Categories of Eternal Life Pt.3
And the Mysteries of the World to Come
II CORINTHIANS 12:2-4
2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. (The first heaven is where the birds are flying around. The second heaven is where the moon and planets are (Space), and the third heaven is a dimension beyond these first two heavens but yet only 20 feet away. Paul is actually speaking here of himself of an experience that he had had beyond the curtain of time. We have also had a man in this generation that has had that same experience)
3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
(Paul was forbidden by God to speak of his experience beyond the curtain of time because there were certain truths that had to remain sealed up until the last days of when the gentile prophet of Revelation 10:7 would appear on the scene)
II CORINTHIANS 5:1-2
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. (Paul knew this because of his experience more than 14 years prier of where he experienced being out of his earthly body and in a new body – he could not tell which body he was in because both felt so real - these are the places where deeper truth is hidden in the bible)
2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
Categories of Eternal Life Pt.3
And the Mysteries of the World to Come
A deeper knowledge of the Lord will ultimately draw you closer to the Lord in your relationship with Him, because to know Him by the true revelation of his word is to truly know Him. “No true believer is any stronger and spiritually healthy and alive than his knowledge of and adherence (“sticking to" or "being faithful to” – “holding fast”) to the pure Word of God” CAB.
**So these things that we are speaking of is for the purpose to have the effect of opening up our understanding more of the grace of God of what he has in future store for us as individuals, because he truly careth for you. He loves to care for people – this will be his role as God throughout eternity.
*All these things that we are speaking of are design to deepen our relationship with the Lord, because if we drew nearer to him in the revelation of Himself to us, then He promised to also draw nearer to us, and there is nothing greater in the world then to walk closer to the Lord. And this is how Enoch walk with God just before his translation.
**We all know that your human earthly body is the house that your spirit of consciousness lives in, and it lives from within that house. In other words your spirit cannot voluntarily leave that house because there is a lock on the door that can only be opened to let your spirit out of your body only under special circumstances.
*So your eyes are like the windows of the house that you look out into the outside world from your dwelling place within.
*You are conscious because you are a spirit, and your spirit lives in a house called a human body – the body on its own has no consciousness of its own, it is your spirit that is the conscious part, that is why when a person’s spirit leaves their body, they still retain their full consciousness outside of their body.
A human being is a spiritual being that lives in a body, while an animal is a body with a spirit in it – a dog has a dog spirit in it, a cat has a cat spirit and nature in it.
**We have been studying quite deeply on the 5th seal in our midweek services, and we know that the Holy Spirit placed within that message the account of the experience that Brother Branham had of beyond the curtain of time.
*And it was this experience that revealed the category of these people that he met there, of whom was his group of all those of who would be identified in association with his ministry on earth. In fact, the Holy Spirit told him that all that he ever loved, and all that had ever loved him, God had given eternal life to those people in the capacity of their category of eternal life.
**There were many people who did good deeds towards the prophet throughout his life that may not even be a part of the bride group – someone gave him a ham burger once, then there was the man that gave a big discount for the hire of a venue for some meetings, then there was this certain hospital that didn’t charge him for his checkups, then other people made him blueberry pies and gave him gifts and many other expressions of love. All these small things of life of what often seemed so very little, God would not forget those things, and so he promised (on His prophet’s account) to grant these people that were associated with him in this life a place in the great eternal kingdom that is to come, and there is plenty of room over there. If there is a million mile of mountain ranges for those who like walking around the mountains, then on this account alone there is plenty of room for everyone over there.
THE.FIFTH.SEAL_ JEFF.IN FRIDAY_ 63-0322
370-2 {296} I--I'm watching that clock back there, and I know we're--we're getting late, but I don't want to... See, I--I... Them noticing them poor fellows standing there, God help you, brethren. I hope each one of you are given a white robe that day too. See? Standing, changing back and forth with legs hurting, and some of you worked all day. I know what that is. And look here... And some of the poor little old women standing. I notice some of these men give the women their seats, and somebody else give some poor little mother with a baby... And I--I see all that, and I'm sure He does.
**When Brother Branham went beyond the curtain of time, he then realized that he actually had two bodies that were both in existence at the same time, because God had simply let him go out of one body of one house and go into another house and look out of the window of that new house, and so he found himself very suddenly in another body that was just as real, and so he was able to look back at his earthly body (house) that was just as real lying on his bed with his hands behind his head back on planet earth, and both of these worlds were real and only 20 feet away from each other. He was the owner of the body on the bed in this world, and he was also the owner of a body in another world that was just as real.
And so he realized that his consciousness had simply moved into another body that was alive and in another world with his other body still alive in this world but without his consciousness in it. **And so what he realized was that this new body that he was in was just as real as the one he had left on the bed.
***These are some of the things of where our focus of study has been over the last few weeks because it is the opening of the 5th seal that fully opens our understanding of the truth concerning these things – and so we want to continue in this channel of revelation because it pertains to our future home of where we will live throughout eternity in a superior body that is immortal and that can never age and never die.
*These truths were the things that had been shadowed in mystery until this last age of when the seven seals would be opened to give us a full and clear understanding of what lays just beyond this life and in the worlds that are to come.
I CORINTHIANS 15:38-44
38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
Paul is speaking here from a knowledge that he no doubt had gained (at least in part) from his experience beyond the curtain of time of what he makes reference to in 2nd Corinthians 12.
**Paul (the messenger of the first church age) most likely thought similar thoughts to how Brother Branham imagined about when a person died, that their body was in the grave and so their spirit floated around on some kind of celestial cloud until the resurrection of the body at either the out resurrection from among the dead, or at the general resurrection when all that have died will be raised up at the time of the great white throne judgement.
**So God placed certain experiences in Paul’s life that would partly opened up the revelation of these things, and so that he would write them in the scriptures in order to lay a foundation for an end time messenger that God would use to open up the fullness of the truth that Paul was forbidden to speak about. Things concerning the reality of our new bodies that our spirits and consciousness will dwell in after that we have laid off our old overcoats of these terrestrial bodies.
**And so we must also understand that Brother Branham said that he was only striking the highlights of these truths, and that there was so much more detail that laid under these truths that would take him months if he was to speak about everything that was revealed to him.
THE.SECOND.SEAL_ JEFF.IN TUESDAY_ 63-0319
187-1 {71} ... And you remember on this we're just striking the highlights of it. Just... My, if--when I get in that room there and--and that anointing comes in, if I could write down what He--what all goes on, I'd be here for three months on one of the Seals. So I just strike the places and let it out just what it would seem to be that wouldn't choke the people…
THE.FIFTH.SEAL_ JEFF.IN FRIDAY_ 63-0322
337-5 {33} ... We... You can't possibly hit all the things, if--'cause you could take that--just one of those Seals and stay, just--just bring it right through the Scripture, right down. See, it take months and months and months, and you still wouldn't have it, 'cause the--the Seal itself ties the entire Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, one Seal of it.
So he is telling us here that he never had time to “hit” all the details of the places of truth because it would have taken him months and months and months to bring all of these things out. And so this is why we have to stop and ponder and let the Holy Spirit enable us to dig deeper in order to see the details according to the high points of truth that the prophet laid out.
REVELATION 6:9-11
9 ¶ And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11a And white robes were given unto every one of them;
These white robes is speaking of the new immortal bodies that will be furnished by God to these Jewish martyrs. When Brother Branham saw his group, they were already in new bodies (theophany bodies which is a spoken word of God created body that didn’t need a mother’s womb to produce). And then when the complete bride body group of 7 church ages is complete, then they will all come back to this world and will unite their theophany bodies with their earthly bodies so that both of these bodies together will form one single glorified body that is immortal. This glorified body will have the ability to eat food and drink water of what the theophany body could not.
*Our earthly human body that our spirits came into at birth was furnished as a result of the union of our earthly parents – this is why it has all the defects and problems and unwanted chemistry – and this was the difference that Brother Branham made reference to while experience that new body – it lack all the problems associated with earthly sex born bodies.
***So when this 5th seal opened on the 22nd of March 1963, we find that Brother Branham is filling in many details that Paul had left out of what it was unlawful for Paul to speak about at that time.
***So we want to try to ponder these things a little deeper of what Brother Branham touch on as high points.
WHY.LITTLE.BETHLEHEM_ JEFF.IN V-19 N-13 SUNDAY_ 58-1228
43 … so we have to strike just the high points, trusting that the Holy Spirit, to you Bible readers, will place the rest of it into your heart as we go along.
THE.FOURTH.SEAL_ JEFF.IN THURSDAY_ 63-0321
286-6 {55} …And now, of course I don't try to pull out every Scripture in there, and there's things that you can't even speak about; take too much time. But I try to place out here with Scriptures and so forth just enough to give the people so it'll let them know and see the picture of it.
But if you'd set down with one of them Seals, why, my, you could take a month's sermons every night right on that Seal and still not even touch it (See?), on one of them. And that's how--how much there is to it. But I just hit the high spots of it, then you can--you can see what it's all about.
ADOPTION.3_ JEFF.IN AD.3 SUNDAY_ 60-0522M
215 ..But this is the day of the manifestation of the sons of God, when the mysteries that been hid since the foundation of the world is to be made known. This is the hour.
We are continuing with our subject on the “Categories of Eternal life” and we have come to learn by the teaching of the message of the hour that there are different categories of eternal life of different groups of people at different times and at different seasons of history like these different Jewish groups etc.
The bible tells us in:
MARK 16:15-16
15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Yet we find a paradox at the opening of the 5th seal, because these souls under the alter were not martyred Christians as were previously thought, but it was showing a people (in this case, the Hitler and Eichmann group) of many Jewish groups who were not Christians and of whom had actually rejected Christ, and yet they were a saved people that will be given white robes of eternal bodies and have eternal life – this is a great paradox to the human mind.
**We have known since the death of Christ that those who believe and are baptized shall be saved - the scripture tells us so, but we have not understood about these other categories of eternal life.
There are many other categories of people who will receive eternal life, in fact some of these people are save based only on their good deeds that they did to the lest of the elected of God.
281-2 SARDISEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK CPT.7
And if there are those who will enter into life eternal after the White Throne judgment solely on the grounds of being good and kind and just to the elect of God who are His brethren, then we cannot but accept that.
***So we have to accept by the scriptures that there will be other categories of people that will be given eternal life based solely on the grounds of their being good and kind to the elect of God.
The attitude that they expressed in this life toward the elect of God was reflecting something here of the attitude of how they will act toward the elect on the other side.
**So when the seals opened, it showed us that the kingdom of heaven is made up of many different categories of people. So we want to ponder a little deeper into some of these categories.
HERE.WE.HAVE.NO.CONTINUING.CITY_ LITTLE.ROCK.AR 50-0200
E-69
And I went back there in the kitchen, cold frost coming up through the floor. And I never will forget, I opened up the mail. The first mail I opened up, it said on there, "Miss Sharon Rose Branham." It was her little Christmas saving. The banker knew that she'd never draw it, so... Dollar and eighty cents. He sent it to me. Oh, I just couldn't stand it. I broke down and started crying. It was getting towards night. I knelt down on the floor. And I started crying and praying. And I... Oh, what a hour.. I couldn't hardly stand it.
E-70 I went to sleep laying there. I dreamed. I thought I was out West. And when I was out West, I was walking down through the prairie, and I was whistling that song:
The wheel on the wagon is broken,
Sign on the ranch, "For Sale."
I was whistling like that, and I seen an old prairie schooner and a wheel broke down. And standing there by that schooner, stood the most beautiful blond-headed girl with her pretty blue eyes shining, dressed in white. And I had my hat on... my hat. And I passed by, and I said, "Howdy do, miss," and put my hat back like that.
And she said, "Hello, dad."
And I looked around, and I said, "Dad?"
She said, "Sure."
I said, "Well, young lady, I beg your pardon." I said, "I--I... You're as old as I am. How could I be your daddy?"
She said, "Daddy, don't you know me?"
And I said, "No, ma'am. I'm afraid I don't."
She said, "You just don't know where you are, daddy."
And I said, "Well, I... What do you mean?"
She said, "Where's Billy Paul?" That's her little brother.
And I said, "I--I... What is this?"
She said, "Daddy, on earth, I was your little Sharon."
I said, "Sharon? My baby?"
She said, "Yes, daddy." Said, "Remember, we're immortal here. When we come here, we're not little babies no more. We're all one age."
***This is showing us a mystery of were babies go when they die, in fact all children under the age of accountability of around 12 to 14 years and even older in some cases – this is a category of eternal life. A baby cannot accept Christ because its level of thinking cannot understand such things – yet look at the grace of God upon every baby and child that dies – there have been millions upon millions of them down through the history of humanity. This is a category of people who will have eternal life and an eternal position foreordained by God for each one of them in that future eternal land – the message of the hour makes this truth clear to us.
And I said, "Oh, honey. Are you Sharon?" She said... I said, "Where's mother?"
Said, "She's up at your--the new home."
I said, "A home?"
Said, "Yeah."
I said, "Well, honey, something wrong here." I said, "Branhams never had homes. We're more like the vagabond people." I said that, "We--we don't have no home."
She said, "But, daddy, you got one up here." (Notice - He had a real house over there of what he didn’t have here. Everything that we think that we miss out on in this life, don’t worry because we will receive it over there – so this is where our real treasure is stored of where moth and rust won’t decay it. Nothing in this world lasts very long because of decay and death, but over there, there is no decay)
I looked around over to my right, and there was a great big beautiful home. And there was lights shining up all around. (We could ask the question as to were these lights powered by electricity like we have on earth, or by some advanced power technology of a supernatural power source? – these are the things that we need to think about because it will help us to understand how much more advanced that that great kingdom is compared to this earthly one)
She said, "Mother's waiting for you. I'm going to wait here for Billy."
(Where was she waiting? What geographical location in that place was she going to wait. So we are also being shown that there is geography over there - there are different geographical locations that people can wait – there are hills and plains and grasses and birds and animals and houses and trees and flowers and mountains and valleys – on and on we could go.)
I said, "All right, honey." I took out running as hard as I could, my hat in my hand. I run right up to the step. When I got there, Hope would usually meet me coming out with her arms out. And I went up and run up the steps just hard as I could. And I got top of the steps, here she come dressed in white, that black hair hanging down. She come running up to me, she raised out her arms. I run to her, throwed my hat down, and just knelt down by the side of her. She put her hand on my head. She said, "Bill, what are you worried about, honey?"
I said, "Hope, I can't stand it any longer." I said, "I seen... Is that Sharon Rose down there?"
She said, "Yes, Bill." She said, "What's you worried about? You worrying about me and Sharon?"
And I said, "Honey, I--I just can't stand it. I..."
She said, "Stop worrying." Said, "Don't worry, we're lots better off than you are."
And I said, "That may be so." But I said, "Hope, didn't she make a pretty woman? Aren't we proud of her?"
She said, "Sure." She said, "Aren't you tired?"
And I said, "Honey, I just been preaching and praying for the sick so long." And that's the way I know I'll go. It had to come--it hadn't come yet. I said, "I just been preaching and praying for the sick till I'm so tired I can't hardly stand up."
She said, "Won't you sit down?"
And I looked, and there was a great big Morris chair setting there. And I looked at her, and she looked back at me. Said, "I know what you're thinking."
(We never knew that there were Morris chairs in heaven until God sent a prophet to this generation)
LIFE.STORY_ PHOENIX.AZ SUNDAY_ 51-0415A
E-116 She said, "Do you remember that chair they come and got?" (She is referring to the Morris chair that they had repossessed here on earth – God inspired a furniture maker (Mr. William Morris) on earth to build a chair of what was from the pattern of an eternal one that existed in heaven that belong to his prophet – the one on earth was only a replica of the real one in heaven)
And I said, "Yes, honey."
She said, "They'll never come get this one. This one's yours." She said, "Set down." Said, "Promise me you won't worry." (So get the picture here – he is sitting in a Morris chair in heave that is an eternal chair of what the temporal one that he had acquired on earth was made from the pattern of the eternal one that was in heaven – this is what we have just read)
She put her arms around me, and I said, "Honey, I promise you I'd never worry again."
I woke up and I was in the room, and I could still feel her arms around me. But from that day to this, I haven't worried about it. They're beyond the blue.
These things were laid in the message back in 1950 as a complementary foundation to the opening of the 5th seal and of Brother Branham’s experience beyond the curtain of time.