The Bride Age

THE BRIDE AGE

Click Here To Download Article in PDF Format

The Bride Age is a vital subject and is specifically a point in time in the last age where God is calling out a bride and preparing her for the Rapture. The Bride age is connected to many major scriptural fulfillments of prophecy such as, Revelation 10, the revealing of the Son of Man, the evening light, the latter rain, the restoration, the indictment of the denominational ages, the calling out of the Bride from denominational and Pentecostal traditions back to the fullness of the Atonement, the Word etc.

The Bride Age encapsulates other similar descriptive terms such as Seed Time, Grain Age, Eagle Age, Token Age, Word Age, Prophetic Age, Astronaut Age, Rapture Age, Climax Age and many more descriptors defining the Age. God is fulfilling these prophecies through the ministry of the seventh angel and the Bride. Without the Bride age, there is no rapture! That being said, it is easy to over-think this subject of the Bride Age and to understand it properly, we must understand the context or scope that Bro. Branham is in when referring to this word or term “Age”. Failure to do so can cause conclusions that are not Scriptural. In the early years before the message was in print or digitalized, our resources were limited and conclusions were made that do not match the prophet’s message or intent. This is not just the case with the subject of the Bride Age, but because we live in an age of “Study by Search” often the “conclusions” can create “confusions”. This has been the case with so many doctrines that have been framed by searching a word or term in the Table Program and then piecing a thought together and not understanding the context, timing, full thought and most of the time, never finding a Biblical foundation, which really is the worst part. I think there are a lot of “terms” Brother Branham uses that can be confusing to the reader or hearer if not taken in the context of how he said it. When understood correctly, it’s wonderful, when misunderstood and taught incorrectly it creates confusion. Some have concluded that Mercy is over since they think the church ages are over. Others have taught erroneously that the bride is now the literal mercy seat. Of course there is a measure of truth in this but it can be dangerous to put mercy in the hands of preachers who believe they can impart or withhold mercy. Too, it’s been taken to a extreme ditch in the vehicle that says the church ages are over and so some have concluded that we no longer need the authority of the message and that God is raising up an eighth messenger or an apostle. Others have concluded that we don’t need preaching on lukewarmness anymore… confusion, confusion, confusion.

While there is surely an eternal aspect that can be applied to the term and since it is eternal it can certainly be found in the seed chapter of Genesis and again can be something far reaching past the era of our corporal existence because of its eternal qualities, yet it would be wise to keep it in context to what Bro. Branham was actually referencing when he spoke of the Bride Age.

Paul warned Timothy to rightly divide the Word of Truth.

II Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
17 And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus;
18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is
past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

Hymenaeus and Philetus were teaching that the resurrection was already past when it fact it was an event that was still future. By failure to rightly divide the Word of Truth, their words were spreading as a cancer overthrowing the faith of some. The same is true when any Scripture is misplaced and the Bride Age, Eighth day, Eternal Day or any other doctrine if not taught correctly can eat as a canker and overthrow the faith of some. In fact, it already has. It is a fact that by not placing this truth properly it has become the perfect platform for the kingdom builders. This is why the subject is so important to understand properly. As ministers, our utmost goal is like that of Apostle Paul Ephesians 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: and to see it, the Word must be correctly placed. The purpose of this article is not to bring clarity to the prophet’s message. The message was clear, however this subject like so many others has become clouded by being misplaced or dislocated.

CHRIST IS REVEALED IN HIS OWN WORD (August 22, 1965)
Now, in order to study the Scripture, Paul told Timothy, “Study It, rightly dividing the Word of God, which is Truth.” Them is three musts in the Scripture. In using God’s Word, there is three things that you must not do. Now let’s study those for the next ten minutes; three things that you must not do. And all out in the land, wherever you are, across the nation, be sure to put these down in your mind if you haven’t got a pencil. You must not do these things. We tell you all the time how you must do, now I’m going to tell you what you must not do.
Now, you must not misinterpret the Word. You say, “Well, I believe It means this.” It means just what It says. It needs no interpreter. And you must not misplace the Word. And you must not dislocate the Word. And if we would do either of these, it throws the whole Bible in a confusion and in a chaos.

The prevailing thought seems to indicate or at least insinuate that we are not the Bride of Laodicea. Some attempt to separate the Bride from the Church Ages in order to be distinct from Laodicea. It is a grave error to separate the Bride from the group of believers who are the overcomers in this age. It is the elect bride who is the gold – the Christ-like character, the ones who receive the eye salve by its messenger, the ones who actually receive the angel’s message and messenger. To make the Bride distinct from the 7 Ages makes the Bride not of the horns of the Lamb. As the prophet says, This Lamb had seven horns, and on each horn had an eye: seven eyes. What is it? Christ and His Bride. Seven Church Ages, out of there was seven prophets that went forth, seven seers, eyes. So the last one must be a seer.

In the days of the seventh messenger, in the days of the Laodicean Age, its messenger will reveal the mysteries of God as revealed to Paul. He will speak out, and those who receive that prophet in his own name will receive the beneficent effect of that prophet’s ministry. And they that hear him [Laodicean Church Age Messenger] will be blessed and become part of that bride of the last day [7th Age] who are mentioned in Revelation 22:17,
“The Spirit and the bride say come.”
The corn of wheat (the Bride Wheat) that fell into the ground at Nicaea has come back to original Word Grain again. Praise God forever. Yes, listen to the authenticated prophet of God who appears in this last [Laodicean] age. What he says from God, the bride will say. The Spirit and the prophet and the bride will be saying the same thing. And what they will say will have already been said in the Word. They are saying it now, “Come out from among her now and be ye separate.” The cry has gone out. The cry is going out. How long will the voice cry? We do not know, but one thing we do know, it won’t be long, for this is the last age. – CAB

Of course, we must most definitely separate ourself as being distinct from the false vine who rejects Christ, his message and his messenger. Certainly! We are not of that group within Laodicea. But as elect of the Ephesian Age was the Ephesian Bride even so the elect of the Laodicean Age is the Laodicean Bride.

Herein lies the problem when we don’t understand this principle as shown
in the quote below.

From our studies we have already learned that much of the Revelation is totally misunderstood because we have not formerly known that the “church” spoken of and spoken to in this book does not refer to the pure “ekklesia” the “elect,” the “body of Christ,” the “bride,” but it speaks to the entire body of people who are called Christians, whether they be true or merely nominal. As all Israel is NOT Israel, so all Christians are NOT Christians. Thus we learned that the church is made up of two vines, the true and the false. The two vines are motivated by two kinds of spirits; one has the Holy Spirit while the other is endued with the spirit of antichrist. Both claim to know and be known of God. Both purport to speak for God. Both believe certain very basic truths and differ on others. But since both bear the name of the Lord, being called Christ-ians, and by such namebearing obviously claim a relationship to Him (God calls it marriage), God now holds them both responsible to Him and therefore speaks to each.-CAB

We certainly don’t identify ourselves with the false vine and its denunciation by God but we should identify ourselves with the true vine who is rewarded, inasmuch that the overcomer in the Laodicean Age are seated with Him on His Throne.

First we must keep in mind that there are Seven Church Ages in which God deals with His Church. We must also remember the Church is His Bride. Jesus said upon the rock of revelation of who He is, He would build a Church. Paul likened the Church as a wife to Christ and John described the true church as being married to the Lamb and thus called her the Bride, the Lamb’s wife. Even though Bro. Branham made a distinction between the church and the Bride, (for the church will go through the tribulation while the Bride goes in the rapture), we must keep in mind that the true church is the Bride. The last day Bride will most definitely be called out of the Church Ages into Eternity at the resurrection and body change but not before then. She is the mature grain of the seed that was planted in the first Age. She is of the Church Ages and not separate from it. Thus she is pictured as being part of the Lamb as one of his seven horns. The last day Bride’s messenger is pictured as being one of the seven eyes upon the horns. To conclude that the Church Ages end in defeat with the Christ rejecting Laodicea and fail to see that the overcomers within Laodicea are so victorious that they are rewarded insomuch they sit with Him on His throne would mean that Jesus failed in building a church that the gates of hell could not prevail against. Even as Bro. Branham puts it in the Church Age Book, No words ever spelled out a more bitter denunciation, and no proud and arrogant religious people ever deserved it more.
Yet in verse 21,
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne,”we find the true vine, true Spirit, true Church people exalted to the very throne of God with the highest compliment ever paid to a humble, steadfast Spiritual group.

Bro. Branham applies Old Testament usage of the seven sprinklings or stripes of blood to show there will be blood for all Seven Ages to provide atonement for every age. But once beyond the times of God dealing with the gentiles there is no blood. The times of the Gentiles span Seven Church Ages. Therefore once the Seventh Age ends, it will come to pass that he that is filthy is filthy still and he that is holy is holy still for the Seventh Age literally ends with the going home of the Bride and when she does the Age goes into total darkness.

There are only Seven Ages as related to God dealing with the Gentiles. If the living Bride is not a part of the Laodicean Church Age, then she is not under the 7th Angel’s message and is not part of the Gentile Bride for she is not of the Church Ages – the church Jesus said He would build. This is what makes it dangerous to proclaim the Bride as not of the 7th Age or Laodicea. First, it makes Bro. Branham (the 7th Angel) the messenger to Laodicea and not the messenger of the Bride. Secondly, this gives opportunity to create all kinds of Bride Age messengers and messages.

THE SPOKEN WORD IS THE ORIGINAL SEED (March 18, 1962)
The Bible is to be finished, to–to be finished. The Gentile
dispensation is to be finished, with the church age, …

The Church Ages is the fulness of the Gentiles, they are one and the same.
If then, the seven Church Ages are over then God is no longer dealing with
the Gentiles but the Jews.

EPHESIAN CHURCH AGE CHURCH AGE BOOK
Now then, I think there is something else you ought to know. The seven churches which are addressed by John are in Asia Minor and are all Gentile churches. He does not speak to the church at Jerusalem which was mostly Jewish with perhaps just a few Gentiles in it. The reason is that God had turned from the Jews to the Gentiles. Thus the whole of the church ages is God dealing with the Gentiles, and calling out a Gentile Bride to Himself. That makes the ‘Church Ages’ and ‘The Fulness of the Gentiles’ the one and the same thing.

Bro. Branham when using the term “ages”, he refers also to the Baptist age, the Presbyterian age, the Lutheran Age, – all of these eras happened within the Sardisean Church Age. None of these ages (Baptist, Presbyterian or Lutheran) were actual church ages, some however could be synonyms of an age, for example the Methodist age could be a synonym for the Philadelphian age. However even then, there were more eras or ages within the Philadelphian age such as the Nazarene era (age) that was a progression of the move of God within the Philadelphian age.

The same as the Philadelphian age could be called the Methodist age, even so Laodicean age could be called the pentecostal age, although that was just an era within the age when the Azusa Street revival was the move of God. When Laodicean age was birthed in 1906, it was birthed without a message or a messenger. It began with the occurrence of the gifts of the Spirit. Its messenger would come some 40 years after its official beginning. When the messenger began to sound his Message at the opening of the Seven Seals, it would ring the end of the pentecostal age and would begin a new age – the bride age, howbeit – this did not begin another church age nor end the church age of Laodicea but even as the Philadelphian Age had moves of God (ages) within it, even so does the last age of Laodicea. To be sure, the true Bride church is still the 7th lamp stand and her messenger is still the 7th angel, William Marrion Branham. As long as the Bride has not been raptured, she is still the light of Laodicea. When she leaves, the last little bit of light leaves the gentiles in total darkness.

When considering the Bride Age in the light of the quotes or words of Bro. Branham, he does not use it in reference to an eternal age. In fact, he doesn’t use it to reference the eternity at all. Neither does he use the term to reference the elect of prior ages, even though it is a fact, there are people of every age that will make up the full body of the bride. But his use of the term “bride age” has to do with his ministry for it was his ministry that brought about a bride age even as Luther’s ministry brought about a Lutheran Age and Wesley’s ministry brought about the Methodist era or period.

We must remember that Scripturally there are only 7 ages and every church age before the last or 7th age would give away to another age. After the Laodicean Church Age there is no age to come. After Laodicea, the ages are over. Luther’s message in fact produced a Lutheran Age and Wesley produced the Methodist but William Branham’s message produces the living Bride, thus it is Bride Time or the Bride Age. William Branham’s message is unlike the other messages for it does not produce a denomination, instead it produces a Bride for Christ who is married or united to Christ. Instead of a denominational headquarters, she receives Christ as her Head.

In the sermon The Future Home, Bro. Branham explains that after the 7th day there is a holy convocation on the eighth day. He explains that there aren’t eight days in a week but only seven. So there is not truly an eighth day but rather a new beginning. In that sermon, he shows that the earth and mankind are in the sixth day or the 6th thousand year and the great Millennium Sabbath Rest is the 7th day or Seventh Thousand year and after the 7th day (or 7th thousand year) there is the dawn of that great Eternal day – the 8th. Time finishes with the millennium and gives way to eternity.

Then he explains that similarly we are in the 7th Church Age and are about to be raptured into the 8th Day of the Eternals. He states that every church age before us was just a station (a junction, a stopping place for some, a stage in the journey for others). But this last and 7th age is not a stopping place and there is no station beyond this, for when we leave the 7th Age in a Rapture we are going into Eternity and not into another Church Age.

THE FUTURE HOME (August 2, 1964)
And we lived through all these types in here, but, when you hit the eighth, you go on into Eternity. You don’t come by laws, and rituals, and orders. You come by predestination. Amen! There is a genuine, holy convocation! See? And we’re ending the seventh church age, church age, the Pentecostal age. Do you see it? We’re entering that holy convocation. We are entering into that real, genuine, Eternity, where the Church is called; not to some station, [STOPPING PLACE, A STAGE IN THE JOURNEY] some denomination, but into Eternity with their Eternal King. See? We don’t have it at all, no such a thing as days, and things, and times. You’ve passed into Eternity, where you come from. You was There, to begin with. See?

That’s where we go from this Laodicean Age, we don’t go into another Age for this is the final Age. From here, we go by a rapture, into the Eternities. This is the finish! This is not a stopping place either, we are leaving from the Seventh Age by a rapture into the Eternals. Thus we are the church that Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not prevail against. A church built upon true revelation and not upon theologians and denominational theory.

While we are here considering this subject of the Eternal Day. Some believe we have already left the Seventh Church Age and are already in the Eternal Day. For some, this gives room for an eighth messenger and an eighth day. Of course this wrong, for Christ the Lamb only has seven horns, not eight. To defend this position, some say, “No! The Holy Spirit is now the Messenger”. The fact is that the Holy Spirit is the Messenger for every Church Age because the One Holy Spirit manifested Itself as the Seven Spirits of God, one for each Age.

There is the “go to” quote that many use in order to prove the Seventh Church Age is over. It seems that a part just JUMPS out at the reader or the hearer. When there is no more time, then you go into Eternity, after the seventh church age is over, and it is; but let’s carefully examine it to see what the prophet is truly saying by looking at the context.

THE FUTURE HOME (August 2, 1964)
Now, in Ephesians 1:10, it’s called… Now, if you’re putting it down, Ephesians 1:10, is called, not a dispensation, not the seventh day. It’s called, “The fullness of time.” And when “the fullness of time” has come, that’s when time has been fulfilled. When there is no more time, then you go into Eternity, after the seventh church age is over, and it is; Luther’s age is over, Methodist age is over, Pentecostal age is over. And now you go into (what?) Eternity; no more seven’s, no more three’s, no more other. They’re in Eternity, where there is no such time as numbers, and times, and things. Amen! Oh, my! You see it now? Or, after time has been fulfilled, all sin is gone, taken away, at the Millennium, at the great White Throne Judgment. (A type, by the Holy Ghost.) After the world is on fire and baptized, its baptism of holy Fire from Heaven; all sin is gone, all germs is gone, all devils is gone, all temptations is gone, all evil is gone. (Type now.) Then what does God do? He can sit upon the earth, see, because all sin is gone.

It is perplexing that those this JUMPS out to, never consider what Bro. Branham continues to say afterward in the same sermon (Future Home), we’re in the seventh church age, before the King takes His Throne….…The feast of tabernacles was the last feast, the seventh feast. We are worshiping now under the feast of the tabernacles, the seventh church age.

THE FUTURE HOME (August 2, 2018)
Now notice how beautiful. See? And in this pyramid was seven steps, and then the king’s chamber. And we’re in the seventh church age, before the King takes His Throne. And, remember, the pyramid never did have a capstone on it.

THE FUTURE HOME (August 2, 2018)
The feast of tabernacles was the last feast, the seventh feast. We are worshiping now under the feast of the tabernacles, the seventh church age.

How can the Seventh Church age be over and yet we are in the Seventh Church Age before the King takes His Throne? How is it that we are worshipping under the 7th feast, the Seventh Church Age?

How is it that we continue to insist or conclude the 7th Age is over when Bro. Branham just weeks afterward (August 30, 1964) is asked…

Brother Branham, have you made statements recently concerning that church age has ended, Laodicea? No, I never said it’s ended. If I did, you misunderstood, or I said it wrong. It is–this is the last church age; it’s the end of church ages, the Laodicea. It hasn’t ended; when it ends, the church is gone. So as long as the church is here, it hasn’t ended. See?

Ok if they misunderstood it, let’s look at the statement again in its context. Why context? Because it must be understood in the way the prophet was using it. Why context? Because he said for us “to say what I said”.

July 18, 1965
This was Moses speaking to Israel, after he had been a vindicated by God, by a Pillar of Fire, and knowed he was proven to be God’s servant to lead them out. And before they went into the land, before they entered, Moses said, “Now, the words that I have spoken to you, I call heaven and earth to witness against you. If you add one thing to It, or take one Word from It, you’ll not stay in the land where the Lord God gives you.”
So say I, in the Name of Jesus Christ! Don’t you add one thing. Don’t take, put your own ideas in It. You just say what is said on those tapes. You just do exactly what the Lord God has commanded to do. Don’t add to It.

Before we examine the “go to” quote found in the sermon Future Home,
let’s find out his definition of the dispensation of the fullness of time. It will
be helpful in understanding the quote.

ADOPTION (May 22, 1960)
The mysteries of His will, according to His good pleasure… (Back over now again in Ephesians 9)… which he has purposed in Himself: That in the dispensation of the fulness of time…
And remember that, we just passed over it: Ephesians, 1st chapter, 10th verse.
That in the dispensation of the fulness of time…
Now, we learned that the fullness of time is waiting for what? The fullness of all time, the time that when sin will cease, the time when death will cease, the time when sickness will cease, the time when sin will cease, the time when all of the perversions and perverted things that the devil has perverted will cease, when time itself shall cease. Watch.

In the sermon The Future Home, Bro. Branham drawing his thought from Leviticus 23, illustrates that after the seventh day, there was a holy convocation on the eighth day. He explains that there aren’t eight days in a week but only seven. So as he explains there is not truly an eighth day but rather a new beginning. In that sermon, he shows that the earth and mankind are in the Sixth day or the Sixth thousand year and the great Millennium Sabbath Rest is the Seventh day or Seventh Thousand year and after the Seventh day or Seventh thousand year there is the dawn of that great Eternal day – the 8th. Time will finish with the millennium as the 7th day ends and gives way to eternity.

Then he explains similarly that we are in the 7th Church Age and are about to be raptured into the 8th Day of the Eternals. He states that every church age before us was a station (a junction, a stopping place for some, a stage in the journey for others). But this last and 7th age is not a stopping place and there is no station beyond this, for when we leave the 7th Age in a Rapture we are going into Eternity and not into another Church Age. Why won’t the last messenger start another church age? He is a prophet and not a reformer.

THE FIRST SEAL (March 18, 1963)
Notice. This last message of the last church age is not a reformer; he is a prophet, not a reformer. Show me where one prophet ever started a church age. He’s not a reformer; he is a prophet. Others was reformers but not prophets. If they would’ve been, the Word of the Lord comes to the prophet; that’s the reason they continued on in the baptism in Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and all these other things, because they were reformers and not prophets. But yet they were great men of God and saw the need of the day that they lived in, and God anointed them, and they sent out there and tore those things to pieces. But the full Word of God never come to them, because they was not prophets. They were reformers.

Now, with these principles in mind, let’s examine the actual text.

THE FUTURE HOME (August 2, 1964)
And we lived through all these types in here, but, when you hit the eighth, you go on into Eternity. You don’t come by laws, and rituals, and orders. You come by predestination. Amen! There is a genuine, holy convocation! See? And we’re ending the seventh church age, church age, the Pentecostal age. Do you see it? We’re entering that holy convocation. We are entering into that real, genuine, Eternity, where the Church is called; not to some station, [STOPPING PLACE, A STAGE IN THE JOURNEY] some denomination, but into Eternity with their Eternal King. See? We don’t have it at all, no such a thing as days, and things, and times. You’ve passed into Eternity, where you come from. You was There, to begin with. See?

That’s where we go from this Laodicean Age, we don’t go into another age for this is the final age. From here, we go by a rapture, into the Eternities. This is the finish! The Seventh Age is not a stopping place! At every stopping place where the church stopped and made a camp, a denomination was built, but this time we are leaving the Seventh Age by a rapture into the Eternals.

The next paragraph that follows he speaks of the elect being an eternal attribute now expressed. Although we are here in time, we are the expression of an Eternal purpose.

THE FUTURE HOME (August 2, 1964)
If you got Eternal Life, there is only one form, that’s God, and you are an expressed attribute. See? If you… If you’re not, you’re not going to be there, anyhow. “No man can come to Me except My Father has drawed him.” See? Which, “passes away,” all these old things; but these Things don’t, so it speaks of Eternity. The Holy Ghost is Eternal. Then, you are in Eternity, where you was all the time, but you’ve just recognized what happened.
See, you were made for an Eternal purpose, because you was the– the manifestation of an attribute that was in God, that thought of you and expressed you; and He made a earth to take you out of, and to make you a human being. And sin come along and perverted His way. You come, anyhow, but you was lost with the world. So He come and redeemed you, the expressed attribute, and also redeems this earth by the same way. Then, His purpose rolls on. See? Oh! Hallelujah! Oh, that does me so much good, think of just what lays ahead!

Note in the next paragraph (239) he continues his thought of wrapping up time and going into Eternity. In doing so, he talks about WHEN time is fulfilled and it is fulfilled AFTER Luther’s Age, Methodist Age, Pentecostal Age, Seventh Church Age AND the millennium, and the White Throne, AFTER the world is baptized by fire, WHEN God sits on the earth WHEN SIN IS GONE. after the seventh church age is over, and it is;… CERTAINLY IT’S OVER and so are the other aforementioned things WHEN? When God sits upon the earth. Bro. Branham cannot possibly be saying the 7th Age being over and then contradict himself by saying just paragraphs later, “we are living in it.. we are worshipping in it” and then a few weeks later emphatically deny he ever said the church ages are over: “No, I never said it’s ended. If I did, you misunderstood, or I said it wrong. It is–this is the last church age; it’s the end of church ages, the Laodicea. It hasn’t ended; when it ends, the church is gone. So as long as the church is here, it hasn’t ended.”

Instead, he is telling us that every thing that has to do with time (sin, sickness, death, devils, germs, temptations, church ages, millennium) are all finished in the dispensation of the fulness of time… When time has been fulfilled, then you go into Eternity

THE FUTURE HOME (August 2, 1964)
Now, in Ephesians 1:10, it’s called… Now, if you’re putting it down, Ephesians 1:10, is called, not a dispensation, not the seventh day. It’s called, “The fullness of time.” And when “the fullness of time” has come, that’s when time has been fulfilled. WHEN THERE IS NO MORE TIME, THEN YOU GO INTO ETERNITY, after the seventh church age is over, and it is; Luther’s age is over, Methodist age is over, Pentecostal age is over. And now you go into (what?) Eternity; no more seven’s, no more three’s, no more other. They’re in Eternity, where there is no such time as numbers, and times, and things. Amen! Oh, my! You see it now? Or, AFTER time has been fulfilled, all sin is gone, taken away, at the Millennium, at the great White Throne Judgment. (A type, by the Holy Ghost.) AFTER the world is on fire and baptized, its baptism of holy Fire from Heaven; all sin is gone, all germs is gone, all devils is gone, all imp temptations is gone, all evil is gone. (Type now.) Then what does God do? He can sit upon the earth, see, because all sin is gone.

Bro. Branham is simply listing all the things that have been finished up when time is over and the 8th day dawns. Luther’s Age, Wesley’s Age, Pentecostals Age, 7th Church Age (and it is) over WHEN? in the 8th day of the Eternals AND even the Millennium which is still in time (1000 years) AND THE WHITE THRONE AND so is sin, sickness, devils, germs, WHEN God comes to sit on the earth AFTER THE FIRE purges the earth for the 8th and Eternal Day for time does not cease until after the millennium.

Even if you extract the phrase as a snippet from the text: When there is no more time, then you go into Eternity, after the seventh church age is over, and it is; – it says: WHEN there is no more time, then you go into Eternity WHEN? AFTER the seventh church age is over. How is it that people only see those 3 words “and it is” and conclude something different than what the prophet was teaching and DENIED that he said the church age had ended. No, I never said it’s ended. If I did, you misunderstood, or I said it wrong. It is–this is the last church age; it’s the end of church ages, the Laodicea. It hasn’t ended; when it ends, the church is gone.

Notice even the follow up question.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (August 30, 1964)
Ah… The church age ending and has blacked out, the Bride is called, we have already entered into the tribulation period?
No, no, no, you’re… I wished that I could just have more time on that. See, see? The Bride, when she’s taken from the church, then the church age will cease. Laodicea goes into chaos; the Bride goes to glory; and the tribulation period sets in upon the sleeping virgin for three and a half years while Israel is getting its prophecy; then tribulation sets in upon Israel; and then comes the battle of Armageddon which destroys all things. And then, the Bride returns back with the Groom for a thousand years, the Millennium reign; after that comes the white throne judgment; after that comes the new heavens and new earth and the new city coming down from God out of heaven. Eternity and time blends together.

Due to these kind of misunderstandings during the “question and answers”
series that followed right after the sermon The Future Home, Bro. Branham
found it necessary to explain of the use of the term “end” to mean the
process of fulfillment.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (August 30, 1964)
And now, where I think you get it, is about the finishing of the Seven Church Ages and the Seven Seals being loosed. See? The Seven Seals, it’s manifested what takes place has–what has took place. The seventh church age, we’re at the end of the seventh church age. When I say the end, that doesn’t mean it’s this very hour, this very minute. You remember, the Bible said, back in the times of–of the Lord Jesus, Paul said, “For the time is at hand.” Do you realize how long that was in God’s time? That was yesterday. My time, it’s been two thousand years. See? The time is at hand. See? What God calls at hand is not what we call at hand. See?
So just keep on believing, keep on praying, keep on… God’s still got mercy open; just keep flowing into it as fast as you can. God will do the stopping when it’s time to stop. See?

When Bro. Branham spoke of the Bride Age, he did not refer to it as an Eternal Age. An Age relates to time. In Eternity; no more seven’s, no more three’s, no more other. They’re in Eternity, where there is no such time as numbers, and times, and things. Or, after time has been fulfilled. Yet, Bro. Branham explicitly calls it an age, or time. The Bride Age is the time or season when God is taking a Bride to Himself for His Namesake even as the Gentile Age is the time or season that God is dealing with the Gentiles.“Now it is Seed Time or Bride time”. “This is Bride time” The Messages from other ages would take no effect. “Because the predestinated seed are laying there will only be watered by that type of water that’s give for the seed. It won’t grow any other condition.”

Of course, because it is part of the Word and the Word is Eternal, it certainly has an Eternal aspect but it is more of a dispensation within time though rather than Eternal. If it is indeed an age, as he called it, ages change as also do dispensations. While the Bride is eternal, the Bride Age or dispensation is not eternal. Even the Age (dispensation) of redemption is not Eternal, even though it has Eternal qualities by Christ being the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Christ’s Sonship is not eternal although He Himself is Eternal. By definition, a bride is a woman on her wedding day, or just before or right after the event. A newlywed. In the Millennial reign it will be the Bride taking her position and role as a wife as He himself changes dispensation to Son of David and the rule being that of husband and wife. Of course, she is always His Bride but the Bride Age is the time specifically when he is calling and selecting His Bride and uniting her to Himself.

THE FUTURE HOME (August 2, 1964)
Man changes, time changes, age changes, dispensation changes, but
God remains the same. He is perfect.

A dispensation by definition is: a divinely ordained order prevailing at a particular period of history.

An example of a dispensation is the Levitical priesthood. There was the dispensation when that priesthood was God’s acceptable way of worship. However, that dispensation was not an Eternal one.

We can say of the dispensation of the Son of Man that though it has eternal qualities, the dispensation itself is not eternal, for He comes in three sons names: Son of Man, Son of God and Son of David. These are dispensational changes, the change of order of how God would work and reveal Himself. Bro. Branham calls it a dispensation of Son of Man in the sermon The Unveiling of God and other places.

Note particularly, that the Son of Man dispensation ends with the going home of the bride and the dispensation of Son of David will begin and bring about the millennium. It might be safe to conclude that that dispensation of Son of David ends when the millennium is completed, although this is not stated as a fact.

The last and seventh age, Laodicea could be aptly described as the pentecostal age because the first part of it began with the pentecostal dispensation. [a divinely ordained order prevailing at a particular period of history] On the other hand, the Laodicean Age can also be called the Bride Age because the latter part of it, is the time of the Seventh Angel and his Message.

In order to demonstrate the Bride Age Bro. Branham compared it the cycle of the wheat plant having arrived to the grain again. The last stage of the plant is not another stage where the life is passing through but the last stage is the seed that was planted but in multiple form – the grain. This of course is also a scriptural concept.

MARK 4:26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;
27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.
28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.
29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

Jesus taught that His kingdom (church) was like a man planting seed. In time it would grow and go through its stages of growth, the blade, the shuck or ear and finally would produce the full corn in the ear. Then immediately He would put in the sickle because harvest is come. The time of the sickle is the Harvest Age when the grain is separated from the rest of the wheat plant.

The Invisible Union Of The Bride Of Christ (November 25, 1965)
But, you remember, when it went down; and the grain begin to ripen, that you find, before that grain can ripen, everything in that stalk has to be dead. Hallelujah! Can’t you see where we’re standing? Life is in the grain again. What is it? Just exactly like the same grain that went in the ground, the same Jesus in the Bride form, same power, same Church, same thing, same Word. The same Word sucked up through these and come out here, and come to a head here. And all that Life that come through here, picked up its people. Now it’s forming up into a head, for the Rapture. Speaking on that tomorrow night, or next night, one, the Lord willing.

The Invisible Union Of The Bride Of Christ (November 25, 1965)
Can’t you see where we’re standing? Life is in the grain again. What is it? Just exactly like the same grain that went in the ground, the same Jesus in the Bride form, same power, same Church, same thing, same Word.

The term Seed or Grain Age is synonymous with Bride Age. It is the
finality, the final stage, the finish. The Bride will go into the Eternals just as
grain goes to the barn. There is simply nothing (no stage of the wheat)
beyond the grain but Eternity. “The Laodicean Age is the harvest time
of gathering the tares for binding and burning; and garnering the
wheat for the Lord.”

A RESUME OF THE AGES (CHURCH AGE BOOK – CHAPTER 10)
And so we come to the last age: the Laodicean Age. That is our age. We know it is the last age for the Jews are back in Palestine. No matter how they got there; they are there. And this is harvest time. But before there can be a harvest there has to be a ripening, a maturing of both the vines. The Lutheran Age was the springtime. The Wesleyan Age was the summer of growth. The Laodicean Age is the harvest time of gathering the tares for binding and burning; and garnering the wheat for the Lord.

There are only six instances where Bro. Branham uses the term “Bride Age”. They are all in 1965, in the last part of his ministry. In the first instance when the term is used, Bro. Branham compares it with the grain: He speaks of Christ being the first grain that came to maturity and then in the last day there will come a message for the Bride Age, even as the grain that was planted and rose out of darkness of the soil and returns back to grain again, even so the full maturity of the Word has returned in its full power and now is waved as a sheaf over the people. This happens at Harvest Time. Please note what happens and is accomplished in the Bride Age dispensation.

First for the Bride Age is a message and what is the Bride Age message? that the full maturity of the Word has turned back again in Its full Power. What happens in the Bride Age a resurrection out of dark denominationalism.

IT IS THE RISING OF THE SUN (April 18, 1965)
As Christ was the first One to raise, from all the prophets, and so forth; although typed in many places, He was the Firstfruits of those that slept. In the Bride, coming of Christ, coming out of the church, there’ll have to be a Sheaf waved again in the last days. Oh, my!
Waving of the sheaf! What was the sheaf? The first one that come to mature, the first one that proved it was a wheat, that proved it was a sheaf.
Hallelujah! I’m sure you see what I’m talking about. It was waved over the people. And the first time there will come forth, for the Bride age, for a resurrection out of dark denominationalism, will be a Message, that the full maturity of the Word has turned back again in Its full Power, and being waved over the people, by the same signs and wonders that He did back there.

If there is a Bride Age who will be its messenger? and what will be its message? For the going home of the Bride there must be a message [the Word] to bring it to the rapture. What other messenger is promised than the Elijah messenger? With the coming of Elijah, all “one man” scriptures are fulfilled. It is important to understand that both the Laodicean age and the Bride Age (bride dispensation) have the same messenger and message. This is the climax age, this is beyond denomination. There are no stopping places or stations after Laodicea.

POWER OF TRANSFORMATION (October 31, 1965)
Now if children has come up under that kind, see, under that kind of teaching, that’s what their parents was, they have the nature of their parents, their denominations, and so forth, they have to believe that. See, they believe that because they’re borned under that parent. But today we’re not borned under that parent; our Parent is the Word. And the Word… “Well,” say, “I was borned under God, too.” For that age. But this is the climax age, this is the age beyond those denominations.
There had to come forth, must come forth; God ordained it so, that there must come forth, them Seven Seals must be opened. It was supposed to be done in this Laodicean age.

Both the Ephesian Age and Laodicean Age receive the the true Word. The Church Ages began with the Word and the last Church Age ends with the Word. (I’ve preached what Paul preached.) Thus in Ephesus was the original grain (Word) that was planted and from Laodicea is harvested the grain to be raptured into the garner. Laodicea takes the rapture.

POWER OF TRANSFORMATION (October 31, 1965)
But, see, when it comes down now, we’re in the last age, not back in the Pentecostal age there. We are over here in the last age. And the first age begin with the Word, which was Christ. And the last age has to end with the Word, which is Christ. And these other things, these shucks and so forth, as I have explained, is just carriers of the Word, to serve its purpose until It comes into the full stature, see, of what the original grain was.

There was a time within the Laodicean Age that the Azusa Street movement was “a divinely ordained order prevailing at a particular period of history” but when the 7th angel sounded his message, the Bride Age dispensation became distinctive from the Azusa Pentecostal dispensation when the 7th Angel sounded his Message. After being called out by his message, the Bride then becomes the divinely ordained order prevailing at this particular period of history.

TRYING TO DO GOD A SERVICE (July 18, 1965)
Them mysteries will be revealed in the last day, when the seven angel’s… seventh angel’s Message, when he…” Not when he starts out doing this, but, “When he begins to sound his Message.” See? Not the years in preparation, but, “When he begins to sound the Message, these mysteries then will be revealed.” And here they are; not knowing them, and you people are a witness of that.

WORKS IS FAITH EXPRESSED (November 26, 1965)
Now, that brings to pass today, because we have faith. And I know this is of God, is because this and other Scriptures point to this hour. Revelation 10, said that “in the hour of the seventh angel’s Message, when he begins to sound forth his Message,” not in a healing service, but the Message that follows the healing service.

I HAVE HEARD BUT NOW I SEE (November 27, 1965)
Now, we’re promised a church age through reformers, and we’ve had them. But He promised, in Malachi 4, He’d keep His pattern in the last days, what would take place, “To turn the hearts of the children back to the Faith of the apostolic father.” For that very purpose! And the church is so broke up in denominations and isms, it’s so tore to pieces till it’s dead; it’s been a carrier. And then He promised, in the hour of the seventh angel’s Message, the Seven Seals would be revealed; and the mysteries of God would be declared (Revelation 10) when the seventh angel begins to sound his Message, not the healing service, the Message that follows the healing service.

THE RAPTURE (December 4, 1965)
Now, here, also, a type of the seven church ages, which, in Revelation 10:7, that the great mystery of the Book was to be unfolded by the seventh angel’s Message.
Now, there’s a Messenger above, always, and a messenger on earth. The English word angel means “a messenger.” And in the seventh angel’s Message, while he was making his proclaiming, his ministry, “then when he begin to sound forth his ministry,” not when he started out.

THE INVISIBLE UNION OF THE BRIDE OF CHRIST (November 25, 1965)
Remember what, What Time Is It, Sir? How many ever heard it? Say, “Amen.” [Congregation says, “Amen.”–Ed.] Was it exactly right? [“Amen.”] Then we’ve got the revelation in this last days, for the Message of the Lord God to gather His Bride together. No other age has it been promised. It’s promised in this age: Malachi 4, Luke 17:30, Saint John 14:12, Joel 2:38. Those promises is just exactly like John the Baptist identified himself in the Scripture.

The true Bride of Laodicea was called out of the denominations (the shuck and other parts of the wheat plant) and has entered into a Rapture Age. It is the Seventh Age takes the Rapture. The Bride dispensation is the Rapture Age, where the move is on for the Bride.

THE INVISIBLE UNION OF THE BRIDE OF CHRIST (November 25, 1965)
Some of you people that really believe This to be the Truth, that we’re entering another age. We’re entering the Rapture Age. You know the church can’t go in its condition, and it can’t get any better. It must get worse. How many knows that? Say, “Amen.” [Congregation says, “Amen.”–Ed.] It’s got to get worse. And it can’t go like this. See? It’s got to be Something, and It’s moving right now, friend. It’s–it’s–it’s on, the move is on for the Bride. That’s the Truth. That’s THUS SAITH THE LORD.

There will never be a Word or Message climb above the Laodicean Age.

PARADOX (February 6, 1964)
Like a man. Another, no creature ever come up from its evolution, coming up into higher specie than–than a man, because a man is in the image of the God Who created him. There’ll never be nothing higher. This is… The Word wouldn’t let it go any farther, ’cause He is the Word.
And neither can the Word climb above any Laodicea Church Age.

Why can’t it climb above the Laodicean Age? Because the 7th angel finishes the Message to the church. He restored it back to the original Word by turning the hearts AND revealed the mysteries of the seven thunders which are the revelations contained in the seven seals. It will be these Divinely revealed ‘mystery-truths’ that literally turn the hearts of the children to the Pentecostal fathers

LAODICEAN CHURCH AGE (CHURCH AGE BOOK)
Now this messenger of Malachi 4 and Revelation 10:7 is going to do two things. One: According to Malachi 4 he will turn the hearts of the children to the fathers. Two: He will reveal the mysteries of the seven thunders in Revelation 10 which are the revelations contained in the seven seals. It will be these Divinely revealed ‘mystery-truths’ that literally turn the hearts of the children to the Pentecostal fathers. Exactly so.

IS THIS THE SIGN OF THE END SIR (December 30, 1962)
The seventh angel of Revelations 10:7 is the seventh church age messenger. See? Now watch. “And in the days…” Now watch here. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished,…
Now, sounding forth, this messenger, the seventh angel here is sounding forth his Message to the Laodicean church. Notice his type of Message. Now, it wasn’t to the first angel, wasn’t given That; second angel, third, fourth, fifth, sixth. But it is the seventh angel that had this type of Message. What was it? Notice his type of Message, “Finishing all the mysteries of God, that are written in the Book.” The seventh angel is winding up all the mysteries that’s laying loose-ended, all out through these organizations and denominations. The seventh angel gathers them up, and finishes the entire mystery. That’s what the Bible said, “Finishes the mystery of the written Book.”

The coming of the prophet effectively ends the Azusa Pentecostal dispensation by bringing a message that advances the true church into the Bride dispensation.

TRYING TO DO GOD A SERVICE (November 27, 1965)
Watch how close it gets to that razor edge now, between right and wrong. And remember it’ll fall on one or the other sides, till it comes down sometime like a honed razor between the difference of right and wrong. It’s got to be every Word of God; not just almost every Word, but every Word! And it’s got down today, not to Lutherans, not to Methodists, not to Pentecostals, but to that honed age, in this age where the antichrist anointing is so perfectly, it would deceive the very Elected, they’ll fall on the wrong side if they don’t watch it, like a wedge. Watch! Be careful! We’re not living in a Pentecostal age now. We’re passed that age, just the same as it’s passed Lutheran, and passed… See?

In the quote below he refers to the pentecostal as a move and the Bride Age is a move also. It is the move where God calls out a Bride and she becomes the final voice for the final age. This was proclaimed by “Thus Saith The Lord”, that the move was on for the Bride. At the beginning of the Age of Laodicea, Azusa Pentecost was the move of God but now, “Thus Saith The Lord”, the Bride is the move of God.

TRYING TO DO GOD A SERVICE (November 27, 1965)
Now let us see what happened when God (in His time and age) and His prophets are not considered, just depend on theology, priests, denominationalism like we do today. Now, closely. It all gets messed up. If the true Spirit of God there, It’ll direct it into the Word; not just one place in the Word, the entire Word for the entire age. See?
The Day of Pentecost, the Spirit directed it right into That, to Joel 2:38. See? The day of Luther, It directed it right into That; Wesley; in this last pentecostal MOVE; but this is another age, this is the calling out of the Bride. Not two thousand years ago at Pentecost, or the repeat, or the return. Pentecost…

In the Bride move or Age or dispensation [a divinely ordained order prevailing at a particular period of history] is the Bride calling when Seven Seals have been opened and only Malachi 4 can do that. The 7th angel is Elijah. Both are the same person. The bride calling is typed by Eliezer who is sent to get a bride for Isaac. Today, the Holy Spirit in the five fold ministry continues the Eliezer call as the Bride Age progresses to the end.

TRYING TO DO GOD A SERVICE (November 27, 1965)
…And now when you come to Pentecost, and spread out some of those dogmas, you still held on to them.
But now is the Bride-calling, now is when the Seven Seals has been opened, now when the complete things that the reformers left has to be opened; and only Malachi 4 can do that, because it takes the revelation straight from God to an individual to do so. That’s right! It can’t come to a group, never did. One man! That’s what God promised in the shadows of the coming for His Bride, an Eliezer. See?

Note once again – the Bride Age and the 7th Age have the same message.

TRYING TO DO GOD A SERVICE (November 27, 1965)
Now, He said, “In the days of the Message of the seventh angel, the earthly angel, seventh church age, then all these mysteries that’s been lost back through these other six church ages should be revealed right then.” Well, that’s exactly what those Angels said. Here is the Seven Seals, or the opening of these mysteries. And you try to get It before those denominations. Contrary to what they… Brother, they close up like a clam, but they’ve always done it. But it’s season!
How many knows that this is the seventh church age? Say, “Amen.” [Congregation says, “Amen!”–Ed.] The Laodicean Age, a lukewarm that God spues out of His mouth. And they spue God out of their mouth; there’s not another age in the Bible where Jesus was found on the outside trying to knock, get back in. They put Him out, no cooperation. Who is Jesus? The Word! The Word was put out. The husks throwed out the wheat! He said, “I stand at the door and knock, and any man in them shackles out there will hear My Voice.” O God, have mercy!

It is the evening time, when God is calling out the bride.

I HAVE HEARD BUT NOW I SEE (November 27, 1965)
Now, when the inspiration struck him, that did it. He had It then! Now, we find out, there comes a time of these crisis when the press is right on. And you look around today, look at the condition we’re living in. Aren’t we living in a modern Sodom and Gomorrah? Hasn’t the world come back? That was a Gentile world that was destroyed then, by fire. Didn’t Jesus say, in Saint Luke, the 17th chapter, the 28th, 29th, and 30th verse, that, “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man, when the Son of man is being revealed”? What is a “revealed”? Is a secret made known, a revelation; is to reveal or make known a secret.
Now, these things that’s been hid all through the church ages is now being revealed, made known. Now, we could say that, and if God didn’t back that up, that’s wrong. See, God don’t need anybody to interpret His Word, He’s His Own Interpreter. He said, “A virgin shall conceive,” and she did. He said, “Let there be light,” and there was. And we are not living in Luther’s age, Wesley age, or the Pentecostal age. The Pentecostal age was only a restoration of the gifts coming back to the church, but we’re living in the evening time, we’re living in a time of the calling out of the Bride.
And just as it was hard for the Catholics to see Luther, and the Luther’s to see the Wesley, and the Penteco-… the Wesley’s to see the Pentecostal age, so is it hard for the Pentecostals to see this age. It’s always been that way, because It’s poured out upon an Elected Seed, and that only. That’s what the Bible teaches. They can’t see It, Jesus even prayed for them, said, “They was blind, they didn’t know it.” Revelation tells us, in this Laodicean church age, when He was put out of the church, that they’re “naked! poor! miserable! blind! and don’t know it.” Back again, they can’t see It, can’t understand It. They’re so creeped up in traditions!

The Bride Age is the distinctive time where Malachi 4 is to be fulfilled and the Son of Man revealed. None of this happens in an Eternal Age, it all happens in time during the last or Laodicean Church Age.

I HAVE HEARD BUT NOW I SEE (November 27, 1965)
That critic saying, “Why would a God of mercy, could open up the Red Sea, stand and let them poor Christians be eat up with lions, and burnt, and everything? Set up, just like He laughed about it!” The poor ignoramus! Did he not know, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground”? It had to die through those dark ages, like any other corn of wheat has to go beneath the earth and be buried, to bring forth in the first reformation them two blades of Luther, the stalk. It had to come forth in the Wesleyans, out yonder, to bring forth the pollen, the tassels, the great missionary age. Had to come forth in the Pentecostal, for the restoration of the gifts, almost to deceive the very Elected. Looks like a wheat grain; open it up, there’s no wheat there at all, it’s only shuck. But back in there, then, they begin to form the oneness organization, the trinity organization, the twoness organization, and church of God organization, and all organized, and just death exactly! And now what happens? But it’s a shelter for the wheat, it’s been growing through it all the time.
Now it’s begin to pull away, the wheat’s begin to be seen. This is not a Pentecostal age. This is the latter-day age. This is the Bride age. This is the evening Light. This is when Malachi 4 must be fulfilled, to follow God’s pattern. This is Luke 17:30, to be fulfill. This is the second… And Jeremiah, and all the rest of them, that Joel has spoke of these days, this is that day. “I have heard, Lord, and It was coming, but now I see It with my eye.”

The dying of the Pentecost brings forth the rapturing of the Bride. The dying of Pentecost brings forth the Message now. Bro. Branham is announcing the death of Pentecost while heralding a message to bring for the Bride.

GOD’S ONLY PROVIDED PLACE OF WORSHIP (November 28, 1965)
Now, seven days there shall be no leaven mixed in the Bride, the Church, seven days.
Now notice. Now as no…
And there shall be no leavened bread seen in thee in all thy coast seven days;… (The sacrifice here is a type: the Bride coming forth from the Sacrifice which is Christ.)… neither shall there be any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificed the first day at evening,…
And remember–remember how we just went through the Church Ages? The messenger to the church always comes just at the dying of the other church age, always. The dying of the Pentecost brings forth the rapturing of the Bride. See? The dying of Luther brought forth Wesley. See? The dying of Wesley brought forth Pentecost. The dying of Pentecost brings forth the Message now. Here, it’s right here, patterned all through the Scripture. There’s not a scripture in the Bible but what hooks right one with the other. See? All these types. I have no education, but I have the Holy Spirit that shows me through another channel that teaches me that from nature; and that’s by the Word. Has to be the Word, brings His promise.
… flesh,… the sacrifice the first day… even, remain all night until the
morning.

It is a different Word now… the Azusa Message will not work to rapture a Bride. The Bride has a different word (Message) from that of Azusa Street. He is declaring the death of the old and the birth of the new.

GOD’S ONLY PROVIDED PLACE OF WORSHIP (November 28, 1965)
Now, verse 4, notice, “Leave no bread, leave none of the sacrifice,” or, take one from, one age to another.
Try to go back and say, “Well, now, we’re Lutherans, we want to come up here,” you’ve got to die to the Lutheran age to be borned in the Wesley age. You have to die in the Wesley age to be borned in a Pentecostal age. And you have to die in the Pentecostal age, leave nothing of it left, burn it with fire, because it’s going to be burnt like, the stalk that the wheat comes up out of. The stalk, the denomination, it’s got to be burned. So don’t bring your denomination over in the new Message. This is the Word now. That’s what denominated, the stalk; it carried It, that’s right; but It come over into here, then the stalk died. It was a carrier, the denomination, but the Word goes right on. Yeah, the Word goes right on.

GOD’S ONLY PROVIDED PLACE OF WORSHIP (November 28, 1965)
No leaven among you, that brings the entire fulness of the godhead bodily among you. Couldn’t do it in Luther’s age, couldn’t do it in Wesley’s age, couldn’t do it in Pentecostal age; but in the day when the Son of man will be manifested, revealed, brought back the Church together with the entire Deity of God amongst His people, showing the same visible signs, manifesting Himself like He did at the beginning when He was manifested on earth in a form of a Prophet-God. Oh! Glory! Promised by Malachi 4, promised by the rest of the Scriptures. Where you worship at? The house of God, seated (in present tense).

The Seventh Angel is bringing the Bride Age Message

THE RAPTURE (December 4, 1965)
Now, the Book was written, but then, remember, It was sealed with Seven Seals. And these Seven Seals was not to be opened (Revelations 10) until the sounding of the last earthly angel on earth, Revelations 10:7. See? “And in the days of the sounding of the last angel’s Message, seventh angel, the mystery of God should be finished in that age.” That, and that’s the age that we’re living in.
We all know we’re living in the Laodicea Age. There will never be another age to it. It can’t be. So, we’re living in the Laodicea Age. And these Seven Seals that’s held that Book, is a mystery to people, should be opened at that day. That’s what He promised. Now, it won’t be nothing outside the Word, because you can’t add to the Word or take from the Word. It’s got to remain always the Word. But the revelation is to reveal the Truth of It, what It is, to make It fit with the rest the Scripture. And then God vindicates that to be the Truth. See?

The Seventh Church Age takes the rapture.

REVELATION CHAPTER FOUR (December 31, 1960)
Oh, and notice, John, being taken up immediately after the church age, was a type of the raptured Church. Immediately after the church age is over, this Laodicean Church Age, then comes the Rapture.

THE RAPTURE (December 4, 1965)
Now we find here that Enoch was the seventh from Noah, which was a type of the church ages. Now, all of the rest of the six men, before him, died, but Enoch was translated. Enoch was raptured, the seventh, showing that it’s the seventh church age that takes the Rapture. Now, there’s no doubt, we’re in the seventh church age. We all know it.
Now, it’s the seventh church age that takes the Rapture. All of the other six died. But Enoch was translated, because, “He was not found. God took him.” But Enoch, raptured, was a type of all of the rest of them dying. But the–the end-time Bride will be called out of the… The rapturing, without death, will be called out of the seventh church age, which we are now bearing record of that age. Oh, my! Let’s dig in now, real deep. See?

THE RAPTURE (December 4, 1965)
Now watch, now, in the seventh church age, “When the seventh angel begins to sound, the mysteries of God was to be made known right there,” the Seals.
That, the reformers that… been they had time. Luther didn’t live long enough, neither did Wesley. The ages didn’t live long enough, them reformers. They had their message of that day, and the people grasped it and denominated it. And what is it?

THE RAPTURE (December 4, 1965)
And now that’s the age that we’re living in right now, the seventh church age. Now, it’s all to be manifested in the grain of wheat at the end, another come back. Now, if you take Luke the 17th chapter and the 30th verse, He said, “As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the coming of the Son of man, when the Son of man begins to reveal Himself.” What is reveal? Make His revelation of what He is in this day. Reveal, out to the people, the Word that’s made known for the day. Reveal, to the people, by the manifestation of Holy Spirit making that Jesus live among us. And, remember, He was represented there in a man. A man! He said, “As it was…” Now, He read same Bible we read, Genesis. Now, we notice in that Genesis chapter there, when Jesus was speaking about it.

THE RAPTURE (December 4, 1965)
So now notice Enoch, the type of the Church. Here he’s also typed in the seventh church age. Can you think of that? The seventh church age! Notice. “At the sounding of…”
How many believes there’s been seven messengers for the seven chur-… Oh, we all believe it, if we believe the Bible. If we don’t believe the Bible, course, see, we don’t believe it. But, there has been.
Now we’re living in the seventh church age. And when the Bible said that, this seventh church age, “When the messenger of the seventh church age begins to sound his Message, that the mysteries of all the things that’s been twisted up, down through the age, would be revealed in that time.” Here we see it, the Son of man coming among His people and doing just exactly, confirming His Message as He said He would do. Here we find it, in this last age now.
And the seven watches, like the seven watch, of one come. He didn’t come the first watch, second, third, fourth, but come in the seventh watch. That was Enoch, the seventh, which was translated. And Noah, being a type of the remnant of Jews, is to be carried over. Now, in the Bible times, talking about the watches. And nights were not divided into hours, in the Bible time.

We have come past the pentecostal age and are now in the Bride Age.

THE RAPTURE (December 4, 1965)
Luther could bring nothing but sprig. These others could bring these other things. We’re in the wheat age now. Luther’s genuine Luthers had to bring forth genuine Luther. Genuine pentecost had to bring genuine pentecost. That’s all. But we’re past that age, and going on.

The Bride Age is the time period when the church comes to the full stature of the Bride of Jesus Christ for this last day

THINGS THAT ARE TO BE (December 5, 1965)
Now, we quote this again. You probably read that book, that German making fun of me, and said I was a fanatic of all the fanatics. He was–he was absolutely against everything that’s called God, and even made fun of God. Said, “A God that could open the Red Sea and,” said, “take His people out; and set with His hands across His tummy, and let (through the dark ages) all those people die and suffer, those little children be eat by lions.”
You see, the whole–whole program, the whole Church, is built upon Divine revelation. Jesus said, in Saint Matthew, the 16th chapter, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father which is in Heaven has revealed this to you.” What was it? A revelation of Who He was. “And upon this Rock, I’ll build My Church, and the gates of hell can’t prevail against It.” See?
The revelation of Jesus Christ in this hour; not what He was in another hour! What He was now, the Bible expresses. It’s growing in the Bride, to the full stature. Therefore, if the corn of wheat, of Christ, had to fall in the ground, so did the Bride have to fall in the ground, through the dark ages. Any grain that goes in the ground must die, or it can’t produce itself, reproduce itself. And the great Church that He established on the Day of Pentecost, by the sending of the Holy Ghost, had to suffer martyrdom and go into the dirt, into the earth in the dark age, to bring forth again in the age of Luther, and come on out to the full stature of the Bride of Jesus Christ for this last day. See? There’s no way…

MODERN EVENTS ARE MADE CLEAR BY PROPHECY (December 6, 1965)
Now we want to be posted, to know what’s to take place for this age that we live in. God has lotted His Word to each age, so much to each age, and we must notice that one age cannot carry over into another age. It just won’t work. For instance, as I’ve said, I believe last night or… I’m constantly speaking, night after night, places, and sometime I make a remark the second time. I don’t mean to repeat myself. But I say this: What would… good would it have done Moses to try to preach Noah’s message? Or what good would it been… would have done Jesus to try to preach Moses’ message? Or what good would it done Martin Luther to continue on with the Catholic message? What good would it done Wesley to continue on with the Lutheran message? What good would it done Pentecostals to continue on with the Methodist message? Or what good will it do Pentecost to continue on when the Bride’s being called? See, we’re right up into the seed time, we’re here at the end time. Now, unless a corn of wheat falls in the earth, it abides alone.

MODERN EVENTS ARE MADE CLEAR BY PROPHECY (December 6, 1965)
Therefore we’re living in the day when the manifestation of the Word of God has to come to a different age than the Pentecostal age. And that’s right. Remember, you’ll… I’m an uneducated person; but you can’t beat nature, because God works in the continuity of nature. Just like, as I’ve said, the sun rises and sets; and goes through the day, and like a school age; and dies in the evening, to rise again the next morning. The trees let the sap down in the winter time, go into the roots, and come back in the spring.
Notice, He likened It to a grain of wheat, the Bride, the reason that God had to let that go like that. That fine, real, genuine Church that was established on the Day of Pentecost, had growed and growed since the Day of Pentecost, into a great church, it had to fall into the earth in that Dark Age and be buried like all seed does. It had to die so it could come forth in the reformation again. It come forth in the person of a reformation, Martin Luther. And from there, just like a stalk of wheat coming up. The first thing comes up, there’s two little blades, then it keeps adding more blades. Up come Martin Luther, and then Zwingli, and on down, Calvin, and as they moved on.

The Second Time “Bride Age” is used.

THE INVISIBLE UNION OF THE BRIDE OF CHRIST (November 25, 1965)
“Let no man, by his creed, deceive you.” You stay right straight in the promise of God, the Word of God. And that Word, if It’s a Word for this day, God vindicates It so. If He doesn’t, it’s not the Word for this day.
The Word that fell on the Day of Pentecost will not work this day. No, sir. That was for Pentecost. This is for the Bride, going Home of the Bride. We got something different. The Pentecostals represented that, again. We’re in the Bride age. No more than the–the Word of Noah would work in the days of Moses; no more than Moses’ law would have worked in the time of Paul here. He tried to tell them, “You are dead to that, and you cannot have that.”

Here in this quote he tells us that “the Word that fell on the Day of Pentecost will not work for this day”. Azusa Street pentecostals represented that again by having a baptism of the Spirit with the manifestations of gifts of 1 Cor 12. But this Message (Word) is for “the going home of the Bride”, for she is not to be planted but taken to the barn (raptured) for we are in the Bride Age. Once again, he tells us it is the message of the 7th Angel that brings about the Bride Age.

Then we come to the third instance of Bro. Branham’s use of the term “Bride Age”. Note once again his insistence that the wheat is at its last stage – the grain and that the Azusa movement had served as a shuck and was pushing out the grain which only happens at harvest time.

I HAVE HEARD BUT NOW I SEE (November 27, 1965)
That critic saying, “Why would a God of mercy, could open up the Red Sea, stand and let them poor Christians be eat up with lions, and burnt, and everything? Set up, just like He laughed about it!” The poor ignoramus! Did he not know, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground”? It had to die through those dark ages, like any other corn of wheat has to go beneath the earth and be buried, to bring forth in the first reformation them two blades of Luther, the stalk. It had to come forth in the Wesleyans, out yonder, to bring forth the pollen, the tassels, the great missionary age. Had to come forth in the Pentecostal, for the restoration of the gifts, almost to deceive the very Elected. Looks like a wheat grain; open it up, there’s no wheat there at all, it’s only shuck. But back in there, then, they begin to form the oneness organization, the trinity organization, the twoness organization, and church of God organization, and all organized, and just death exactly! And now what happens? But it’s a shelter for the wheat, it’s been growing through it all the time.
Now it’s begin to pull away, the wheat’s begin to be seen. This is not a Pentecostal age. This is the latter-day age. This is the Bride age. This is the evening Light. This is WHEN Malachi 4 must be fulfilled, to follow God’s pattern. This is Luke 17:30, to be fulfill. This is the second… And Jeremiah, and all the rest of them, that Joel has spoke of these days, this is that day. “I have heard, Lord, and It was coming, but now I see It with my eye.”

Once again, Bride Age is being used used as compared to the full grain. Here he says, this is not the pentecostal age for that was the shuck and it had already began to pull away revealing or exposing the grain. This is the Bride Age when Malachi 4 is to be fulfilled. Again, it is not referencing the Eternals nor even the the elect of ages past but rather the “Bride Age” is the time of fulfilling Malachi 4 and Luke 17:30 – it is the evening Light when the clouds have moved from the face of the sun exposing the wheat to the full light ripening the grain into as a mature church.

Please note the fourth time Bro. Branham uses the term Bride Age.

MODERN EVENTS ARE MADE CLEAR BY PROPHECY (December 6, 1965)
See, a man can say anything, but ‘less God interprets that Word… See, now, we have our own interpretation, we say It means this. And this one, Methodist, says this, the Baptist says this, the Pentecostal said this, the Oneness says this, the Twoness says this. And, oh, my, there you are. But God don’t need no interpreter, He’s His Own Interpreter. He interprets His Own Word by vindicating It in the age that It’s purposed for, the age that It’s given for.
We’re not living in a Pentecostal age, we’re living in another age. See, we’re not living in a Methodist age, we’re living in another age. We’re living on up here to the Bride age, the calling out of the Church and getting It together for the Rapture. That’s the age that we’re now living. To my honest opinion that’s exactly the Truth.

Once again, Bro. Branham is talking about the message, the Word that has come. The message is God’s own interpretation and it has been thoroughly vindicated to be God’s Message. He states that we are not living in either the Methodist or the Azusa Street Pentecostal age but rather the calling out of the Church (Revelation 18) and getting it together for the Rapture. It’s “rapture time” or “Bride time”. Here again he compares the “Bride Age” with the grain stage of the plant.

Here is the Fifth time he refers to the Bride Age. It is the calling back to God through the prophet’s message.

MODERN EVENTS ARE MADE CLEAR BY PROPHECY (December 6, 1965)
Now, and with patience we have to wait for this, for the prophecies that’s promised, every one of them must be fulfilled in its age. For It foretells us, the Author has before done this, and we wait to see Him do it again. What a time it is that we’re living in! Something like a–a calendar; you look at the calendar to find out what day of the year you’re living in, and you look at God’s Bible to see what age we’re living in. We’re not living in the Methodist age, the Baptist age. We’re living in the Bride age, the calling, bringing back to God through a channel that He promised to bring it back in. He promised to do it.
But as it’s been in every age, people let man put their own interpretation to It by theology, and will not believe God’s Divine vindication of It (that’s, God’s interpretation); not what I say, what somebody else says; but what God has promised and what God does, proves that it’s God doing His Own interpreting of His Word.

Take notice of the context of his use of the Bride Age. It’s the Message calling a people back to God through a channel of a prophet. Even as the revelation of baptism by immersion in the Sardisean Age produced the Baptist (the re-baptizers), and Wesley’s message produced the Methodist, even so, God by using the channel of a prophetic gift brought about the Bride era. Unlike prior ages, this time the true church Bride will not become another station or stopping place as every denomination before her has done because we have reached the seventh and final Age. After Laodicea, there is not a church age to advance to. The Bride will leave from Laodicea to go into the Eternals by a rapture and to do this, it will take a prophet to prepare her for that grand event. Hallelujah! The only place to go from Laodicea is the Eternals and that by a rapture.

Note his further use of the word channel in the same sermon. He is emphatic, only through the channel of a prophet can the Word come through.

MODERN EVENTS ARE MADE CLEAR BY PROPHECY (December 6, 1965)
That’s right, the Word always comes to His prophet. So we can’t expect It to come to theologians. We can’t expect It to come to denominations. It’s got to come God’s channel route that He foretold us about, and that’s the only way It’ll ever come. It’ll be hated, despised, rejected. When It does come, It’ll be throwed out to one side, and everything, but God will do it anyhow. It was rejected in Jesus Christ, it was rejected in John, it was rejected by Jeremiah, it was rejected by Moses. It’s always that way. But God moves right on in the way that He promised He would do it. Yes, sir, He never does fail to do it the same way.

Now we come to the Sixth and final time Bro. Branham uses the term Bride Age. Note in not one instance does he say we have left the Seven Church Ages to go into the Bride Age, nor does he describe it as an Eternal Age. Also, not in one instance is he speaking of each of the other six ages producing a portion of the Bride even though that’s “a given”, for each age most definitely produces a bride in its age.

In Luther’s age, his message produced the Lutheran Age and continuing on in that inspiration, John Knox’s inspiration produced the Presbyterian age. The Sardisean Age then gave way to the Philadelphian Age. Similarly, the Philadelphian age would have within it, eras of time (or ages) where the prevailing inspiration would bring about the Methodist and then the Nazarenes. Finally the 7th and last age would come to bring about the Azusa Street Pentecostal era. Like the wheat plant, these were junctions or stages of its growth from the seed that was planted to the seed that is harvested. God’s object of course is a church who in its stages will grow to be His Bride who will be in His full image. Ephesians 4:13 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 fulness of Christ:

Let us now consider the sixth and final use of the term “Bride Age”. Within its context, Bro. Branham is once again typing the ages with the wheat plant. He defines the shuck as being so close to looking like the grain that it would fulfill Matthew 24:24. He identifies the Azusa movement and pentecostal denominations as the shuck and not the grain. They were a part of the plant that will not be harvested. It is the calling out time, separating the grain from the shuck, (Rev 18) and it calls us to the Eternal Promised Land because it is wheat (grain) time. It is harvest time (the time to take the grain into the barn i.e. the rapture). Even as the life leaves the other parts of the plant to go into the grain, (leaving the rest of the plant dead and dry without life), even so God is calling a Bride Church out of the churches. God is calling His elect from every stage of the plant whether they were Baptist, Methodist, or Pentecostal to be His Bride. The last message will not be another stopping place or stage of the life cycle of the plant but rather it produces the grain (a Bride) who is destined for the Eternals by being raptured up to meet her Lord in the air.

The Bride cannot be formed in the Pentecostal denomination, she must become separate from the shuck.

LEADERSHIP (December 7, 1965)
Jesus couldn’t have come with Moses’ message; Luther couldn’t come with the Catholic message; Wesley couldn’t come with the Luther’s message; the Pentecost couldn’t come with the Wesley age message.And the Bride can’t be formed in the Pentecostal denomination, it just can’t do it. And that’s exactly right. She’s done organized and went out here, and there she sets, just like the rest of them. It’s a shuck. Just like the life comes up through the… See?

LEADERSHIP (December 7, 1965)
The Life, sure the–the stalk back here carried the Life. Certainly, it did. But, you see, when it become the stalk and it was finished, the organization, the Life went right on into Wesley; come right out, went in. And once, each one of them. One, a big blade, don’t look like the grain. But when the little pollen comes, like the… on the–the shuck… or on the stalk, the pollen of the tassel, it looks a whole lot like the grain. But when it comes down to that shuck, it’s almost there.
Didn’t Jesus say, “In the last days” (Matthew 24:24) “the two would be so close it would deceive the very genes, predestinated, the Elected Ones, if it was possible”? Almost like the real thing, see. So, in the last days. Now, you see, it’s wheat time now. It’s getting harvest time. This is not Luther’s age, this is not Pentecost age, this is the Bride age.
As Moses called a nation out of a nation, Christ today is calling a Church out of a church, you see; the same thing in type, taking them to the glorious Eternal Promised Land.

Bro. Branham thoroughly explains the cycle of the wheat plant and relates it to the Book of Life and it will be helpful to understand the Bride Age because he often relates the Bride Age to the final stage of the wheat, the grain.

SARDISEAN CHURCH AGE
To understand this subject even more clearly it will now be wise to approach it from the standpoint of the church through the ages. Up until now we have been thinking in terms of the removal of the names of individuals. Now we want to consider, not the individuals, but the groups represented in the church. To do so we will liken the church through the ages to the wheat plant. A grain of wheat is planted to the end that a single grain of wheat will reproduce and multiply itself through a certain process during a certain period of time. That single seed will die, but in dying, the life that was in it will come up into a plant which in turn will be the bearer or carrier of that life which is to come back to originality in a multiplied form. Jesus the great Royal Seed died. That matchless One Who is the life of the church stands in the midst of the church for all seven church ages giving His life to the church (the carrier or bearer) to the end that His very life will be reproduced in bodies like unto His in the resurrection. It is at the resurrection that the Royal Seed will see many royal seeds like unto Himself, and they will be even as He is, for says John, “we shall be like Him.” This is what John the Baptist was referring to when He said that Jesus would gather the wheat into the garner. That was the resurrection where the redeemed who had been elected unto eternal life came in.

SARDISEAN CHURCH AGE
Now then, the record of this wheat plant whose end is to reproduce the original seed in multiplied form is THE BOOK OF LIFE. I repeat: the history or record of this wheat plant is the Book of Life of which a part of the Book of Life is the RECORD OF ETERNAL LIFE. (A section of the Book of Life). This is convincingly seen by examining the wheat plant. A bare seed is sown. Soon a blade is seen. But that is not the wheat yet. Then it grows into a stalk. This is not yet wheat. Life is there, but not the wheat. Then at the end of the stalk is a little spike that sends out a tassel. Still a wheat plant but no wheat yet. Then the plant is pollenized, and we see the chaff grow. This looks mighty like the wheat but it is not yet seed. Then forms the wheat in the husk. It is now back to what it was originally. Now the ripened wheat is harvested.

SARDISEAN CHURCH AGE
Jesus Christ died. He gave His life. That life was to come back upon the church and bring many sons like unto Himself unto glory in the resurrection. But as the wheat seed had to have a carrier to bring forth multiplied wheat seed, even so there had to be a church which would be the carrier of the life of Christ. As the blade, stalk, tassel, and husks were the carriers for the seed but NOT the seed itself, so the church corporate through the ages has been the carrier of the true SEED though not the Seed itself. That is why we can say that the Book of Life is the WHOLE WHEAT plant.

SARDISEAN CHURCH AGE
Let’s go over that again. Here is that original seed that was planted. It produced a blade. That wasn’t it. It produced a stalk. Not it either. Here come husks in which the wheat is to form. That isn’t it. The tassel appears. THEN POLLEN FALLS ON THOSE PISTILS. PART OF THAT PLANT IS QUICKENED. SOMETHING OF THAT ORIGINAL SEED THAT CAME UP THROUGH THE REST OF THE PLANT TURNS INTO SEED. Why didn’t the whole plant go into seed? Because it was created to that end. Just part of that plant can go back to being seed because just part of that WHEAT PLANT IS ETERNAL LIFE WHEAT.

Bro. Branham in addition to Bride Age also uses the term Bride Time for four times. Note once again, he uses this term in reference the time of full restoration.

TURN ON THE LIGHT (January 25, 1964)
But did you realize we’ve moved on from that? We are in the Bride time, the selecting time, the time that (the Bride) they said we would have. “All the caterpillar left,” said Joel 2:28, “all the caterpillar left, the–the palmerworm eaten; and all the palmerworm left, the locust eaten.”

The second time he refers to this Bride Time is in reference to the Evening Light. The dismal day caused by the clouds of denominational theology is giving way to the full sun of the Evening Light. This of course is to ripen the grain and bring it to its full maturity.

RECOGNIZING YOUR DAY AND ITS MESSAGE (July 26, 1964)
At the same time, the Bride has recognized the evening Light, just begin to recognize. The hungry pentecostals have begin to recognize that them organizations hasn’t got any things they was looking for, they’re so twisted and tore up. See, it’s the time of recognition, recognition. You’ve got to recognize.
The world has recognized. The nations has recognized. Science has recognized. The devil has recognized it’s the time that he can wreck women, wreck the church, wreck the people. He’s recognized it. And God has recognized that there is a people on earth that He predestinated to Life. He recognized this is the time to send His Message. He’s did it. The people has recognized It, the Bride time has realized the evening Light.

His third time of using the term Bride Time is in the sermon The Seed Is Not Heir With the Shuck. Here Bro. Branham lets us know that Bride Time (age) is the Seed Time. Once again, he does not speak of an Eternal Age that we have somehow entered into but rather the Time of the Seed or Harvest Rapture Time, where the seed is separated from the rest of the plant and harvested.

THE SEED IS NOT HEIR WITH THE SHUCK (February 18, 1965)
Now look. There was three women. There is three women typed here, churches. The women always types churches. Means, three denominational ages, carriers, which also must die and dry up, just like the shuck and so forth does, to give room for the Seed. The Seed cannot get right, cannot get ripe, rather, until the shuck, stalk, and leaves, are all dry. That’s right. It saps every bit of the Life, in them, out; amen; all it was, is that, plus.
Cannot do it! Now it’s Seed time, or Bride time. The shucks are dead. The shucks are dried up. The virgin Word time, not touched. It’s a virgin, remember, a virgin Word time. If you’d put It in the hands of a denomination, It sure won’t be virgin; It’ll be man-handled, time you get to It. But God’s Church is not touched by denomination. Hallelujah! It’s a virgin-born Word of God made manifest, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hallelujah! How, how wonderful! I love It. I believe It. I know that It’s the Truth. It’ll not be touched. There’ll be no denominational man-handling in the virgin Birth of the Bride. No, sir! She is–she is commanded by God to come out of such. “Touch not their unclean things, become vultures.”

In his final use of the term Bride Time, it is again that the 7th Angel’s message has produced a Bride. It will take the harvest rain of the 7th messenger to bring the Wheat plant back to grain again.

GOD’S ONLY PROVIDED PLACE OF WORSHIP (November 28, 1965)
If I taught you a Methodist message, it would take no effect on you, this is Bride time. If Moses taught the message of Noah, it would take no effect. If Jesus taught Moses’ message, it would take no effect. Because the predestinated seed are laying there that will only be watered by that type of water that’s give for that seed. See? It won’t grow any other condition. It must be the condition that grows it.

Over and again, Bro. Branham states consistently throughout his sermons that we are living in the Seventh and last Church Age. He never changes from that thought. He never says (as many have concluded) the age goes on but we (the Bride) are called out of it, so we are not in it. Rather, he emphatically and repetitively says we are living in the Laodicean Age.

THE RAPTURE (December 4, 1965)
We all know we’re living in the Laodicea Age. There will never be another age to it. It can’t be. So, we’re living in the Laodicea Age.

I know it sounds like a rhetorical question but if the Bride is not still in Laodicea then how is it that the Bride under her messenger is The Final Voice to the Final Age as stated in the Church Age Book.

Using the type of Enoch, he states:
THE RAPTURE (December 4, 1965)
Now we find here that Enoch was the seventh from Noah, which was a type of the church ages. Now, all of the rest of the six men, before him, died, but Enoch was translated. Enoch was raptured, the seventh, showing that it’s the seventh church age that takes the Rapture. Now, there’s no doubt, we’re in the seventh church age. We all know it.

How easy it would have been for Bro. Branham to say, we are not in the Seventh Church Age for we have left it and are now in the Eternal Age or Bride Age, but he didn’t. He didn’t teach that we have left the Seventh Age. Rather, it is others who keep going beyond the messenger to make this conclusion. Keeping the term in context with the prophet’s teaching is of vital importance.

Finally, let us allow Bro. Branham himself to clarify any misunderstanding about the church age of Laodicea.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (August 30, 1964)
Brother Branham, have you made statements recently concerning that church age has ended, Laodicea?
No, I never said it’s ended. If I did, you misunderstood, or I said it wrong. It is–this is the last church age; it’s the end of church ages, the Laodicea. It hasn’t ended; when it ends, the church is gone. So as long as the church is here, it hasn’t ended. See?

The Promised Ephesians

But what about another Ephesians? What about the Eternal Church Age that Bro. Branham speaks about? Once again, let’s look carefully at these statements.

THE STATURE OF A PERFECT MAN (October 14, 1962)
Now we are approaching The Seven Seals. We have just finished The Seven Church Ages. And this is a Message on teaching, that ties the man in, that’s going to be redeemed by the Blood of the Lord Jesus, and is going to be in that Church age, that Eternal Church age at the end of the Seals. Now we know that we have Seven Trumpets, Seven Plagues, Vials, and so forth, that we get into, as we go along.

Here Bro. Branham tells of how he had just finished teaching about the Seven Church Ages and that he is expecting soon to preach The Seven Seals. He also looks forward to other subject such as the Seven Trumpets, Plagues and Vials. He explains that his subject that he was speaking on in this sermon of The Stature Of A Perfect Man was teaching of the man that is to be redeemed by the Blood and that will go to live in the Eternal Church Age – Eternity. What else can prepare a man for eternity if it is not the full experience of the Seal of the Holy Ghost as he taught in The Stature Of A Perfect Man? Notice where he places the Eternal Church Age, “at the end of the Seals”. The Seals begin with the first Church Age with the white horse rider and finishes with the Seventh Seal, the breaking of the silence, revealing the mysteries which begin the process of winding up of all end time events. The Church Age ends with the rapture, but the Seventh Seal continues finalizing end time events until the Millennium is ushered in. So, yes there is definitely an eternal Age AFTER Seventh Seal finishes up all things for it is only after the Millennium that the Eternal and eight day dawns.

THE SEVENTH SEAL (March 24, 1963)
Notice, it’s the end of the church age. It’s the–the end of the Seven Seals. It’s the end of the trumpets. It’s the end of the vials, and even ends the ushering in of the Millennium; that’s on the Seventh Seal. It’s just like firing a rocket into the air, and that rocket explodes here, and it goes up, then it explodes again. It puts out five stars. One of those stars explodes and blows out five stars from it; and then one of them stars explodes, blows out five stars from it (See?); it fades on out. That’s what the Seventh Seal; it just ends the time for the world. It ends the time for this. It means the time for that. It ends the time for this. It ends the time… Everything just ended up on that Seventh Seal.

But what about another Ephesians? Who will place the Bride in her promised land as Joshua did? Bro. Branham taught us that the Book of Ephesians was a parallel to the Book of Joshua and that as Joshua placed Israel into her inheritance even so Paul placed the Church into her position in Christ into her inheritance. Who was it that heaven said that preached what Paul preached? It was the seventh angel messenger of Malachi 4 that placed and positioned the Bride into her inheritance and so brought another Ephesian Age or Bride Age. The Bride Age is the time in a woman’s life where she is positioned as a wife and becomes heir with her husband. There she takes on his name and shares with him in his estate. Thus the Bride Age is the time of marriage.

Do we dare still wonder if Bro. Branham was that Joshua when God specifically identified him with that character within the Bible just as the Holy Spirit identified him as the Eliezer and the Elijah? If you doubt him having the Joshua ministry, consider this wonderful and most awesome event.

AS I WAS WITH MOSES SO I WILL BE WITH THEE (September 11, 1960)
But about two years ago, I saw the Bible, in the room, come down and stand where I was at and a hand from above came down and parted the pages, turned them out, and come down Joshua 1 to the 9th verse and stopped, going slowly. I’ve waited for this hour to approach to when I would feel that it was God’s will for me to speak concerning it.

In the sermon we just quoted from, he typed Moses as the denominational law. But in that this stage of the journey, Moses (denominations) was dead and it was now time for Joshua (the Seventh Angel) to place the Bride into her inheritance. Even as Moses could bring them out, yet Moses failed to take them in and neither could the denominations take the Bride into her inheritance and the rapture. God would not use the denominational system again, it was dead. Instead he would raise up a prophet, not another denomination. In the sermon As I Was With Moses So I Will Be With Thee Bro. Branham types Moses and the wilderness journey as the years of wandering in the wilderness just as the Church has wandered for the past seven ages. Even as God announced to Joshua the death of Moses, He was again announcing the death of denominations. God would no longer lead through them.

Through the ages, God would anoint men to lead people out and subsequently they would make a new camp, this stopping place or station would become called by the name of the movement. Thus the station (stopping place or encampment) that Luther led his church to and then stopped was called Lutheran and they camped on the just shall live by faith. Then Wesley led the church out and the place he stopped was another station in the journey and where they camped became the Methodist station. There they encamped on Wesley’s method of prayers and cleansing and made a denomination called Methodist and so on with the pentecostals. Although each move brought the church closer to the promised land, all of these stopped short of the full inheritance. This is the same theme that he uses of the Bride Age, for it will take the message of Malachi 4 and Revelation 10:7 of the opening of the Seven Seals to bring the bride into the promised land of the full inheritance of the resurrection, body change and rapture. The Bride Age will not be another station on the journey. There will never be a denomination formed from the pure Word! No Sir! The Seventh Angel’s message takes the Bride across Jordan into the promised land where the resurrection and rapture is completed at the end of the Seventh Age.

AS I WAS WITH MOSES SO I WILL BE WITH THEE (September 11, 1960)
And the church organizations, denominations has failed. They’ll not take the church over. God will raise up a new system, a interdenominational system by the power of God, that’ll take the church into the promised land. Organizations and denominations has messed it up; each one after their own theology, each one after their own way of thinking. But God will take His Holy Spirit, and will raise His Joshua that’ll take the church to the promise, with no denominational strings tied anywhere, but will take over His church.
Moses had failed; he was a law-giver. Joshua was called of grace, and he took the church on.

In 1965, Bro. Branham introduces this thought again in the sermon Paradox. He shows how that Joshua could not come into his ministry until Moses was dead because they both could not be God’s leader at the same time. Even so the law (denominational systems) had to come to its end and grace provided a prophet to place the Bride into the full inheritance and promised rapture.

A PARADOX (January 17, 1965)
It’s law that brings us to recognize we’re wrong, but it’s grace that forgives us. The law has no hope of–of redemption, because that… and to complete it. It has no grace in it, because law only points that you are a sinner, but grace tells you how to get out of it. Law is the policeman that put you in jail, but redemption is the One Who come paid your fine; and “out of,” and “into,” into grace.
The Ephesus. Now we find the same thing, the Old Testament, I think this Book of Joshua fits. A fitting word for it, would be, the Book of Ephesus of the Old Testament. The Book of Ephesians of the Old Testament, would be a good thing to title this Book of Joshua, because it’s certainly fitting to this.
Now we find Joshua representing grace, or some propitiation, that it could not exist in the same time that law was in existence.
Neither does any message, that forwards the people on, ever coincide with a past message. It will not do it. That’s where you have trouble today. Jesus said, “Does any person take a–a new piece of garment and put it into an old? Or put the new wine into old bottles? They perish. It bursts them open.” They can’t stand it.
And Joshua could not at all become into his ministry until after Moses was gone. So you see the very first verse here, “Moses My servant is dead; now arise and take this people to the promised land.” Moses, representing the law, had served its time. It’s, the law had served its time.
They started out, really, with grace, to begin with. Before they had law, they had grace. While they were in Egypt, without law; no one down there, was just the priests, and so forth, but they didn’t have any laws. The law had not yet been given. Grace provided them a prophet. And, also, grace provided an atonement, the sacrificial lamb. We’re getting into that this week, on the sacrifice, the blood, because there lays your healing. So on… The atonement had been provided before there was any law. Grace was before law, during law, and after law.
So there was Joshua, representing grace, was right along with law, but could not be enforced as long as law was in its proper place.
And so has the church world in this last day! It’s come along, it’s played its part, but there is coming a time where it must cease. It must do it. There has got to be an Ephesians, also, of this journey, just as there was of other journeys. There has to come an Ephesians, an Ephesus, an Ephesian of this journey. Watch.
Wherein that law could never save a sinner, as I have pointed out. It could not. Therefore the promised land represented a day of grace. See, he could not take them in, into that journey.

Who or what would bring about this promised Ephesian of this journey? It would require Revelation 10, Malachi 4 and the revealing of the Son of Man. The seven fold mystery of the Seven Thunders which are the mysteries contained in the Seven Seals must be unfolded. All of this would take place in the Laodicean Church Age. This could only be accomplished by the seventh angel.

A PARADOX (January 17, 1965)
But we’re promised, according to Revelation 10, and according to Malachi 4, and Saint Luke 22:17, and so forth, that there is got to come a–an Ephesians to this. There is promised it, friends. There must come an Ephesians, that these sevenfold mysteries of the Word of God must be unfolded. And it’s in the Laodicean age that this takes place. I believe that we’re–we’re there.
I believe we’re right in the shadows of the Coming of the Son of God. And as Joshua, just before the Ephesians raised up, so did John the Baptist raise up just before the next Ephesian. And we’re promised another, another Ephesians. It’s predicted here in the Scripture, therefore I think that we are living in the Ephesians again. Back again to… We are promised that what was left off during those seven ages.
Now you cannot add nothing to the Book, or take nothing from It. Revelation 22:18 says so, “Who will ever, will add one Word, or take one Word, his part will be taken from the Book of Life.” Now we cannot add or take.
So therefore we know that Luther could not get to It; Wesley, and so forth, the reformers, Knox, Finney, Calvin, on down, so forth, they didn’t get It all, but what they had was the Gospel Truth.
But now in the last days, we are given the understanding, by the Word, that we are going to understand It, because it’ll come an Ephesian age to it. And we’re here! Now, paradox!

In the conquest of the land, Joshua stood with the creative power of the Word and stopped the sun. With just words spoken by Joshua, the sun and moon were stopped. Even so, in the prophets ministry the Spoken Word was manifested five times with the power of creation of squirrels, power of salvation by the Word as shown with Hattie Wright for her two sons, power of healing by the Spoken Word of his wife’s tumor, speaking to the storm and the power of the resurrection as shown by raising a dead fish to life. These five things identify the power that is in the Word.

A PARADOX (January 17, 1965)
Here is Joshua, that we’re speaking of. How that that man, just an ordinary man that just come through a–a–a group of creeds that the men had formed, and laws and ceremony, with nothing in them that says anything about giving man power to stop the sun. But here, with a commission from God, “I’ll give you every piece of ground the soles of your foot sets upon. I’ll be there.” And the enemy was routed.
The sun was going down. If them kings had time to get theirself together again the next day, he would surely lose men. But Joshua knew he needed sunlight. And he looked up to the sun, and said, “Stand still over Gibeon. And, moon, stay there over Ajalon.” And for the space of a whole day, that was all night long, the sun stood still and the moon stood there. That’s a paradox. A man walking in the will of God could do such a thing, for he was in a… he was again in a -an Ephesus, in a–an Ephesian with–with the Gospel. Sure, it was a paradox.

This Ephesian came again by the 7th Angel’s Message.

A PARADOX (January 17, 1965)
Now, friends, I believe that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I believe He is just as able this afternoon to cause, in this building, a paradox, because that He promised it would happen.
And how much more has He promised, how much more is it leaving in the Bible, to this very age that we’re living, the Ephesians again, of the church ages. We’ve got seven church ages, and we’re promised that at the Laodicea Church Age there would be another Ephesian. That’s right. And we’re here. I believe, with all my heart, that Jesus Christ Who made the promise.

The last sign given to the Church of the Son Of Man would show that the Word was here in it’s fullness. God promised the revealing of the Son Of Man the Word in this time of the Ephesians. If another man other that this prophet-messenger was to arise after him, we must ask where is this particular promised vindication or sign of the Son of Man to identify that this is the Word to place the Bride? To be the Joshua to place the Bride into her complete inheritance, he must show the sign of the Son of Man to identify that the Word he is bringing is the Word in its fulness.

A PARADOX (January 17, 1965)
Now, if He can reveal what your trouble is, to me, and me not knowing you, and you know that; but now if He can reveal to me what your trouble is, or something about you, then that shows that there is a Spirit here, somewhere, that knows you, and you know that I don’t. So it wouldn’t be the man, it would be the Spirit. And that’s what God promised at this time of Ephesus. Do you believe that to be the Truth?
[The sister says, “Yes, I do.”–Ed.] May He grant it.

He showed that it is Christ the Word who discerns the thoughts and intents of the heart and this sign was given to show the Ephesians had come in order to place and position the Bride. The message had come to provide a bridge out of the endless and repetitive circling that has happened throughout the denominational wilderness journey into Glory Land by a rapture.

A PARADOX (January 17, 1965)
How do you do, sir? We are strangers to each other. I don’t know you. Far as I know, it’s the first time I ever seen you, for me to know you. That’s right. But He knows us, both of us.
Now you know why this is taking place? It’s His grace permitting it, that it would bring these people conscious of God. Now, not knowing nothing about you, not even knowing you no way, just a strange man that come here. Now it would be absolutely a paradox for something to happen, to–to know what was wrong with you, or something you had done, or something you ought not have done, or something you should have done, or who you are or something about you. It would have to be a paradox, ’cause there is no way for anybody to know that, outside of some revelation of the unseen. That’s right. Now if He’ll do that for you, between you and I, so that the audience… not a show, but that they might see the–the Ephesus is here, that this is the thing that bridges between denomination and the Glory Land. He promised it, that they might be assured that what we’re telling is the Truth.
Now to know you, you know I don’t. That’s, raise up your hand so the people see that you… I, I’ve never seen the man in my life. He’s just a man standing here. Ask any of the others. But you’re suffering with a rupture. You also have hemorrhoids. That’s right. You’ve come a long ways, to get here. You’re not even an American. You’re a Canadian. You brought with you a son that has mental affliction. That’s true. You want me to tell you where you’re from? You’re from the province of Sasketchewan, Saskatoon the city. Believe with all your heart, and God will send you back home well, with your son, if you believe. You believe it? God bless you.
Do you believe? [Congregation says, “Amen.”–Ed.] The Lord God still remains God. See? There is none other but Him.

A PARADOX (January 17, 1965)
How do you do? Here is a lady, a stranger to me, perhaps a little older. I’ve never seen her; but she is–she is just a woman standing here. I’m going to have to hurry, ’cause I just got seven or eight minutes now, see. Just look here. Do you believe that these things are true? With all your heart? You know it’s impossible for me to know what’s wrong with you, or anything about you. But it isn’t impossible for God to know, because He knowed even before there was a world. Isn’t that right? [The sister says, “That’s right.”–Ed.]
How many believe that to be true? [Congregation says, “Amen.”– Ed.] Sure. He knowed every time you would bat your eye. He is infinite. And just think; by His grace He has presented, with His Gospel, the same thing He promised to do. Then there is a Heaven, and we’re going to it. And we’re in this Ephesus right now. We’re in this, coming out of one, into another.
You have so many things wrong with you, complications, so many things wrong. And you’re not from here. You are from west of here. You’re from California. That’s right. You also have a son that’s afflicted. That’s right. You… There is something, I keep seeing water or a great big lake. Oh, it’s, you have–you have someone that’s close to you, that lives in Chicago, that knows me. That’s right. That is true. Now, you know I don’t know you, but do you believe God knows who you are? Mrs. McGuire. You got your request. Go home thanking God.
How do you do? You’re a mighty young person.

THE GOD WHO IS RICH IN MERCY (January 19, 1965)
Now if many of you like to just mark down Scriptures that a minister reads. And I would like for you to, tonight, if you would, to turn to Ephesians.
And I was speaking last Sunday on the Ephesians, how that the Book of Joshua was the Ephesians of the Old Testament, and how it was a Book of redemption.
And redemption has two different parts: “come out of” and “entering into.” First, you have to come out. Some people wants to bring the world in with them; but you got to come out of the world, to enter into Christ. You have to come out of unbelief, to enter into faith. There cannot be one thing in your way. To really have genuine faith, you must absolutely leave everything that’s contrary to the Word of God, behind, to enter into faith.
And that was the Book of the Ephesians of the Old Testament, Joshua. Where, Moses represented the law, could not save no one; but grace could, and here Joshua is the same word like Jesus, “Jehovah-saviour.”
And now then, we find out that we have come to another Ephesians, another Ephesus now. Where, that, in our intellectual denominations and so forth, and all of our educational programs has come to its–its Jordan, then we must have an–an Ephesians again. We must have an exodus, to “come out” and to “go into,” for the Rapture.

In conclusion, let me share one final quote although without a doubt there is so more that could be shared in this article, however I think it sums up the subject quite well.

An Exposition Of The Seven Church Ages
Revelation 3:22, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
This is the LAST warning. There will not be another. The throne room has been set up. The twelve foundations have been laid. The streets of gold have been paved. The gates of gigantic pearls are raised and hinged. Like a pyramid she stands so fair and glorious. The heavenly beings who have prepared her watch breathlessly, for she glistens and shines with a glory that is unearthly. Every facet of her beauty tells a story of amazing grace and Jesus’ love. She is a city prepared for a prepared people. She awaits only for her inhabitants, and soon they will throng her streets with joy. Yes, it is the last call. The Spirit will not speak in another age. The ages are over.
But thank God, at this moment, this age is not over. He is yet crying. And His cry is not only in the spiritual ears of men by His Spirit, but once again a prophet is in the land. Once more God will reveal the truth as He did to Paul. In the days of the seventh messenger, in the days of the Laodicean Age, its messenger will reveal the mysteries of God as revealed to Paul. He will speak out, and those who receive that prophet in his own name will receive the beneficent effect of that prophet’s ministry.

Yes, Thank God! It is not over! He is still crying in mercy even though now the prophet has sounded his message. He is yet crying through the Bride. She is under her messenger the final voice to the final age.

Click Here To Download Article in PDF Format