At the end of the sermon, Choosing Of A Bride, Brother Branham gave solemn warnings concerning the way people live and what God requires of them. Shortly after that, the people’s questions about the earthquakes were answered.
That night, Brother Branham was told what he had said at the end of the service. When he was told about the reference to Capernaum, he looked in the Bible and found where Jesus rebuked Capernaum. "And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell: for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee." [Matthew 11:23--24; also found in Luke 10:15]
"But, friend, when you let--- if we've got a feel in our heart tonight that we should straighten up our lives, and the things that we have done, let me advise you as a minister brother--- And I'm going to say this for my first time over the pulpit. I've stretched out farther tonight on this than I have on anything else anytime anyhow before the public, because I've had a great freedom in these meetings. If you believe me to be God's prophet, you listen to what I've told you. If there's one little tinkle of feeling in your heart, you go to God right now. You do it.
"Stop just a minute, men. Look at your creeds that you serve. Look in your churches. Is it just exactly with the word of God? Have you met every qualification? Say, 'I'm a good man.' So was Nicodemus, and so was all the rest. They were fine. See, that don't have nothing to do with it.
"And women, I want you to look in the mirror, and look what God requires a woman to do, and see in God's mirror, not in your church mirror now, in God's mirror, and see if you could qualify in your life the spiritual Bride of Jesus Christ.
"Ministers, think the same. Do you cut corners here to save somebody's feelings over yonder? Would you do this if it wasn't---if they would put you out of the church? If you are feeling that way, my dear brother, let me warn you in the name of Jesus Christ, flee from that right now.
"And lady, if you can't measure up to the qualification of a Christian, not as a nominal Christian, but in your heart and your life is patterned exactly like God's marriage certificate here says it has to be---
"And church member, if your church isn't like that can measure up to God's qualification of His Word, get out of it, and get into Christ.
"That’s solemn warning. We don’t know what time. And you don’t know what time that this city one day is going to be laying out here in the bottom of this ocean.
'O, Capernaum,' said Jesus, 'thou who exalted into heaven will be brought down into hell, for if the mighty works had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, it’d have been standing till this day.' And Sodom and Gomorrah lays at the bottom of the Dead Sea, and Capernaum’s in the bottom of the sea.
"Thou city, who claims to be the city of the Angels, who’s exalted yourself into heaven and sent all the dirty filthy things of fashions and things, till even the foreign countries come here to pick up our filth and send it away, with your fine churches and steeples, and so forth the way you do; remember, one day you’ll be laying in the bottom of this sea.
"You’re great honeycomb under you right now. The wrath of God is belching right beneath you. How much longer He’ll hold this sandbar hanging over that, when that ocean out yonder a mile deep will slide in there plumb back to the Salton Sea.
"It’ll be worse than the last day of Pompeii. Repent, Los Angeles. Repent the rest of you and turn to God. The hour of His wrath is upon the earth. Flee while there’s time to flee and come into Christ. Let us pray.
"Dear God, when in my spirit is shaking, my heart is dropping teardrops of warning, grant, O God, that men and women will not think of what I’ve said as a joke, and the church people will not think of it as something that was prejudice or against them. May they see, Lord, it’s in love.
"Thou barest me record, Almighty God, that up and down this coast I went, year after year, proclaiming Your Word. Bear me record, O God, if it would happen tonight, I’ve told the truth. Thou knowest this vision of the Bride is the truth. I’ve took Your name by it, Lord, and said it was, 'thus saith the Lord,' and I feel that I’m conscious, Lord, of what I’m doing.
"So I pray Thee, Lord, in Jesus’ name, let people shake themselves tonight and flee from the wrath that is to come, for Ichabod is wrote over the doors and over the nation. A black check mark is come across it; the Spirit of God is grieved away from it; and they’re weighed in the balances and found wanting. The feast of King Nebuchadnezzar has repeated again with drunken parties and half-dressed women calling themselves Christians.
"O God of heaven, have mercy upon a sinful world and a sinful people, Lord, as we are tonight. God, I’m trying to stand in the breach and ask for Divine mercy that You’ll speak into this crowd tonight and call Your Bride to attention, Lord, to march not by the sign of any creed, but by the sound of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grant it, O God.
"Let it be known this night, that Thou art God, and Thy Word is Truth. While solemnly in the face of this people, we call them to attention of Thy Word. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray for them, Lord.
"They have seen You beyond any shadow of a doubt move across the crowds and tell them what’s in their heart. And Thou knowest, Lord, that right now what’s going on. Thou knowest that to be truth, O God. And I pray Thee in Jesus’ name, let the Holy Spirit intercede again, Lord, and pull from this audience, Lord, those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Grant it, O God, I pray it with all my heart.
"These people, naturally, Lord, would give me the last penny they had to support the message. They’d do anything that they could, but O God, when it comes to coping with it and coming into it, I pray, God, that this will be the night that You’ll reward them and pour down Your Holy Spirit upon this convention. And may there not be a frolic or jumping around, but a weeping, and a crying, and a repenting, holding on to the horns of the altar while we see judgment rolling beneath us tonight. Grant it, God. I pray as sincerely as I know how, in the name of Jesus Christ.
"My brother, sister, I don’t know what more to say. If I’ve found grace in your sight by the power of God, if you believe me to be His prophet--- This is the first time in public I’ve ever said that, but I feel a strange warning of some sort. I’m not prone to this. You know I’m not. I don’t act like this. I hesitated to speak that message and say those things. I run sideways and everything else to keep from doing it, but it’s been said, and it’ll stand at the day of the judgment as a witness that I’ve told the truth. That’s 'thus saith the Lord God.'
"Oh, Pentecost, run for your life. Flee to the horns of the altar and cry out before it is too late, for the hour will come when you can cry and it’ll do no good. For Esau sought to find the place of his birthright and couldn’t find it.
"I commit you, oh, California, oh, convention of the Full Gospel Business Men, who I love, who I’ve left and strung to with all my heart, I commit you to Jesus Christ tonight. Flee to Him.
"Don’t let the devil ever cool you off from this. Stay right with it until you’re every one filled with the Holy Ghost insomuch that it’ll make you come to this Word, that’ll make you women straighten up, that’ll make you men straighten up. If you say you’ve got the Holy Ghost and won’t cope with the Word, it’s another spirit in you. God’s Spirit is on His Word. The Messiahic, the anointed Word--- The Bride must be a Messiah-ette, the anointed Word.
"Let us stand to our feet in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you never hear my voice again--- If God willing, I’m sailing to Africa in a few hours; I may never return. I don’t know. But I tell you with all my heart; I’ve told you the truth. I haven’t shunned to declare to you everything that God has told me to say, and I’ve said it in the name of the Lord.
"It’s a solemn moment. I don’t know how to express it. I’ve tried to leave the pulpit three or four times, and I can’t do it. This is a solemn hour. Don’t you never forget it. This is a time that maybe God may be making His last call. I don’t know. He’ll make His last call someday. When? I don’t know. But I’m telling you, according to that vision, it looks like that that Bride’s about finished.
"Look at the nominal churches coming in. When the sleeping virgin come for oil, she failed to get it. [Matthew 25:1--13] The Bride went in. The rapture went up. While they went to buy oil, the Bridegroom come. Are you asleep? Wake up quickly, and come to yourself, and let us pray each one like we were dying at this minute, in the name of the Lord. Let’s each one pray in your own way.
"God Almighty, have mercy upon us, Lord. Have mercy on me. Have mercy upon us all. What good does it do, no matter what we do, if we fail in these things. I stand and ask for mercy, O God, before this great city sinks beneath the sea and judgments of God sweep this coast; I pray, God, that You’ll call Your Bride. I commit them to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."