Once More  
[63-0804A, Once More, Marigold Center, Chicago, IL, 63 min]

L-1 Thank you, very much. Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, we are assembled again in the Name of Thy beloved Child, the Lord Jesus, to express our love in worship to Him again. We pray that His Spirit will meet with us, and that He will give us each a portion of that Spirit that might give us sustaining grace to finish the journey and fight the fight that's set before us, the fight of Faith. Grant it, Father. And break to us, this afternoon, the Bread of Life, to strengthen us, for it is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceedeth from the mouth of God." May we hear that, this afternoon, in the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

L-2 Be seated. Commenting Brother Carlson, he just let me on about ten minutes late. He's getting better. Another week's meeting, we'll just... I'll probably be here on time...?... We're so happy for the privilege.

L-3 Now tonight is our closing night of this certain service, and I want to let you out in time so you can have your--your supper. I know a lot of you call it your dinner. But if I have dinner, then where's my supper come in?

L-4 Now, I was talking to a fellow, he said, "Oh, Brother Branham, it's--it's dinner."

L-5 "Oh, it is?" I said, "I want to prove you you're wrong." I said, "We don't take the Lord's dinner; we take His supper."

L-6 So we--we like to think of it as the Lord, as our supper, the Lord's supper that night, not morning or afternoon. He, He took it in the evening, it was His supper.

L-7 Now, so we want to get back early. And so we won't be late tonight, Brother Carlson is going to let me on just exactly on time tonight. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." And I don't know, if the Lord willing, I might try to speak tonight, if I can get a little, enough time, on, The Countdown. The, for it's a scientific, little Message the Lord has give me for the last days. And maybe, the Lord willing, I might be able to speak on that tonight.

L-8 Now, we had a grand time last night. I went over, said, "We're not going to pray for the sick," and the Lord healed the sick anyhow, you see. Amen. Sometimes we can say something, but the Lord can just upset that anytime He wants to. You see, He--He is God.

L-9 Now I want to read quickly from the Scriptures, for a little text that I--I thought that might be a help to us this afternoon.

L-10 Now, if he let me on on time, I want to try to get out on time, and that would be about four-thirty, which would be about fifty minutes from now.

L-11 Let us turn now over to the Book of Judges, the 16th chapter, and let's read the--the 27th and 28th verses, as we look to the Word.
Now the house was full of men and women; and all the lords of the Philistines were there; and there were upon the roof about three thousand men and women,... behold while Samson made sport.
And Samson called to the LORD and said, O Lord... remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O Lord, that I might be... avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.

L-12 Let's pray again. Lord Jesus, take this little text, and water the Church with it, Lord. We pray and commit it to You, in Jesus' Name. Amen.

L-13 There must have been about three thousand Philistines, looking down from the top of the gallery of this great arena, when the couple entered the arena that afternoon. Must have been a hot day. All day long they had been out there. And in this great company, on top of this great arena that was built something on the order of an upside-down mushroom; and the center post in the middle, that went out something in this way, and held the two posts holding all the spectators around; highly-polished war lords and their fine-jeweled women. All leaned forward at this certain event, for they wanted to get a good look, that what was taking place.

L-14 There had been preliminaries, all the entertainment. They probably had little monkeys that--that played little tricks. And they had different things that they entertained themselves with, fighting, wrestling, and--and--and maybe dueling to death, and many other things that--that they had been entertained with all day, for it was a great day, but now the main event come.

L-15 You know how we all wait patiently while the preliminaries are going on. And they wait for the--the main event, and that's when everybody sets up and takes notice. We watch it in our religious services, of when we have our--our singing, and our testimonials, and the preaching, and so forth; but the main event is see what the Lord is going to do, see what He has gathered us together for. We're all under anticipations to see just what the end is going to be, the main event. It's that way in anything. We always watch for the main event.

L-16 And they all raised up to look forward, to see what was taking place, because the main event was being brought to them, and what did they see but a blind man being led by a little boy.

L-17 The halls had echoed all afternoon, with drunken revelry, how that they passed the whiskey and their high drinks; and their fine, painted-up and jeweled women, and great dignified war lords, and all. It was a great celebration. They were celebrating the victory. Oh, how I hate to say this! The victory that the fish-god Dagon had got, over the servant of God. It just goes plumb down to the bottom of me, to have to say that, but it's truth. Celebrating such a way as that, a victory over Jehovah's servant. What a shameful thing! Drinking, revelry, and painted women, and jeweled-up, and great dignitaries, the fires was burning under the fish-god, and what a celebration it must have been.

L-18 But the heart-breaking part, as thousands of years later that we have to think back of such an event as that, and when the great God of Heaven, Who had purposed in His heart to destroy that nation because they were heathens, and had sent a man to do the job, and here the fish-god idol was celebrating a victory over Jehovah's servant. Jehovah never lost; the servant that He sent to do it, lost the victory.

L-19 What a sight, what a shameful thing it was! The lad led the stumbling, blind man across the--the hall, to these big center posts, whereon all the great upside-down mushroom or umbrella-like set, where the people looked down like this, from the great-like pilasters run up and held the thing in order, laid by stone that could not be reproduced again today. No one could build it like that. But what a great thing it was! And thousands of the celebrity priests who had served an idol, with their chests all swelled out, and all their ceremonies and rituals over their idol, that he had conquered Jehovah. What a great day it was, drinking, revelry, and carrying on!

L-20 And here comes Jehovah's servant, blind, stumbling, led by a little boy, out to this great post, to make sport. The main event of entertainment was to make sport out of Jehovah's ordained purpose to destroy the nation. And, yet, the nation has taken the thing that God had placed in to destroy them, and now they had conquered him and was making sport out of him, their main event at their celebration.

L-21 Doesn't that just kill you, nearly, to have to look at that? To think what could, this story never really should have never had to be told. But it was probably told for--for our admonition, is wrote that way. Humiliated, broken, standing now defeated, right between the two posts that held the building.

L-22 What a symbol that is of the church of this day! What a symbol it is of a fallen race of people, that has sold out to the world and the very thing that we're here to conquer. The church that has sold its--its morals, that sold the Bible, sold it's strength, so surrendered its sword, and standing humiliated in the hour when the approaching signs of the Coming of Jesus Christ is at hand; when she ought to be washed, not a spot or a wrinkle, standing to receive her Bridegroom.

L-23 What a picture we see here, a symbol of moral decay that rests upon the nation, this nation. And I'm not going to try to stay with my Scriptures too long, so I can get through quick. But I could symbolize that with the church, with the nation, with politics, and with everything you can put your hands on today, besides God's Bible. Morally decayed, the human race itself, just in a terrible condition!

L-24 And there under atheists and unbelievers that can point their finger into the face of the church, who should have the Message for today, and asking them, "What does all this mean?" And they don't have the answer. They don't have the answer. Why? They did like Samson did. They've surrendered.

L-25 So see him standing there, and we would say, "So this is Samson?" Let's catch a picture of it, this great, mighty warrior. Let's picture him, this afternoon, that he had wide shoulders, great framework. And here this big bulk of a man stands there, blinded, tied with little strings, and led to the middle of the floor, humiliated, broken, defeated, with the great God of Heaven looking down upon it. Down here, his critics, drunken soldiers looking down.

L-26 I'd imagine, as they stood there, many Philistines had even shook in their shoes, to hear his name. Samson was a mighty name, one time; so was Christianity, the church was. And I'm going to parallel it with the church, this scene. Samson name, people just fainted, for he was some sort of a man that they had never seen a man like him. His strength was beyond anything that the world had ever had. There's nothing they had could match it. Many remembered him as they looked on him standing there in that condition.

L-27 Many looked upon him from the galleries and remember see him standing in another position. One day, standing with a jaw bone of a mule, in his hand, with a thousand Philistines laying around him, when they had fled to the rocks for safety; standing, motion his fingers, "Come on, if you want some of it!" But now look at him.

L-28 Many of the Philistines, that one night he was persuaded in by a harlot and in the--the city of Gaza, they took the great big gates that would have weighed tons, and fenced him in and caught him, and sent out to the soldiers and said, "Now we've caught him. We've hemmed him in." Like the devil is always trying to do, hem you in on something.

L-29 But remember when Samson awoke the next morning, or that night, rather, seeing he was hemmed in. He could feel back on the back of his head and still know he was a covenant son of God, and there was nothing could hem him in. The church once stood like that, too. What did he do? He rose up, walked down the street, pulled the gates out of its sockets, and put it upon his shoulders and walked up the top the hill and set down.

L-30 Many standing there that afternoon remembered that event. But look at him now, blinded, mocked, just a sport for the enemy. All of his powers that he once had for his protection, for God's achievement that he had been born in the world to do, had been stripped from him by a woman.

L-31 I think that same thing could be applied today, that a woman who pretends to be the Bride of Christ, and basing her teaching with "a cup of the filthiness of her abominations, of her fornications." She has tipped the cup of her fornications into the mouths of God's church that's been raised up to show His signs and wonders, as Jesus' last commandment was to do, in Mark 16. And now we find that she has took God's little, faithful group and organized them together just exactly the way she did herself, and has got them standing stripped, denying the Power thereof, denying the Holy Spirit, denying the power to speak with tongues, denying the Power of--of the Holy Spirit to raise the dead, and heal the sick and cast out devils. And now the Philistines is upon thee, and what's you going to do now, stripped?
Oh, what must have went through that man's mind!

L-32 We have seen what must have went through the Philistines' mind. They had knowed him. When, I've heard one reach over to another, maybe, and say, "I remember the time when you say 'Samson,' every Philistine would go like rats to a hole. I've heard the time, you'd say, a thousand men would be marching across the desert, they say, 'Samson is coming,' they would drop their arms and run for safety as hard as they could."

L-33 But now look at him. He is in a terrible condition, bound, all because he compromised to a woman. That's what done it. She stripped him of his power. She kept trying to find out where his strength laid. She knowed he was a big man, but they had big men, too. But this Delilah, she was a-a real Jezebel. She knowed how to work on him, to woo him to her and say that (he) she loved him. But, all the time, she was trying to fish along, where his strength laid.

L-34 And that's the same thing that the Jezebel has done to the church, it's fished along until it's found out where the strength laid. And the strength is in the Word. "The Word is God." And finally she found where that strength laid, and she took him down to Nicaea, Rome, and shaved off his locks. And now they've took what's left out of it, and taking them back to the World Council of Churches, and got their locks shaved again. It's a constant shaving, taking This out, and, "This doesn't mean that. The days of miracles is passed. There is no such a thing as this, that, the other." They, they found where the strength laid, substituting baptisms and handshakes and all these other things, for the true unadulterated Word of God.

L-35 This Word is God, that was given to His Church to defeat the world and the devils, and the sickness, and to cast out devils, and no denomination was give to the Church. The Word was give to the church; That's her strength. But they've cut This away, they've cut That away, and they shaved off This lock, and shaved off That lock, until she stands shorn today, like a Catholic sister, shorn off, until she has accepted a bunch of man-made creeds for her doctrine, just exactly what the prophet said she would do. And here she stands today, humiliated. When the God of Heaven has chose the ignorant fishermen, and so forth, and has come down in that and proving It, that He still remains God, and they can't give an answer to their congregation for It because it's not connected with any denomination. And she stands humiliated, where she ought to have been standing in her strength.

L-36 If the church today stood like it did on the Day of Pentecost, if the church today stood like it did in the days of Irenaeus, and in the days of Saint Martin, or in the days of Polycarp, where the Church would march right into death before it would defy any Word of God! Irenaeus, Martin, all those men, held tight to that water baptism in the Name of Jesus Christ. Every one of them held tight to that baptism of the Holy Ghost, the prophets, signs and wonders.

L-37 And they've got away from it today. What happened? Delilah knowed where the strength laid. And she could ever get those seminaries away from that Word, onto some man-made theology, she had it, then it was easy to bind and lead them into the World Council of Churches, this ecumenical council.
You say, "You ain't got no right."

L-38 I'm still American citizen. I got a right to freedom of speech. That's right. Certainly am. Notice, that's exactly the Truth.

L-39 Oh, how he must have felt, what went through that man's mind, as he stood there, blind!

L-40 Now, Jezebel knew, or not Jezebel, but Delilah knew, if she could ever punch his eyes out, that was it.

L-41 And that's exactly what Delilah of this last day has done to the church, punch its eyes out, to God's promise, and sold you some great big intellectual denomination. Everybody likes to buy,... say, "I belong to the First church. I belong to down here. I...." See, as long as the devil can put your eyes out, to the Word of God and the promise of God! No matter how foolish it sounds, it's God's promise.

L-42 Now, I'm not endorsing cults, not at all, but them cults are known by their works. So is God's Church knowed by Its works. But I am trying to say what Delilah has done to Samson.

L-43 Now let's take Samson's side, what must have went through the man's mind as he stood there. All the great victories he had once had, must have passed through his mind. The event is on now, the entertainment for the afternoon is fixing to start. The ones that's to be entertained are thinking of what he was, and here he is standing here a thinking of what he was. But because some woman lured him, the picture has changed, to what it should been. God raised Samson up to destroy that nation, that was the very purpose of bringing him on.

L-44 If God can only find one man, that's all He needs, one man that can fully surrender to Him. He don't take an army; He never did use that. He only uses a man.

L-45 Now, Samson gave God His strength to use, but he didn't give God his heart. He gave his heart to Delilah, and gave his strength to God.

L-46 But you've got to surrender soul, body, spirit, strength, everything you are, to the will of God, become a prisoner to Him. You're going to be somebody's prisoner. You don't belong to yourself. You are somebody's prisoner. You're either a prisoner of the devil, knowing this Truth and won't surrender to it, or a prisoner to--to the world, and surrender to God, one or the other. You're either the devil's prisoner, to sin, or you're God's prisoner, to righteousness. You're one or the other.

L-47 And now Samson thinks of the great victories that he had won. No doubt it come to his mind of how, that when he was a little boy, that God had vindicated him, told his mother that how that she must do; not drink strong drinks, or--or watch her diet, that she was bringing forth a Nazarite. How she combed his hair, and told him, "Son, through these locks, it's a covenant with God, that your strength will lay in there. Don't, never give it away. Don't, never give away your secret. Don't, never surrender it. Whatever you do, stay with it."

L-48 Jesus Christ told the church, that, "Heavens and earth will pass away, but my Words shall never pass away. And whosoever shall take one Word from It, or add one word to It, his part will be taken out of the Book of Life." The church ought to think of that now as we stand in this chaos, in this hour just prayer... prior the Coming of the Lord Jesus, at any moment, for a Rapture.

L-49 The great victories that we can point back, in the days gone by, in the reformation, back in the days of Irenaeus and Saint Martin, Patrick, and those who protested those organizations.

L-50 And when Luther came out and protested that first organization, Catholic church, and the group that followed him come right back and organized behind him.

L-51 When John Wesley come out of Anglicanism, and, as soon as Wesley left, they organized right behind him.

L-52 And the early Pentecost come out of the denominations. That was a cursed word to you. But, "As a dog goes to its vomit, and a sow to their wallow," you've went right back in the thing that you were born to defeat. Hallelujah! That hurts my heart, too, even more than to think of the victory yonder that Dagon had over Samson. I see what Jezebel has got over the church. And that's the reason that every strength and every fiber in my being, I'm trying to protest that thing, and call back that church to her place of repentance. Your mothers, your fathers, were ousted out of those organizations. They come out of it and protested it, and here their children has turned right back around and has went right back in the thing that they come out of. If that ain't a picture of Samson, what Delilah did!

L-53 How we ought to let the thoughts go through our mind, of the great victories. I don't have time to get it, and keep my word to you.

L-54 And of God, had raised him up for this purpose, and there he stands between those two posts, blinded, defeated, humiliated. He was still the same big bulk that he ever was, but his strength was gone.

L-55 The church is anything, it's stronger in membership than it ever was. But where is the Word, the strength, being manifested? It's been cut off from you, by your power-shaving organizations.

L-56 He had failed God. Not only had he failed God, but he failed his own people. He was a total failure. Now he was a prisoner to the very nation that God raised him up to destroy.

L-57 And here stands the last organization of the church, Pentecost, this afternoon, just as defeated as Samson was. You might not believe that. But if you'll just open your mind to the Word, you'll see it's the Truth.
Had him doing tricks, for entertainment.

L-58 How sometime I said, not long ago. These Full Gospel Business Men, as well as I love them, and in their magazine, writing up, "Holy Reverend Father So-and-so." You poor, deluded, blind Pentecostals! What's the matter with you? Don't you know our Saviour said, "Don't call no man on this earth, 'Father'?" Don't you realize the devil is only taking somebody that's been kicked out of one of those there, out here, and just making a laughingstock out of you? They are not coming in. Don't you let anybody tell you they are.

L-59 What's the matter with this deluded church? The world has punctured its eyes. Don't you know Jesus said that that would happen? And when the sleeping virgin come in to buy oil, she never got it. There is the sleeping virgin, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian. They are not getting it. They might speak with tongues and jump, but that don't mean anything. I've seen heathens do the same thing, and devil-worshipers, speak in tongues and jump, and sing and shout; drink blood out of a human skull, and call on the devil and speak in tongues. Don't you rely on sensations. It's the Word of God that don't pass.

L-60 There she is, defeated, just as much as Samson was defeated, doing tricks now. How Satan stand up and laugh at them, said, "Look, they claim they believe the Bible. Look!" Telling all the Angels of Heaven, "Look, look, they--they--they--they, yeah, they're Bible believers, each one of them, look at them all coming together. I'm going to throw them, every one, over, just exactly." Going to lead them right in, just exactly what the Scripture said. They have to do that. There they are, defeated. Delilah; eyes punctured so they can't see the Truth.

L-61 Jesus said to the Pharisees, "You've got eyes, and you can't see. You've got ears, and you can't hear." Why? Said, "Cause Isaiah said so." He referred back to the Word, the prophet. The God Himself, Jesus Christ, referred back to the Word of His prophet.

L-62 And, today, the Holy Spirit is bringing your memory back. "Heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God," women, painted faces, wearing shorts, acting like the world, bobbing their hair, and doing so forth, "having a form of godliness, but denying the Power thereof." Well, your own works prove that you don't believe. The Holy Spirit, in the Word, pointing right back to the Word again.

L-63 "Oh," you say, "I got It." When you take medicine for a disease, if it don't show up, you better change your medicine, you'll die in your sins.

L-64 The nation, the very purpose, the very thing that they was raised up to destroy, Samson, is now a victim.

L-65 And so is the church! Raised up to put denominationalism and the world in the denomination, to shame, and you've come right into the denomination. And by doing that, you can't follow the Scriptures, every one of them has got a different idea, so you lost your strength. That blinding devil!

L-66 Let a lure of a woman take him from the--the Word of God. Now you say, "Brother Branham, it wasn't." It was the Word of God. Delilah took Samson from the Word of promise.

L-67 And so has the Jezebel of this day taken the church, lured it from the Word of the promise, God's Holy Bible. Oh, same thing, same exactly thing! What did they do? Let Jezebel, spoke of in Revelation the 17, Revelation, 17th chapter, the Catholic church is represented there. And they tell you it's them, too. They don't... Their own book says so. They make no bones of it. How many ever read their own writing? You know that that's true. [Congregation says, "That's right."--Ed.] They say the Catholic church is represented. That's right. And remember, "She was the mother of harlots. She was a whore, and the mother of harlots." See, it had to be churches; not boys, it was girls, Protestant churches, "a mother of harlots." As soon as they organized, they done the same thing they did there, they stripped themselves from the Word, and have to follow the dictations of some organization.

L-68 I know this is not popular, but it's the Truth. I haven't got no big radio programs and television programs, support. God help me to never have. I only want one thing, and that's the support of Jesus Christ, by His Word. Let Him vindicate that I'm telling the Truth, by His Word; not some bogus, make-believe, unscruple thing; but the genuine Holy Spirit Himself, Who takes the promise of this day and shows that it's the Truth. That's all I long to see. Like Jesus said, "If I don't do the works of My Father, then don't believe Me."

L-69 Now blind! Oh, you say, "We're not blind." You are blind! The Bible said you was. Every Scripture reader knows that this is the Laodicea Church Age. How many believes that? [Congregation says, "Amen."--Ed.] Then, the Bible said that, "The Laodicea church was blind, naked, and didn't know it." There is the bad part, she don't even know it. She is worse than all the other church ages put together.

L-70 "The ox knows his master's crib, or stall, and the mule knows his crib, and," He said, "My people don't know."

L-71 Blind, spiritually blind! Blind to what? God's Word. Just as blind as they can be, and they don't want to see It. And you tell them; they'll say, "Oh, yes, I'm--I'm intending to do that," but none of them does it. They can't do it and maintain their fellowship in an organization; they'll kick them right out of it.

L-72 There she stands, Delilah shaved off his locks. Now he is--he is bobbed-haired; like the women in it, same thing. Now look at them, defeated, just like they was.

L-73 Ministers, the pentecostal messengers of the early days, you would have never made them men believe that their own children would organize seminaries, that they criticized, by the Word of God, and come out of. That's right. What, by these seminaries, have we got? They have brought world into the church. An old minister used to sing:
We let down the bars, we compromised with sin.
We let down the bars, the sheep got out, but how did the goats get in?

L-74 You let down the bars, got away from the Word. When Eve let down the bars, to intellectual reasonings of Satan, death come in; and the bars that God had her barred in with, was His Word of promise. And we have substituted something else, a creed, instead of the Word. Amen. You know that's the Truth.

L-75 What have we got, the Pentecostal people today? Too many Rickies. That word, Elvis and Ricky, you never heard of that in other days. It's a word, it's the name for this day. It goes with this. It means something.

L-76 You say, "A name means nothing." Then why did He change Abram's name, to Abraham? Why did He change Saul's name to Paul; Simon's name to Peter? Why did He change His Own Name?

L-77 Why did He change Jacob to Israel? Not until he wrestled with the Lord, not until he overcome. And when Jesus overcome death, hell and the grave, the Bible said, "He had a new Name." And when Jacob overcome.

L-78 And if the Church can overcome, she will stop saying, "I am Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian." When she can overcome her creeds and the world that's drawed her in there, she'll come back to the Bride of Jesus Christ, Mrs. Jesus Christ. Amen.
What a sad sight, as we see Samson standing there!

L-79 Women with short hair, wearing shorts, painted faces; and Pentecostals, calling themselves Christians, singing in the choir.

L-80 I was in the Pentecostal Assembly not long ago, in a great city where a famous, great man lives. And the meetings got so big, I had to take it over to a big place, and they had the selected Pentecostal choir. And little did they know I was setting right down behind the curtains, praying. And there every girl in that row of about thirty-five girls, and thirty-five boys, to sing The Messiah, was wearing make-up and bobbed hair. And when David duPlessis was taking up a missionary offering, they were acting like they were blind Bartimaeus, running along passing the cup. That's Pentecostal grandchildren. That ain't a Pentecostal servant of God with the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost won't make fun of His Own Word. He can't, and remain the Holy Ghost. But that's where you've got to. Oh, Samson, get to thinking a little bit!

L-81 Remember, these tapes are recorded and sent around the world. I'm just not only speaking to this group here.

L-82 Samson begin to think of his errors. Oh! And he begin to think of what he was one time.

L-83 Pentecost, think what you was nineteen hundred years ago. Church, Catholic, Protestant, think what you were nineteen hundred years ago, and look what you are today. Study a little while.
Just got about eight more minutes, to keep my word.

L-84 Notice, but while he was standing there, he cried, he begin to think of his errors, and when he begin to think of what had happened to him. He was blind, therefore he couldn't see no more. He, he has accepted something else. For the love of this woman, that's what got him, and then she turned him down.

L-85 Oh, what a trap I could speak on here, that Satan has set for the church. Just get your eyes blinded from the Truth, and, that's what, they got you then. And if you only knew it! One of these days God is going to prove it to you, what the mark of the beast is. Uh-huh. Notice, but when once blinded, there she stands.

L-86 And there he stood. And he begin to remember the things of his errors, where he had left the straight, narrow road, where he had got away from God's promise. And he cried out, "Lord, revenge my eyes!" Why did he do this? He knew there was a possibility.
Now is where I want you to listen.

L-87 Samson must have thought of all where he had left the path. He saw it then, it's too late now. He saw it, where he had left the path, and he thought, "There must be a possibility that God would answer." He knew if he could repent and get God to see that he was sorry for his error, there was a possibility that God would still achieve His promise.

L-88 God will do it. He is going to do it. Same now, God is going to have that Church! Don't you worry, She is going to be there. The Holy Spirit will be moving so in the Church till the Church and Christ will be the same Spirit. Luther stood then on the feet, in justification; Wesley stood in the heartbeat of love, of sanctification; but this is raised up to the head now; see, more than that. She denominated, and the husbandman come along and pruned the vine; they died, they never did come back no more. They never will come back no more. But still there is a seed of Life there that's coming on.

L-89 But, notice, Samson thought there must be a--a possibility. He caught the idea.

L-90 But the sad part is, today, the church don't catch that. They don't realize that there is a possibility of a revival. They don't realize the possibility. They haven't caught the vision yet. They just set.

L-91 "Oh," they say, "now, Brother Branham, what are you doing?"

L-92 Oh, I know you clap your hands and have great big gatherings, and glittering with worldly tinsel. You have to go to the biggest places. You have to have the most, best entertained. You have to do this, that, or the other. Your pastor must be a seminary scholar with a doctor's degree. Or, you can't tell your neighbors down there that your pastor is some little guy out of the cornfield out there, that got saved. He is, "Our pastor is Doctor LL.D. So-and-so." To me, that means he's just that far away from God. That's all, just that far away, for intellects always takes him away. Oh, you're shining with scholarship.

L-93 And another thing, about a lot of this modern evangelism today, all the way from Pentecost all the way back, is a bunch of Hollywood showmanship. Yeah, you certainly are glittering with that, as the tinsels in the hall of the fish-god Dagon. But that tinsel and scholarship, and intellectual showmanship with a great bright, letting all the public see any defeat and so forth, all that stuff like that, intellectual conceptions of the Gospel, and so forth, that don't bring the Power of God to make women quit wearing bobbed hair, and men to act like they should, take their place in the house and raise their children like they ought to. It don't bring the Spirit of God.
Samson stood there, just as big a bulk as he ever was.

L-94 And the church stands stronger in members than it did forty years ago, but where is the Spirit of God? Oh, my! Where is the Spirit of God in it? I see the spirit of Hollywood. I see the spirit of the world. I see the spirit of glamour. Go right through, I've been fifteen years preaching against it, and it's just worsening all the time. I can see it, and I can see the spirit there. But where is the Spirit of God that can grasp God, that can recognize the Word Itself when It's made manifest, can recognize Truth? Only the Spirit of God can do that. That's right. You can take glitter, polish, showmanship.

L-95 Samson had just as big a body as he ever had, but his strength was taken from him.

L-96 The church, Pentecost today, stands. I believe, three years ago, the Sunday Visitor of the Catholic church, said that they had "a million conversions to Catholicism in one year, but the Pentecostal church had one million five hundred thousand, more than that." Well, what have you got when you got it? I would rather have had five that could surrender their life to Christ. He can do more with five men, or one man, surrendered, than He could with forty million outside. What does members mean? Just means another thing, that you're blinded, and adding more strength to the harlot. Right.
Notice, the church today is not willing to pay the price.

L-97 Samson prayed the right kind of a prayer, "Lord, let me die with this enemy." Oh, my!

L-98 There you are. You don't want to die to your pride. You don't want to die to the things of the world.

L-99 Now, remember, I'm talking to literally thousands around the world, when I'm saying this. See? I'm just not speaking here in Chicago. I'm speaking at the world.

L-100 You don't want to die, but the only way that there is a possibility of a revival. You blinded Samson, can't you see that the Delilah has blinded your eyes? And the only way that you'll ever be able to bring back the strength to the church, is to die to the enemy that's got you in this worldly-ism.
Samson said, "Let me die with the enemy."

L-101 There is a great price to pay. You must die to the thing that's brought you in this thing. You must die to the thing that's brought you, you Pentecostal people, to where you are this afternoon. You've got to die to it.

L-102 Samson was willing to pay the price to get the power of God back in his life again.

L-103 I wonder if the church is, this afternoon, willing to pay the price and die with the enemy, the thing, all your popularity, and all your this, that, or the other, just to see the power of God back on you again, and become a prisoner of Jesus Christ?

L-104 Oh, I hear some of you say, "Oh, yes, we, we're having revivals." But it's denomination revivals. The Oneness wants to take all the Threeness and make them all Oneness. The Threeness wants to take all the Oneness and--and make them Threeness. The church of God wants to take the church of God of Prophecy. One wants to take the other, making big denom-... Don't you realize you're only catering to men?

L-105 We are brethren. There is no denomination can separate the love of God. We are brethren. "This will all men know you're My disciples, when you have love one for the other."
Say, "What are you hollering about them then?"

L-106 Love is corrective. If love doesn't correct, then it's not love. You see your child down on the street, and don't give him a little bit of posterior protoplasm stimulation, you--you're not a good dad. But a real mother or dad will turn him up and spank him, let him know he's got to get out of the street, or perish. That's genuine love. But to say, "Junior, dear, I don't know. You, maybe you shouldn't be out there at this time of day, the end time, when the cars are going pretty fast." Oh, nonsense, you sissified preacher, not the audacity to take God's Word and call white white and black black, right right and wrong wrong. But they do it.

L-107 Yeah, we have revivals alright, but look at your morals behind these revivals. Don't change them a bit; getting farther from God, and to the world, all the time. Notice.

L-108 Samson knew what was going to happen if his prayer was answered.

L-109 But we haven't counted the cost yet. What's going to happen if God answers your prayer to become a real, genuine child of God? You know you're gone from your denomination, right then. And them women that you play bridge with, and everything? Oh, no! You're gone, and that's all. Better count it up, first.

L-110 But Samson said, "Let me die." He was willing to pay the price. And he knew...

L-111 Listen close now at this remark. He knew that his present backslid condition could never meet the challenge of that hour. Yet, he was just as much man as he ever was, in his muscles. His frame was as big as it ever was. He was just as big a muscle that ever could raise up on his arm at any time, it was probably larger, because he had been grinding down in the... doing heavier work.

L-112 We got better churches, better buildings and everything, but where is our strength, spiritually speaking? Oh, we could take a vote in the nation. Sure, we could do these things, but that--that ain't what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the Presence of God being recognized among us. That's what we ought to live for.

L-113 He knew that his backslidden condition could not meet the challenge of that hour.

L-114 And so does the church know it now. We can't do it under this condition. You can't do it. Denominations does not vindicate the Word; it denies the Word. The very denomination itself denies the Word as soon as it's denominated. Just the thing itself, you just get on the other side, to begin with. It denies the Word. All the time...

L-115 I've just a little minute or two, longer. But notice, as I hurry now and keep my word.

L-116 All the times while they were all standing there, and these thoughts was going through their mind; and I hope it sends some through yours. They never noticed while, Samson, his thoughts went through his mind. Maybe they passed the bottle, took a drink again. Their fine Hollywood women stood there with their cigarette in their mouth, if it was such a thing in that day; I don't think they got quite that low in that day. But pushed up their hair and took another drink, and hollering, "Hello, Joseph, or John, or you up there somewhere! We played cards together last night, was out at a big party." [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]

L-117 "There is a possibility that God will hear me. There is a possibility." And while he thought, the Philistines had not noticed him, while this little boy had untied his hands, walked back. He said, "Lay my hands upon the post." "There is a possibility." Oh, my!

L-118 I wish the church could see that. There is a possibility of a real revival.

L-119 What did he do? He raised up his sockets (he had no eyes) towards God. They never noticed the moving of his lips, as he was sincerely confessing.

L-120 We don't need just a little, "Lord, forgive me and Jim, Joe and all of us. Amen." We need a sincere cleaning up, from the pulpit to the janitor.

L-121 They never noticed the tears running down from them sockets where he once had eyes. They never noticed the moving of his lips. His eyes, briny tears streaming down from the sockets. He wanted God to make His Word once more vindicated, to prove, as I say to this Delilah today, or this Samson, rather, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever!"

L-122 "Once more," he thought, "it would happen. Not a new denomination, not a new sectarian, but a vindicated Word from You, God! I know You are still God. I am blind. I've got off the track. I'm not worthy to live. Let me die with this enemy. You raised me up to destroy it, and I have failed You, Lord, but there is a possibility You'd hear me. Once more, Lord, once more!" In dead earnest he prayed. He knowed what was coming. "Lord, just this once more! Once more let me see Jesus Christ as He was yesterday!" When he prayed that prayer, and the tears rolling from his cheeks, with deep sincerity of confession!

L-123 That's what the church needs. Confess you're wrong. Don't care what Doctor Jones says, or what anybody else says. If you're out of the Word of God, confess it, that you're wrong. Cry out, "Once more, Lord, once more! Once more, Lord, once more! Avenge my blindness upon these denominations! And give me strength, Lord, to shake this denominational world, with Your vindication. Give me strength, Lord. Once more prove it!"

L-124 He knew what was going to happen if his prayer was answered. He knew, dead earnest, crying, "Once more, Lord!" And while he was praying, and making his honest confession, every fiber in his body begin to vibrate.

L-125 O God, if the Body of Jesus Christ could stand as one, and every fiber and every member begin to vibrate with the literal baptism of the Holy Ghost again; not with new members, and shaking hands, and some creed.

L-126 As the strength begin to move into those big muscles, every fiber begin to twist. He begin to feel himself again, and he twisted out. And, when he did, the big wall fell.

L-127 All we need to do today, is, to see these denominational walls fall, is get deeply sincere before God, to heal these blinded eyes that's been blinded from the Word of God.

L-128 That was Samson's greatest victory he ever had, because he was willing to confess, over every enemy first that he was brought up to destroy.

L-129 Oh, Pentecost, stand at your post this afternoon, your post of the duty of God's Word. Repent, and cry aloud, "Lord God, once more!" Let me tell you something. You had better destroy your enemy before your enemy destroys you. That's right. Bring back the old-fashion prayer meetings, the real godly repentance, the all-night altar service. Oh, Pentecost, hear me! Leave, oh, leave this corruption that Jezebel has worked among you. Leave it, leave it quickly, and return back to the Word of the Lord, away from this Hollywood showmanship. Turn with your whole heart, back to the Word of God. Turn back to the Power of the Holy Ghost. You women dress like women, you men act like men, like sons and daughters of God. Turn, oh, turn from this Jezebel system that's choking you and blinding you. God help us to have a true repentance; not half-heartedly, you can't do it.

L-130 How I think today, at this very moment when my time is up, we should stand to our feet, and cry, with our hands in the air, "Lord, once more! Once more, O Lord, once more!"

L-131 Let's stand, everybody that's willing to do it, to see a revival; that's ready to die to this Hollywood showmanship; everybody that's ready to die, to see "the Power of God come to Zion, and with joy, all His holy mountains nothing hurt or shall destroy."

L-132 Let's raise our hands, and cry, "Once more, Lord!" Once more, Lord! Once more, Lord! Once more, Lord, send the Holy Ghost, with a mighty rushing Wind like You did on the Day of Pentecost. Amen. [Congregation continues in prayer and praise unto God--Ed.]