Questions & Answers
Questions 24 (COD Page 137)
One more question: Can-I can’t believe that God sent wars as judgment. I can’t believe that God sends wars as judgment. (Just listen a moment.) I don’t believe, as some do, that God placed the sword in the hands of these butchers from ancient Babylon to Hitler, to slay innocent women and children among-along with the guilty, to carry out God’s judgment. May God-my God of love would not do-my God of love (Pardon me!)-do this. Wars are the works of Satan. Please confirm this confusion.
167 Now, just a moment. I’d read this just awhile ago, the reason that I laid this on the bottom. Now, I want you to just hold your peace a minute. Now, let-let’s get this real straight, ’cause this is quite a question. And it must be approached reverently. Immediately after that, if you can bear with us just a little bit longer...
168 I know it’s getting late, but it’s... Remember, what of it? Now, you used to go dance all night and think nothing about it (see?), set out to the worldly things, but when it comes to the Word of God over twenty minutes, brother, we got to get a new preacher. See? It’s a shame. Paul preached all night. I preached right here years ago at two and three o’clock in the morning. And people be walking up and down this place here just praising God at two or three o’clock in the morning. You’d see as many as a dozen at a time receive the Holy Ghost at two and three o’clock. God have mercy. I wished I could see it again. But we can’t; the day’s gone. The day is gone now; she’s far spent now. Night’s drawing near and people are... “Well, we just don’t care nomore, so... My, I wish they’d quit, so we can get ready to go in.” And that’s just-just about the way it goes.
169 Wait, I want to ask you something now. Now, I’m going to disagree with you, brother or sister, I don’t know. It was laid here this morning. I had it in my Bible and was looking at it awhile ago. Now, in a friendly way... And now, I don’t want you to-to to fly loose at me. I want you to listen closely.
170 And remember, I would just as much like to agree with you on this-on your decision on this as I did with that woman, poor woman awhile ago. Said... Her and her husband, they just run off and got married; and there it was. But she’s take her vow; she’s got to stick with it. See? And now, I’ve got to stick with the Word of God. But now, I don’t believe... But first, I can’t believe that God sends wars as judgment.
171 Well now, friend, there’s only one thing that’s wrong with your belief, and that is, it isn’t Scriptural. God does send war as judgment. That’s right. I-I’m going to give you Scripture; I just ain’t going to read it off here and then tell you. Look. I don’t believe as some do that God placed a sword in the hands of these butchers from ancient Babylon to Hitler, to slay the innocent women and children.
172 If I would tell you in the Name of Jesus Christ that He did do it, and would prove it by the Bible, would you believe it then (see?), that He did do it, or-and He’s going to do it again? All right. Listen to this.
173 I don’t know. This might be my bosom friend setting here for all I know; for God who is in Heaven knows I don’t even know the handwriting. I couldn’t tell you. But I want you to listen this. “My God is a God of love-my God is love and wouldn’t do this. Wars are of Satan.” I’ll agree with you that wars is of Satan. That’s exactly. He’s a prince of this world. Every kingdom and every nation in this world belongs to Satan. God said they did in His Word. Satan said, “They’re mine.” Jesus admitted that they were his. But He’s going to fall heir to all of them afterwhile, Jesus will. We’ll have no more wars then. But God permits Satan to do this for correction and for judgment.
174 Now, I want to ask you something just before we start. I want you to answer me this and find out. If you don’t believe that God is a... (You said)... that wouldn’t do these things. Just to start it right from the beginning... Now, give me your undivided attention if you can. Listen. Why did God Himself chastise His own Son and murder Him on the cross? God killed His own Son at the cross. “Yet it pleased God,” said the Scripture, “to smite Him, and to bruise Him, and to wound Him.” God did His own Son that way to save you.
175 I want to ask about Saul, the great king of Israel. God told him to go down and to take King Og and everything he had and utterly destroy everything down there, men, women, children, and everything... And Saul... even the cattle to kill it, not to let nothing live. And Saul went down there and spared some of the cattle. And God took the Spirit off of him and separatedhim from Him; he become God’s enemy.
176 Why did Elijah stand there when God give the old King Og into a-Ahab’s hands? And he told Ahab to kill that king. And Ahab refused to do it. And Elijah the prophet had a sentry to... Said, “Smite me with your sword.” He realized he was a prophet.
He said, “I won’t.” And he lost his life. Then he told another one, said, “Smite me.” And the man hit him with the sword and cut him. And he wrapped himself up in disguise and stood there. And here come Ahab riding in on his chariot.
He said, “What-what you standing here about?”
He said, “Well, I was a sentry; I was given a care over a man. And he smote me and run away,” He said, “and I let him go. And they told me if I did, I have to pay with my own life.”
He said, “Well, you will have to pay with your own life.” He unwrapped himself and said, “THUS SAITH THE LORD, because you didn’t murder that king down there, you’ll pay for it with your ownself.” That right? That’s exactly right.
177 Let me read you something here. How about Babylon, when Joshua-when God sent Joshua over across there, and he utterly destroyed little babies, children, and everything else. And if he let one thing live... He wiped everything out. Little Philistine babies, he just destroyed them. God commanded him. And if he didn’t do it, it was his own life.
178 I’m going to fix it up in a few minutes. God is love, perfect love; but you don’t know what love is. That’s why today people don’t know what faith is. God is love. He has to be in love; He’s sovereign to His Word. And He has to keep His Word. He has to love you. And if He loves you, He’s got to protect you.
179 Listen here. You talk about the falling of children. Just a minute, let me show you something here in the Scriptures, what-what the Bible says about these things here. Let’s get over here and just listen to this just a minute and see what God said. Now, I’m reading from Ezekiel the 9th chapter, if you want to put it down. Listen close: And...
He cried also in my ears with a loud voice, and saying, Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near,... every man with their destroying weapon in his
hand. (Now, this is God speaking.) And, behold, six men came from the way of the higher gate, which are towards the north, and every man a slaughtering weapon in his hand; and one man among them was clothed with white linen, and a writer’s inkhorn by his side: and they went in, and stood by the-beside the brasen altar. And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherubims, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to me-to the man clothed in white linen, with the-had the... inkhorn in his hand-or side;
And so... And the LORD... (Capital L-O-R-D, which is God.)... the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem,... set a mark upon the forehead of the man that sigh and... cry for... the abominations... done in the midst thereof.
And to the others he... (The LORD.)... said in my hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: and let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: (Watch, 6th verse.) Utterly-Slay utterly old... young... maidens,... little children,... women:... (God said so. God said so!)...
but come not near any man that has the mark; and he begin at the ancient... at the sanctuary-and begin at the ancient man... were before the house.
180 In other words, God said to these people, “Now, wait; I’m going to mark the people first, those that are really consecrated to God... ” And He put a mark upon them. He said, “Now,” to these men that have the slaughtering weapon, “you go through and don’t you spare women, children, or nothing, but to utterly slay everything.”
181 In the antediluvian world in the destruction, when millions times millions and billions of people was upon the earth, and God sent a old holiness preacher out by the name of Noah, and preached a hundred and twenty years, and told them to come into the ark, and all that didn’t come in that ark would be destroyed... And God Almighty, who had the controls of the heavens, sent down the rains that utterly destroyed millions of old people, of young people, of little babies, strangling and perishing in the waters.
182 Almighty God-and He’s correctly the God of love. And that’s true. He has to. He loves His own. He has to be sovereign to His Word. So not to-for a controversy, but disagreeing with you. Your God of love...
183 Here not long ago I was talking... It’s perhaps maybe a Jehovah Witness. The man come up and said, “Brother Branham, do you mean to tell me that you believe there is a burning hell?”
I said, “It’s not what I say, it’s what the Bible says.”
He said, “Do you mean to tell me that a loving heavenly Father would burn His children up? Why,” said, “you wouldn’t burn your child.”
I said, “No, sir!”
“Well then, if you as a human has that much love (see, how people can twist the thing around?)-if you as a human have that much love, you think that a loving heavenly Father would destroy His children?”
184 I said, “Never!” He don’t destroy His children, but whose child are you? God don’t destroy His children. He’s trying His best to get them in. But it’s the devil that’s turned loose will destroy his children. So God just permits Satan.
185 Look. Who was it that permitted the evil to come down and Satan to go out and destroy the most perfect servant of God until Jesus Christ, his children and everything he had-Job? And God sent a wicked spirit out there and destroyed all of Job’s children and everything just to test His servant. Is that right? Sure.
186 Oh, I could stand here for an hour and just showing you them, my Brother, Sister. That’s right, ever who you may be. Don’t you get this Spirit of God mixed up. Wars are God’s judgments upon the nations. Destructions are sent of God. The Bible said so. And God is a God of love, but God is a God of wrath also. And you’re not going to stand before a loving... That’s been the thing that hurt the church today.
187 “Some loving Father, of course He wouldn’t mind me doing this.” If you want to do it, you might as well go on and do it, because the love of God’s not in you to begin with.
188 We’re fixing to take Communion just in a moment, and I want this to really sink in to you. The thing of it is, what is in your heart will produce-make your life. What kind of a seed you put in the ground will produce after its kind. How can you take a-a popcorn plant and make a-a jimsonweed out of it? You couldn’t do it no more than you can take a grain of corn and make a cocklebur. You couldn’t make them, because they’re two different natures, two different lives altogether. The-you-you might take a jimsonweed seed and an onion seed, and they look so perfect alike till the very best of man couldn’t tell them apart. That’s right. The only thing you have to do is plant them. They both look alike natural, but plant them. They both will produce; and one will be a jimsonweed and the other one will be an onion. That’s exactly right.
189 Say, “Why-what makes this seed-it looks just exactly like this-produce a different kind of a life?” It’s because that kind of life is in it.
190 And a man or woman that professes to be a Christian and don’t live that kind of life, by the grace of God, is a jimsonweed. By their fruits ye shall know them. If that thing’s in your heart, bears record of what you are somewhere else. If it’s evil, it bears record that you’re down here. When you die, you’ll just have to go to where you are already.
If you’re good and you’re-you’re good because God has made you good, and you’re borned again, you’re bound to go that way, because that Life will have to bear record with this place. If it bears record of here, there’s where you go. If it bears record up there, there’s where you go. See?
191 What you are here... Get this in your mind now. I’m going to close. But what you are here is a sign that you are something else somewhere. You’ve always wanted to be in perfection, you Christians. There is a perfection, and that perfection is not in this life. But every man and woman here that is a Christian, every person that is a Christian here now is already glorified in the presence of Jesus Christ. And you’ve got another body. You won’t have some other time, you have right now. Right now there’s another body waiting for you if this one should perish. Could you think of that. Study that just a minute.
192 Do you know every one of us may be in eternity before sun rises tomorrow morning? Now, if you’re not a Christian, my friend, there’s only one thing left for you. You’ve got to go that way. If you’re on that road, you have to go that road. If you’re a grain of corn, you’ll produce corn. If you’re a cocklebur, you produce cocklebur life. Now, if you’ve been belonging to a church somewhere that doesn’t know and doesn’t teach, and just lets you come to church and be a member of the church... You say, “Well, Brother Branham, my church teaches that we must accept Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour. If we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we are saved.” If your life doesn’t compare with that, you haven’t made it yet.
193 Do you know the devil believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Do you know Jesus publicly-do you know the devil publicly confessed Jesus to be the Son of God? And he wasn’t saved. And he couldn’t be saved; he’s the devil. So confessing Jesus to be the Son of God...
194 Do you know all those Pharisees and Sadducees, every one was very pious and religious people; how they loved God with their hearts, they thought; and failed to see that innocent One, the Son of God, to recognize Him to be the Son of God. And yet, they was very religious (is that right?), very pious, very scholarly, knowed the Bible better than any of our scholars today. They had nothing to do but set there through their generations and serve the Lord.
195 Now, look what the Scripture says: “In the last days... ” To you, my Christian friends, and with godly love, the Bible said, “In the last days man-would come a time when man would be heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.” Now, isn’t that truth?
196 A certain person in this building went to a New Year’s party the other night, and in the basement they were having soft drinks and recreation and carrying on, ice cream suppers, and so forth. The churches even give dances. Just exactly what God told them not to do, they do in the Name of Christ. And here’s what Jesus said for the Church to do, and they deny it. Jesus-here’s His last words, His will and testament to the Church: “Go ye into all the world; preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned. (Maybe that’s as far as your pastor read. But here’s the rest of it.) These signs shall follow them that believe; in My Name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; if they take up serpents or drink deadly things, it shall not harm them; and if they lay their hands on the sick, they shall recover.”
197 Now, that’s what Jesus said for them to do in His Name. They deny that that exists, but they go and do just contrary to what He said, teach that it’s passed, there’s nothing to it, and teach theology instead. Oh, no wonder we’re in the condition we are.
198 Looky here, let me tell you, my brother. When the Church gets to a place till it’s, that each member in there is so charged with the Holy Ghost and power, until them signs will follow.
199 I think of Saint Paul out there on the isle after shipwrecked. God had give him a vision. When the fourteen days and nights... All hopes was gone they’d ever be saved. The little, old boat tossing about like that, and they was all crying, fourteen days and nights. Paul was down there, had a vision. He came out; and he said, “Be of good courage, for the Angel of God, who’s servant I am, has stood by me and said, ‘Fear not, for thou must be brought before Caesar. And lo, God’s give all those who sail with you.’”
200 When the ship wrecked and went up on the shores, and they got over there with the natives, Paul was picking up some sticks, and he went and laid them on the fire. And in there there was a big serpent, grabbed him by the hand. Now, that serpent
injected poison that-in his hand that would have killed him within a minute. The natives said, “Watch that fellow fall dead, for he’ll die just in a minute.”
201 He’s in chains for preaching the Gospel. Religious people put him in chains. The very finest of churches that day was what put him in chains. If it just wasn’t the Constitution of the United States, they’d do the same thing today. That’s right! Just wait till she’s-till she’s broke a little more.
202 And a serpent grabbed him through the hand. Now watch. Paul didn’t fear. He said, “Jesus Christ said, ‘If they take up serpents, it shall not harm them.’” So he walked over here, shakes him off on the fire; turns around and walks over to get some sticks and put back on the fire; turned himself around and warmed his back, and turned around this way and warmed his hands. The natives said, “Why don’t he die? Why don’t that
man die? He ought to drop dead.” But Paul was so full of the Holy Ghost (see what I mean?), so full of the Holy Ghost until the poison wouldn’t poison him.
203 Oh, brother, give me a church full of the Holy Ghost. God will do in one year what all theologists failed to do in two thousand years. You wait till the anointing of the Church really strikes home to that faithful little remnant. After the doors of the Gentiles is closed, oh, God will anoint a Church then. “He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous let him be righteous still, and he who is holy let him be holy still.” And God will anoint the Church with the Power of God, and things will be taking place. Not only that then, but He’s doing it now.
204 Watch signs and wonders; then the people look around and say, “Well, it’s of the devil.” Oh, because they don’t know the Scriptures, neither the power of God. And that’s the reason they say it.
205 May the Lord bless you. I’m sorry to keep you this late. I’m very seldom do this, but I don’t get with you very much. So I may not have answered these questions according to your thoughts and things. That was two answered this morning. If I didn’t, God bless you. And I-I didn’t mean to-to upset you or something. I just had to say what... You ask me the question. I do the best of my knowledge for the answer. That’s right.
206 Now, I don’t know too much about the things maybe. I don’t know nothing that I ought to know. But one thing that I know, Jesus Christ saves us from sin, keeps us from sin, and gives us His power and His blessings.
207 And if you’ll just notice around and watch what takes place in the people that’s prayed for... Look across the nations and look at the signs and wonders everywhere. And look at the time coming. Like them two branches we was preaching on here sometime ago, come up from Genesis, how they’re bearing their records everywhere. How the unbeliever, very fundamental and dignified in his religion, but having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof... And the Church is moving on.