“In closing I want to say the reason that I've said these things, and I'll close.
“The other night about three o'clock in the morning, I was awakened up. Now, I take any of you to answer this: Have I ever told you anything in the name of the Lord but what it was right? It's always been right. So help me, God knows that is true. There is no one nowhere in the world, of the thousands of things that's been told, that He has ever missed one word of it. Always been perfectly come to pass, even to when I was at Phoenix the other day (or about a year ago it was) and told you that about that message on ‘What Time Is It, Sirs,’ and told you 7 angels would meet out there, and it'd be the opening of these seals and what--- And there the ‘Life’ magazine packed the article of it, this great flame going up into the air 30 miles high, 27 miles across, and they said they couldn't make out what is was, don't know yet. And men setting right here in this building tonight was standing right there with me when it happened, just exactly the way it said.
“He told me of the things was coming to pass, and it happened just exactly; how each of those Seals opened and told the mysteries that'd been hid down through them ages of the reformers and so forth, just perfectly; how I was standing upon top of the hill--- men, three or four of them standing right here present now; yes, more than that. Going up the hill, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Pick up that rock.’ (We were hunting.) He said, ‘Throw it up in the air, and say, “thus saith the Lord.”' I did. Down from there come a little funnel of wind. I said, ‘Within 24 hours, you will see the hand of God.’
“Men setting right here present now, the next day about ten o'clock, standing there, I said, ‘Get ready; get under the car there’ (a veteran); I said, ‘something's fixing to happen.’ It was a clear sky, right up in a big canyon; and down come a whirling fire from heaven just as hard as it could scream, hit the walls like that. I was standing right under it. I just took off my hat, held my head, and it come about 3 feet or 4 feet above me, and cut a ditch plumb around that wall like that, and blasted, and went back up in the air, and whirled around again and come down 3 times, even cut the tops of the mesquite bushes out for 200 yards.
“Hear them fellows saying, ‘Amen’? They were there when it happened. See? And it made 3 blasts. When they got out from under the cars, and everything, and come back over, said, ‘If that'd hit you, there wouldn't been a greasy spot.’ I said, ‘It wasn't--- It was Him. He was talking to me.’ God speaks by a whirlwind. See?
“And there was that same Pillar of Fire that you see on the pictures standing there. And when it went up, they said, ‘What is it?’
“I said, ‘Judgment is striking the West Coast.’ Second day from that, Alaska like to have sunk.
“See, it struck once there, the first blow where the--- You have to do something to symbolize it. Like a man put some salt in a cruse, and throwed it in the water, and said, ‘thus saith the Lord, let there be sweet water.’ And another one, Jesus picked up water, and poured it into a jug, and made wine out of it. You have to have something to symbolize it, and that's what that was that went up in the air and come down; that started that little whirlwind.
“Within 24 hours it'd shook that mountain till it had cut a ridge around it. Reverend Mr. Blair, setting here looking right at me now, he was up there and picked up some of the pieces of it and so forth. Here's Terry Sothmann and them standing here, and Billy Paul and brother, some--- Many of these others setting in here that was right there to see it happen when it tore it out. That's not fiction; that's the truth. That wasn't back in the Bible days; that's now. See? That same God that's always showed me these things, and they've come to pass exactly to the letter, never have they failed one time; now, I'm bragging on Him.
“A few weeks ago I was in a vision, and I was standing upon a high place, and I was to see the preview of the church. And I noticed coming from my--- I was standing more like this way, facing the west, and coming this way was a---the lovely bunch of women, real nice dressed, long hair fixed nice in the back, sleeves, and skirts down neatly, and they were all in a marching tune, like ‘Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war, with the cross of Jesus going on before.’ And as they passed by, I stood, and there's something there, some Spirit was God, and He said, ‘There is the Bride.’ And I looked and my heart was happy. And she went around this way, and passed around behind me.
“After while when She come back this a-way, It said, ‘Now, the modern church will come into preview.’ And here come the Asian church up. I never seen such a filthy bunch. Here come the other churches up of the different nations. They looked horrible.
“And I say this because I am duty bound to tell the truth before God. And when He said, ‘Here comes the church of America now to be previewed,’ if I ever seen a bunch of devils, it was that. Them women were stripped naked with a old gray looking thing like a color of an elephant's hide, and they was holding it in front of them with no upper part on it at all, and they were doing this kind of stuff that these dances that these kids do out here, that twist and stuff and that kind of music going on. And when I seen Miss U.S.A. come up, I almost fainted.
“Now, this is 'thus saith the Lord.' If you believe me to be His servant, you believe me now. I wouldn't say that for nothing in the world; there's not enough money in all the world to get me to say that if it wasn't true.
“And when she come by, that was the filthiest looking thing I ever seen. I thought, ‘God, as hard as preachers and we brethren have labored to get You a Bride, and that's the best we could do.’ She was twisting, holding this in front of her like one of these hula skirts of a thing, holding it in front of her parts, her lower parts like this, dancing and twisting like these kids do out here on these vulgar shows that they have, twisting. That was Miss Christianity of America.
“So help me, by the help of God, that's what it looks like in His face. I just--- I start--- I could've fainted. I thought of all the trying, and the preaching, and the persuading: every one of them with bobbed hair, and they were twisting and carrying on, holding this in front. They come around where I was standing there with this supernatural Being. I couldn't see Him. I could hear Him talking to me. He was right around me. But when they turned this way, they hold--- they was just twisting and laughing and going on, carrying on like that, holding this in front of them. Now, me standing in His Presence there, and His servant, and of all I'd tried, that's the best I could do. I thought, ‘God, what good did it do me? What good did it do? All the crying, and begging, and persuading, and the great signs and wonders and miracles that You showed. And how I stood there and go home and cry after preaching to them and things, and what good did it do me? And then I have to present something like that for You for a Bride.’
“And as I stood there looking, she passed on by, and you can imagine the back part of her with nothing on, holding this in front of her as she went shimmying by like that to this twist, throwing her limbs out like that in her--- Oh, it was vulgar how she was carrying on, her body shaking around like that. Now, I---
“You say, ‘What does it mean, Brother Branham?’ I don't know. I'm just telling you what I seen. And when she passed by like that, I looked at her, and oh, I just got real faint. And I just turned around. I thought, ‘God, then I'm condemned. There's no need of me trying any how. I just might as well quit.’
“Mrs. Carl Williams, if you're setting here, and that dream that you told me about awhile ago that you had the other night that's been bothering you--- there it is. The steering wheel is taken from my hand.
“Then I just thought I just might as well forget it; I was gone. Then all at once, I heard them coming again, and coming upon this side come the same Bride that went around this a-way. Here come them little ladies again, and each one of them was dressed in their national garb from where they come from, like Switzerland, Germany and so forth, each one wearing that kind of garb, all long haired, just exactly like the one at the first. And here they was coming, walking, ‘Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war.’
“And when they had passed by the preview stand where we were standing, you just all at once every eye went that way, and then they turned back, and on they went marching. And just as they started to going right up into the skies, this other one went up to a brink of a hill and went down like that. These started marching right up into the skies. And when they went to marching, I noticed a couple of little girls from the back ---looked like they might be of some foreign girl, like Sweden or Switzerland, or somewhere's--- they started looking around and got--- I said, ‘Don't do that. Don't get out of that step.’ And as I screamed like that, I come to in the vision, standing there with my hand out like that. I thought, ‘Well---’
“That's the reason I've said what I have tonight. I want to ask you a question: Is it later that we think? Could she already be called, and chosen, sealed away? There won't be one extra one, you know. Could it be possible? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Remember what I said the other day at the breakfast? In the pollen of breeding male and female, there's a million germs goes forth, million eggs goes forth, but there's only one of them live, and yet they're every one just alike: one out of a million. Every one of them the same egg and the same kind of germ, one of them lives; the rest of them dies. No one can tell which is the one that's the ripe egg and what about it. God has to decide that. Whether it's going to be a boy or girl, blond or brunette, or whatever it's going to be; God decides that. Not the first one meets, but the first one God's decided. Maybe one come up here, and one--- If you ever noticed in a test tube to see them come together. I've watched it. God has to decide that. One--- Every one of them just alike, but by election. The natural birth is by election. God takes one out of the million.
“When Israel left Egypt on their road to the promised land, there were approximately two million people. Every one of them was under the same sacrificial lamb, or they wouldn't have lived. Every one of them listened to Moses the prophet. Every one of them was baptized to him in the Red Sea. Every one of them danced, the women with Miriam up and down the side of the---when the seashore when God destroyed the enemy. Every one of them stood with Moses, and he heard him sing in the Spirit. They every one eat manna out of the wilderness that dropped down from heaven: new manna every night, which is a type of the message. Every one of them eat from it. But out of the two million, how many made it? Two: one out of a million.
“There's approximately 500 million Christians in the world tonight counting Catholic and all: 500 million so-called believers in the world. If the rapture come tonight, that would mean, if one out of a million was a count (I don't say it is.) but if it was, 500 people in the next 24 hours would be missing. You'd never even hear of it. There'll be that many missing anyhow that can't even be counted for.
“Then it could be---happen to us, friends, like it did when John the Baptist came. Even the disciples said, ‘Why did the Scriptures say, why did the apostles, or the prophets say, why does it say that Elias must first come and restore all things?’ He said, ‘I say unto you, that Elias has already come, and you didn't know it.’
“One of these days we could be left setting here. ‘What about the rapture before the tribulation sets in?’ 'It's already come and you didn't know it.’ All the body is sealed in, just keeping it in step.
"I ain't saying it's that way; I hope it isn't that way. 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 the---Ichabod is wrote over the doors and over the nation. A black checkmark 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. 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."