The Uniting Time and Sign – A Message Study Pt.3
II PETER 3:10
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
We see here that directly after this coming of the Lord (as a thief in the night), that the earth is burnt up. The scripture tells us that a thief comes to do three things; he comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy, and so this is showing us a mystery of Christ at this coming.
He will steal his bride from off the earth in a rapture, he will kill with spiritual death those who have rejected his mercy, and he will destroy those who have destroyed the earth by burning up the surface of the earth in preparation for the millennium.
REVELATION 16:15
15 Behold, I come as a thief (Remember that Christ’s first coming was not as a thief but as a human baby in a manger. God (who is a spirit) became a man so that He could be a kinsman to man in order to redeem man. But it is at His second coming that he would come as a thief in the night, and that is the coming that he is talking about here where only an elected group of people will recognise this coming). Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments (your garment is your covering which spiritually is your religion – we are to keep ourselves covered by the truth of what God has revealed of Himself to us in this hour), lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
REVELATION 19:7
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come (This marriage of the Lamb takes place on earth simultaneously at the time of when the Lord comes as a thief in the night – and we know that we are in that night time right now because darkness in the bible is spiritual ignorance of the word of God, and it’s this last Laodicean age that we are living in right now that goes into total darkness), and his wife hath made herself ready.
**The bride has made herself ready by eating the little book that was opened in Revelation 10, because the coming of Christ to earth in Revelation 10:1 is the self-same event of the coming of Christ as a thief in the night.
All these things are familiar to us.
The Uniting Time and Sign – A Message Study Pt.3
We want to continue our study in the message of “The Uniting Time and Sign” that Brother Branham preached in Jeffersonville at the Branham Tabernacle on the Sunday morning of 18th of August 1963.
***The scripture tells us plainly of the three comings of Christ.
- At his first coming to earth, He comes to pay the price of redemption for his gentile Bride.
- Then at His second coming to earth, He comes to unite with his gentile Bride and steal her away in the rapture of the church. This coming is not a corporal body coming but the revealing of the Son of Man and the opening of the mystery truths.
- And then He comes for the last time with His gentile Bride at His third coming to earth in power and glory to rule and reign.
*Most denominational Christians only know about two comings of Christ, and that is why they can’t make a lot of these scriptures fit because they don’t realise that there are three comings of Christ.
*And so if you are living at the time of this second coming of the Lord but you don’t know what this coming looks like scripturally – then you will certainly miss seeing it in its reality form.
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197 Now, remember, as I've said, everything's in a three. His coming is in a three: the first time He came to redeem His Bride; the second time He comes to catch away His Bride. Like a love affair, comes around and steals her out at nighttime and takes her away from the world, "meet Him in the air." The secret coming of the Lord... See? The second time He come is to receive His Bride: first time, to redeem her; second time, to receive her; and the third time, with her: King and Queen.
***And so if a person was to look for a public display of this great event of the second coming of Christ as a thief in the night, then you would never see it because a thief does not make a scene and announce his coming, but goes about his business in quietness and secret, and so the marriage ceremony of Christ to His bride at this time of his second coming to earth will happen in a silent and invisible way - it will be a completely invisible and unseen event to the outside world.
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247 You say, "Brother Branham, a while ago, when you said, 'The Church could go and we wouldn't know'?" Oh, yes. The Bible says it. No, they won't know nothing about it. It's a secret Coming. He comes in the secret and steals away His Church. Takes Her away, like a book I read one time, of Romeo and Juliet. See? He comes to get Her, nobody know nothing about it.
*All these scriptures that we are about to read all pertain to this secret second coming of the Lord – they are all jigsaw pieces that when put together reveal the events associated with the second coming of the Lord.
MALACHI 4:5
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
MATTHEW 25:6
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. (Midnight is night time, and the cry is the message of the hour proclaiming the second coming of the Lord)
I THESSALONIANS 4:16
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout (this shout is the same shout of the cry of Matthew 25:6), with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
REVELATION 10:1
1 ¶ And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
*This angel was Christ, and we have seen this cloud appear in reality form in this day – so what is told here in symbol form in Revelation we have seen in its reality form in this hour, just like how Mary saw the coming of the Lord in reality form in her day of what was written in prophecy form in the Old Testament.
**There are many ways that God conveys His truth to us. He conveys truth in the stories of the Old Testament of people lives, , then He conveys truth is prophecy form, then he conveys truth in parable form, and in word form, and in symbol form (as in the book of Revelation), and in dream and in vision form, and also in the reality form of the events that unfold in our lives.
**Events of pain and suffering and freedom and joy, all these events along your life’s journey, God will use these experiances to convey truth to you.
*So God is able to communicate in all these many languages of ways to impart truth and revelation to us. So we need to learn and to understand the languages of God of how he communicates truth.
REVELATION 16:15 (opening scripture)
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
All these scriptures pertain to the second coming of the Lord, and there are many others scriptures also that speak of this secret coming of Christ.
*And so all these scriptures are showing us different jigsaw pieces of all the circumstances pertaining to the second coming of Christ - not one scripture can show the entirety of this event because there are so many aspects to it, but what we do know for sure is that...
- It will be a total secret.
- It will be at a time of midnight darkness.
- There will be an end time Elijah ministry that foreruns this second coming of Christ.
- There will be a shout of a message that will be sounded forth.
- There will be wise and foolish virgins.
- Christ will come completely unannounced at night and in total secret like a thief.
- He will come down to earth with a little book open to reveal the names of his subjects that were written in the book in order to declare their names for a resurrection from among the dead – an out resurrection (or the 1st Resurrection) as Paul refers to it in Philippians 3:11, because you can’t have a resurrection without calling the names of those who are to be resurrected, because this is a name calling resurrection out from among the dead and not the general resurrection at the end of the millennium. That is why the opening of the book in Revelation 5 was so important, because there could be no resurrection without the names being revealed that we sealed up in the book.
- And at this second coming, Christ will come to be united in a marriage to His bride by and invisible union – and so we have been looking at what that looks like in our lives, because it will not be a public show.
*All these scriptures are showing us of all these events that are to take place at His second coming.
So let’s look at some other familiar scriptures that are connected to this secret second coming of Christ.
LUKE 17:26
26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. (A future coming of the Son of man which is Christ)
LUKE 17:27-30
27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (A one man prophetic ministry in Noah’s day just as we have seen a one man prophetic ministry in this day)
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
LUKE 14:16-18
16 Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
17 And sent his servant (notice – singular, a one man ministry) at supper time (supper time is evening time) to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. (At evening time there would be an invitation go out by the declaration of a servant (singular) for a great feast of spiritual food in due season, a time of eating food at evening time (store up the food in tape and book form) – we have seen this prophecy fulfilled in this end time age)
18 And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
**They made excuses because they judged their natural life’s material activities more important than eating the food of the great supper that God had invited them to at evening time – and evening time is at the end of the world just before the earth is burnt up as it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.
*These people didn’t see the value of the invitation because they lacked understanding of the greatness of what it really was, like casting pearls before swine, the swine do not see any value in the pearls, so they trample on them.
*This great evening time supper is showing us the spiritual food of the opening of the word in this day that will prepared a people to be raptured off the earth in order to escape the coming judgement.
*This supper is also the little book that John ate in Revelation 10:8-11 between the 6th and 7th Trumpet of WW2 and WW3 – it is the uniting of the word of God and a people in the event of the marriage of the Lamb.
**All these scriptures are showing us the one great picture of all that takes place at this second coming of Christ.
REVELATION 19:7
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
All these prophecies of this hour are becoming history in our lives right now in reality form – but it is happening in such a hushed up way like a thief, that the world knows nothing about it.
MATTHEW 16:4
4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.
A scriptural prophet in our day is a major sign from God of pending judgement to this end time generation, just as Jonah was a sign of pending judgement to the wicked gentile nation of Nineveh.
*Remember that we are studying this message of the Uniting Time and Sign.
And so there is uniting time that follows this great sign of a prophet – and we want to be sure that we are a part of this uniting of God being united with His bride.
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97 We see nations uniting, we see the world uniting, we see communism uniting, we see the churches uniting; and we see God uniting Hisself with His Bride, until He and the Church is the same thing; like the family, together. Right! Uniting themselves together; God uniting! Why? Never before, since the early church age, was the Pillar of Fire ever among the people. Never before, since the early church age, did they ever see the things that we are seeing today. And this was only made possible when God sent the Seven Seals and give us a sign by It, and sent seven Angels down out of Heaven; and come to bring back that scattered Word in them denominations, and tie it back into the Word of God again, to bring down His Holy Spirit.
So we want to pick up from last Sunday…
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17 Some people tries to introduce Christianity, that "you're free from worry. You're..." No, you're not. "You're free from tension." Oh, no! You add tension when you become a Christian, because you was kind of a slop--go, happy-go-lucky, whatever it was out there, not caring what you did.
18 But when you've become a real Christian, every moment you're wondering, "Am I pleasing my Lord? If I could hear from Him!" It puts you on tension, puts you on guard. That's what makes you what you are. So after all, tension is a blessing. It's just the way you're looking at it. It's just the way you're looking at it. See? If you just look the other side, there's--there's... No matter how thin you slice anything, you still got two sides to it, you see. So you want to see both sides.
19 So tension... I think, "Oh my, it's... What's this tension? If I could've been born without this tension." Well, if I wouldn't have had this tension, I wouldn't have been what I am. I wouldn't have been a Christian, perhaps. It was this tension that drove me to Jesus Christ. See? So, it's been a blessing thing to me.
20 So then as Paul said, as though when he had a tension or something or another, he had consulted the Lord to--to take it away from him three times. And the Lord said, "Saul... My Paul, My grace is sufficient."
21 He said, "Then, I'll glory in my infirmities. Then when I'm weak, I'm strong." See? As long as it's to the will of God, all right.
22 Now, I consulted Him one time when it used to bother me so bad, it scared me. And He told me, about eight or ten years ago, He said, "It'll never scare you again." And it never has did it. No, sir; don't--don't worry about it. I just feel it, but I know it's there; but I just go on because it don't scare me no more, so thankful for that. Now, He could have said, "It won't be no more," just as well as that "You won't be scared no more."
23 So it's His will that it happened, so I just embrace it and say, "Thank You, Lord, I'll walk that way."
**He realised that God could have taken it all away, but he left it there for a purpose that was necessary for him to be able to receive the revelation of this age, and so instead of feeling bad about it, he embraced it and thanked the Lord just like Paul did with his weaknesses.
***We talked about this from last week, of how that we often think that if only our lives could be free from all the pressures, like if we could all live in a monastery and light the candles and study the bible all day and pray and meditate and chant the scriptures like the monks, then for sure we would be far more spiritual, but God doesn’t do his training with us like that, He has chosen for us to be in an environment of pressure and difficulty and uncertainty because it is under these conditions that your character is moulded and that God can reveal his grace to you.
*** Abraham and Sarah were living under the pressure of old age with the promise of God still unfulfilled when God came to them in the form of human flesh.
- Ruth was in the field gleaning for her very existence with the pressure of her own survival pending while she went through the process of redemption and came into unity with Boaz.
- Israel was under the pressure of slavery just before they left Egypt.
- Abigail was under the pressure of a rich and arrogant husband when she came into union with her future husband David.
- Mary and Joseph were under the pressure of a tax law declaration of having to travel for days with Mary about to be delivered of her baby.
- And we in this day are under all these same pressures at this time of the uniting of Christ and His bride in the marriage of the lamb.
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105 We see the nations uniting, we see the world uniting, we see the churches uniting. We see the Bride uniting, uniting with the Word. Why? The Word is God. And as the Word... As the Bridegroom (being the Word), and the Bride (being the hearer of the Word), they come together in a Union. They unite like a wedding. See, they're getting ready for a wedding, and they--they become one. The Word becomes you, you become the Word. Jesus said, "At that day,... You know what? All the Father is, I am; and all I am, you are; and all you are, I am. In that day you'll know that I'm in the Father, Father in Me, I in you, and you in Me." See? At "that day." What day? This day! We find out the great hidden mysteries of God being revealed. Oh, how I like that!
God and man came together under the conditions of a fallen and troubled world – a world full of stress and flusterations.
**And so in this message of the uniting time and sign, it starts out by showing us how that brother Branham’s life was under all these pressures and tensions, and yet how that under those conditions he is being developed by God and comes into such a unity with God that God was able to trust him with the power of the spoken word to even speak things into existence like what God did himself when he created the world at the beginning.
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41 And signs was not sent... Now just think, every man, and all the astronomers; people them days, their clocks was the stars. There was a watchman went on top of--of the tower, and he would get up there and watch. And he seen when certain stars was in a certain constellations, as they were passing, he knowed what time it was. Remember in the Scripture, "What time is it watchman?" And the watchman come back and told him in what hour it was. See, they kept time by the stars.
42 Now, isn't it strange that these stars were exactly in line for three men and nobody else saw it? See? Just exactly in line. Now, you can be so in line with the Scripture. See? When those stars become in unity, united themselves together in this constellation, three men were also united at the same time. And you can be so united with God, in His Word, until these things become realities, and you can see them and know that they are true. See? The sign of the time! You might look right over top of it, say, "Ah, nonsense!"
43 But to you it isn't nonsense. To you, you're united with the Word, and here It is. Then it's--it's absolutely right, Brother Pat, when--when--when--when you see this sign unite with the believer. And that's who I'm addressing this to, is the believer, for the unbeliever never see it. And what a rebuke it would be if He was on earth today; to many of our clergy today, who cannot read this sign; the signs that we're reading daily here at the tabernacle, and seeing the things. And others are reading it and seeing the handwriting on the wall, and yet many just ignore it, and don't even see it at all. It's nothing to them at all; they don't notice it.
**The unbeliever doesn’t notice it because there is no big noise involved, there is no Hollywood band playing. But for the believer, we know that all these scriptures pertaining to the second coming of Christ is what is happening right now.
**This great uniting time of this invisible union of the Bride to Christ is the marriage of the Lamb event that is going on right now in the personal lives of each member of the bride of this hour, and soon it will be the secret catching away of this same people in the rapturing of the church.
***All these scriptures connected to His second coming in this hour, our eyes have been seeing these things come to pass in reality form - they are being live out right now under the conditions of the tensions and stresses of this age, but yet in such a silent way and humble way that only the members of the Bride are able to understand it.
**All these great scriptures and prophecies of the second coming of the Lord and the uniting of the bride to Christ is becoming history in our lives in this hour – soon will come the resurrection from among the dead, and then the rapture will take place, and then the tribulation will set in, and then Armageddon and the earth will burn up, and then the millennium – on and on the scriptures will continue to be unfolded from prophecy into reality.