Questions & Answers
Questions 27 (COD Page 161)
Brother Branham, speaking on “the mark of the beast,” don’t you believe they’ll tattoo a number in your head, or tattoo something on your hand? No, sir! Don’t never look for that.
72 It’ll be a boycott! Certainly! “No man could buy or sell ’less he belongs to the confederation of churches.” That’s true. Now, it’ll come like a union, unionizing the thing, bringing it down in unionized religion. Mark my word, it ain’t far off! You’ll see it, she’s just around the corner.
73 The reason you don’t know these things, you’re here at home all the time. Follow me over in these countries where Catholicism has the upper hand, one time, and see what takes place. Brother, they tell them all what to do and what not to.
74 And here the Bible speaks that the United States, we picked it up in prophecy, come up like a lamb, “freedom of religion,” and directly they united those things together, and he spake like a dragon and exercised the same power the dragon had before him. That’s the U.S.A.! That’s right.
75 A minister said to me not long ago, a friend of mine, said, “Brother Branham, God will never let the United States fall, because of the basis of its forefathers, founded on religion.”
76 I said, “He let the Jews; sure carried away, and they had a lot better stand than we had.” That’s right. God ain’t no respect of some generation that’s passed; you either walk the line or you’re out of the Kingdom, that’s all. Truly! That’s pretty rough, but that’s good for you. That’s right. It’s the Scripture. And we got, we...
77 The trouble of it is, today... Some of you old-timers know this. We got too much Hollywood evangelism. That’s right. Too much of that with a whole lot of racket and carrying on, a lot of glamour and everything like that, and tooting horns, and so forth; and, “Who will stand up and accept Christ as personal Saviour? God bless you, brother, you go to Heaven right now.”That’s a lie! That’s a lie!
78 “Except a man be born again!” And if he’s born again, the same Blessing that come to him there will come to him here. And we’ve been through that, over and over, and through the Scriptures in the last week. And find out that in the Eastern people, when the Holy Spirit fell upon the Jews, which were an oriental, Eastern people, the Holy Spirit fell with great signs and manifestations. The Bible said there’d be almost a-a time where it couldn’t even tell, like dark or day. It was kind of a cloudy day, plumb on until the last part of the evening. And then the sun would come out a few minutes in the last, evening. “It’ll be Light in the evening.” Is that right? Well, that’s the Western people, the Gentiles, receiving the same Holy Spirit that the Jews received back there, with the same signs and manifestations. That’s it.
79 And, course, people, the world’s going to call you a “fanatic, cracked at the head.” The Bible, Jesus said they would do it. You’re a peculiar people, and you are odd because It’s so much different.
80 I notice it in my own neighborhood at home, the people there. They, even my little children; we try to keep them clean and live decent as can be, but you can watch the neighbors make a difference in the children. See? They make a difference.
81 And I know, I have a way of knowing things (and you know that, you’ve seen it in the meeting), know that the pastors of,the city say, “Well, now, Billy’s a good boy, we have nothing against him. But, you see, that’s just a little different class of people than what we are.” Thank God! That’s right. Thank God! That’s the Mark. There is the Mark we’re talking about.
82 Look, last night, when the Holy Spirit predicted, nine hundred years before the Jews received the Holy Ghost, and told them what it would be. “The inkhorn, man with the inkhorn writer went through the midst of Jerusalem and set a mark in their forehead.” Is that right? Spoke of It before the church was condemned by God. And Titus besieged the walls of Jerusalem, in A.D. 96, and burnt the city. And there wasn’t one stone left upon another one, according to the prophecy. And, today, the only thing they got left of the temple is an old wall laying there where they heaped up the stones, and it’s rubbed slick where the Jews weep and wail there at the wailing wall, the only thing left of the temple. And the Moslem of Omar stands at the same place.
83 And Jesus said, “As spoken by the prophet Daniel; when you see the abomination that maketh desolation standing in the Holy place,” then He’s underlined, in parenthesis, “(let him that readeth understand.)” See? That’s right. There it was. And He told how many day... times it’d be until the Gentiles would be... dispensation be cut off; they trod the walls down, then God would return to the Jews. And we’re right at that time! Here’s the Jews returning back, by the thousands, in the last few years. And you know how we went through it last night, how the Scripture perfectly... just like reading a newspaper, and more plainer because you get more sense out of It then.
84 But, however, the Mark that was put on their head was not tattooed. Was it? What was It? The baptism of the Holy Spirit. And what is the Mark that’s going to be for this last day? The Bible said, “The Seal of God was the baptism of the Holy Ghost, for the people in the last day.” Now there’s no... Ephesians 4:30, “Wherefore grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you’re sealed until the day of your redemption.” The Bible speaks. And Ephesians 1:13 says the same thing, many other places, that “The Holy Spirit is the Seal of God.”
85 What is a seal? A seal cannot be put on anything until it’s complete. The Lutherans wasn’t sealed, the day of dispensation of grace wasn’t completed; they preached justification. Methodists wasn’t sealed. I’m getting to a question here; we’ll get to it a little-a little later. Not sealed, because it wasn’t completed. But the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the completion of the works of God!
86 He said “There are three that bear record in Heaven: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and these three are One.” You can’t have the Father without the Son, the Son without the Holy Ghost, they are One.
87 He said, “There are three that bear record in earth: the water, the Blood, the Spirit, and they are not one but agree in one,” there you are, “in one complete sealing.” Justification under Luther, water; sanctification by the Blood.
88 Justification was Romans 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with the... God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Justification by faith!
89 Sanctification through the Blood, Hebrews 13:12 and 13, “Jesus suffered without the gate that He might sanctify the people through His Own Blood.”
90 Luke 24:49, “Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem till you’re endued with Power from on High.” Acts 1:8, “After this the Holy Ghost is come upon you, then you’ll be witnesses of Me in Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” A Holy Ghost baptism was to last until Jesus returns again! “A little while and the world sees Me no more, yet ye shall see Me for I’ll be with you, even in you, to the end of the world; doing the-the things that I do, you’ll do also.” Through His Spirit working through the Church! He said, “You’ll be made fun of.” Said, “They called Me, the Master of the house, ‘Beelzebub, “the chief of fortunetellers,”’ said, “how much more will they call them of His household now?” Said, “Blessed are ye when man shall say all manner of things about you, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, ’cause great is your reward in Heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
91 That’s Scripture, see. There It is. So, you see, you just got to have It, friend. Now you’ve got to make your choice; you’re a free moral agent.
92 But that’s the connection with the Protestant church and the Catholic church. Together they are both, according to the Bible... who only holds to the church; not Jesus, now, to the church. People in the church that’s holding onto Jesus Christ and praying for God to open up the way and make them... give them Light, that person is saved, I don’t care what church he’s in. That’s right. But if he’s just holding onto his denomination, he has taken the mark of apostasy, which is taking the place of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Contrary! And the Catholic and Protestant, both alike, the Bible said, “She was a whore; they were harlots, her daughters.” Is that clear now? All right.