The Way Forward is The Way Back
Let's read the account of Jesus just before the age of accountability. Luke 2:41-52: "Now His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the Feast. When the Feast was ended they started home, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. Supposing He was with friends in the caravan His parents did not miss Him for a day; and when they couldn't find Him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances, they turned back again to Jerusalem, to look for Him.
After three days they found Him in the Temple, sitting among the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding, and His answers. And His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us in this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You." And He said to them, "How is it that you sought Me? Don't you know that I must be about My Father's business?" But they didn't understand His response. And He went down with them to Nazareth and was subject to them: but His mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favour with God and man".
Did you notice Jesus rebuke Mary? She said that Joseph was His father and denied her own testimony of the virgin birth. But the Word corrected the error. Were Joseph His father He would have been building doors and windows. God's Business was preaching the Word. A correctable spirit distinguishes God's elect from the nominal church-goer who is without revelation and argues against the faith in order to justify his sin or unbelief in the revealed Word. The elect will receive correction by the Word because they were one with the Word from Eternity. That's why we go to Church: the purpose of teaching is to show us our position in the Body, whereas the purpose of preaching is to bring correction by the washing of water by revelation of the Word (Ephesians 5:26-27). That's what keeps us sanctified.
Today we'll concentrate on the foundations of Christian faith for "no one can say that Jesus is the Lord but by revelation of the Holy Ghost" (I Corinthians 12:3). We must be truly born again by "the faith once delivered unto the apostolic saints" (Jude 3) before we can receive the Seven Seals and Seven Church Ages, which reveal how God redeemed His People and by placing the Church in the context of fulfilled history show us our position in the Body, lest like the denominations we impersonate the Word for a bygone day.
Imagine travelling down a forked road, not realizing you've made a wrong turn until after twelve hundred years? Sin means to miss the turn! The ONLY way you can ever get Home is to go back to where you made your mistake, repent, and start again. If you return only part of the way then take a short cut across country, you'll be lost again (Matthew 4:4).
This is the story of the church which was on its way Home when it took a wrong turn at the First Nicaea Council of AD325 and became almost completely lost in the Dark Ages. Then realizing their mistake, they turned around and attempted to find the Way in Sardis, in Philadelphia, coming closer in Laodicea, but each time they failed to reach the Rapture because they did not go ALL the way back to where they went astray. They only went back as far as Nicaea and its Creed which was the fork in the road. They should have returned to Pentecost and Christ the Word (Malachi 4:5, 6b).
Like Mary and Joseph, the church travelled from AD325 to 1520 before realizing they'd left Christ at Pentecost (Acts 2:38-39). Like your keys, you will only find Jesus Christ where you left Him. We must be established in the faith, not religious fables. Jesus is building a House and as the diagram shows, there was a corner at the beginning and end of each Church Age. The denominations were so fixated on their limited understanding they missed the turn when God "added another line, another precept" and blindly continued building a wall off the plan and onto the Devil's ground.
Now I ask you a fair question: can Scripture fight Scripture? Does the Bible contradict the Bible? Can there be two opposing doctrines of truth in the Word? No! That cannot be. Yet few who believe they are God's chosen people have their eyes open to this truth! "ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" II Timothy 3:16). This beings so every verse will dovetail if you prove all things (Matthew 18:16).
The world has God's Word. It has more Bibles than ever, yet it's doing nothing but dividing and hacking It to pieces, taking what it wants and leaving out what it doesn't want (Matthew 4:4). Believers are not interested in living but debating It.
Men spend years studying the Bible to serve God then make a career explaining away its fundamental truths. And when some Christian motor mechanic or minister unschooled in the letter but knowing the Author real well, seeks in love to correct the error, he's ridiculed or scorned as a heretic.
We are instructed to show respect to God's servants, to do His prophets no harm and show hospitality to strangers whereby some have received angels unawares. That Christian motor mechanic, minister without a seminary qualification or born-again washer-woman might be a messenger sent from God, so listen for their conclusion (Hebrews, 13:1-3). The attitude of this age is exactly what it was in the days of Christ's first Coming. People have it all. They know it all. They cannot be taught. If a point of truth from the Word comes up and a man tries to explain his view to one with an opposing view, the listener is not at all listening that he might learn, but listening only until he can refute what is being said (John 9:40-41.)
Let's see if that isn't so.
The First Commandment says, "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3). Jesus said, "Think not that I have come to destroy the Law, or the prophets: I have not come to destroy but to fulfil. For verily I tell you, until heaven and earth change, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law, until all is fulfilled" (Matthew 5:17-18).
It's strange isn't it, how the theologians teach God made a mistake when with His Own finger He wrote, "There is only one God," then imply He later compounded His 'mistake' by adding THUS SAITH THE LORD through His vindicated prophet Moses: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord" (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Tens of Millions of Christians have been tortured and killed for standing on the Authority of God's unchanging Word. Still today the majority of church men teach and believe there is one God but somehow three Lords or three people. But if He is three people, we have three gods, or language has lost its meaning. In either case we are pagans.
Let us be mature in our understanding. We're all educated adult men and women, this is not the Dark Ages—or is it? We've seen man split the atom and walk on the moon, or so they say, but where is our understanding of God's Word? Where is our faith? I fear for too many it's back in the Dark Ages.
No prophet of God ever taught or believed God is a trinity; and the Word of God comes ONLY to a prophet. Prophet Peter said so, and he didn't believe in a trinity (Acts 2; I Peter 1:21). God is ONE Person.
Theologians say, "The trinity is the mystery of God, you've got to accept it by faith." Faith is not blind, faith is a clear understanding of the revealed Word of God which states plainly God is One. Furthermore the Bible promised that at the end of the Seventh Church Age, and before the angel sounds the Seventh Trump that ends the Christian dispensation and calls Israel to their Atonement, that "the mystery of God should be finished" to perfect the Gentile Bride for the translation. And It was finished in 1963 when Christ opened the Seven Seals and revealed their mystery through His Prophet, William Branham (Revelation 10:7).
In whom do you trust for your salvation? Is it the mistakes of long dead theologians? In some backslidden preacher, or God's infallible Word? Who knows what God really means? Who is qualified to interpret His Word? God knows precisely what it means, and God is His Own Interpreter. He interprets His Word either by bringing It to pass as when the virgin conceived according to Isaiah 7:14, or by sending and vindicating a prophet as in Malachi 4:5-6 which spoke of two 'Elijahs,' John the Baptist whose ministry turned the heart of the apostolic father from God's servant nation to His elect children in Adam's race three years after his decapitation, and William Branham (1909-1965) whose ministry turned the heart of God's elect children back to the faith of their apostolic fathers (Numbers 12:6; Deuteronomy 13:1-5; 18:15-22; Matthew 17:11).
If I were to enquire "How does your brother earn his living," and you were unable to tell me whether he was a butcher, baker, or President of the united States, it would be fair to suggest you don't have a very close relationship with your own brother.
What about our Brother Jesus? Or God our Father? Can you discern whether they are two of three, three in one, or six of one and half-a-dozen of the other? Is God a trinity? If so, who said so? Certainly not God's Bible—or any of His prophets. But if God is indeed a trinity, which trinity is He? The Roman Catholics have one, the Orthodox Catholics have another; then there is the original trinity worshiped since the Flood by every tribe and tongue except the Judaics and Moslems, who worship in vain teaching the traditions of men. Since the revelation of the Seven Seals which revealed the unwritten voices of the Seven Thunders, the Mystery of God is finished so that true Christians once again worship the One Person of God in Spirit and in Truth by His compound redemptive Name, Lord Jesus Christ.
When I asked you, "Who is the Father of Jesus?" you responded, "God the Father" is the Father of Jesus. You said this because you believe God is three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 1:18-23 explains, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when Mary His mother was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child by the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to disgrace her, desired to divorce her secretly. But while he considered this, behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife: for that which has been conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she will bear a son, and you shall call His Name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins." This all took place so that the Words of the Lord spoken through the prophet Isaiah [7:14] might be fulfilled, saying, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and will bear a son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which translated means, God with us".
Both Mary and the Angel Gabriel confirmed that Jesus' Father was the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:26-38). So either the Holy Ghost is the sole Spirit Being that is God, and "Father" is an office or Title He received when His first Son was formed (Luke 3:38), or Jesus had two fathers and is illegitimate. The Angel also confirmed this to Joseph, adding men will call His name "Jesus," (which means Jehovah Saviour, "the self-existing One our Saviour." "Emmanuel" means "GOD [singular] with us." Jesus is the one Person of the invisible and eternal God manifest in virgin-born flesh as the "last Adam" to play the part of KINSMAN Redeemer for the first Adam and those of his seed who receive Him by faith. Jesus Messiah is the beginning of the NEW creation of God-men through the invisible marriage union of faith (John 3:6; I Corinthians 6:17; 12:13; II Corinthians 5:17; Revelation 3:14).
God is ONE Person, and the Bible is the story of God transforming Himself from the eternal Spirit alone with His eternal thoughts to their manifestation in the flesh of His glorified Family to display His glorious Attributes.
We must walk in the Light He is shining now, otherwise we are in darkness and not under the Blood but impersonating the Light of a day gone by. The Light of Luther, Wesley, or the Pentecostals will not remit sin and baptize you into the Body today. These Church Ages and the elect predestinated to form those parts of the Body were baptized into Christ in decades and centuries ago. Those members of the Body are waiting for the last member of Christ's end-time Bride to receive the "evening time Light" (Zechariah 14:7; Matthew 24:27-28; Hebrews 11:39-40; II Peter 1:12; I John 1:7).
Does God know Who He is, or does He require correction by 'the church'? Today's church says God was wrong forbidding women to preach and teach. As woman the church is to remain silent and obey her espoused Husband the Word in everything (Genesis 3:16; Ephesians 5:24; I Timothy 2:11-14). She says He was wrong to insist upon modest attire; she turns His Supper into His breakfast or lunch, refuses Baptism in His Name and doesn't allow foot washing. Where is their confidence in the infallible God? They seem to consider Him somewhat inept.
Now the messenger God sent to reveal the Book of Revelation after the close of the Church Ages could not be a vindicated prophet and disagree with the teachings of Paul, God's vindicated prophet at the beginning who wrote the New Testament (Galatians 1:8-10). He said that "after the way which they call heresy, so I worship the God of Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Daniel, etc., believing all things which are written in the Law and in the prophets" (Acts 24:14). Neither Paul or any of these Israelite prophets believed a trinity, and not one of them was a 'Jew'.
Jesus Christ was the keystone between the Old and New Testaments. He is the Caagsone from which the building is measured and the "Body fitly joined together . . . the Stone the Israelite builders rejected" (Ephesians 4:16; Mark 12:10). He said, "We Judeans know what we worship. God is a (ONE) Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in faith or understanding" (John 4:22-24). Search the Scriptures, when the ten Tribes of Israel adopted trinitarianism God sent Shalmaneser and Sennacherib to conquer and transport them into exile where they will remain "for fear of the Jews" until Daniel's Seventieth Week. And when Judah copied her sister's trinitarian idolatry God sent Nebuchadnezzar to conquer Judah, burn His Temple, and expelled the population to lifetime captivity in Babylon.
Jesus said "We Judeans know what we worship!" Who's telling the truth? Jesus or today's theologians? Did God lie to Moses who wrote the Old Testament? Like Jesus, Moses and the Old Testament prophets did not believe in any trinity of gods.
Clever men without an anointing say, "But the Hebrew word 'Elohim' is a plural word. It must therefore mean there are several persons in the Godhead." Not only do they say God requires correction, they would have us believe that over 4,000 years the Hebrews have not understood their own tongue! Twentieth century theologians claim they have a better understanding of ancient Hebrew than the Israelites of old. Such arrogance!
"Elohim" is a plural word meaning lord. An Israelite viewing a pagan temple might exclaim, "Look at all the elohim," referring to the many idols or gods. However, speaking of Jehovah, (The Self Existent One—not three), he would say Elohim meaning the one Lord God Who is the sum of ALL deity.
But these folks don't give up without debate. Paul said "If they want to be ignorant, let them be ignorant. God is known by revelation, not contention" (I Corinthians 11:16; 14:38). Unlike Moses, Jesus and all believers, they won't settle for two or more witnesses. They have to find a loophole, some error in God's Word to justify their pride, worldly wisdom and organizational system against faith in God's infallible Word . . . and ask, "What about Genesis 1:26? God said, "Let us make man in our likeness, after our image"—surely this proves that God is a trinity, or at least two persons".
The Bible says "THUS SAITH THE LORD, your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb, I Am the Lord [meaning "the existing One"] that makes all things; that stretched forth the heavens alone; that spread abroad the earth by myself" (Isaiah 44:24). See also Nehemiah 9:6; and John 1:1-3 which speak of only One God with no Father or Son to lend a hand.
These folks won't accept these three witnesses from God's Bible, and though they will not receive it, we will rehearse the Bible explanation of Genesis 1:26 to establish who the "us" and "our" were, and are.
Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1-2 teach us that God's thoughts are as eternal as He is. And as a word is a thought expressed, His Word is therefore eternal and will not return to Him without accomplishing what He spoke (Isaiah 55:11). In John 6:63 Jesus said, "My Word is Spirit . . ." and John 14:9, "He that has seen Me has seen the Father or Holy Spirit . . ." So we see the Spirit and the Thought and the Word and their manifestation are God in different forms as He unfolds or changes Himself from the Eternal Spirit alone with His thoughts, through the spoken Word to the manifestation of His Eternal Thoughts, which is Himself expressed in a different form.
We must understand that Jesus was the Son of the Father, and not the Father of the Son. He could not be His own Father any more than you or I can be our own father. There cannot be eternal fatherhood because one is not father until he has begotten. Likewise there cannot be an eternal sonship because one must be begotten as a live birth before he can be a son.
The "us" and "our" of Genesis 1:26 are God, Adam and his children in God's eternal thinking (Psalm 82:6); you are in Christ's end-time Bride because YOU are one of those Attributes. "Eternal" is without beginning of days or end of life. One cannot receive eternal life unless one was foreknown as chosen, justified, predestined and already glorified before material creation (Romans 8:28-39). All men and women of Adam's race were created in God's great thinking before "the beginning" and time. As His elect you were foreknown and chosen according to His foreknowledge of the decisions you will make of your own free will. Now God says to those He has created from thought "Let us make or fashion mankind in our image (Heb.) 'asah' from existing material [Spirit (Colossians 1:15)], after our likeness [or appearance: theophany, not in the likeness of the lower creatures he has already made in His great thinking, but as near as can be in God's image—upright and with speech, commanding dominion to honour and express His dignity and radiate His glory], and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth".
Genesis 1:27, "So God created (Heb.) 'bara' (Gk.) 'ex nihilo' out of nothing man in His own image, in the image of God He created (Heb.) 'bara' him (Gk.) 'ex nihilo' out of nothing; male and female He created them." Every man and woman of Adam's race is written in the Book of Life which is Adam's genealogy. Yet not one of them was formed (Heb) 'yatsar'—molded or squeezed into shape.
This eliminates the wretchedly stupid unscriptural delusions of evolution, pre-Adamites, primitive men and extraterrestrial beings. And proves that God is not three in one, but "thousand thousands" in one.
I appreciate how strange it is to hear doctrine so contrary to orthodox denominational teaching whose inventions conflict with God's Word. And whereas our words are plain Bible, unadulterated by the thoughts of men, denominational teaching is unorthodox and contrary to the Bible.
Imagine yourself an Israelite in the early days of Christianity. Judean Christians worshiping a dead man they believe was born apart from human male instrumentality; a man who declared Himself God, One they claim rose from the dead and ascended bodily into heaven etc, etc. would seem heretical. Certainly unorthodox by Jewish denominational standards!
To the carnal mind this was all so much nonsense and sin, but those who were truly Spiritual could see It clearly in God's Word from Genesis to Malachi! So has it been throughout the Christian dispensation to the present day. If men can humble ourselves to the possibility their forefathers may have been in error since the faith was lost through Judaeo-Roman martyrdom whilst the Book was sealed, then go back to the Bible, I believe God would open and confirm "the present Truth" to their soul . . . and show them what Jesus is doing now, for history is repeating with the apostasy of the Gentiles.
If the Church Age saints had the fullness of the Word they would have preached It, and Christ would not have needed to be a Mediator. The very fact He was a Mediator past tense proves that the Church was in error. In His grace God only required them to walk in all the Light revealed for their age until the restoration of that which is perfect (I Corinthians 13:10).
Let's stop a minute. IF the Elect Church were preaching THUS SAITH THE LORD these past 2,000 years, they would have been in agreement with God and have no need of a Mediator. IF we had THUS SAITH THE LORD all this time, denominations might not have arisen and the churches would all be together in Love. IF the denominations have THUS SAITH THE LORD today (as they claim)—why can't they agree on the Word?
The fact is denominations represent successive historical revivals, each based upon progressive revelations of the Word as God began to restore the faith which was lost through the Dark Ages when the saints were martyred. Most Protestant denominations are memorials to glorious moves of God in the distant past, analogous to Stone Henge, the ruins of Alexandria or Pompeii that bear record of past civilizations. The Holy Spirit reveals the future (John 16:13) and we must walk in the Light God is unfolding NOW, for we can't serve Him through the rear vision mirror!
On the subject of error, doesn't the Bible teach that every denomination will end in apostasy? Doesn't it say their error is based on intellectual knowledge and learning without faith? Like the first Eve they're sure they are certain of their 'short cut' and can prove by history and the Bible what God has done, but they don't know what He is doing NOW? It was in the last and Laodicean Church that Jesus said He would "spew" these uncorrectable churches "out of His mouth" and call His elect and even the foolish virgin out from everyone of them by the Fullness of the Word. Soon the Christian dispensation will end and He will turn to the Israelites (Genesis 49:10; II Thessalonians 2:1; Revelations 3:14-22; 22:11-21)?
In Genesis 1:26, we established the Spirit and His Eternal Thoughts are one and that the manifestation of the Word or Logos is God changing Himself into the material form in the flesh of His Family—Jesus of Nazareth and the New Testament saints who are the continuation of the last Adam and Eve was the continuation (Heb.) 'banah' of the first (Revelation 3:14).
God asked Job, "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy when they caught the revelation of their redemption, or were born again" (Job 38:1-7). Here God is speaking about His foreknowledge of those who would exercise their free moral agency and make the correct decisions which result in regeneration and election. And if you read these verses you will recognize that Job's vision was set when the Great Pyramid of the Body of Christ was complete and "all the sons of God shouted for joy!"
Because these elect chose God's will and purpose they chose the Word for their day and became that Word manifest. Once they caught the revelation of what God was doing in their day they preferred His will above their own, and a life lived by the Word is the Word expressed. No longer was it the world manifesting through the fabric of their spirit and flesh, but Christ living in their soul.
We know that we have Eternal Life if we are at-one with and "written epistles" of His Word for our day: His attributes expressed and a part of Him. NOT everyone has Eternal Life, only those who, like Jesus, lay aside their own ideas to receive and live His thoughts can say, "I and my Father are one" in the agreement of faith (Amos 3:3). God's foreknowledge of these elect is recorded in a very small section of the Book of Life known as "The Lamb's Book of Life" that contains the names of the New Testament saints. God told Job, this record was "written from the foundation of the World" (Revelation 13:8; Job 19:25-27).
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are 'the called'—elect according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son (i.e. the manifestation of that part of the Word God was fulfilling in their day), that He might be firstborn among many Brethren. Moreover whom He predestinated, He also called: and whom He called, He also justified: and whom He justified, He also glorified" (Romans 8:28-30).
This brings us back to Genesis 1:26 and explains the "us" and "our." It is God and the Logos which comes out of God—the finished thoughts of Himself in the form of His Family. Jesus Messiah is the Beginner and the beginning of this New Creation, the creation of Himself, and the glorified New Testament Church is the (Heb.) 'banah' continuation of that same Creation.
Before the foundation of the world, God by foreknowledge knew who would be His elect, who would be saved, and who would be lost. Before they were born He could say, "I love Jacob and I hate Esau" because he knew what each boy would do with the Word (Romans 9). Therefore God sees the saints already glorified; that's how He's seen us since the beginning of time.
He revealed the vision at different stages of its fulfilment to Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and John, and to Job before them. NOT three persons in God but thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand persons in One God through faith in our KINSMAN Redeemer. Together the New Testament saints display God unveiled in His family. Christ, the new birth in you is the hope of glory.
Jesus said, "I came from God as the Word, I revealed His attributes in the form of a Man, and I return to the Spirit in glory" (John 1:18; 13:3). So will all the saints after our time of earthly testing. Whereas Jesus was the Word before He was made flesh; we are flesh becoming Word as we overcome the Evil One by the Word in us (Matthew 4:1-11). In the new heavens and new earth the "saved" will worship God throughout eternity in the form of Jesus and the New Testament saints, the One Person of God in the many-membered form of the glorified flesh of His Family.
So Mr Sceptic, Mr Unbeliever, Mr Doubter, that is the Bible explanation for Genesis 1:26. If we read the following two verses we will recognize that God was not describing the creation of Adam alone but also of every individual born of Adam's race. Every elect, "saved" and lost was potentially in Adam, as every orange that ever will be was potentially in the original seed whence sprung the first plant (Luke 8:11). Those who were not in the first Adam whose genealogy is the Book of Life written from the foundation of the earth are irredeemable and cannot be in the last Adam, Jesus Christ.
Christ is the Lamb's Book of Life written before the foundation of the world. Jesus is the Logos or Word made flesh to be KINSMAN redeemer for Adam's fallen race. The Bride of Christ, or elect Church was foreknown by God and therefore accounted in Christ on Calvary, in the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus could say, "My sheep receive My Word" because by foreknowledge they were always a part of the Word, so we too "came from God and will go back to God." Redeem means to buy back [the temporarily forfeited eternal Life] that was always yours.
The natural types the spiritual, always. About a century after God finished (Heb.) 'yatsar' forming the animals male and female and bringing them to Adam to name, he realized he was unique so God put him to sleep and took from his side a rib and made Eve. Woman is not original creation but (Heb.) 'banah,' an extension or continuation of Adam. When Adam was created his wife Eve was in him. Eve was always in Adam as the Bride of all Ages was always in Christ in God. Do you believe the Bible teaches that? Read Genesis 1 and 2, I Corinthians 11, and Ephesians 5.
Christ is the last Adam and He too was alone so God put Him to sleep on Calvary and took from His side the substance from which the Church, the Bride of Christ is made. Not a rib but the Holy Spirit. The Church is not born of flesh and bone but Spirit by faith in the Word of the hour. Like Eve who was flesh of Adam's flesh and bone of his bone, the Bride of Christ is Word of Christ's Word and Spirit of His Spirit.
Paul explained this in I Corinthians 15:35-50, "Some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? What a foolish question! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow, is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, either of wheat, or of some other grain. But God gives it a body after its kind" (Genesis 1:25-26).
"All flesh is not alike: but one kind is human, another is animal, another is fowl, and another fish. There are celestial bodies, and there are terrestrial bodies: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differs in radiance from the beauty and brightness of another. So too is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised imperishable. It is sown in dishonour [because of the original sin], it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power (Gk.) 'dunamis'. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a physical body as well as a spiritual body. Thus it is written, "The first man Adam was made a living soul; Christ the last Adam became a Life-giving Spirit."
"However, the spiritual was not first, but the physical; then the spiritual. Every human being has a body of dust just like Adam, but those who become Christians will have one from heaven. [Brother Branham said, the instant you were born-again, "You heard from your theophany. "If this earthly body is dissolved, we have one waiting" (Who is this Melchisedec, p. 17:88)]. As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. I assure you, brethren, a body of flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does the perishable body inherit the imperishable body".
When Christ was crucified we were accounted in Him, judged in Him, paid sin's price and died in Him (II Corinthians 5:14-21). When He was raised, He was raised for our justification, when He ascended on High we were accounted in Him and are NOW seated in heavenly Places in Christ Jesus! Makes you want to shout! Read II Corinthians 5; Ephesians 2; Revelations 5:8-14). There's not one spot of sin associated with the Bride.
By the natural marriage union, Adam and Eve were united as one. By the Spiritual Marriage Union or new birth, Christ and His Bride are reunited as One as Jesus prayed (John 17:20-24). If we truly are joined together by God, we are one with our Husband the Word and cannot deny one Word—"My sheep receive My Word, a stranger they will not follow. God and the soul that's joined together with God is One Spirit" (John 10:1-5; I Corinthians 6:17).
God Bless each of you Bible Believers as you prove these things, whether they be THUS SAITH THE BIBLE, or the thoughts of a man. The hour is late so once again I ask those who see these things in the Bible to please share them with others through. God bless you true ministers also as you study to prepare "meat in due season" for God's sheep.
Speaking of Israel, Haggai prophesied, "After two days will God revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall be recognized as a nation when the 144,000 are born again" (Hosea 6:1-3). Like Joseph and Mary, it's time for the church to realize we're well into the third day, soon God will turn from the Gentiles unto Israel.
For too long the Church has been WITHOUT Christ. True, they've had a Word or two here and there mixed with their creeds, and Christ interceded for their ignorance during the Church Ages when the Book was sealed. But "since that Which is Perfect has come"—the Seals are broken, and the Word is revealed—"that which is in part has been done away" (I Corinthians 13:10). We live in the day in which Christ is calling-out a virgin to His Word and dressing Her with His righteousness through faith. bb920114.htm
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