The Bride's Tribulation
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Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Introduction.
Introduction.
One of the central teachings of the Message of the Hour is that the Bride does not go through the Great Tribulation events of Revelation.
This is shown in type in the parable of the Ten Virgins. the Five that stay must be purged because they lacked the oil to keep their lamps burning. they could not see their day and hour.
Now, she will have to go through the Tribulation Period. And the reason of it is, is because she has rejected the Atonement in Its fullness. 64-0823E - Questions And Answers #2
The Bride does not go through the event known as the Great Tribulation, but they do have tribulation in this life.
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
Two related Greek Words for Tribulation.
θλίβω (thlibō). vb. to crush, oppress, compress, trouble. This verb can describe a crowd pressing together, but—when related to the concept of suffering—refers to oppression or to affliction.
In the NT, this verb primarily functions in a metaphorical sense to denote being “hard pressed” in the sense of distressed, harassed, or troubled.
Lexham Theological Wordbook θλῖψις
θλῖψις (thlipsis). n. trouble, tribulation, oppression. Trouble or affliction that causes pressure.
This noun appears throughout the NT to describe tribulation. This term is used frequently in eschatological contexts to denote tribulation unique to the period prior to judgment (e.g., Matt 24:9, 21, 29). The term can also describe troubles in everyday life.
Jesus uses this word.
But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
It’s the idea of being in a crowd of enemies. Surrounded by difficulties. Afflicted on every side. Squeezed by trouble. Squeezed by the stones.
Righteous men have always stood in a crowd of enemies.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;
(Afflicted= Tribulation)
(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Will we escape the pressing?
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
How will we gain the patience to run?
Tribulation produces patience in the elect.
Jesus taught His disciples this.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
The Apostles taught this as well.
And when they had preached the gospel to that city, and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch,
Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.
Paul taught it.
Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;
And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellowlabourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:
That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.
Am I a soldier of the cross,
A follow’r of the Lamb?
And shall I fear to own His cause,
Or blush to speak His name?
Must I be carried to the skies
On flow’ry beds of ease,
While others fought to win the prize,
And sailed through bloody seas?
Are there no foes for me to face?
Must I not stem the flood?
Is this vile world a friend to grace,
To help me on to God?
Sure I must fight if I would reign;
Increase my courage, Lord;
I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,
Supported by Thy Word.
Isaac Watts
Did you think there would be no battle?
Peter Cartwright and the Bully
He got saved that night, in church. There you are. It’s, take the Word of God and cut your way through every doubt. See it? Sure, that’s it. That’s the next job, let’s get it done.
Next thing I’m to do is get away from my doubts, cut it down. That’s my next job, is get all my flusterations away. If my senses tell me, “Well, you feel bad,” the next thing to do is cut that thing away.
You say, “Well, you…They tell me that…You know, my conscience tell me, Brother Branham, that I…” Well, you might as well cut that thing away. You ain’t going to get no farther than that.
Just get your next job done. Take off your coat and bare right into it. Just keep on going. One objective, “I’m going to win.” Amen. “I can’t lose. I’m going to win.” 62-0311 - The Greatest Battle Ever Fought
(Babying people to get them in church)
Could you imagine genuine Christians being that? They were rugged. They were burly. Could you imagine Saint Paul being that type of a Christian, could you imagine Saint Peter, “Being now, if you don’t make me general overseer, well, I don’t know, I might go join So-and-so”?
They were rugged man. They were men of faith. They lived with God. They walked with God. They were men of few words. They served God, day and night, constantly.
You didn’t have to spray them and baby them, and offer them this, that, or the other. They were man, rugged! They were genuine seeds, not hybrid in denominations.
(Kept sprayed with titles, etc.)
(Quotes Isaac Watts)
Must I be patted on the back, and this, that, and the other, and babied? I expect my place out yonder with the rugged. I expect not to come up there with no trophy scars at all. “I must fight, if I must reign, increase my courage, Lord!”
See, let me stand like a Christian. Not to be a hybrid plant. Have to be babied and petted, and brought into something. You’re not brought in anyhow, Christianity, you’re born in it. You become a new creature, you’re a seed of God, that comes into the earth. 65-1031M - Power Of Transformation
There is a squeeze or tribulation for the Bride at the end, because the Bride must have patience, along with all the other virtues. People just have a mistaken concept of what the squeeze is.
Tribulation works patience, experience, hop, and we will be unashamed when He comes. Our expectation will be met, if we endure the trial. We Possess the Gate of the enemy after Trial. (Abraham)
There is a squeeze at the rapture.
Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
This is the rapture condition.
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
I’m going to skim through what Bro. Branham taught us about this scripture to make a point. Read or listen to the entire thing when you get home.
Bro. Branham taught us that these were turned loose under the 6th Trumpet.
(They wasn’t natural horses. It was spiritual horses, spiritual devils, chargers, that had been bound in Euphrates all these years, supernatural devils. the Old Roman Empire being revived under Fascism)
And notice what happens under that Sixth Trumpet. They were turned loose on the Jews; the persecution of the Jews. Supernatural devils, nearly two thousand years, then loosed by Stalin, Hitler, upon the Jews.
You say, “Well, that isn’t Roman.” It’s the same spirit. They done the same things they did to the Christians, in the old pagan Roman days. Now watch the natural Israel, and the spiritual Church now, as we separate it here.
(Fifth Seal-Souls under the altar)
(Roman Empire identified- Pagan principles)
And they were loosed upon the Jew, who knowed nothing of the Spirit. There is your mysteries that’s hid under that Seal there.
These Trumpets are let loose on the Jews, (don’t you see?) not on the Gentiles. The Gentile, when them Seals was opened, is sealed away; time is ended; the Church is called.
(Preview of the Bride, Sudden Secret Going Away, 7 visions in 1933)
(Dictators-power as kings, their king was from the bottomless pit)
And they done everything they could do. They cremated their bodies, and everything; and hung on fences, children and all, innocent people. Because they were Jews, they were done that way. But God said He give each one of them a robe, undeserving as they was; but His grace to blind them so that we could see.
The Seventh Seal hasn’t opened yet, you know. That’s His Coming. So while they’re still under there, but, He shows us here, in a preview.
Notice, we find now that that natural power under the natural, to a natural nation, Israel, was loosed there. And what did it? It went and made war, and how it murdered and persecuted.
Now the ecclesiastical realm has been opened, from the natural revival of the old pagan Rome, went forth on those Jews, which has always been their enemy...
And it was turned loose in the same spirit, by the dictators of the world, because the religious system was still holding. Now it’s been loosed.
What has it done? In the “cunningness,” as He said, he come in like flatteries. And what has he done? He is bringing the Protestant Ecumenical Council of the World Churches, the spirit of antichrist upon both of them, bringing them to the slaughter, just like they did the other, in the hour to call the Bride.
How? Loosed in the ecclesiastical church spirit. Loosed upon what? Not upon the denominations; upon the Bride! But here you’ll get it, the Bride will not go through that time. The Bible says not. The church will, but not the Bride.
You say, “The Church has to go through the persecution, for the perfection of It.” The Blood of Jesus Christ perfects the Bride.
A man who chooses a wife don’t put her through a lot of punishment; he’s already found grace, too, with her; she has found grace with him. He engages to her. And, if there is anything, he’ll keep her from every place to turn her hand. His grace is so great upon them.
And so will it be upon the Bride, and so is it on the Bride. We unworthy creatures, deserving of hell, but His grace holds us through it.
And in the hour when I see all the churches, their great glamour, “and rich, and have need of nothing,” they say; and see them, miserable, wretched, blind; then patting you on the shoulders, want you to compromise with them. I was born for a purpose, that’s to condemn that thing and to call out. This I do.
Notice the loosing of this ecclesiastical spirit. Now twenty years later, after that war, we see the loosing of the ecclesiastical spirit. What under? The Seventh Seal; the Seventh Trumpet to the Jew.
Look at the moon darkening out. Where under? See it drawn out, the Son of man being drove from the church.
What is it? Joining in with the ecclesiastical bunch. The ecumenical move, and with the World Council of Churches, has drove every man…What does that thing stand for? Why, you have to surrender all your evangelical teachings and things.
“How can two walk together ’less they be agreed?” They can’t. Jesus said they can’t. And how can a church, the Methodist and Baptists walk together? How can the Church of Christ walk with the Presbyterians? How can the Catholic walk with the Protestant? How can Protestant walk with Protestant?
(SB Convention-women pastors)
But the Bride can walk with the Word, which is Christ. It must be in agreement. Not the ecclesiastical system; but the Word. You have to agree with the Word, to walk with the Word.
Notice, there she is. Now, she’s loosed, to call all these little loose ends, “Oh, well, don’t make any difference, anyhow.”
That’s what Satan said to Eve, “Don’t make any difference. It’s all right. Surely, God is a good God. He loves us all.” He doesn’t.
You hear so much about It being a good God. He is a good God, but, being good, He has to be just. There is no goodness without justice. There is no justice without no law, without punishment, penalty. So we’re in that hour, that we’re living.
(Later on in the same message)
And at the same time…Now, as soon as this Church (the Bride) is drawed together, She is taken up; and that mystery of the Seventh Seal, or the Seventh Seal, the mystery of going.
And the Jews is called by the mystery of the Seventh Trumpet, which is two prophets, Elijah and Moses, and they come back.
And there is where the Pentecostals is all mixed up; they’re looking for something to happen; the Church is done gone. And that’s to the Jews. 64-0719M - The Feast Of The Trumpets
(Next Sunday morning)
Now I’m going to say something. National force put Israel in her homeland; national force will put the church in the World Council of Churches; but the power of God will put the people in the Bride. The world forces this way, and the world forces that way, but God forces upward.
The Spirit of God, which is the Word of God, “My Word is Spirit and Life,” will put the Bride in Her place. Cause, She’ll recognize Her position in the Word, then She’s in Christ, will put Her in Her place.
No national force will do it. But the national force did drive Israel to the homeland; the national forces of the Council of Churches will drive every organization into it; but the Power of God will raise the Bride into Glory, out of it. 64-0726M - Recognizing Your Day And Its Message
Conclusion.
Conclusion.
Will the pressure, the squeeze of our day make us give in? Will it be too much for us to handle?
And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
It will only produce more love in our hearts for Him.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;