The Bride and the American Church

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Revelation 18:1 KJV 1900
1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Revelation 18:2 KJV 1900
2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, And is become the habitation of devils, And the hold of every foul spirit, And a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Revelation 18:3 KJV 1900
3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, And the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Revelation 18:4 KJV 1900
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, That ye be not partakers of her sins, And that ye receive not of her plagues.

Introduction

On July 3, 1964, , while sitting at a shopping center in Jeffersonville, grieved in his heart at the immorality on display in his hometown, Bro. Branham had a vision.
I fell into a trance. And, when I did, there was Somebody with me. I didn’t see the Person. It was just a Voice. And I looked. And as I looked this way, He said, “The Bride will come in view for preview.”
And I looked, coming to me, and I seen the most prettiest bunch of clean-dressed women I ever seen in my life. But each one of them, looked like, was dressed different. They all had long hair. And they were longer sleeves and skirts, and so forth. Young women, they looked kind of, I’d say, about maybe twenty.
But, when this Bride, She was looking right at…The one was talking to me, and I, standing together. Her eyes, She was the cleanest, sweetest-looking people I ever seen in my life. Look like it could have been a dozen, or more, just…I don’t know how many was abreast, but there just in a group of them.
And She passed by, sweetly, with a air. And Her eyes up, watching, as She passed by. Oh, She was beautiful! I looked at Her, and as She passed by. He said, “Now we shall review…” Said, “That’s the Bride.”
“Now we will review the churches.” And they come. I noticed them coming up. And when they come up, each one, look like, got worse. I never seen such a filthy bunch in my life.
And when He said, “Next,” I heard a noise. And It said, “Next,” said, “here comes the American group.”
(The church was separated by national group, the Bride was not)
Now, I am an American, but this made me sick. I am not eloquent enough to, in a mixed audience, to say what was taking place. And you’ll have to read between the lines. But when the women were coming, the leader of them was a witch.
He said they had a half inch strap on top and lace paper on the bottom. This is the way women dress in public now.
And each one had hair cut up real short, and frizzy-looking things all over it like that, real short-cut hair; and full of makeup. Absolutely nothing but looked like street prostitutes.
And they were walking with this paper, and, the vulgarity! Now, the paper was what was holding in front of them. But when they passed the review stand, in the back of them…And to see the way they were going on, in their foremost and their back part, and how they were acting! I said, “Is that the Church?”
And there she went. And they were singing this here twist-and-roll songs, you know, or ever what you call, going down, singing that and going by. I said, “Is that the Church?” And I was standing there, and in my heart I was crying.
And, this witch, to my notion it’s nothing else in the world but she’s a…She is that World Council of Churches, leading them right straight down the road where she was going.
They went off to the left, and disappeared in chaos; still beating this music and making real funny sounds, and shaking their bodies, one side and then the other side. And then, like that, carrying on like that, walking.
And I just started to bow my head, and He said, “Wait, the Bride must come again.”
(Before this Message, that is all there was. There were a few holiness groups, but they are headed the same direction as the others.)
And I looked, and here they come again. And they passed by, a sweet-looking little ladies. They was all looking right at me, as they passed by.
And I noticed each one was dressed different. And one in the back had kind of long hair hanging down, and had it rolled around like this; might have been German or something like that. And I watched them.
And then as they started leaving, two or three of them, in the back, kind of get out of step, and I was going to holler at them. And they was trying to get back in step again. And I seen them, just the vision just fade out and change, from me. 64-0705 - "The Masterpiece"
If we saw the church the way God sees it, of course we would all want to be identified with that Bride group.
What does it take to be in that group?
What is the Bride?
The idea of the Gentile church being the Bride, or the Wife of Christ is first introduced by Paul.
Ephesians 5:23 KJV 1900
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
John expands on this idea of the church as a Bride.
Revelation 19:7 KJV 1900
7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
His wife. The Bride. the one who belongs to Him and with Him.
Revelation 21:1 KJV 1900
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Revelation 21:2 KJV 1900
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Revelation 21:3 KJV 1900
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Revelation 21:4 KJV 1900
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Revelation 21:5 KJV 1900
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
Revelation 21:6 KJV 1900
6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Revelation 21:7 KJV 1900
7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Revelation 21:8 KJV 1900
8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.
Revelation 21:9 KJV 1900
9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.
He showed him our future home.
The Bride are all those who are chosen by God before the foundation of the earth to live in that city.
Oh, what will it look like? Did you ever think now, Bride, what it will look like? It is prepared and designed by the Divine Architect.
The Divine Architect has prepared it, designed it. And, look, He has designed it with tender hands, for His beloved Bride. What’s it going to look like?
Could you imagine a man marrying a wife, that’s able, how he builds and puts every little thing just exactly to her touch, just what she would like? Amen.
Now, the Divine Architect has designed the New City, where He will live with His Bride, just to Her touch. No wonder the apostle said, “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, or neither has ever entered the heart of man.”
The Divine Architect has designed this for His Beloved. See? Oh, what a place it must be, when, Divine Nature, a Divine Architect has designed it for a Divine attribute that’s been Divinely predestinated by a Divine God Who is the Author of Divine Life! 64-0802 - "The Future Home Of The Heavenly Bridegroom And The Earthly Bride"
What is the American church?
The word church means “called out”
The American church is all those who claim to be the wife of Christ, but like Israel, who claimed to be His wife yet continually flirted with idolatry, the church does what she wants, not what He commands.
Isaiah 4:1 KJV 1900
1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: Only let us be called by thy name, To take away our reproach.
Bro. Branham sees this as a prophesy of the immorality of our day. The same thing he was grieved by when he saw the vision.
It’s a Laodicean church.
Revelation 3:14 KJV 1900
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Revelation 3:15 KJV 1900
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Revelation 3:16 KJV 1900
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Revelation 3:17 KJV 1900
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Revelation 3:18 KJV 1900
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Bro. Branham sees the church, especially the American group, and he feels sick inside.
I stood there in His Presence. I thought, “O God, as a minister, if that’s the best we could do? Oh! Oh!” You know how you feels. Then I thought, “God, hide me. If I could just get away from here. If all that we’ve done, and that’s what we have to produce, if that’s what?”
And then when them women passed by, all doing all kinds of rocks and things, and short hair, and painted faces. And as they passed by like that, supposed to be virgins to Christ. And when she passed by like that, I turned my head, you know, with this holding in front of me.
It was disgraceful, the back of them. And there they was, going like that. And I turned my head, to weeping, like that.
I said, “I couldn’t stand it in there. Him standing there, and me know that me, a minister of the Church, and that’s what I had produced for Him.” I said, “O God, I can’t look at it. Let me die. Let me fade away,” and like that.
And as soon as it went out, every time one of them would come, they’d go out to a certain place, then drop off. I’d just hear the sound of it as it went away.
This is not the end of the story, there would be an Omega Bride.
Then I heard something like Onward, Christian Soldiers. I looked, and here come that sainted bunch of little girls just exactly the way they was, all correctly dressed, their hair hanging way down on their back.
Smooth, clean, marching like this, to the step of the Gospel. She was the Word. They looked like one out of every nation. I was looking at it as they passed by, and seen them pass by. Instead of going down, they started going up.
I noticed one of them trying, two or three of them trying, getting out of line. I screamed, “Stay in line!” And the vision left me. And I was standing in the room, screaming, “Stay in line! 65-1204 - "The Rapture"
The rest of the story.
Isaiah 4:2 KJV 1900
2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, And the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely For them that are escaped of Israel.
Isaiah 4:3 KJV 1900
3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, And he that remaineth in Jerusalem, Shall be called holy, Even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
Isaiah 4:4 KJV 1900
4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, And shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof By the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
That’s our future home.
Look at the contrast.
The church, like Israel during the Old Testament, could be put away. Not so the Bride.
The Bride’s relationship with Him is not transactional. It’s unconditional.
Hebrews 12:18 KJV 1900
18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
Hebrews 12:19 KJV 1900
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
Hebrews 12:20 KJV 1900
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
Hebrews 12:21 KJV 1900
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:)
Hebrews 12:22 KJV 1900
22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Hebrews 12:23 KJV 1900
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Hebrews 12:24 KJV 1900
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
The Bride has been washed.
Ephesians 5:25 KJV 1900
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Ephesians 5:26 KJV 1900
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Ephesians 5:27 KJV 1900
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
How does He wash it? By His Word.
How do you know which group you belong in? The Bride from every nation? Or the church of any nation?
You can’t switch sides. If you were in the mind of God you will end up in this Bride group.
John 17:6 KJV 1900
6 I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
John 17:7 KJV 1900
7 Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
John 17:8 KJV 1900
8 For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
This is the difference.
Look at the vision.
The American church, and all the churches of the world were behaving according to the voice they were listening to.
Their dress, their attitude, their music, all of it a result of being led by the world council of churches. Led by men and man’s ideas.
The bride had no visible leader, but there was a prophet standing there, and one who spoke to him.
Two people, with two voices were watching the Bride preview.
One was the voice of a prophet, the other was the voice of Elohim.
Revelation 18:1 KJV 1900
1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Revelation 18:2 KJV 1900
2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, And is become the habitation of devils, And the hold of every foul spirit, And a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Come out of her! God sent a mighty angel, or, a messenger. And his Light wasn’t in a corner, It scattered over the earth. Come out of her! What? Her, and her sisters, too. To lighten the earth, and call His people out of her.
Now, you know that’s the Truth. A messenger was sent from Heaven, to call God’s people out of Babylon. And his Light lighted the earth, great Holy Spirit. 62-1111E - "Why I'm Against Organized Religion"
Notice, this is the angel of Light, remember, the last angel, it’s the angel in the church age to the Laodicea. It’s the Laodicea messenger, that, it’s the last, because the very next chapter is the 19th chapter, which is the coming Bride.
And this is, in the Scripture, the last angel that came to bring Light before the coming of the Bride to go meet Christ. It was the Laodicean Church Age, then. What was the Laodicean Church Age messenger? Calling them out of Babylon!
Look! Churches caught in her cage with her, with her dogmas, denying the Word and accepting dogmas. 62-1111E - "Why I'm Against Organized Religion"
Notice, this angel is the last messenger before the coming of Christ in the 19th chapter of Revelation. The messenger’s Voice! If we notice, when he gave his Voice on the earth, there was a Voice echoed again in Heaven, 4th verse, if you want to read it, all right, 4th verse, the 19th chapter.
This messenger on the earth was so inclined with God until, when he spoke it on the earth, God echoed the same thing out of Heaven. What is that 4th-verse translation? What does it mean?
God’s Voice speaking to His predestinated people, saying, “Come out of her!” Just exactly what the Voice was! He’s got people all out in there, all out through Babylon. “Come out of her, that you be not partakers of her sins,” yes, sir, out of that dogma and creeds, to the Word made Spirit and Life. Amen.
Notice, the 19th chapter is the next, “After these things.” Did you notice here in the 19th chapter, “After these things”? Watch what? After what? After the Message of “Come out of her!”
“After these things,” watch, “is the shout of the Bride saints, with the Bridegroom, going to the Marriage of the Lamb.” How close are we then, brother? What’s the last call? “Come out of Babylon!” 62-1111E - "Why I'm Against Organized Religion"
Revelation 19:1 KJV 1900
1 And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
We are living in a time of worship. Satan has tried to make people feel they are okay by allowing worship without the Word, but we worship in Spirit and Truth.
It’s King Lamb worship time.
The bride who is called out now hears the same voice that called her screaming “get back in line”.
The voice of many waters, the Bride herself becoming the final voice, under her messenger calling her away from the influence of the modern church, calling her back to the Message of the hour.
Revelation 3:18 KJV 1900
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Revelation 3:19 KJV 1900
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Revelation 3:20 KJV 1900
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Lets have a conversation.
Only those who hear the voice of election will hear the voice outside their door.
I don’t belong in that American church, because I hear a voice, still crying out!
Did you notice? The Bride come in view twice; the first Seed and the second Seed, both of them exactly the same One. And the reason they were dressed in different parts, She’ll come from all nations, it’ll make up the Bride.
Each one had long hair, and no makeup, and real pretty girls. And they were watching me. That represented the Bride coming out of all nations. See? She, each one represented a nation, as they marched perfectly in line with the Word.
This could not have been fulfilled in 1964, because there weren’t believers in every nation, but in 2025 there is.
(Egypy, Nepal)
And, then, I have to watch Her. She’ll get out of step with that Word if I don’t watch, when She is passing by, if She gets by. Maybe it’ll be my time, when I’m over, see, when I’m finished, or whatever it is.
What? They was getting back. Trying their best, and was getting back, just get in line; ’cause, they was looking out somewhere else, watching about that church that just went out into chaos.
The front ones, never. The back ones, just two or three of them, was kind of stepped out a little bit to the right-hand side, and looked like was trying to get back in line as they went by. 64-0705 - "The Masterpiece"
How do you know whether you belong in the Bride group?
You might have lots of problems. You might have a horrible past. You might be watching the other group influenced by their music and their dress. But you are not of them who go back, you are of the Bride. You came from the mind of God, because the voice calls you back, and you are washed by it.
You must be washed to live in that city.
I don’t preach doom and gloom. I’ll take my part with those who believe this Message, because the Bride will be of those who hear a voice and understand it.
John 5:24 KJV 1900
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Don’t be afraid, He will not cast you out.
John 6:37 KJV 1900
37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
The proof of who you are is your response to the Word.
Don’t let the devil tell you that you belong in that other group. If you didn’t belong in the Bride you could have never understood the Word to begin with.
Illustrate: Eagle in a chicken pen.
Which one is the eagle, and which are the chickens? Scream and you’ll know.
Preach the Word and the Bride will identify herself by lining up to it.

Conclusion

He had in His mind a Bride who would choose to follow His voice. He chose that Bride and prepared a place for her.
Illustrate: Conversation with my kids about death.
The Word reminds us this is not the end. He’s taking us out of this old pest house, into “My Father’s house”.
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