DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES

Warning Then Judgment

By C.W. Wood                                                       November 2012

    In July of 1963, after the 7 seals were opened, Bro. Branham preached a sermon called “Warning and then Judgment.”  In this sermon, he made some basic statements concerning election and predestination.  The Bible teaches from front to back that man must make his own decision about his final destination, and the Prophet William Branham taught the same thing!  God’s plan, made before there was a world, was made around the very basic, fundamental fact, that we must all choose our own destiny!  This clearly taught truth is far more important than some seem to think!  To preach anything different than the fact that all men can be saved that want to be, is to leave a large hole in the Gospel for the devil to come in and put doubt, fear and unbelief in some hearts that need saving!

    Dear Minister Brothers, this should not be so!  We must not preach that some can be saved, but some cannot!!!  Certainly we know that many will not be saved, but what a great difference there is between saying they “cannot” and in saying they “will not.”  The revelation is that they “will not.”  I hammer this basic Gospel truth because error seems to be growing in popularity in some places, even among message believers!

    There is a saying in the spiritual realm that I know is true, it goes like this, “If it’s popular with the majority of religious people, its wrong!”  Truth has always been rejected by the majority, and error has always been their meat!  This is a Bible fact, seen in story after story in its holy pages.   Eight people got on the ark, the majority refused!  The Israelites followed Moses and came out of Egypt, but the majority of the Egyptians refused and drowned.  John the Baptist showed the church at Jerusalem the Messiah, but the majority rose up and killed him.  Paul met Jesus face to face and also preached Him to the majority, but they killed him also.  God sent the Holy Ghost on Azusa Street in Los Angeles, California, in 1904-1906, but the main-line denominations rejected it!  As a result they are now going into the World Council of Churches, and are in grave danger of taking “the mark of the beast.”

    This writer feels that I am in good company when I stand against the majority and say, “But the word is very night thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.  See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.”  (Deut. 30:14-15)  And again in Deut. 30: 17-19  “But if thine heart turn away… I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish… I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”  Again in John 5:40 Jesus said to the Jewish church, and to all people who would ever be on earth, “And ye will not come to me that you might have life.”

    Question?  Would God offer salvation to all men if it was a false hope?  John 6:37 “All that the father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”  Verse 40 “And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life…”Is this a false hope, put forth by our Lord?  Certainly not!  Notice what He said!  “Everyone that seeth the Son (everyone that believes the scripture concerning Jesus Christ), and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life.”  This is a universal offer, made by God Himself!  Is it false?  If not, then salvation is for all people who will come and believe on it!  Many will not come, but all  may  come that will!  Our sermon title is “Warning Then Judgment.”  Why would God bother to warn at all, if He had made a false hope to some of His creation?  It is not a false hope, but truth is many have closed their own eyes, and refused His remedy for sin!

    Matthew   13:13-15 “Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; neither do they understand.  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and not understand/ and seeing ye shall see and not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”  Who closed the eyes of these people the Lord is speaking of here?  Did God want them to be lost?  Listen to Ezekiel 33:11 “Say unto them, as I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn (all wicked) from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will you die O House of Israel?”  Verse 19 “But if the wicked (any wicked, that includes you and I) turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live.”

    Let’s look at some scripture and see how God does warn before judgment!  The Bible is full of His many warnings.  His word comes to the prophets, and they have warned, and been rejected, warned and been rejected through the ages!  Our question remains, why does God warn at all, if it is not a plea for all men to repent and come to Him?

    This writer loves the Bible story of the prodigal son, who had been raised in a God-fearing home, but had chosen rather to leave home and live like the world.  The father of this boy had another son, who had chosen to stay with his father and fulfill the duties of an obedient son.  One of the teachings that I want to point out in this parable is that the father (God) loved both sons, even the one who was rebellious!  (Luke 15:11-24)

    Who of us earthly fathers, having a family of six children, all of which come out of our loins, would labor at our respective jobs, bringing home the benefits of our work, and then withhold it from some of the six?  No!  They are all ours, we birthed them, they are all part of us.  They were born in our likeness, and in our image.  It is one of God’s natural laws of the universe that we love those that we begat!  Though some of them be wrong and disobedient, we love them still.  It is a law that God Himself has put in us earthly parents!  How then can we say that the God, who requires such of us as, can turn around and violate His own law by refusing to love all those that have come out of His loins?  It’s not going to happen, Friends!  That is to deny the very principle that holds this world together, which principle is “The Love of God”!  There is no life that is not from God, and God did not turn any of His beings over to the devil.

    Some (many) have chosen the world and its leader (Satan), rather than their creator, but God’s plea as with the prodigal son is “Kill the fatted calf, and let us eat and be merry, for my son who was dead (spiritually) is alive again.”  God’s love for that boy had not diminished even one degree!  It is the gravest error to believe that God created some that could never be saved, and that He would do that because that He was God, and had the power and authority to do whatsoever He wanted to do.  But I beseech you teachers of this terrible doctrine, to remember that there is not one single thing in His perfect, righteous and Holy character that would ever make Him want to do a thing like that!

    Lord, let us never have to stand at the white throne judgment, being guilty of believing you to have done such a thing!  Certainly you knew who would serve you and who would not, but far be it from you to send judgment on some without cause!  Prov. 26:2 “…so the curse causeless shall not come.”   (1 John 4:8) “…for God is Love.”   1 Cor.  13:8 “Charity (Love) never faileth.”  If God is Love, and love never fails, then to say that God does not love all His creation is saying that God has failed in His ability and His intention to love all of His creation!  Then you will surely say to me, why does the scripture say that God loved Jacob and hated Esau?  And why does the scripture say, “God is angry with the sinner all day long?”

    May I help you with a word of wisdom from the Lord?  As a father of a family of children, have you ever been angry with one or more of them?  Yes, we have!  But did our anger, because of their disobedience change the love we had in our heart for them?  It did not if we are Christians and are Christ-like!  And so we must accept the great doctrine of the Bible regarding Jesus as standing in the place and stead of us sinful people, bearing for us the terror of the law’s curse, until justice was fully satisfied, and could demand no more!  We should rejoice and be forever thankful that Jesus, by His dying, put away forever the sins of His people, and that by His living He gave to those who trust in him a perfect righteousness, which despite our sins (which we repent of) we are “accepted in the beloved.”  (Eph. 1:6)  We are also taught that if we truly trust our souls into the redeemer’s hands, then our sins will be washed away in His blood, and His “own righteousness will be imputed (given) to us.”  (Rom. 4:11)  The mere knowledge of these facts will not, of itself, save us!  Faith must act like this!  “I believe that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, all sinners, who will repent and come to Christ!  And therefore, as sinful as I may be, I rest myself on Him.  I know that His righteousness justifies the ungodly.  Therefore I, though ungodly, trust in Him to be my righteousness.  I know that His precious blood in heaven prevails with God on the behalf of those that will come to Him.

    The Bride of Christ knows that before there was ever a sun, or moon, or any stars, their names were put on the Lamb’s Book of Life.  They know that God had some foreknowledge concerning them, and it was this knowledge that caused Him to put their names in the Book!  Let’s read that in the Bible.  Rom. 8:29 “For whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His son…”

    Now, let’s talk about this foreknowledge!  What was that knowledge, and where did it come from?  In Ezekiel 28:1-18 we have the story of how the angel named Lucifer, who was created perfect, rebelled and became evil, then was put out of Heaven, along with one-third of the angels who followed his teaching.  (Also see Isa. 14:12-29)  These angels were confronted with a decision!  They had to decide whether to stay with their creator, or go with the rebellious Lucifer!  The Bride was there during that decision-making time!  They were the angels who did not fall and follow Lucifer!  Do you believe the prophet?  May I quote him!

    Quote “The Unfailing Realities of the Living God” preached 1960, in Jeffersonville, page 30: “Let me say one more thing.  Creeds does not satisfy a hungry heart.  Creeds won’t satisfy.  If a man is hungry for God, you tell him, say, “Say the Apostles’ Creed, join the church, put your name on here, be sprinkled or immersed, or whatever you want to, that will never satisfy a hungry soul.  Cause, they were predestinated of God (to search for Life).  (They was once the angels,) they was once an angel who did not fall.  One-third of the angels of Heaven fell; that’s these evil spirits working amongst people, very religious.  You know the Bible says that.  You was just not all always right here.  (You were once somewhere else.)

    Remember, sin didn’t begin on earth.  Sin begin in Heaven, when Lucifer taken and made it he said, “I want a denomination, make a great big thing,’ went on the North Country and set up a bigger thing than Michael had. And he was kicked out of Heaven.

    “And those angels back there, them spirits.  Well, that’s the reason (‘When this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting.’)  See?  And that’s the reason, ‘our name was put on the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world.  All the father has given me, will come to me.’”

    Can you see in this statement that Bro. Branham was telling us where God’s foreknowledge came from, that caused Him to put our names on the Lamb’s Book of Life?  He watched His created beings “live out” what He already knew they would do!  He watched some choose Lucifer, and some choose to stay with Him.  This was His foreknowledge, and notice in the above quote that Bro. Branham said, “That’s the reason our names were put on the Lamb’s Book of Life before the foundation of the world!  He had created us free moral agents and then watched the choices we would make!  Yes Friends, we choose our own destiny!  God sends no one to Hell.  We go there if we refuse His remedy for our sins, which is to trust in the fact that Jesus Christ paid our sin debt for us on the cross.

    Do you recall that God gave Bro. Branham a vision, in which he saw a preview of two brides?  One was the devil’s bride, mostly naked and doing a vulgar dance to rock and roll music.  Then the true Bride came in sight, all dressed right and in step, a beautiful sight to see according to the Prophet.  Bro. Branham’s tears were dried and his heart filled with joy at the sight.  But then a strange thing happened, the true Bride came into sight for the second time.  As they passed before him again, he saw someone getting out of step, getting off the word.  He screamed out, “Stay in line” or “Get back in line.”  He did not conclude that they were not Bride and tell them to stay out of the line, but rather knew they were Bride and told them to get back in line.  This writer believes that the person he saw out of line represented others in our message, who is being temporarily fooled by the Devil who has come as an angel of light, and quoting scriptures!

    There seems to be a revelation coming now concerning the great falling-away that Paul spoke of.  It could be that, in seeing the end-time, he saw some message believers being pulled away and falling into error.  After all, the denominations never did receive our Prophet and his message, so they had no place to fall from!  They were never there!  If I am lying on the floor I cannot fall to the floor, but if I am standing, then I can fall.  Not all that are in error in our message are Bride, but this writer believes that some are.

    How hard we preach and pray that our families and bosom friends stay in line with what is written in the word!  Amen.