Questions & Answers
Questions 117 (COD Page 560)
Matthew 18:10.
[A brother reads Matthew 18:10–Ed.]:
...that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels–angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.
313 All right. Now, the brother, ever who you are, course there’s no names, just little tickets, you see, who said this. I’m sure I...
314 Now, you could take two ways of it, you see. But I think the interpretation, if you just asked me, “Explain this,” the way I interpret this is this.
315 Now, you turn to Second Corinthians, somebody, 5:1, it says this, “If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved...” You know what it is, see. “If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already,” you know, “waiting.” All right.
316 Now, now He would...If you noticed, in Matthew 18:10, He was speaking about taking little “children.” They was little children, little tots, three or four years old, picked them up. “They brought unto Him children, child.” Children comes from the name of “child.” A child is just a little–little fellow, not an infant but just between that and a teenager. See? It’s not responsible yet for itself.
317 Now, He said, “Take heed that you don’t despise.” If you’d really take the interpretation of that word, is “mistreat.” See, “To mistreat one of those.” Mistreat a child, you should never do that. They’re children, they don’t know. See?
318 And now notice, said, “Because they...their angels always beholds My Father’s face which is in Heaven,” you see. In other words, “Their angels, their–their messengers, their bodies, angelic bodies that they’ll go to if they die, are always before My Father’s face in Heaven.” See?
319 Now, “If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting.” Is that right? That’s a body.
320 Look here. If I just had time to go through these! Course, I know I–I’m not going to have it. But, here, let me just give it to you so it’s on the tape, and you’ll get it anyhow.
321 Look, one night Peter was in prison. They had a prayer meeting down at John Mark’s house, see. And so the Angel of the Lord come in, that Pillar Fire, a Light come down, and Peter thought he was dreaming when he seen this Light come to him. The Bible said, “It was a Light.” See? And I believe It’s the same One with us, see, He come down. And we get in the same trouble, maybe the same thing would happen. See? And come in there, and so He said, “Come, go with Me.”
322 So Peter thought, “I’m dreaming now, so I’ll just see what this dream means.” So he walked right on by the guards, and thought, “Uh-huh. Now we go on by, the door just opened by itself.” Went out the next door, opened by itself. Went through the city gates, and it opened by itself. And he still thought he was dreaming. So when he stood out there, and said, “Well, I’m free, so I’ll just go down to John Mark’s house and have some fellowship.”
323 They was back there, “O Lord, send Your Angel and deliver Peter.”
324 And about that time something went [Brother Branham knocks–Ed.]. The little damsel went to the door and said, “Who’s there?” Raised up the little lattice, said, “Why, it’s Peter!” So he went back, said, “Hey, you–you can stop praying now, Peter’s there.” He said, “Oh, my! Go ahead,” said, “you’re–you’re–
you’re...” See?
325 [Brother Branham knocks again–Ed.] Said, “Open up! I’m coming in.” See? And so he said... So he went back, said, “No, it–it’s Peter at the door.”
326 “Oh,” they said, “they’ve cut his head off already, that’s his angel at the door. See, his Heavenly tabernacle, he had done received it, that this earthly one was dissolved, because it was waiting in Heaven for him to come to.”
327 What I seen the other day in that vision, you know, crossed over. “If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one.”
328 And these little fellows who’s done no sin as yet, you see...See?
329 When a baby is being–a baby is being formed in a womb of a mother, soon as it’s put there...See? See? But first it’s a spirit. And as that spirit begins to take on flesh, a little germ of life begins to take on flesh, and as soon as it drops from its...Now, in the womb, it’s a little, quivering, jerking muscles. We know that. That’s cells. Just like you take a horse hair and put it in the water, it’ll cap over and it’ll move, and you touch it and it’ll jump. That’s the way a baby is.
330 But as soon as it’s born in this world and breathes its first breath, it becomes a living soul. See? Because as soon as the earthly body is born into the world, there’s a celestial body, or a spiritual body, to take hold of it. And as soon as this natural body is dropped, there is a Heavenly tabernacle waiting for it. “If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, there is a Heavenly tabernacle waiting for it.” Just as soon as–as the baby’s dropped into the earth in flesh, there’s a spiritual body waiting to receive it. And as soon as the spiritual body...the natural body is dissolved there’s a spiritual body waiting yonder. See? A “theophany” we call it, see, a theophany.
[A brother asks, “Well, now, this body is that a...is that temporary, pending the resurrection of this body?”–Ed.]
Yeah. See? Yeah. Oh, yes. [“That’s the condition that we’re going to live in until the–the resurrection?”]
That’s right. See? See?
331 It’s not revealed to sons of man yet. I believe...I–I know I saw it. See? But I don’t know what kind of a body it is, but I could feel them just the same as I feeled your hands or anything else. Course, this is on tape and you may be playing it years after I’m gone. You see? But...And that, whatever it was, see, I was–I was holding those people and catching them, and it was just as real as–as you are real, and yet it wasn’t...They didn’t eat nor drink. There was no yesterday nor tomorrow. See, it was Eternity.
332 And now when that tabernacle...they left there in that body, they come back to the earth, and that type of a body they had took on immortality. The–the dust of the earth gathered into that theophany of somehow and they become human again, had to eat like they did in the Garden of Eden. See? “But if this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting.”
333 So these little children that had no sin, see, no sin yet, their angels, their “bodies” (the one that Peter had come back in...) see, was waiting. “Beholding the Father’s face, in Heaven,” it’s always before Him; “they know it.” There it is.
334 [A brother says, “But it was a little bit difficult there where Jesus said, in the first part of His resurrection, He said, ‘Touch Me not,’ He had not yet ascended up. And then when He came in the room where Thomas was, He says, ‘Come over here and thrust your hand in My side; put your finger.’”–Ed.] That’s right, He hadn’t ascended up yet. [“And the–the difference of the two, where the one He–He told them not to touch Him, and over there He told Thomas to come touch Him.”] He hadn’t never ascended up yet, you see. He...[“‘For I have not yet ascended to My Father.’”]
335 That’s right, see, He wasn’t to be touched until He...after His resurrection. He had come out from the earth, you see. He come out from the earth and was walking among man, but He had not yet ascended. He said...He told Mary, He said,
“Don’t touch Me.”
She said, “Rabboni.”
336 He said, “Touch...Don’t touch Me, for I’ve not yet ascended to the Father. But I ascend to My God and to your God, to My Father and your Father.”
337 And then that night, after He had done went up before God, and had rose from the dead, went up before God. Coming back, He invited Thomas to come touch His side. See, He had ascended up in before God. That’s right. Okay.