Godhead #15
The Essentiality and Intrinsicality of God – 1 Tim 1:17
Brother Lee Vayle
September 2, 2000

Heavenly Father, we welcome Your Presence, and we know You welcome ours, because You came down here to visit us and proved Who You are, especially to us, which is what we really desire; because, if You prove Yourself, and not for us, then this would be very catastrophic for us. We would be in a very, very precarious position. But now we are assured, because our gathering is unto You, just the same, Lord, as in ancient times they said in the Scripture, “The gathering of the people unto You” meant there was a death. And we realize that there is a death in our hour, and even wherein we stand, it is death to all our own thoughts, and death to our understanding, and death to our ways, which we have practiced according to that which has been a false conception brought upon us by the enemy through false doctrine.

But now we are delivered and know who and what we are, and know Who You are, and we know, Lord, the great invisible union has gone on, is going on, and will be concluded shortly at the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb, when all of the First Resurrection come together—Old and New Testament people.

And we thank You for that, Lord, and we rest assured in that, even though many times our feelings come against us, and many times our understanding—a little weak in this area and that area—may clamor, but, Lord, we do know this is a vindicated Word, and we do believe It, and we stand with It. Open wide our understanding, and may Your blessed Spirit, sent to us to reveal the Truth, give us this great assurance and lead us in life. May He tonight, Your Spirit, O God, faithfully open the Word to us in such a way that all doubts are removed and we stand anointed of Thee in the Truth and walking in the Truth. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

1. Now I trust we’ll be able to sort out whatever I want to say tonight, and I’m not sure I’ll be too efficient with it. But we’ll sort of stagger along here, because the main thing is to get with the Word and to know that we’re right with It in the teaching thereof, though perhaps not perfectly clear.

Now I’m going into Jn 1:1. Again It says:

(1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

(2) The same was in the beginning with God.

And I’ll come back to this and read more, but I want to read again along lines of the Scripture concerning that Jn 1:1 is indeed God Almighty, as Bro. Branham said, perhaps I suppose, a hundred places or maybe even more.

2. In 1 Tim 1:16-17:

(16) Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should thereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

(17) Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory forever and ever.

And, then, in 1 Tim 6:13-16:

(13) I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession;

(14) That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: (I think that word ‘appearing’ is the epiphanea.)

(15) Which in his times shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

(16) Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.

Now we’ll get more into these verses, but the understanding here is that we have a very complete picture in these three verses of the sovereign God. And ‘sovereign God’ means, of course, that He’s the sovereign, He’s the King, He’s absolutely in charge, and there isn’t anybody who can do anything against Him or for Him, as though that would augment or diminish Him or overpower Him, or in any way bring anything to naught, what He would desire. And, if God wanted to, being sovereign, He could play cat and mouse without a bit of a problem. However, there is no way that can happen as God is not of a double mind.

When you talk about sovereignty... And you’re using an earthly word, because all we can do is use earthly words, though they no doubt came from heaven, because we know that at the tower of Babel, God Himself came down and changed all the languages. So, God is the author of language. Satan can pervert it, but he’s not the author. And so, we find here, in our language, these verses that I read, certainly show forth the sovereignty of God.

3. Now getting into ‘Godhood’ or ‘Godhead’, when you think of God, you have to think of a sovereign God, as I’ve already mentioned, and I read to you Dr. Pink’s first chapter on the Sovereignty of God, how that, if you’re going to talk about God, you have to talk about someone who is all powerful. And, if you don’t even give Him credit for His wisdom, that is something that God is responsible for and not mankind, because God does not allow any man to judge Him. The Scripture distinctly says that man cannot judge God. Man cannot even judge a prophet, because a prophet has “THUS SAITH THE LORD.” The prophet becomes the judge via the Word of God.

So, in sovereignty we see a completeness. We see unlimited power, and we do not see any part of God delegated. In other words God simply cannot cut Himself up into pieces and in any way, then, set up, you might call, an oligarchy, which is a government by several. He can’t do that. His Kingdom, as Nebuchadnezzar found, is absolutely based, solitarily, upon God Himself. And He doeth in the armies of heaven and on earth, above the earth, under the earth, whatever He wants, anytime He wants to do it, according to His Own good pleasure, which is predicated upon His wisdom or omniscience.

4. Now this, of course, gives us a very stern picture of God, very autocratic, where He is in complete control. And now what is wrong with that is, that unless you begin to delve into God as to the Person He is, His qualities, His character, His wisdom, His omnipotence, His great love, You cannot really appreciate God as God is. That’s why so many people cannot take predestination.

Now, if God is sovereign, it’s logical that He predestinates. Then, if He’s not sovereign, then there’s a part of Him not being sovereign, wherein many now can tell God what to do. Now even when it comes to man having a message from God, man cannot take that message, and based on that message, tell what God can do. The only thing man can do is take that message and apply it to his life and talk to God concerning what God has said, put Himself in a position of faith, and then walk in that light until God brings to pass the answers that that person wants based upon spiritual understanding and motive. Now remember: asking God is not just saying, “God, gimme,” and He does it.

If you read the Scripture very carefully, you’re going to find that the element in which God has placed us, which is this world, so diverse, so peculiar, and so hard to live in as far as principles and morals and things like that are concerned, God wants people to take Him at His Word and walk in that Light, with their hand to the plow, not turning back until the answer is given. And therein is character built unto the placing of sons, or the adoption. Now that’s a sermon I could put hours on.

5. But just trying to show you that sovereignty is wholly in the hands of God, and even when you get His covenants, and you get His promises, you have to stay within the framework of His Word, which alone defines God Himself, His precepts, His ways of doing things. And the Bible says in Eccl 3:14, “What God does, He does forever. And it never changes. You can take nothing from it, or add anything to it. And it’s that way so that man will fear Him.” So, there’s a reverential awe and fear therein.

So, we see God is sovereign, no matter what people say. Now, if He isn’t in absolute control, then you tell me where He is not in control. You can’t do it. You say, “Well, the devil’s got control.”

No. That’s only permissive. The devil doesn’t have one word of his own. He doesn’t have one bit of power of his own. He has nothing but what is permissive. So, we have to look at the fact of God: Creator and Ruler of the universe, eternal, infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, Supreme Being. Now ‘Godhead’ is simply God Himself, Divinity, or Deity.

6. Now the question came up, and I answered it already, but I’ll go into this later on, because I’m not answering questions tonight. “What about ‘Godhood’ and ‘Godhoodedness’?”

Well, you don’t have to worry about the second word. But ‘Godhood’ is a state or quality of being God—defining character. It has to do with character, the same as ‘childhood’ is a state of being a child. And you don’t expect anything of that child, except from the fact that it is a child. Now we understand children.

‘Adulthood’ is that period of time where you begin to expect what an adult should be able to bring forth and must bring forth.

‘Parenthood’ is exactly the same thing. You now become parent. And parenthood is the fact you have children, and you must deal with them, as parents would deal, looking at them as children. You have parenthood, adulthood; they have childhood. Now all of those are absolutely separate, but integrated by the fact of maturation—the time going on.

7. So therefore, when we talk of ‘Godhood’, and I’m bringing it down now to actually what I believe according to the definition of ‘Godhood’ based on God Himself. So, ‘Godhood’ speaks of what exactly God is within Himself, so that He will act at any given time, and on any given occasion, exactly and always, according to His essentiality. In other words it is exactly what He is. It’s as simple as a dog seeing a cat—too bad for the cat. It’s right on—right now. Cat seeing a mouse…too bad for the mouse. Or it’s too bad for a butterfly. A cat will jump and get the butterfly.

You see, what’s in people is like what’s in a child, what’s in an adult, what’s in a parent. Now it doesn’t mean the child will just automatically bring forth what’s in a child, when you think of the terms that we like concerning little children. Where Jesus said, “Except you come as a little child, you can’t enter in the kingdom of heaven.” “Except you be as a little child,” you know, and that’s a little child that’s very believing. Then as you grow older, certain, certain things.

So, we’re talking about Godhood simply meaning ‘the literal office that God is in according to exactly Who and What He is’. What do you expect God to do?

Well, it isn’t what you and I expect God to do, anymore than you expect your little kids to do things; they’re not under our control. Neither is God under our control. You have to know exactly the essentiality and intrinsicality, which means the very being of the Sovereign God. So, He works and performs at all times exactly how He is within Himself, and Who and What He is within Himself.

8. So, He is the perfect Creator. And, when you talk about creation, it’s very difficult for me to not want to explode and do mayhem and bodily harm to these idiots who try to tell you that there’s no scientific evidence that there’s a God. Now the Bible treats it much better than I do: the Psalm [Ps 14:1] says, “The fool has said in his heart there is no God.” God merely shrugs it off as the guy is a fool. But he’s worse than that in my books. I don’t like it, because they’re saying it.

That’s why Ventura got called on the carpet, because, “Religion,” he said, “is for the weak-minded and those that need some kind of a crutch.” Of course he apologized for that. He said he didn’t really mean that. He meant it for people that ‘use’ religion as a crutch, instead of a way of life. But he didn’t add the ‘instead of a way of life’. But I think that’s what he really meant. And I would admire him for that, on that grounds, if he said, “Religion, as a crutch, is ridiculous,” because religion is not a crutch. When you really believe the truth and have the truth, it is not a crutch. It is Life. It’s far, far different from what people would want to tell you.

Thus, God Himself is limited and unchanging, according to His Own intrinsicality and essentiality, which means He’s absolutely what He is, and you can’t do one thing about it. And actually, neither can God. Neither can God. Whatever He was and is, He will be. No changing, period. Now, that’s good, because if God changed any way, shape and form—one thought, one way He did it, He’d have to come down and tell us, because it wouldn’t be fair. He’d no longer be a God of love. He’d have to be some kind of a monster. You see, it doesn’t work that way. He manifests what I call His ‘Godhood’ or ‘Godhoodedness’, which is a word that you won’t find in the dictionary .

9. Now ‘childhood ‘ is a child acting out himself. ‘Godhood’ is God acting out Himself. We don’t expect a child to be anything but a child, and his behavior will be usually commensurate with it, and we can’t change a child until the time comes. It’s like years ago you were taught in school that you should never try to get a baby to walk too soon, because maturation will take care of it.

And we’ve seen that around here, where a little child... I caught Joe [White] on that one time. I said, “Hey! Your little granddaughter is running around.”

He said, “Oh, she can’t be running around. Why, just last week she was just trying to take a chair.”

I said, “Joe, she’s running around.” Sure enough, she was running. Right, Joe? She was running. See? Maturation. Maturation.

In other words there comes a time when automatically it swings into gear, because it’s there. Now you can’t change that. To try to change is to bring about a perversion and a problem. And we’re using the same thought toward God. How can God be God and there’s any change within Him? We’ll bring the Scripture on this a little later on, because I want to get another side of this same thing we’re looking here.

10. So, God cannot be anything but God. Who dare try to change God or require of God anything except what lies within God, or to change God’s perfect wisdom and the way He performs? Now, you see, many people try to use prayer to do that. You can’t do it. When you try to change God, you spin your wheels in the sand. As Bro. Branham said, “Don’t you pray and try to change God’s mind. You stay before God until He changes your mind.” And that’s the renewing of the mind. And that’s the wonderful thing that comes in our day, through the renewing of the mind, is the metamorphosis which takes us from mortality to immortality. And already time and eternity have blended. So, we know today mortality is going to be banished, done, gone, and buried. And immortality will be ours, which we are supposed to have. And we will have it.

So, He has neither shadow of changing, works all things according to His Own purpose, because it is impossible for Him to do otherwise, being Who and What He is. Now, if you believe God is all-wise and all-powerful and love, and you believe in His purpose, and you admit there’s a purpose, why in the world would anyone want to change God? And how in the world could God possibly change?

11. Well, I realize people would like to change God. “Really,” they say, “I wouldn’t like to change God. I’d just like Him to do this for me.”

Well, what if He wants to do it a certain way? Well, if you want to try to get God to change and do things, you’re like that mechanic I talked about before. He read the book, and he didn’t know a piston from a hill of beans. And so, when it came to that, he just put something else in.

You know, I thought I knew something about a car one time, and I did what somebody told me, and you know what? The piston… Well actually, it broke apart and went right through the wall of the engine. Well, that was a beautiful thought, wasn’t it? I’m no mechanic. Neither am I God. Neither do I have thoughts that are God’s thoughts. In fact He tells me, “Your thoughts are not My thoughts, and Your ways are not My ways.” So, if that’s the case, I better find out what His thoughts are and what His ways are, because He’s not going to change His mind. It’s up to me to change my mind. But, you see, people don’t believe that.

He is omnipotent and is also omniscient. How can anyone change Him? Who can do it? Knowing Who He is, and with all His ways being perfect, who would want to dare change Him and His ways; because, if you changed Him, you would change His ways; and, if you changed His ways, you would change Him.

You say, “How does that work?”

Very simple. You don’t get rid of old habits; you built new habits. And the new habits work a change on you. Well, you think God has to work at something? It’s like Bro. Branham said, “God doesn’t have one more thought; He doesn’t have a better way to do it. The first way is the way it’s done. It was Blood the first time; it’ll be Blood all the way down the line. If it’s done a certain way, it’ll be done in that way again.” And that’s the Scripture. Now that’s what it means when you talk about Godhood. So, I hope that clears it up as well as we can clear it up.

12. Now, let’s get back to Jn 1:1 here. Now It says here:

(1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word is with God, and the Word was God. (And notice the emphasis:)

(2) The same was in the beginning with God.

There’s an emphasis here that John uses in order to make people see the reality of what he is talking about. So he says: “In the beginning was the Word, the Word is with God, and the Word was God.” And Bro. Branham doesn’t only use this in one place, where he says, “If you make this ‘Jesus’, you have three gods.” He uses it many, many, many time. And we read a bunch of them to you over the last few times I’ve been ministering up here on “Godhead.”

13. Now, let’s begin to look at this, and I didn’t ask for the blackboard, because I’m too lazy to write it all out. So, I want you to listen very carefully with me as I go through a very mundane and very carnal way of talking to you about this Scripture. I’m working exclusively from my understanding, based on this truth: that God is the Word, and we have the conjunction, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God”—there’s a preposition—and then, “the Word was God.” And you can’t deny that the Bible distinctly says, “In the beginning was the Word,” or “In the beginning was God, Who is Word,” because that is what It is saying.

Now I’m going to use the word ‘Substance’ instead of ‘God’ and ‘Word’. And since It says, “In the beginning was the Word,” but Genesis says, “In the beginning God…” I’m going to use Word as Number 2 (#2) Substance, because we’re dealing with a reality which is very tangible. And remember, Spirit is more tangible than is physical, because the inner man grows, while the outer man perishes.

So, your outer man, like Bro. Branham’s in the picture taken by Arganbright… Remember those high lilies, like were in the pulpit… You saw flames of fire, and you saw Bro. Branham, a man standing back like a death head, and Bro. Branham behind as a younger man. The Lord explained the vision to him: now all the nine gifts were operative in his life—he lost none. But the outer man was perishing, and the inner man was being renewed day by day.

14. ‘Substance’: that’s where people go haywire. They cannot believe that a spirit is substance. If a spirit is not substance, how come when a lady named Benson, who was jilted by her boyfriend, went insane in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, and she was in the institution for the insane. And one day some people brought her three apples, and she said, “Oh, my! Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and I’ve sinned against Thee all.”

Well, they knew she was devil possessed. So, the preacher’s name was ‘Fields,’ he brought two sisters with him: one was Mrs. Angelese, whose son became a preacher, and I forget who the other woman was. But they felt that this girl, Miss Benson, should be brought out of this institution and be dispossessed of the devil—get the devil out of her. So they prayed and fasted, and it was allowed, then, to go into her room and pray for her.

Jack Fields didn’t have much faith, because when the devil came out of her, the devil smacked him down flat! Now, how did that happen, if what you don’t see doesn’t have power? And I want to ask you another question: has anybody ever seen electricity?

”Well,” you say, “Bro. Vayle…”

No, you haven’t. You’ve seen things that register it, but you’ve never seen it.

Have you ever seen gravity?

“Oh, I’ve seen it work.”

But you’ve never seen gravity. You can see results.

So, people can get an idea that the invisible isn’t real. The fact of the matter is: the invisible is more real than what you think is real.

15. We’re dealing with substance. Now: and Substance #2 is Word, and Substance #1 is God. All right.

For a Substance, designated #2, to be with another Substance, designated as #1, so that the Substance #2 is actually, and in reality, Substance #1, is none other than saying that Substance #1 and #2 are identically one and the same, and are identifiable as the same basic Substance so that we are giving to the basic Substance names that reveal to us what we would otherwise not know what should and must be known for a relationship and communication.

Would you say that’s fair enough? You’re a pretty good scholar, Russell, you study law and all. Have I stated my case? Dave, you’ve studied English, are you following me? Well, isn’t that true? Substance #1: if x = y, and y = z, then x = z. They’re all equal. So, you can’t fault it. No matter what you are saying, whether you’re saying ‘God’ or ‘Word’, you are talking about identical things in the sense that it relates purely to God. Now remember, ‘logos’ is a term that is philosophical in a sense. In another sense, it is not philosophical, although it could contain that. It is actually a revelation by definition. All right.

16. The Substance or Object, or in this case, a Personality or Being known as ‘God,’ has taken upon Himself to start what is known as ‘the beginning,’ which definitely deals with creation, according to Gen 1:1, and Jn 1:1-3. Would you say that? Well, Bro. Branham mentioned it, too. So all right.

Substance #1 and #2 equate to God, period. Now you can’t say one without the other, because before there is any beginning of creation—It says, “In the beginning was the Word,” It was already there. So, you’re going right back to the infinite God, all by Himself, all alone. So, all right.

The Substance or Object, or in this case, a Personality or Being known as God, has taken upon Himself to start with what is known as ‘the beginning,’ which definitely deals with creation according to Genesis 1: “In the beginning God…” Right? In here, in the beginning Word. So, all right. It’s right there.

The intangible, invisible is now becoming tangible and visible by reason of communication. Now you have to accept first of all: God is Spirit. And we read in Timothy about that…invisible, eternal, and so on…God’s Spirit…omnipotent, omniscient, loving nature, paternal, right down the line. We’ll go into all of that. But here He is now: the Word. Okay.

17. God has begun to express Himself as the God He is. So, all right. He’s begun to express Himself as the God that He is, and was, and is eternally. The reason I say ‘is’ is because at that particular time, He already was and will be. You can’t change Him. And we’ll give a Scripture for that. We already talked about showing His great wisdom in that He first expresses His Own intrinsicality and essentiality, His very Godhood. So, all right.

So, what’s written here, John wrote It under the Holy Spirit. And John’s not a prophet. In this case he’s actually… Well, he was a prophet in the sense of the word, but he’s an apostle—and there were some things in there that were prophetic, based on what he was taught by God. But actually, this is the work of a scribe. He’s just putting down exactly what God wants him to put down. Okay then.

18. …His very Godhood: as to what He is and will be in all, what He will be in all that is to follow… That’s what I want you to look at now. “In the beginning was the Word:” It was already there. So, what I’m saying here as to what He is and will be in all, no matter which direction you go, that is to all that follows. We know It was already there, back there. Now He says, “I’m starting this, and what follows will be identical to what was back there before this starting point, and at this starting point, and will continue forever.

Now that’s the way I’m looking at this, and I can’t see any reason to report it otherwise. So, as to what He is and will be in all that is to follow, and will follow, will be according to His purposes within Himself. That’s Godhood. That’s Godhood right there. Now see, God is Sovereign God, all alone. ‘Godhood’ is God in action, manifested according to what lies within Him.

In other words God, Jehovah-Elohim, started with Himself by His purpose being no more and no less than what lay within Him—what lay within this vast Eternal Fountain of many springs. And He, manifesting Himself, by involving Himself in preparing and molding and creating and sustaining and culminating all of those purposes from within that sprang from this great Fountain Himself.

In other words, what we’re saying here is God will bring into total manifestation His goodness. As the Scripture says concerning Moses: “I will lay out My goodness before you.” [Ex 33:19] And what happened? He had a picture. God allowed him in the cleft of the rock to see God. Now, if that’s the truth…and I’m telling you: that’s ‘intrinsicality.’ That’s what He is.

19. Now God is seen in creation and Bro. Branham said how: “in continuity.” You show me a seed that’s not in continuity. A peach will bring a peach, will bring a peach, will bring a peach. Now I know that you can combine it with other things genetically. And remember, God already allowed that. He said to Adam, “Take authority over all the earth. You’ve got it, over all the animals, the fish of the sea, and every single thing. I’m giving you authority.” And he had the authority.

Even Jack Minor saw that, the man in Canada (you know, just across the line in Ontario there. He was one of the original naturalists in Canada). He worked with geese and ducks and everything else. And he brought out that fact many, many years ago when they cross-bred species like ducks that could cross-breed and still, you know, inherit certain genes and go on. And he said, “There, you see, God gave man that ability.” And Jack Minor was a hundred percent right. I never thought of that. I’m glad that he did, so I can tell you, and you can think about it. But, you see, man can do it.

20. And man today is going too deep with that stuff, you know, the meddling with the genes. You shouldn’t meddle with genes of corn. It’s killing all the monarch butterflies. And you mean to tell me that this is not going to have repercussions around the world. Europeans won’t buy the junk that’s made over here. And yet, you don’t know, and I don’t know, how many things on our shelves from the stores we’re eating genetically engineered and full of junk. You just realize the hormones that have been injected into beef. Now, what does a hormone do? It retains the water in the animal so that it makes it heavier.

Now, what is that? Do you want to know? It’s not H 2O; it’s urine. So, no wonder your roasts stink and smell like urine. And you’ve got all kinds of water in a pot. Now who’s doing that? United States government allows a little group of people to do that, but Europe does not want our beef.

21. You see, all the politicians will talk, but they’ll let money do everything. See? Tipper Gore, when she made a fuss and actually had the labels warning concerning records, and she did it… Now she doesn’t say one word. Why? Because Gore and Bush both got around $800,000 in their war chests from the filth in Hollywood.

Have you recently read?… Now listen, well, I sure hope you don’t, hear this junk that they call ‘rap.’ I have a magazine by the late Mr. Kennedy. They sent me a little article that said how good these articles were in George. I said, “I think I’ll just get that magazine.” So, they sent me a copy free, and I liked it; so, I ordered it. And I was appalled at the lyrics that little kids are hearing. I never heard such filth in my life.

But Gore doesn’t care, and Bush doesn’t care. Oh, no, that’s the first amendment—the freedom to speak. Yet, why can’t you yell, “Fire!” in an auditorium? I’m going to tell you: yelling “Fire!” in an auditorium would save more lives by them dying and either going to heaven or hell than sending thousands and thousands of kids to hell with these rotten records.

So, the picture is: what we’re talking about there: when you’re looking at what is going on in the world, there’s no use us trying to figure anything from anywhere in the government or any hope that we might have wherein we can get any help whatsoever. So, all right.

22. Let’s go back to the good stuff. Now we were talking here, reading along here, that what I’m looking at is these Springs from the Great Fountain Himself, wherein God has taken from within Himself and poured out Himself into His creation, but more particularly into His children, for Whom He created, and a part of them He formed from what He created. And I’m trying to hold my thought on something on the virgin birth.

So therefore, He was El, Elah, El Elah, Jehovah, Jehovah-Elohim. And these names are those of the great God Creator, Elohim, the self-existent and all alone God. Now He has started the great beginning wherein He will eventually create Himself in human flesh, according to Rev 3:14.

23. Now I’m talking about ‘back there’, at that beginning, exactly what God was. He was all by Himself and within Himself. I always used to use the term ‘when God was collecting all of His thoughts’, like I used the term ‘Logos’: ‘putting it all out, laying it out, arranging it’: “Ah, I’ve got it just exactly as I want it.” And it turns out that this God always was, always is, and will never change from being El, which is God. Elah, El Elah, Elohim—Bro. Branham said, “The self-existent One,” which is a very good definition.

And you’ll notice Isaiah uses the combined term very generously, all through Isaiah, ‘Jehovah Elohim,’ because now you are coming from the all, all alone God to the God with a family. And remember, if He made the earth so perfect for His children, you better believe that He predestinated how many children He had and where they’d be. Because why in the world would somebody give us what we have today, as I mentioned and switched on my few thoughts in there, how these people try to get rid of God. And look around you.

Even now they’ve found a certain bacteria have an intelligence when they come into some canal in your body or somewhere. They wait until they have enough reinforcements, and then they begin building colonies, and they can signal each other and tell each other what to do, and then, exactly then, have more and more. And, if a little tiny, weeny thing, that you’ve got to have a microscope to see, has got that many brains, no wonder man’s a fool and says, “There’s no God.” You talk about bankrupt.

24. So, here’s El, Elah, and He is positively, not Jehovah now, but remember: It’s there in the beginning. So, we’ve got a beginning. And, if you’ve got a beginning, you’re going to have an ending. Now God could have many beginnings and many endings according to His purposes. I don’t know. All I know is this beginning and the ending, which is coming up. And I can see that perfectly, because I understand the Book of Revelation, because Bro. Branham taught It to us. So, all right.

El, Elah, El Elah, and then Elohim… Later He became Jehovah-Elohim. These names are those of the Great God Creator, Elohim, the self-existent One, the all-alone God. Now, since He has started the great beginning where He will eventually create Himself in human flesh, because that was what was going to happen—to come on down.

He is all there was and ever will be, but yet to come into play and manifestation of that which lay within Him as a Jehovah complex. And as Jehovah complex, He was the Great Father with these attributes coming forth within Him. And that is: He’s the All-Sufficient One, He’s the Provider, He’s our Righteousness, He’s our Banner, He’s our Shepherd, He’s our Peace. He is the Great Presence, and He’s the Great Sanctifier, and He’s the Great Healer.

Now, if you look carefully, you’re going to find every one of those were literally brought forth in Jesus and conferred. And that’s why you find the Scripture says the word ‘through’. All right.

25. Now that we’ve got there clear, and I hope we have, we’re going to go back to John 1.

(1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

(2) The same was in the beginning with God.

Now at this time we want to remember the value of prepositions. They are very, very valuable, because sometimes even a conjunction in the Greek, ‘kai’, can be used as a preposition as well as a conjunction. And many times I’ve thought in my mind: a preposition is better, according to what I see Bro. Branham said, than a conjunction. But, all right.

“In the beginning,” at that particular time there was That, what we have described. And you’re never going to be able to change it. All you can do is see from that intrinsic Reality, something will come forth. It’s got to come forth from That, or It’ll never come forth, because it’s not there in the first place. Now we’ll see more of that.

26. (3) All things were made by him. (So therefore, It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” which might as well say, “In the beginning God was the Word.” And then, down here It says:) All things were made by God (Who is the Word), and without God (Who is the Word) was not anything made that was made.

(4) In God (the Word) was life; and the life was the light of men.

Now I want to just stop here and talk about that preposition. It says, “In him was life;” in God was life. Now that’s the dumbest thing. What is I’ve got a couple of kittens, and they’re frisking around and you say, “Hey! You know, Lee, you know, there’s life in that cat.”

I say, “You don’t mean there’s life in a cat. You mean that cat’s ‘lively.’”

“No, no. There’s life in the cat.”

And I say, “Whew! Just a minute! This guy’s disturbed.” My cat’s living?

I can show you at least twelve places in the New Testament where It says, “The Living God,” the Living God. Now, if John knew that God was living, why would he say, “There’s life in God”?

“Oh,” you say, “Bro. Vayle, because Paul mentioned the same thing: the idols don’t have life.”

Oh, don’t give me that nonsense. Don’t give me that nonsense. It’s telling you something that was in God, literally, as they used in the paper concerning even Clinton: compartmentalization. He’s the same God, but He’s actually, as it were, these invisible lines in Him—attributes. Put it that way—abilities. Put it where you want to. These essential qualities are there. And It says in here: “In Him was life.” Certainly, there was life in Him! Certainly.

27. But now, why would he say that? See? Why would he say that? “In Him was life.” Because there’s something different that’s to be brought to our attention, apart from the fact that He is the Living God; and it has to do with us. Or, why is he bothering to tell us? He is life, living within and to Himself, but now in Him there is a life in that life that is for us.

I don’t have to tell you certain things about me, unless it has something to do with you; if we’re functioning together, it’s something you ought to know. You go to the doctor, and you don’t tell the doctor you’ve got hiccups, when you’ve never hiccuped in your life—unless you want to fool him into something.

So, why would there be something here that says, “In Him was life,” when we know very well He is life? He’s the Living God, and this man is not talking about idolatry.

You say, “Well, John is using a philosophical word in the Greek which means the manifestation of the thing itself must contain part of what is there to be manifested, or what is behind it.”

I understand that. But remember, also, that the Jews used the word ‘Word’, and said, “God is the Word.” As the Scripture said, “He sent His Word and healed them.” How can a word heal them? A word doesn’t heal anybody unless there’s God in the Word to do it. Words don’t heal. No Word of God is void of power, because It’s the Word of God: He is the Word. Now we’re where Bro. Branham put it. And these are kind of difficult things to get into… I’m not that good at it, but we’re going to go along anyway.

28. Now It says:

(4) In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

And It says, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” So therefore, God had a certain light within Him, a certain part of God that was absolutely available, and not only available and pertinent, but absolutely given to the people. You follow me? Well, It says right here, “The life was the light of men.” So, He must have given it to them.

So, let’s just take a little thought back here in Eph 5:13. Maybe that will help us. And It says:

(13) For all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.

(14) …Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Well, that’s interesting right there. It says that God will give you light. And the only way I can understand that is by God taking that which was from Him, and designated for us as light, giving us understanding.

29. Now we can also go to Romans 1. This might not be too perfect, Rom 1:19-20:

(19) Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.

(20) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so they are without excuse.

So, all right. There now you’ve got another understanding here that God deals with men—that God actually deals with men. Now, listen to me: how could God make every man accountable, even to the extent there’s coming a day “when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father,” if it was not presented to them, and they had a way of knowing?

The Bible said, “Oh, we’re supposed to hear.”

Well then, why haven’t we heard?

And Paul said, “Their sound has gone throughout the entire earth, which is the signs of the zodiac.” And there isn’t one nation, under God’s high heaven, or ignorant tribe that doesn’t understand the signs of the zodiac, which is God’s salvation and Bible in the heavens. You heard that Bro. Branham said that. Right? Absolutely true. Bollinger said it. Seiss said it. Other men have said it. I’ve got their books on it.

30. So, let’s go a little further then. Let’s go to Jn 14:6:

(6) And Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (So, there we have it again. We have this life; and so, that life actually brings us light.)

Now, concerning… Well, let’s go further down the row. Now he said here:

(5) The light shineth in darkness; the darkness comprehended it not. (Which is true: the darkness comprehends it not. In other words, the lights shines in darkness, the darkness can’t do a thing about it. Neither can the darkness receive it, but it doesn’t mean that man is not to be judged.)

Now, so here we have the premise, “In the beginning God…” Who was the Word at that time, from the dawn of creation, already everything was there, set in order, to start the purpose and plan of God from the beginning to the actual fulfillment. And there’s nothing that God can add to it or take away from it. There’s no way, shape and form. It has to be exactly within God, and God will bring it forth the way he wants it. And, of course, we understand the devil’s in there and everything else. But that doesn’t change anything. God will bring us forth.

31. Now:

(3) All things were made by him; without him was not anything made that was made.

(4) And in him was life.

That’s the strange thing, we said, “That light.” So therefore, He had within Him that which would give the people light. Now we’re talking at the same time about this Elohim, God, self-existent Word. That’s why you get the psalmist saying, “The entrance of Thy Word brings light,” and “Thy Word is a lamp to my feet.” [The end of the first side of the audio tape.

Okay, and the light shineth in darkness, and that’s when It says the light of the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ shines into our hearts. So, we’re looking now at this God, Word, this One Who actually manifests Himself. [Jn 1:6:]

(6) There was a man sent from God whose name was John.

(7) The same came for a witness, to bear witness, for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

(8) He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of the Light.

Now here you have the prophet involved, and here, right now, is the way God does things, He does it by the prophet. And, perhaps, this is why John the Baptist was known as the greatest prophet. Jesus said there’s no greater prophet than John the Baptist. Now we, of course, don’t see that, because we look at Moses, we look at Paul, and even our Bro. Branham.

32. Now, notice. It says [Jn 1:9], “That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” And, of course, ‘the world’ there is ‘cosmos’. It’s into the system—into the whole structure of humanity upon earth.

Now, in the light of how we interpret history, this is a very rough statement to take, because so many people will argue and say, “Well, when did God do this, and when did God do that?” But on the great – Great White Throne, you’re going to find that they’re going to say, “Well, when did we treat you this way; and, when did we not treat you this way?” And they’re going to be condemned.

So, the point of the matter is: even as Paul said, when the Gentiles did naturally what the Jews were supposed to do by the Word of God, it shows the Word of God is written in their hearts and conscience; and therefore, every single person, though he denies with his mouth, and denies with his life, he knows, because nature has proved there is a God, and he’s turned down the proof. And, when you turn down the proof of God any way, shape or form, you go down, down, down the road; the same, as when God starts, God comes up, up, up till the full manifestation of God takes place as you see in the Book of Revelation, the Lamb on the Throne, the Bride around the Throne, the 144,000, the others bringing their glory in and the Pillar of Fire above the Throne. You see the complete conclusion.

33. Now It says he was in the world systems. That’s right what it is, government, the program, from the Garden of Eden till the very end time, just as you see everything written out, history writes it out. [Jn 1:10] “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.” In other words what God did produced every bit of this.

Now you say, “What about the fact, then, that the serpent seed came in?”

Well, who do you think made the serpent? See? Right down the line. And remember, the serpent could argue the Scripture and argue God. In fact, the serpent came and denied God‘s authority and veracity, because the minute you deny the Word, you deny God. As Bro. Branham said, “One word off is Satan’s kingdom.”

34. Now, “He came unto his own, his own received him not.” [Jn 1:11] And, of course, you know right there, he’s talking about Emmanuel, God manifest in flesh, God coming upon this earth in the form of Jesus Christ by whom God created all things, and they turned him down.

“But,” notice [Jn 1:12], “as many as received him, to them gave he power,” not to become, but he gave them the authority. In other words it was authoritative that they were the children of God, because they believe the Word.

Now remember, the Old Testament is full of believing the prophets ‘so shall you prosper’. That’s what they believed was the prophets. And Jesus said, “Search the Scripture, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they that testify me.” And he said, “Moses spoke of me.” But they were off the Word of God. They couldn’t take it.

35. Now, notice what It says [Jn 1:12]: they were given the authority... That word ‘power’ does not mean ‘dunemes’. It’s ‘exusia’, which means ‘authority’. ...to be the sons of God or to take their position in the knowledge that they are the children of God. Now look at it. We’re talking about God, a certain portion of Him, His spirit. That is because life is spirit. A certain portion is given in order to illuminate man. Why, you know the Book of John yourself, how It says that He’ll lead us into all truth—absolutely. Then, how does he does it? He said, “I’ll bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I’ve said unto you.” You’re right back again to the Word. You keep them in absolute close harmony together.

36. Now notice:

(12b) ...Even to them that believe on His name:

(13) Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but born of God.

So therefore, light cannot come, the spirit cannot deal successfully with anyone but the children of God. And remember, as in Adam all die even so in Christ, all are made alive. And that means identical manner, which means we did not have a part in Adam’s sin. We’re blamed for our own, but he’s the one that brought it on us by not watching Eve, and taking the issue to her. He just went right along and brought every one of us into death. And so, if we had nothing to do with where we stand, we have nothing to do with our standing in Christ now. See? Our state can be another thing entirely. But the standing, as we stand as sinners, period; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now we stand Christ in him, God in him having done the work. He is our righteousness, and, if he is our righteousness, then we have become the righteousness of God.

In other words, if I become a biscuit, the biscuit is me. If I become a pianist, the pianist is me. If I should turn into an angel, which God forbid, I couldn’t do it anyway, then that’s who I am.

So, he is our righteousness. And we, now, are the righteousness of God. Why? Because there’s only one righteousness, all of our righteousness is as filthy rags. So, all right. We’re getting to the picture here.

37. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” [Jn 1:14a] Now that’s God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. And It says we beheld God’s glory. Now how did you behold it? It says, “we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” [Jn 1:14b] Jesus the Son of God was the temple of the living God, and God manifested through him. And therefore, because He manifested through him, they said, “Oh, Jesus healed the sick.”

Jesus did not heal the sick; God healed the sick. Jesus did not open the eyes of the blind man, although he was credited; and, if he hadn’t a-been there, it would not have been done. But he said, “The works that you see me do,” he said, “they are what the Father is doing through me.” And he said, “If you don’t believe that I’m in the Father and the Father in me, then believe for the very works sake, because I’m telling you: as a man, I can’t do that.” And no man can do that. But Jesus was given credit the same as Moses was given credit. Even as Jesus said, “Go now you twelve and you seventy, heal the sick, raise the dead, open the blind eyes, cast out devils.” Oh, they couldn’t do that on any Sunday morning or Saturday night. He gave them power. The spirit of God is what did it through them. And that’s what you’re looking at.

38. Now, “John bare witness of him,” [Jn 1:15] that’s of God, and the witness of the Son of God in whom God dwelt. And remember, God testified, “This is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased.” And Bro. Branham said, “That literally meant, ‘in whom I am dwelling, I’m pleased to dwell in him.’’” And anybody knows that God was so pleased with the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ that God looked down upon it and passed over all of His children’s sin and made them completely righteous through the shed blood. In other words it’s called the satisfaction of God. God was satisfied. The price is paid; delivery is next. All right.

39. Let’s keep reading.

(15) John bare witness of him, and saying, this was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.” (Now you’re looking at Jesus in that respect as well.)

(16) And of his fullness have we all received, grace for grace. (Now, listen:)

(17) For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (Now this is John the Baptist telling you this.)

(18) No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.

Now, is John the Baptist telling you the truth? Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.” And he said, “I am in my Father’s care, and He is doing these things, and He’s giving me the words to say.” Now:

(19) And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who are you?”

(20) And he confessed, and denied; but confessed, I am not the Christ.

(21) And they asked him, Well, if not, then are you Elias (That’s Elijah)? He said, No, I’m not. Are you that prophet? He said, No, I’m not.

You see, they knew that Elijah had to come. They knew Messiah had to come. They knew a prophet had to come. But they couldn’t put it together. And that’s what you’re looking at right today in the world. They can’t put it together.

(22) And they said unto him, Who are you (then)? That we may give an account to those that sent us. What do you say of yourself? Who are you?”

(23) And he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.

In other words he said, “I am the Word of God made manifest in human flesh for this hour.” What do you think of that? That’s what he told them.

Now, if God would do that with the prophet, and we’re the children of the prophets, shouldn’t we be the Word of God made manifest? Bro. Branham said so, “Living epistles read and known of all men.” And that’s got to be the Word of God.

And, where do you start? You’ve got to start by believing it. If you don’t believe in a thing, why would you want to do it? You know, people get hoodwinked so easy, but it’s hard to give them the truth.

(24) And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.

(25) And they asked him, and said, Why baptizest thou then, if thou art not that Christ, or Elijah, nor the prophet?”

(26) John answered and said, I baptize with water: but there stands one among you, whom you know not.

(27) He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to unloose.

Now John knew right there that God was going to indwell this person that he’s going to baptize in water. And this is Messiah. This is the Son of God. This is the Lamb of God.

(28) These things were done at Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing.

(29) The next day John sees Jesus coming, and said, Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world.

Now he doesn’t say ‘the Lamb, which is God.’ He said, “the Lamb of God.”

(30) This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man (That’s what It says. Didn’t say he was God. Says he’s a man.) which is preferred before me: for he was before me.

John understood. Right there the un-incarnated Jesus, the Son of God who was in the heavenly realm and now came down to earth in a human body. And he understood, absolutely, that God would be in that vessel, because that was his commission. You can read that in Luke.

(31) And I knew him (the man) not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.

(32) And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.

(33) And I didn’t know that man, I didn’t know him: but he (God) that sent me to baptize with water, the same (God) said unto me, Upon whom thou seest the Spirit (that’s a man) descending, and remaining on him, this – this, remaining on him, the same is he (a man) which baptizes with the Holy Ghost.

(34) And I saw, and bare record that this (man) is the Son of God.

40. Now, if you can’t understand... I’ve taken a long time here. I hope by now you really understand that this Word is not Jesus. It’s God Himself, as Bro. Branham said on many occasions. But, because he made reference to Jesus being the logos, people get confused. And because he used the word deity... And you’d have to be very careful there, because the word ‘deity’ is from the Latin ‘deious’ which means ‘god’. And so, you don’t even need to use the word ‘deity’. You just use the word ‘god’ plain and simply. And you don’t have to use the word ‘Godhead’. Just use God plain and simply.

But, if you use ‘Godhood’, now you’re talking about that person in a manner which gives revelation about that person as to His being in a period of time. And His period of time is eternity. Never changing. Doing, yes; performing, yes; revealing Himself, yes; but never, never, never ever changing.

41. Now we have good authority of that by the man, the smartest man, that ever lived. And Ecclesiastes 3:

(14) For I know whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him.

(15) That which has been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past. (Then, he says:)

(16) Moreover I saw under the – the sun the place – the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

(17) And I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.

And this man looked down there, and, knowing the prophets, he let us know here that God does everything by a prophet, that men should fear Him. So, how much fear did Bro. Branham evoke in the people? Tiddilly-winks! Infinitesimal little bit, showing, out of six billion people there wouldn’t be ten thousand elect. And at the end time, standing, anywhere from five hundred to five thousand. And pretty soon, one third of six billion people are going to be wiped off the earth. How will it be? I don’t know. I don’t understand the book of Revelation that well.

42. Now, let me just go back here to 1 Tim 1:16-17: “Howbeit for this cause I obtain mercy…” Now I read those two verses, but let me go back to Verse 1.

(1) Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior, (Notice, God is the Savior, even though He did it through Jesus Christ. See?) and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope.

(2) Unto Timothy my own son in faith – the faith: Grace, mercy and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

(3) As I besought thee to abide in Ephesus, when I went to Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.

Now right there, you see, you can’t change the doctrine. People say they can worship God apart from doctrine, like this bunch up there in Saskatoon. They broke away. I don’t believe they have a clue to Bro. Branham’s ministry. One woman said “I won’t let my kids even hear the name of William Branham,” and they said, “We leave doctrine outside the door.” Well, how can you worship God outside of doctrine, for he said, “In vain do you worship me having for doctrine the traditions of men?” So, you need doctrine to worship God. So, somebody blew it after he made a couple million bucks, I guess.

43. Now, listen:

(3) I besought thee to abide in Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

(4) Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, ...

Now I want to just ask you something here. When you read that first verse, “Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior, and Jesus Christ, which is our hope,” are you taking that to mean that Paul is simply stating his status: Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God? No, that’s not it at all. He’s stating that he’s got a commandment from God to write this fellow. Now, if you don’t believe it, get some other translations than this one, because I’ve figured that in my own mind; and then, I went to some other translations, more the expanded, and that’s the truth. Paul was commanded to write this to Timothy. Huh? Are you believers? Well, go on; figure it out for yourself. I don’t mind. I had to figure it out for myself.

44. Now he said here:

(5) Now the end of the commandment (and he’s giving commandments, and God told him to write it.) is love out of a pure heart, of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: (Don’t pretend.)

(6) For some which, having swerved aside—turned aside... That’s some, having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling;

(7) Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirmed.

(8) But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully.

(9) Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly, for sinners, for unholy, profane, for murders of fathers and mothers and—and manslayers.

(10a) For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, (That’s your H-m-o-s-x-u-a-ls.) for menstealers…

That’s the guys that stole the Africans and made them slaves and all, and yet, everybody—all the wonderful Christians in America—said, “Oh, slaves are right in the Bible. Slaves are fine.” What? These are menstealers. It had nothing to do with slavery. Slavery is where you get in bondage, because you had debts and so on. Legitimate, according to the law, they were indentured. This is where they stole people! Even native kings over there stole them. Menstealers going to hell. That’s where they’re going: the Lake of Fire.

So much for religion, eh? So much for Christianity. So much for people who read the Bible. Oh, they read just what they want to…hearing what they want to hear. Let’s get down to nitty-gritty: are you a manstealer? Are you a kidnapper? Oh, my! “Bro. Vayle, you’ve got to love the sinner.” I don’t think I do, because God is angry with the wicked all the day long. I don’t know why I’m supposed to come in there. I’ll leave it up to God. I’ve just got to read you the Word, and you keep away from all else.

45. Now It says: “For liars, for perjured persons…” [1 Tim 1:10b] What about that? That’s the courts. If you perjure yourself, you lie under oath, right? If you’re the President, it’s okay. No problem. He leads the country just right. That’s fine, sure, sure, sure. Yeah, and a woman the other day, you know, she’s a great woman’s lib, and she’s for choice, you know. And she said, “We know, we’ve got to keep these Republicans out of power.” She said, “You know what they do,” she said. “You get a bunch of conservative judges, and they’ll reverse Roe versus Wade, and you can’t have abortions.” Now, just a cotton-picking minute. If that isn’t the judiciary legislating, in the final analysis, I don’t what is. So, so much for the American constitution way of governing. We ain’t got one.

It’s money talks and sin, where money’s made, has the loudest voice. Sure, they can spike the head of little babies that are almost born. Look at this doctor in Lima. He’s married. He got this woman pregnant; and then, he tried to give her some drugs, so she’d have an abortion. And now that’s murder; they’re going to put him away. “Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh, we’re so wonderful; we’ve got to do that.” Why didn’t he spike a bunch of little babies in their heads? Why didn’t he wait until the baby’s being born and accidentally spike it in the head? and say, “Oh, I’ll be good to my girlfriend. I’m a doctor. I’ll deliver the baby?” You tell me. And the world’s not insane? I’m going to tell you: they’re not just crazy; they stink. They’re that filthy; they stink. They’re covered with vermin and filth.

46. (10c) Perjured people, there be any other thing that’s contrary to sound doctrine;

(11) According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. (There you are. That’s the letter he has to write.)

(12) And I thank (God—Lord Jesus... I thank Jesus...) Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me in the ministry,

(13) Who was before a blasphemer, persecutor, injurious: and I’ve obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

(14) And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

(15) This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

(16) Howbeit for this cause I obtain mercy, that in me first Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to everlasting life.

(17) Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever.

Now, let’s just look at that little verse down there. “Unto the king eternal, immortal…” Now that’ll throw you for a loop right there. That’s where the Jesus Only could say, “Well, you see right there, brother, that’s got to be Jesus, because, you see, this word means incorruptible, this word means that, you know, that... Something could be corrupted, but this can’t be.” And the body of Jesus didn’t corrupt, that’s true. But the Bible said, thou will not suffer thy holy one to see corruption. That’s a different story entirely.

But, you can’t make this Jesus-Only, and you can’t make it Trinity, because It says: “Now unto the king.” That’s sovereign. “Now unto the sovereign, eternal king.” So, He’s king forever. He always was; He always will be. And being king, He’s in complete charge of Himself and every single thing that He has created or breathed life into, which are His children. And every one that He hasn’t breathed life into, He’s in control. And furthermore, when He gave His only begotten Son, the Son purchased everybody so every sinner and every child of God is obligated to serve God. Yes, they are. That’s why every knee shall bow at one time and every tongue confess to the glory of God that Jesus Christ is Lord.

47. Now He’s eternal, yes sir, and He is immortal, He cannot corrupt. Now, let’s just talk about this One. Now, all right, we’ll read here in The Entombment, “And then, no doubt in my mind but that’s what Jesus had in his mind when he was here on earth was that infallibility of God’s eternal Word. For we know that in him dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the entire Godhead was in him.” As Bro. Branham said, “God, plus Jesus Christ, was the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” “He was both Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but dwelt in a human form, the theophany of God, the great image of God that He made man in, then placed him in the earth. He had a body. God is not without a body. God’s got a body, and it looks like a man. Moses saw it, others saw it, and it looks like a man.”

Well, God made man in His image? Right? Okay, let’s talk about God’s image. Okay, in Gen 6:8 and I Pet 3:12, we have: God has eyes. Isa 66:1: He has feet. Prov 28:9: He has ears. Isa 53:1: He has arms. And in Isa 49:16: He’s got palms. In Psa 18:15 and Isa 65:5: He’s got nostrils. In Num 12:8: He’s got a mouth. And in Isa 42:1, He’s got a soul. Exo 33:20-23, He’s got a face. And on and on and on.

48. So, if I had the board here, I’d draw you a picture. And I’d say, “All right, God, He’s got a face,” and I’d make a square up here and cauliflower ears and scallops and a mouth, straight across, and one eye square, and one eye like a triangle. Ahhh! You’re looking at a pretty poor specimen of the image of God but, believe me, I don’t have a square head. I may be a square head, speaking from the standpoint of psychology and stupidity; but I don’t have an eye that’s a triangle. My eyes are normal to the degree they’re normal eyes. My ears the same way—a little arch maybe. I’ve got nostrils. I’ve got a mouth. I have palms. I have hands. I have feet. God has a breast; I’ve got a breast. God has bowels; I’ve got bowels.

49. And another thing I want to tell you: Jesus Christ was the image of God. And, when he came down to take this place, wherein God created a sperm and an egg... Now God literally created them. They had nothing to do with anything that God had previously created. This was a brand new creation. And all Mary did was use the chemistry of her body in order to bring the supplements out of the ground through her body to give him the body that he would have naturally from the genes of God, and his… As a little baby boy, he had beautiful hands and beautiful feet. And Mary; he was the cutest thing you ever saw, and anybody ever saw, in their lives.

Now, actually, there might have been a little baby boy down the street twice as handsome and twice as pretty. I don’t care two bits about that. The point of the matter is that he had a body, and it was a human body. The One Who came down had to fit into that body; so, he didn’t have arms like an octopus. He didn’t have a nose like an elephant’s got a trunk. He didn’t have one eye like a Cyclops, (if there is such a thing— which there isn’t.) Nor did he have a horn on his head like a unicorn or a neck like a giraffe.

When he came forth, they said, “Hey, that’s a cute little baby. Let’s see, he’s got brown eyes. Now wait a minute, where’d he his brown eyes from? Well, it must be some time back, you know.” They said, “Well, I’m going to tell you something; this child is born into the tribe of Judah, and we’re just going back. That’s all. The genes will come on down.”

50. So, I’m trying to show you here that we’re looking at the fact that God has a body—and if it took on a form that was literally coming forth from what lay within God, because that’s how your body and mine come forth, and it—came forth just like you and me. That’s how we’re made in the image of God. And Jesus was the image of God. And if he was the image of God, do you think for one minute he’d have taken on anything but the image he’s supposed to take on, which image he gave to Adam, and the image was broken? See? So we’re looking at the fact now of God having a body. Now, that body cannot be corrupted.

51. Now, if God is Logos, which is the Word, (And, as I explained before, It is with God and It is God.) you show me where Jesus was not with his body, which was Jesus. For the Bible says, “Don’t seek the living amongst the dead.” And they weren’t talking about Jesus, the soul man. They were talking about the body. You cannot identify anybody apart from his body. You can’t do it.

In a criminal case, you have got to go to the body, even to the extent of the DNA. And, when you can find the DNA, you can match anybody to that DNA. And there’s only one person that’s going to fit it of billions of people. And the earth by now has had maybe, what, 35 billion people? It had about five billion at the time of Noah. That’s four thousand years ago or more. How many billions?

52. So, we’re looking at the fact that there is a body. And the body identifies. And the body, at all times, is spoken of as the individual. And yet, we know, when you say John Brown’s body is here, John Brown’s soul is marching on someplace else. And yet, you know that you are burying John Brown. And, when that John Brown, should he arise in the resurrection, you know that that’s John Brown, though John Brown’s not there, the real John Brown is in the body. But the body is the real John Brown. You can’t get away from it. And yet, it is with it, and it is. Why? Because the life there brought forth that body. Now, if we’ve got God, and it’s this Word is with Him and it is He, and there’s nothing else there, then you understand, what comes there has to come out of what already was there.

Furthermore, let’s get this flat: God is not a light, period. He can appear in a light, but a light is inanimate. A light is a created thing or an emination only. We are talking in terms of that which illuminates our minds, so we know what is being talked about. And you could say this: when God breathed His spirit into man, you don’t have to use the word ‘light’. You could use ‘revelation’, whereby this man became aware. But since it speaks of darkness as the opposite, then it talks about light, because light comes in and illuminates. That’s why It tells you there was life, and the life was light.

Remember, when God said, “Let there be light,” an actual light appeared, and it wasn’t God. It was created—creative. And so, therefore, as God speaks, immediately there comes into existence, and it may not be the full existence. It could be whatever is necessary at that point. For instance, your name and mine he’s put in the Book of Life, the Lamb’s Book of Life. But, until it’s spoken, it wouldn’t have to be in existence. As Bro. Branham said, “Even when spoken, it could take thousand of years before it took place.”

53. So here we find, as I understand this, that God is absolutely one with His Word, because that Word could come from nowhere but God. And that Word, being creative, had to have God in it. Right! That’s Logos, or It never could have brought forth what was to be brought forth. And when God said, “I will now bring forth My Son,” He wanted a Son, and there was nothing there but God. And therefore, the Son was birthed from God, because the woman actually... Let’s get this flat now: the woman actually forms that child through her processes of the life which is in he. And God did not need any woman or any man or any help by the life processes of God’s life Himself. He brought forth that one which was a part of God.

They asked the question of Bro. Branham, “What’s the difference between God and Jesus?” Now we’re speaking, going back to eternity. He said, “There is no difference, except sons have beginnings,” children have beginnings.

So therefore, Jesus had a part and was a part of the eternal God. Now the thing is, is he deity? By no means he is deity. We’re here in 1 Tim 1:17; now It says, “Unto the king eternal,” no beginning, no end, “immortal.” ‘Immortal’ because there’s no way that you can ever get the Word to ever stop, because remember, in the beginning was the Word. It was already there. But you realize that something happened, so that the Word was with God, but the Word was God, and it was there. Now, “invisible.” Certainly God’s ‘invisible’. And any Word body is invisible, because we know Jesus had a Word body and Bro. Branham absolutely said, “We bypassed our Word bodies.” Which we will catch up to.

Now, notice; “the only wise God.” So, we’re talking now, about one God, and one God alone, and that God is not Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

54. Now, all right. Let’s look at this fact now: “Unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible.” And He made a Son in His image, and that Son already was eternal, not that He did not have a beginning with the eternality of God. He did have a beginning with the eternality of God, which was that life. The same as you and I have. That’s why Bro. Branham said, “You’ll come to a time when you’ll realize you always were saved.” Now remember, Bro. Branham said, “He did not lay aside that Word body, but he had it and no doubt he brought it with him, but you and I did not have it.”

55. Now, let’s go to 2 Corinthians. And this is Lee Vayle talking from Bro. Branham’s tips, or his teaching. And I’m teaching you what I believe from what Bro. Branham taught, so this tape tonight is Lee Vayle. Okay, 2 Cor 5:1; “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” And Bro. Branham said, “That body that you and I bypassed is eternal.”

Right away, the mind says, “A body, a body, a body; yes, yes, yes, a body. What about a body? It couldn’t be eternal.” You’re wrong. You missed it one hundred percent. Because, as a body of Jesus, and God Himself had that body eternal, it’s a Word body. And, if that Word is God, then it’s eternal—never had a beginning. And you and I, therefore, have that, and we go to it. That’s a mystery that I finally began to see, because I believe what Bro. Branham said.

My own thinking, my own reading, said, “Oh, this is a resurrection. This is something that can’t be.” Because, you see, I didn’t look at the fact it talked about the immortal God, and when you talk about the immortal God, and He’s eternal, you don’t need to put that word ‘immortal’ in there when addressing God before “the beginning.”

56. How could Paul have an epistle that God said, “You write this to Timothy,” and that be just thrown in there? Well, come on; tell me. I’ll let you teach me. I’m anxious. I won’t listen though, because I’ve already got the answer. He uses the term ‘incorruptible body’. God has a body; and, when He expressed Himself, it was a man. And Bro. Branham categorically took that place. And that explains how Bro. Branham knew He was a man when God put Moses in the cleft of the rock, put His hand over him, and He showed him His back parts, and Bro. Branham said, “It was the back of a man; it was a bleeding back.” Then, if he’d said anything different, he’d a been wrong; because, if he’s got a bosom, a breast, in the sense like a harbor, a place of safety, sanctity, He’s got to have a back. If He’s got bowels, He’s got a heart, He’s got a soul, He’s got this, He’s got that. Then, it’s material; we’re talking in terms of materiality. But, when you’re talking in terms of God material, you’re talking about the eternal, incorruptible—God.

This is exactly why Bro. Branham said we bypassed that incorruptible, that immortal Word body, spirit body. I don’t like the word ‘theophany’ although you can use it very vaguely, and you can, but don’t... I won’t use it, because it puts too much emphasis on us toward God, when we’re like one drop in all the oceans of the world, one drop of water compared to our Heavenly Father. So, I just prefer the term ‘Word body’ because that’s what’s in the Bible here: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

57. So, you can see right now that we are all of God basically, and He gave us a body which was formed from created things. Jesus’ wasn’t; it was only sustained by it. That’s all. Developed. He gave us a spirit allowed of God but not of God. And, when it’s all over, we leave this body, ditch it, and we go to the one that we bypassed. And Bro. Branham saw it, and it was beautiful: the ninety year old woman that came up to hug him, and there was no sex feelings at all, just love and rejoicing and children of God, like little kids, beautiful time. The woman said, “Don’t you recognize me?” “No.” “Why,” the voice said, “she was the one that got saved at ninety years of age.” And she’s a beautiful young woman, 18 to 19 years old, flowing hair down to her shoulders, everybody young and happy.

They had these bodies. They weren’t eating and drinking. There was no need to. When you bypassed that body, you came down to a body that needed to eat and drink. And you came through this process that Bro. Branham explained. And so, here it is before us, very beautifully; so we go to that body.

58. Now, again, in Timothy, It says, “the only wise God.” [1 Tim 1:17] Now, notice in here, that omnipotence is not mentioned, because omnipotence is already mentioned when you mention God. You have to mention wisdom, the only wise God, because now we see power harnessed with wisdom, and wisdom flowing from love. How in the world can you possibly have anything else?

Now this is where we come back to the thought of “in Him was life”—in Him was zoe. And that’s where you come down to the life of man is zoe. You come down to animal life. It’s zoe. You come down, all the way down... In Him was this ability to start with man on earth with His life. But, when the devil came along and tempted Eve and brought in another spirit, another life, which she carried in her womb, that brought the whole world down in sin and finally, the one lump where, today, even science recognizes one mother, two fathers, ninety-nine point so many percent of one father; ziltch—zero, almost, of the other father. But, don’t let that confuse you and think you can figure out the percentage of saints on the earth, because that’s not the way it goes. It’s still all one lump. It only proves there’s one mother and two fathers.

But science would like to say, from Eve, there sprang seven more women whereby those seven women now become the wombs of all the babies that came forth. I don’t know how they figure it up, but it’s fine by me. Maybe it was because a daughter or daughters of Eve married Cain and some of Cain’s offspring and out they came—six or seven ‘alpha’ women. I’ve got no fight with that at all; because, let’s face it, when Abraham had these two boys, the one by the Egyptian girl and one by Sarah, and then he had ten more, I think by Keturah, you’ve got twelve right there like the twelve tribes of Israel. And you’ve got them all out here strung out here, about eleven or twelve, whatever they are. Where are they? They’re out there somewhere. Who cares? I’m not interested. But, you see, you can take all of these figures and relate them back to the Bible. But the main thing is to see and understand the truth of what we’re talking about here.

59. Now, let’s finally go to Timothy 6, my last verse I’m going to take here. And It says here, [I Tim 6:14-16]

(14) I’ll keep His commandments without spot, (Notice, it’s… He’s writing this letter from God, to this man) unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: (I think that’s the epiphanea.)

(15) Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords;

(16a) Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light, unto which no man can approach;

Now, notice. He used the word ‘immortality’ again, “dwelling in light unto which no man can approach.” Well, if you can’t approach unto Jesus, you’re not going to get to God. “The King of kings and Lord of lords.” Remember, Bro. Branham said, “When that spirit that’s amongst us becomes incarnated to us, we’ll crown him King of king and Lord of lords.” And that will be the Son of man, the Son of David, the Son of God, the Rose of Sharon, the Altogether Lovely. What’s he talking about? He’s talking about God being incarnated in Jesus. And the whole story is about God.

Bro. Branham also mentions, I don’t know if I got it written down here concerning how Jesus is the Word. But we read it to you anyway. So there we have it right here. And It says here “who no man has seen or can see.” (You’re going to see Jesus, aren’t you?) “to whom be honor and power everlasting.” [1 Tim 6:16b] So here we find Godhead completely given to us in the Bible as Bro. Branham gave it, because he got it from the Bible.

60. I had some quotes sent to me from Bro. Laurie Hudson, and some were very good. Let’s see; here’s the one on duality. “How can this one denying the virgin birth or this one divine …?…” In other words, how can people be…denied divine healing and all these things here? “Some of them don’t even believe in God or believe He was a Son of God. They believe that he was a son of Joseph.” And he said, “What it is, they don’t realize that the one down here on earth, he was divine, he was deity himself, made flesh among us in the person of the Son of God.” Certainly! So, that tells you right there the duality that we’ve understood here for many years.

“In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Sure, see, the Word was in God, it was God; it was His thoughts that were with Him always, there, God’s thoughts, eternal. So, you see, in Him, and then coming forth manifested, that has to be God, because nothing else will do it. God alone has that power.

61. Now, I realize that, because we are of a western culture, and we have been taught so many things that are absolutely against real revelatory ministries, like Bro. Branham had, and what you see in the Bible, it is difficult to begin to truly understand John’s viewpoint of Logos, which, as we’ve said many times, as Bro. Branham used the simplicity of “the thought expressed.” But in the Greek it actually means whatever’s expressed has to be literally there, not just a word, as though you say, ‘a lion.’ God could not just say ‘lion’ and there not be a lion there. This is not ‘diccuption’ or ‘substitution’. This is reality. The thing itself made real by visibility to you.

62. You have to understand that God actually is in His Word, bringing His every Word to pass—every single one. And as Jesus was part of that Word, you and I are also, in our day, a minor part of that Word. Look, if the prophets had God in them, they veiled God, they were God to the people, they brought the Word of the living God to the people, which is true. Now the Bible said, “You are the children of the prophets.”

You tell me what prophet was my father. I don’t have any clue about any prophet except Bro. Branham, and he was only five years older than I am. When he married Meda, she was ten years younger. And he admits that she was his daughter. Now how could he have a daughter ten years younger? What we’re telling you here, the children of the prophets are those who have the living Word of God within them. They are the children, and the children are the ones who get turned back to the prophets, and it took a prophet to do it. And that prophet was literally God manifested in human flesh; as Bro. Branham said, “It was promised at the end time that God would once more manifest Himself in human flesh.” How many people really believe it? They can’t do it; they cannot adjust to it. We can, because we saw it, and we know it. We know the Scripture Bro. Branham was using, and he was that Word made flesh to us.

63. Now the next big adjustment, and it’s just hard on… and for me too, and I find it difficult, because my mind has never been trained this way, but I have to admit the Bible that says here, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and we have to take Bro. Branham’s stand, absolutely, the Word is God, even to the extent we said, as other people have said, this Bible is God in print. If this is God in print, what was there before the print? The same God—the same Word. And, why is it? Because this Word—and which not one Word is void of power, but every single Word has to come in absolute manifestation, and that alone, God can do (—has to manifest; that is, come to pass).

So therefore, God is the Word. God is in His Word. Just take it back to the fact, “He sent His Word to heal them.” What Word? What Word? There’s nothing a word of man can do. It’s only the Word of God. Why? Because God is in His Word. People try to tell you God’s in His church. God’s in His Word. People in this message try to tell you that. It won’t work. It will not cut, because that is not true.

64. All right, here it comes: “God’s thoughts was His Word,” in the beginning… (That’s in eternity, now, when beginning first started; see, same thing I’ve been teaching you.) In the beginning was the Word, God’s thoughts, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. See? “His thoughts is what He was, that’s with you too.” In other words the intrinsicality of God, spelled out, and here it comes to pass. “No matter what you try to live by, something else, your thoughts are what you are. You might go along and act like a nice fellow but in your heart; you’re an adulteress” (or adulterer, whatever) “or whatever it is, that’s what you are, your thoughts. And your thoughts and God’s thoughts was His Word that was with Him and in Him, and it was God.” See the ‘motivation’ by the ‘Motivator’—living Motivator—come forth? That is the person. So, Bro. Branham used the term ‘with’ as within, which is perfectly legal to do it.

65. So, that’s the best I can show you here and try to take it right back to the Word where the Word bodies are, where Jesus had his body, God had a body, then God came down and manifested Himself in human flesh

Now, there’s just one more thought I want to bring to your attention, and I’m going to go to James 1. And remember, Bro. Branham made the statement, “Jesus was God, but he wasn’t God.” Now, how in the world could Jesus be God but not God, unless it’s some form of being a surrogate or a substitute or someone to take the place? All right, here it is in verse 17: “For every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights,” (Now there you are, see, you’re right back again, the fact of “Thy Word giveth light. In him was life and the life was the light of men.”) “with whom (That’s God.) is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

How could Jesus be God and not God, and anybody make him deity or make him God, when that shows variableness and turning? Can’t do it. Can’t do it. There’s only one God. Bro. Branham thoroughly explained it. And have I been nailed to the cross on that one. But I’m happy, because I’m right. I don’t gloat in it. I’m just glad that I know. I don’t try to teach anything in my defense. I try to teach what is true. And, as I tell you, I’ve struggled with some things but not with others. But there’s our point tonight, and we’ll leave it right there on the subject of God. So, let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the time we’ve had together in Your Word. And we pray, Lord God, that You will help us to understand more of depth of the revelation of it, as Bro. Branham brought it and with his familiarity with it. But we realize, Lord, that he could be much, much more familiar than we are, because he lived his life this way with You there and, many times Lord, You were his overcoat, so to speak, that You spoke through him. And we know with “THUS SAITH THE LORD,” there’s nobody but nobody could ever say that, unless, Lord, You spoke through that man. And we know that You did.

We understand that absolutely perfectly, at least as far as we can in our imperfections, and appreciate it so much. And we pray you’ll reign down upon us the truth, as we continue to go along, until we dance in the rain of God with our mouths open for the latter rain. We want to be filled and saturated within and without by this rain that has fallen upon us, this teaching rain in this hour, that it may be our very life blood; that it may be, not just the plasma, but the actual blood flow, the red corpuscles and all that keep bringing us our very life and bringing its own food with it that we might be truly nourished up in You.

Help us now, Lord, be the way you want us to be and come forth now at this end time in the Resurrection, those that have gone before us and those at this point now hopefully believing shall not see death but be standing here for the Resurrection and the Rapture. And there we shall see that one who died for us and realize at the same time, we’re looking upon God in man, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and realize that we’re all part of Your family for the glory of him. May it be for Your true glory that we’ve given You a little bit of glory. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

[Bro. Vayle begins the Communion service.]