1990-07 0790-Satan's Eden # 6

Father, we thank you for grace, mercy, and truth you've extended toward us this hour. And we appreciate, Lord, we've known grace for many years but not known truth, Lord, really. But now, tonight, we do by vindication. Our hopes are set upon it, O God, also. If any place were wrong, Lord, you'll correct us and show us where we are wrong, that we might speak one with the prophet. And then, Lord, by the power of grace and the Holy Spirit, to live one with that same word. We commit ourselves to you tonight and commend ourselves also. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Now, before we begin reading page

5 and paragraph 18, it might be well to consider that Brother Branham is setting forth in this message a description of Satan's Eden and how it started and how it continues and what it is now and how it ends with Satan in control. Now, of course, we won't cover that all tonight, but we'll eventually get it all covered, though there'll be quite a number of the thoughts expressed here. And we'll get, we try really to get a basic idea and then go into this message.

A definition of Eden. Originally, it was God's government on earth with man in charge. Now, of course, what we're mentioning there is the fact that it actually was God's government. Brother Branham said that. But you'll notice that man was given charge, given the jurisdiction. You could call him straw boss. You could call him general manager. You could call him one that was deputized. No matter what you call him, actually he was put in charge. Yet he was doing God's will, and that was the idea, doing God's will, and showing forth a true concept of God thereby. And by that, what he was doing, how he was conducting himself according to the Word, according to the Spirit of God, and the actual environment that was there. God there for the behalf of man was what this was all about. Now, the true concept of God would be paternal teacher. Now, you really don't need the word teacher there because a true father would educate his sons properly. But I'm emphasizing this because we want you to specifically see the fact that God is a teacher. He's not just a father, but He's specifically a teacher. You see that all through Scripture. So, all right. Originally, it was God's government on earth with man in charge yet doing God's will and showing forth a true concept of God thereby. It was an ultimate for man and a fulfillment of God at that time for a specific period allotted to it. Now, there again, you will notice that This is something that can be disputed and many people will dispute it, although their disputations are thoroughly incorrect because the Bible speaks of the fact that man would now be able to put forth his hand if he was allowed and eat of the tree of life and thereby he would live forever. So we see a plan here that is not... something that is in itself eternal so when we talk about this ultimate for man we are looking at the ultimate in a period of time which ultimate was to be fruitful and multiply to eat of the trees of the garden and refrain from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thereby you could see what lay within god himself as the We'll use the word procreator of Adam and Eve, the beginning of this great race of God, which would be generically and genetically a God race. Now, based on this, what will Satan's Eden be? It will be Satan's government on earth at some specific place named in Scripture where a man is under Satan's paternal tutelage and thereby manifesting the true concept. and character of Satan. And this will be Satan's ultimate and man's ultimate at that particular specific period of time. So if you're going to take the one as a basic and a parallel for the other, though one is unequivocally good, the other unequivocally evil, you will see that Satan, who spoke out, and we'll read it later in Isaiah and Ezekiel, concerning his own estimation of his own destination. And he said, I will exalt myself above the most high. I will take that particular position. So if God starts out in this particular order and has this particular program, then Satan cannot do anything but follow it because Satan is not original. There's no power that Satan has of himself. Everything is allowed of God, and everything in that is a complete perversion. So we see here that Satan then will be attempting to have his own Eden, wherein and whereby he can actually mold people according to his own concepts and his own character as to exactly what Satan is. If you think of this, this gives you a very broad spectrum, such a spectrum as is not found in God. You will find actually that truth is more limited, more circumscribed than is a lie. So you think it over. Number two, God's Eden can exist only under an unchanging revelation of God's Word that God Himself gives. And then that Word of God in man. becomes the living word. This is how a covenant is established and by it Eden continues through the specific period allotted. Now Eden did not continue because the word of God did not take root in Eve to the extent that this word then was formidable against the word of Satan. She had brother Branham said she got from behind the word and therefore she sinned. She could not have sinned as long as she stayed behind the word or literally the word would have its place in her. As Jesus himself said to the Pharisees, my word has no place in you. There is no place in you for that word. So Eden would have continued the allotted period of time under that condition of an unchanging revealed word that the person fortified himself with it. Now make more, make. Now, of course, here we just might as well stop a second and mention the fact that sin entered by unbelief and, of course, Eden was desecrated and eventually was removed from earth. It most certainly was because, remember, the disciples' prayer, which is called the Lord's Prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. At one time the will was done on earth. And now the will is only done in heaven. The will of God specifically is not truly done on earth because the kingdom of God is not upon earth. Now we understand it is overall sovereignly, but what we are looking at and looking forward to has not yet come. So make no mistake about it, Satan's Eden exists on identical terms. His perverted word fuels man to perform that word. And Satan has his Eden. God's broken covenant or contract puts men within Satan's Eden. Now, Satan has his Eden because he said he would do certain things, and he is doing them. Now, he'll never get where he wants to go, but he's doing them. Number three, man's participation in God's Eden lay not in self or physical sense expression, but in word expression, yet through flesh. And that's still true today. Because the word of God must be expressed through mankind in some particular way. Not always just through a prophet, but it must come through people also. God determination was word revealed determination. In other words, the word determination there is like definition. It's that which is already determined in the sense of you do not go beyond it. This is what it is. And so God determination was... was word -revealed determination. And this is what we're looking at as we study the ultimate of God, the complete final destiny. So God -determination and word -revealed determination is the same thing. There is no other way to have it. People can talk all they want, but if it is not in the Word, you are not going to have it. If God has not said something about Himself, then for you to think something about God is ridiculous. It's got to be that way. Man could be the manifestation of it, and as he recognized this, it gave him a true freedom through omnipotence and omniscience because God could work in and through him or them by the living word. Now, you caught what I said, perhaps. God could, man could be the manifestation of the determination of God by the word. In other words, Actually, the God principle, the God person, the Godhead, actually can be determined through man, which is what God wants. Now, if you say that's not true, then you discredit Jesus Christ who was a man.

See? So man could be the manifestation of it, but he didn't. As I said some time ago, no man outside of Jesus ever lived it. He was God manifest in flesh, but we can believe it. then God is able by His Spirit to manifest through us. That, of course, is in limited fields and areas. See? In other words, we're all limited, but all of us have a part. Man could be the manifestation of it, and as he recognized this, it gave him a true freedom through omnipotence and omniscience. Why? Because God in him doing, working God Himself. Now, that would be limited, but it's not limited in the sense of where God would allow a man to go through God himself. As the old Hebrew rabbi said many times, he said, sure, man has used God, wants to use God, and he continues to want to use God. And God makes himself available at man's disposition in order to be used, but it must be within the framework of the word. See, always there's a limit. The lie always goes beyond the limit. Then it becomes a terrible lie. That's why you see today the church under a false anointing because they wouldn't listen to the one who came down and dealt with the prophet and set the church in order. And we'll talk about that as time goes on. I hope you're getting these thoughts. Now, okay, now turn this around and Satan's Eden from its inception. Satan's deception perpetrated upon man that man could innately express himself apart from the revealed word and at the same time maintain his identity with God and expression of God and be a part of God's kingdom or in the sovereignty of God was maintained yet all the while the tool of Satan fulfilling Satan's purpose now that's exactly what Satan said I'm going to do I'm going to take it over. I'm going to take over what God's created, God's kingdom. I'm going to take these sons and daughters of God, and I'm going to perpetrate a lie upon them to such an extent that they will absolutely think by their association with God that they know to be there, they will go right on believing that they're absolutely the children of God and the Word of God living and moving in them, and I have control of them.

Now, that's pretty tough.

What do you think God said? These are my children. I'm going to give them my word. I'm going to have control over them. We've got a fellowship. We've got all this going. And Satan said, I am going to move it away from there because Satan is not a creator. Satan cannot have children. Not the way that people think. All right. This should make you understand the Laodicean concept. that is followed 6 ,000 years later, which is in Revelation, the third chapter. And this is what Brother Branham used, of course, as the seventh church age, as he would have to, of course. And he says here, I know your works. You're neither hot nor cold. I would you were cold or hot. Now, that lets you know right there that there's an admixture.

So then, because you're lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I spew you out of my mouth, because thou sayest. Now, notice the church is talking. I am rich, increased with goods, have need of nothing, and knowest not that you're wretched, you're miserable, you're poor, you're naked and blind. I counsel you to buy me gold tried in the fire, that you may be rich. White raiment, you may be clothed. The shame of your nakedness do not appear. Anoint thine eyes with eye salve. Of course, that means get the eye salve. They thought they had it. That thou mayest see. All right, there's your... Laodice in church, which of course is also Revelation 13, which I don't want to read at this time. Now, Laodice is the fullness of the day of people's rights. Now, you must understand what we're looking at. We are looking at people who still think they're in the Garden of Eden under the blessing of Almighty God. They still think that they have this relationship with God. They put it down as a free moral agency as a choice. But they believe that they are the children of the Lord. Now, so this is the fullness of the day of people's rights. And we see their assessment of themselves as God's children.

Right here. See? Now, the church or the woman's word given to her by Satan. You'll notice it's telling God what God is going to do because she's become her own prophet. She's laid it all out there and said, now, we have come to the position that we know what we're speaking of and we are in full control. The church believes the lie. See? Worship Satan, calling it God, and goes on to Armageddon by way of... coming against the very Lamb of God and His elect bride. Now, Satan and man combine in this age to absolutely break open and destroy any and every vestige of God's government, the old Edenic government upon earth, because you'll find in Revelation chapter 17, we might as well go there, the actual condition of the church. Now, the church does not want to agree to this.

This is always some little segment somewhere, some little idiosyncrasy and some little foolish people, but there's nobody will want to admit that this is an actual picture of the church worldwide, its actual condition, what it's come to, that they're engaged in a complete fornication and full of blasphemy. Their mother is a harlot, and they are the daughters of the harlot. And instead of actually being in unity with God and his people, they are the destroyers, just the same as Cain was with the original Abel. Now, they don't want to believe that. That's against their policy. There is no way that we can read Revelation 17, which is actually, I don't want to read the whole thing here. And 2 Thessalonians, the second chapter, let's go back there because this is more to our use.

Paul speaking, Now we beseech you, brethren, by the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our coming together unto Him, gathering together, that you be not soon shaken in mind or troubled either by spirit, by word, or letter, from us that day of Christ in hand. Let no man deceive any means. For that day shall not come except to come a falling away. First the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who impose and exalt himself above all that's called God, for that is worship. So that he is God, sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, which is the mystery of iniquity. Now, to see this more clearly, we'll read back in Isaiah chapter 14.

1 to 17.

For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, will choose Israel and set them in their own land, and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall... Cleave to the house of Jacob, and the people shall take them and bring them to their place. And the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for the servants and handmaids. And they shall take them captives, whose captives they were. And they shall rule over their oppressors. Come to pass the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, from thy fear, from the hard bondage wherein thou hast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon and say, How hath the oppressor ceased? The golden city ceased. The Lord had broken the staff of the wicked and the scepter of the rulers. Now, that didn't take place way back during the time of Babylonian captivity when they got released. No, they never did. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger is persecuted and unhindered. And the whole earth is at rest, is quiet, and they break forth unto singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the seed of Lebanon sing, since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming. It stirreth up the dead, for even all the chief ones of the earth, it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. And they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy vials, and the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? Now, you're getting right down through all the ages where Lucifer was building his kingdom, trying to build up this Eden of his and have a world government and take over it, that he could be thoroughly worshipped. How thou art cut down to the ground, which is weak in the nation. For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will send above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall ne 'er look upon thee and consider thee saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms? Now you'll notice that Satan is being identified with kings and kingdoms. That made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities throughout. That opened not the house of the prisoners. And so on. Now, we go to Zechariah, the 28th chapter.

And we start at verse 1. The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lived up. And thou said, I am a God. I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas. Yet thou art a man and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God. Now, there are different people who have done that all through history. They've actually thought they were God, not just the king of Tyre, the king of Babylon, different ones, you know. They actually thought that, but we'll just keep reading. With thy wisdom, with thine understanding, thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver and thy treasures. By thy great wisdom, by thy traffic, thou hast increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches. Now notice the positive statement about the riches. Rich increased in goods and don't lack anything. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, because thou saith that heart as the heart of God, behold, therefore, I'll bring strangers upon thee, and terrible of the nations, and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, they shall defile their brightness, and they shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the death of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? But thou shalt be a man of no God, and a hand to him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers, for I have spoken as saith the Lord God. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation against the king of Tyrus. Thus saith the Lord God, Thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Now, he never was in Eden. That king never was there. Now, notice in one place he's called a prince. which means he's a son of a king. And so we got this person here in Tyrus identified with Satan, and he's an earthly king. And here you see a picture of Satan's kingdom, what Satan is working with, how he's doing things, and how this kingdom of his is coming up at the end time, wherein he'll be absolutely worshipped as though he were God. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering. The sardius, topaz, diamond, burl, onyx, and jasper, and sapphire, and emerald, carbuncle, and the gold, the workmanship of thy tabards, thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day thou wast created. Now, you'll notice in there that these gems look an awful lot like the effort that was carried by the high priest with the flashing stones, the Urim and the Thummim. But they're not all identical in here. But you can see that Satan actually... had it was established himself in a priesthood because he was the anointed cherub that covereth. It says that. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so. Thou wast upon the holy mount of God. Thou hast walked up and down the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise, they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned. And therefore, I'll cast thee as a profane out of the mount of God, and will destroy thee, O covering chair, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. Remember, John looked at the Catholic church in wonder, the great church, the beast church. And I will cast thee to the ground, and lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuary by the multitude of thy iniquities. By the iniquity of thy traffic, therefore, I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee. It shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee. And they shall know thee among the people, and shall be astonished at thee. Thou shalt be a terror, and thou shalt be a terror. Never shalt thou be anymore. So there's an actual picture, as all scholars agree. Brother Branham brought this out too. You see a picture here of Satan. What he really wanted to accomplish. And he set forth to do it. And he said, I'm going to literally take the place of God so that I will be worshipped as God and nobody's going to stop me. Now, in spite of all this, God wants, therefore, to still restore his Eden. And the millennium is at hand. And with it, all that it takes to bring in the restoration and maintain it. Now, Satan has already brought his Eden up to the taking over as in 2 Thessalonians 2. Now, the point is, will he carry it into the millennium? Will he carry it into that millennium? The answer is yes, if he could. Yes, if he could, but he won't. Now, the kingdom which God forfeited through the deceit of man, that Christ brought back. will come into the millennium. Then it is that the will of God is done on earth, and the kingdom of God, or Eden, is right back here again. Now, let's go to the book of James, the fifth chapter, and

we'll read it. Now remember, the vastness of the riches of this world are attributed to Satan's kingdom, his Eden. He owns it. And you will notice it ends up in Revelation as a church and all nations committing fornication with it. Now, you can't get by that. We read that in Ezekiel, read in Isaiah. We see the picture. Now, let's read in James. Go to now, you rich men, weep and howl, for your miseries shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, your garments are moth -eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered. The rest of them shall be witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped together treasures. You have heaped treasures together for the last days. Behold the hire of the laborer who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud triad. All right, what about all the pension funds that are wiped out by the livery's takeovers?

Now whose kingdom do you think that's a part of?

Satan's Eden. And the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of the harvest.

You have lived in pleasure on earth and been wanton. That's what he said about the church. You have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you. Try to get help in the courts today. Why, nobody but the criminals got any rights.

So what are the judges and lawyers doing? What's the government doing? And the question, what is the church doing?

The population of the Roman Catholic Church in America is now over 50%. It outdoes the Protestants.

The churches today could wipe out the government and put in a new one.

Wipe out the judges. They can do anything they want with that vote. Are they doing it? No. And let me ask you, what's the Catholic Church doing that could really raise its voice? It's playing footsie.

If the Pope could let that Catholic priest in Poland get killed. And maybe wipe a crocodile tear if he wiped that.

I'm asking whose church is controlled, God's church or the devil's? Well, you can have your choice. I've made mine a long time ago. Be patient, therefore, brethren, under the presence of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth and hath long patience for it until he receive the early and latter rain. Be also patient, establish your heart, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned. Behold, a judge stands at the door.

So there's a judge waiting to take over and bring in millennia. Now, again, remember, Brother Brandon said one word off of Satan's kingdom. If that's the truth, what happened in the first stage when they got another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel?

What has 2 ,000 years done to the church?

If one ponders that question for an absolute answer, We can get it by the figuring of the law of Moses from chapter 18 in Deuteronomy when he said, the Lord your God will raise up a prophet like unto me amidst the brethren. Just like him now, he's going to be a real leader. He's going to have the signs and wonders necessary to establish who he is. He's going to have thus said the Lord. He's going to have what it takes. And he said, if you don't listen to him, you'll be under condemnation. Now, 2 ,000 years after that, we see the total. rejection of Jesus Christ. My question is now, what about His appearing and His presence in the light of another 2 ,000 -year period?

Do you think for one minute that the people will welcome the understanding of the appearing? There's no way, and I'm going to tell you how the appearing got here all mixed up. In an Irving Knight meeting, I hope I'm telling this exactly right, but it's such a long time since you're in it. In an Irving Knight meeting in London, in a dark room, where people spoke in tongues and thought they really had the gifts of the Spirit moving and everything else. A woman, on her back, spoke in tongues and interpreted that the appearing and the coming were two different things, which they are. And it's my understanding that the appearing would be the rapture.

Now, I'm going to ask you a question. What is the fundamental Protestant teaching on the appearing? The rapture.

When did the church have

permission from God to sink so low as to have a woman talk in tongues and interpret it? And the church said it's doctrine.

How can they receive the appearing, which indeed we have already had it?

Impossible. Now, while we are studying Satan's Eden without yet reading, we might as well note how Satan attempted to take over the future Eden as he tempted our Lord and Christ. This time he directly tempted the man, not the woman. He tempted the head, not the body, because literally the body was within the head and would be coming forth. As usual, Satan went right to the word to pervert its meaning and therefore its application. Notice, in temptation one he said, turn these stones into bread. Now this could have been done as Jesus turned water into wine, which Brother Branagh said he... He bypassed the process of growth where in the water would have become part of the grape and the grape crushed, the juice flown out, the fermentation, you get wine. So you could take a stone and you could crush it thoroughly to a powder, releasing all the minerals. And through the process, you could have stones turned into bread because that is possible. That is true. See? Now,

This would have been, to do what Satan said, would have been a violation of nature, even as when Eve violated nature, which she did by mingling Satan. Let me show you why I'm saying what I'm saying. Let's go to Genesis here, the first chapter, 1,

11 to 12. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the earth yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit of his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. It was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the earth yielding seed after his kind, the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind. And the Lord saw that it was good. Now, I want to share something in here.

I didn't write it down here, but anyway. Well, I read that there. Let me go over here. And the Lord God planned a garden in the east of Eden, and they put the man there in form. The Lord God made another ground over every tree that is pleasant to sight and good for food. Okay? And also in 129, the Lord God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed, and it shall be to you for meat. So you notice what God said here in this book. He, I think I've read enough to.

Let me just take over here, first of all. 1 John.

1 John 3, verse 12. What was the wicked work of Cain? He did contrary to the revealed word. Now, the word of God came to Adam and Eve and said, okay, you can eat the tree. It lies in the seed. You can eat the seed. You can eat what the ground produces. He never said you will change stones into bread. He never said any specific thing about them having anything to do with nature other than to follow the lines of nature that God had laid down. So, as Eve tampered, mixing the seed, God, human race and beast race all mixed up. So Satan came to tempt Christ to tamper with nature, to bypass what is in the Word of God that should not be bypassed. Now to further buttress that, let me go to Galatians, the sixth chapter. And in verse 7, Be not deceived, God is not mocked. What a man sows, that a man shall also reap. Now with that, now that's just a positive statement of fact. We go to Ecclesiastes, the third chapter, verses 1 to 2. To everything there's a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. A time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up or harvest what has been planted. Now, this was a temptation. Now, you say, all right, how then could Jesus turn the water into wine? If this would have been a violation of nature, the answer is simple. The wedding at Cana was not a temptation, not at all. It was a witness and testimony to Jesus' mother because she knew what he could do. She's a bit previous, but she stood there just a bit, I think, like Howard used to stand with Brother Branham, Brother Bill, and nothing was impossible. If Bill walked in the room, Howard could be dying. He was on his feet dancing in the next second.

The man had uttermost faith. In every tent meeting, every meeting Howard go by, people lying on their cots dying, stomachs ascended, talked to every single person. He said, I'm going to make you a foot race to that door tonight. Get up. You're going to dance tonight. You watch. I'll dance with you. People healed by the hundreds. The man had absolute faith in his brother. That's why Brother Branham had to be weighed Howard's death. So there's a big difference in the temptation. Mary was not tempting. Mary was a bit previous. That was all. Remember also, God created through Moses. William Branham, by the power of God, also created. These men were not tempting God. These men were in the perfect will of God, proving and revealing Hebrews 13 and 8. There's a big difference. Number two, Satan said, jump off the temple for it's written, his angels have charge over you and shall bear you up lest you trip against a stone and fall over something. Here again, Satan was tempting Christ to wrongfully interpret the word even as he told Eve to use it for self -aggrandizement. He said, why? He said, look, you'll know as much as God. You'll be a big shot.