If you are New to Brother Branham’s ministry please go to HERE before reading this section.
The following notes are based in part on the message “The Rapture” as taught by Brother William Branham on December 4, 1965 in Yuma, AZ. As well as various other quotes from the magnetic tapes. I have added some additional scripture studies to highlight Bible understanding on this subject.
The Rapture can be an extremely in depth study, the focus here is on the simple Rapture message. Since we are examining how Brother Branham taught the Message we will examine both the Bible scriptures and various statements as he made them.
The true Church is typed as the Bride of Jesus Christ throughout the scripture. This is a basic concept that should be understood. In the Old Testament God was “married” to Israel (Isaiah 62:1-5; Joel 2:16; Ezekiel 16:8,32; Hosea 2:2,16.) They had a covenant relationship, which is a type of the Marriage relationship. God also said he “divorced” Israel for her adulteries (Jeremiah 3:8). He then took a Gentile Bride. (More on this later)
The Church is compared to a man and his wife in
2 Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Here Paul, who is “the apostle to the gentiles” (Romans 11:13), says he has betrothed the church to one husband, as a chaste virgin to Christ. This shows that the church is in type the Virgin Bride of Christ.
Revelation 18 speaks of “the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride”, and Revelation 22 says, “The Spirit and the Bride say Come.”
The Bible clearly shows the spiritual relationship with God and his people as one compared to a Man and his Wife. Paul said it is a great mystery concerning the Church! The Bride of Christ is his redeemed.
“And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Revelation 22: 2.
This last scripture has caused some to say that the Church is not the Bride, but that doesn’t run smooth. A city does not have a voice and the Bride clearly does. That doesn’t make sense to say a city is the Bride. God is not married to a city but to a people. The Greek word in Revelation 18: 23, 21:2,9 and 22: 17 is numphe, which is, translated both Bride and “daughter in law” (Matthew 10:35; Luke 12:53). The scripture here refers to the Bride, the redeemed of all ages. The word “wife” in Revelation 21:9 is gune and is translated woman 129 times, and wife 92 times in the New Testament. The word Bride is used in connection with believers as the word Bridegroom is used in reference to Christ.
The Church is clearly the Bride.
There are actually three comings of Christ in the Bible. The first time he came to redeem his Bride as the Lamb of God, the second time he comes to Rapture her and take her to a wedding Feast (which is the focus of this message) and the third time he comes in his physical return with his Saints to rule and reign upon the Earth during the Millennium celebration, this is often called the 2nd Coming.
“Now, we believe that there will be a Rapture. All Christians believe that, that's Bible readers believe that there will be a Rapture.”—Branham 65-1204
1 Thessalonians 4: 16-17 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
Notice there are three things that take place here.
The first thing is a shout, and then a voice, and then a trumpet. Shout, a messenger getting the people ready. The second is a voice of the resurrection. The same voice in St. John 11:38 and 44 that called Lazarus from the grave. Getting the Bride together, and then the resurrection of the dead (See?), to be caught up with it. Now, watch the three things take place.
Shout, a messenger getting the people ready. Message calls the Bride together.
Voice: "Lazarus, come forth." See? And the voice wakes up the sleeping Bride, the sleeping dead.
A trumpet announced a calling together, calling to the feast. And now that is the Lamb's supper in the sky (Now, watch)--the assembling together in the Bride, the Feast of the Trumpets, at the Wedding Supper.
Now, there has been one rapture already past. Did you know that?
Notice verse 50: His loud voice awakened the Old Testament saints just exactly like the loud voice wakened Lazarus. See? The loud voice awakened.
And the second is fulfilled in I Thessalonians 4:12-18. That will be the second rapture. The second rapture will be the catching away of the Bride. The same voice, a loud voice in St. John 11:38 and 44 that called Lazarus from the grave.
“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
John 14:3, where Christ tells His disciples, "I will come again, and receive you to Myself," is an expression that is never used of death in the whole Bible. Commentators on this passage simply declare their view to be so, without substantiation. Yet, many times, various biblical texts speak of Christ coming in reference to His Second Advent (Matt. 24:27, 30, 37, 39, 42-44, 46; 25:31; John 21:23; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Thess. 4:15; 2 Thess. 1:10; 2:1, 8, etc.)
In the New Testament the Spirit of God tells us that the believer's death is not the Lord coming to the dying believer, but the death of a Christian means that he goes to be with the Lord; For the believer to be absent form the body means to be "present with the Lord, (2 Cor. v:1-8).
Further study of John 14: 3 provides evidence that our Lord's coming again is not only a future coming, but His coming for the church at the Rapture. We find that the aorist tense of the verbs "go" and "prepare" denote actuality as well as single acts, which support a second coming view of the passage. The coming again is the counterpart of the going away; visibly Jesus ascends, visibly he returns, Acts 1:9-11. But note also that the language speaks of Christ coming from heaven to the earth, He describes a coming for His saints to take them to the Father's house. This is a description of the Rapture in contrast to the Second Coming. This passage, taken literally, indicates that the believer is going to go to heaven at the time of Christ's coming for Him. This will not occur at the Second Advent because that will be a time in which Christ comes with His saints, who are already in heaven, not for His saints as John 14:1-3 requires.
|
John 14: 1-3 |
Thess 4: 13-16 |
| trouble v. 1 | sorrow v. 13 |
| believe v. 1 | believe v. 14 |
| God, me v. 1 | Jesus, God v. 14 |
| told you v. 2 | say to you v. 15 |
| come again v. 3 | coming of the Lord v. 15 |
| receive you v. 3 | caught up v. 17 |
| to myself v. 3 | to meet the Lord v. 17 |
| be where I am v. 3 | ever be with the Lord v. 17 |
The Scripture interprets itself and shows that Jesus' teaching in John 14:1-3 and Paul's revelation in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 speak of the same event. The Rapture.
"After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter."
In this Verse John is translated to heaven. The phrase "come up hither" shows a calling forth like the one that called Lazarus from the grave, "come forth." The phrase "after this" shows that he is speaking about a time after the church ages. The word church is never mentioned again after Rev 3:22. The church is "caught up" to meet the Lord and is taken to the Wedding supper. Notice the similarity of this event in Revelation 4:1 to the one that Jesus promised in John 14, that we reviewed above.
REVELATION CHAP 4 PT.3 THRONE OF MERCY_ JEFF.IN ROJC 645-716 SUNDAY_ 61-0108
Then we find out here, after these things, he heard a voice was speaking to him, ...What was it? The Spirit left the earth. "After these things," starts out the 1st the 1st verse.
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven...
Revelation 4:1, after the church is gone, then a Door was opened. And we've went through all of that and found that that was Christ was the Door. And the same voice that was walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks also was the same voice he heard in heaven, saying, "Come up hither." John went up. It represented the church going in the rapture.
The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto 10 Virgins. As we know the Church is typed as the Virgin Bride of Christ. This relationship describes Christ’s Love that he has for his Church. In this Parable Jesus is teaching about the Church. He used the number ten, and there are five wise and five foolish. A True vine and a False vine.
There was a cry made in the midnight hour, at the last watch, the last age of the church, a cry was made, a shout, a message, “Behold the Bridegroom Cometh, Go Ye out to Meet Him.”
Then they rose and trimmed their lamps. They made themselves ready. They cut away everything, every doubt, every semblance of unbelief in the Word, (He is the Word), separated themselves from the World and made themselves ready for the Rapture.
The difference between the Wise and the Foolish Virgins, for they were both Virgins (Christians) was that the Wise had Oil in their Lamps, and the Foolish did not. Oil represents the Anointing Oil, which types the Holy Ghost. (Exodus 30:25-31; Zechariah 4:11-14; James 5:14)
The Wise had the True Inward Baptism of the Holy Ghost, the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit (see subheading “The Token” below for more details). And the Holy Spirit always points to the Word. To accept denominational doctrine over the Word proves that one does not have the True Baptism of the Holy Ghost. Jesus said they Worship him in Vain who teach for doctrine the commandments of men (Mark 7:7). The Foolish Virgin did not Have Oil in her Lamp. “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” And The Lord told the Foolish, “I know you not” (verse 12).
Notice verse 3 “They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:” They had lamps. Psalms 119:105 “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” They had Word. A Bible.
The Foolish Virgin had a word, a belief. But as Paul asked, "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?" (Acts 19:2)
But the Foolish had no Oil in her Lamp. She did not have the Inward Baptism of the Holy Ghost for if she did, she would not receive man-made dogma’s over the Word.
“But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (John 14: 26)
They had a lamp but no oil. They had a Bible but not the Anointed word for the day they were living in for a Bride to make herself ready.
Notice also verse 9 “But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.”
Proverbs 23:23 “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.”
The Wise virgin is a virgin of the Word. She is chaste, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. She has not been handled by man-made denominations. She believes only the Word. She is his Virgin Word Bride.
The Wise Virgin who had the Anointed Word for her day, who had trimmed her lamp, and made herself ready, went into the Rapture. But the Foolish was left behind.
Not everyone who Saith unto me Lord, Lord will Enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but only Those who do the WILL of my Father. (Matthew 7:21)
Many Christians are deceived into believing that all Christians are going in the Rapture. Jesus said they are Liars. Only those who do the Will of his Father, which is the Word, will enter in. Not all will enter in, only the Wise Virgin who is ready to meet him.
Jesus Said, “Man shall not live by Bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4).
It was one Word misbelieved, of God's commandments that caused death, sorrow, and every sickness and heartache. To miss God's Word, one Word, is all it took to condemn the human race to death. By misbelieving one Word, "surely," God said the day ye eat of it you will “surely die.” Satan said, "Surely you won't."
So we've got to keep every Word of God. And if the human race fell into sin and all this suffering, by misconstruing, or misbelieving one Word, how we going back by missing One, if it's cost all this price, even the life of His own Son?
The Bible says many are called but few are chosen. Jesus when he comes for his church is coming back for a believing Bride.
“That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. (Ephesians 5:27)
The Scripture declares that Jesus is coming back for a Church that is Holy and without blemish, spotless, and a glorious Church. This is clearly not the condition of the Church in the last age. The Last Church mentioned in Revelation Chapter 3, in the letters to the 7 churches, is Laodicea. The Rapture then occurs at Revelation 4:1 “Come up Hither.” The Word church never again appears in the Bible after Revelation 3: 22.
Notice the condition of the Church in the last age:
She is lukewarm, neither on Fire for God and his Word, nor cold and indifferent. She is Rich and says she is in need for nothing. But she is spiritually poor, miserable, wretched and Naked and Doesn’t Know it! She cannot see the Truth, she needs Eye Salve to see. Further she has put Christ, the Word, on the outside of the Church, where he knocks waiting for an invitation.
The Church of this last age is not ready. She cannot see the Truth of her spiritual condition. She thinks she is all right because she is called a virgin; she has a lamp, the Word. But she is Foolish. She has no Oil. She has forgotten. She doesn’t know. She has Spiritual Amnesia and cannot remember who she is or what she is supposed to be.
SPIRITUAL AMNESIA_Birmingham, AL Wm. Branham 64-0411
E-15 “This amnesia we're told causes you to be to a place where you cannot identify yourself.”
E-19 God by his grace chose Israel from all the rest of the families on the earth. Grace had did that. He had given them the choice land. He gave them houses that they never had to build. God did that, chose them. He gave them farms that they never bought. He gave them food that they never planted. He gave them wells that they never dug. He gave them victories that they never won. He gave them grace that they never merited, God did that by his grace for this people Israel, his chosen, his beloved. And He said in the Bible He found her in the field as a little girl sitting in her own blood, and He washed her and cleaned her up, and what He done. But after God showed all these mercies to her, and she got rich, she got amnesia, and she forgot all about where these things come from.
E-20 “(The church) is suffering with the same disease. We're great powerful churches. We're a great powerful people. We're millions in number, and we have forgotten where these things come from. They had a bad case of it. After God had been good to them, and brought them up from all the heathen lands, and made them a separated people, separated them to Himself... He said He took a vine out of another country and planted it over in another country, and how He fixed it around to make it grow fruit and be fruitful. But the vine forgot where its blessings come from.
So has God's people in these last days has forgotten what the testimony of being a Christian means. It's again, this amnesia has come upon the people. They can't identify themselves. They forgot all about it. They'd forgot His holiness; they had forgot His law. The women were living like the rest of the women. God's church and His people has always been a separated people, a called-out people, a peculiar people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices to God, the fruits of their lips giving praise to His Name.”
E-21 God called His church and separated it from the world for that very purpose. And He give it a law, and He said, "I am holy, and you must be holy," "and without holiness no man shall see the Lord." God said that Himself. And He called this people to be this type of people. But they had forgotten about it. They had forgotten His laws, and they had forgotten their morals. The women out in the street, Israelite women, out there each one expecting to be conceived by the Holy Spirit to bring forth the Messiah, and then acting like that. Their character was terrible.
I want to stop here a minute to say, it's the same thing among our people today that call themselves Christians. Their character, if you would only realize...
E-26 When the world and the church joins itself together, then they don't want nothing spiritual. They don't want THUS SAITH THE LORD; they want what they want. They want the world, and to say they're a Christian, and live in the world, and live with the world, and live like the world, and still maintain their confession of being a Christian.
You know, the thing of it is, it's spiritual amnesia. That's exactly what it is. They don't know who they are. They've forgotten that what they're supposed to do.”
E-39 We must be with the disciples at Pentecost: identified with them. I was identified with Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost, in Acts the 2nd chapter. I heard what he said; I believed what he said; I obeyed what he said; now I'm identified in the same thing.
Don't get spiritual amnesia, 'cause you will identify yourself with something else. Stay right with that Word.
We are with the church when it was commissioned by Jesus Christ in Mark the 16th chapter, "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." I want to be identified there: "All the world, to every creature, these signs shall follow them that believe."
Well, now, are you identified with that? Or have you got some spiritual amnesia, that you find out you don't believe those signs follow the believers? See, if you don't believe it, then you have spiritual amnesia. See, you've forgotten that God promised that. He said, "These signs shall follow them that believe." Don't forget it. You can't forget it and be a Christian. You must be identified with it.
E-40 You must be identified with St. John the 14th chapter, the 12th verse, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also." Don't forget it. If you do, then you've got spiritual amnesia. You've forgotten who you are. You've forgotten what your testimony means. He said, "If you abide in Me, and My Word in you, you can ask what you will and it'll be done for you." Are you identified there to believe that that is the truth? Mark 11, when He said, "If you say to this mountain, 'Be moved,' and don't doubt in your heart, but believe that what you have said will come to pass, you can have what you said." Can you be identified there to believe that that is the truth? If it hasn't, then your getting spiritual amnesia. And it--it--you forget. You lose your Christian balance. You can't tell where you belong.
You say, "I'm Methodist."
"I'm Baptist; that's what I know about it."
"I'm Pentecostal."
"I'm this, that, or the other." Watch out. That may mean the disease sign is showing on you, that you've got some spiritual amnesia. You say, "I don't believe that the sick are healed."
You got spiritual amnesia.
You say, "I don't believe in the baptism of the Holy Ghost":
Spiritual amnesia.
You say, "I don't believe that God promised to do these things in the last days."
Then you've listened to a creed or some doctrine, instead of the Bible. You have spiritual amnesia. You don't know where you do belong then. You're confessing a Christian and denying the Word!”
“And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:18)
Hebrews 8:5 “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.”
Hebrews 10:1 “For the law having a shadow of good things to come”
The Bible in the Old Testament is types and shadows of things that were to come. By getting our Bible to line up properly both Old Testament types and New Testament scripture and prophecy we can get the picture right. If it will dovetail together it will make a picture come into itself, like a negative film developing into a positive picture.
“Now, we find here that Enoch was the seventh from (Adam), which was a type of the church ages. Now, all of the rest of the six men before him died, but Enoch was translated; Enoch was raptured, the seventh, showing that it's the seventh church age that takes the rapture. Now, there's no doubt we're in the seventh church age. We all know it. Now, it's the seventh church age that takes the rapture. All of the other six died. But Enoch was translated because he was not found; God took him. But Enoch raptured, was a type of all of the rest of them dying, but the end time Bride will be called out (the rapturing, without death)--will be called out of the seventh church age. Which we are now bearing record of that.” (The Rapture 65-1204)
Joseph was a perfect type of Christ. He was rejected of his brothers, the Jews, He was sold for almost the same amount of silver as Jesus was. He was spiritual and they were carnal. In Egypt, while in the house of the general, Joseph was falsely accused, punished and imprisoned. There in the prison he interpreted the dream of the butler and baker. The butler was restored to life and the baker condemned to death. Christ was imprisoned on the cross, on either side of him was a thief, one died spiritually, but the other was granted life. Joseph was exalted at the right hand of pharaoh, and Jesus exalted to the right hand of God. Everywhere Joseph went the trumpet would sound his arrival and the people had to bow their knee, and “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
Revelation of Jesus Christ -Church Age Book Chapter 1 pgs 39-40.
But notice another glorious revelation in this typing of Joseph. Joseph, while in Egypt, was given a Gentile bride and through her he received a family of two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Joseph asked his father to bless the two boys. He placed them in front of Jacob so that Manasseh, the first-born would be on Jacob's right and Ephraim to the left. As Jacob was about to bless them he crossed his hands so that the right hand fell upon the younger. Joseph cried out, "Not so, father, this is the first-born to your right." But Jacob said, "God crossed my hands." Here in type we see that the blessing which belonged to the firstborn (the Jew) was given over to the younger (the Gentile) through the cross (crossed hands) of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blessing comes through the cross. Galatians 3:13-14, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree; That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." The blessing of Abraham came through the cross to the Gentiles. The Jews rejected the cross; therefore, Jesus got the Gentile bride. Why Are We Not a Denomination_Jeffersonville, In V-11 N-7 Wm. Branham_ 58-0927
And today, the power of the Holy Ghost, that the church is watering and worshipping, is the thing that'll pack it from this earth... Sure, Isaac was out in the field in the evening. We don't meet the Lord up in glory…we shall meet Him in the air.
Isaac had come out from his father's house, and was out in the field when he saw Rebekah coming on the camel. And she loved him at first sight, and jumped off the camel, and run to meet him. That's right. That's where we meet the Lord. And the very camel that she watered, packed her to her husband. And the very power that the church is worshipping, that the world's calling fanaticism, that the church is worshipping, will be the same power that'll take the church up in the air to meet the Lord in the air: the Holy Spirit. See? And, look, Rebekah was a virgin.
Questions and Answers_Jeffersonville, In. COD Wm. Branham_ 64-0830M 1115-256
When she seen him, her heart was so full of joy. She didn't know who she was going to marry, but by faith. Amen. And remember, Jesus will leave the Kingdom, and we'll not meet Him in glory; we're to meet Him in the air, between heavens and earth, where it's expanded to redeem us. And he met Rebekah in the middle, between her home and his home. Amen. Took her into his home, and married her, and fell heir to everything his father had. Amen. Oh, perfect, just perfect. All right.
Isaac and Rebekah:
We see the scriptures complimenting one another. The spiritual type of Isaac and Rebekah shows that he descends to meet her, and she goes out to meet him, half way between his home and her home.
1 Thessalonians 4: 16 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven”
Matthew 25: 6 “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.”
One In A Million_Los Angeles, California Wm. Branham 65-0424
E-54 When Israel left Egypt, there was approximately two million people left at the same time. Every one of them heard the message of a prophet. Every one of them saw the Pillar of Fire. Every one of them was baptized to Moses in the Red Sea. Every one of them shouted in the Spirit, beat the tambourines, and run up-and-down the bank with Miriam, when Moses sang in the Spirit. Every one drank from the same spiritual Rock. Every one ate fresh Manna every night, every one of them. But there was two (that) made the land: one out of a million.
What was the test? They all drink in the same Rock; they all ate the same spiritual Manna as we're eating this morning; but the Word test proved them. When it come to the time of Kadesh-barnea, when they started over into the promised land, and they could not go over till they were tested by the Word. And the other ten came back and said, "We can't make it. We're like grasshoppers to them, their great walled city. The opposition's too great."
But Joshua and Caleb stilled the people. They said, "We're more than able to do it." Why? God said before they left the promised land, "I've given you the land. I've give it to you. It's yours." But there was one out of each million (that crossed over). E-57 There's approximately five hundred million so-called Christians in the world today, and each day ends a generation. And now, what if the rapture would come today and five hundred people, universally, would be taken in the rapture? You'd never know or even they'd see in the paper of them going. And the coming of the Lord is a secret coming. He'll come and steal away It'll be such a minority, till just like it was in the days when the disciples asked Jesus, "Why does the Scribes say that--that Elias must first come?" He said, "He's already come, and you never knew it."
Did you ever think what the people did? They went right on believing that that Elias was coming. And he was right among them, and they didn't know it. Christ is The Mystery of God Revealed_ Jeffersonville, In. V-3 N-7 SUNDAY_ 63-0728
Now, watch. He said, "Who do you say I am?" He's asking the Church, His twelve. Out of the millions of that day, He asked twelve, His Church. In the millions in the days of Noah, He asked eight. See? And He said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the coming of the Son of man (See?), where eight souls were saved." I don't say (its) going to be eight saved now; now don't get that all wrong. I never said that. I don't know how many (is) going to be saved in that last moment to rapture that little group. It'll be a small group; I'll tell you that. "For strait is the gate and narrow is the way, but few there'll be that'll find it."
Worlds Falling Apart_ Alburq. NM Wm. Branham 63-0412M
And one of these days you're going to wonder. When that rapture comes…One of these days judgment's going to strike the world, strike the nation, strike the church, clear her out for the great millennium that is to come. And then you're going to say, "Well, why did it say that the rapture would first come before these things taken place?"
He'll say, "It's already come and you didn't know it." Somebody on his road to church, a little lady going somewhere on a visit, they're gone. You don't know when it happened, passed by. It's always been that way. So will it be again.
Spoken Word is The Original Seed_ Jeffersonville, In. V-3 N-1 Wm. Branham 62-0318M
Noah was in the ark before the judgment struck. Sodom: Lot was out of Sodom before it ever taken place. See?... We ain't going through no tribulation period; we're going in a rapture one of these days. Certainly...Why do you have to be judged? He stood my tribulation: Jesus Christ. There's where my tribulation taken place right there, yeah. I accepted Him, and "When I see the blood I'll pass over you." That's right. Moses was safe protected with Israel while the tribulation fell. That's right.
Noah:
And the blood shall be unto You for a token upon the house where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:12-13)
E-16 Israel's slain lamb was the requirement of Jehovah, and the blood was the token that the job had been done. God required for redemption, from Egypt to go to the promised land, he required a slain animal. And The blood of the dead animal must be put upon the lintel and on the door, and that stood for the token that the thing that Jehovah had required had been fulfilled. See? Now, not the lamb was the token, the blood was the token. Now, the life had gone out from the sacrifice, and now the blood was the token. His orders had been carried out. The blood stood for the token, the sign that this believer had done exactly what the requirement was. That was the token. All right.The believer was then identified with his sacrifice.
E-19 The Token showed he was identified with the slain lamb that Jehovah had required. The work was done. What a perfect type today of Christ and the believer. When the Token is displayed to the believer, then It shows that it's been accepted and the work has been done. The blood was a token of identification.
E-37 Now, we find out our identification with our Sacrifice: the Life of the Sacrifice in us, which is the Holy Spirit. When that cell was broke, it released God, released God, that He'd sanctified a people with His Own Blood and put God in the man again: God in you, Eternal Life.
And any Greek scholar knows that that word, "Eternal Life," comes from the word "Z-o-e, Zoe," which means "God's Own Life." That's right. The only way that you ever can have Life, there's only one form of Eternal Life and that's God's Own Life in you.
E-48 The Holy Ghost is the Token that we have been pardoned. The case is closed. To every man and woman that truly has received the baptism of the Holy Ghost, he's been tried, he's identified with his Attorney, with his Judge, with his Sacrifice, and the Token he holds in his possession shows that his trip is paid to glory. Amen. It's all over. He holds that Token. It's his, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is the witness of the resurrection of Jesus. Amen. You believe it? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] That's your identification; you're holding the Token.
Now if you haven't got that Token, you'll not be coming in. You must have the Token. That's the required price, "When I see the blood, the blood is the token. When I see the blood, I'll pass over you." You must have the Token. If you don't, why, you won't go. You've got to have the Token.(The Token_ Jeffersonville, IN. 63-0901M) Rapturing Grace
Countdown_Jeffersonville, IN Wm. Branham 64-0209
E-76 Their wrapped in Christ in rapturing grace, nothing they did themselves. Christ took the uneducated, the foolish things of the world, wrapped His astronauts in it, and empowered them with the Holy Ghost to take off. This world's going to be left alone. That's right, taking off.
E- 91 “I pray, Father, that they'll realize it isn't trying to condemn what they had; it's only trying to give them more rapturing grace. For the hour will come when we'll have to have rapture power, not only to heal the body, but to change it in a moment in a twinkling of an eye. Christ will be so real into their bodies, till He can change it by His great death and what He purchased.” Rapturing Faith
Countdown_Jeffersonville, IN Wm. Branham 64-0209
E-173 “…Holy Ghost power. It's the Holy Ghost that we're justified by. You ministers know that, don't you? The Holy Ghost sanctifies. The Holy Ghost fills us. The Holy Ghost gives us rapturing faith (See?)” Perfect Faith
Perfect Faith_ Jeffersonville, In Wm. Branham 63-0825E
E-157 “The same Holy Spirit comes as a Discerner; and the Word of God, which is quicker and sharper than a two-edged sword, a Discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart... Isn't that right? Isn't that the same God? Now that same One, it's not a stranger off somewhere else; He's here. He's here, does this to create a perfect faith. I feel Him. I know He's here now. I know that His Spirit is here. I know that He knows all things. Amen. And I know He wants to--to do something. He's been doing something to--to create this perfection of faith in the people.”
E-184 “Not a faith, but a perfect faith, built it up in here. And watch a perfect God, with a perfect heart, keep a perfect promise, by His perfect Word, which is sharper than a two-edged sword and a Discerner of the thoughts of the heart. What? We're coming now to the perfection, because the people has to come to this in order for the rapture. That's what's holding it away right now, is waiting for that church to come into that perfect raptured faith. I'm looking for it. It means a lot of shaking down for me; it means a lot for you; but together we'll make it by the grace of God. Amen.” The Rapture is a revelation to the Bride. It's revealed to her, the true Bride of Christ will be waiting for that revelation of the rapture.
Now, it is a revelation, for Faith is a revelation. You cannot have a revelation without it being faith. Faith is a revelation, because it's something that's revealed to you. Faith is something that has been revealed to you like it was to Abraham that could call anything contrary to what had been revealed to him as though it wasn't so. That's what faith is, it is the revelation of God. The church is built upon revelation, the whole entire body.
Cain and Abel didn't have a Bible to read, but it was revealed to Abel by faith, which is a revelation. Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than that of Cain, which God testified that he was righteous. How did he know what to offer, unless it had been revealed to him?
When Jesus was asked here in Matthew 16:17 and 18, Jesus said, "Who do men say I, the Son of man, am?"
”Some say your Elias, or Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said, "But who do you say I am?"
Then Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus said, "Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonas, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you; My Father which is in heaven has revealed this to you. Upon this rock...”
The spiritual revelation of Who God is, Who Jesus is, and He is the revelation of God, God made in flesh and revealed to the world. He was in the world; The World was Made Him and the World knew it Not (John 1:10). God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, revealing what God was in a body of flesh. "Thou art the Christ, the Anointed One, the Son of God."
He said, "Flesh and blood never revealed this to you, but My Father which is in heaven has revealed this to you. Upon this rock, I'll build My church (the revelation of the Word in It's season)--I'll build My church and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.
The Rapture, in sense, is a Revelation, because it takes perfect Faith to make the Translation. One must come into the Revelation of the Word, Who Jesus Christ was, and who you are in Christ, with the Word of God alive and manifested in you, the Word of God to this day, what the Holy Spirit has said to this age! He is coming for that spotless church, a Word Bride to be taken into the Word body of Christ Jesus. Enoch’s life so pleased God, by Faith, that he was not found on Earth anymore. He was translated. You must have that same Testimony.
Rapturing Grace and Rapturing Faith
The Rapture is a Revelation