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1. THE WORD-BRIDE: THE WISE VIRGINS

FIRST of all we know most assuredly that the purpose of God stands in ELECTION. It was purposed in Himself. It was God's purpose to bring forth a people like unto Himself that would be a Word-Bride. She was chosen before the foundation of the world IN HIM. She was foreknown and beloved before she was ever brought forth during the ages upon the earth. She was redeemed by His blood and can NEVER come into condemnation. She can never be in the judgment because sin cannot be imputed unto her. Romans 4:8, "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." But indeed she shall be with Him in His throne of judgment, judging the world and even angels. Her name (each of her members) was written in a section of the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.

281-1 SARDISEAN.CHURCH.AGE - CHURCH.AGE.BOOK.CPT.7

Brother Branham describes them in the Message Hebrews, Chapter Six, Part 2:

"It's the Elected who God, before the foundation of the world, seen every one of them. And He sent Jesus to redeem that people, not the whole world... And then, Christ died to save those who God, by foreknowledge, elected to meet Him yonder without spot or wrinkle. Before the foundation of the world, He seen you in Glory. That's what the Bible said, Ephesians, the 1st chapter. 5th chapter, the 1st verse. God predestinated by foreknowledge. Now, if God did that, predestinated us before the foundation of the world; and knew every one of us by name, before the foundation of the world; and He Elected us to Eternal Life; and sent Jesus Christ to redeem us; that, six thousand years ago, He saw us, that we might appear to His praises in Glory! How can you ever be lost? Now, if you're saved, you're saved. If God saves you tonight, knowing He's going to lose you ten years from today, He is defeating His Own purpose; the infinite, Almighty, Eternal, everlasting wisdom, God, doesn't know enough then to know whether you will hold out or whether you won't. Then, when He saves you, you say, "Well, I'll give Him a try. I'll see what He do," then He does not know the end from the beginning. God knows what He's doing, don't you never worry about that. It's you and I stumbling along. God knows what He's doing. And He knew we... whether we'd hold out, or what we would do."

HEBREWS.CHAPTER.SIX.2_ JEFF.IN HEB SUNDAY_ 57-0908E

2. THE FOOLISH VIRGINS

SECONDLY, there is another class. Their names are also in the Book of Life and they will come up in the SECOND resurrection. Such are the foolish virgins as are spoken of in Matthew 25.

In this class also are those who do NOT worship the beast or become involved in the antichrist system but DIE for their faith even though they are NOT in the bride, not having been born again. But they will come up in the second resurrection and go into eternal life…

"Virgin" means "purity." They were all good people, everyone of them virgin, sanctified vessels of God. But those who had oil in their lamps went in. And the others was left out. They were all virgins, everyone people that you couldn't put your finger on for anything wrong. They everyone believed in the coming of the Lord. They were ready to go meet Him, but some of them let their oil go out… Ten virgins went out to meet the Lord, all sanctified, all holy, every one of them sanctified. Five were dilatory and let their lights go out. Five had oil in their lamps. "And, behold the Bridegroom cometh." And the five that had oil in their lamps went into the wedding supper. And the others was left outside , where they were weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Be ready, for you don't know what minute the Lord comes. Have... What is the Oil represented in the Bible? Holy Spirit.

The FOOLISH VIRGIN didn't know until she come back and found the WISE VIRGINS GONE. Then she was LEFT for the tribulation period.
No good teacher believes that the church, the BRIDE... The church goes through the tribulation, but NOT the Bride. The church goes through for purification, sure, under the sixth seal. Right. ISRAEL does the SAME thing, for the hundred and forty-four thousand, but NOT the Bride. There's... The bride's forgiven. She goes STRAIGHT to glory in a rapture. That's right. She's... My opinion, the last member will be caught up one of these days. It might come, and you wouldn't know nothing about it. Remember, it's a SECRET, secret catching away. He'll come an hour that you think NOT. You won't know nothing about it; she'll be gone, be too LATE then.”

(GOD.HIDING.HIMSELF.IN.SIMPLICITY.title ALBQ.NM 63-0412E)

"Now, if you were with us in the last teachings in Revelation, you find out there that those virgins, the--the five foolish virgins were not lost; but they were not permitted to go into the wedding supper, but they suffered persecution, and was martyred, and raised again at the general resurrection in the last day. Those are the people where He separated the sheep from the goats (See?); they stood before judgment.
You say, "Well, Brother Branham, don't we stand, the Church?"
No, sir. We do not stand before the judgment. We are now standing before the Judgment. God put our sins upon Christ, and we... "He that heareth My Word (St. John 5:24) and believeth on Him that sent Me has Eternal Life, and shall not come into the judgment but has passed from death unto Life." No more judgment for the Church, it's took up in the rapture, and comes back to pass judgment upon the people who did not receive the Holy Spirit. Does not Paul say that he dares any of us to take a--a matter to the court, to the unjust magistrate, when, "know ye not that the saints shall judge the earth?" We will set with Christ and judge, kings, and priests, and judge these people that we preached to and told them about the baptism of the Holy Ghost and they refused to receive It. Think of it.
No, they were not lost, but they will never be in the Bride. They were come in the second resurrection, but never be in the Bride, to be judged according to the way they treated the Light that they received. Now, that part will be up to Christ. They were not lost though.”

(QA.GOD.BEING.MISUNDERSTOOD.title JEFF COD 61-0723E)

3 – THE BORDERLINE BELIEVERS

THIRDLY, there are the borderline Christians such as we saw in Israel coming out of Egypt. These had their names in the Book of Life and their works written in the books. These having failed to obey God and being void of the Spirit, though even the signs and wonders were amongst them, will have their names removed from the Book of Life.

Amongst this group will be the ones like JUDAS who though entirely void of the Spirit, but are RELIGIOUS, will have manifestation in their lives, and though on the books were NOT the elected IN HIM. Such also as BALAAM will be in that group.

4. THE REPROBATES

These are the ones whose names have NEVER been or will ever be written on the books.

Such are found in Revelation 13:8 and Revelation 17:8, "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are NOT written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not: and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."

Jesus said that a certain group would accept one who came in his own name. That one is the antichrist. And that is exactly what it says of them in Revelation 13:8, and 17:8.

These were ORDAINED of God but NOT unto election. And with this group is such that are as PHARAOH. It says of him, "Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up. Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction." Romans 9:17 and 22. None of these would be placed on the records of life.

I am not saying that there is no record of them. No doubt there is some kind of a record of them, but NOT IN THE RECORDS OF LIFE.

Their purpose of existence has been dealt with slightly in the rest of this book but we can add four more Scriptures.

Proverbs 16:4, "The Lord hath made the wicked for the day of evil."

Job 21:30, "The wicked is RESERVED to the day of destruction, they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath."

Also JUDE 1:4, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ORDAINED to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

I PETER 2:8-“ And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, [even to them] which STUMBLE at the word, being DISOBEDIENT: whereunto also they were APPOINTED.”

5. THE 144,000 AND THE ELECT JEWS

And out of that JEWISH bunch that's there now to be the 144,000, God will call with these prophets... What is it? The Spirit of Elijah off of this Gentile church will just continue right on into that Jewish church, go right on in and call Moses with him. Hallelujah. You see it? And he'll preach the same message of Pentecost to those Jews, that they rejected the Messiah. Amen. You see it? It'll be the same Pentecostal message that these Jews will preach right over to them. And they'll hate those Jews so bad till they'll kill them. And they were hated by all nations, and in the midst of the week...

Because that they'd raised up a great powerful 144,000... They had the Holy Ghost, and brother, you talk about doing miracles; they did them. They stopped the heavens, and it didn't rain in the days of their prophecy, smote the earth with plagues as oft they wanted to. They give plagues and everything else. They'll give them Romans a hard way to go. But finally they'll be killed.

Now these 144,000 are NOT in the BRIDE. In Revelation 14:4 they are called virgins and they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. The fact that they have not defiled themselves with women shows that they are EUNUCHS (Matthew 19:12). The eunuchs were the keepers of the bridal chambers. They were ATTENDANTS. Notice that they do not sit in the throne but are before the throne. No, they are not in the bride, but will be in the glorious millennial reign..

Now getting back to the story of Joseph meeting his brethren. You recall that not all the brethren came. Joseph knew that and insisted that all the brethren appear before him, or he could not make himself known unto them. Finally they brought the one that was missing, little Benjamin. It was little Benjamin, the full brother of Joseph, that set his soul on fire. And when our Joseph, even Jesus, will come to the people who have kept the commandments of God and who have gone back to Palestine, His soul will be set on fire. Little Benjamin typifies the 144,000 Israelites from all over the earth who have gone back to Palestine for their redemption. They will be standing there ready to receive Him, Whom to know aright is Life eternal. They will say, "This is our God for Whom we have waited." Then they will see Him Whom they have pierced. And they will cry out in dismay, "Where did these awful wounds come from? How did it happen?" And they will wail and cry, every family apart, everyone apart in the agony of sorrow.

6. GOOD TO THE BRETHREN

THESE people do NOT have eternal life, and they are in the judgment (facing their sentence for what they've done in their lives). They are ALLOWED to GO INTO eternal life.

But upon WHAT GROUNDS do they enter into life eternal? Certainly not upon the fact that they already have His life as does the Bride, but they receive it because they were KIND to His brethren. They are not His brethren: that would make them joint-heirs with Jesus. They are NOT heirs to anything but life. They share no throne, etc. with Him. THEIR NAMES MUST HAVE BEEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE AND NOT REMOVED.

Now because of their LOVE of the people of God they are recognized and saved. No doubt these served and helped the children of God in the times of suffering and persecution. Perhaps LIKE NICODEMUS and GAMALIEL they stood for the children in a time of trouble.

Unto them these scriptures apply:

MATTHEW 25:40, 42-45:

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, "Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto Me."

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, "Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? "

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did [it] not to one of the least of these (the Bride of Jesus), ye did [it] not to Me."