Questions & Answers
Questions 25 & 26 (COD Page 154)
25. What connection did you mean about the Protestant church having with the Catholic church?
26. What does “the image of the beast” mean?
23 Now, that was one of the questions from last... probably was on the people’s... Now, I’ll try my best, by God’s help, to answer them the best of my knowledge. Now if He will give me knowledge, ’cause God knows I-I just picked them up, here on the platform.
Now, what connection did you mean about the Protestant church having with the Catholic church?
24 Now, I’ll answer that one first, God helping. I said that the Catholic church was the... We find out that the mark of the beast, night before last, had to come out of Rome. Is that right? It can’t come out of no other country but Rome. There is where it’s seated, that’s where it’s placed. And I said I have nothing against Catholic people, nothing against anyone. We’re all mortals trying to get to Heaven.
25 The pope is one fellow who teaches, the archbishop of Canterbury is another, and another, and another, and another; and I’m just one of the teachers, that’s all. They’d teach and say, perhaps, I was a fanatic and I was wrong, and so forth. And I have a right... if I can prove it by the Scripture. Or if they can prove it by the Scripture that I’m a fanatic, then I am a fanatic. But if I can prove by the Scripture that they are wrong in their setup, then it’s wrong; the Scripture is right. And you just have not one place now, it has to come all the way through the Bible, everywhere.
26 Now, I said, “The Catholic church was the mother church,” and that’s exactly right. The Catholic church is the mother church, when it comes to church organizations. The Catholic church was the first church that was ever formed, around about... the best history, you have it about A.D. 606, somewhere along in there when the early fathers, the second or third around, of the apostles. They had died out and begin to scatter out in little isms. And the Romans, being converted, the Roman Empire overruled the state, and then church and state united together and started a religion called “the universal religion.” And the word Catholic means “universal.” They organized the church, which was the first time that religion, Christian religion, was ever organized in all the world’s history.
27 The Jewish religion never was an organization. It was a free people. They had churches, but they didn’t have
an organization. That, God dealt with a nation, not an organization. It was a nation.
28 And now. And, then, the Catholic church was the first organization. Then we picked that up in the Bible to find out what that organization was. And according to the Word of God, it was supposed to be controlled by a single man, one man. And that man was to be in a church that was set on seven hills in Rome, according to the Bible. There’s no... And he was supposed to have ruling power in every nation in the world, religious ruling power. There’s not another in the world.
29 And-and Communism, we found out, was not no-no antichrist that Jesus spoke of. Communism is-is not a nation, like Russia. Communism is a spirit. America is eat up with it. It’s in the churches, it’s in the people, it’s in business, it’s in everywhere. Communism, the spirit of it, it’s in schools, it’s in homes, everywhere.
30 And then-then when they organized this church which was contrary... And now we’ve taken the Seven Church Ages, and prophecy, exactly the way God brought them on through the Bible here to us. And we found out by history and the Bible, that each age come in just according to the Bible, according to history; each one come in just at the time, through the dark ages. And then the Catholic church formed in the Dark Age.
31 Then the reformation come on, which is Martin Luther. And Martin Luther had a light, the light that “The just shall live by faith; justification by faith,” in the-in the reformation. A German priest which denied and said that the taking the communion when he held it... And they was supposed to say “this is the body of Christ,” and he threw it on the floor and said, “It is not the body of Christ; it’s a wafer!” And so he renounced the Catholic church, in doing so, and come out in the early reformation. Martin Luther did that, and that was a wonderful move.
32 Now, the fault, where Luther made his mistake, Luther organized another group just like the Catholic church did, organized the people.
33 Then, directly, a new light come on. And when the new light come on, God moved out with His people. The people that was organized in Lutheran church, they had to stay with their church in order to be with the... That’s just same as the Catholics had to be, but many of the Catholics come out and was Lutherans. Well, then when Wesley come along with the message of sanctification, then many of the Lutherans couldn’t leave their church; but many of them did, and made up the Wesley church.
34 Then after justification and sanctification, along come Pentecost. And then Pentecost, many come out of Methodist, and so forth, and become Pentecost because it was a greater light. Now Pentecost is organized just exactly like every one of them!
35 Now, the Bible says that... These are flat words, but I’ll read them from the Bible. And you listen to your doctor, or so forth, say this, and I’m your brother teaching from the Scripture. The Bible called the Catholic church “a prostitute, a whore, w-h-o-r-e.” And He called the Protestant churches that followed it, mothers... or they were “harlots of this mother.” And what connection it was, that the Catholic church organized the thing and made all people believe as the light they had then, or what they had then. The Lutherans did the same thing. And the Bible said that she was a great woman of that type.
36 Now what is that type of woman? Is a woman that lives and commits adultery. And the churches are committing spiritual fornications with the-with the people. See? They are-they are... Here’s the Bible that teaches This, and they make up a bunch of creeds and so forth that has nothing to do with the Bible. And, for, this is nearly twenty something years I’ve stood right here and asked any minister, at anytime, to come and take... not your textbook, your creed, but come take the Bible, in the Light of the Bible, and prove It wrong. See? That’s right.
37 And about contradictions, they say, “Contradictions!” I’ve offered as much as two-months’ wages if someone will show me one contradiction in the Bible. It’s not there. You think it’s there, but it isn’t. If the Bible contradicts Itself, it’s no good at all, you can’t believe it. Every Word is inspired and there’s no contradiction in the Bible.
38 Now the Protestant church, in its organization, is (according to God’s Word) connected the same thing with the Catholic church.
39 Now, I have nothing against Catholic people. Some of my dearest friends, sitting right here now, is growths of Catholic people. Here, night before last, when I gave a harsh message through the Holy Spirit, on Protestant and Catholic, the Catholic walked right here at the altar and shook my hand. They’re a human beings just the same as we are.
40 You can’t discuss with Catholic priests, because they don’t believe this Bible to be all the Word. They say, “It’s the church.” We say, “It’s the Bible!”
41 The Catholic says, “We Catholics go to church and worship. You Protestants stay home and read the Bible.”
42 I said, “Yeah, you go to church and worship, but what?” That’s the next thing, see.
43 Now, but God said He was in His Word. This is God’s Word and I believe It. I’m a Bible worshiper. That’s the reason I disagree with Protestantism and-and the way of-of just church organization, because they teach things that isn’t the Word of God. So I can’t help from disagreeing. I don’t fall out with them; no, sir, they are my brethren. And I don’t fall out with them, but I disagree with them because I have to take what God says and let everything else be a lie. See?
44 And now that’s the connection that... And now the Bible said that this woman, the Catholic church, which was supposed to be called, in the Bible, Revelation the 17th chapter, “A whore,” and she was, “THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS.” And we see that the Bible said that a woman represented “a church.” So then if she had daughters that’s harlots, it couldn’t been boys; it’d had to be daughters, so it had to be churches. And Protestantism was born out of Catholicism.
45 And now the next, beast... Or, the next thing that this says:
What does “the image of the beast” mean?
46 It’s-it’s a joint question to that, and the person who asked it has a good question. What make now, if... The Bible clearly teaches that the Catholic church is the-the beast. The Bible said that a beast means a “power.” Is that right? A beast, the Bible says that the beast meant a “power.” And the beast wasthe “Vatican City,” the “Catholic hierarchy.” All right. And, now, that was the power of the church that was the beast.
47 Then the Protestant church come out of the Catholic church, and organized themselves, a little power. That is the image.
48 If anything... If something was made in my image, it’d have to look like me. If something made in the image of this church, it’d have to look like the church.
49 Something was made, a beast... made a image unto this beast, which was Luther-ism, Methodist-ism, Baptist-ism, Pentecostal-ism, Holiness-ism, all them isms formed up into a organization and made an image just like the beast. There it is!
50 Now, “Do you say then, Brother Branham, that all Catholics, all Methodists, and all Baptists are going... ?” I didn’t say that.
51 There is thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of born-again Christians in those churches. But, in their organization, they’re trying to drive them to a creed, and they won’t stand for it. A-a church, when it organizes, it comes under a creed.
52 And I have no creed but the Bible. This is God’s Creed, and the Holy Spirit is the interpreter of That, and He brings It on from one Light to another. The Gospel I’m preaching today, if I shall live to see another hundred years, if we would, there will be more Light. Just constantly, It’s always come.
53 You used to ride in the ox cart, your great-grandfather, when he went to see grandmother. Dad went to see mother in a T-model. But now we almost go in a jet plane. See, we’re moving on; science, moving on; education is moving on; the Gospel, moving on. And the Bible said they would, said, “They’ll run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” So that’s the joint. That’s the reason there’s...
54 The Protestant denominational churches is the image of the beast, because it’s denominated just exactly like Catholicism is. And God never did order His Church to be organized in any age, but has always bitterly condemned it! Now do you get it? [Congregation says, “Amen.”-Ed.] Not the people; the church!
55 When they try to bring people under a-a light of... Here, what if people tried to get you to go back and start running around in an ox cart? You wouldn’t stand for it; we are living in a better age. That’s the way it is back there. If somebody tried to tell me, “Oh, the only thing you have to do is this, that.” I’m living in another age! I... That’s the trouble with ministers, they’re always looking back.
56 Here, a French scientist said, less than three hundred years ago, “If a man would ever make the terrific speed of thirty miles an hour, gravitation would take him from the earth. Thirty miles an hour!” Well, do you think that science would refer back to that today? Far be it! No, sir. They got him going about nine or ten hundred miles an hour. Yeah, or sometimes in a rocket, and then it’s sixteen hundred miles an hour. And still taking him forward!
57 Science has taken man forward, more forward, greater things with his mind than what... And that’s the only thing he has, is the tree of knowledge. Farther than the ministers has taken him with His Spirit, which is unlimited. But here is what it is. The science ain’t looking back to what science said a few years ago; science is taking what they got now and moving forward for something else.
58 But you ask the preacher; “Well, we’ll see what Moody said about It, we’ll see what Wesley said about It.” I don’t care what they said about It. I know what God said about It now. This is It, and I’m still looking for greater! That’s it. That’s the reason...
59 The Bible said, “Three unclean spirits come out of the mouth of the beast.” Do you know what? A “unclean spirits,” said, “like frogs.” Did you ever notice how a frog looks? A frog is always looking backwards, he never looks forward; looking back, always back, look back.
60 But the four beasts that had the four different heads, in Ezekiel, was looking forward and they couldn’t go backward. They were moving forward all the time. Everywhere they went, they was going straight forward. See the difference?
61 Now, that’s the connection that Protestantism has with Catholicism.
62 So you’re always throwing off on the Catholics, but “pot can’t call kettle ‘black.’” That’s right.
63 I say, “Are you a Christian?”
64 “I’ll give you to understand I belong to the Baptist church.” Yeah. That has no more to do with It than to say that you belonged out here to the... a farm somewhere.
65 “Why, I belong to the Catholic church.” That still don’t make you a Christian. Belong to the Baptist or Methodist church don’t make you a Christian.
66 There’s only one way to be a Christian. The word Christian means “Christ-like.” And you can’t do it, you can’t work it in yourself, there’s no way at all you can do it. You have to forget yourself, die out to yourself, and let Christ come in and live the Life of Christ in you.
67 “Except a man... ” Here’s what Jesus said, “Except a man be born of Spirit and of water, he will in no wise enter the Kingdom.” Whether he’s Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, or whatever, you’ll have to be baptized in water for the remission of your sins and receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost, or you’re lost. That’s Jesus’ own Word. So now if you’re Methodist, and have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, been baptized in water, Jesus said you’ll enter Heaven. If you’re Catholic and have done the same thing, you’ll enter Heaven.
68 But if you’re just holding on to that creed of the Catholic church, or the Methodist, or the Baptist church, you’re still lost. And that’s the reason we got the condition in the world, we got today, ’cause people are just exactly... They say, “That’s against my faith.”
69 “Do you believe in Divine healing?”
70 “That’s against my faith.” That’s against your church; your church’s creed has got that made up, see, you have to do what the church says. And then you holler at the Catholic; that’s the same thing they do. And that’s the beast and the image of the beast! And the Bible says, “Whosoever took it could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but would be cast out where dogs and sorcerers, and so forth, and would be tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy Angels and the Lamb, forever and forever.” Come out of it, friend! Get right with God! Yes, sir.
71 And now let me get this. Well, we’ll get them out of the way. Now, someone asked me today; two or three times I’ve been asked it.