Transcript
Good morning everyone. It’s time to begin service. We send our greetings to all our friends listening around the world, especially those from Faith Assembly and the many places we fellowshipped for so many years. We are continuing to pray for you, and we are so thankful for the breakthroughs that different ones are experiencing.
This morning we are continuing on with this series of messages we have been on for a little while now. I believe this is the seventh message in our William Branham series. I expect we will have one more lesson after this, and that will wrap up this series.
And today, our topic is “Things that are not a sign of the end.” Our emphasis today is again on the words, “are not.” This is not a doomsday sermon; this is an anti-doomsday sermon.
If you are not a regular listener here and you may wonder why this series would interest us, it is because I and most of our listeners are formerly part of William Branham’s cult following, known as the message. And there are certain biblical passages that are foundational to that false belief system that hold it all together, and in this series, we have been examining those items.
And today, I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 24, and I will begin at verse 1 and read down to verse 14.
1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Matthew 24 King James Version
Let us Pray: Lord God, as we approach the scripture this morning, we ask you to bless our study. Lord, you have here told us a number of things that, if we see them, we can know the end is not yet. Help us, Lord, to see and understand. In Jesus’ name, we ask it, Amen.
Well today, we are not going to actually deal with any specific teaching of the message, but I will start by giving you the message explanation on this passage of scriptures we have just read.
Message Explanation
William Branham personally taught that the events we have read about here started with World War I, just over 100 years ago. And since roughly the year 1916, the world has been in the beginning of sorrow. William Branham taught on that several times, and that is also the passage explained by Raymond Jackson. He taught the beginning of sorrows started with World War I, about the year 1916.
Now when I left the message, the current pastor at that time, James Allen, he had changed it, and he had a very confusing way of approaching these subjects. I honestly was never sure if he was really trying to change something or if he had just forgotten what William Branham and Raymond Jackson had preached, and honestly, I think it’s hard to say.
But I believe he was trying to say that this beginning of sorrows had started with the COVID virus. It was pretty confusing, to be honest, and that might not have been what he meant, but that was certainly what he seemed to be saying. So, the point being, I am not really sure what they believe there about this passage now; they have become so confused. It’s really hard to say.
But at any rate, the main teaching of the message is that this beginning of sorrows started about the year 1916, with World War I, and then they take everything we have read here in these scriptures, and even though Jesus said, “the end is not yet,” they believe everything here is a sign of the end. So anytime there is a plague, or a war, or an earthquake – or these sorts of things, that news is always trotted out to reinforce that the end is upon us.
Doomsday Obsessions
But we are going to look at this passage of scripture today, and we are going to debunk quite a few of the tropes of the message. There are certain things which message preachers trot out over and over and over again.
There are certain wars we were always looking for to happen. There was what we called a miracle war, and there was what we called the Ezekiel war, and then there was what we called George Washington’s vision, and then, of course, there was also Armageddon. And those would be four different wars we were expecting to happen as the end of days unfolds. And they were always pointing out things that were going to lead to those wars they were predicting.
And don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say I heard several hundred predictions on all those different wars over the past 30 or 40 years.
And we spent at least a good thirty years just hearing preachers spend so much of their time telling us the latest news, and it was always news that was trying to convince this war or that war was about to break out.
And whenever there would be an earthquake or a natural disaster, or even disease and plagues, like COVID, they would come to these very scriptures, and be telling us what we were seeing was a sign of the end.
And that was a bread and butter main dish served up by message preachers pretty well nonstop for the past thirty years at least.
And, the cult following of William Branham is a doomsday cult. They are totally obsessed with the doomsday, and it is really unfortunate how badly they have been sucked into obsession over the doomsday.
Jesus is, of course, coming again, and it is very clear, we should make ourselves ready today and never wait until the last minute.
But as we read the bible, it is very clear that, Jesus never intended the doomsday, or the day of the Lord, to become the main subject or the main focus of the church. If you are in a church where that has happened, that church is in rebellion against Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ outright forbid getting obsessed with the doomsday.
The end of days was never supposed to be where all emphasis and focus were to be placed. It is a legitimate topic to be examined and taught, in the right proportions, and from time to time.
But Jesus cautioned over and over again to his disciples not to become obsessed with the day of his return.
And there is a healthy way to look at that subject, and there is a very unhealthy way to look at it.
And I truly believe that God knows all things. He knows that people who focus on doomsday are destined to become radical and extreme. And that is why Jesus Christ cautioned us to never become obsessed with the end of days, in the way the message has.
I am not telling you it’s wrong to preach about the second coming, or the wrath of God, or the end of days. I am not saying that at all.
And if you are a normal Christian listening, it might be hard for you to grasp what a message church is even like, in this regard. It’s not a sermon now and then on the second coming of the Lord.
But the majority of sermons that are preached, for 30, and 40 years in a row, have been about the doomsday, and for the past 30 years, it was always a year or two away.
So you have lived 30 plus years, where the end was just a year or two away, and the majority of sermons have been that way. And it has certainly made the message a worsening doomsday cult, year by year.
Year by year, the people become more and more radical. And it happens so slowly, the people on the inside don’t even realize it’s happening. But Jesus really did warn us not to become so obsessed in that way. It’s not good for the church. It’s not good for us individuals.
Because Christians need so much more than just sermons on the second coming and the end of days. There is a whole bible here, and 90% of the bible is not about the end of days. And if you focus on the end of days, then 90% of what is in the book is never going to get taught to the people.
And when you go one and two generations, where the leaders have been obsessed with the doomsday, you end up with whole generations sitting in the church who never even heard the gospel. And that is the reality of the churches from which we come.
And you preachers who think that is okay, woe unto you. You have failed to serve meat in due season. You have failed as pastors and shepherds. You have been unfaithful servants, who, in the passion of your own obsessions, have neglected the flock.
Jesus Christ is not pleased with you. And as the false apostle said to me on my way out, he said, “Who are you to judge me?” And I say to you the same thing I said to him: The word of God judges you. And one day you will answer for all the people you have abused and mistreated, you will answer for your utter failure to teach the gospel to whole generations of people under your care.
And I say, if you don’t repent, may the Lord swiftly judge you before you do more harm. You are guilty, and you are not even ashamed enough to blush. May God have mercy on you.
And let me look at a couple verses where Jesus speaks about these sorts of things.
And, first let’s look right here in Jesus’ answer to the disciples, in Matthew 24. Let’s read verse 35 and 36:
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Matthew 24: King James Version
So here, Jesus is telling the apostles that nobody knows when this is going to happen. It is a secret. It’s not something you can project or give any sort of a definitive answer as to it. There are events that will transpire, which will be very clear and obvious signs. But no one knows the day in which those signs will be manifested.
And none of those clear signs have been manifested yet. Not a single one of them. And to make any sort of claim that the end is upon us, before those signs are manifested, that is totally wrongheaded. Until we see the actual signs manifest, it is nothing but foolishness to say the end is upon us. It is one thing to look at these sort of scripture, and have some outline of what these signs are and to have a general idea of how things will unfold. But it is quite another thing to say the end is upon us when none of these signs have yet to be manifested. And the message preachers are in the category of people who are saying the end is upon us, yet none of these signs have manifested yet. And they are even setting dates and time frames in which the Lord will come. And it’s been that way my entire life. The coming of the Lord has always been a year or two away, at the most, for thirty years in a row, since the early 1990s when Raymond Jackson first started setting dates. He used to say, “Stick around, and we will see who is right.” That was a thing he said a lot, and we always said Amen! Yes! And I would say amen to that because I was convinced he was right, and we were right. And I was convinced that if we stuck around, we would be proved right.
And here is the thing. We did stick around, and we stuck around because we believed everything he said. And then time went by, and we found out who was right, and it was not him. His dates and his predictions were all very, very badly wrong. And I watched a lot of people make a whole lot of really bad life decisions based on being convinced that he was right. But turns out he was wrong, and he bears responsibility for that. And then Raymond Jackson has been gone about twenty years now, and this thing has just continued over and over. It has been a constant stream of new predictions since he left. The end was supposed to come a dozen times since 2005. The blood moons were supposed to be it. When Trump got elected was supposed to be it. When Trump failed to get reelected, that was supposed to be it. When the schmita happened, that was supposed to be it. When the jubilee happened, that was supposed to be it. I had one preacher trying to convince me it was 2023; I heard he just changed it to 2025. On and on and on it goes.
And it’s like that in many of the different groups. They have their different dates set. Their different time ranges set. And over and over and over, the dates come and go, and the end does not come. And time really bears witness that none of those people had any clue what they were talking about. And then, to distract you from their decades-long pattern of failed predictions, they try to use fear tactics and tell you if you leave them, you are going to not make it. That is evil. And may the Lord swiftly close the mouth of such wicked men. Those men have a proven track record of not knowing what they are talking about. You have no obligation to listen to them. Jesus is not going to send preachers to mislead you for 40 years in a row, and then at the last, use those same men to give you some special understanding. That is not going to happen. That is just a foolish idea. If those men were led of God, then their predictions for the past 40 years should have actually come to pass. But instead of realizing how far off base they are, they double down, and they keep the doomsday obsession going. And in the meantime, whole generations of people have been born, and many of them have never once heard the gospel preached to them because the preachers were too obsessed with the doomsday.
Turn with me to Acts chapter 1. Let’s see something else Jesus says about this.
Acts 1
1 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
3 To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:
4 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.
5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
6 When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
Acts 1: King James Version
Now if you are a student of the bible, you would know that Jesus has been questioned along this line plenty of times before, even by these exact same people. And by this point, Jesus has done told them several times that he is not going to tell them when it will happen. But they keep asking. They keep thinking they are going to get a better answer, and just maybe he will tell them when this is actually going to happen. These disciples are very concerned with this, and we can understand why. The day the Lord returns, that is the day that all their dreams will come true, so to speak. It’s like a child with a wrapped gift, and you won’t tell the child when they are going to be able to unwrap their gift. And they keep asking, over and over, when can I open my present? And there is an aspect of that here. These disciples desperately want all the good things that come with the Jesus Christ’s second coming. And, with all the times they have asked about it, we can see that Jesus is concerned about this fixation on this question. And every time they ask this question, Jesus answers them in such a way as to caution them that they should not let their fixation on this question get in the way of the mission he has given them. Because the mission of the church is not to obsess over the end of days. That is not our mission as Christians. And when that takes over, and that becomes the priority, then have fallen into a trap. And you are actually neglecting the things Jesus is most concerned with you taking care of. And as the disciples ask this end of days question to Jesus one last time, once more, he answers them by telling them their question will not be answered, and by telling them there is a more important thing for the church to do. Let’s read it in verse 7:
7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
Acts 1: King James Version
It’s not for them to know. That is not where the focus belongs. It’s going to happen. It’s going to come. These things are in the power of the Father, and trying to get some date range to attach to it, that is not appropriate. And brothers and sisters, anyone who is doing that, anyone who is trying to narrow this thing down to a date range, they are in direct and open defiance of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not led of the Holy Spirit. They are in rebellion against God. These things are in the power of the Father. They are not in the power of man, not the apostles, and not men today. Jesus didn’t say, “This is reserved for a future generation to find out about,” and it’s not for your day. Jesus said this thing is reserved for the Father. It’s not for the church at all, not at any time, not in any age. It is reserved to the Father. Not even the Son knows the day and the hour. And mortal man is not capable of telling you something that has been reserved to the Father. And that lets you know that when men are making predictions of dates and time ranges, and seasons, they cannot be inspired of God. I remember a preacher who would say, “Jesus said you won’t know the day, not the hour, but that don’t mean we won’t know the month or the year.” But Jesus here even says the season or the times. The only thing we have to go on is the signs he told us to watch for. And I say again, there is not a single one of those clear signs which have manifested yet. Not a single one. And if you think clear signs have been manifested, I want to let you know that you have been tricked. You have been told things which are not clear signs, are clear signs. You have been tricked. And people who are setting times and dates on unclear signs, and you are constantly probing into things that have been reserved to the Father. They are in outright rebellion against the scripture. It really puts them in a bad light. They are actually sinning against God when they try to tell you dates and date ranges. They are putting themselves in the shoes of God, telling you something that is reserved only to the knowledge of God. But I want to assure you, the message preachers are not God, and they cannot tell you things God said he would never tell anyone. Jesus is coming again. That is very true. But there is not enough information in scripture to know when that day is until we see the signs of Matthew 24 manifest before our eyes. And the clear signs of the end, told to us in Matthew 24, have not manifested before our eyes.
Let me finish reading here from Acts 1:
7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.
8 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: King James Version
So what does Jesus want his disciples to do? He wants them to stop obsessing over something that is not for them to know. And he wants them to go spread the gospel message. That is what Jesus wants, he wants the gospel message to be spread. And that takes priority and precedence over obsessing over when the second coming is going to happen. And again, we see the places we come from have been in outright rebellion against Jesus Christ for decades now. They have obsessed over the second coming. They have made mountains of false and failed predictions. And they have caused harm, damage, and destruction the world over. They have allowed whole generations of people to come without ever teaching them the gospel. We know exactly what happens when people get obsessed with the doomsday. We have lived it. We have experienced firsthand. They become radical, and they become extreme. They attack and destroy anyone who tries to guide them back to the center line of the gospel. They break up homes, they destroy families, they cause divorces, they drive people to suicide, they cause people to make terrible life decisions based on false ideas. There is a reason Jesus did not want the disciples to obsess over this thing. And I believe our experience in a doomsday cult is a case in point as to why Jesus didn’t want people to obsess over the doomsday.
Turn back with me to Matthew 24. Jesus knew these sorts of false doomsday preachers would come into the world, and he knew exactly what would be caused by that sort of thing. You see it there in verse 12. Jesus said the love of many will wax cold. An obsession with the doomsday and getting into the constant tension and strife that is caused by those sorts of people causes the love of God to wax cold in people’s hearts. And it is exactly what we all know is true of many of those people. They become hateful, vicious, cruel, destructive, proud-hearted. And because they have been in that doomsday mindset for so long and because the transformation was so gradual, they are not even able to recognize what they have become. They have become so consumed by it, they cannot even realize or see what it has transformed them into.
You let a normal person from the outside look in on one of their church services, let them hear all these strange terms and phrases, and let them see the yelling, screaming, ranting, and raving, the verbal attacks against all kinds of people, the harshness, and then see the fallout of that – destroyed homes, destroyed families, destroyed lives, even suicides. A normal person is able to look at all of that and say, “Oh my goodness, that is terrible.” But the people on the inside cannot even recognize it has happened. Some people might call that a spirit of delusion. Some people might call that believing a lie and being damned. Some people might call that being brainwashed. Call it what you will; it’s certainly not the spirit of God at work.
And Jesus warns us about that here in Matthew 24. Let’s read it together:
1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
3 And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Matthew 24: King James Version
So, here we see the same people who asked Jesus in Acts 1 are asking him the same question here. Jesus has been asked this plenty of times. But Matthew 24 and 25 are his most comprehensive answers to this question in the scripture. We could say there are actually three questions here that are all interrelated, and these questions are coming from his disciples who are trying to figure out just when these things are going to actually happen. Jesus has just told them the temple will be destroyed, and that destruction of the temple was going to happen in their generation of time they were living in. And as he says that, that is a bit shocking to his disciples to consider that the temple will be destroyed because the temple was the center of worship in Israel. In many ways, the temple was at the very heart of Israel’s identity, and so, naturally, they want to know more about this. And so they ask him, will this happen? When will the temple be destroyed? And then they also ask him what will be the sign of his coming, and also what is the sign of the end of the world or the end of the age. And in verse 4, Jesus responds to them. But the first part of his response is not an immediate answer to their question. Before he answers their question, he first gives them a warning. And his warning is about false doomsday preachers, men who are going to come trying to trick them about all this stuff. Let’s read Jesus’ warning about those kinds of men:
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Matthew 24: King James Version
There is the first thing. They are going to come saying they are Christ or they are anointed. And we see that with William Branham, for example. Before he died, he was openly declaring himself to be Jesus Christ. And we see the same thing with many of the preachers who came after them. They usurp to themselves powers that only belong to Jesus Christ. They turn themselves into saviors. They convince people that without them, you can’t be saved. They put themselves into the role of savior. If you reject Preacher So and So, you are not going to make it. You need Preacher So and So just as much as you need Jesus. If you leave out Preacher So and So, unless you have the revelation you can only learn from them, you are not going to make it. Men who do that are presenting themselves as false saviors. They are placing themselves into the plan of salvation. They even tell you very directly that Jesus is not enough to save you. If you just believe in him, you are going to burn up. You need what I have to make it. You need my special revelation to make it.
They put themselves into the role of savior.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
Matthew 24: King James Version
This is the second thing Jesus lets us know these false doomsday preachers are going to be obsessed with: Wars, and rumors of wars. These false doomsday preachers, who are injecting themselves into the plan of salvation, wars and rumors of wars is one of their favorite topics. If they can’t find a legitimate war, they will constantly be spreading rumors about an approaching war. And in the next part of verse 6, Jesus lets us know that wars and rumors of wars are not a legitimate sign of the end.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Matthew 24: King James Version
Jesus says, don’t even worry about such things as a sign of the end. The end is not yet. Wars and rumors of wars are not a sign of the end. In fact, the Bible tells us that, when that day comes, what they will be saying is peace and safety, not wars and rumors of wars. And if you read on in this chapter, when he comes, it will be like the days of Noah and the days of Lot. They are building, planting, marrying, feasting, and partying. It sounds like it’s going to be a pretty nice time, in many ways. Commerce is going on. It’s not going to be a time of catastrophe and war, and destruction. It’s going to be a time of peace and prosperity.
And wars and rumors of wars are not a reliable sign of the end. That is the main point of Jesus in verse 6. You can’t use wars or rumors of wars as a sign of the end. And rather than it being a sign of the end, it actually serves as a sign to us, to help us identify the false doomsday preachers who get obsessed with those things.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Matthew 24: King James Version
Again, more things which are not signs of the end. Verse 7 starts with the word “For” or “because.” And the things in verse 7 are because the end is not yet. These are just happening, that happen throughout human history. And it’s not a sign of the end. The only thing it is a sign of is that human history is marching on. The end is not yet. And what is really ironic is often you will hear preachers read these very same verses and tell you these things are all signs of the end. And you have to wonder, are they so devoid of the spirit of God that they can’t even understand the words they read from the Bible? The end is not yet – it doesn’t get any plainer than that. Because nation will rise against nation, there will be famines, pestilence, and earthquakes. None of that is the sign of the end. What is it? Verse 8 tells us what these things are. It is the beginning of sorrows.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
Matthew 24: King James Version
It’s not the end; it’s just the beginning of sorrows. And when did that start happening? When the beginning of sorrows began? Verse 9 and 10 let us know when.
Matthew 24: King James Version
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
Who is Jesus talking to in verse 9? It’s not me, it’s not you, it’s not anyone alive today. He is talking to Peter, James, Matthew, Thomas, and the apostles. And what happened to the apostles? They shall be delivered up and afflicted, and killed, and hated of all nations. And isn’t that exactly what happened to them? James had his head cut off by the Jews, Peter was crucified by the Romans, Thomas was killed in India, Matthew was killed in Ethiopia. You can go down the list; they were all persecuted and killed. John was tortured, and then he was exiled to die on an island. The last one to die. And verse 9, this happened in the first generation of the church. They delivered up the apostles to be afflicted, and they killed them, and they were hated. And when was that? That was in the beginning of sorrows. That is not something that started in our lifetime. It’s not something that started 100 years ago. That is something that started 2000 years ago, in the very first generation of the church.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
Matthew 24: King James Version
And this lets us know, very clearly, the beginning of sorrows goes all the way back to the days of the early church. And all these things Jesus has been talking about, none of these things are signs of the end. There have been wars, pestilence, earthquakes, famines, and persecutions since the early church, and none of it has been a sign of the end. None of it can be used as a reliable sign of the end. That is why Jesus opened this up by saying, “Don’t be deceived. Don’t be fooled and tricked by the false doomsday preachers who peddle in this sort of stuff.” And the same thing today, none of it is a sign of the end. And men who teach you that it is, they are the very false doomsday preachers Jesus was warning about in verse 5.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Matthew 24: King James Version
And as you come to verse 10, Jesus conveys what will happen as the persecution sets in. And history bears out that a great persecution happened in the very early days of the church. It’s the persecution that killed the apostles. And verse 10 lets us know the conditions at that time.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Matthew 24: King James Version
And again, this fits the great periods of persecution and martyrdom that happened in the early church. And verse 11.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
Matthew 24: King James Version
And there in verse 12, that matches what Jesus said in the book of Revelation about the church in Ephesus, about 70 years later. And we can know verse 12 was already happening within the first generation of Christianity. So, nothing we have read up to this point can be used as a sign of the end.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Matthew 24: King James Version
So, it’s only after everything we have read about has happened. What we notice here, honestly, if we will just read this in a simple way, Jesus is telling the apostles all these different things are going to happen. He tells them they are all going to die, he tells them the gospel is going to continue to be spread even after they are dead, and then none of that is a sign of the end. The end will only come after all that happens. And, just like in Acts 1, it’s clear that sharing the gospel with all nations is the priority the disciples needed to concern themselves with. And nothing has changed. The same is true today. The primary mission of the church is not to obsess over the doomsday. The primary mission of the church is to spread the gospel.
Then the end shall come. Then the end will come. Jesus is coming again, but he was not coming in the lifetime of the apostles. He told them the things false doomsday preachers would point to, and he told them to ignore that nonsense.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Matthew 24: King James Version
And it has been 20 centuries of that so far: 20 centuries of wars, 20 centuries of rumors of wars, 20 centuries of earthquakes, and pestilences, and famines, 20 centuries of false prophets, and false messiahs, and false teachers, 20 centuries of persecutions. None of those things are new, and it continues to the present day.
There are wars today, there are rumors of wars today, there are kingdoms and nations rising up against each other today, there are earthquakes today, there are famines today, there are pestilences today. There are false teachers and false messiahs today, there is persecution of the true church today, and the gospel is being preached until all the world for a witness today.
These things have been going on for close to 2000 years, and the end has not come yet. Those things were not a sign of the end to the apostles, and they are not a sign of the end today. They are just a sign that we are still in the beginning of sorrows, and that the end is not yet. That is the truth. Then the end is not yet. That is exactly what Jesus said back in verse 6: The end is not yet. And when I tell you the end is not yet, I am the one telling you the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear ye him.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Matthew 24: King James Version
Until you see the clear and unmistakable signs that Jesus gave later in chapter 24, the end is not yet. The beginning of sorrows is not the end; the beginning of sorrows is the beginning of sorrows, and so far, it’s been about 2000 years long. And as long as we see the signs that match the beginning of sorrows, we can say exactly what Jesus said: The end is not yet. And that is all I see today; I don’t see any of the very clear and unmistakable signs Jesus gives later on in chapter 24. And until I see a sign like that, I will keep saying the end is not yet because that is what Jesus said, and I believe Jesus.
Jesus was not a doomsday preacher; he was not afraid to tell his disciples, the end is not yet. I am not afraid either, to be like my Lord and Savior; he is the one I want to be like. And he told us these sort of things are not a sign of the end; the only thing these things are a sign of is it’s a sign the people obsessed with these things are false doomsday preachers.
The end is not yet here in 2023; the end is not yet. There are men, I have heard them say this year was the end; they were deceivers. And when this year is over, and you continue to follow those men, you show yourself to be just as big a fool as they are. There are signs; there are signs to look for, and they are unmistakable signs. Just read the rest of this chapter. I am stopping here at verse 14. I have preached through the rest of this chapter; you can go back and find those things if you like to hear it. But here is where I am ending today. The question is who are you going to believe today? Are you going to believe the false doomsday preachers who peddle in wars and rumors of wars, or are you going to hear the word of the Lord? Are you going to accept the words of Jesus? The end is not yet. We have never been as close as the message preachers told us; they were liars. The end should have happened ten times over now, if they were telling us the truth. And I am telling you, that right now, they are still lying to you. The predictions they are making right now are just as false as the last dozen predictions. If you want to give them another chance, go ahead, but settle in your heart that this is it, settle in your heart that you are going to stop trusting men with these long track records of being wrong.
And brothers and sisters, it is true that the end is not yet. That is not a license to live in sin; that is not a license to be foolish and think you can wait until the last minute to be ready. It’s not a license to put off until tomorrow what you can do today.
What we need to make it.
Because here is the truth, and it’s a truth you won’t hear from a message preacher. It is the same spirit that indwells us the moment we are saved. It is that same spirit that will quicken our mortal bodies when that day finally comes.
The same spirit, the Holy Spirit, dwelling within.
And what you need to be changed the day the Lord comes back, it’s the same thing you need to be resurrected from the grave if you are dead. It’s one and the same thing. There is not one thing you need to be changed in the twinkling of an eye and another thing you need to be resurrected. No, it’s one and the same.
And whether you live to see the second coming yourself or whether you are in the grave, it will be the Holy Spirit dwelling within you that will make the difference on that day.
Jesus said, “I am the life,” He said, “I am the resurrection.” It’s Him. Do you have Jesus today? Is the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart? That is what makes the difference.
And as we bring this lesson to a close, I have one more lesson on this William Branham series I will be bringing next week. The title is “Who is the seventh church age messenger?” If that is a topic that interests you, tune in next week, and we will explore that subject. I expect that will be the final lesson in our William Branham series.
And until then, may God bless you and keep you.
Let us pray.
Lord God, yet again you blessed us with another opportunity to look into your word, and we thank you for it. You see that we hunger and thirst for true righteousness, not that which comes from man-made works, nor that which comes from the accumulations of knowledge, nor that which comes from other men. But we seek only that righteousness which is true, that which comes by faith in our Savior, for he alone can save us, and our faith in him alone can obtain that salvation.
Lord, you see many men and women who are trapped in systems of lies, held captive by the delusions spread by the false doomsday preachers of our day. Lord Jesus, give peace in the hearts of your people, that they may know that you are their Savior, not a false message, and that they may know you are sufficient.
And Lord, you see these wicked false doomsday preachers, how they wax worse and worse. Lord God, we pray first and foremost that they repent, Lord, for what a wonderful testimony that would be. But Lord, if they do not, we pray you visit upon them swift judgment, so that the innocent may be delivered. Lord, deliver the children being molested, deliver the wives being beaten, Lord, deliver the downtrodden being pushed towards suicide, deliver the families who are having divorces forced on them.
Lord, you see all of that and so much more, and we ask this of you, the just judge. Let it be in Jesus’ name. Amen.