The Jason DeMars Podcast
The Jason DeMars Podcast
Mysteries Revealed - ETMH Section 24 - Will the Bride Face Persecution Before the Rapture?
Will the Bride face persecution before the Rapture? This episode tackles this controversial question head-on through the lens of Brother Branham's evolving teachings. You'll gain insight into the nuanced distinction between everyday societal hardships and specific ecclesiastical persecution. We delve into Brother Branham's profound "squeeze" concept and the third pull's manifestation, dispelling common end-times misconceptions. By examining his progression of revelations, we emphasize the need for spiritual maturity in interpreting these prophecies, reassuring listeners that the Bride will be taken up before experiencing God's wrath.
Furthermore, we explore the imminent hope of the Rapture for the Bride, emphasizing Brother Branham's teachings that no additional signs are needed for this divine event to occur. The episode unpacks the continuous display of God's power within the Bride and her current spiritual persecution. We also highlight the belief that the Bride will not endure severe physical persecution like the early apostolic church but will be caught up into the presence of Christ. Our discussion underscores the perfecting power of the blood of Jesus Christ, providing a renewed sense of hope and readiness for the Rapture. Don't miss this deep dive into an often-debated topic, aimed at bolstering your faith and understanding.
End Time Message Handbook, section 24. Will the Bride Be Persecuted Before the Rapture? I'm going to do a study on this subject and look closely at how the Lord dealt with Brother Branham on this important matter and the progression of his understanding through the years. Some people have too divergent thoughts and they battle with them. This is a mistake. We should have the spiritual maturity to take everything the Word says and allow the Lord to correct us and line us up with His revelation. She is His body, the manifested truth of His promised word for the last days, and she and she alone stands by it. That's why the devil is howling these great organizations to set up something to close her up. They'll never do it. She'll be taken up, not closed up. Quote of Brother Branham from Christ is the mystery of God revealed.
Speaker 1:There are some during these times saying this is a squeeze and our churches are being shut down by the government. I want to state emphatically the time that churches will be shut down is during the tribulation period. As we can see in the quote above, the bride will be taken up, not closed up. Churches are being shut down along with every other business, sporting event and school. This is not a specific persecution against churches. It is a mandatory shutdown to prevent the swift spread of a very dangerous virus that humans have no immunity to. Most churches are, in fact, still operating with a small crew in order to produce a live service for members to live stream. This is not in any way a shutdown or closing down of churches.
Speaker 1:As I write these things, some perhaps may be confused or frustrated. I want to preface this with the fact that there was a development, a progressive revelation given to Brother Branham. It is important that we follow along with this progression so that we can come to a correct revelation of the Word. This progression applies to subjects like the Logos, the new birth and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, adoption and the evidence of the Holy Ghost, etc. However, this leads to a bigger question, which is will the churches be shut or closed prior to the tribulation period? The world continues as regards to ungodliness and will continue to get worse and worse, not better. There will be a continual moral decay, so that the world is like it was in the days of Noah and the days of Lot. Lot experienced a squeeze before he was taken out of Sodom, but that is not a type of the bride. It's a type of the foolish virgin. Abraham was a type of the bride group. He was altogether out of Sodom and experienced no suffering and no persecution. Enoch was translated at a time when things were perfectly normal. According to the world's standards, there is nothing written of difficulties or tribulations during the time of Enoch. He simply had a faith that pleased God and he was raptured as a type of the bride in the 7th Church Age.
Speaker 1:Of course we have several quotes, especially from the end of 1963 and the beginning of 1964, including the sermon Look Away to Jesus where he says, speaking of the third pole and a time of persecution, and when it does, when that does, the Pentecostals and so forth can almost impersonate. Anything can be done. But when that time comes, when the squeeze comes down, then you'll see what you've seen temporarily be manifested in the fullness of its power See, see, see, see. And we all know that's the identification, we know what the third pull is, we all understand that Now you'll have the tape, see, and I think it'll just lay dormant for a little while until the great hour of persecution comes on. That's when it be. It'll speak, it'll be manifested, just like five straight signs without failure. Perfectly, okay, here we have two definitive quotes about persecution taking place upon the bride, and then the third pull. The spoken word will come on with great power. In early 1964, this was still the expectation of Brother Branham. However, as we read further, you will see a new approach once the Lord deals with him on the Feast of the Trumpets. But first let's look at some more context of what this ecclesiastical squeeze will look like Now.
Speaker 1:I pray God as I see the day that the denomination is pressing the believers, excommunicating them, saying their name must be upon their book or they're lost, have nothing to do with the other group, it's only the tender hand of Jehovah leading them to the tree of life. I pray God that each one I know they will, because it's your word and it can't fail and may we be led to the tree of life that we might be a possessor of eternal life. See the hand of God and, by the eyes of faith, look beyond these shadows that we're walking in today, see the promised land laying just ahead. Here we see that even when Brother Branham was on the scene, he referred to it as the denomination is pressing the believers, excommunicating them. The pressing began then and is continuing to this day.
Speaker 1:An important point of Scripture is that the elect church will not experience the wrath of God 1 Thessalonians 5, 1-9. But of the times and the seasons. Brethren, you have no need that I write unto you, for yourselves know that perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all children of light and the children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch and be sober, for they that sleep sleep in the night and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for an helmet, the hope of salvation, for God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. The time of the rapture is going to be a time of peace and safety to the world, even when the countries of the world face market collapse, as they have many times in the past, a gold bailout will be coming from Rome to prevent it. God has not appointed us to wrath, but to be delivered out of his wrath, which is poured out during the day of the Lord. That day does not overtake us as a thief. We are aware of the times and seasons and know that the hour is quickly approaching for the rapture to take place.
Speaker 1:Now let's read several quotes from Brother Branham to illustrate the next thing. Brother Branham, will the bride go through the persecution as the early apostolic church did? No, I just explained that a few minutes ago. No. Next thing is a rapture. Now, remember, we're at the promised land, we're at the border. You understand the march of Israel.
Speaker 1:Now the people say what about the early saints? That was the changing of the dispensations. That was under persecution, which, if you was here to hear the church ages and to see how they went out into that darkness and had to do that, then that shows where they had to take that persecution, because each one of the church ages and everything began to show that they went darker and darker till they finally went to a complete place that they denied his name and picked up another name, that they lived and were dead, sardis. And then it come out Thyatira and Sardis. And then it come out when it began to come out to the Philadelphia and so forth, and then come to the time of the calling out of the bride, which was to escape all the damnation. It counted worthy to escape all this damnation and wrath that's to come upon the earth that you might be counted worthy to escape it. Not go through it, escape it.
Speaker 1:See, do you understand everybody? See what has has done it? In the cunningness, as he said, he come in like flatteries and what has he done? He is bringing the Protestant ecumenical council of the world churches, the spirit of Antichrist upon both of them, bringing them to the slaughter, just like they did the other in the hour to call the bride. How Loosed in the ecclesiastical church spirit. Loosed upon what? Not upon the denominations, upon the bride. But here you'll get it. The bride will not go through that time. The Bible says not, the church will, but not the bride. Can't you see it, ministers? Can't you see that, brethren? You say the church has to go through the persecution for the perfection of it.
Speaker 1:The blood of Jesus Christ perfects the bride. A man who chooses a wife, don't put her through a lot of punishment. He's already found grace, too, with her. She's found grace with him. He engages to her and if there's anything, he'll keep her from every place to turn her hand. His grace is so great upon them, and so will it be upon the bride, and so is it on the bride. We unworthy creatures deserving of hell, but His grace holds us through it. Look at how many lost and blind. Now, this is my own thoughts, minister, brethren, in my own way, that I feel that the Holy Spirit has revealed to me. Now the next thing is to happen is the Jewish or the Gentile elected bride is to be caught up with the rest of the Gentile elected bride that's been down through the ages, be caught up in the presence of Christ in the heavens. The dead raises, the one that's alive and remaining is changed, and they're caught up together in the air to meet the Lord. End quote. There is a process of development of understanding on this subject as in any other subject.
Speaker 1:The Bible became a new book to Brother Branham after the seals were open and the Lord continued to reveal things to him, even in the sermon. Look away to Jesus. At the end of 1963. He's expecting that there will be some kind of persecution, shutting down our church doors, turning our churches into warehouses etc and ramping up of the supernatural. Then we come to the Feast of the Trumpets and questions and answers and it is clear he is expecting the rapture to take place and that he says people are expecting many miracles but those aren't for the bride. It's the two witnesses calling the 144,000. This is a very lengthy quote but it is important. From questions and answers number one, august 1964, will the bride before Jesus comes, will she have all power of Holy Ghost to perform miracles, raise dead and so on, as in the latter reign, or is this the latter reign for the 144,000? Will all ministers have this? Are we just waiting for the coming?
Speaker 1:Yes, see, friend, I'm not a theologian. I'm not a theologian. Therefore I have to teach all that I know about the Bible from shadows and types. You can't you kind of call me a typologist, but if I can look on that wall and I've never seen myself and I look and I can see that I got a head and ears and hands and I know something about what I'm looking to look like, if I ever see myself see if I see my reflection in a mirror. I know what I would look like if I could stand off and look at myself. Now, that's the way I think of the Bible.
Speaker 1:All of these things Romans 26 said happened for our examples. We can look back and see what it says. Like the moon reflected in the sun, we know what the sun will be when, if we ever see the sun, we can see the moon and see that it's going to be greater than that. Well, when you see what happened in the Old Testament, it's just a reflection of what happens in the New Now. In here, I believe with all my heart. I we are, or this days, if we're not, somebody is, it's got to be.
Speaker 1:Time has run out. We're at the end. Every the world. God made the world in 6,000 years and the 7,000 he rested. He said a man will never live that time out. A year or a day. Day you eat thereof, the day you die. Adam, or Methuselah, was the oldest man that ever lived in the Bible and he was 969 years old and he never lived that thousand years. The man that's going to live through the millennium, 1,000 years, to show that the penalty has been paid man lives forever. The day is finished, the time is finished. They're in eternity. By the way, I got so many letters of my message two or three Sundays ago on the future home of the bride and groom, that sure hit home somewhere to a lot of them. It did to me too. I've never got over it.
Speaker 1:Now, notice on this see, abraham saw now as he dealt with Abraham, so has he with this seed. Now, one of these days, when I come back sometime, I want to take a little more closer and show you exactly the station of Abraham's life. It's exactly with Luther Wesley on down to here, just exactly how he's dealt with the churches, like he did with Abraham, how he appeared, how that there, when he confirmed the covenant to him under the shed blood. It was the Philadelphian age. Yes, sir, that was the blood age, luther, the Wesleyan age. But then watch, the Pentecostal age. After he come there, he made the promise of El Shaddai nurse for me. The question is can you nurse? That was brought before the Pentecostal. See, can you nurse? But they didn't do it. They grabbed them a breast from the denomination where they come out of, but then the seed, real seed. Come on to nurse that breast and what was the last sign they had before that promised son that they'd waited on all those years? When he come back, was God standing in the form of a man and could discern the thoughts that was in Sarah's heart? Sarah, being the church, representing the church, discern the thoughts that's in the church that was even behind him? Is that right? And immediately after that, she changed back to a young woman and him a young man, and Isaac was brought on the scene, the promised son.
Speaker 1:I believe you're seeing the last thing that will happen to the church before the rapture. That's exactly, I believe it. The reign is over. Just read the first three chapters of Revelation and you'll see what's promised to the church. That's what's promised church. Right there, the church ages.
Speaker 1:You notice, the other day, when we started them trumpets, the Holy Spirit said that don't belong here. See, see, now latter reign, 144,000 Jews. No, that isn't. They won't. That's when Elijah and Moses. That's where the miracles take place, things that people's been looking for, the Pentecostals for miracles. That's where they'll take places. Under that, under them. See, that's Elijah's and Moses. They smite the earth with curses as oft they will. They close the heavens that it don't rain in the days of their prophecy. God will stand and fight for them, like he did, and he'll bring them out under a mighty hand just exactly like he did in Egypt, out of these isms of the world. And he'll do that. But that is not. We're just to wait on the coming of the Lord. Just wait, keep your lamps trimmed, all filled full of oil. Pray up every hour, not every day, every hour. Just keep ready, be ready, be sweet and watching. Oh, we're watching for the coming of that glad millennial day when our blessed Lord shall come and catch His waiting bride away. Oh, my, oh, my heart is filled with rapture as I labor, watch and pray, for Lord is coming back to earth again. That's it. That's the hope of the church this hour. End quote.
Speaker 1:As we can see, brother Branham's next expectation was the rapture. Third pull has been going ever since the opening of the seals. The great supernatural power of God has been displayed in the bride this entire time. The apostolic age does not cease with the apostles. Mark 16 has always been in effect.
Speaker 1:He said in the sermon Leadership, the rapture could come at any time. He was not waiting on other signs to be fulfilled and things that are to be, he said, now it's got to lay in the presence of the sun to ripen Truly. The rapture could come at any time and the only reason the bride is still here now is to come to full maturity. There are no more signs or great supernatural events to take place, no great persecution upon the bride, just the rapture of the bride. We read the scripture above that God has not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet the Bible says that all that live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It is not the case that we don't experience persecution, but the persecution the bride is suffering around the world right now is a spiritual attack of 200 million demons. The Jews suffered their attack literally and physically during World War II. The Jews suffered their attack literally and physically during World War II, but the bride experiences it in an ecclesiastical form which ultimately pushes her out of denominations and into Christ, just as the physical version of it pushed the Jews out of Europe and into their promised land.
Speaker 1:I will close this article with a few final bullet points taken from the statements of Brother Branham. Will the bride see great supernatural power of God before the rapture or is she just waiting on the coming. He says the last thing we will see is going on now and we are to wait for the coming of the Lord. Will the bride go through the persecution like the early apostolic church? No, the next thing is the rapture. The denominations will try to close her doors. She won't be closed down. She'll be taken up. The next thing to happen for the bride is she is to be caught up into the presence of Christ. You say the church has to go through the persecution for the perfection of it. The blood of Jesus Christ perfects the bride.