¹ Thank you, Brother Demos, Brother Carl Shakarian, or, Demos Shakarian, and Brother Carl Williams, and delegates, all. I just think that the brother, the plow man here, just expressed what I wanted to tonight, that he just taken my speech right from me. Because I have enjoyed this, I believe, this convention, more than any convention I've ever been in. I've never seen in any convention, more harmony and such real fellowship and brotherly love. Another thing that I done, I've met many new delegates of heaven, new brethren that I've had the privilege to shake hands with and talk to.

² Just a few nights ago, I was listening to the Baptist brother setting over there. I can't think of his name [Brother Shakarian says, "Irvin."--Ed.]: Irvin. And he brought a card to me from, I believe it's his aunt, that's setting here tonight. She's held that prayer card for some twenty years.
She was brought into the meeting, dying with a disease, that maybe the doctor could explain what it is. It's something like leprosy, but it isn't leprosy. You just... There's an operation, they could cut a, some kind of a cord up here, or something, but she'd be just like a plant, she'd have to set there. And while she was setting there, perhaps her card not called or nothing, didn't get in the prayer line, the Holy Spirit directed me to her. And she's back there tonight, is well, and we're very thankful for that. The...

⁴ [Brother Shakarian says, "Brother, I think--I think Howard Irvin was over there speaking to you, but I think the aunt is here. Maybe we can have her stand up."--Ed.] Would you stand up, the--the aunt of... ["There she is. Wave your hand. Wave your hand." Congregation applauds.]
God bless you, my sister, for your gallant faith in the Son of God. May He keep you well until the time He calls you home, when this mortal will take on immortality. I'm so thankful for that, to think she held that card for all these years now, and then was brought here to me and showed me tonight. You know, I was saying; it's like bread upon the water, it returns to you, when you try to do something for somebody else.

⁶ Now, I have also had the privilege of meeting many of these fine ministers, and I certainly appreciate their fine fellowship, this cooperation. Brother Carl announced me to be back next year, if the Lord is willing, and we are here on earth. And, well, I hope to meet every one of you here next year again, and each one bring another delegate with him and with she.
Now, there's just one thing that I would like to say a little something about, maybe for just a moment.
Because Doctor Reed is to speak next, and I've come all the way up here tonight; I've got two hundred and fifty miles that I--to make this trip, to hear Doctor Reed. And just something happened awhile ago that I would... But--but, Doctor Reed, I'd drive a thousand miles to hear him. But something has take... Since I've been here, I would drive a thousand miles just to hear what I heard a little while ago, such a wonderful thing, something that flesh and blood cannot reveal. Takes the Holy Spirit to do it. And to see someone who encouraged my life in such a way, and I certainly will be very grateful all the rest of my life.
What I wanted to say, was--was, if I ever have to have an operation, call on a medical doctor, you--you come to me, Doctor Reed, right away. I--I can trust the man to operate, if I have to have one. Hands that believes in God, that--that would be the one I'd want working on me. And so we... I trust I'll never have to have it. But if I do, I would want he, or a man like him, to do the work, if he couldn't be there.

¹⁰ I had something to happen last night, that, or yesterday afternoon, rather, that was really kind of strange to me. And I'll be brief, because I don't want to take my brother's time, as he's going to speak. But I suppose it's kind of a complimentary to my ministry.
I--I watch little things. Just every little thing has a meaning to me. I don't believe that anything happens to a Christian by chance. I think it's ordained of God, 'cause Jesus said He'd make all things work together for good to them that loved Him. So therefore, I believe that every little thing in--in the little humble ministry that He has given me to help you people, to help everyone, and you all are a help to me, helping each other to get to glory. In that, every little thing has a meaning to me. But it was hard for me to believe that yesterday afternoon, when I lost my text up here. I--I tell you; I never was so gotten in my life. And then, my--my wife gave me a new Bible for Christmas.

¹² My old one was just worn out. I've had it almost twenty years now, was give to me by the Houston Gospel Tabernacle people many years ago when I started out on the campaigns. And so I just, I cherish it so much, and I... The leaves and pages, of crossing the sea, and around, until I... It's just dropping out. And I pick up a page maybe in Genesis, and have to look back over in Deuteronomy somewhere to find it, you know, where I just stuck it back in the Bible. So she got me one for Christmas. And I hated to lay the old Book aside; it's been so dear to me. I said, "If I went before Jesus comes, lay it on me. And let this go down with me, and I'll come up with it when we come up." So then, that's my opinion anyhow.

¹³ As I used to tell a little story to... Hope this is not sacrilegious. But I went to... A man told me one time, I believe it was Brother Earl Prickett, a meeting up in New York; and I met a man; he said, "Say, what are you doing with these businessmen, being a preacher?"
I said, "I am a businessman."
And he said, "What kind of business you in?"
I said, "Assurance." Now, he thought I said, "Insurance," you see. So I said, "Assurance."
He said, "Oh, what kind of insurance you sell?"
I said, "Eternal Life." Eternal... Said, "I don't sell It. I'm just a policyholder myself, and I try to prescribe It to others."

¹⁶ Remember a boy I went to school with one time, and he was an insurance salesman. Now, insurance is all right, but I don't have any. Then so he come to my house, and he said, "Billy, I'd like to sell you some insurance." Said, "I know your brother." My brother sells for Metropolitan. He said, "Well," said, "I would... I'd like to sell you some insurance."
I said, "Oh, Wilmer, thank you."
And you'll... He may be here tonight, his brother, he writes the articles in "The Upper Room," the book, "The Upper Room." So he...
I said, "I have assurance."
He said, "What?"
And my wife looked at me as if I was a hypocrite. She... And I said... So she said, "Billy?"
And I said, "Yes, uh-huh, I have assurance."
And he said, "Oh, I'm--I'm sorry," said, "I didn't... I heard that you didn't have any insurance."
And I said, "No, I have assurance."
And--and he caught me, what I said then. He said, "What did you say?"
"I said, 'Assurance.'"
And he said, "Well, what do you mean?"
I said, "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine; oh, what a foretaste of glory Divine! I'm an heir of salvation, purchased of God; born of His Spirit, washed in His Blood."
He said, "Billy, you know I appreciate that." Said, "That's a very good thing." But said, "Son, that will not put you out here in the graveyard."
I said, "But It'll get me out." I'm not worried about... [Brother Branham and the congregation laugh--Ed.] I'm not bothered about getting in; it's getting out. See? So I think that's the way we feel about it.

²⁴ Last evening when I picked up that Bible, and I couldn't find that text... And I picked up that new Bible. I was reading out of the old, and I picked up the new one, and put it under my arm, and run up here. And I turned over to that place, and I thought, "Why, here, I believe it was Saint John 16:21," and it--it wasn't the reading at all.
I said to Brother Moore, "Is that where that's at?"
"Yes."
And I looked back, and it wasn't there. So I thought, "Well, they got a misplaced page in--page in."
Then my brother here came, Brother Stanley, he came over; Bishop Stanley, rather. And I don't know what the man meant, I... It was such a comfort though. He walked up close to my side, and he said, "Hold steady, brother, God is maybe going to do something." See? And that just encouraged me to think he'd say that.
I wonder if he realized he prophesied? But talking to him a few moments ago, just before getting up here, I'm sure he did.

²⁸ So I brought it in my Message upon the "Birth Pains," and so forth. And my little rude way of doing it, about the lily; and how it's born down, and begotten, and comes up, and draws up the sun, the dew drop, and so forth. And then the corruption of what it has to die out of--to be born out of, rather, to come out. And I was trying to make an illustration of the church.
Just like the doctor here, if he went to treat a patient. We've got doctors today that says, "You can rub your foot on the back of the heel, and heal the cancer on your face. You see?" But a good doctor wouldn't listen to such a thing as that. He treats the patient according to the book that he's reading on medical research.
And that's the way I try to do to treat the patients. When I see the church sick, I don't want to try to tell them they need a new handshake or something or that, a new organization. I have to treat it according to the Book that I--I know. See? And so when I see the church, look like breaking out with measles, I want them to take the very Prescription I think is right, and for the measles, to get it out of the church; when I see sin breaking out in it, it's the same way.

³¹ I tried to make a comparison with Esau and Jacob, and then bringing times down. And I won't go into that. But bringing it down to the last part in my last Scripture to use, was comparing it, not unscripturally, but as Jesus said it would be, what the main Doctor said the condition of the church would be in this last days, "It would be a Laodicea: rich, blind, naked, poor church," and it would be compared with the days of Sodom. Now, we know that's the truth. If you notice it, historically, He brought in the days of Noah, first, and then the days of Sodom. And that's just the way it's traveled, just the same way.
And history has many times repeats itself, history does, and so does--does promises of the Bible. For instance, like in Matthew 3, where it said, "Out of Egypt I've called My son." Now, if you run the reference on that, it was Jacob, His son, He called out of Egypt; that was His lesser son. But His great Son, Jesus, was called out of Egypt too. So it had a--a compound answer.

³³ So and seeing as they went along talking about that, and then I brought my thoughts of that. And I walked out of the--off the platform, and went out. My children, going home, wanted to stop out here somewhere to get a sandwich. And I went in; the wife said, "Billy, I was so nervous I didn't know what to do." Said, "I gave you that Bible."
I said, "You never wrote it, and you never put it together, honey."
She said, "But, just to think, I--I give you a--a Bible that had a flaw in it."
I said, "Well, maybe it wasn't."
And so one of the children picked it up, and we'd feel the pages. No, it looked all right. But right down at the bottom, it was two pages sticking together (See?), and the 16th chapter was on this side, and then the continuation of the 16th chapter come up on the other side. And the 17th started on the... See, it's just perfectly, exactly the same, across. And that India paper, real thin, sticking together, and I was reading out of the 17th chapter all the time, instead of the 16th chapter.

³⁷ And I thought, "God, why did You do that? Why would there be such a thing now?" That's me feeling, you know, to see what it was all about, 'cause I think nothing happens by chance. And I was thinking about the comfort of this brother here, coming, telling me, "Hold steady, him being a priest, 'hold steady, maybe God is going to do something,'" or something in that manner. And I--I thought, "How could that be?"
And then, setting there, like a thunderbolt out of heaven it came to me. Now, this might not make sense to you, but it does to me. See?

³⁹ I remember in Luke the 4th chapter, that Jesus entered the synagogue at Nazareth, where He was brought up at, as His custom was to go into the church on the--synagogue, on the Sabbath. And when He did, we notice there that the priest gave Him the Bible, a Scroll. Jesus, looking through the Scroll, found a certain place, Isaiah 61, and He read the Scripture. Then He handed the Bible back to the minister. And then as He turned to the audience, all eyes was upon Him. And He said:

⁴¹ And what a--what a--a statement it was to the teachers and to the people that were present, that He could make this plain to the people, "This day this Scripture is fulfilled." For here He was, the Messiah, yet they didn't believe it. Here He was, the anointed One for that hour. Every bit of His ministry from His birth up had proved to be what He was, and yet they could not believe it. What a statement. But He could say today...
And if a person opened up their eyes, they could've knew--known what day that they were living in, for that was His hour, for He was right there doing exactly what the Scriptures, all the prophets had said would happen in that day. Here He was doing exactly what God had prophesied would happen. How did they miss seeing it? They should've known right quick, seeing what His ministry was. There's the Messiah. They would've known it, because He said, "The Scripture is fulfilled."

⁴³ I think of today. And notice what that was as the--the priest gave the Word over. The Word was read, handed back to the priest. And the last quotation out of my text that I had, and my Scriptures wrote down, was Saint Luke 17:30, where, Jesus referring back to this day that we're living in, rich, Laodicea age, and yet rotten in politics, church politics and national politics, just as rotten as it could be. And then He said, "As it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be in the coming end time," notice what He said there, "in the day that the Son of man will be revealed."
See, "In the days that the Son of man will be revealed..." I want to draw your attention.
See, He came in three names. He came as Son of man, which was prophet. And that's what He did; He proved His ministry by being a prophet. We all know that. Every one of us knows it. He never said He was the Son of God; He said He was the Son of man. Now, today, He is the Son of God, which He returned back, and now He is in the form of the Holy Ghost, the unseen Person; but yet, God, the Son of God. In the millennium He sets upon His Father's throne, which He'll be Son of David. He revealed Hisself first as Son of man, a prophet; this age, through the church age, Son of man--or Son of God; and in the other age, Son of David: three sons.

⁴⁶ But you notice here, He said, at the ending of the church age, it had got in such a mess till He would be revealed again as Son of man, "when the Son of man is being revealed." How appropriate was that mix-up yesterday. And I hope you don't miss it.
We have had the revelation of Son of God, but the last promise that Abraham had before the son was made--or brought into existence, the one that he would been promised; before the promised son showed up, God manifested Himself there at Sodom as a Prophet, being a Man, in flesh, God. Elohim, as I heard someone speak it awhile ago, which the Godhead bodily was in Him. He was the Fullness. Elohim is the Fullness of the Godhead bodily. And we notice there when Lot saw... When Abraham saw Him coming, he said, "My Lord." There was three of them. And down in Sodom, Lot saw two, and said, "My lords," lack of revelation. So notice what taken place here, when He come up, how He made Hisself known.

⁴⁸ Could we not, could I not say this if I had just been on my toes (See?); the brother prophesied when he said to me what he did. This day... Watch what He did right after the reading of that Scripture. "In the days when the Son of man," not a man, not a human being, "the Son of man will reveal Hisself among His people again." This day this promise, of this hour that we're now living in is fulfilled before our very eyes. He turned immediately to the congregation, and ten or twelve, whatever people it was out there, unknown; He did the very same thing He did at Sodom. This day has this Scripture been made manifest before you. It's been made true before you.
Then, my brother, sister, delegates, ministers, whatever we are here, children of God, how close are we to His coming then? If we're now seeing the Scripture that He promised just before the fire fell in Sodom to burn it up, and likened this day to it, and seeing that Scripture right before our eyes be fulfilled, how close are we to the coming of the Son of God then? How close is the manifestation of the Scriptures, like He did through Abraham, bringing the church up in type, which He was the promise to the church. And now we find out, Abraham's natural seed, how they failed. But the royal seed of Abraham, which is by faith in the promised Word, is now being manifested on the earth today. We are at the end time, my brother, sisters. We are at the end.

⁵⁰ And we have not one other type. I have to type Scriptures because I don't have an education enough to bring out words and things. I make a type. But if I see in the shadows... If I never had seen my hand and see the shadow, I know I had five fingers. And that's the way you have to watch the Scripture types of the Old Testament. What does it do? It foreshadows this. And Jesus said that Sodom was the foreshadow of the end time now. And the very Scriptures that was promised to Sodom, the very Scriptures that was taking place at Sodom, that Jesus said would repeat itself again in this day, it's made known right before us today.
God bless you. Don't miss it. And if I don't see you here next year; when they climb the golden stairs, I hope to meet you up There. God bless you. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]

⁵² Father, we are... [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] According to the Scriptures, we are seeing manifested, before us, the last sign and type. The Words of Jesus Christ said this is so. Just as it was at Sodom, we see the world in its condition, we see the church in its condition, we see the--the elect being called out of every denomination; the Life, that's in those places, moving out now to take the form of the Seed. We pray, heavenly Father, that we'll waken a quickly.
As a brother just said now, he seen before his face, and when he had his eyes closed, just masses going before him. O God, we feel that there is masses untouched yet. Help us, dear God. May we go from this convention with such a warning in our heart, knowing that this day the Scripture is fulfilled. In Jesus' Name. Amen.

⁵⁴ [Brother Demos Shakarian says, "Hallelujah. Our editor, Jerry Jensen, would you come up here. His--his mother-in-law is unconscious right now; he just got the news. And they're ministers of the Gospel, Foursquare ministers. Would we just... He is, I know he is very heavy-hearted. And just..."--Ed.] Heard just now? Oh, yes. Oh, are they here? ["No, they're in Los Angeles. In a coma."]
Distance is no difference to God. He's omnipresent. He has to be to be God. Some of the greatest things that I've know of being done in my own humble ministry, is by telephone, or someone calling in, great things taken place. Let us agree together that God will heal this people that's sick.

⁵⁶ Dear heavenly Father, we bring them into Your Presence by prayer. We know that one night there was an apostle that was shut off from all activity then; he was in a jail, and he was going to be beheaded the next day. And down at John Mark's house they had a prayer meeting, and right in those inner cells there came that same Pillar of Fire that followed the children of Israel, or the children of Israel followed It through the wilderness; came right in, because of that prayer meeting, and opened every door, and brought the apostle out on the street again, free to minister.
We understand that these ministers, missionary people, is bound in now, they're--they're even in a coma. Lord, You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hear our prayer tonight, O God. You said, "When you pray, believe that you receive what you ask for; it shall be given you." Lord, we believe, and pray that in Jesus' Name, that You'll heal them, Lord, for Your glory. It's been said, been asked, now let it be done. Amen.
God bless you, Ted. You believe with him.

⁵⁸ Brother Demos.
[Blank.spot.on.tape, then Brother Demos Shakarian says, "You recognize that fellow?"--Ed.]
No, sir. A lot of change since those days, brethren.
["Come here, Howard. He was a very handsome fellow then. He is still handsome, Brother Branham. Yeah, that's a nice picture. And we had your aunt to stand a moment ago too. And maybe you would like to say a word, Howard."]
[Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.] ... man they left out; we all appreciate Brother Shakarian. Now, if he ever want us to come forth...