty-four or twenty-five thousand miles around it, and it turns around in twenty-four hours, so it make it going better than a thousand miles an hour, traveling around. And it never misses, striking exactly. Where it's on the equator where it goes around, it never misses a minute; perfectly timed, standing in the air. If that isn't a paradox, I don't know what one is. How that all the heavenly systems, how they are so timed so perfectly till that in years that's to come, twenty and thirty years from now, science can see the coming of the eclipse of the sun and the moon, passing; and can tell you to the moment when they will pass and when the eclipse will start.

No matter how fine a watch that we have, one of the precision. . . . I've got one here that was give to me in Switzerland, as a present, when I was there. The value is about three hundred dollars, in American money. That was give to me. There isn't a week but what it has to be retimed. All clocks, nothing that man can make is so perfect. In a few years it'll be worn out and gone. As it gets older, it'll get worse all the time. The jewels will wear down. The accuracy of it will leave it. There is nothing that can be ground or fixed out by man, or honed out by man, that can stay perfect.

But this world stays perfect! What controls it? Well, you say, “I don't know what controls it, what holds it in its place.” It truly is a paradox. You cannot describe how God does it, but He does it. So that's the main thing, that He does it. And we know that it's so.

It's incredible how that. . . . You could spin a ball in the air—it will not make one complete revolution in the same place.

I was thinking, here some time ago, when I was in the desert. And one of these little old jumping cactuses that the acids in your blood will draw right to you, one of those fellows jumped onto me. And you can't pick it off. You have to take something and rake it off. And it's got little burrs on it. And no matter how well you sharpen a needle, a needle will be blunt on the end. A perfect sharpness of a needle—will be as perfect as you could get it—it'll be blunt, to one of those jumping cactuses. And yet it is a leaf, itself, rolled down tight. How could it be that nature could roll a leaf tighter and sharper on the point than a fine machine could grind one? And yet, plumb down to the end of that point is little fishhook burrs like that, little burrs to keep it, to hold itself in as it goes. Oh, a paradox, right, to science. It's incredible, but it's true.

I would like for someone to explain this. I could not tell you exactly the miles, or how many miles science says that the moon is from the earth. But how could that moon, I would say standing millions and millions of miles away from the earth, and yet controls that tide of the sea. What does it? How can it be done? It's a paradox, but yet we look and see that it's done. It happens. The moon controls the tides. When the moon rocks out like this, from the earth, the tide goes with it. And God has put the moon over the tides, and set the boundaries. And they cannot pass that boundary where God drawed a line, and said, “See, you can come this close, but you cannot take the rest of it, for I've put my guard over you.”

That moon, millions of miles from the earth, calls to that sea, and it sets its boundaries and controls it. Incredible! What is on that moon? When, just a few miles off the earth, all gravitation, all air, everything else, leaves, goes out into space where there is not even air, for millions and millions and multiplied millions of miles. Yet, it controls it! Says, “You can go so far, but you can't go no farther, for I am the guard of God. I'm the watchdog that sits here, and you cannot pass these boundaries.” Explain that. That's a paradox, how that God does that, but yet He does it. It cannot be explained.

We got wintertime, snow on the ground, cold, ground is freezing. A little seed, and in that little seed is a germ of life, and that little seed will freeze and burst open, and the pulp will run out of it. And that germ of life will be laying in the dust, in a frozen sheet of ice that would kill any life. How is it preserved, and then comes again in the springtime? Couldn't explain that, could we? It's a paradox.

We take Hebrews, the eleventh chapter and the twenty third verse. We understand there that the Bible says, Paul speaking, that the world was framed and put together by the word of God. A paradox, that a word could speak and out of that word would form material things, so that things that do appear was made out of things that does not appear. Things that we see was the spoken word of God. The earth is the word of God. The trees are a word of God. Why would we be afraid to trust One that's given such a word, with such power and authority? Why would we be afraid to take that word to ourselves and apply it to our own self? It shows where we have fallen, in unbelief. The Word, God's Word, a paradox! Truly a paradox, God's Word.

Also, I would like to show a paradox right quick, and that's when God called Abraham and told him, when he was a hundred years old and Sarah was ninety—forty years a-past the time of menopause for her. And Abraham, whose life was as good as dead, and Sarah, who was barren to begin with, and her womb as good as dead, and yet God said that He would bring through them a child. That's a paradox. Ask the doctor if a woman a hundred years old could raise a baby, have a baby. It's impossible, it's incredible, but she did it—because God said she would do it.

It's an incredible thing, to think that a man could sit with His back turned to a tent, a stranger with dust on His clothes, and tell a woman who was in the back of the tent what she was thinking about. A paradox, incredible, but yet it's true.

It was incredible, when Abraham taken Isaac to the top of the mountain, his only begotten son, and took him up to the top of the mountain to offer him up as a sacrifice. And when he got to the top of the mountain and laid Isaac on the wood, and was ready to take his life, and when he was coming down with his hand, something caught his hand! And there was a ram hooked by its horns, in the wilderness, on top of the mountain. A paradox! Where did the ram come from? How could it be a hundred miles from civilization, without being killed; with lions and jackals, and wild dogs and beasts, and things? Where did it come from? How did it get there, and up on top of the mountain where there is no water? Why wasn't it there when he picked up the rocks? He called the name Jehovah- jireh, “the Lord has provided Himself a sacrifice.” Incredible, but yet is so true, for He is Jehovah jireh. Incredible things to our knowledge and science, but yet it is true! A great paradox!

It was a paradox, and will be, when Jesus (Mark 11:22 or 23), when He said, “If you say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you have said will come to pass, you can have what you've said.” It's incredible, but it's true. It's a paradox.

May I stop here to say, yonder in that woods, sitting by the side of that tree that morning, no squirrels in the woods, but when a voice spoke and said, “Say where they'll be”!

And there, so help me, if I die before I finish this message, pointing my finger to a bare-limbed walnut tree, said, “He'll sit right there,” and there he was! Incredible, but true!

He said, “Where will the next one be?”

I said, “Over in that bunch of clumps of stuff,” and I never took my finger down till there he was!

“Where will the next one be?”

“Out on that snag out over that field.” And there he was! It's incredible.

I asked my wife, the other morning, I said, “Honey, have I lost my senses? Am I becoming a madman? What's the matter with me? Why do I say the things I do? What do I do the things I do for? What makes me?” I love people, and yet just rip them apart. And I fast and pray to get rid of it; and the more I fast and pray, the worse it comes. Incredible, but it's true! It's true.

I seen a woman raise her hand just then, back in the building, praising the Lord. It was Hattie Wright, sitting down there. When she had two boys, if they'll excuse me in saying this, renegades, boys of the world. . . . That little woman sitting there that day, a widow, and I said, “Hattie, the Lord God . . . you said the right thing. He provided those squirrels. He's Jehovah-jireh.”

She said, “That's nothing but the truth of God!” Oh, she said the right thing! It seems incredible that a human being could speak a word. . . .

As Brother Booth told you, as dirty and filthy as we are, who is He that sits back yonder beyond the moon and stars, and all space and time and eternity? As even Booth said it, and I read the same thing the other day, reading Irenaeus, that even the angels are dirty in His sight. Who are we?

But a woman said the right thing, that calls the heart of Jehovah! Said, “Ask her what she wants, and then give it to her.” Amen. Incredible, but true! Right here now in our sight is visible evidence. She asked for her boys' souls to be Christians. God gave her her desire. Incredible! That was more of a miracle than healing a sick person. That's changing a man's life, his soul, body, and all he is. It changed his make up. Incredible, but true! It was a paradox. We see it everywhere.

Paradox in Noah's time. When Noah, a man, just an ordinary man, he became a prophet, or was a prophet of the Lord, perhaps farming. God told him, “Prepare for a rain to come from heaven,” when there was no rain. There had never been no rain. There is no way to get rain up there. It had never rained on the earth. There was no seas, there was no waters, but yet God told him to make an ark for the saving of his house. And God brought the rain down! It was a paradox. Unscientific, but what? It was a paradox, anyhow. Yes.

It was a paradox when the Hebrew children that had decided they would stay with God's Word, regardless of what happened, that the king built the furnace seven times hotter than it ever had been het, and throwed those men in there. When the intense heat of the furnace killed the men who walked up the gangplank with them to the mouth of the furnace, they died. But yet those men walked in that furnace for perhaps three hours. There would be no more even dust of them, for the human life that was in them would have perished. If it made one human life perish by coming close to it, what would it do another human life? But they throwed them in there, and let's say three hours. It might have been five.

He might have went and had lunch, and come back, said, “Open up the furnace door. There won't even be dust of them fellows left!” But when he opened the door, there they were, unharmed, walking around in the fire. Incredible, but true! Why? He said, “How many did you put in?”

They said, “We have put three in.”

He said, “I see four. [That's what made the paradox.] And that one looks like the son of the gods.” He wasn't a son of the gods; He was the Son of God! They were heathens. Oh, God in His great Word!

There come a time when God's army had got cowardly and was afraid of a man, and stood on the side of a hill. When they let one man that was three times any of their size, stand out on the side of the hill, and say, “Now you trust in a real God, you say. One of you fellows come out and fight me, and we won't have any bloodshed.” The enemy of God had backed the church of God against the hillside, and they were taking it! They were afraid. They were cowards.

And in the camp come a little bitty fellow, little sheepskin wrapped around him, a shepherd's coat, the smallest man in the whole army, and not even a soldier. But it was a paradox when God took that one man, that one little unconcerned fellow. The Bible said he was ruddy. That one little man put the whole army, the enemy, to flight! That was a paradox. Looks like God would have give that great marching army enough courage to go fight. They were servants of God, why not go fight the battle of God? That's God's enemy, take it! Looks like He would have give them courage. But God took one little individual.

And remember, another paradox, he never took a sword. Saul tried to put his armor on him, tried to put a sword in his hand. The poor little fellow couldn't hold it up. And he took a slingshot, a little rubber . . . or, a little leather, with two pieces of string wrapped on it. And he defeated the whole army of the enemy, and put them to rout. It was a paradox, how that one little boy could put an army to running.

It's a paradox. Sure. God does it. He's just full of it. Sure, He is. That's what He does. That's His way of doing it. Yes, sir.

It was a paradox.

When Egypt had a great army that they had, the whole world was conquered. They had every nation under their hands. And when God decided to destroy that army, destroy that nation, looked like He would have raised up some Amorite army, or some great army somewhere, and would have sent them down there with better equipment; or put a consolidation of all the denominations together, to go down and to fight together, so he'd get full cooperation. But, God used a paradox. He took an old man, eighty years old, and never put a sword in his hand, but an old crooked stick, that sunk Egypt in the bottom of the Dead Sea. Incredible, what God can do; but that's the way He does it. He uses paradoxes to do it. See, He brings it to a paradox, a crooked stick of a shepherd instead of a marching army, to defeat a nation that ruled the world.

Oh, the only thing God is waiting on now, I believe. . . . Russia don't mean nothing to God. He wants to get one man. He don't have to have big organizations. He don't have to have big denominations. He wants to get one man that He can wrap His Spirit into him! That will tell the rest of it—there will be another paradox. Until He can get someone completely surrendered, that will do that. That's the way God does His work. He uses paradoxes.

It was a paradox when a great soldier of God, by the name of Jehoshaphat, stood in the gates with a backslidden man by the name of Ahab, and said, “Before we go to this battle, is not it a good thing that we consult the Lord?” Now, if that man's heart is hungry to know the will of God, there's got to be a will of God somewhere.

Not always in the multitude of counsel it's safety. Ahab says, “I've got all my ministers. They're all prophets. I'll call them up here. And you know, if I bring out four hundred prophets, we'll find the word of the Lord.”

Not always you do, not always. If it's not with the Word, then stay away from it. I don't care how many is there. Stay with that Word. God can't take that Word back.

Now, he brought them all out there, and they all prophesied with one accord that the Lord was with them. “Go up!”

But yet there was something wasn't right. And that man of God knowed that wasn't right. He said, “Haven't you got one more? Just another one, somewhere?”

“Oh,” said, “we got one, but I hate him.”

Said, “Don't let the king say so.”

God chose one illiterate boy, a little renegade to the nation, a despised and rejected one, to bring His message to the hungry-hearted. Instead of all the denominations together speaking with one accord in union, God brought one person. A paradox, but the man had the truth. And it proved to be the truth, because he was with the Word. It was a paradox, exactly.

Now you say, “You mean you disagree with all this and that, and that?” If it's not with the Word, I disagree with it. That's right. God's Word will never fail.

Talking with a priest, not long ago, he said, “Mr. Branham, you are trying to argue a point from a Bible.” Said, “We believe the church, nothing but that. We believe the church, what the church says. God is in His church.”

I said, “God is in His Word, and He is the Word.” That's right, the Word!

That's the reason Micaiah took the Word. And God used a paradox to put every denomination to shame, and brought to pass the word of the servant of God. One man, despised, rejected, hated! What? Hated by his own people. Now, he wasn't a communist, or he wasn't something else. Let's say he was Pentecostal, and the Pentecostal groups hated him. They didn't like him. They had nothing to do with him. But he had the Word of God. God made a paradox out of it.

Why wouldn't he, if all these other fellows are prophets and ministers, and so forth, why can't in all this whole big group decide something better than one person? Seems unreasonable that God would just make one man's word right, than the rest of them.

Because, that man's word was God's Word. That's the reason God brought the thing to pass, because the man was with God's Word. The others were prophesying a lie. Yes, it was a paradox when God took one little fellow's word, and made it true, because it was His Word. God has to stand by His Word. not the council's word, but, God's Word—that's who He stands by.

He took Micaiah instead of a well-trained school of ministers, renowned men. Nothing against them—they were great men. They were men who believed in not another god; they believed in the same God Micaiah believed in. But they acted like they believed in it, but wouldn't take His Word, because they wanted to be popular. They wanted to find favor with the king, and their blindness overlooked the true Word of God. How could God bless what He had cursed?

You ladies and men, both, don't think that I do this to be nasty. I do it to be honest. That's the reason. How can I say that women should have . . . all right . . . let them cut their hair off, and things like that, wear their clothes. . . ? That ain't got nothing to do with it? God's Word says it does! She is shameful and disgraceful as long as she does it, and God will never deal with her. I don't care how much she speaks in tongues, or jumps or shouts, she's not got anywhere with God yet. That's the Word of the Lord.

Men, you who can't rule your own house, and then try to be preachers and deacons? How are you fit to be a preacher in the pulpit, to lead the church of the living God, and divide for them their inheritance? when you think more of your meal ticket and the offering that comes in than you do the Word of God, and ashamed to say it before the women, afraid you won't be popular. God have mercy on your sinful soul!

Speak the Word of God in truth!

John said, “The ax is laid at the root of the tree,” and the ax is the Word of God. “Every tree that don't bring forth the right fruit, hew it down and cast it into the fire.” God, bring us another paradox!

Why did God take John the Baptist, as I was just speaking of, instead of His well-trained priests of that day? He took a man that never went to school a day in his life. So we understand—that John went into the wilderness, the age of nine years old, and was alone with God.

A few days ago, in reading of the Nicene Council. . . . That was a long time after the death of the last apostle, St. John. When those men come up there to that Nicaea Council, some of those old brothers embarrassed the rest of them. They come there dressed in sheep skins; upon those robed emperors, like Constantine and the bishops of Rome. Old sheep skins wrapped around them, and lived in the wilderness on herbs; but they were prophets of the Lord. The little church, the Greek side, went on; the Roman side went back. But it goes to show, when you compromise you can't be a servant of Christ.

John—in that day, the church was very orthodox, they had the priests, the well-trained men. But God chose the man that had no education at all, and took him out of the wilderness, with a piece of sheepskin wrapped around him, and his whiskers all burred out, his hair hanging over his neck. No pulpit to preach from, no church to invite him. But he probably stood in mud, half to his knees, and preached, “The kingdom of God is at hand!” God chose that man.

Jesus said, “Who did you go out to see, a man that can speak at all the schools, a man that's finely robed, and so forth?” He said, “They're in kings' palaces.” Said, “What did you go to see, a prophet?” He said, “More than a prophet. This is who the prophet spoke of would come, 'I send my messenger before my face.' ” He was the angel of the covenant. He was the great forerunner.

But it was a paradox, how it got. Why didn't He come down to that big school up there at Jerusalem? Why didn't He come to Caiaphas, the high priest? Why did He not come to some of those great, trained men who had been trained from childhood? And their fathers had been trained before them, and their fathers before them, for generation after generation after generation, trained and schooled, fine, high-cultured, educated. And then pick an old man out in the wilderness, that never had a day's schooling in his life, and set him out there on the Jordan, and said, “This is him.” A paradox, exactly. Incredible, but yet it was true. God did it.

The virgin birth of our Lord, incredible, for a woman to bring a child without knowing a man. God did it. God did it. See, it's a paradox. Took a little old woman down there, a little old girl, engaged to some man about forty-five years old, she herself was about sixteen or eighteen, and engaged to this man who was a widower, of four children. And then took this woman and overshadowed her by the Holy Spirit, and conceived in her womb the body that tabernacled Almighty God. A paradox!

How that heaven can't hold Him! Earth is His footstool, heavens is His throne, and yet could bring the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and embody it into a man. Oh! When you can measure for hundreds of billions of miles into aeons of time, and never measure God; and yet a little baby laying in a manger contained the fullness of His Godhead bodily. Jehovah! A paradox! That great God, who sits back yonder, to control a hundred million suns shining on planets, who never began and never ended, and would embody Himself in a manured stable!

And then we get out and dance and drink, and carry on, in a celebration. It's not a celebration; it's a worship. We celebrate Christmas, how that God did that in order He could die, to take the place of a sinner.

It was a paradox when a little curly-headed boy, little stoop-shouldered fellow, he probably wasn't five-foot tall, and he had seven locks hanging down around his head—a little sissy. . . . And he was on his road down one day to see his girl friend, and a lion roared against him.

Did anybody ever hear a real lion roar? You probably have, in these cages and things around here. But I want to tell you, they're just meowing then. You ought to hear a wild one really roar. The rocks will fall off the hill a half a mile away; pebbles will roll down the hill, it just vibrates the ground so. Where that roar comes from, I don't know.

Oh, I seen one one day, he was hanging his head down. A big old yellow-mane lion roared at a black one, because (a black mane), because he had picked up a piece of meat. He left it laying there, and he just as much as to say, “Now you leave that alone, I'm going down to get a drink of water.” And he went down to lap the water. When he come back, this black mane had been licking on it. The old pappy just stopped, put his head down, and he let out a belch, and I say that the rocks rolled off the hill. Oh, my! He'd shake the city, if he roared like that here. A roar of the lion, oh, he is ferocious!

And that roar run out against this little curly-headed shrimp (we'd call him), and something happened. That little shrimp walks over and gets him by the mouth, puts one hand down this way and one in that way, not nervously, and just pulls him apart and lays him down there. That's a paradox. What caused it? If you'll notice the reading just before it, “And [the conjunction] the Spirit of the Lord came upon him.” That's what made the difference. And he slew the lion.

Then one day some Philistines came after him. He was unarmed. There was a thousand of them. They had long spears and big shields, and that's like a door in front of you, like that, the shields. Just think of a great big brass shield now, all the way in front of you, with helmets of brass on, big coats of brass, and all over their shins and everything with brass; great big long spears, long as them out to that pole there, maybe fifteen, twenty feet long. Big brass heads on them like that, sharp as a razor. And they found this little curly-headed shrimp coming down from Palestine, to visit some girl friend of his down there. So they said, “There is that little fellow. Let's go take him!” One man could have took him by the end of that spear, and just lifted him up and shook him a little bit, and he'd've fell right down to his hand, down to the hilt on the spear. Why, he's just a little bitty old guy.

Some people, the artists, trying to draw Samson with shoulders he couldn't have walked in this tabernacle. Well, that wouldn't be no mystery, a man that size. Samson was just a little bitty old thing, but the Spirit of the Lord is what was big, see. He takes the. . . . It's dishonoring the Scripture to say he was a man that size.

God always takes the foolish and ignorant things like that, to do His work with, you see. He takes something that's nothing.

So this little fellow was standing out there, and all at once here come these Philistines and surrounded him to kill him. And he took the jawbone of a mule that was laying there, a wild one, a little donkey's. Picked up the jawbone of that mule. And the Spirit of the Lord came on him. And there was a paradox, how that he beat down with the jawbone of a mule through that half-inch-thick helmet over the top of the head. With the jawbone of a mule! Why, the first, that old dry jawbone laying there, the first lick he would have hit it, it would have bursted into a thousand pieces, over the top of one of those helmets or those big shields. When a thousand rushed in upon him, and he beat every one of them to death. Paradox! That was when the Spirit of God come upon him.

Oh, if we could only be jaw bones in the hand of God, there would be another paradox. Yes, it was.

It was a paradox when Jesus our Lord took five biscuits and two little fish, and broke them, and fed five thousand. And taken up basketsful of remainings, little parcels that some of them didn't eat. They'd lay four or five fish down at this table, and four or five loaves of bread, and then go over here and lay four or five loaves of bread. And some of them couldn't even eat it all, just left them laying there. So they picked them up, basketsful of them. Oh! See? How did He do it? It's incredible that a man could take five biscuits and two little fishes and feed five thousand—and take up seven basketsful, left over. It's incredible, but He did it. Why? It was God. It was a paradox. It's incredible, but He did it.

It was incredible, and never before or after, on a stormy sea, and the waves so high till it was sinking the ship, when a man come walking down across those waves. I can just see every time the great big whitecap comes around Him, it just bursts and falls down towards the bottom, and He walks right on, just like He was on a piece of concrete. Walking upon the sea, in time of a storm! Let science figure that one out. What held Him up there? What kept Him on that sea, when it's a half a mile deep right in there? When those great waves, many times bigger than this tabernacle, splashing, why, it filled the little boat and waterlogged it. It was wet inside and out, and it was sinking. The mast poles had broke down, and the oars was gone, and all hopes of being saved was gone. And here come somebody walking on the water! A paradox, sure. Incredible, cannot be explained, but He did it. Oh, yes, He did it, come walking on the water.

It's incredible that this same one (O God, I hope this drives home!),

incredible, a real paradox, that this same one, Jesus of Nazareth, would choose a bunch of ignorant fishermen for His church, instead of the well-trained priests and denominations of that day. How that a God that had all wisdom, that could walk on the waters, that could turn water into wine, that could take five biscuits and feed five thousand people, and take up seven basketfuls left over! How that that same one—the God that sits in eternity yonder, that's so bright till the suns hide their face from Him, the very pool of wisdom and purity, and of understanding and knowledge, supreme of the supremes—that He would come to a place where a great organization of churches had all gathered together and trained all their men, and He'd go down and pick up a bunch of dirty, stinking fishermen that couldn't even write their own name, and choose that type of men to set the church in order for His bride. Strange thing, isn't it? Looks like at least He'd have took somebody was trained.

He's the trainer, He's the one who does it. Strange that He had did it. Instead of taking church men, He took fishermen to do it. Very odd, but that's the way He does it. It's true.

It's a real paradox.

When God took a bunch of ignoramuses, as we'd call them today, holy-rollers, poor of this world's goods, and poured out the Holy Ghost on them in an upper room; instead of pouring it out upon the Sanhedrin Council where all the theologians sat, where all the great men was, where the head of all the churches, where the ones that had studied in the Scriptures. . . . And had made a great school, well trained, and waiting for the coming Messiah, and knowing that they would be the one who would walk out and meet Him, and say, “Messiah, You came down as if on an airplane's wings, You sat down here on the temple steps, we seen You come down out of heaven, from the golden corridors of heaven. Now, we're all trained and ready to go to work. We got our schooling, we got our Bachelor of Art, we got our Ph.D., LL.D., and all this. We're all trained. Here we stand, ten-thousand strong. We're ready for You. Come on! We're waiting, calling, 'Come!' ”

But instead of that, He goes down and gets a bunch of people that didn't hardly know right hand from left. That's right. And put them in the upper room, and poured out His Spirit, O God, upon a bunch of people like that. Instead of taking the Sanhedrin Council, He took fishermen. Isn't it strange that He didn't use their education? It pleased God.

It seems to please God to make His own church a paradox. The same thing He is doing right now, making a paradox out of His church, bypassing all the great highfalutin', all this stuff there that's so-called church. And He'll . . . anybody that He can get into His hand, that'll open their eyes and see what's truth, and test it with the Word of God in the time that we're living, and place them into the body. A paradox! God chooses such. He makes His church a paradox—odd people, strange people.

All these up there in the upper room, come out there speaking in another language, staggering like drunk people, staggering and carrying on. Women, His own mother and all of them in the upper room, come out there jabbering something that nobody could understand what they were doing at first. They had . . . cloven tongues sat upon them. Cloven means “parted.” No one understood what they were doing. They were jabbering around there, acting like they were drunk.

And there stood a bunch of people who was trained, scholars of the gospel, theologians; but God chose—God—to take and leave them sit in their ignorance, with their highly smart in education; and come over here and picked up this bunch of guys that didn't know their ABC's, and poured out His Spirit upon them, made a paradox out of them. Yes, God does that, He does that for His own purpose. He makes His church a paradox. I believe in them. I believe it!

So help me God, I believe the Word! “Let every man's word be a lie, and this be truth.” What this Word says do, let's do it the way this Word says do it. No matter how funny it seems, and how odd you get to be, or anything like that, stay with the Word. You're called old-fashioned, you're called this, that, or the other. What do you care anyhow? Stay with this Word! This is it, the truth. Don't take what someone else says; take what the Word says.

Here some time ago, a minister friend . . . I just heard this told. I believe it. One hot afternoon down in Georgia, he was visiting with a druggist. The old druggist was a fine old Christian brother, full of the Spirit of God. And he said, “Come in and sit down, and let's have a Coke.” They was sitting there, drinking their Coke. He said, “I want to say something to you, and you perhaps will not believe this.”

“Well, let's hear it first,” said the minister.

He said, “I have always tried to do my best for God.” He was a deacon in a church. He said, “I've always tried to live to my calling, and do that which was right.” He said, “I've never cheated anybody. I've always testified for my Lord everywhere I could.” And said, “My drugs here,” said, “I've tried to carry the very highest class that could be bought. I've never overcharged anybody. I've tried to do everything was right that I knowed how to do to serve the Lord.” He said, “I'm going to tell you what happened.”

Said, “My son, who is studying to be a druggist, too, to follow me, he was in the front of the building there one day.” And said, “It was during the time of the depression.” Said, “A little lady walked into the door,” and said, “you could see what her trouble was. She was to be a mother. And her husband, and both of them, poorly dressed.” Said, “They give the prescription over to my son,” and said, “to have it filled, for the woman was in need of this certain thing that the doctor had prescribed for her.” And said, “He said, 'This will be so much, such-and-such,' when the to-be father asked 'How much will it be?' 'So-and-so.' He said, 'Sir, I will not be able to get the prescription fulfilled . . . or, filled,' he said, 'because that I haven't any money.' ”

Well, he said, “My son said, 'Go right down the street there, just a half a block, or a block, and turn left, and you will see where the place is where they have charity. And you go there to the county, and they will perhaps give you the money to have . . . or an order, that they'll pay for this prescription, because the lady has to have the medicine right away.' ” And said, “He went out of the place, started. . . .”

And said he listened to his son, and something said, “Oh, no, don't do that.” Said, “That woman needs that.” Said he happened to think, “That long line of people down there! It's hard for a well man to stand in the line, let alone a mother in that condition.”

Said, “I said to my son, 'Go, call them, tell them to come back.' ” He said, “And I rushed to the door, and said, 'Come back. Come back.' They come back and I said to my son, 'Fill that. There is no charge.' ”

And said, “My son give me the prescription, and I went over and had it filled. And filled it up the best that I could, and brought it out to give to the lady, and tell her that there would be no charges on this. That was all right, because she was in need of it real bad, and I'd get by without it, the money for it.”

So said, “I just started to lay the medicine in her hand. And when I did, I looked at the hand, and it was scarred.” Said, “I looked up, and I was putting it in Jesus' hand.” Said, “I learned then that the Scriptures, what it meant, 'Insomuch as you've done unto the least of these, my little ones. . . .' ”

Said, “Do you believe that?” this fellow said to me.

“Why, sure, I believe that.” It was a paradox. Incredible, but it's true.

How about the great St. Martin of Tours. When he, being a soldier, was one night coming down a cold, dark street, and there was a. . . . In this cold, dark street laid an old bum, laying on the street, freezing. His blood was freezing in his veins. And Martin, yet not a Christian. . . . And anyone who has read Bible history knows of St. Martin. The historian the other day that was trying to get his card. . . . That's the one I picked for the third church age, St. Martin, because he had signs following. And St. Martin looked down, before. . . . He was a soldier, and there laid this old man, laying in the street, freezing. And he looked. And he had one coat; without the coat, he would freeze. He took his knife and cut the coat in half, and wrapped the bum up in it. Put the other half around himself and went walking on.

That night, when he got into his room, and had sat down, he heard someone come into the room. He looked. Here come Jesus, wrapped in that piece of coat. That was his call to the ministry.

He become a saint. He spoke in tongues. His school was trained. He trained his people right with the Word of God. He didn't care about what the first church of Rome or any of them said. He stayed right with the Word of God. He taught them—speaking in tongues, and laying hands on the sick, they raised the dead, they cast out devils. One man, his friend, had been killed, and he went and laid his body over him (asked if he could see him a few minutes). He and his buddy come walking out together. Why? It was a paradox. Sure, God did it.

I believe in paradoxes. Yes, sir, I believe. I believe in them with all my heart.

It was a paradox when all the smart men there was in the world and God put the key to the kingdom in the hands of the one that was considered the ignorant and unlearned. That's right. One of the smartest men in the world in that day was Caiaphas, the high priest. Another was the emperors and the kings and the great men of the earth, like presidents and so forth—all these great men.

And what is the most important thing in the world? Is God's church! God made the earth. He made it for a purpose—to take a church out of it, a bride. And that's the most important job in the world.

And the smartest men He had was emperors and kings, and potentates and monarchs, high priests and church men. He could have took any of those. But it was a paradox when He called a man who couldn't even sign his own name, and said, “I'll give you the keys to the kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth, I'll bind it in heaven. What you loose on earth, I'll loose it in heaven.

(Say, I just thought of that about that vision, “What you loose or bind.”)

“What you bind on earth, I'll bind in heaven. What you loose on earth, I'll loose in heaven.” Yes. He give that not to a learned high priest, Caiaphas, but to an ignorant fisherman. Truly a paradox!

We see Paul, a little old hook-nosed Jew, on his road down, arrogant, going down to bind them people making that noise, and shouting and things; throwing them in jail, making havoc of the church; stoned Stephen, witnessed to it, and held their coats. He was a terror. How would God ever choose a man like that?

And look, the bishops (all the apostles), they said, “We'll make a choice, somebody to take Judas' place.” And who do they choose? They chose Matthias. Matthias, I believe it's called. Matthias, yeah, Matthias. They chose him by casting lots, and not one thing did he ever do. He seemed to be a righteous man; and God chose the most high-tempered, meanest guy there was in the land to take his place. Paradox! That's what God does. Paradox!

It was a paradox when this ungodly, high-headed, high-tempered, mean, despisable Jew was on his road down one day to a city, to bind the Christians and put them in jail, and when all at once he was stricken down. And when he looked up, there stood that pillar of fire, and a voice coming, saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” It was a paradox when he could see it, and the rest of them couldn't see it, see.

Somebody said, “Oh, I never see that. There is no such a thing there. You don't. . . . That's wrong.” About this today, they say, “I don't believe such.” No, sure not. Certainly not. But there is those there that does see it. Sure, if you're blind you can't see it.

A fellow said to me some time ago, been several years ago, said, “Now, if I'm in your way. . . .” He said, “Now, Paul struck a man blind.” Said, “If I be of the devil,” said, “you strike me blind.”

I said, “That don't necessarily have to be done. You're already blind, see. You're already blind. You're the worst kind of blindness, see.” I said, “Anna, in the temple, could see farther than you can see, and she was blind, physically.” He was blind spiritually. Sure. It was a paradox.

It was a paradox when God made so-called “heresy”. . . . All this noise, and shouting, and praising God, and speaking in tongues, and people who is despised and rejected, and called idiots and heretics; it's a paradox when God, the great Father of all, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who chose a bunch of “heretics” to bring salvation to His church, instead of the well-trained, ecclesiastical, theological system. It's a paradox.

Not long ago I was in a city in Washington, or, I believe it was Oregon. And there was a reporter come, two little reporters, had cigarettes in their hands. They come in. They was going to write me up, and, sure, really good, you know. And they were going on, saying this thing and another thing. And he said, “And are you a holy roller?”

I said, “No.” I said, “I haven't ever rolled. But,” I said, “I guess if He would tell me to roll, I would.”

And so went ahead talking like that, you know. And she said, “Tch, tch, tch, oh. . . .”, going on.

I said, “Just let me tell you something, little lady, you write up anything you want to. You're a Catholic.”

She said, “That's right.” Said, “How did you know I was a Catholic?”

I said, “Well, just the same way I know those other things on the platform, see.” I said, “You're a Catholic. And you go on and write it up, but I'm warning you right now: in thirty days from now, you write it up, and you'll be laying on the side of a road, with your throat cut by glass off of your own car, screaming for mercy, and you'll think of me many times.”

She said, “Aren't you Irish?”

“Yes.”

“Was your people Catholic?”

I said, “Perhaps before me.”

Said, “What would your mother think of such, about you doing the way. . . ?”

I said, “I baptized her in the name of Jesus Christ, and she received the Holy Ghost. Yes.”

And I said, “Now, if you want to go in that way, then I'll take your name and you take my name. Then if it isn't so, then after thirty days, you write it up in the paper that I'm a false prophet. Now you go ahead and write it.”

She said, “Well, I would hate to think, when I got to heaven that a bunch of ignoramuses like is up there at that meeting, would be ruling heaven.”

I said, “You won't have much trouble.” I said, “Unless you change your mind and your way, you won't be there anyhow, see,” I said, “because, they'll be there. God has chosen that.”

It's a paradox, that God has taken the foolish, see, them things. God chose to bring salvation to the world through such a bunch, a paradox, altogether different from their high-trained and polished scholars and theologians and things. God just by-passes that. Takes some little ignoramus and raise it up, and puts His message in him, like He did John, some of the rest of them, Peter and them. Sent them on out and preached the gospel, and bringing in His church, and save them, and bring them back to the earth, and that's all there is to it, see. And just let all this great polished stuff go. Oh, my, it sure is something!

When God chose the ignorant and unlearned, instead of the educated and learned, for His bride! Could you imagine a man choosing his bride, would take. . . ? A man with the highest supreme powers. . . .

(I got a little something here I wanted to say, but I won't have time to say it, about a little parable I seen one time. But I won't be able to say it. I had it jotted down here, but I haven't got time for it.)

But God chose His bride out of a bunch of people like that. Now, anybody say that that isn't so, then you don't believe your Bible. That's exactly right. Read your Bible, that's exactly what.

It was a real paradox when God chose the foolishness of inspired preaching instead of high-polished theology. A man that don't know, hardly, use “hit, hain't, tote, fetch, carry,” all such words as that, and say all kinds of things out of his grammar, and ungrammarized, and everything else like that. And God chose that instead of taking the great scholarly polished, who can really pronounce the words and say it just right. But it pleased God to take the foolishness of inspired preaching—some little old plowboy don't know his ABC's, and take that man and win souls by him; when deceivers, all polished up, just the blind leading the blind. A real paradox!

Oh, the Word is so full of it. Many contexts here, or texts, I have to bypass.

It's true that the big church shines and glitters, with polished theology; while the kingdom glows with humbleness, the poor and humble. The gospel don't shine; it glows. Fool's gold shines; real gold glows. There's a difference between a glow and a shine. We know that. While the big church glitters and shines with high-polished scholars, fine pews, crucifixes all over the wall, and the highest and finest of structures and buildings, and great towering things, all like that; the little kingdom, down in some little alley like here, somewhere, is glowing with the glory of God, filled with the humble in heart, see, God working in them, healing the sick, and raising the dead, and casting out devils, and so forth like that—just letting them pass on by.

There was a great ministerial (don't you forget this), there was a great ministerial meeting here some time ago in a certain city, where some people from right here was at the meeting. And they had a certain man who was going to. . . . Oh, he was a theologian, “he had the message for the day for the people.” And he had studied for two or three weeks on it. That was all right. And when he walked up to the platform, not a wrinkle in his clothes, my, with the finest of things on, you know. Walked up there and stuck out his chest and laid all of his material out for his message. And he really preached an hour's message that could not be touched, intellectually. Oh, how he stuck out his chest, and took the name of LL. Dr. So-and-so, from a certain big school that was so highly polished and scholarly, that he brought such a masterpiece to the people, of psychology and things, said it was wonderful.

But the Christians sitting there, just like at the Nicene Council, it just grieved the Spirit. Oh, it was a masterpiece, sure. Yes, sir. It had all the polish on it could be. But the real Spirit filled people, just, “Hmm.” It just didn't go over. There was no Spirit there to back it up.

So when he come down, he had his head ducked down. He seen it didn't go over right. He was from another school and he was with Pentecostal people. So when he come down off the platform, his feathers was dropped down. Started walking down through there, with all of his stuff under his arm, like this, walking down through the congregation.

There was a wise old saint sitting over on the right-hand side, reached over to another man, and said, “If he would have went up the way that he come down, he would have come down the way he went up.” That's it. If he'd've went up humble, he'd've probably come down filled with the glory. If he would have went up the way he come down, he would have come down the way he went up. That's right. A paradox!

Listen, in closing now, just for a moment before the prayer line. I wanted to say another word or two, about paradox.

The old prophets' visions is still a paradox. It's untouched. Who can say that a man four thousand years ago could've spoke of the horseless carriages, jostling through the broad ways against one another. The Old Testament prophets, how they could foresee things and foretell it, lifted up by the power of God, that saw it way in the years to come, and foretold it to the accuracy of perfection. Explain it! It's a paradox. Oh!

Another one, I want to give you a little one, insignificant—but my conversion was a paradox. I say this with love and respect. My parents has gone on. My mother's people were all sinners—trappers, hunters, and mountain people. My father's people were all drunkards, bootleggers, gamblers, gun-shooters, killing one another, most all of them died with their shoes on. There wasn't a speck of religion, any way, to us. And how did God . . . what was that that come into that little old log cabin up there that morning, that you see pictured on that wall there? What? It's altogether different.

If you put a grain of wheat in the ground, it'll bear a grain of wheat. You put corn in the ground, it'll bear corn. You put a cocklebur in the ground, it'll bear a cocklebur.

But this is a paradox! Each one of you can say the same thing about yourself. We all can think it a paradox of what happened.

Here is another paradox. How can me, after preaching nearly thirty years, could still dread that thought of going yonder? How could it be? After . . . been preaching since I was a little boy, and now here a man fifty-two years old, and then think of dreading. . . . I knowed I was saved, but was dreading of the thought. . . . But the love of God, one morning, came down in my room, lifted me up, and took me into a place where the redeemed was. Indeed a paradox!

I want to ask you something. I might cut this off here now. I want to ask you something. What is that on that picture there? Where did it come from? What's it here for? Science can't deny it. What is it in the meeting that stands there and combs the people through, and tells them back yonder what you did? “You're here for this purpose. You're here for that.” It's incredible to the scientific mind.

Now, we know telepathy. Telepathy is say something . . . like you're saying something and I can say the same thing, see; or, I'm reading your mind, it's happening right then. But when you see that it tells things that'll happen way out yonder, that leaves telepathy alone.

It's incredible that God, in this last days, as He promised He'd do, would do such a thing. But it's true, it's a paradox! The same God that's always had paradoxes showed to me, He's the same God today, because He keeps His Word. Science cannot deny it—there it is on the mechanical camera. It's a paradox, God!

What is it? In Exodus, the thirteenth chapter, we read that God gave the children of Israel, which was a type of the church today. . . . As they journeyed naturally, we are journeying in the Spirit. Next Sunday we're taking that, now. Remember, it's all on that, see. Now, how that where they went on the ground, materially, like this, and God was with them, the church is seated with Christ, in heavenly places, in the spiritual realms a-going, with all dominions under our feet. Hallelujah! Yes, sir. And they had a pillar of fire, a light that they followed. Wherever this light went, they followed that light. Thousands of years has passed, hundreds and hundreds of years has went by, and it's still alive. A paradox! The same yesterday. . . . Fulfilling the Scripture, it's here for a witness; not because of us, but because that God promised it, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It was the One that Moses esteemed the riches of Christ . . . or, the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. And what was the Christ that went before Him? A light, a pillar of fire.

He said, “I come from God and I return to God.” He did. “A little while and the world won't see me no more, yet ye shall see me; for I'll be with you, even in you, to the end of the world.” Right down at the end of the world, He'd be there, too. Here we are!

After His death, burial, and resurrection, St. Paul met Him on the road down to Damascus, He was back to that pillar of fire.

Almost two thousand years has passed since then, and here He is! Not amongst the denominations, not a bunch of high-polished scholars of the day, but a bunch of poor and humble. A paradox! A paradox! To those who love Him, believe Him, thousands around the world who believed Him, it's to fulfill His promise of both New aCustomize Linksnd Old Testament. That's what it is, but it's a paradox.

It was a paradox when God promised to give the kingdom to a little flock, instead of a great organized church. “Fear not little flock, it's your Father's good will to give you the kingdom.” It's a paradox. It's a paradox.

It'll be a real paradox one of these day when Jesus comes, and the dead in Christ shall rise, this mortal takes on immortality, and the rapture of the church comes.

In this Christmas time, when people are shopping, and dancing, and drinking, and celebrating something that they know nothing about, like they was celebrating Washington or Lincoln's birthday, and not worshipping the. . . .

They've still got God in a manger, when God is not in a manger. He's raised from the dead, and alive forevermore, living among us, proving Himself, as the same God that the Nicene fathers carried, and down through the ages has come since the day of Pentecost. The same God that met Paul on the road to Damascus. He was a missionary to the Gentiles, and a messenger from God to the Gentiles. The Gentiles' message started by a visitation of the pillar of fire, and it ends the same way.

The Gentile kingdom started off—the kingdom of the world, that's the world—started off with a rebuke from a heavenly language in the days of King Nebuchadnezzar; ends up the same thing, as the Holy Ghost poured out upon the Gentile church in the last days to rebuke the Gentile nations again with a handwriting on the wall. The handwriting on the wall, that God has prepared His church, He's prepared His people, He has prepared His place, and they are waiting for Him to come in that rapture!

“When the trumpet of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise, we which are alive and remain shall not hinder them that's asleep. For the trumpet of God shall sound, the dead in Christ shall rise; and we shall be caught up together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.” A paradox, one of these mornings, when the graves open and the dead walks out; when the ones who are living will be changed, in a moment, of a twinkling of an eye, and go up in the air to meet Him.

The whole thing is a paradox, God moving amongst His people. Do you believe that? Let us bow our heads for a word of prayer.

God, now for over an hour, about an hour and ten minutes, we have stood here speaking of past and present events, of how the Holy Spirit dividing them, Lord, as the Word of God has so graciously did; showing that the very God of heaven, who lived in the old days, in the same form and the same way lives today. The same wonders, and the same power that was upon the prophets of old, that was upon the church at Pentecost, was upon Hannah, and upon Agabus, the prophets of the New Testament in that day, who even corrected St. Paul. And St. Paul got in trouble by not listening to Agabus, because Agabus. . . . Though he was an apostle, Paul was, but Agabus had the Word of the Lord, and he warned him not to go up there. But Paul was determined to go, and then he got in trouble. And, Father, always we get in trouble if we disobey the Word of God.

And we see that the very God that was with those brethren there, is the same God today. We see Him in every manifestation. And it is a paradox, Lord. The world looks, and shakes their head, and says, “There is nothing to it.” The believer accepts it and embraces it, and knows that it's the living God.

O Father, we pray this morning, that if there would be someone among us who has not yet been a believer, that this will be the hour that they will believe. O God, grant just now in the heart of every person that's here, that doesn't know Christ as their Saviour, that this will be the hour that there will be a paradox before them; that a vile wretched sinner (by nature a sinner, born in the world in sin, shaped in iniquity, come to the world speaking lies, through filth) could be changed and made in the righteousness of the Son of God. Grant, Lord, that that great paradox will take place in the hearts of all here this morning who doesn't know Thee as their Saviour and their coming King, and are ready to meet Thee at the last trump if it should sound today.

Then we would pray also, Lord, that You would remember those here that are sick and afflicted. O God, today we pray that You will heal every person that's sick or afflicted. Let them know that God still performs paradoxes to anyone who will . . . make come to pass His Word.

We know His Word is a paradox. When it promises something so unreal to the world, something that they cannot prescribe to, it's something beyond their knowledge and understanding. But when a simple heart will take that Word and sink it into the depths of its being, then that Word produces the life facts of that promise.

Oh, how we thank Thee for this, that there is simple people that believe this message. We're not looking for a kingdom to where that atomic ages will rule, but we're looking for a kingdom that Christ will rule in the power and majesty of peace and glory upon the earth. Not where we will press our feet to automobile gas pedals, or fly through the air with jet planes; but where we'll sit around the throne of the living God, oh, and look upon Him, and see the one who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace upon Him, and with whose stripes we were healed. Our hearts' desire, Lord, since the great paradox has come to us, that we will reach Him and sit with Him at that day. Grant it, Lord. We ask this in Jesus' name.

And while we have our heads bowed, I wonder, in the audience this morning, if anybody would like to be remembered in prayer, and say, “Lord God, I raise my hand to You”? “And Brother Branham, you're going to look and see my hand, and pray for me, that a great paradox will take place in my heart, that when . . . I'll meet Christ in the baptism of the Spirit and the power of His resurrection.” God bless you, each and every one. That's fine. “That I'll meet God.” God be with you. “I'll meet Him, and a great paradox will take place in my life, and I'll be filled with His power and His glory, and the goodness and mercy of Him that liveth forever and ever. And someday I'll be included in that paradox that's coming, something that when. . . .”

The dust of those prophets lays yonder in the earth. When the dust of the martyrs who were ate up by lions and with the dung of the lions was spread across the dust, and all over the earth, but yet Christ will raise that body again! It goes to show that He is the resurrection.

When He took a little mud from His hands and put them on the eyes of a man who never had eyes, showed that man was made from the dust of the earth, and he returned with eyeballs and could see the Creator that made him.

If God don't intend to raise the dead, then why did He become flesh like us, and go back towards the dust, and raise Himself up again? Why did He raise Himself up if there is no resurrection of the dead? Oh, let us not be children, but let us be men and women in the Spirit, believe God with all of our heart.

Would there be another now, before we start praying? God bless you, and you, my brother, and you. Yes.

Our heavenly Father, now we bring to You these that's raised their hands. Somehow another, the Holy Spirit has made its way down into their hearts, there telling them, “You are not here just to eat and drink, and to sleep, and to get up and work; and then go back, eat and drink, and sleep again. You are here to be sons and daughters of God. You are here to take your position and place in Christ, and I am here this morning to call you,” would say the Holy Spirit to their life.

Father, with prayer, the only weapon that I know of, I present them to You. And I defy the enemy that would keep them from You. I place by faith the blood of Jesus Christ between the enemy and them, that would keep them from this glorious experience of this great paradox, of receiving the Holy Spirit and having eternal life. For we realize that's the only thing that there is. The only solution that's given to us for eternal life is to have God's life in us, then it's eternal life in us. Grant it, Lord, that it'll happen to every one who raised their hands, and perhaps those who did not have the courage to raise their hands, grant it to them also. Now, Father, they are Yours. I present them to You, in the name of Jesus Christ.

Now as the prayer line is to be formed, Father, I don't know who will be coming up here. But give us another paradox this morning, Lord. May some great mysterious power of God move down and do something as You've promised. And this will be my first time, Lord, since meeting with You the other day. I pray now that You will grant the requests of the people, through Jesus' name. Amen.

Now I wish that everyone would just be seated, if you can, for just a moment.

Now, anyone that has a prayer card . . . Billy come down this morning, as he promised he would, and gave out prayer cards to some people here. He said there wasn't very many. Would you raise up your hands, the ones that's got prayer cards? All right. I wonder if you'd just take your place and stand right along here, those who have prayer cards. Billy, where you at? All right. Just stand right along here.

Everyone in prayer now. We're coming before our Lord God. Now let's sing that song with the music, if you will, as Sister Arnold plays there. All together now, as quietly:

Only believe, only believe,

All things are possible, only believe;

Only believe, only believe,

All things are possible, only believe.

[Brother Branham begins humming “Only Believe.”]

All things are possible, only believe;

Only believe, only believe,

All things are possible, only believe.

[Brother Branham begins humming “Only Believe.”]

. . . Peter calling to remembrance said unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which Thou cursedst is withered away.

. . . Jesus answering said unto him, Have faith in God.

For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Jesus said once, when they couldn't understand that He was . . . who He was, He said, “If you can't believe me, believe the works that I do. And if I don't do the works of my Father, then don't believe me. But if I do the works of my Father, then you believe the works.”

I have got just through this morning bringing the message of “A Paradox.” A paradox is something that's unreasonable, but . . . it's really incredible, says Webster, but is true. Something that's incredible, you can't understand it, it's just a mystery.

Jesus did the works of His Father because the Father was in Him. That is why the works was done, because that the Father was in the Son. Do you believe that? that, in Him, He was the incarnate God. Do you believe that? That God the Father—which is the Father of Jesus Christ—the great Spirit, dwelt in the fullness of His power in Jesus Christ, which was the tabernacle of God, made flesh and dwelt on earth, representing the Word. Jesus was the Word. The Bible said so, St. John, the first chapter. And the Word was invisible. Now listen close. The Word was invisible until it was made flesh, and then the Word become visible.

And through His sacrificial death at Calvary, and his resurrec-tion, positionally placed His church in that realm, that the same invisible God could come into the individual and make the Word visible. Oh, my! I wish my church could get that. If you could see, friends, the invisible God made visible. Now listen. Let's study it again.

I've often wanted to come into a church—I've longed to see it, I guess—where I could walk in the back door, front door, wherever it was, look across an audience and see a perfect church, all in order. Sin couldn't stay there. No, the Spirit would call it out, you see. It just couldn't stay. Like Ananias and Sapphira, it just couldn't do it. There'd be no sin in that group. No, sir. See, the Spirit quickly speak it like that. [Brother Branham snaps his fingers.] No matter what it was, how little, it would be done. See women and men sitting there under the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God moving perfectly, moving. Someone had done something wrong in the congregation, couldn't . . . they'd be. . . . They'd come quickly and confess it before the Spirit got ahold of it, to confess it and come tell it, because they know right then it's going to be called. That's right. That's the church of the living God. How my old, poor old heart, now it's getting old, how I've longed to stand and see a church like that. I may yet, I hope to. Perfect works of God, without sin, that could understand.

Now here stands a group of people to be prayed for. Now we realize, if this Scripture is true. . . . And the God of heaven, who could create a squirrel, could create a ram, could stop the sun for a whole day, twenty-four hours, that could keep fire from burning people in a furnace for three hours, He could stop the mouth of lions, that could raise the dead, could walk on water, could take biscuits and feed five thousand—that's God. That's the Word made flesh in human beings. Now does everybody understand that? Now this same God promised that in the last days these things would recur again, but He can't do it until there is somebody He can work with and work on. You see what I mean? Now let's believe that emphatically, with all of our heart, that it's going to be that way.

Now here stands a group of people, most of them I know. I think . . . I don't think, this first woman here in front, this girl, I don't think I know her. I know Brother Way; and the sister, the next there, Brother Roberson's . . . or, Border's wife. And I don't know the next man. I ought to know the next woman; I don't know her, I don't think I do. Yes, I do. And the next, the man standing there, if I'm not mistaken, that's Brother Daulton's son. And, along the row there, I practically know everybody in there.

I would have no idea who the people are, where they come from. But now, what they need now is prayer. Some of them, of course, is beyond . . . they cannot grasp just exactly what it is.

Now will each one of you look this way a minute, each one of you in the prayer line? If I could help you, I would do so, see. Now, I am here to help you. But the only way I'll ever be able to do it, to restore back what Satan has done to you, is you to believe. If you'll just believe me with all your heart, it'll be done.

Now it used to be, in my ministry, it would cause visions. Visions would spring up, and I could tell the people what they were for. How many has seen that done? Oh, all of you, see. That's right. I can still do it. Oh, it can still be done. Sure. Yeah. That's right.

But we're coming to something greater than that now. We're rising above that. See, we're coming to that spoken word. And Satan will have to do it; it'll tie him in a knot. If I can only get you to believe it! Don't you doubt.

Here, if you want to know whether I'm telling you the truth, if the Holy Spirit is here, I know what is wrong with that girl. I don't know her, but I know what's wrong with her, see. That's exactly right. And he's just battling at me as hard as he can, but he'll have to give it up. You just believe it. Don't you doubt it, sister. Don't doubt it. It's all right, sister. You're going to get . . . it's going to be all right.

Here is a colored man looking at me, standing there in the line. I don't know you, but God knows you. If I was to tell you what's your trouble, will you believe me to be His prophet? You will? You're not here for yourself. That child in the hospital will get well if you'll believe it. Do you believe that with all your heart? Then go on back to your seat. I pronounce the power of God upon the child, the devil will turn it loose.

Little Daulton, looking at me, you're here for that baby. That baby has got something wrong with his navel, hasn't it? Go back to your seat, and believe it, and it'll just get all right.

I'm looking at another woman sitting there. It's Mrs. Stricker. Mrs. Stricker, I haven't talked to you for months. I have no idea what you're here for. Do you believe God can tell me what's your trouble? Would it make all of you believe? You're here for that kid that's got something wrong with its leg. Then, you're praying for a friend in Africa. That's exactly right. That's “Thus saith the Lord.” Now if that's right, Mrs. Stricker, raise up your hand. See?

He's here, see. But that ministry will always be, but here comes another. You believe now! Don't you doubt. Don't a one of you doubt. When I lay hands on you, and ask this to be done, it's going to be done. The only thing, it's just like taking God's Word. The only thing, if you don't believe it, it won't. If you do believe it, it's got to happen. For something happened the other night up there, and I know the very God that could create could do it. All right.

I want everybody to bow your heads. Everybody in prayer. [Brother Branham prays for the people in the prayer line.]

Thou devil that has bound Sharon, this lovely little girl. . . .

But, God, You gave me the vision the other night of that devil being bound, and said, “In sincerity, you can bind him.” And with sincerity in my heart for this child, I've come, Lord, to ask mercy and favor of You for her.

Satan, I bind thee. In the name of Jesus Christ, leave this child, that her mind and reason will come back to her, normally. So the word has been spoken, so shall it be done in the name of Jesus Christ.

Lord God, for my Brother Way, may the power of Jesus Christ bind the power of the devil that binds my brother, and set him free, in the name of Jesus Christ.

God, this poor little woman will be like this first one here in a few weeks if something isn't done for her. She is the wife of my brother, Brother Roy. Lord Jesus, give me strength now. You who gave the vision, You've never failed, it's never failed.

Thou spirit of the devil that has bound my sister, I bind you. In the name of Jesus Christ, you leave her. It has been spoken, so let it be done.

In the name of the Lord Jesus, deliver our sister from her trouble. In the name of Christ who promised, and gave the promise, “If you say to this mountain. . . .” let it be done, Lord.

Upon this woman, feeling the anointing of the Holy Spirit in the room, I place my hands, in the name of Jesus Christ, for her healing. May it be done, for it has been spoken. Amen.

Upon this little girl, Jo Ann, as I place in my mind an example of a little Christian girl, I deliver her this morning from this evil thing. In the name of Jesus Christ, may her request be granted.

Lord God, upon this companion of my beloved brother, Sister Thomas. May I [unclear word] that evil one that would bind her; may he be bound. In the name of Jesus Christ, may she be free.

Upon my sister. laying my hands. In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, may the power of the enemy be bound in my sister, that she'll be free from this day.

Upon my brother lay I my hands, in accordance with God's Word. May the devil that would harm and hinder, go from him. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

For my sister's request, I pray that You will grant it, Lord. As I place my hands upon her, in the name of Jesus Christ, let it be done. Amen.

For my sister, Father, as I place my hands upon her, in the name of Jesus Christ, let her request be granted. Amen.

By simple faith, Lord, though it is a paradox, laying my hands upon brother. In the name of the Lord Jesus, let his request be granted.

Upon my Sister Way, who has been merciful to those who needed mercy, and has risked [unclear words]. May the mercies that she has asked for this morning be granted to her, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Lord, this little brokenhearted mother, knowing her request, O eternal God, let it be granted to her today, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Father God, to my sister, I lay my hands upon her, as commissioned by the Holy Spirit and by a vision the other night. May her request be granted, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Heavenly Father, as this sister moves up here to take her place, for hands to be laid upon her, grant her request, O God. In the name of Jesus Christ, may it be done.

Heavenly Father, as I take ahold of this, my sister's hand, may the power of Jesus Christ grant her request. Amen.

Lord Jesus, as I take hold of this sister's hand, and the handkerchief which she holds, may her request be granted, in the name of Jesus Christ. Grant it, Lord. Amen.

Father God, in the name of the Lord Jesus, may our sister's request be granted to her. What she asks, may she receive, in the name of Jesus Christ.

Only believe, only believe,

All things are possible, only believe;

Just only believe, only believe,

All things are possible, only believe.

Now just before dismissing, may I just have one more moment or two of your time. A paradox, God has performed that. In our very presence, a paradox has been done. For just when I started to go to that prayer line, something just lifted me up, just exactly the way He said it would do. A paradox, see?

And when the Spirit was on me so, I could look down the line and see those things that those people were wanting, see. So at least three or four of them, or something, that it might be a confirmation, witness, that God never takes a gift that's a true gift. He just adds to it, just keeps building higher and higher.

Now I believe with all my heart that you're healed. I believe it with all that's in me. I believe it.

Now, Jesus invited you to come to salvation. If you would come, you'd get it, because He promised it. He promised it. Now let's not doubt it, but let's believe it with all of our heart. Now, don't fight at it, just know that it's got to be done. It has to be done. Jesus said, “Speak this Word. Don't you doubt,” see. And He was the very One. . . .

And those visions, so far as I know, with all my heart, not one time have they failed, not one time. And He said, the other night, in that vision I told you, before God who I stand, that is true, see. He seen that serpent bound. He said, “You'll have to be more sincere.”

That's what I'm striving for, is more sincere. And each one coming along this morning, I tried to think, “If that was my mother (those women), if that was my sister sitting back there, if that was my wife sitting back there, or one of my children sitting back there, what if it was them?” Trying to place myself in their position, to be sincere. And if you noticed, the very. . . .

This happens to come to my memory: Over the other day, when I was in California, and standing at that Businessmen's break-fast. . . . (I think I've got it here. I'm pretty sure. I was looking at it just awhile ago, a prophecy that was given. Here it is right here.) This was given, after standing and preaching a hard sermon. And people are here this morning—Brother Roy Borders, for one, that was there, I believe, ever where Roy is at. Was—yes, sitting here—was there when this taken place, and many others that were there. When, a boy that was a Baptist. . . . It was Jane Russell's cousin, the movie star. Anything can come in that breakfast that wants to come. And when I got through speaking, the boy walked over and put his arms around me, and said. . . .

When I come off of one platform, down to another one, to speak to the congregation, which, several hundred was present. And I was speaking on a broadcast that went across the nation at nine o'clock the following night. It was being taped then. And when I stepped down on this next level, to speak another time to these people here. . . . And one of the great denominations had one of their great men, was standing there and was resenting the message, see, by saying. . . .

I was talking about I was over in Phoenix, a few days before that, and seen several different fruits growing on one tree. I seen on an orange tree—was grapefruit, lemons, and I believe tangerines, and tangelos, and all them different things growing, because it's a citrus tree. But I said, “Every year it blooms and puts forth new fruit. But there is only those original branches. When the real tree itself brings forth another branch, it puts out the same kind of fruit that it is in stalk. But these other trees are bearing their fruit, although they're living off the life of this tree.” I said, “That's like organizations being placed into the vine. Jesus said, 'I'm the vine.' And every time that vine puts forth a branch, it'll be just like the vine. See, it'll have the same fruit.”

Well, this great minister of the biggest Pentecostal organization we have was standing there, and resented it, see—said that I didn't mean it that way.

But I got back and said, “I do mean it that way,” see. I said, “Exactly! I take nothing back.”

The other day when I spoke about those altars, not knowing, never seeing that in history. . . . I never have said nothing yet in the platform under inspiration that I ever had to take back. Now you can call that “Seed Of The Serpent,” or whatever you wish to, whatever them messages was, or, “The Great Harlot,” that's so much kicked against. Just come. Why don't you come to me with the Scriptures with it, see whether it's right.

This man come up there, put his arms around me, and was going to say. . . . He said, “Brother Branham, not to be sacrilegious, but that could have made the twenty-third chapter of Revelation. (You know, another book added.) Of course,” he said, “that wouldn't be right. Of course, we're not supposed to add anything to it.” And just as he started to say that, he started speaking in tongues. And the boy didn't know what speaking in tongues meant.

And as soon as he did, right out in front of me was a French woman from Louisiana. She said, “That needed no interpretation. That was pure French.”

And a man over here got up and said, “That's right.”

And way back in the back was the interpreter for the U.N., give his name, never been there before. He said, “Correctly. That's right.”

And here is what they got together. And each one of them had the same thing when they come together, each one of the ones giving the interpretation, exactly.

And this Frenchman, the second one over here, he wrote it out, because he had been taking minutes of the meeting. Here is what he wrote. “I, Victor Le Deux, am a Frenchman, full-blooded, born-again Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit. I live at 809 North King's Road, Los Angeles 46. Attend Bethel Temple, Arnie Vick is our pastor [a Pentecostal minister, biggest Pentecostal church in Los Angeles]. A translation of a prophecy over Brother Branham, give by Danny Henry, in French, February the 11th, 1961, at the Full Gospel Businessmen's breakfast; a true translation of the prophecy.” All three of them said this is it. “Because thou has chosen the narrow path. . . .”

See, just . . . against . . . I'd have to walk by yourself, see. I can understand that. Moses had to make his choice too, see. He didn't have to do it, but he did it, see. “The harder way; thou. . . . Because thou has chosen the narrow path, the harder way; thou has made . . . thou has walked of your own choosing.”

In other words, I didn't have to do it. I can side in, go with them if I want to. But I stayed with the . . . want to stay with the Word. “Thou has picked the correct and precise decision, and it is my way.”

If you'll notice, it's punctuated and underlined. If you notice, it's wrote in French, spoke in French, verb before the adverb, see. “Because of this momentous decision, a huge portion of heaven awaits thee.”

Now, that's what I wondered. When I die, will it be. . . ? Then I happened to think, “Heaven is not portioned off to different portions to us up there; heaven is the kingdom of heaven that's within us, one waits for,” see. Now watch. “What a glorious decision thou has made! This in itself is that which will give and make come to pass the tremendous victory in the love divine.”

See, we would say it, “In the tremendous victory in the divine love,” but in French it would be “love divine.” Just like German or any other, see, they put the verb before the adverb.

Now you see what coming down to the Jordan meant? We're down here now. Let's cross over now. Let's quit playing. Let's cross the other side now, because it all belongs to us. It's all ours. Them visions has never failed. They can't fail, because they come from God. I believe it with all that is within me. We're not the hireling that will run back into the wilderness. We'll cross Jordan, the separation. God, break to us the seals that's on the back of the book. Let us enter into this great place now, for Joshua divided to the people their inheritance that God had left for them.

And if you notice, those Hebrew mothers when they was in labor and gave birth to those patriarchs (I'll get on that, one of these days, the Lord willing), and gave birth to those patriarchs, when she spoke their name, in labor, she also positionally placed them in their place in the kingdom. Oh, my!

Inspiration is a paradox. See, you just can't catch it. But it's inspired, and God moves it right into its place, just at the hour when you think not.

Now, if it's not real snowy, and we can, the Lord willing, next Sunday I want to speak on the subject of “Christianity Versus Pagan Worship.” And if you can, bring your paper, whatever you wish, for the message. The messages will be again tonight. Some of the brethren here, I suppose, will bring it. I was going to stay, but I know many of the people would stay, and it's predicted snow again this afternoon, to cover the roads over, from Georgia and different places. So, the Lord willing, be next Sunday. I was going to speak the same message tonight, but I'll put it till next Sunday and then, God be with you.

I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, born of a virgin, conceived, God in a womb, a tabernacle in which He would dwell in. I believe that in Christ He is the incarnate God. He is God made flesh. When the Father God came into Jesus Christ, He was the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Him dwells all the fullness. God the Father spoke the words. Jesus said, “It's not me that speaketh, but my Father that dwelleth in me. He doeth the speaking.” Therefore upon that basis, Him being made flesh so He could die, God paying the penalty for the human race, to redeem and bring up, and bring together the things that His own creation had lost in the fall, He redeemed it back with His own life.

Then, in redeeming these people, that His gospel could go further, “The works that I do, shall you do, also. More than this shall you do, for I go unto the Father. A little while and the world won't see me no more, yet you'll see me, for I'll be with you, even in you, to the end of the world.” Now we're down to the end time. Christ has returned in the form of the Holy Spirit, in the fullness of His power, into the church, to manifest Himself. It's simple. It's simple people.

If there would be someone here that might be fortunate enough to have a fine education, and maybe go to a big church, do not let the simplicity of this poor class of people stumble you, see. It's not that. “The common people heard him gladly.” See, it's the common people.

Now, there is classes of people. There is some that just don't care, just lives any kind of a life, out on the streets, and so forth. That's not the ones that heard Him. And them classical kind, they wasn't the ones that heard Him. It was the in-between class, the common people, the ones that's poor, yet want to live clean and decent, and want to live for God, that's the ones that hear Him.

So, may you and I be that people that will hear Him in this day, for I truly believe that one of the greatest things that's ever broke forth in the world is breaking forth now. Amen. God bless you.

Now I'll turn the service to Brother Neville.