PAPER PRESENTATIONS Vol 1 By APOSTLE (DR) OJIAKOR LUKE, UDOCHUKWU
DURING THE 26TH ANNIVERSERY OF THE BRIDE OF CHRIST MINISTRY, WORLDWIDE,
HELD AT THE CENTRE FOR NVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL (CEMAC) HALL, UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, ENUGU CAMPUS (UNEC) ON 29TH DECEMBER, 2018 APOSTLE (DR) OJIAKOR LUKE, UDOCHUKWU.
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WELCOME ADDRESS
1. The Executive Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency, Dr. Ifeanyichukwu Ugwuanyi (Gburugburu); The Commandant, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Enugu State Command; The State Coordinator, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Enugu State; The Academia –
Professors, Doctors, Lecturers, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus; The Nigeria Police Force; The Civil Defense Corps, The Traditional Rulers here present; The Nigerian Army Officers here present; The men of the Fourth Estate of the Realm; All professionals; All the Different Religious Organizations and Groups present; Fathers and Mothers; All students; All that have travelled from far and near to grace this auspicious occasion.
2. I am greatly humbled to stand before this special gathering of people from all walks of life to give a welcome address on behalf of the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Creator of every human being here present and all over the entire Universe, Apostle Peter Odoemena, the Son of Man and the entire Bride of Christ Ministry Worldwide.
3. God, in His infinite mercy and wisdom has selected today, 29th December, 2018, as a day for us to begin to learn to look through the eyes of others, to find out and experience what the world is like for them. It is also the day we grow bigger than our differences and offer to everyone, regardless of historical rights and wrongs, a friendly welcome, an outstretched hand.
4. Looking into the audience, what a gathering we have today! We have got dignitaries, accomplished personalities, consultants in their respective fields of Endeavour, achievers, and people of all walks of life, brought together from all parts of this country – far and near – leaving every engagement to be here for one cause. Ours! Here is an appreciative welcome to you all.
5. We have gathered to celebrate and thank God for His personal dealings with us in the Bride of Christ Ministry Worldwide since 30th December, 1992 when He came down as a Human Being and started teaching us, as a very small group, according to John 6:45 (AMP);
6. “It is written in (the book of) the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ (have Him in person for their Teacher) Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father comes to Me.”
7. I would like to give us a resume of what the Bride of Christ Ministry Worldwide is and how the Ministry came into existence.
8. The Bride of Christ Ministry is not a Christian set up, it is not a Muslim set up, it is not a Traditional religion nor is it a Pagan religion. It is not Hinduism, it is not Buddhism nor any of these known faiths.
9. What is it then? It is simply a movement. This is the original Faith God Himself established for His children with His Angel leading them.
10. “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:” Acts 7:38 (KJV)
11. This is the Faith God kept for the creatures He made, right from the beginning. Every cool of the evening, as recorded in the scriptures, God would come down to have fellowship/communion with Adam, the man He created, only to worship God.
12. This is because, before God created man, He was not God to man because God is object of worship and since man was not there to worship Him, He was not God to man. God was Self-Existing, He was the Sovereign Spirit.
13. When He created man, man had the singular duty of worshipping God, giving God total allegiance; obeying God with reverential fear, taking God at His Word.
14. This fellowship was broken when Adam aligned with his wife, Eve, to reject God’s Word, God’s instruction. Sin came into the world. From that day, God decreed that He would bring man back to Himself through the seed of the woman.
15. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15(KJV)
16. “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.”Gen 22:18 (KJV)
17. “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” Gal 3:16(KJV)
18. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” Gal 4:4-5(KJV)This seed of the woman is Christ.
19. When God made this promise, He set in motion machineries to bring man back to Himself, to restore fellowship: He said through “the seed.” (Christ)
20. Finally, the seed (Christ) came and the same devil came up again to topple God’s intention, posing before Him the things of the world, materialism. Jesus the Christ established the same word that was lost in the garden of Eden, by telling the same old serpent, Satan, that “it is written he should not tempt the Lord His God; he should worship God alone” and that “man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Remember, it was the same word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, that the first man, Adam flouted and problem came. Now, Christ the promised seed has overcome by obeying the same word the first man failed to obey. He now has victory but that victory was for him alone. Man that fell has not got back his lost estate.
21. God in His wisdom, having overcome, decided to take the place of the man, to die for man so man could live. So He died in place of man!
22. But who is He? This is where God displayed the greatest wisdom. God who is the Sovereign, Eternal Spirit, hid in a man, flesh, and offered Himself to die. They killed their Creator, not knowing, because He has always hidden Himself in a human being, appearing as a man.
23. “Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” 1 Cor. 2:8 (KJV)
24. He hid Himself in a human being, answered Melchizedek and came to Abraham. (Genesis 14) He hid Himself in a human being and appeared to Abraham as one of three men. (Genesis 18) He hid Himself in a human being called Moses and delivered Israel through him; He hid Himself as a human being in the Lord Jesus Christ – the man Jesus.
25. “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:” Romans 1:1-4 (KJV)
26. “Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.” 2nd Timothy 2:8-9 (KJV)
27. When He offered Himself, He restored man to God through His power and established His Kingdom, the Church on earth, on the day of Pentecost according to the Book of Acts of the Apostles.
28. “When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?; But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”Acts 1:6, 8, 11(KJV)
29. Not long after the church was established, the church fell, went into apostasy as was foretold.
30. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:”1st Tim 4:1-4 (KJV)
31. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith”. 2nd Tim 3:1-8 (KJV)
32. “And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.” Dan 11:35, 37, 38 (KJV) There was apostasy- the mother church came up and messed up the Truth.
33. The Church fell. Iniquity waxed. The whole thing has been in God’s eternal wisdom.
34. It was said, prophesied, that the Church would be restored to the original state before the end. For God must be justified in whatever He is doing.
35. Consequently, God promised in Malachi 4:5-6 to send the Elijah, the Prophet to come and turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and hearts of the children to the fathers otherwise He would smite the earth with a curse.
36. The prophet, Elijah, He sent in the person of William Marion Branham who was born in 1906 in Jeffersonville Indiana, United States of America(USA) to bring back the hearts of the people of the world to the word of God that was abandoned at Pentecost. He came with the message, “Go back to the word,” He said that in the word, we would meet Christ.
37. He then pointed everybody to where to find the word – He said the word was lying in one of the jungles in Africa and told everybody how to know Him for the word must always be flesh for it to dwell with human beings – that is the Christ.
38. Christ of course, is nothing but the word of God made flesh. He had the commission that as John the Baptist foreran the first coming of Jesus Christ, He shall forerun the second coming of Christ.
39. We were in the different denominations, being religious and carrying on with the routine, stereotype form of worship. We were not comfortable and were itching for something higher as far as worshipping God was concerned.
40. Some of us then heard the message of William Marion Branham, a prophet sent to call out true believers from all the denominations back to the word of God.
41. We started meeting at Abagana in Njikoka local government area of Anambra State under the umbrella of End Time Message. From there, we came to a place called Afor-Nkpor, hired a small apartment for fellowship. All along, we were praying, asking God to visit us as He did on the day of Pentecost.
42. From AforNkpor, we moved to Ugwumba Street, Nkpor, very close to Onitsha, Anambra State. We were answering a denominational name of “Bible Believers Assembly.”
43. Along the line, the revelation came to us that we should take a name as in the Bible and drop the denominational name. The gathering should answer what it answered in the Bible when it first started as in the Book of Acts and so the name of the gathering became The Church at Nkpor, Nkpor being the town where the local gathering was. This is fully in line with what is in the Scriptures –
44. “And Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.”Acts 8:1 (KJV)
45. “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.” Acts 9:31 (KJV)
46. “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;” Rev 2:1, 12, 18 (KJV)
47. “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;” Rev 3:1, 7 (KJV)
48. Meanwhile, unknown to us, one of the brothers had heard an audible voice of God telling him that he should go to the Church at Nkpor and that He (God) would start His work there, that it was going to be the Ministry of the New Generation, that the Ministry of the Old Generation was over. This brother incidentally happened to be our Brother, Apostle Peter Odoemena, The Son Of Man (Glory be to His name). He kept it within Himself and was coming to fellowship with His family. Then our Pastor came back from a missionary trip and told us how God spoke to him and told him the name of the congregation would be the Church at Nkpor.
49. Then on 30th December, 1992, when we had our 7 days Camp Meeting which featured prayers, Ministrations from End Time Message Ministers from Lagos, Enugu, Aba, and Portharcourt, our Brother, The Son Of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena was asked to mount the pulpit. Humbly, He mounted the pulpit and preached the message “Holy Ghost And Necessity For Holy Ghost Baptism.” The entire congregation went into unprecedented revival as we were made to understand that the Holy Ghost was (is) a Person; He has mouth and can speak; has eyes and can see.
50. To confirm that this was from God, the message was vindicated with many signs and wonders, tongues and interpretations, discernment and miracles. We saw ourselves in the Book of Acts of The Apostles. We were restored to the original church as it was in the day of Pentecost.
51. As we continued coming to fellowship in this new found Faith that was promised to be restored whenever man would go back to The Word of God, we saw the Power of God backing His Word, as the Word came forth unadulterated.
52. The Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena then told the entire Church that Almighty God gave Him three foundational Messages for the Church and said those messages were: “Mixed Multitude”, “From Jerusalem to Jericho” and “Faith.”These messages were handled and were all vindicated by Almighty God.
53. On 3rd March, 1993, when the first message, Mixed Multitude part 1 was preached, the Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena was commissioned as an Apostle of Almighty God in the following words:
54. “I have anointed You with My Spirit, I have anointed You with My power, speak My Word. Fear them not, for I will be with You. I have anointed You with My unction. Yes the Lord of Hosts has promised.
55. It is My Word among My people, it is My Word among My people, for it is My power, yes, thus shall you come into My sanctuary and they shall see My power among My people.
56. It is My unfailing power. I have sworn that My Word shall not depart from your midst forever, for it is My presence among you. I have lifted up My Word above every person, for it is My power among My people”.
57. “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias.
58. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:16-19 (KJV)
59. “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”Acts 10:38 (KJV)
60. It became clear we were indeed in an Apostolic Ministry and that Almighty God was with us. There was cleansing, confession, deliverance from bondage of satan, Holiness unto the Lord was enthroned. From this time, the Apostle, Peter Odoemena embarked on missionary trips to almost all parts of Nigeria: – Eha – Amufu in Enugu State, Isiala-Ngwa in Abia State, Abuja, the Federeal Capital Territory, Mbaise in Imo State; Aba in Abia State; Obosima in Imo State; Jos in Plateau State, Zonkwua in Kaduna State, Umuokanne in Imo State; Lokoja in Kogi State, Owerri in Imo State, Enugu in Enugu State (1997), Lagos, Portharcourt, Cotonou in Benin Republic, Egbema in Imo State, Umuahia, Bayelsa, Cross-River.
61. Then in 1994, 31st December, in a Camp Meeting, the Voice went forth, “thus it behoveth the Son of Man to fulfill all righteousness.” It became clear the Apostle had now moved into the Prophetic office as the Son of Man. The same office Jesus the Christ occupied.
62. “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?” Matthew 6:13 (KJV)
63. The Son of Man is a Prophet, just as Jesus The Christ was The Son of Man-a Prophet. That means God tabernacling in a Human Vessel, hiding Himself from human eyes.
64. Ever since then, the ministry has grown from strength to strength. At the initial stage in 1993, as the ministry took off, many forces rose up against the ministry. Men came from every angle opposing the ministry, some saying it would quench that same year 1993, it would never go beyond the outskirts of Onitsha. In all, the Son would simply say “Amen”.
65. Today, they have all been proved to be false prophets and liars. The ministry has not only grown by leaps and bounds, it has gone round the whole globe, fulfilling the prophecy of Prophet William Marrion Branham who saw the Son of Man as One coming with a message that is straight on the bible which will go round the entire world in reading and writing materials until every predestinated seed of God would hear it.
66. Today, the messages of the Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena,(Glory to His Holy Name) are in all the countries of the world and are translated in most of the languages of the world including Arabic, English, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, etc. and every week, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the globe are accessing the messages in their different languages.
67. The prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), said that Jesus the Son of Mary would come back and would be with a small group of Christian-Muslims but that he would not be the same physical body of Jesus-He will be in a new body and will answer a new name.
68. “Both the Holy Quran and the traditions of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon Him, attest to Christ not bearing the name, “Jesus” when He comes again.“Before pondering over these traditions of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, regarding the advent of the Messiah and Mahdi, it must be kept in view that the Holy Quran as well as the traditions of the Holy Prophet are unanimous in their verdict that Jesus, son of Mary, has died his natural death. Further, the Holy Quran and the traditions of the Holy Prophet both are in unison that the dead never return to life in this transitory world of ours. Hence when it is narrated in the traditions that Jesus son of Mary will come, it should not be taken literally but rather to be understood in the metaphorical sense as has been interpreted by a scholar of great repute and regenerator of his century, Mohyyud Din IbnArabi, when he says:“His descent in later ages will be with a DIFFERENT body.”(TafsirAraisul Bayan, Vol. 1, p. 262).”Islamic Articles of Faith Confirmed by the Holy Bible and the Holy Prophets of God. Volume 2. Page 83:14-15
69. The bible records that Jesus Christ will come in a new name; “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.” Rev 3:12 (KJV)
70. This is fulfilled in the Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena. This is the Resurrected Body, He that was dead and is alive forever more. This is Christ’s second coming and the world does not know it!
71. Now, He has come, His mission is to gather all the children of God in one man, Abraham. He will gather the Muslims, Christians and Jews together as one because they all proceeded from the same man, Abraham.
72. As you stay in this meeting, simply relax yourself and gather as much information as you can to help you make the right decision.
73. The feud between the Muslims, Christians and Jews as well as the rest of the religious organisations, is ending in one Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena, The Son of Man. Once again, you are all welcome to this event.
74. God bless you all.
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THE BRIDE OF CHRIST MOVEMENT IS A CONTINUATION OF THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS AND ALSO A CONSUMATION OF THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS.
1. “This is He that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us.” Acts 7: 38 (KJV)
2. “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Mat 16:18(KJV)
3. “And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things.” Acts 5:11 (KJV) Fear came upon all the church.
4. “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.” Acts 9:31 (KJV)
5. “But as for thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which thou shalt teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.”Deuteronomy 5:31 (KJV)
6. “And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” Exodus 19: 3-6 (KJV)
7. Stephen the deacon preached a lengthy sermon when he made his defense before the high priest and those that falsely accused him of insurrection. He recalled that Israel in the wilderness was the church in the wilderness with Moses and the Angel spake to Moses on Mount Sinai, giving him command, instructions for the Israelites to keep as His people. In other words, the church is given a set of rules, code of conduct to guide her and keep her different from those that are not in the church.
MEANING OF THE CHURCH
8. The word, “Church” is from the Greek word “Ekklesia” (English “ecclesia”) meaning “called out”, “an Assembly”, or “congregation”; “a separated group.” The Hebrew word is “Kahal”. It means “called out.”
9. “Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:” Exodus 6:6 (KJV)\
10. “Or hath God assayed to go and take him a nation from the midst of another nation, by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a mighty hand, and by a stretched out arm, and by great terrors, according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?”Deut 4:34 (KJV)
11. “And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness, and with signs, and with wonders:And he hath brought us into this place, and hath given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey.”Deut 26:8-9 (KJV)
12. “But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.” Isa 43:1 (KJV)
13. Israel was called out of Egypt to be Gods. There in the wilderness, God that called them out was in their midst, giving them instruction through Moses. That was Christ.
14. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink;
15. “And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.”Num 20:7-8,11 (KJV)
16. “Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.” 1 Cor. 10:4 (KJV)
17. The Rock which Moses smote which gave its water to Israel was Christ. So the Angel in Acts 7:38 was Christ. He gave Moses the lively oracles, teachings, instructions, doctrines on how to live, behave and worship as a peculiar people of God.
18. The people of Israel were called out of Egypt, separated unto God. so they were the called out people(Church) when they were in the wilderness.
19. Having seen what the church means, “if there should be a church today, the church must be a carbon copy of the church in the wilderness. If there was a church in the wilderness, God in the beginning was there, God at the middle was there; God at the end is there. It was the church in the wilderness that was produced in the Acts of the Apostles. It must be the church in the wilderness that will go into Rapture.” (Son of Man: Building Plan, God’s Plan to Establish His Church, 25/09/1993 page 23 v 13).
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THE CHURCH MUST BE BUILT ACCORDING TO THE APPROVED PATTERN
1. “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen.”Acts 7: 44 (KJV)
2. “According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” Exodus 25: 9 (KJV)
3. “Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.” Hebrews 8: 5 (KJV)
4. This shows that the church must be built according to the pattern of the one in the wilderness. Whoever founded the church in the wilderness must also be the founder of the church here. The way the church in the wilderness was organized is the way this church must be organized. Anything short of it is not acceptable.
5. “And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.” Exodus 40: 33-35 (KJV)
6. “And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord.”1 Kings 8: 10-11 (KJV)
7. Moses built the tabernacle according to the pattern shown to him in the mount. Almighty God approved of it immediately and took delight in it. The same thing happened when Solomon built the temple according to the approved pattern. The temple was filled with Thick Cloud, Thick Smoke, showing God’s presence. So today, it is not any group of people coming together or erecting a house and then call it church! It must be the approved way for God to identify with it.
8. “Many of you have been in the church without knowing the meaning of the Church. Without knowing God’s original plan, what God had earlier planned for the church; the reason why God decided to plant His Kingdom on Earth which is the Church. You do not know the reason and that is why you think you can come in, talk and behave anyhow. No, you cannot do that.” (Son of Man: The Revelation of the Church. 1st October, 2000. Page 15 v 18).
9. “God is revealed. If God is revealed, His kingdom is also revealed, the church is revealed.” (Son of Man: The Revelation of the Church. 1st October 2000. Page 14 v 16). If the church is not revealed, people will jump into anything they see thinking it is in the church. Open your heart and receive the truth of the true church.
10. “God from the beginning of the world started planning, spending time and effort to build the church wherein lies His mystery. You see the importance of the church to God! That God will not allow the whole world to know about it, that even Satan could not peep into it; God hid it in Himself waiting for a certain time.”(Son of Man: Building Plan, God’s Plan to Establish His Church, 25/09/1993 page 44 v 12).
11. To establish the Church, let us see Genesis 12: 1-10.
12. “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land.And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east: and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord.And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the south.And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.” Genesis 12: 1-10 (KJV)
13. God Himself purposed it, called out Abraham, separating him from his people, from the sinful world of his relations and gave him the promise of making him a great nation. This means that Abraham was going to be a nation in a nation, a separated nation in another nation (that is Church!) called out, made holy, set aside for God. Then from Abraham, God will now raise up a family and in this family all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Anybody outside this family will never receive the blessing. In other words, for you to partake in God’s blessing, you must be a member of this family!
14. “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” Galatians 3: 6-9 (KJV)
15. Note this: “In thee shall all nations be blessed. All that be of faith, they all belong to Abraham. Which faith? The Faith of Christ. For if ye are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and are heirs according to the Promise. Anybody outside this family of Abraham does not know about this Promise. God purposed the Church starting from the time of our father Abraham.”(Son of Man: Building Plan: God’s Plan to Establish His Church. 25/09/1993.Page 49 v 25).
16. “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Galatians 3:14 (KJV)
17. “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3: 26-29 (KJV)
18. Right now, every nation, the Jews, the Gentiles, the Greeks, men and women alike, all that want God’s blessing must receive it through Christ because Christ is from Abraham. Moreover, as many as are Christs, they are all from Abraham. They are that nation, the blessed nation. This one nation is Abraham’s nation. That nation was later called Israel, then called God’s nation and so the people there called God’s own people.
19. These people who did not have any law given to them later were given laws that they must be separate and not mix with other people; they must remain holy, sanctified unto He that called them; they must not worship any other god except the God that called them and separated them.
20. “This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:”Acts 7:38 (KJV)
21. “Who was that person that was in that Church? CHRIST, the Head of the Church. He was in the Church in the wilderness and He is the same yesterday, today and forever. HE WILL BE IN THE CHURCH IN THE END TIME. Who were members in that Church? OUR FATHERS! They were members of that church. The Angel was in that Church, their fathers were there. IF THERE MUST BE A CHURCH TODAY, THE ARCH ANGEL MUST BE THERE. In the time of Abraham, God did not give him any law. The church prophesied during the time of the Prophets, in the time of the Jews, to preserve Israel for the purpose of establishing them as His own nation, God separated them from other people by giving them the law which prevented them from mixing with other people. Note it, to preserve these people, to be God’s own people, God severed them from other people by giving them a law that they will never, never mix.
22. If there is a Church today, if God preserved that church that time by preserving that church from the mixed multitude, the church today must be preserved by separating her from mixed multitude.
23. If God severed His own people that time from the mixed multitude and today He allows them to mix anyhow, that is not God. His people will be defiled.
24. Then He has no right to condemn others. If there must be a nation called God’s nation today, that nation must be a peculiar one, the people in that nation must be peculiar, they must be severed from other people, they must be warned never to mix with the denomination, with the mixed multitude.
25. Son of Man; “Building plan, “God’s plan to establish the church”.Abagana 26/9/1993. Page 52-54:36-41.
26. In summary, the church in the light of the scriptures, is a called out people, separated from the world to be a different and holy people to God. God’s purpose is that the people worship Him and live for Him. Then He will make His blessings known to them and show forth His power in them.
4
THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH IN PREVIEW
1. “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”Mat 16:18 (KJV)
2. Note the word, “upon this rock, I will build my church “the word “My”, not “Our” or “his” nor “their” church. So Christ is the OWNER of the Church. The Church is His property. Christ is the founder, the general overseer, the general superintendent or pope (papa) of his Church. No individual has any share in the ruler-ship of the Church.
3. Christ, the owner of the church, knows what is needed to put the church in order. The church is a living organism. She is a spiritual organism. Christ Himself is the Word of God made flesh.
4. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.The same was in the beginning with God; And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”John 1:1-2,14 (KJV)
5. “And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.” Rev 19:13 (KJV)
6. The Word of God is God. The Word of God nourishes the Church. Jesus Christ told Satan that man shall not live by bread alone but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
7. “But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Mat 4:4 (KJV)
8. “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has listened to and learned from the Father, comes to Me.” John 6:45 (AMP)
9. God must be a man to teach the Church-The people He has called out to Himself. He comes, takes flesh to dwell with man and teach man. He gives man doctrines by which he must live.
10. “I am that bread of life.Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:48-51 (KJV)
11. Christ says He is the bread that gives life. The Word is the bread that gives life.
12. “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” John 10:11, 14-16 (KJV)
13. Christ is the good Shepherd. The shepherd pastures the sheep. He feeds the sheep, takes the sheep to where there is abundant pasture.
14. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28 (KJV)
15. My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me. For the Church to be sustained in her purity and be saved, she must depend fully on Christ, the Word. No adulteration, no human tradition. She must rely on the Word and the Word alone.
16. “He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” John 21:17 (KJV)
17. Apostle Peter was asked by The Lord Jesus Christ to feed His sheep, His flock, the Church. Peter was charged to feed the sheep with the Word of God. Jesus Christ also prayed the Father to keep those that believed in Him together with what He, Christ, gave them. He said He had given them God’s Word which is Truth.
18. “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. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” John 17:8, 14,17 (KJV)
19. The Church is kept by the Word of God. The Word of God sanctifies the Church. The Word of God in the Church makes the Church an odd ball in the world. The world hates the Church because the Church is separated from the world’s way of doing things.
20. Any church, no matter the name it is called, that does not allow the Word of God to be their ultimate in all things, such is a false church! Such is a counterfeit church! Such is denomination! Such is Satan deceived church! All the so called churches that have the word of their general superintendents or overseers as the final, those churches that observe/adopt man-made creeds, catechisms, dogmas, keeping their traditions(traditions of men) in place of the Word of God for them to keep the tradition of men, are all denominations that are caging their members for destruction in hellfire for they have rejected the revealed way.
21. “He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such 0like things ye do.And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition”. Mark 7:6-9 (KJV)
CHRIST (THE WORD) EXCOMMUNICATES EVIL CHARACTER FROM THE CHURCH
22. The word of God has rule over His church and so the word dis-fellowships people with contrary characters in the church regardless of their position in the church.
23. “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”1 Cor. 5:9-13 (NIV)
24. “And we have confidence in the Lord touching you, that ye both do and will do the things which we command you”. 2 Thess. 3:4 (NIV)
25. “But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” 1 Cor. 5:13 (KJV)
26. “God alone is the Judge of those on the outside. But you yourselves must deal with this man and put him out of your church.” 1 Cor. 5:13 (LB)
27. Any gathering that claims to be a church and harbours wicked people, people violating, disregarding, dishonouring and crucifying the Word in their lives, doing that with impunity simply because they dole out money to The General Superintendent, The Bishop, The Pope, Pastor, Overseer, such is a denomination and not the church that is owned by Christ. It is a gathering of unclean birds! God is not there!
THE DENOMINATIONS ARE NOT CHURCHES
28. In all these addresses to all the churches of Christ scattered all over the world, but all united by His Word, none of them took any denominational name which Prophet William Marion Branham called blasphemous names according to the holy scriptures in Revelation 17:3
29. “Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.” Revelation 17: 3 (NIV)
30. This woman is the whorish mother of the so called “MOTHER CHURCH” from where all others migrated. She first organized (denominated) and took a blasphemous name, and all others took various blasphemous names after their mother, as it is said, “like mother like daughter”. Therefore a whorish mother gave birth to harlot of daughters.
31. “And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.”Revelation 17: 5 (KJV)
32. In the beginning of the early Apostolic church, none answered Roman Catholic church, Anglican church, Seventh Day Adventist church, Methodist church, Holy Sabbath church, Deeper Life church, Assemblies of God church, Grace of God church, Pentecostal church, Spiritual church, Orthodox church, African church, Kingdom Hall church, etc. all the churches of Christ were united in Doctrine, Conduct and Order but these false churches (denominations) have their different doctrines and everyone goes to all lengths to defend his own.” (Son of Man: Hard Truth vol 2. 1996. Onitsha, pages 33-39 vs 1-28).
5
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH (NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH)-THE PLAN
1. “And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day”. Deuteronomy 5:1-3 (KJV)
2. Israel as a nation, failed to accomplish God’s purpose. They provoked God to anger by not obeying the laws God gave them. They even forsook God and went after other gods.
3. “Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee. And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation”. Deuteronomy 32:18-21 (KJV.)
4. When they failed God, God decided to turn to another people that were not His people, to provoke them (Israel) to jealousy. In other words, God decided to pick other people not of the stock of Israel, to provoke Israel to jealousy because Israel violated God’s commands, statutes and laws. What was God’s intention? God planned it right from the beginning that a time would come when He would pick people from other nations to be His people. Remember He God, went to a place that did not know God and picked Abraham (Abram), called him out to a place He(God) chose for him. He called him out to be His own, away from his native people. Abraham and family formed a church, built altars where he and his household worshipped God. God decided it on His own. Nobody counseled Him.
5. “Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.” Romans 9:24-26 (KJV)
6. “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel saying,…”Rom 11:1-2 (KJV)
7. “I want you to know about this truth from God, dear brothers, so that you will not feel proud and start bragging. Yes, it is true that some of the Jews have set themselves against the Gospel now, but this will last only until all of you Gentiles have come to Christ—those of you who will. And then all Israel will be saved.
8. Do you remember what the prophets said about this? There shall come out of Zion a Deliverer, and he shall turn the Jews from all ungodliness. At that time I will take away their sins, just as I promised.”Rom 11:25-27 (KJV)
9. “Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!”Rom 11:31-33 (KJV)
10. This crossing over is the mystery. God planned how to bring both the Jews and The Gentiles together and it must be in Christ alone. He planned it from the beginning.
11. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” Genesis 3:15 (KJV)
12. “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Untothy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.”Genesis 12:3,7 (KJV)
13. “Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” Isaiah 1:9 (KJV)
14. “And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed; Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
15. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.” Gal 3:8,16,17 (KJV)
16. “For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
17. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.” Romans 9:28-33 (KJV)
18. The seed is Christ. God planned it that Christ would come to establish His Kingdom which is the church. God had already planned the coming of Christ from the foundation of the world, because He is the promised Messaih, not Moses, not Abraham. When Christ The Messiah came, they still rejected Him. Seeing they rejected Him, He turned to the gentiles. When He turned to the gentiles, He elected a people unto Himself.
19. The prophet prophesied that our God will establish a better covenant where many will be justified by Him. He, in their midst, will be their justification.
20. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
21. 3 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:31-34 (KJV)
22. “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.Hebrews 8:7-13(KJV)
23. God promised a new kingdom in which men of all nations will unite together to serve God, to worship God.
24. “All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations.All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship: all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul. A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this.”Psalm 22:27-31(KJV)
25. Note: The Kingdom is The Lord’s. The church is the kingdom. God therefore purposed it that the only way He could save people from other nations was through the Church.
WHEN AND WHERE WILL THE CHURCH BE ESTABLSUHED?
26. The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Isa 2:1-3 (KJV).
27. The church will be established in the last days and upon Jerusalem.
28. Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Dan 2:45 (KJV).
29. This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise. Dan 2:36-40 (KJV).
30. And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. Dan 2:40-43 (KJV).
31. The fourth kingdom was the Roman Kingdom. During the reign of the fourth kingdom, Christ was born putting on human flesh, answering Jesus, Caesar was in charge of Rome and the entire world. So the kingdom of God which is the church was established during the last days of these kings according to the book of Daniel 2:44
32. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” (KJV)
33. “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. Mat 16:18(KJV).
34. And upon this Rock, I will build My church and the gate to hell can never prevail against it. The verb is “will”=future tense. So the church was to be established.
35. “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that the entire world should be taxed.(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David) To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn”. Luke 2:1-7(KJV)
36. Thus, this shows that the fourth kingdom was Roman Empire wielding power, forcing everybody to be taxed. This was when Jesus was born.
37. “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene.”Luke 3:1(KJV).
38. Caeser was reigning in Rome with Pontus Pilate as governor in Jerusalem. So the stage is set for the kingdom to be established.
THE CHURCH WAS BEING EXPECTED IN THE TIME OF JESUS CHRIST.
39. During the days of Jesus Christ, the church was being prepared. That was Roman period. Jesus Christ was born when Rome was controlling the world-Rome was the fourth kingdom. So the prophecy of Daniel came to pass.
40. “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene.”Luke 3:1(KJV).
41. When John the Baptist that foreran the coming of Jesus Christ came, he preached telling everybody to “repent for the kingdom of God is at hand”. Jesus Christ when He preached, also said “The kingdom of heaven is at hand” and urged all that the time was fulfilled and “the kingdom of God is at hand”.
42. “And saying the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel”. Mark 1:15(KJV).
43. John the Baptist said the time is fulfilled. That is, the time for the kingdom to be established and so everybody should repent and come into the kingdom otherwise they would perish.
44. Jesus Christ also charged the Apostles to preach the same message.
45. “And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”Matthew 10:7(KJV).
46. He told them that the kingdom of God is at hand. The time for the establishment of the church is at hand because Jesus Christ is the end of the law and the prophets, He is the end. He brought all they said to an end and He is coming to prepare His Father’s kingdom here on earth for the first time. WHAT WAS IN THE WILDERNESS WAS A SHADOW.
47. Though Jesus Christ lived, ministered, died, resurrected and ascended to heaven, yet the kingdom was yet to be established.
48. “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.And ye are witnesses of these things.And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.”Luke 24:47-49(KJV).
49. They should wait in Jerusalem for power and then they would start preaching. In otherwords, the kingdom is coming with POWER. It is not going to be a weak kingdom. When the kingdom comes with power, you will then preach repentance of sin in His name among all nations so that all nations will come into Him and receive His blessings.
50. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”Acts 1:8(KJV).
51. Preaching starts from Jerusalem and goes round to other areas.
52. “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.”Acts 1:4(KJV).
53. Jesus commanded they should not leave Jerusalem until they receive power, the promise of the Father-the promise of the kingdom coming with power. They should wait in Jerusalem. They wait because the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Himself being the Chief corner stone.
54. “And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;”Eph 2:20(KJV).
55. You are built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles. Deeper Life Church is built upon the message of Kumuyi, End Time Church is built upon the message of Branham. Any denomination, name it, is built upon the message of their founders. Every denomination is built upon the foundation of the message of then ministers.
56. IT REQUIRES ONLY BUT ONE, THE UNDEFILED UNIVERSAL CHURCH OF CHRIST WHICH IS THE BRIDE OF CHRIST IN ALL THE AGES TO INHERIT THE KINGDOM.
57. Note the word “Undefiled” God promised to preserve it pure without spot, no blemish, it can never mix with any group, no mixture in all its practices, in doctrines, in conversations, in all, no mixture! Anywhere the church meets with the denomination and you stop there, you have gone astray.
58. “Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.”Acts 1:12(KJV)
59. It must be Jerusalem. They returned to Jerusalem after seeing the Lord off. They came back to Jerusalem to wait for the promise.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH (THE TRUE CHURCH) PROPER
60. “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
61. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.
62. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.” Acts 2:1-11(KJV)
63. On the Pentecost day, the promised power came down. Witnesses from all over the world, including African nations-Libya, Egypt,etc- all were witnesses of the fulfillment of the promise of establishing the kingdom of God with power.
64. “But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:”Acts 2:16-17(KJV)
65. Everything all coming to pass in the last days according to the prophecy. See the sequence of everything. the prophesies came to pass. The church is established in Jerusalem in the last days!
66. “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
67. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,until I make thy foes thy footstool.Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
68. Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
69. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
70. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.And all that believed were together, and had all things common;and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
71. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” Acts 2:29-47(KJV)
72. The first new preaching is now proclaimed. The first public preaching going with power in the church.
73. THIS IS THE CHURCH, ESTABLISHED!
74. Before this time, the church was in the making and now it has been established in Jerusalem with power.
75. IF THERE MUST BE A CHURCH TODAY, IT MUST HAVE POWER. ANY CHURCH WITHOUT POWER IS A HUMAN CHURCH
· LIFE IN THE CHURCH
76. See their practices. They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrines which means that the APOSTLES WERE LAYING OUT DOCTRINES WHICH THEY RECEIVED FROM GOD, HIMSELF AND HANDED OVER TO THE CHURCH.
77. Those that received the word received it gladly and they were added to the church. They were sincere, no hypocrisy, no compulsion. THIS BECAME THE END OF EVERYTHING. THE CHURCH HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED AT LAST.
6
THE FALLING AWAY (APOSTASY)
1. There was great falling away from the church into denomination which is “adding to” or “taking away” from the truth of God’s word. It was prophesied in the scriptures.
2. “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” 2Thess 2:3-4(KJV)
3. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”1 Tim4:1(KJV)
4. Apostasy came during the first century.
5. “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.” 2Thess 2:7(KJV)
6. “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”2 John 7(KJV)
7. St Paul warned the elders in Ephesus.
8. “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.”Acts 20:28-30(KJV)
9. He called them grievous wolves, coming into the church and draw men after them. The church went away; denominated and introduced all sorts of man’s traditions and doctrines of men.
APOSTASY IN ORGANISATION
10. There was apostasy in church organization, worship and conduct. This led to the different denominations in the land today. There is total departure from the church set up by Christ!
11. New Testament Churches each had many bishops (elders) of equal rank whose authority did not extend beyond the limits of the local organisation (Acts 14:23; 20:17) and even Vs. 28. (Phil. 1:1) Jesus Christ was the only chief bishop over all Churches (I Peter 5:1-4).
12. However, during the first and second centuries, the bishop presiding over the bishops was elevated to a higher office and was called “The Bishop”. Gradually the others ceased to be called bishops, retaining only designation elders (Presbyters). The Church’s organisation was changed again during the third and fourth centuries. Some bishops became the chief officers of several Churches in an area. Later the bishops of the more important areas like Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople, grew in power and were exalted to “Patriarchs” and later called “Archbishops.” The Catholic Encyclopedia (II page 583 and IV page 44) admits that this newly acquired power, originated in the fourth and fifth centuries. These archbishops were equal in power. The bishop of Rome had no more power than the bishop of Antioch. This equality existed up till the 8th century. Gregory I. Bishop of Rome, 590 AD, and later declared Pope, Saint and Doctor, wrote Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria that the “See of Peter, in three places is the see of one over which three bishops actually preside by divine authority”. He named the three places as Alexandria, Antioch and Rome. Later when John the Faster, Bishop of Constantinople, called himself “Universal Bishop” Gregory I denounced the title as profane, proud and wicked. However, Gregory’s successor in Rome, Boniface III, did not object to the title and assumed it for himself in 607 A.D. Thus papal authority continued to grow through the ages, however as late as 1837, John B. Purcell, Bishop of Cincinnati, declared in a formal debate (Debate in the Roman Catholic Religion Page 22). “No enlightened Catholic holds the Popes infallibility to be an article of faith.” Yet, forty-three years later, (1870) the Vatican Council declared the opposite. Now complete submission to the Pope is demanded “as unto God Himself.” He is said to hold the place of God Almighty (Great Encyclical letters pages 193 and 304). This fulfilling the prophecy in II Thess. 2:3-4 –“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”
APOSTASY IN DOCTRINE AND WORSHIP
13. The Church exaltation of uninspired men led to many changes in doctrine and worship, a few of which are noted as follows: The Priesthood: The Bible says that all that were in Christ are priests (1 Peter 2:5; 9, Rev. 1:6) and are all subject to Jesus Christ (the Word made flesh) the only high Priest (Heb. 4:14-16). Later, the presbyters changed to be a special priesthood separate from the rest of the Church. Patterned after the Jewish Priesthood, the newly exalted bishop became the high priest; the elders (presbytery) became priests and the deacons, Levites.
APOSTASY IN CONDUCT
14. Concerning false teachers, Jesus predicted, “shall know them by their fruits … Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bring forth evil fruit” (Matthew 7:16-17, KJV).
15. Jesus told Churches of Asia that they would be removed if they did not repent of their negligence and wicked works (Revelation 2:4-5, 14-16; 3:2-3, 15-17). The Roman Church was to be cut off if they did not “continue in His goodness” (Romans 11:22).
16. It was thus natural that the Church’s apostasy in doctrine would also be seen in its conduct. During the second and third centuries celibacy (the unmarried state) and abstinence from food was exalted.
17. The spread of monasteries in the fourth century exalted these ascetic practices even more and in 385 A.D. the Western Church prohibited its presbyters from marrying.
18. This directly contradicted the Bible requirement that a bishop “must be the husband of one wife” (1 Timothy 3:2), but fulfilled the prophecy, “In the latter times some shall depart from the faith forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats” (1 Timothy 4:1 -3).
19. Forbidding marriage led to the opposite extreme of immorality. Whereas in New Testament times, bishops were to be blameless (1 Tim.3:2-7), the Church later permitted scandalous men to continue as bishops and even Popes.
EFFORTS TO REFORM THE APOSTATE CHURCH
20. Through the centuries many groups tried to reform the apostate Church, but their efforts usually formed another apostasy. However, history does not record the characteristic teaching of a number of groups and undoubtedly some of them were the true Church for God promised a kingdom that would never be destroyed (Daniel 2:44, Matthew 7:14).
21. Remember that only eight were faithful in Noah’s day (1 Peter 3:20) and only 7,000 in Elijah’s day (Romans 11:2-5). God’s true people have always been few and persecuted by the majority (2 Timothy 3:12), but God has ever known “them that are His” (2 Timothy 2:19).
22. However, by the 1500’s the apostate Church had grown so bad that the Roman Catholic Church was clamouring for its• own reform. In various parts of Europe, Martin Luther, John Knox) Ulrich Zwingley, John Calvin, etc., attempted to reform the apostate Church.
23. Unfortunately, what began as a just protest against a corrupt Church resulted in a mass of Churches divided by denominational creeds and names. Some of the apostate doctrines and practices of the Roman Church carried over into each of the denominations. Calvin, for example, began Inquisition against Catholics in Switzerland.
24. Later their followers accepted as final their leaders conclusions: Luther’s followers became Lutherans; Calvin’s followers, Presbyterians; later John Wesley’s followers became Methodists, etc., and such has been the history of Christendom as every year there are more Churches.
25. While Protestantism corrected many evils of the apostate Church, it also created a sinful state of division with many bodies, faiths, baptisms and names
all in violation of Christ’s will (John 17:20-21; Ephesians 4:4-5, 1 Corinthians 1:10-14); 3:3).
26. Consequently, most modern men feel they are faced with a puzzling dilemma: either return to the apostate Church, or join one of the sects of divided Protestantism. Is there a solution to this perplexing problem of denominationalism and system of carnal men against the Word of God.
RESTORATION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH
27. Yes, we have a choice other than the apostate Church or divided Protestantism. We can restore the original Church. But how? The solution is twofold:
a. Leave that which causes error and disunity, and (2) return to that which produces truth and unity.
28. The cause of both divided Protestantism and the original apostasy is the same: departure from God’s word (1Timothy 4:1): All Churches claim to follow the Bible, but they also follow Church traditions, creeds, manuals, councils, etc.
29. Religious tradition caused the Jews of Jesus’ day to apostatize (Matthew 15:3-9). These added sources of religious, authority also cause error within Christianity. We must leave human tradition and authority if the original Church is to be restored (II Timothy 2:19; II Corinthians 6:17).
30. Next, we must return to the source of all truth and unity: the word of God. In the first century God’s word produced man’s salvation (James 1:21), Church membership (Acts 2:41, 47), doctrine and growth (Ephesians 4:14-15). By God’s word the local Church was governed (Titus 1:9), and protected from error (Acts 20:28-32). God’s word thus produced and preserved the unity of the early Church.
31. Jesus promised, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye may disciples indeed” (John 8:31). We thus prove that we are Christ’s true disciples, or Church, not by tracing from the beginning a line of succession of bishops, but by continuing in the same word of God revealed in the beginning: God’s word is living seed “and endures forever” (I Peter 1:23-25).
32. Regardless of its age, seed always reproduces after its kind. Wheat seed stored in an Egyptian pyramid thousands of years ago will produce today the same plant it produced then: wheat. Likewise the same seed of God’s word will produce the same Church in the twentieth century that it produced in the first century.
33. As we previously studied, the Word of God contains all of God’s will (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Thus, by planting only the seed of God’s word, we will produce the same Church, united in the same doctrine, love, name, organization, worship, etc. In the times of king Josiah, the Jewish Bible was lost in the temple.
34. Consequently, God’s law was forgotten and the Jewish religion corrupted. But, when the scroll was found, read and obeyed, the true religion was restored as it was originally (2 Kings 22:1-20). Even so today, when the Word of God is obscured by hunt tradition, corrupt religion results.
35. But when the Word of God alone is followed, only then the pure, non-denominational Church of Christ is restored. The Word of God transforms a being, transforms an individual makes Christians; one must get back to it.
36. “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:”1 Peter 2:1-2 (KJV)
37. Many reformers came to reform the apostate church without making much sustained impact. People like Martin Luther, John Knox, Wrich Zwingli, John Calvin, all attempted to reform the church. What began as a protest against a corrupt church resulted in a mass of churches divided by denominational creeds and names. Some of the apostate doctrines and practices of the Roman Church were carried over into each of the denominations.
38. The followers of each of the reformers accepted their leaders’ conclusion: Luther’s followers became Lutherans; Calvin’s followers became Presbyterians; John Wesley’s followers became Methodists, etc. Such has been the history of Christendom as every year, there are more churches. This has led to unending emergence of denominations, divisions with many faiths, bodies, names and all kinds of practices. People are now confused- which one is true? There is much confusion on the land.
THE END TIME MESSENGER
39. God’s plan and purpose is to have an individual or group of individuals that takes the Word of God alone to be their Absolute. It is the only way one can become like Christ (the Word, as Christ never fails to do all the will of God “Then said I, lo, I come ( in the volume of the book it is written of Me,) to do thy will, O God” (Hebrews 10:7);
40. “Jesus said a them, My meat (food) is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34). Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom of His true Church, the Bride) who are recognised by their ability to do the same works of God by staying fully with the Word of God
41. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do; because I go unto My Father (because I go back to the Spirit)” (John 14:12).
42. God’s way of upholding His Church in the truth had been by sending messengers to His people. These messengers would bring God’s people back to God’s word. He sent Moses to deliver Israel from Egypt and to hand down God’s command to the people. Elijah was sent to bring Israel out of idolatry introduced by false prophets of Baal. John the baptist came and pointed the nation of Israel back to the Word of God – Jesus Christ.
43. In the history of the Church, Jesus Christ came to bring the Church back to Himself “… I go to prepare a place for you. And if l go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, AND RECEIVE YOU UNTO MYSELF; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2-3).
44. Saint Paul in the Holy Ghost spoke the same thing in Ephesians 5:23-27 “… Christ is the Head of the Church: and He is the Saviour of the Body … the Church is subject unto Christ, … Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, That He (Christ, the Word of God) might present it to Himself (back to the word) a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
45. The Church must remain in Christ and His doctrine in order to be found before Christ in glory. The apostles had the revelation that the true Church must remain in Christ’s word in order to be acceptable to Him therefore they upheld the Church and the apostles doctrine (Acts 2:42) which were the teachings of Christ to His apostles.
46. However, as the Church gradually drifted away from this truth during the Church ages, God in His un-changing pattern, never failed to send men whose mission were only to reform the Church by the truth. All these men like John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Wesley etc. which have been earlier mentioned in this book did their best to reform the apostate Church.
47. Moreover, the emergence of the Pentecostals with the restoration of the gifts of the spirit was another move of God to bring God’s Church to the scriptures and the entire truth of God’s word. Those denominations relaxed their holiness way of living in order to attract a larger and more “refined” following, with laws legislated by men that tend to overrule the leading of the Lord.
48. Their vision was limited to the part they held speaking in tongues, miracles and prosperity, and they [quickly built a wall around themselves. It was obvious that those movement never restored the Church to the position of the Church of Acts. But God was bent to restore the Church to Acts of the Apostles with Jesus ministry as He promised in His word in Joel 2:25 and Acts 3:21 – the restoration of all things back to the original pattern of the word of God.
49. This ministry of restoration had to be done with the anointing of the Spirit of God used in Elijah the Tishbite because of the apostasy on the land, as God normally use that nature to resist the idolatry and adultery on the land.
50. Therefore, God promised to send a prophet to the Gentiles in this end time before the great and dreadful day of the Lord to restore the Gentile Church back to the faith of the apostolic fathers.
51. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” KJV
52. He came to forerun the second coming of Christ just as John the Baptist foreran the first coming of Christ.
53. “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain”. Isaiah 40: 3-4(KJV)
54. “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts”. Malachi 3: 1 (KJV)
55. It is clear that John the Baptist that foreran the first coming of Christ was foretold in these scriptures. See the fulfillment in Luke 1: 17.
56. “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1: 17 (KJV)
57. “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” Malachi 4: 5-6 (KJV)–shows what he would do when he comes.
58. There are two fold functions this Elijah would do:
59. To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children.
60. To turn the hearts of the children to their fathers.
61. John the Baptist (Elijah of Malachi 4: 5) fulfilled the first part.
62. “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1: 17 (KJV)
63. To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children. This is the hearts of the Jewish fathers who were before the first coming of Christ, to the hearts of the children- the Pentecostal children, the children of Grace, the age of Christ in His frirst advent.
64. The part two, turning the hearts of the present day children to their Pentecostal, Apostolic, Holy Ghost filled fathers: that is taking everybody in this age (children), back to the Word of God that was abandoned at Pentecost.
65. It would take another Prophet with the spirit of Elijah to do this. The Prophet William Marion Branham fulfilled this. He was the one that told the entire world to go back to the Word of God. He came with the message pointing everybody to the Word. He said the Word is in the Bride and would be a Man. He pointed everybody to where to find the Word- that it is lying in one of the jungles in Africa; that He is the full Word and introduced Him, telling everybody that this Word, this Man will be identified by the Shekinah Glory in the form of a cloud that will encircle Him, the end of which will be infinity. He said the ‘halo’ over his (Branham’s) head was just a small thing and that when He (Christ, the Word, in the Person, the Man) should come, the ‘halo’ would encircle Him completely.
66. The Prophet William Marion Branham received the commission to forerun the second coming of Christ. During the baptismal service in June 1963, on the Ohio River Jeffersonville, Indiana, as the Prophet William Marion Branham was baptizing the 17th person, the voice went forth thus:“As John the Baptist foreran the first coming of Christ, you will forerun His second coming(that is Christ’s second coming)” , (The Revelation of the Seven Seals- William Marion Branham).
67. My mission On Earth Is To Forerun the On-Coming Word
68. My mission I believe to the earth is what? It is to forerun the coming Word (see?) the coming Word which is Christ. And Christ in Him has the millennium and has everything right there because He is the Word (see?). (The Spoken Word Is The Original Seed page 20, paragraph 1).
69. The Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena is indeed the Word. He is the Word made flesh in this generation. He has the Word, the spoken Word for the hour. Whatever He says stands and He creates things with the Word of His mouth as the very Creator of all things according to Colossians 1: 15-17.
70. “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” Colossians 1: 15-17 (KJV)
HEAR PROPHET BRANHAM AGAIN;
71. “it maybe time. It maybe the hour now, that this great person that we are expecting to rise on the scene may rise on the scene.
72. Maybe this ministry that I have tried to take people back to the word has laid foundation; and if it has, I will be leaving you for good.
73. There won’t be two of us here the same time. If there is, he will increase, I will decrease. I don’t know but I have been privileged by God to look and see what it was-unfold to that much. Now, that is the truth.” (William Mariam Branham. Revelation of the seven seals. Page 567)
74. “If the church, way back there in that third age had only held on to the revelation of the living Word in their midst, the power of God would not have faded as it did in those Dark Ages.
75. And right today, when the church returns to the Word in faith, we can say without doubt that the glory of God and the wonderful acts of God will be in her midst again. Here is what I am trying to say to you.
76. The law of reproduction is that each specie brings forth after its own kind, even according to Genesis 1:11. ‘And God said, let the earth bring forth grasses and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.’ Whatever life was in a seed came forth into a plant and thence into fruit.
77. The very same law applies to the church today. Whatever seed started the church will come forth into a plant and be like the original seed because it is the same seed.
78. In these last days the true Bride Church (Christ’s seed) will come to the Headstone, and she will be the super church, a super race, as she nears Him. They in the Bride will be so much like Him that they will even be in His very image.
79. This is in order to be united with Him. They will be one. They will be the very manifestation of the Word of the living God. Denominations cannot produce this (wrong seed). They will produce their creeds and their dogmas, mixed with the Word. The mongrelizing brings forth a hybrid product. The first son (Adam) was the spoken Word of God. he was given a bride to reproduce himself. That is why the bride was given to him, to reproduce himself; to produce another son of God but she fell.
80. She fell by hybridization. She caused him to die. The second son (Jesus), also a spoken Seed- Word of God was given a bride as was Adam. But before he could marry her, she also had fallen.
81. She, like Adam’s wife, was put to the test whether she would believe the Word of God and live, or doubt the Word and die. She doubted. She left the Word. She died. From a little group of the true seed of the Word, God will present Christ with a beloved bride. She is a virgin of His Word.
82. She is a virgin because she knows no man-made creeds or dogmas. By and through the members of the bride will be fulfilled all that was promised of God to be made manifest in the virgin. The word of promise came to the virgin Mary. But that Word of promise was He, Himself, to be manifest. God was made manifest.
83. He, Himself, acted at that time and fulfilled His own Word of promise in the virgin. It was an angel that had brought her the message. But the angel’s message was the Word of God. Isaiah 9:6.
84. He fulfilled at that time all that was written of Him because she accepted His Word to her. The members of the virgin bride will love Him, and they will have His potentials, for He is their head, and all power belongs to Him.
85. They are subject to Him as the members of our bodies are subject to our heads. Those in the bride do only His will. No one can make them do otherwise. They have ‘thus saith the Lord’ or they keep still. They know that it has to be God in them doing the works, fulfilling His own Word. He did not complete all His works in and through the bride.
86. She knows that, for it was not yet time for Him to do certain things that he must now do. But He will now fulfill through the bride that work which He left for this specific time.
87. ” Hear the Prophet William Marion Branham again”. Page 170 – 172 Church Ages Book:
THE BRIDE OF CHRIST MINISTRY WORLDWIDE
(THE RESTORED TRUE CHURCH)
(THE MINISTRY OF A MAN, APOSTLE PETER ODOEMENA, THE SON OF MAN)
7
THE RESTORED TRUE CHURCH
1. When the little group at Nkpor gathering as the Bible Believers Assembly gave herself to praying and asking God to identify with us, the Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena, came and identified with us, his ministry unknown to any of us but He knew His commission. He identified with us in 1990. Humbly and faithfully, He kept worshipping with us.
2. In 1992, when we gathered for a camp meeting from 24th to 30th December, He equally came with His family. When Almighty God answered the yearning of our hearts which was that we would return to the Acts of the Apostles, PENTECOST, Almighty God chose him to dwell in him among us.
3. From the inception of the Bride of Christ Ministry/Movement, on 30th December, 1992, we have witnessed fully all that the Prophet William Marion Branham prophesied would happen whenever the church goes back to the Word of God. He said the Bridegroom, Christ would be in their midst and the Bridegroom is the Word. The Word is what accomplishes the promise. Christ is the Word made flesh, is the Bridegroom. From the time of the commissioning of the vindicated Apostle, Apostle Peter Odoemena, the Son of Man in our midst, we began to witness astounding manifestation of the power of God in the camp of His people as He came up with messages, the Word, from God.
4. Many hidden sins were uncovered, people’s hearts were discerned and secrets revealed. Fear gripped everybody just as it happened in Acts 5: 3-5
5. “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things.”
6. “Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.
7. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.
8. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them. And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.)” Acts 5: 9-14 (KJV)
9. There was nowhere to hide, people were being excommunicated for violating the Word. People that were indulging in illegal businesses, false means of making money were asked to change to the right means of livelihood or excommunicated from the Church. Holy living, separation from evil and worldliness were emphasized.
10. As God moved mightily in our midst in the person of Apostle Peter Odoemena, the Son of Man, and Christ in this dispensation, we were all convinced of sin. All the accursed materials we had were destroyed and set ablaze according to Acts 19:18-19,
11. “And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver” Acts 19:18-19(KJV)
12. Such accursed materials included our television sets, any obscene material and materials portraying worldliness. God harped so much on holy living and God’s righteousness; total obedience to the Word of God without hypocrisy. Unrepentant sinners were excommunicated from the fellowship according to 1 Corinthians 5: 9-13.
13. “I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
14. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
15. For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.” 1 Corinthians 5: 9-13 (KJV)
16. Those that taught heresies, yet quoting Branham were identified, rejected, pushed out of the church and placed under a curse. This is scriptural.
17. “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
18. If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” 2 John 9-11 (KJV)
19. “A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject” Titus 3: 10 (KJV)
20. “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” Romans 16: 17 (KJV)
21. “Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.” 1Timothy 1: 19-20 (KJV)
22. St Paul, an Apostle, handed over Hymenaeus and Alexander to Satan for teaching contrary doctrine.
23. “Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things, And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:” Ephesians 4: 8-13 (KJV)
24. It became clear that the Almighty is back in His Church in these last days, putting on flesh as Apostle Peter Odoemena, Christ, doing exactly what He did in the Church when it was established on the Pentecost Day.
8
ALMIGHTY GOD COMMISSIONS HIS APOSTLE BEFORE MANY WITNESSES
1. On 3rd March, 1993, the entire church gathered in great expectation from the Lord. When our brother mounted the pulpit, the Holy Ghost used Him greatly as he preached on the topic; “MIXED MULTITUDE” wherein God revealed how the people of God had mixed up with strange people beginning from Eden-God revealed the secret of retaining relationship with Him.
2. The introduction of the message alone did miracle among us, as discernment followed on, visions, and prophecies. God lamented over the unholy alliance of His people with the ungodly. And commanded His people to live a separated and holy life unto Him. The message went on and on, penetrating our secret paths, revealing many things that cannot be contained herein.
3. At the end of Part 1 of the message that day, 3/3.1993, a very lengthy prophecy followed from a brother who went to the altar to pray for the forgiveness of his sins and the sins of the church. While he was praying, it appeared a very high voltage of electricity current was switched upon him, then a very strong force pulled him upon his feet, the holy bible in his hand began to turn swiftly like acrobatic demonstration, until he stood upright on one of the brother’s palm which was raised high in the air when the message came forth in a thundering voice. The following is the summary of the message:
4. Almighty God told us that His word remains the absolute.
5. God said that He preserved His word all these years that we might not die.
6. He told us that the camp of His people must be separated from the camp of the ungodly.
7. Almighty God told us that His word can never fail because it is His power (that was why the bible displayed a wonder by turning round and round on the brother’s hands for many seconds without falling down and we were amazed.)
8. The Lord confirmed to us that we are His chosen people therefore; He will not leave us alone.
9. He gave us a sure and unfailing sign that will prove His presence in our midst. That sure sign, He called, “The Sword of the spirit”-(THE WORD OF GOD). He told some of us to purge ourselves within a period of time He gave for us to be part of the fresh move of God.
10. One of the notable things on that day was the public commissioning of God’s servant and Apostle before many witnesses in these following words:
11. “I have anointed you with My Spirit, I have anointed you with My Power, speak My Word. Fear them not for I will be with you. I have anointed you with My Unction, yes, the Lord of Host has promised. It is My Word among My people; it’s My Word among My people for it is My Power. Yes, thus shall you come into My Sanctuary and they shall see My Power among My people.”
12. The voice of God made us understand really that we have entered into a different move-The move of The Holy of Ghost. It became clear to us we are fully restored to the original church that THE BRIDE OF CHRIST MINISTRY IS INDEED THE CONTINUATION OF THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS, THE CHURCH ESTABLISHED ON THE DAY OF PENTECOST.
13. The prophet William Branham said that they left Him(The Word) at Pentecost-they left The Word at Pentecost and if anybody would get Him, such would go back to Pentecost.
14. On the 10th day of April, 1993 when we observed the scriptural “feet washing” and “communion” as the Lord Jesus Christ established it in His first advent, we witnessed what sent fear down the spine of every one of us. We were all ordered to consecrate ourselves before coming to the Lord’s table. Anybody having any hidden and unconfessed sin would not partake of it.
15. After feet washing, just before going to the Lord’s Table, the brother walked away. He was persuaded to stay and partake of the communion, he refused and said that God had not forgiven him of his sin of coveting money with which he purchased a parcel of land. He walked out of the church, from the Lord’s Table till this day! We were all gripped with fear.
16. In this Ministry of the Bride, we have seen many supernatural manifestations but the greatest is the PLACEMENT OF THE WORD! This is because it is the MINISTRY OF THE WORD as the Prophet William Marion Branham said.
17. The Word is raised above every human being. The Word is placed right and so God Who is the Word and Who is in the Bride as the Word made flesh, confirms His Word with signs and wonders following. He gave us three foundational Messages:
v Mixed Multitude
v Jerusalem to Jericho
v Faith
18. In Mixed Multitude message, we were shown how the people of God had been mixing with heathens, learning their evil ways and decreeing God out of their midst and warned never to go that way.
19. The doctrines of church worship, administration, separation, conduct, order, doctrines on marriage, all were handed down to us. Holy living, holy conversation, etc were all emphasized.
20. The fear of God was enthroned in the hearts of all as we discovered that indeed this is the Angel of Revelation 14: 6-7, KJV
21. “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”
22. This is the Angel with the everlasting gospel to preach to all in the earth (And this is accomplished!)
23. From 1993, the Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena embarked on missionary journeys, establishing the church in areas where no man has ever preached this great truth.
24. “I have therefore whereof I may glory through Jesus Christ in those things which pertain to God. For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed, Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.
25. Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation:” Romans 15: 17- 20, (KJV)
26. The missionary journeys took Him to places like Eha-Amufu in Enugu State, (from Onitsha,) to Obosima in Imo State, Aba, and Umuahia in Abia State; Jos and Dadinkowa in Plateau State; Gwodogwodo and Nsem in Kaduna State; Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, Owerri and Umuokanne in Imo State, Lagos in Lagos State, Owena in Ogun State, etc.
27. The Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena, spoke a dove into existence as the Prophet said He would. We have seen all that were recorded in the Acts of the Apostles and far more, come to pass in this ministry.
28. In 1994, December 31st into January 1995, we saw the Son of Man Apostle Peter Odoemena transfigured as His face dazzled with the very bright light that shone from one end of the fellowship hall to the other end and a Thundering Voice that said, “Thus it behoveth the Son of Man to fulfill all righteousness.” From that day, we understood that the Apostle Peter Odoemena had moved into His office as the Son of Man which means a Prophet.
29. It should be noted that Jesus Christ answered Son of Man. It was the Sovereign Spirit indwelling the Apostle that spoke; calling Him “The Son of Man”.
30. In 1996, we were told to come to fellowship on Sunday, 7th April, 1996 to see He that had been having dealings with us to banish unbelief in the camp of God’s people.
31. This was because many were astonished, seeing the great move of God, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and they could not understand since we had never had it that way before. When we came, the Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena preached the message titled, “The Resurrected Body” and made us understand it was the Resurrected Christ identifying with us. Photographs were taken and when the films were developed, we saw the Son of Man surrounded by the thick Cloud! It became the more clear that Almighty God was (and still) very much in our midst, hence we are enjoying what those in the church in the wilderness enjoyed and the Church in the Acts of the Apostles.
32. “And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with linen, which had the writer’s inkhorn by his side.” Ezekiel 9:3 (KJV)
33. “Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord’s glory.”Ezekiel 10:4 (KJV)
34. “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.” Daniel 7:13 (KJV)
35. “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” Rev 14:14 (KJV)
36. “And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Mat 17:3-5 (KJV)
37. Apostle Peter Odoemena was confirmed the Christ of this Age, God among His people. The Shekinah presence of God which cannot be impersonated is here in the Bride of Christ Ministry.
38. We saw God vindicating the Bride of Christ Ministry World Wide. When Israel came out of Egypt and were in the wilderness, they were being led by God in the form of thick Cloud, thick Darkness, the Rainbow, the Ball of Fire.
39. “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
40. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up.
41. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.”Exodus 40:34-38 (KJV)
42. “And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning.So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night.And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents.At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents.”Num 9:15-18 (KJV)
43. Another great event that has taken place in our midst, is the Headstone, the Godhead, that came down on 8th April, 2012. Then on 19th August, 2012, the Deity came down- the Original Body of Christ. All were photographed and kept. We wish we could display some of the photographs. Ever since God came down, He has always been with us.
44. These things were not done in secret The Power of God in the Bride was noised abroad and many people travelled from Lagos, Aba, Port-Harcourt, Enugu, the Northern part of Nigeria (Kaduna precisely) down to Nkpor near Onitsha to witness the move of God in the Bride of Christ Ministry.
45. Even from United States of America, the family of Prophet William Marion Branham had to keep up correspondence with the Son of Man Apostle Peter Odoemena, asking for prayers and His intervention in their family problem.
46. From Germany, Ewald Frank, the man God told to store up the food (messages of William Branham), has been keeping correspondences with the Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena.
TODAY, the entire world is hooked up to the websites of the Bride of Christ Ministry Worldwide:
www.brideofchristministryworldwide.org
www.previewofthebrideofchristministry.org
www.chroniclesofthebridalfaithworldwide.org
Email: enquiry@brideofchristministryworldwide.org
The messages of Apostle Peter Odoemena are found in these websites. The messages are translated in many languages in the world- English, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Russian, Hebrew, German, Arabic, Chinese, Pakistan, French, Indian (Hindi, Bengali), Aramaic, Greek, etc. Every week, hundreds of thousands of people rush to these websites, scrambling for the messages which are open to the world without charge! They are posting letters to the Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena, making requests for prayers, for spiritual upliftment, for family peace, for salvation.
47. One wrote, affirming that the messages of the Son of Man are what is expected in the churches but unfortunately, the churches are all corrupt, worldly, carnal and materialistic. By the churches, he meant the denominational organizations.
48. The Arab world is subscribing to the messages of the Faith of the Son of Man, Apostle Peter Odoemena, the Bride of Christ Ministry as countries like Iran, United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, India, Israel, etc. are all subscribing, all trooping in, scrambling for these messages. European countries- Greece, Finland, Germany, France, Russia, Sweden, UK, Denmark etc. the Americas-USA, Uruguay, Canada, Mexico, etc. The Asian-India, China, Vietnam; etc., Africans-Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone. This is because in the Bride of Christ Ministry, God is uniting all His children all over the world, including those in the Arab world whether Muslims, Hindis, Christians, name it, together in Christ, the Head of the Church, The True Church as on the day of Pentecost,
49. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, what meaneth this? Acts 2:5-12 (KJV)
50. Never forget that once you were heathen and that you were called godless and “unclean” by the Jews. (But their hearts, too, were still unclean, even though they were going through the ceremonies and rituals of the godly, for they circumcised themselves as a sign of godliness.)Remember that in those days you were living utterly apart from Christ; you were enemies of God’s children, and he had promised you no help. You were lost, without God, without hope.But now you belong to Christ Jesus, and though you once were far away from God, now you have been brought very near to him because of what Jesus Christ has done for you with his blood.For Christ himself is our way of peace. He has made peace between us Jews and you Gentiles by making us all one family, breaking down the wall of contempt* that used to separate us.By his death he ended the angry resentment between us, caused by the Jewish laws that favored the Jews and excluded the Gentiles, for he died to annul that whole system of Jewish laws. Then he took the two groups that had been opposed to each other and made them parts of himself; thus he fused us together to become one new person, and at last there was peace.As parts of the same body, our anger against each other has disappeared, for both of us have been reconciled to God. And so the feud ended at last at the cross. And he has brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were very far away from him, and to us Jews who were near.Now all of us, whether Jews or Gentiles, may come to God the Father with the Holy Spirit’s help because of what Christ has done for us. Ephesians 2:11-18. (LB)
51. Just think! Though I did nothing to deserve it, and though I am the most useless Christian there is, yet I was the one chosen for this special joy of telling the Gentiles the Glad News of the endless treasures available to them in Christ;and to explain to everyone that God is the Savior of the Gentiles too, just as he who made all things had secretly planned from the very beginning.And his reason? To show to all the rulers in heaven how perfectly wise he is when all of his family—Jews and Gentiles alike—are seen to be joined together in his Church 11 in just the way he had always planned it through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ephesians 3: 8-11. (LB)
52. “The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.”Isaiah 2:1-3 (KJV)
53. “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed; no one will ever conquer it. It will shatter all these kingdoms into nothingness, but it shall stand forever, indestructible.That is the meaning of the Rock cut from the mountain without human hands—the Rock that crushed to powder all the iron and brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold. Thus the great God has shown what will happen in the future, and this interpretation of your dream is as sure and certain as my description of it.” Daniel 2: 44-45 (KJV)
54. The above scriptures are fulfilled! CHRIST INDEED HAS CONQUERED THE WORLD. THE CHURCH OF THE ACTS, THE SHADOW OF WHICH WAS IN THE WILDERNESS, IS HERE AND IT IS THE BRIDE OF CHRIST MOVEMENT, A LIVING ORGANISM.
God bless you.