Good afternoon, fellow ministers in the Mystical Body of Christ our Savior. It’s a great privilege and blessing to be with you on this occasion, here in Cali, Colombia.
For this occasion, let’s read in Revelation, chapter 4, verse 1 and on, where it tells us:
“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”
And we say: Amen!
“THE SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL RAPTURE OF GOD’S ELECT.”
In the Scripture, we have the promise that there will be a rapture or catching away of the members of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, of all the stages of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ; starting from the apostles and the Church of the time of the apostles, to our time, to this end time; in which we are also waiting for the rapture of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
From age to age, from stage to stage, God’s sons and daughters have been going up to the stage that they are to live in. Those of the time of the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ back then, went up to that stage corresponding to the time of the apostles, who were Hebrews with a Hebrew people; and therefore, that was a stage usually made up of Jews; except for some Gentiles who were converted in the time of Saint Peter, of Philip, and other apostles. It was something among the Jews, but some Gentiles who lived in Israel also came in; like Cornelius (a Roman officer) and his family.[1]
Then it completely opened for the Gentiles, through the apostle Saint Paul; and among the Gentiles there were also Jews who came into that first stage or age among the Gentiles, and they also became part of that Gentile age; they went up to that age. And likewise, people have been going up, and thus, being raptured, caught away, to that age, in the spiritual realm.
And that’s the way it has been from age to age, all the way to our time, in which they have been coming up to the age of the Word relevant to our time; just as those of past ages went up to the age relevant to the time in which they lived; therefore, they received a spiritual rapture, a spiritual catching away, to a higher age. In each age, they went up higher, until reaching the Golden Age of the Church, which is the Age of the Cornerstone.
Each of the stages that the Church has gone through, has been waiting for the Coming of the Lord; because He promised in Revelation, and also in the Gospel according to Saint Peter, according to Saint Mark, according to Saint Luke, and according to Saint John, that He would return.
But in Holy Spirit, He has been in and with His Church since the Day of Pentecost. He returned in Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and He has been with His Church. He said: “I will be with you always, until the end of the world.” Saint Matthew, chapter 28, verse 20. And also in Saint Matthew, chapter 18, verse 20, He says: “Where two or three are gathered in My Name, I will be there, I will be with you.” That is in Holy Spirit. Which also testifies that someday He will be in His Church and with His Church in all His fullness, fulfilling His Coming to His Church; for He said in Revelation, chapter 22, verse 7:
“Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.”
Meaning, they will be keeping the sayings of the prophecy of this book: those of the time of the apostles (for John was the one who received the revelation), those of the time of Saint Paul, and those of the time of each messenger of God.
And for the Coming of the Lord at the Last Day, they will also be keeping the sayings of the prophecy of this book, which John the apostle received for him to write it and for it to be in the midst of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
At the Last Day, the Mighty Angel who comes down from Heaven, which is Christ, comes to bring the Title Deed, the seven-sealed Book, of Revelation chapter 5; which He takes in Heaven upon leaving the Throne of Intercession; and that’s upon finishing His Work of Intercession that He carries out during the different stages of the Church.
And in the Age of the Cornerstone, in the Golden Age of the Church, He would still be High Priest making intercession for the last ones who would enter, becoming part of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, where Gentiles and Jews would enter too; as it happened in the time of the apostles and also in the time of Saint Paul among the Gentiles, where Gentiles came in but some Hebrews also came in; that is why also Saint Paul, like Saint Peter, preached to Jews. And that is also how the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ will close.
“And just as Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the Jews (they were both Jews), brought the Gospel to the Gentiles (Reverend William Branham says), the Gentiles will take It back to the Jews.”
And who brought the Gospel to the Gentiles? He says: “The Jews.” Peter, on the day of… Peter to Cornelius, a Gentile; and then Saint Paul (also a Jew) to the Gentiles of Asia Minor. In other words, the way that the Gospel came to the Gentiles was by the manifestation of the Holy Spirit through Saint Paul [Peter], to take It to Cornelius, and thus open the door to the Gentiles; and then Saint Paul to the Gentiles of Asia Minor.
But notice, with Saint Paul, Jews also came into the Gospel, into the first age of the Church, just as Hebrews had also come into the time of the apostle Peter and the other apostles who were with the Lord. And there, the door was opened with Saint Peter, in the house of Cornelius; the door was opened, because the apostle Peter was the one who had the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to open the Door to the Lord’s Fold; to open the Door to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and become part of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And just as the Jews brought the Gospel to the Gentiles, it is promised that the Gentiles will take It to the Jews.
Page 30 of the book of The Ages… (the book of The Ages, the one that has 433 pages and the one that has 431 as well). Paragraph 100 says [The Ages, p. 36]:
“Now, when is the Gospel returning to the Jews? When the day of the Gentiles is finished. The Gospel is ready to go back to the Jews. Oh, if I could just tell you something that is about to happen right in this our day. This great thing that is about to happen will carry over to Revelation 11…”
Notice how Revelation 11 will be connected with the Gospel’s return to the Jews; and in order to take It, the Gospel, to the Jews, then He must be in the midst of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look:
“… and pick up those two witnesses (…) turning the Gospel back to the Jews.”
How are they, the Two Witnesses, going to take the Gospel to the Jews? Well, they have to know It, they have to be of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“We’re ready for it. Everything is in order. As the Jews brought the message to the Gentiles, even so the Gentiles will take it right back to the Jews, and the Rapture will come.”
And how did the Jews bring the Gospel to the Gentiles? Through Saint Peter and through Saint Paul, who are a type and figure of the Two Anointed Ones, of the ministries of Moses and Elijah.
Before the ministries of Moses and Elijah are among the Jews, they will be in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, to take the Gospel and bring It back to the Jews. As simple as that.
On page 458 of the book of The Seals, Reverend William Branham tells us… 458 and 459 of the book of The Seals, paragraph 86 [“The Seventh Seal,” p. 22] and on, says:
“173 This time was between the Sixth and Seventh Seal, that He calls these people, spoken of by Jesus in Matthew the 24th chapter and the 31st verse, (…). When the trumpet sounds, is the trumpet of the two witnesses of the age of grace for the Jews. One trumpet sound, (…). Now notice over here, 31st. And he shall send forth his angels (not one, see; there’s two of them) with a great sound of a trumpet,…
174 What is it? When God gets ready to speak, there’s a sound of a trumpet. That’s always His Voice. It’s calling to battle, see. God speaks. These angels will come forth with the sounding of the trumpet.
175 And did you notice, at the last angel’s Message, the trumpet sounds. The first angel’s message, a trumpet sound.”
In other words, it was the Voice of God speaking to them through the first angel, the second angel, the third angel, the fourth, the fifth, and the seventh angel; and then He will speak again with a Great Voice of Trumpet, calling and gathering the elect, the 144,000 Hebrews, 12,000 of each tribe.
“[174] These angels will come forth with the sounding of the trumpet (meaning, the Voice of God speaking at the Last Day).
175 And did you notice, at the last angel’s Message, the trumpet sounds. The first angel’s message, a trumpet sound; second angel’s, a trumpet sounded, when He sent it out. Notice, but when the (seven) Seals were announced, they were all in one great, Divine thing, to call out a group of people; there was one trumpet sound, and Seven Seals were broke.
176 Notice, ‘Gather His elected Jews from the four parts of the heavens.’”
And now, we can’t explain too much about this, because Reverend William Branham says… Remember that all of this is connected to the Seventh Seal and the Sixth Seal; and if we explain it too much, the enemy would then take hold of it and make an imitation. Remember that there have been a lot of imitations, and therefore, what imitations do is divert people’s attention; and then people say: “This is the same thing that So-and-So did.” They were imitations that came before. If the devil knows something or suspects something, he makes an imitation, so that when the real thing comes, they say: “Oh! That’s the same thing.” And nowadays on the internet you can see many imitations.
Reverend William Branham says: “The…,” that the Pentecostal age has… manages to imitate many things.[2] We can’t explain too much, so that there is then no interruption of the Divine Program that there is.
All this is connected to the Seventh Seal, to the Sixth Seal as well, to the Third Pull and to the Tent Vision, of the Great Tent Cathedral that Reverend William Branham saw.
But since we are talking about the spiritual and physical rapture, of the elect of God: we go above the seven ages; because the seven ages have already passed, and those who had to go up to the seventh age have already come up. Now it is about coming up to the Golden Age, the Age of Adoption and for the adoption, the Age for the transformation and rapture.
Those who had to go up spiritually to each of the ages, of the seven ages, already went up and had their spiritual rapture, their spiritual catching away; they went up from one age to another. And now we are to go up to the Golden Age of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the spiritual rapture for the believers in Christ who will be alive at this end time; and those who resurrected already went up to their age; and also some of those who go up to the Golden Age of the Church, some will also depart, and when they return they will be witnesses of the resurrection. So, there is no problem. There is no problem for the believers in Christ of our time who depart.
And if someone wishes to go rest, we will wait for him to return, don’t worry; the only thing is that no more labor in the Work will be added to him, because people don’t go there to work but rather to rest from their earthly work. The work, the action is here.
If anyone is afraid because of the trials that will come, because of the stages that will come, well, it’s best that God calls him to rest; because there is no work for the fearful, there is no room for the fearful.
Look, in the time of… who was it? Of Gideon, or who? God told him… there were about thirty thousand, and God told him: “There are too many.”[3] It’s because that battle was for mighty men, for courageous soldiers. He told him: “Those who are married, who are on their honeymoon, those who have been married for a short time: let them return.” And those who… (Which others? Those who…?) Or who had new houses to enjoy, who had bought houses, or something like that, things like that: “Let them return.” Perhaps those people said: “Oh, good! We avoided that war, we avoided those risks, those dangers.” In other words, going to war wasn’t mandatory in that case.
And God told him: “There are still too many.” A large number had left. “Those who tremble at war, those who are afraid (later on), they can leave,” all those fearful people.
What can a fearful person produce? More fear in others, he can harm others; because they start to talk right away so that others get scared, and say: “The leader who is guiding us, Gideon, is making a mistake”; or they find faults in the leader; or they want to become the leaders themselves to try to guide or discourage the people; or they say: “We know how to do it, too. This man doesn’t even know what he’s going to do yet!”
Then God tells him: “Now that all the fearful, and those who had gotten married, and those who wanted to enjoy their new house, have left; there are still too many. Now bring them to the water, bring them down to the river (and, surely, he took them there when they were quite tired). And whoever gets down to drink water, set them aside; and those who drink water with their hand, remaining vigilant, set them aside. And send the rest to… let them go. Those who got down to drink water, send them away too; because they neglected their responsibility so that they could drink water. But those who carefully took water into their hand, and lapped the water with their tongues, keep those.” And he ended up with… they were only about three hundred.
It’s not the quantity, it’s the quality of the soldier.
“And with those, you will go to war.”
Anyone might have gotten very worried; like Saul worried on one occasion, when the people, the soldiers, started to leave, and he got worried; and he did something that actually harmed him instead: he offered the sacrifice when he was neither a priest nor a Levite, nor was he a prophet.[4]
Just because he preached on one occasion, didn’t mean that he was a prophet; that was a gift of prophecy for a moment;[5] we don’t know if he prophesied again after that.
And with the small group that Gideon… he ended up with three hundred; God was going to give him the victory, because God was the One who was going to fight in favor of the people, and He told him what to do. In other words, some lamps, he was the one with the burning lamps, with a… covering them with a pitcher, and going forth.[6]
God also showed Gideon: “Go, approach them (the enemies) by night…” And one of them there had a dream, and he was telling it, and he heard it; he was telling it to someone else, and he heard it. And in the dream he said that a bread had tumbled, and impacted the army, the host, and destroyed it; something like that. And the other man who was listening, said: “It’s Gideon, the sword of Gideon; it’s Gideon and his sword.”[7]
Remember that Jesus Himself also said: “I am the Bread.”[8] In other words, a man can be compared to bread.
And Gideon was encouraged, he went… (Let’s ask Miguel to help us here.) Who else put down a fleece, that is, a sheep skin with sheep’s wool, so that…, if it was dry in the morning – or wet? The same person, Gideon, asking God for confirmation as well; and God granted it to him, so that he wouldn’t be afraid; because otherwise, he would have had to leave as well.[9]
God works with courageous people, who believe what God has said; and here in the Word it says what will happen. And in the Word we have the promise of the victory of Christ for this end time. And whoever Christ is with, shall have the victory. And whoever is with Christ, and Christ with him, shall have the victory.
Therefore, Gideon did exactly as God showed him: they prepared the lamps, they had the pitcher too… And the night they had to go out to battle, God said to him: “You will go out with the burning lamps, but with the pitcher over them; and when I tell you, you will go out and you will shout, and go around the city… (Miguel can explain this to us later.) You will break the pitchers when the time comes, and you will cry out.” Well, the enemy was going to see so many burning lights and say: “This is a big army!”
And was it also the case of Gideon when the walls fell down? Or Joshua?[10] Let’s not mix up the two cases. But you know what? But it was the same God. The One who gave Joshua the victory, gave the victory to Gideon as well. Notice, they were simple things. God would give the victory in a simple way.
Remember that the people have to base themselves on what God has promised for that time. They have to see what God has promised, what God has said must be done, or will be done; because that is what God said has to be done, or will be done; that is God’s direction. And God is going to give the victory.
There are things that have to be done in our time, and that will identify the end-time people, whom God is with. And the Third Pull will be fulfilled. And we can’t explain more, for the time being. But He will be working on everything that has to do with the Third Pull; because He will be where? In the spiritual rapture of the Last Day, in the stage of the Church corresponding to the Last Day, to the end time.
And in that stage is where all those Divine promises will be fulfilled: the Third Pull and the other things that are connected to the Third Pull, and the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the transformation of the living; and literally speaking, the literal rapture for those who already had their spiritual rapture, of past ages and of our time as well.
“THE SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL RAPTURE OF GOD’S ELECT.”
And they will be hearing what? The Great Voice of Trumpet or Last Trumpet, the Voice of God at the Last Day.
The Voice of God —Reverend William Branham says— is always heard as a trumpet. It is the Voice of God for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In the first age, the Trumpet sounded; it was God’s Voice through whom? Through Saint Paul. And that’s how it is from stage to stage for those who go up, those who are spiritually raptured: they go up to a new age. That’s how it is for our time as well.
And we will always be hearing the Voice of God for our time, and also knowing what God’s Voice was in each stage of the Church of the Lord; and what God’s Voice was for the time of the Law, for the time of Moses, and that entire dispensation relevant to Moses and to God’s Law for the Hebrew people.
And also going all the way back to Genesis; and seeing what God’s Voice was, starting from Genesis, for Adam. And for Eve: it was God’s Voice through whom? Through Adam. God’s Voice has always been that way.
It is important to know, to understand, which is the Voice of God for the time in which the person is living. If he loses that: he loses the blessing of the spiritual rapture, to then partake in the literal rapture that will come.
“THE SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL RAPTURE FOR GOD’S ELECT.”
May the blessings of Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, be with each one of you, and may He speak directly to our soul every day; because we have (what?) ears, (for what?) to hear the Voice of God, the Voice of the Holy Spirit at this end time.
“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Revelation 22, verse 12. That is a promise for all of us at this end time.
Well, may God bless you and keep you. And Miguel has already told us that we will be back in half an hour. So, I will stay here, as I always do; and I won’t leave from among you, I’ll continue to be here with you.
May God bless you and keep you, and with us again Miguel Bermúdez Marín, apostle-missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God bless you.
“THE SPIRITUAL AND PHYSICAL RAPTURE OF GOD’S ELECT.”
[1] Acts 10:1-48
[2] Quotations, p. 119, para. 1057: 63-1229E – “Look Away To Jesus,” pp. 5-6, paras. 38-39
[3] Judges 7:1-8
[4] 1 Samuel 13:8-14
[5] 1 Samuel 10:10-13
[6] Judges 7:15-23
[7] Judges 7:9-14
[8] John 6:35
[9] Judges 6:36-40
[10] Joshua 6:1-21