“A return ministry”
1. To concede “a return ministry is to come,” one must conclude Malachi 4:5-6, Luke 17:30,
Rev 10:1-7 is unfulfilled. Even in the face of numerous quotes such as:
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Friends, this is the fulfillment of Malachi 4, St. Luke 17, St. John 15, oh, so many, Revelation 10, so many prophecies that can be pinned exactly to this day.
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Now, we believe that the hour has come that St. John 14:12 must be fulfilled. We--we believe that Malachi 4 must be fulfilled. We believe that Luke 17:30 must be fulfilled. We believe that all these prophecies that He said would come to pass in this day, we believe they must be fulfilled. And we believe we're seeing them fulfilled right now. That's exactly right!
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What has it done to our eyes in these days, a promise fulfilled? Has it opened our eyes? When we seen St. John 14:12, Hebrews 13:8, St. John 14:9, have we seen Luke 17:27-28, and all these Scriptures as promised, Malachi 4, all of them fulfilled right here before us?
What has it done to our eyes? If it doesn't open them, it'll blind them eternally. It opens some, blinds the others. See? It opens them to it these last days, what He's promised to do this, what He said He would do it, restore back the faith.
2. To point the people to a coming event other than the resurrection and translation of the Bride causes numerous conflicts.
For example:
3. To point the people to “a prophet that is to come,” is pointing the people to a coming “sign.”
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And then when you see a prophet rise on the scene, that shows that judgment is at hand. Now it's a sign, when you see identified prophet of God rise on the scene…
Has something changed from what Brother Branham said 40 years ago?
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Remember, THUS SAITH THE HOLY SPIRIT, this is your last sign. Write it in your Bible. And if something rises besides this, and greater than this, call me a false prophet.
4. To consider “another prophet is to come” is not according to what Brother Branham taught about Malachi 4. As he taught Malachi 4 was the promise of ONE prophet not two.
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We need a prophet. We need a man who the right interpretation of the Word comes to, that God speaks through him and vindicates the Word to make It true. That's what we need, and, brother, we are promised one according to Malachi 4, to restore what? The faith of the people back to the Bible. We're promised one; he will do it.
5. There are some who do not believe Brother Branham considered his own ministry as fulfillment of Malachi 4, Luke 17, and Rev 10. Even though Brother Branham knew it from the time the angel appeared to him at Green’s Mill.
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And one night there, as Lord had spoke to me, and at a tree, like He did to Moses. Then here on this Green's Mill, there come a man in and told me that, not to try to ask to get rid of This, but it was a gift sent from God, that was to be taken to the peoples of the world, and to let me know by the Scriptures that all these things that had been promised according to the Bible must be fulfilled, that the time was at hand.
And I went back and told my pastor. I went down and told him, and he said, "Billy, what have you eat? Did you have a dream, was that a nightmare?" But, to me, it was Malachi 4. He said, "How you going to do it?" It was Luke 17:30. It was also Revelation 10. It was also all these Scriptures that's been promised for the last days. I didn't see it done right then.
6. Some still don’t believe these Scriptures are fulfilled and have happened. Even though the prophet said, “everything that God has promised…has happened.”
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Yes, the evening promise of the Seven Seals, of Revelations 10, Malachi 4, Luke 30 and 10. Read Deuteronomy 4, 4:1 and 4, then 25th and 26th verse, and see what He said about for this last day. This was Moses saying to Israel to keep every Word, don't you add one thing. Moses, that prophet had been up there and seen that Word of God. And It was wrote out to him and a-vindicated by God's Own hand writing It. He said, "You keep every Word; don't you add one thing to It or take one thing from It." You can read that in the 25th and 26th verse of Deuteronomy 4. Notice. Don't you add to It; don't you take away from It; 'cause if you do, God will take your part from the Book of Life. And it shows that you wasn't His seed."
Remember. Everything that God has promised us, everything that God spoke to us, everything that's been told to you in the Name of the Lord, it has happened.
7. Brother Branham taught to “spirit of Elijah” was to be used only 5 times, the fourth was the Laodicean messenger and the fifth was one of the two witnesses to the Jewish 144,000. A return ministry seems to suggest we add another appearance between the fourth and fifth “use of Elijah’s spirit” . This would make 6 times the Spirit of Elijah appears.
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Now, don't confuse, 'fore we get away from this, don't confuse Elijah's fifth time ministry with his fourth time ministry. I've been telling you, the Gentile Church is looking for Elijah. That's right. And here he is over here with the Jew. Remember, he can't come four. That's--that's the--the enemies number. It have to be five.
The first time he come, he was Elijah himself. The next time he come, he was Elisha. The next time he come, he was what? John the Baptist. The next time he comes is for the seventh angel. And the fifth time he comes, he's with Moses over yonder...?... Yes, sir. Don't confuse him.
Five, if you know your--your numerals of the Bible, five is the number of laboring grace; that's what He's done. Now, watch, you want to know what it is. Was Jesus a labor of grace? J-e-s-u-s--five; l-a-b-o-r (Is that right?)--labor for--for love for you. And if you get to Him, how you come? By what? F-a-i-t-h, in l-a-b-o-r. Is that right. Labor is the number of grace.
All right, to the believers... Notice, the first Elijah, that was him. The second was Elisha. The third was John. The fourth was the seventh angel or the last messenger to the church, according to Malachi 4 and Revelations 10:7. Now, the fifth time, he is a messenger to the Jews, to the hundred and forty-four thousand, to the Jews after the Church is gone.
8. There are some who do not believe Brother Branham “finished” his work here on earth, thereby warranting his return before the resurrection/translation of the Bride to tidy up numerous ends he left undone. Are they aware God NEVER takes his anointed until his work on earth is DONE?
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Satan can't kill me until God says "it's finished."
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Father, I pray Thee that Thou will in somehow help me, give me strength, for the hour that I'm now facing. And if my work is finished here on earth, then I must come to You.
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…until God was finished with His man, there's nothing in the world can bother him. That's all.
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You know, I had a little explosion down on the range down there. And Satan tried to kill me and--and a... 'Course he couldn't do it; God wasn't through with me yet. So he just can't do it until it's all over. When God's finished, then I'm ready.
9. Some point to a number of visions (yes including the Tent Vision) that they feel are left undone. Notice the word ALL in the following quotation.
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Where are we at in this Abrahamic age? Where are we in this great time we're standing, the great hour that we're living? All the visions has been fulfilled.
10. Even in light of the above quotation, there are some who consider a literal tent must still be erected. With close examination of the Scriptures, “a Tent” is defined as …a metaphor of the human body
GREEK LEXICON -- STRONG'S NUMBER 4638
4638 skenoma
1) a tent, a tabernacle: of the temple as God's habitation; of the tabernacle of the covenant; metaphor of the human body
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Moses was the veil, the living Word of God veiled behind human flesh. ** The Pillar of Fire was in Moses, of course, speaking what was to be veiled later behind skins. You see?…
Oh, brother, sister, are you catching it? Look. Don't you see? It's been veiled through these ages according to what God said, and It would be opened in the last days; those seven seals would be broke, and the full thing would come into view of the people, what's took place all along. The hour of the seventh angel's message, all the mysteries of God should be made known IN that Elijah, in this last hour:
**(If that was with Moses, what about with Brother Branham?)**
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…The Holy Spirit, not speaking through a statue, but speaking through a redeemed vessel: God manifested in flesh.
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As He come in flesh then, and manifested Himself to Abraham, He comes into his flesh that He has redeemed, and manifests Himself to Abraham's seed. Do you understand that?
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And today, the Scriptures promised for this hour, friends, It's fulfilled right in our midst, hour after hour. Who do you think It is?
11. Some want you to believe a “Bride’s Revival” is something yet to come, (substantiating a “return ministry”) especially quoting just as the Seals were being preached in 1963:
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…we haven't had a real stirring. No, no, no, no. No, sir. Don't think we got revivals. We haven't. Oh, they've got millions and millions and millions of church members, but not a revival nowhere. No, no. The--the Bride hasn't had a revival yet. See? There's been no revival there, no manifestation of God to stir the Bride yet. See? We're looking for it. It will take those seven unknown thunders back there to wake her up again. He will send it. He promised it.
But neglect to look at what is said a year later, then two years later:
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Everywhere now there's no revival. Everybody's complaining, ministers crying. I was reading one of the--the outstanding papers that comes here to the church, a very fine paper. And I know the editor, and I know the people. And they're godly people, very fine, Brother and Sister Moore, of the Herald of His Coming, one of the finest papers on the field, Herald of His Coming. But they hardly will print anything unless it's about, "Fast, pray, fast, pray! Sound a trumpet! Get..." How many reads it? You know, you see it all the time. "Fast, pray, fast, pray!" That's all you hear. "Fast, pray! We're going to have a great breaking of the day! There's a great thing going to happen! All of you pray, pray, pray! We're not too late yet!"
Why do they do that? Why do they do that? They want a great awakening. They're crying, believing that there will be awakened. They're good people. Why is it? What have they done? They have not recognized the awakening of the Bride. See? By being a Christian they feel the pull of the hour, but they haven't recognized what's been done. That's what's making them feel that way. They know something is supposed to happen; but see, they are looking for it way off in the future to come, when it's already happened right by you.
The Bride was not “awake” at the preaching of the seals, then as the revelations were poured out message after message, year after year, something happened which Brother Branham said, “it’s already happened right by you.” Brother Branham wasn’t looking for a revival any longer, he was looking for the coming of the Lord.
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Now, we're looking forward for the coming of the Lord in our generation. I'm not looking for revival in our generation; I'm looking for the coming of the Lord in our generation.
12. Some point to the “latter rain” yet to come, especially with the advent of “a return ministry.” Yet Brother Branham said the former AND latter rain was FALLING TOGETHER right then as the “son of man ministry” was being performed.
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…it's together, the former and latter rain together, the Holy Spirit made manifest by the power and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There you are, coming together, the former... God's grace... He said, "As it was in the days of Noah." His grace was long- suffering. Here it is today, long-suffering, a lap over brings a cloud from the old days and a cloud from this day together. The former rain run in first; the first rain we've had, now here comes the latter rain coming over, the former rain coming over the latter rain, east and west meeting together, both rains falling together, Divine healing plus the Angel of God revealing the secrets of the hearts and bringing everything to pass. Oh, looks like true born children of God would see that. There you are, the Spirit revealing. Revelation, that's what Jesus said the church would be built upon.
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You had better get your thinking on now, open up your hearts. Ask God to reveal this to you, what I'm fixing to say.
When He come, He fulfilled what the prophets said. And when He is coming in the last days, in the latter rains of God, when both former and latter rain will be poured out, He is coming just exactly the way it was prophesied of Him, "It shall be Light in the evening time." What was to happen? Immanuel, the same Son, the same Light, the same God that come to dwell in flesh with His people at the day of Pentecost, will come in the like manner in the last days, for it shall be evening Light. What is it? There shall be a sign, an everlasting sign: God with us, God in us, God through us, man and God becomes one. Jesus died, that He gave that precious life, on His decision, (in last Sunday's Message), because He gave it for a decision that He might bring many sons to God. Immanuel with us! The evening Light people, it would attract them.
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In Joel 2:28 He promised that in these last days there would be a latter rain poured out upon the people in the last days. I think the Greek word there is "kenos," which means that "He emptied Hisself out," not in the way that we would say, like something was inside of somebody that had emptied out, but He poured Himself out. He changed His en morphe. He--He changed from what He was to what He is. He never changes His nature. But on the day of Pentecost He changed Himself from being the Son of man to the Son of God. He came, not with the people, He came in the people (See?), the same God to carry His ministry on through in this great age. He prophesied in the Bible that there would come a day that would not be neither day or night, but in the evening time it should be Light. …And no Scripture can be broken. And the same S-o-n that poured out Himself (kenos) on the day of Pentecost, promised to do the same thing in the evening time. See? It's according to the promise. Get the tag together.
Look what's happening, and look what He promised, then you see where we are at. Get the thing together.
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And what was the last sign they had before that promised son that they'd waited on all these years re--come back? Was God standing in the form of a Man and could discern the thoughts that was in Sarah's heart (Sarah being the church, representing the church)--discern the thoughts that's in the church that was even behind Him. Is that right? And immediately after that, she changed back to a young woman and him a young man; and Isaac was brought on the scene, the promised son.
I believe you're seeing the last thing that'll happen to the church before the rapture. That's exactly. I believe it. The rain is over.
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Nor does the revival, or does these things happen at the time that we think they ought to happen. We think, "It's this time right now, glory to God." I notice in out chapters and so forth of the Business Men, "There's coming right away, hallelujah, a great revival." Don't be deceived, "He has already come, and they did to Him what was list." But they think there's a revival. Is it happening? No! It's done, dead; it's over (uh-huh). Notice, this is lamp trimming time, coming out and going in.
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The revival's over across the nation. There ain't going to be no more revivals, big sweeping revivals. This nation will never receive it. You might have intellectual gathering, but I mean a spiritual revival. We're seen all of it. I hope you're catching it. I'm saying it in such a way that--that I hope you get it. See? It's over. A fine minister said awhile ago, said, "Brother Branham, if I could just have the joy of the Lord in my heart..."
I said, "Son, the revival's over." See? Now, the stabilizers is been put on the ship. Great fearful waves are out here before us, but we know just beyond that wave yonder we're nearing the shore.
13. Some point to Federal government Agents that will converge on every message church in a world-wide, international, multi-government, concerted operation, to nail their front doors shut. That’s fine if you wish to believe that, but are you overlooking some added parameters to the “Squeeze?”
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National force put Israel in her homeland. National force will put the church in the World Council of churches. But the Power of God will put the people in the Bride. The world forces this way, and the world forces that way, but God forces upward, the Spirit of God, which is the Word of God ("My Word is Spirit and Life will put the Bride in her place, 'cause she'll recognize her position in the Word; then she's in Christ.") will put her in her place. No national force will do it. But the national force did drive Israel to the homeland. The national forces of the Council of churches will drive every organization into it, but the Power of God will raise the Bride into Glory, out of it.
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He stood alone, and His Church stands alone. She's not hooked with nothing. But He was identified by God, being the body that God dwelled in, and the Church is identified by His Body doing the same thing. She is His Body, the manifested Truth of His promised Word for the last days. And She and She alone stands by it. That's why the devil is howling, these great organizations set up something to close her up. They'll never do it. She'll be taken up, not closed up.
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… I feel we haven't got but just a little more time. And just remember, if time moves on, we're not going to have this privilege very long. See? Remember, something will take place. Either the law will stop us or Satan will move among you and scatter you. It's always been that way. See? Something will take place. So let's appreciate every minute that we're together.
14. Brother Branham taught, “the rapture of the Church that might happen before morning.” Even with global communication, it seems improbable a return ministry (to come) could take place in such an abbreviated time frame.
15. Brother Branham did not teach we would go into a literal tent to receive a “judgment” of sorts and thereby “perfection”. How could we, when we were already perfected inside the tent, whereby God had stretched Himself down to mankind; and was crucified upon the cross?
The smitten Rock in the wilderness was a type of Christ being smitten.
It was only to be smitten ONE time, from then on it was to be Spoken to.
Moses smote it a second time and broke the continuity of the Scripture.
He was not allowed to go into the promise because of what he did.
The Bride was in Christ, His Blood, in the Body that died on Calvary. That body suffered God’s judgment upon It. Just as Adam received a bride from God smiting his side, Christ was smote on Calvary and a Bride was taken from His side. But notice, the Bride was not taken from His side, until that Body was dead, until the suffering was over, until the Price had been paid. We are perfected through a Sacrifice ALREADY received.
Once an individual is Quickened to Life and raptured up into heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and has recognized their rightful position in the Mystical Body of Christ, they will NEVER need to go anywhere to pass any judgment. Members of the Bride are ALREADY perfected. Our salvation, does not hinge upon the merits of our own acts, least of all, an act of passing through a tent.
In my humble opinion, we can not expect to go into a literal canvas building for a “perfecting” or “judgment” of sorts.
To teach such a notion is indeed, (as Moses did) smiting Christ, (the Rock) once more.
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…when God raised Jesus from the dead, He raised up you also, and also quickened to Life with Him (you are now quickened to Life), although then you were but an attribute in His thoughts, but God had saw all in Him at the finish. See? When God looked down upon the body... (The Spirit left Him in the Garden of Gethsemane; He had to die a man.) Remember friends, He didn't have to do that. That was God. God anointed that flesh, which was human flesh, and He didn't have... If He'd went up there as God, He'd have never died that kind of death; can't kill God. But... He didn't have to do it, but remember, He went there with you in Him. See? God had never separated the Bride from the Groom yet. So when God looked down upon the Body of Christ, He saw both male and female. It was all redeemed on that one Body. See? They are one, the sames--same Word. the same Word spoke of the Groom speaks of the Bride!
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Then my salvation, yours tonight does not hinge upon the merits of our own acts. It hinged upon the positive sovereign grace of Almighty God Who has chosen us in Him. Certainly. I could never be perfect, nor you could never be perfect. And we don't claim to be perfect. But we have this one consolation, that our faith rests in a perfect Sacrifice that's already been received. Then how do we know that we get that? When the worshipper puts his hands by faith upon the body of the Lord Jesus, and feels the tear of sin, and the mock of spit in his own face, feels the groanings of Gethsemane, the agonies of Calvary, and knows that he's guilty, and confesses his sins correctly, "O blessed Lord, I am guilty. And I have no other way but You to help me. And by faith... You're bidding, the Holy Spirit has come and bids me come. And I now by faith accept Jesus as my personal Saviour." That Life that come from Him on Calvary, called the Holy Ghost, which was hid in the Blood cell of the Lord Jesus, returns to the worshipper and baptizes him with the Holy Ghost into the Body of Christ. And He's already judged. You don't have to worry about judgment. As I turn and look at that little crucifix, I realize that that is--represents His body. And now, that body has already been judged. God can't justly judge it again, for it's already judged. God struck the judgments of death upon that body. And as long as I can find a way to get hid in that body... His judgment was struck for me and for you. We are free. Romans 8:1 said, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, that walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." There you are: no condemnation. I don't care what comes or what goes, you are hid beneath the Blood. Again, how do we get into that Body? I Corinthians 12:13 says that by one Spirit... How does the Spirit come? Through the Sacrifice. Where did the Spirit lay? Within the Blood.
… Listen to this, then I want you to let it sink down. Listen closely. For by one offering... (not year by year, not revival after revival, not meeting after meeting, not day after day)... but by one offering he has p-e-r-f-e-c-t-e-d... (They have? He has!)... by one offering he has perfected... (that's God's requirement)... for ever them that are sanctified. There you are. That's the answer to the death of Christ. That's the answer to Calvary. He absolutely, with His own Blood, purchased our sins and perfected forever His believers. Therefore, in Christ we stand blameless, perfected in the Presence of God…
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…there is no judgment (See?); you done met it right down here. That's right. For they which are in Christ are free from judgment. Jesus said, "He that heareth My Words and believeth on Him that sent Me has Eternal Life and shall never come into the judgment,
but has passed from death unto Life." How do we do that? We come into Christ and are baptized into one body, I Corinthians 12. One Body... We're baptized into the body of Jesus Christ, and God has already judged that body. He could not stand us in judgment again, because He's already judged that body. And by the permission and grace of Christ He brings us into Himself, I Corinthians 12. By one Spirit we're all baptized into that one body, and free from all judgments 'cause He's done stood the judgments. Oh, aren't you so thankful for Him. He took the judgments for us: no more judgment. But those who refuse to come into Him, that body, the mystical body... How do we get into it? By shaking hands? Nope. By letter? No. By some sort of baptism, water? No. By one Spirit, Holy Spirit, we are all baptized into that body.
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…the Bride who has become the Word, a complete atonement was made of Christ, 'cause He is the Word. That body was rended, and when that body was rended, the Bride was in that body, because It's all the Word. Amen. You see it?
When Jesus suffered in that body, He suffered... 'Cause a man and a woman are one person. Eve was taken out of Adam, and the Church... What happened? God opened up the side of--of Adam and took out of there a helpmate, the bride. And God opened up the side of Jesus at Calvary and took out the Bride. See? And when Jesus died at Calvary...
Remember, the Bride was not taken from the body until the body was dead. He'd already died, and they was going to break His legs. And the prophet said, "There'll not be one bone broken." So they done drawed back the hammer to break a leg, and a man run up with a spear and pushed it through His heart; and water and Blood came forth; He was already dead. She was already redeemed in the body by His death, so there's no more suffering tribulation period for the Bride. See? She goes in. But the Gentile church that just believe on Him and take the denominational creeds and so forth...
… See, they haven't accepted that redeeming, for when you do, it cleanses you automatically. "He that's borned of God does not commit sin." There's no desire, nothing in him for the things of the world.
Jesus said, "He that loves the world (Kosmos now), or the things of the world, the love of God's not even in him." He's not in love with the Groom. See? Therefore, she has to pay that penalty, and not... She's not saved during that time; she's saved now from eternal death; but she will have to go through the tribulation period for the purification.
… "What about the people that believe in the Lord now and don't--and not the way you preach?"
They don't have to believe this. They don't have to believe the way I preach it. See? Don't have to believe that. "... for the last day Message. Will they be saved?" Yes, if they believe the Lord. See? And if they--if they disagree and say, "I don't believe He's the Word. I don't believe that this is right. I don't believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost," that shows where they're headed for, the tribulation period. But those who can accept the Word in Its fullness, not me preaching It, because It's the Bible says so. Those who accept that is free, because they--the Word's already been judged.
Now, could a righteous Judge judge a man twice for anything if the penalty's been paid?
16. Finally, how can the clergy cope with substituting the people’s expectation and anticipation of the coming of the Lord, (at any time) with the coming of “a return ministry.” Those who fall asleep, expecting and anticipating “a return ministry,” what will they awaken to?
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Now, when--when St. Martin awakes in the resurrection, St. Paul, all the rest of them, it'll be just as fresh as if they was right in the battle, battling right away, 'cause they went right down under those same anticipations, looking for His coming. And there'll be a scream come, and up will come the whole church. You see? That'll be it. So it doesn't matter.
See, we've got to be looking for Him right now. Even... We don't know. It--it could be possibly... It could be a hundred years from now, it could be five hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years. I don't know; nobody knows. But say, for instance, that we live each day that He was coming that day. See? If we live like He was coming this day, when we awake (if we sleep and we awake in the resurrection), it'll be just as fresh as if we'd just fallen asleep, just woke up. The trumpet'll sound and the dead in Christ shall rise first; we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air. See? So it'll be just as fresh.
But now, until that time, until He comes, we want to live each day like He might come the next minute, because it might be the end of your life at that minute. You don't know when you're going. This may be some of our last breath; we have it in us now, so you want to live like it is.
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When I think of the blinded human beings in this earth who see, but yet, can't understand... See God come into the meeting and perform the very same things that He performed when He was here on earth, see Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God perform, and act, and do just as He did when He was here on earth, and still they don't understand. How can it be? Because their eyes are not open. It's going to open one of these days, my friend, but it'll be too late then. The time will be gone. And you'll wonder back, "You mean to tell me this, that so-and-so, and such a thing was this, and I didn't know it?" It goes over their head. They don't catch it. Do you catch what I'm saying? It goes over them. It's right... Looking for some great something to happen in the future when it's right now, and you fail to see it.
LORD.JUST.ONCE.MORE HOT.SPRINGS.AR 63-0628M
You know, one time Jesus was asked a question. He said, "Why does the scribes say that Elias must first come?"
And Jesus said, "I say unto you, He has already come, and you didn't know it."
One of these days you're going to say, "Well, I thought the Church was going, had to do this, that, and the other.
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