Godhead – Q&A #2

Fullness of the Godhead Bodily;

Crime/Punishment; Godhead/hood…

Seven Questions

October 8, 2000

 

            Father, we realize Your Presence, and we know why You are here. The prophet told us, which was very, very true. Even as Moses said, “If Thy Presence go not with us, we will not go.” It took Your Presence, Lord, to lead them into the promised land. And even so today, You are here in our midst, and we recognize that Presence even as Bro. Branham said, “My ministry is to declare that You are here.” And You are here, Lord, to lead us into the Millennium. May that never escape our thoughts for one moment, and may we realize that that is the truth, the central truth. Though there may be, and there are, those other things that accompany it, which is putting the Church in order by the Word, which is putting everything under the feet of Jesus, and it has to be, because he is the head of the Church and You are his head. And so, therefore, when You do It, It is all done exactly right, and we will be taken out of here.

            So we thank You, Lord, this is going on, and we rest our hope and our lives upon it; we’re depending. This is our tie post. We’re looking no further. We don’t look back; we don’t look ahead. We know it is now that You are doing this, and You are here performing Your will according to Your own desires. And this is fine, because, according to our desires, Lord, we know we’d be entirely wrong. It would be wrong. So we submit to You as the great sovereign God this morning. Teach us Your way more thoroughly that we might do those things that are accepted in Thy sight. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

1.         Now we were dealing with questions last night, and we stopped at the question here: [Question #1] “Please expand on the fullness of the Godhead bodily as it relates to the Son of God and what was the difference between how God was in Christ and God in Bro. Branham, seeing that the same God came into the prophet.”

            Well, there could be no argument concerning the fact of God coming into each one. But you have to recognize, first of all, that, as I said previously, we worship Jesus according to the Book of Revelation, not according to who he was, but to what he did. And, of course, he never would have done what he did except on the grounds of who he was.

2.         So you’re dealing with absolutely two different people. If you went back to the time of Adam, you would come the closest to what we’re talking about, because there’s that first Adam, and then we have the last Adam. Well, God created Adam and also formed him and also gave him something that wasn’t created: He breathed into him the breath of lives, which absolutely was the Holy Spirit.

3.         First notice, that lineage, the coming down from Adam, became thoroughly disrupted after the sons of God saw the beautiful daughters of men. That would be the same as when Eve saw the beautiful beast that was far, far superior to Adam, as far as beauty and great intelligence and everything else is concerned. And so she really figured she was moving upward in going with him instead of her own husband, and that was wrong.

            But anyway, between Adam and Eve, except for Cain, they produced a beautiful race of people that were kind and loving and God-like and they followed the Word of the Lord. Well then these sons of God began to look upon these daughters of men the same as Eve looked upon, no doubt, the serpent. And so they got all mixed up in marriage and began, then, having this spurious seed, which was a mixture—the admixture—hybrids. And at that time hybrids could reproduce in a hybrid flesh.

4.         Now more than one person qualifies as being a prophet in the order of true humanity: There was Enoch, a prophet, and there was Noah. And Noah was the last perfect man, genetically, and therefore, Enoch was genetically perfect. So the time that you come to Abraham, where we find election and on down the line, you find that any prophet that God indwelt would have to be a matter of overwhelming grace that God would even deign to come into a vessel that was so putrid as this mixed flesh.

5.         Now, we’re going to compare Jesus to Adam. Well, we do compare him on the grounds that this is another creation, another beginning. But in this particular formation of the Son of God as prophet, which he was a prophet, but more than a prophet, he came from created cells in which God had literally wrapped Himself. Now you can take that figuratively, or you can take it literally. It all boils down to one thing: the genetic patterning of the flesh of Jesus was absolutely according to what lay in God; because all God did was create from nothing the sperm and the egg and literally endow it with His own life, as to what He wanted to come forth, patterned from His own genes, DNA and RNA. Now you can’t find that in anybody else. You can’t do it.

6.         That God should inhabit Jesus, many people look upon as a great tremendous thing of grace. Well sure, you could look upon it as a matter of grace, if you know what you’re talking about. But if you want to see real grace, you see God in the prophets, like in Abraham. Now it wasn’t so bad when it was in Enoch and Noah, and others we might not have record of. I don’t know. I don’t have any of the records. But when you come down to Abraham, it’s getting ticklish, very ticklish. And when you get down to Isaiah, and you get down even to Paul, that’s appalling, that God should even do that. But there again, you see, where God can justify the sinner and still be righteous, which we’ll look into a little later on. So, all right, there’s a vast difference.

7.         So if anybody’s going to compare William Branham and Jesus Christ, well, that’s fine. You can do it if you know what you’re doing, but if you’re going to run a blanket statement, you’re wrong. There’s no way that Charlie and Ella Branham could even begin to produce anything that would be worthy of, or merit, God stepping into that vessel. You better believe it. There’s no way, shape, and form. No prophet could ever qualify.

            So, for God to come in His fullness, in other words in His manifest display of Jehovah-Elohim, He had to have the vessel that was commensurate, and that means He had to make His Own vessel. As Jesus said, “Lo a body has thou prepared for me.” So there’s absolutely no comparison. You simply cannot do it, because Jesus is incomparable. And to be incomparable, it means there’s nothing to be compared to it.

            Now you go back to Genesis, and see if you find Adam being born. He wasn’t. The Only-begotten Son was literally birthed by God when there was nothing there but God. So when, as Bro. Branham said, “The Light—or Son of God formed” he was telling us of the begetting, as It says in Scripture.

8.         So the question came up: “What’s the difference between God and Jesus?”

            Bro. Branham said, “There’s no difference! Except sons have beginnings.”

            So Jesus is that part of God that came from Almighty God, eternal in itself, but could not be manifested until a certain specific time. God became a father and was now both God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, even as Paul declares incessantly.

9.         Now, “the fullness of the Godhead bodily” is when God came into Jesus at the River Jordan.  Bro. Branham said it was like heaven and earth kissed, and they make all kinds of… Well, Bro. Branham was a poet. I’m not much of a poet; I’m a rhymer. I’m not a poet. So I’m not given to saying flowery things as Bro. Branham could say them. And I’m not saying he was just a flowery preacher. He was excellent, excellent in telling what he wanted to tell. Bro. Branham, a very romantic person, a very beautiful person, a tremendous, lovely person. And he would use expressions that other people used and so on. I don’t, see?

10.        I just say it, bring it out flat, that God simply came into that body at the River Jordan, and now you have the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And if it’s fullness of the Godhead bodily, it tells you this: that even if you stop short, and want to say, all right, I don’t even believe that God, period, as God is, came in to anybody, even Jesus, then you look at the part that says, “fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Now you could then beginning to limit how much God, or how much of Him, was there. Well, you don’t need to limit It. You just merely understand that this is the body and the only body that God could step into with His entire fullness. And in no time did He ever manifest Himself, not even in Moses, as He did in and through Jesus. How great the manifestation was. I mean it must have been so tremendous that it’s incomparable; so you can’t even compare it. It stands alone, and you believe it.

11.        So when it says, “the fullness of the Godhead bodily in Jesus,” you’re looking at two things. You’re looking at the man, exactly how and what and who, and you can’t compare Moses to Jesus, and there’s no way you can compare Paul. You can’t take all the prophets, no way, shape, and form, or roll them into one and say, “now we have an approximation.” Well, you might have an approximation of, what, five percent minus three? You’re never going to be able to touch what we’re talking about. You can’t do it! because, as the Father was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God, you’ve got the same thing with Jesus in a proportion, which might be what? fifty percent—twenty percent? I don’t know. But compared to us, he’s the vastness of all oceans poured together on all planets in space (if there’s oceans there), and we’re nothing but a drop. And prophets are like us except for offices that endow them beyond what any one or all laity possess as concerning the revealed Word.

12.        So that’s the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When God had the proper vessel, exactly as He wanted it, He could step into it and manifest Himself in His fullness. So you’re looking at fullness, bodily. And remember, He was Jehovah, so Jehovahlived and manifested in and through the body Jesus.

13.        Now, what was the fullness directed at? Us. How much can we take? Who knows? What’s our capacity? But the fullness of the Godhead, as Bro. Branham said, is one hundred percent accurate, is when God came into the vessel of Jesus Christ. That is the manifestation. That is Godhead bodily.

14. Now, “as relates to the Son of God,” that’s exactly true, because as I said, this is the only way God will ever be in His fullness in a body. And the Father stepped into the Son. Jesus said, “Can’t you see that I am in the Father, the Father in me?” Now there again, if Jesus was separated from the Father intrinsically, as to substance and to life, then what’s the ‘me’? The body. Because then he said, “Why hast thou left me?” “Why did you forsake me?” So, God came to and indwelt the Son in the River Jordan (about age thirty), and He left the Son in the Garden of Gethsemane about 33-1/2 years old, somewhere in that particular area. Do we still have the entire question in sentence form somewhere? We’re getting parts unfolding as we go.

15. So, now, it [Question #1] says here, “Expand on it and explain.” Okay, I’m going to read you what I’ve written and see if you can follow me.

16. God is in the prophets with the purpose of manifesting and declaring Himself—declaring Himself according to that purpose of the hour. That signifies a limitation right there. Even Jesus was limited. So no matter how far God goes bodily in anybody, there’s a limitation. So listen again: God is in the prophets with the purpose, or for the purpose, of manifesting and declaring Himself according to that purpose of the hour and, also, for the chronological sequencing of those purposes which culminate in events, and administrations. So I’m going to start over again. I want you to get this very thoroughly. God is in the prophets with the purpose of manifesting and declaring Himself according to that purpose of that hour and, in some cases also, for the chronological sequencing of those purposes and the administration, at that time, needed for those purposes according to His sovereignty.

            But with His Only-begotten Son... Now we’re changing the tone. This is the Only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ the Righteous. He is actually carrying out a way to achieve God’s purposes in a ‘lost sheep people’ to the end that He may justify the unrighteous and Himself remain righteous, though He is now blotting out their sins and removing the penalty of death. Now it’s on a tape. You can write it down, but that’s what I’m telling you is what this is all about.

17.        He never was in any prophet to be justified, in blotting out the sins of a sinful people, taking the sins upon Himself and being absolutely right in His purposes. In prophets, outside of Jesus, He merely was there declaring His Presence; what He was doing, what He wanted done, how it was going to be done. It was merely a portion of sovereignty, but always Jehovah dealing with His children. And in some cases He had men like Isaiah and Ezekiel, who never led anybody anywhere, but they wrote concerning the purposes of God which were chronological in some cases, sequential in other cases, and convoluted in some others where you and I would never understand outside of a prophet. See? God was doing it. But when it came to Jesus, the purposes, everything that was in that Word predictive of Jesus, predictive of what God was saying, who and what God is, was fully manifested in Jesus. This wasn’t the time to talk, but the time and person wherein all the prophecies were fulfilled—God in His Son; God manifested in human flesh

            Now that’s where Bro. Branham said, “They were a part of the Word. He was all of the Word.”  And, let’s face it, they were a little tiny tumbler of water compared to all the water in this earth. And this earth is five-sixths water on the surface and is a whole lot of water under the surface.

18.        So that should answer your question. I know that some people wouldn’t believe that. They want to make Bro. Branham bigger than what he is. And I’m going to tell you one thing, if Bro. Branham were here, he would actually break down and have a nervous breakdown. I saw him in it due to people making him what he was not.

            I was coming up from the Carolinas one time, and I told my wife, “I feel like going across and seeing Bro. Branham, but he’s not home.” So I’m not going to go there. But I felt kind of funny about it. So we headed due north, then going to cut across. Well, I got up to where I said, “Look, there’s no use. We’re not going home. We’re going to go by Bro. Branham’s house, and if I don’t see him, I don’t ever know what the purpose is. I’ve got to go by the house, and I’m going to go, and then I’ll be satisfied. But I can’t shake this funny feeling I have.” So we drove west.

            And I get there around evening time, and I knocked on the door and Bro. Branham’s home. Medie said, “Oh, Bro. Vayle, come on in and see Bro. Branham. He’s in bed.” “Well,” I said, “then I’m not going to bother him.” “Oh, no, no, no. He’ll want to see you.” So I went in and the man was rolling and tossing in the most pitiful condition. His hair was disheveled.

            Oh, Lee, oh, Lee,” he said, “I—I’ve betrayed God.” 

            And I said, “What in the world do you mean?”

            Well,” he said, “the people have made me an antichrist, they’ve called me Jesus, they’ve called me God.”

            “Well,” I said, “Bro. Branham, you never called yourself God.”

            He said, “Of course not.” 

            “Well,” I said, “then please don’t be in this condition.”

            And I’ll tell you, I did a very stupid thing, I’ll be honest with you. When he was so sick and rolling there in his misery. I said, “Bro. Branham, let me just pray and see if God will reveal something to me about your physical condition,” (because I was discerning in those days).

            Well,” he said, “go ahead.”

            And I looked and I said, “Nothing wrong with you except, just your nerves, you’re being driven out of your mind with these blasphemous things people are saying…” But I said, “Bro. Branham, you never said it.” And we prayed. And I’m not saying he got better because I prayed or anything, but I’m just saying. I knew I had to go there.

19. Now, I knew Bro. Branham. He would not accept for one minute that he was on par with Jesus Christ. Not ministry, not anything. There’s no way he could be, because they’re missing the point. ‘Only-begotten’ means ‘uniquely born’. You were not uniquely born. You were born by sex. The uniquely born human one was Adam. And that birth was kind of, minus twenty alongside… Well actually, it would be minus a billion along side of Jesus. Let’s understand that. In fact Adam was not born of God in the flesh. He was created, formed and ‘en-souled’.

            Can you understand for a minute what we’re talking about? The eternal God had within Him this part of His eternal Spirit, which would be a Son. And that came out to be the Only-begotten, which is the first born and therefore, is heir to fifty percent of the kingdom just by being born first. And this one then says, “Now I’ll come down and inhabit a body, if you prepare it for me.” Now what kind of a body is God going to prepare for Himself to step into in His Only-begotten Son? Well now, come on, there is just no comparison, period. There just isn’t. All you can go back to is one minute part of God that’s a soul. And it’s not even as big, I would presume, as the sperm that you can’t see without very good magnification. Now when Jesus came forth, it was a light. Not so with us.

20. [Question #2]  “As we know, when a crime’s committed, the punishment has to fit the crime. Would you please cover Adam’s punishment relative to the crime committed?”

            Well, let’s just look at that, because the wording is good, but it’s entirely, what I would say, not correct terminology. Gen 3:17-19:

(17)      And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast harkened to the voice of thy wife, and  eaten of the trees, which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it and all the days of thy life;

            Now see, the ground was cursed but not Adam. Now what part of Adam was ground? His body. Now if you don’t think your body’s cursed, I got a word for you. You’re entirely deceived, because it has death in it. Anything that has death in it, that’s a curse; and even anything that has disease.

(17)      ...in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.

(18)      Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee; (Your body’s going to bring forth all kinds of diseases. In your body is every disease imaginable, just wait and they go – boink! Come forth. Right? Sure, you know that I’m telling you the truth.) and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field;

(19)      In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou return to ground; for out of it thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and dust thou shalt return.

            Now notice that God referred to Adam’s body as Adam. The real Adam was a part of God. It never came out of the dust; it went into the dust. So let’s get everything straight.

21.        When they went to seek for Jesus, the angel said, “He is not here. He is risen.” He never was dead. You’re talking about the body. You’re identified by your body. That’s why the body of God is the Word. The Word made flesh. And you have to have Rhema to understand Logos. God is Logos. He gave us Rhema to understand Logos. People are still getting confused, they still think I’m preaching two gods and Jesus is God. They don’t understand Bro. Branham taking Jesus back to the beginning, wherein he described exactly how the Son of God issued forth from the Father.

22.  Here’s what I’ve got to say about it. I actually can’t see punishment here. I see a man (Adam) releasing a chain of events that are now common life experiences to all of us ending   in death, except the Rapture take place. All requiring salvation unto a former estate and all that was to begin with, but during the interim, that is, from the time that he lives, till the time he dies, to the time of the Resurrection of the dead and the Millennium, the new Kingdom. We all come and go the same way, and what is required of one is required of all.

23.        So the answer... What I’m trying to tell you is in Hebrews 12, because now, after Adam sinned, even if Adam could have eaten of the tree of life, he now comes to the place where God desires to lead him but not as at the beginning. So therefore, it’s no longer: “Adam, name all the animals,” and he can do it. “Adam, prune the trees,” and he can do it. “Adam, eat this, eat that,” he can do it. It’s no longer the consciousness of the Presence of Almighty God controlling this man, the beast of the field, the fowl of the air, the fish of the sea, the insects, everything else. He is no longer a demi-god. Man is on his own resources, because he said, “I want to do what I want to do.” So God says, “Fine, you do it, and now here’s what you’re   going to keep on doing.” This is not punishment; this is consequences. God doesn’t have to punish anybody as though punishment were an end in itself. It is God correcting and child training so man can choose the good and leave the evil.

(1)        Wherefore seeing we are also compassed about with such a great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us, (That’s unbelief.) and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, (And unbelief is disobedience to the Word of God.)

(2)        Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; (Now if you want to know what faith is, take a look at Jesus and listen.) who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

            Now that tells you what Adam had. All he had to do was just to go ahead and stay with God. Now we’ve got Jesus taking our place and giving us an example. So now he is going to go through and show you what Adam and Eve and everybody is supposed to do, because they left the headship.

24.        Now when Jesus left heaven and the charge, which he had up there, brought down here as a man, he’s got to walk in the shoes of Adam. Now you can’t say for one minute that this is punishment. This is experience, which is to now bring you forth into a position of glory from the position you chose. Which would say, like a little kid, the father says, “Hey sonny, take my hand.” “No! I can walk.” So he goes into the ditch. That’s all there is to it.

25.        And the sovereignty of God... God knew that Adam would sin. He had to sin, but the soul can’t sin. The seed remaineth in him. The body sins; the spirit and the soul listen to the flesh, the flesh listened to itself. Well actually, the flesh didn’t listen to the soul and spirit. It had too many great sensations, and it wanted the newer and better sensations as it thought. The dabbling in fleshly pleasure.

            You’ve got kids doing it today, little kids... My God, when I read articles, six and seven years old, sexually engaged, dope and everything else... If you don’t get out of here pretty soon, little children, you are going to see flesh falling off of people’s body, rotting. If you young people think your body is to take charge of you sexually, and you’re going to run amuck, you’re asking for it. You’re going to find, like the Apostle Paul said, the things that you love, you will now hate. But if you keep yourself in order, you won’t have to hate anything. You’ll love God with all your heart, mind, and soul. Now’s your opportunity, it’s up to you; you make the choices. Most do what they want. And you’re no different from your forefathers who kept themselves clean. You think, maybe, “Oh, well, oh, well, oh, well, they had it easy.” You are trying to excuse yourselves. Nobody had it easy. You are just indulging stupid whimsies, ridiculous thoughts. Just read history, and you’ll find you’re no different. And the answer is people turned away from God. And you don’t even know if you’re turning from God unless you know the Word.

26.        Now here’s what we’re looking at here: nobody’s out to punish you at all, but you reap what you sow. And don’t try to blame AIDS on little green monkeys. The green monkey is the male and the female who went homosexual, and receive in their bodies the results of their ‘experiences’. Live like a pig; die like a pig. Which means you’re skewered and turned into sausage and put over a fire and smoked, and then you’re eaten by God knows what.

27.        Now listen, “despising the shame, is set down at right hand of the throne of God.” What shame did Jesus despise? He wasn’t one of the crowd. He stuck with the real Word of God. He didn’t go for traditions. He wasn’t a phony. He wasn’t a mimic. He couldn’t be flattered. He stood there with the Word fulfilling the Word. How marvelous!.

(3)        For consider him (And that ‘to consider’ means to stand right back and take a good look and analyze it.) that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied in your own minds (faint in your minds).

            Now I’m going to tell you right now that’s the truth. When you begin to trust God with your life, people may try to hinder you and say, “Oh watch it; don’t carry it too far;   don’t do it,” and your flesh then says, “Just—just—just a minute, that can’t work out.” You might have some little kids, and some of you mothers of them might be a little bit too liberal-minded for me. And your little girl says, “Well, you know, I want to serve the Lord and let my hair grow long and wear skirts.” But you say, “Oh, you’d look funny if you don’t wear these slacks in school,” and the child is led astray.

28.        All right. It says [verse 4], “You have not resisted unto blood, striving ‘against’ sin.” Jesus did. He fought himself until he broke out in a sweat of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. “How hard must I stand against sin?” Until your body quivers as you overcome it. “Why I don’t think I can quit smoking.” Oh, of course you can’t. No, of course you can’t. No, get cancer and go in the hospital, and you’d overcome it in 15 seconds. You’d stop smoking, because there’d be no cigarettes to smoke.

(5)        Have you forgotten the exhortation that speaketh unto us as children, My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

29.        So the Garden of Eden is an experience, period. Well, they experienced freedom from sin and had the light and love of God, and now they turn to their own thoughts and their own meanderings and resonings of their own flesh. But they still have to face the Word of God, because I don’t care who you and I are, there’s a day coming when God will judge the world in righteousness by one Christ Jesus. And at that time, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess, whether they want it or not, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. See? God can’t make mistakes. He always abides by His Word.

30.       (7)        If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons; for which son is he whom the father chastens not?

            In other words God trains up and demands that the person do the right thing, or he suffers the penalty; not that his father whipping him, but he reaps the results—the penalty of being wrong. “Now Johnny, don’t put your hand inside of that fence, or the dog will bite.” “I can do it.” Snap! One finger’s missing. “Oh!” Well, he asked for it. Don’t eat that! You’ll burn your lips. [Bro. Vayle smacks his lips, followed by the wailing of the child in pain.] “Why didn’t you stop me, mamma?”

31.        “For if you are without chastisement...” In other words you learn by suffering. You learn by the difference. You learn by pain. You learn by seeing, “Look, this just doesn’t work.” Now you can’t tell the homos that anymore. That’s why they’re looking for a vaccine so they can go ahead. It isn’t going to work. They’re sneering at the Word of God and saying, “We’re the children of God, we love each other, we can be preachers, we can be this.” Lesbians are the biggest mouths of all, and they’re the meanest, too.

            The men say, “Well listen, let’s have a free argument.” The women say, “Shut their mouths up. Shut their mouths up. I want to have my way.” Listen, I’m not kidding you. I’ve seen them. I’ve read about it. Men say, “Listen, bring it to light. Let’s have a legitimate argument.” Women say, “Nah, shut them up! We’re the legitimate ones.” That’s why I think you’re going to get this Cardinal out of Chicago that believes that God is a woman. Well, they made Mary bigger than Jesus: she tells him what to do. Where do you ever find a woman telling a man what to do in the Word?

            Now, in business, she can do it any old time, but not in the Word. Like Bro. Branham said, “Deborah was a prophetess.” And the woman preacher said to him, “Well, what about her?” He said, “Woman,” he said, “That’s politics, not religion. Show me one priest that was a woman.” She judged Israel. Now, I never would’ve thought of that. See?  That’s why I love Bro. Branham. I use him for my brains, and he had a good brain, because he got his brains from God.

32.        Now It says here,

(8)        If you are without chastisement, whereof we are all partakers, then you are bastards, (illegitimate) and not sons. (It can’t say that you’re not sons as being here in the flesh and born, but you don’t belong to Adam; you don’t belong to God. Huh-uh, no way, shape, and form.)

(9)        Furthermore, we had fathers of the flesh that corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?

(10a)    For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure;

33.        In other words they’d get mad at us and whip us; but God never did. It tells you that. God never punished Adam and Eve and us at His pleasure. He doesn’t take any pleasure in the death of the wicked or anybody else. Everything is for our good, like I tried to tell people sitting here that weren’t hooked up to this tape going out earlier preservice Comments and Announcements, how that I’m still learning, absolutely, that God is dealing with me in love and giving me every good thing, and every thing is turning for my good, no matter what and under any consideration. You can’t call that punishment. What you can do is call it my spiritual stupidity at this age when I should be alive to these things as they’re being made real to me. I’m being quickened to His grace and by His grace.

            And what does It say here?

(10b)    We become partakers of His holiness.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       What does that mean? God, the Word, true to His Word, by His Own spirit. And we have the spirit, we have the Word, we have the Paraclete (Holy Spirit)—one called along side to help along side to help us, we learn to get out of the way, and there’s nothing impossible.

34.        Look what Job went through. He never sinned against God, lips or anything else. But he got a little bit mental and messed up, and then God came on the scene and straightened him out. Job was straight in the first place, but he got a little messed up with these people coming in and talking and his own feelings coming in. Finally, he cursed the day he was born and wished he’d been a stillborn baby and everything else. God finally came in, and Job found himself, everything restored tenfold. You call that punishment? I call it the great plan of God, wherein I made my stupid unspiritual mistakes. Well, they’re unspiritual, because they came from the flesh, and they’re spiritual mistakes, because I didn’t listen to the Word of God.

(11)      Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. (Now It tells you It’s going to put you on the washboard. You’re exercised. You’re the towel the old scrub gals scrubbing up and down the washboard, a little bit of lye soap to help you out too, and the rinse water never gets you too nice either.)

(12)      Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; (In other words people help each other with these thoughts in mind.)

(13)      And then, make straight paths for your feet, (There’s only one way to make straight paths for your feet, that’s the Word of God, which is the lamp of the light under your feet and your path. No other way! See?)

35.        You know, the Marachelle, she’s the daughter of the great General Booth, a woman preacher and all that. And she’s idolized and, you know, aggrandized, dragonized, and canonized. As a little girl, her mother might say, (Oh, what was her name now, the Marachelle? I forget anyway.  Elizabeth?

            “Darling, would you like a new dress?”

            “Well mother, if it pleases the Lord, I would like a new dress.”

            Now that is a little bit gunky, to me, because it seems too syrupy. But, really, it’s a good answer. What pleases God is what that girl wanted. And in Paris, France, she’s the only one in history to ever turn people to religion. Her children were all geniuses. And Bro. Branham was a good friend of Booth Clibourn, William Booth Clibourn, a genius on the violin, a great composer, could preach in Latin and in Greek. I met him myself, fabulous person, but screwball. Yeah, definitely a screwball, a universalist. But anyway, I’m just telling you this that that little girl, according to my thinking is something wrong somewhere, but she had the right answer. Is it pleasing to the Lord? Now the big thing is how’s it please the Lord? Find out what God said about It in His Word. Is your response a ‘Word’ response?

36.        If the Pentecostal women would go the Word of God, they’d find women cannot wear that which pertaineth to a man. And the word ‘pertain’ means it must be the male garment according to what a male is. Now you tell me how women wearing slacks can have zippers in front and I’ll start chewing this Bible up right away. She’s not a male; she’s a female. And Bro. Branham hit the thing by what he called the effeminate and the masculine. He was one hundred percent right with the Word of God. I don’t think he knew the meaning of the word ‘pertaineth’, but I researched it. The prophet doesn’t have to research anything. He knows It, because God shows him. 

37.        If you want the straight path and all, you cannot look at God punishing. God does not punish per se; God directs and helps us by making us realize through the circumstances in which we are, wherein we thought we could really better ourselves and have a good time, that when you eat stolen bread, it does turn to gravel in your mouth, period.

            And these liscential homosexuals are going to find out, and they are finding out, and they’ll continue to find that out—that they reap what they sew. AIDS is on the rise.

            Every now and then, “Oh, it’s under control, oh, it’s under control,” and then, suddenly, blapp, “Well, it wasn’t under control.”

            And it ain’t under control, and it’s going to get worse, and it’s got to get worse, because, I believe, homosexuality has now gone to the place where it’s absolutely borne by the genes.

            You tell me one reason, tell me how it is, that the FDA and the American Congress, the two houses, your representatives and senators, never pass a bill outlawing a little firm in the northeastern states of America manufacturing hormones that are given to animals that we eat and are destroying us. And how it is that there are chemicals, that absolutely look like hormones that we’re ingesting, are destroying us, because hormones are everything to life and especially reproduction..

            It’s like the male testosterone separates the men from the women—although women have a little bit—and the boys from the men. Now you meddle with hormones, you’re gone. The endocrine system, which is the inner system, must be left entirely alone under the proper guidance. How come the thalamus is almost nothing anymore? How come Congress doesn’t do something? They ain’t going to. Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money.

            Do you know for a Congressmen to sell out to a contractor that’s going to make a million dollars at least on a contract, that idiot will only get a kickback about ten thousand dollars if that much? Well, if he wasn’t anything but a jackass, he’d go ahead and be the contractor himself and make the million. But no, he wants the pomp and the pride; he’s the great senator, the great President. Mr. Al Gore, the next President—murderer, murderer.

            And sweet Mrs. Boxer… “The baby’s got to be home before you can be guilty of killing it.” Only if you kill it at home are you a murderer. But the little girl that had a baby in the bathtub and threw it in the trashcan: she’s a murderer. Now how come? Because the doctors are involved, honey child, in the hospital and the government. Momma and Papa Government says, “You can kill the baby.” “Well good, we’ll just kill the baby.” I’m going to tell you something, when a woman does that something dies in her that she doesn’t recognize. And the man that allowed it, something would die in him and he’ll find out.

38.        Now look, God forgives everything. He forgives homosexuality, murder, everything else. But you’ve got to admit that you and I were one of them, and we did it, and we were wrong. They’re not doing it. They’re right; everybody’s right. Nobody’s wrong but us guys that are right. Don’t you know the day has come when they call evil good and good evil? Huh? [End of the first side of the audio tape.]

39.        Don’t look down the road. Everybody’s looking down the road, looking down the road, looking down the road. What are you looking down the road for? I’m looking down the road, and all I see is flesh falling off people’s bodies.

            Some say, “Oh, I’m looking for the great thing we as a Bride are going to do.”

            I’m not; I’m looking at the great One who already did it. And if I’ve got a part somewhere, it’s going to be mine. And if I’m a born-again person, I’ll have my part, period. And I’ll have to know about It before I can be judged – absolutely—if I’d betrayed It or gone with It.  God hasn’t given us some stupid instincts. Well instincts are not stupid; we let them get stupid. If we have the Holy Ghost training us, we don’t have this problem. Make straight paths.

(14)      Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: (Well who is our holiness? Jesus Christ is. Where is the Holy Spirit? In the Word today.)

(15)      Looking diligently unless any man fail of the—the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

(16)      Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of bread—meat, sold his birthright.

(17)      For you know afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.

40.        Well now look, you and I know that Esau was not ordained the way Jacob was. But it was out there before him. This is why even sinners and serpent seed are under the Word of Almighty God and having been bought by the blood are responsible to Almighty God in His Word and will be judged. And one day, they will bow their knees and their tongues will say, “Yes, He is Lord, we missed it, we knew it and turned it aside.” Or, “We should’ve known It, and we didn’t do It.”

41.        So your question here is a good question, but I don’t view this as punishment per se. I view this as a way of life that the man entered into. And though it was tough on him, it became the way that he could not get his way back to God himself, no way, shape, and form, but he could learn the way of God and the things of God while God stood for him.

42.        [Question #3] “Would you please expound on what you specifically had in mind when you used the terms ‘Godheadedness’ and ‘Godhoodedness’.

            Well first of all, there’s no such words, but I use them anyway, because I want to show you something that is there. See? Now, it’s Godhead and Godhood. And they’re both legitimate words. And of course, the thing is, when you deal with Godhead, you deal with Deity. In fact, the word in the New Testament for ‘Godhead’ is ‘Deity’. It is simply God as God is whether you know what God is, Who He is, what He does, what He has done, where He’s going from here, if He’s going anywhere. In other words Godhead is all about God, period, and nobody but God, and there’s only one God. Only one God, and He’s sovereign. It is an absolute unvariable.

43.        That’s why Jesus is not God, because he’s NOT sovereign, because God knows everything. He hasn’t had a thought from the beginning, and He’ll never have another one, Bro. Branham categorically said, “He knew every flea there’d be, how many times he’d bat its eyeballs,” figure that one out. “How many it would take to make a pound of tallow,” figure that one out. You’ve got to understand sovereignty is sovereignty.

44.        Omniscience is the main factor of God. The power to bring It to pass is equal only to this extent: that it is power to bring it to pass, but power without wisdom is horrible. Power without direction is a tornado coming even though it has direction, but, my God, what a direction. So when you think of God, you think of Paul saying unto Him, “eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God.” And when you talk about God, you talk about authority. You talk about power; you talk about dominion. But this is the only wise God. So now we have wisdom, and wisdom is Word-based—Word-based Rhema. And God brings It to pass.

45.        So all right, Godhead is God, which is sovereign, Who He is, absolutely. Godhood is more what He is. We talk about Godhoodedness, which is really Godhood, is actually the state or quality of being God. We use the same idea as in fatherhood, motherhood, childhood, the state of being a father as based on that which is essential, or essential attributes that we consider necessary to be in that state.

            A father is not simply a breeder—that’s a breeder. You say, “This man is a father.” You mean he’s a sire or a breeder, forget it. Fatherhood goes far beyond the ability to breed, the same as motherhood goes far beyond the ability to simply bring forth a baby. The woman who has an abortion, particularly at her will and all, is a breeder. Why? Because she’s not a mother even though she has a baby. Because nothing in her, as that act and what she has done, shows that she is a mother. ‘Mother’ means ‘to mother’; ‘father’ means ‘to father’. That’s fatherhood, motherhood. And it’s that certain state and office that requires certain essential characteristics that qualify the person to be in that position.

46.        So when you talk about Godhood, you’re talking about the essentiality, intrinsicality of God that literally makes Him every single thing He is as He declares Himself to be as Jehovah-Elohim—God performing His office duties—ministering. That is Godhood. Now you don’t know God without Godhood, because that opens it up.

            Now, the state of being a father as based on that which is essentially attributes that we consider necessary in that particular role, like a mother, a child, motherhood, childhood; these depict role relationships and responsibilities as to what can and should be expected or not expected. Looking at fatherhood is literally a revelation, because He’s acting as a father should act: the provider, the nourisher, the sustainer and so on. What about these guys that run off and leave their babies? They’re not fathers, they’re simply studs. And the best thing, if they do it the second time, is castration.

            You wonder why the Government says today about a woman has a baby out of wedlock the second time, “You’ve had it girlie. You’ve had it. You’re out.” Motherhood… Come on; let’s get down to reality. Now you men look at your wives; are they mothers? Or are they simply bedroom companions? Children come along, “Well, we’ve got to take care of the brats,” or something.

47.        So when we talk about ‘hood’ we’re talking about the essential manifested or working qualities that must be there in order to be that thing. Now little child...  ‘Childhood’ means there’s things there that qualify him in a certain role, responsibilities, and decisions. Fatherhood, motherhood, Godhood. In other words ‘Godhood’ means that ‘God is thoroughly one hundred percent responsible and has everything in Him to be that, and will be that and do that’. Now we’re getting somewhere.

48.        So we simply don’t see God as God being God as Elohim as in Godhead, but we see Him as Jehovah-Elohim, because He is not alone anymore but has children and now has to deal with others than just Himself. And we see Him now in that state of being with others and how He deals with those others from within. Now how have you been dealing with your wives? Simply as a little bed pal?

            I often wonder how it is that men get married, they lie, and women stand there, and I’ve married them, and they lie. And I tell the men, “Listen, boys, be very careful. You are a male, and males have this macho thing about them. They get with males, they go hunting, they go golfing, they do this and they do that.” And they forget their wives, at home, with whom they’re one flesh. And if you’re one flesh with your golfing buddies, you’re a lousy, stinking homosexual.” [Congregation laughs.] I’m just telling you the truth. You’re supposed to be a husband. What is a husband?

            In the Old Testament they had it lucky. A man could stay home with the bride for one solid year to get to know each other. I’ve seen it after three days they thought they knew each other enough. After a few years living together without making any consideration of really getting together and learning to love each other and performing their vows as unto the Lord God, which would bless them and help them in all circumstances and bring them truly together; oh, no, they can’t do that. Then after a long time, they’ll run off. And they call it the male menopause. Oh, you sweet male menopause guys, not here but somewhere. You make me sick. There ain’t no such thing. Just your excuse to serve the devil.

49.        And listen to me, as even Adam listened in the Garden to Eve, you’ll miss your Garden of Eden, if you’re not careful. I’m going to tell you something: Bro. Branham categorically said, when they asked him, “If you’re a Christian should you pay tithes?”

            He said, “If you’re a Christian you will pay tithes.”

            They said, “Bro. Branham, should a Christian work?” That’s because of what was going down there in the tabernacle.

            He said, “Well,” he said, “If you’re a Christian, you will work.”

            Well, if you’re a Christian, you will love your wife. Ho, ho, ho, ho! Now where are we going? If you love her, you’ll love her more than ever as time goes on and have compassion along with it.

            I love my wife more than ever in the sixty years that we’ve been married. Well, I was just turning twenty-five when we were married. I’m eighty-six; sixty-one solid years, and I knew her two years before then. We might as well have gotten married, because, shucks, we didn’t save any money. Never did have any money. We were looking for a few bucks, which was good, because when you marry, you should be able to take care of a wife. You shouldn’t just have her, you know, like a yo-yo on a string. It isn’t there. But after we did get married, we loved each other more and more and got along fine.

            And most of our lives we’ve had literally nothing; it’s only the grace of God that gave us what we need. But God’s been good to me. I’ve tried to be right with God. I’ve got no problem with that. But you love your wife more than ever. She’s stood for me; now I stand for her. She was patient with me; now I’m patient with her. See? She sowed in me, and she’s reaping now. Not too good, but she’s reaping. Yeah. We don’t have to dissolve in tears and worry about all bad things. She is a very loving, loving person. I never could figure two things: the love of God and the love of my wife. 

50.        So all right, we understood what fatherhood is as against just... I mean Godhood is against just God Himself. So what we’re dealing with here in Godhood is the intrinsicality, that is the very nature of God Himself, what and how He’s put together, not only sensually on the grounds of what would comprise the body, but the beautiful compatibility and flowing together in love, and here He is. And one day, we’re going to find that. And the trouble is we haven’t renewed our minds where we’d know how to receive more. 

51.        All right. [Question #4] “In Godhead #6, Bro. Vayle quoted Bro. Branham saying how we ought to love each other.”

            Well that’s Bro. Branham who said this. He said, “You that love this Word, how you ought to love each other.” And he said this concerning preachers and people, not just preachers, deacons and elders and preachers, but people, but perhaps particularly preachers. You ought to be able to get together as brothers and argue the Word bitterly and come away as brothers, in love.

            Well I’ll tell you what: I find that very difficult, although it’s a very general and universal statement, and it’s good. You see, gifts unite, but the Word divides. The Bible said, “Cursed is the man whose sword doesn’t draw blood.” And Bro. Branham would be a cursed figure, if he presented the Word, which God gave him to bring all the people together, when that is a hundred percent wrong. The only ones that Bro. Branham could bring together is Bride, because when the ark took place, the animals went in two-by-two. You never saw the skunk and the gopher; you saw two skunks and two gophers. Right? That’s the Bible. How can two walk together unless they be agreed? If one light, so called, is shining on one person and he’s walking in that light and the other person is walking in another so called light, you’re paths aren’t going to be too good.

52.        But here’s what I found out from the Word of God and Bro. Branham as it’s laid out here. Bro. Branham made this statement also. “The Word corrects the error.” Now let’s put it this way. Christ is the Word, God is the Word, and the Word is the Word. We have Rhema and Logos. The great disagreement is on the Rhema concerning the Logos. Now then, it’s up to God to correct that. So if my brother and I cannot agree, and we argue bitterly, I ought to love him, because he hasn’t had It revealed to him. Now how can you blame a child for not using an umbrella in the rain when the kid doesn’t have an umbrella? Now it’s just that simple.   

            But I’ve one brother that I loved very, very much, considered always a very dear friend of mine, treats my wife with the utmost respect and love; and we disagree very much, and I will not argue with him, period. And I’ve made my statement. God will correct him or correct me as is necessary, and we’ll walk in love. And that’s the thing that I’m trying to get at eighty-six years of age. Well you do the best you can, and I’m sure you’ll do a hundred times better than I’m doing. That’s your answer.

            And the answer is: is there not love amongst the people here? Then just begin to realize that God will correct that person and walk in real love as though God had already done it. And if it’s never done, it might be you instead of the other fellow. You don’t use the Word as a club or as a sword. Let God do that, as a sword not a club.

53.        Now, [Question #5] “Could you please place Jn 1:14 and the Word, God, as Elohim became flesh and dwelt among us? Bro. Branham said, ‘God wrapped Himself in a blood cell.’ (It also said sperm and egg, same thing, because it comes from the blood.) Yet he also said, ‘Jesus, when twelve years old, the Father was not in him yet.’ And therefore, can we say Jn 1:14 is where the Word, God, became flesh... God came back to the Son on the River Jordan?” In other words Jn 1:14 is the River Jordan.

            That’s true, but you see, the thing is this, where God wrapped Himself in that sperm and egg or in that blood cell is... You can put that down, as I’ve said, either to a very poetic statement of trying to bring something to your attention so that you will understand how deep this virgin birth runs, or you’re looking at a reality. Now I’ve taken the reality. And it doesn’t matter whether I do or not, whether I’m right or wrong. I am right on the fact that I believe what Bro. Branham said concerning God wrapping Himself in that; which means that, if God wrapped Himself in that infinitesimal thing, it’s the life of God that permeated it, making that life within there so that the genes and the RNA and the DNA, and every structural part of that body manifested in flesh from that spirit. And Jesus said, “Lo a body hast thou prepared for me.”

54.        And let’s understand this: in human reasoning and human understanding, the body of the baby that is formed in the mother’s womb comes from both the male and the female, but the woman simply supplies the chemistry according to what lay in those two things—egg and sperm—and, primarily, the sperm. But the body reflects both male and female. But in this particular case, Mary didn’t have one thing to do with it, because this body will not reflect either a male or a female, but God. That’s why I don’t believe God’s female and male. It’s not necessary.

55.        And so now we have this perfect Son in the perfect body. Adam never had that, no way. So now, Jesus is the perfect male, a perfect man, one hundred percent. And of course, God formed that. It was in the womb. God, then, can depart and a child be born, and he’s his own man. And, at the River Jordan, he was incarnated by God and disincarnated in the Garden of Gethsemane.

56.        A brother asked the question, [Question #6] “Did Bro. Branham ever speak on cremation for burial purposes?”

            I never heard him say so, but every Christian I know and ever heard of says, “Find one place in the Bible where they ever cremated them.” Cremation was, not a symbol, but an actual method of destruction for babies born out of wedlock, prostitutes, and other types of terrible sinners that God just said, “Get rid of them, get rid of them now, and burn them so there’s nothing left, just a bare bit of ashes and let the wind take it away—get rid of them. Let’s get rid of them, get out of here—lock, stock, and barrel, don’t even stick around with the flesh.” Only the heathen have cremated.

            So I would say that I don’t have a final answer except this: if Jacob wanted his bones back in Jerusalem, and he had to have bones to get back there for the resurrection, as Bro. Branham put it, I’d just as soon they leave my bones the way they are. They can throw me on the ground, the dogs eat me and anything else they want to do, and if they want to burn me that’s their business, because I’m out of the picture. But I simply believe that you’ve got to go the way of burial.

            Now let’s face it, Jesus wasn’t burned either. He was buried. And the patriarchs were all buried; Joseph was buried. They dealt with that accordingly. And remember, it was Elisha’s bones that the dead man fell on and he got his life back. So I don’t think he’d have done too well in a pile of ashes. I really don’t think so.

57. A brother asks the question, and it’s a very good question, concerning attrition, which means there’s no replacement: [Question #7] “What happens when a pastor leaves, and they don’t get a pastor; or a pastor dies, and they don’t get another pastor? What do you do?”

            Nothing. It’s over. All you do in that case, if there’s no elders and no deacons or nobody you think is fit, you simply say what man in our group do you think is qualified or you have enough confidence in, regardless of the flesh, but you deem him a spiritual brother or is trying to be, that we will put him up here to open the service and either lead in prayer or else ask someone to lead in prayer, either lead a song service, or ask someone else to lead a song service. And, if there’s a group of us recognized by the Government, allowed in number or not, have somebody become a secretary/treasurer with that one that’s leading, two men, and they’ll take care of the finances, and then that man will play a tape. And that’s all you can do. And when you have problems, you simply go and you call that person or somebody you have confidence in, as Bro. Branham said, “Anybody can pray for the sick.”

            So you solve your problems amongst yourselves. That’s all you can do, because we have come to the time of no replacements. Otherwise, there’s something fishy somewhere, because Bro. Branham said to Billy Paul, “You will not be an old man before the sharks are swimming where your feet are standing.” And an old man today is Lee Vayle, eighty-some years of age. And yet statistics say that, if I’m in good health, I can live ten more years. Forget it! I am not a statistic, [Congregation laughs.] although they’d like to think I am. Now that’s the best I can do to answer you.

58.        What time is it? It’s just the right time to finish, because if I ever get back here, I’ve got just enough questions take another 45 minutes or, if you have other questions you want to bring to my attention, you’re able to do so. I don’t say I’ve got the perfect answer, but I do my best to answer you according to Bro. Branham’s said and according to what I see in the Word and where it all comes together.

            You know I try to make my language as understandable as possible. And I’m not a marvelously gifted person, but I believe God has given me enough of the ability to express in writing what I am thinking with the greatest clarity I can possibly think in order to tell you the exactness of what you want to know. And I can’t go beyond that. And I’ve done my best this morning. And I think if you go over some of the things I’ve said, especially definitions, and you listen very, very carefully, you are going to find them to be as accurate as you would want to know at this particular time. And if not, well you can always pray about it. We can pray about it and see what God will do. So let’s rise at this point of time and be dismissed.

 

            Heavenly Father, again we approach Thy great Throne, Lord, knowing we’re in Your Presence, thanking You for helping us through this morning’s session, believing, Lord, You have helped us to answer questions. Particularly to know that You work from within Yourself according to who and what You are, even to the extent You have deliberately given us what might be a compartmentalization of Your Own self so that we may know the very minuteness as it were and almost, Lord, and it could be even in this hour, face-to-face, certainly it’s a long way toward it, knowing that You are here and soon You will be taking us up with Yourself and incarnating Yourself in that great one of whom we are speaking. And there we’ll see the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, even also the Son of God, the Son of man, the Son of David, and crown You there and therein, and glorify You as the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley, the one and above all, even as Paul said, “The only wise God.”

            And we say to Him be glory and honor forever, in the Name of Jesus Christ, world without end, and may we have a little supporting role in that, even at this moment to glorify Your great name and know we’ve loved You, and You’ve loved us, and we’re going down this great little trail of eternity, even though it’s kind of obscured with this little bit of time thrown in there. But we’re emerging into the great light of eternity, right... Our minds cannot understand it, we only know in our hearts it is there, and we are a part of it, because we believe Your Word. We have been those that heard the voice and followed this Word. Lord God, we believe it in the Name of Jesus Christ we do and seal our testimony thereunto. Thank You for It all. In the Name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.

            “Take the Name of Jesus With You.”