Do you believe in angels? It's not the kind of question you expect to be asked when you're up at the shops, or chatting with friends. And I guess it's something that seldom crosses our minds, so in this program, we're going to explore the subject of 'angels'.
'Angels' are not chubby little babies with wings. They don't even have wings. The Greek word 'ANGELOS' means a messenger. When the Bible speaks of an angel, it's usually a mortal human, but never a female. Before God ever does anything of great significance, he always sends an angel, with warning (Amos 3:6-8).
Just before the coming of Jesus, God sent an Angel from Heaven by the name of Gabriel. Now minor angels come. And according to the Scripture, everyone has a guardian angel. Jesus said, "In heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father, which is in heaven" (Matthew 18:5-6, 10).
A while ago, a minister told me, "Brother Anthony, there's no such thing as seeing angels. Angels don't lead the Church, the Holy Ghost leads the Church".
"That's right. But we still have angelic beings as ministering spirits sent from the presence of God".
He said, "Well, our church doesn't believe that."
"I don't know what your church believes. I only know what the Bible teaches."
He said, "Well, Brother Anthony, angels might have been back in Daniel's time, but since the Holy Ghost has come, there have been no angels."
I said, "Do you believe that Philip had the Holy Ghost?"
"Certainly."
"Well, who was it came and told him to leave that big revival they were having, and to go out into the desert to meet the Ethiopian eunuch? Was it the Holy Spirit? No sir, the Angel of the Lord came to him." Is that right? And Philip had the Holy Ghost.
Do you believe Peter had the Holy Ghost? Who was it came into the prison when the Pillar of Fire shone in there, touched Peter, and raised him up, loosed his shackles, opened the doors, and set him free on the street? It was the Angel of the Lord. And Peter had the Holy Ghost (Acts 12).
When the great saint Paul was fourteen days and nights at sea with no sun or stars by which to navigate, and the sailors had lost all hope. After prayer, he said, "Be of good cheer, for the Angel of God, who's servant I am, stood by me last night, saying, 'Fear not Paul.'" Is that right? It was the Angel of God. And Paul had the Holy Spirit.
The whole Book of Revelation, was revealed by an angel on the Isle of Patmos. "I, Jesus have sent My angel to show you things that must shortly come to pass." John started to worship the angel. But no true angel will ever receive worship. He said, "Worship God." There are false angels, as there are false spirits, and so forth. But a true angel of God will always point you to Jesus Christ.
Paul said, "If an angel from heaven preaches any other Gospel, than what you've already heard, let Him be accursed." Is that so? Watch what the angel teaches. If it's long in the Gospel, sound in doctrine, and according to the Bible, then believe it.
God sent seven angels with seven different Messages through the seven Church Ages. The names of those seven angels were Paul, Irenaeus, Martin, Columba, Luther, Wesley, and Branham. Jesus promised that, 'in the days of the Voice of the seventh angel, (who was the late William Branham), when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He hath declared to His servants the prophets'. Peter said, 'every soul that will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people'.
Before the coming of the righteous One, God sent an Angel. That Angel came to a home that was respectable. If you want Angels to visit your home, make it like Zacharias' home. He and Elizabeth were living upright before the Lord, keeping all His statutes, and all of His commandments, in perfect obedience to the Word and the Light for their day. Zacharias was burning incense at the altar while the people were praying. While he was waving this incense, there stood Gabriel, on the right hand side of the altar.
Now, angels can come, but when you hear of Gabriel coming, something major is about to happen. Gabriel announced the first Coming of Jesus. And Gabriel will announce the second Coming of Jesus.
Zacharias was old, and his wife had always prayed for children. What a difference it is to today. The people are polluting the nation. Our own rottenness is destroying us. The robin that pecks on the apple doesn't spoil the apple, it's the worm at the core. And the demoralization among us now, our women smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, and the barrooms and things filled at night, and swearing and carrying-on is killing us. Churches having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, is what's killing us.
Here was Zacharias, and the angel said, "After the days of this ministration, go home and tell your wife she'll conceive and bear a son. And you'll call his name John." Look at that hard-hearted man, he had Hagar and Sarah - plenty of examples. Sarah at ninety years received a child. But he said, "These things cannot be, my wife's too old."
He said, "I'm Gabriel, who stands in the Presence of God. My words will be fulfilled in their season. But you'll be dumb until the day the baby is born."
When God speaks, it's got to happen! No matter how unreasonable it seems, it's going to happen anyhow. God said it. "And His words will be fulfilled in their season."
The people noticed he hadn't come out, and they wondered what was the matter with him. When he eventually appeared, they saw he was a mute. He couldn't speak, he beckoned to the people to go home. And his wife did conceive, according to the word of the angel.
God always sends angelic beings to warn the world. I believe there are angelic beings on earth today, warning the world of judgment to come. And I'd like to say a few words about flying saucers. Did you notice that before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which is a perfect type of today, God sent angels to call out Lot! Is that true?
Look what's happened today! We're promised to have prophets again. We're promised we'll have healing again. We're promised we'll see wonders in the skies, like flying saucers. And on earth distress between nations, with perplexity - in anticipation of TIDAL waves killing thousands.
People are gathering from east and west, north and south. Great signs are happening - fearful sights in the skies. Saucers are flying; missiles that can't be understood. They think it's some sort of intelligence from somewhere else, mysteriously slipping on the scene with lightning speed. They don't know, and science can't find out.
It's like the first Coming when the wise men looked up and saw the stars, and said, "The great King is coming." But not one of the observatories saw them, they were mystic Lights. It was God's shekinah, the same Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage. And the stars are pointing again.
All nature is groaning. Men's hearts are filled with fear; there's perplexity of times; distress between nations; the sea is roaring; great tidal waves breaking everywhere, horseless carriages going through the highways with torches are running like lightning. And we've passed right by these milestones, as if they were nothing.
In the papers and on the radio there are frequent UFO sightings - flying saucers. It isn't a myth, it's not imagination, it's real. You can tell it's an intelligence, they fly in formation. People laugh and make fun out of it. They say, "Flying saucers."
It is an intelligence. But what is it?
Jesus said before He comes, there'll be signs in the heaven above. Did you notice, before He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sexual vices, He sent angels to investigate it. Angels have come to the earth in the last few years. They've been seen among people: honest Christians who know their Scriptures. They've even had their pictures taken. Angelic beings have visited, taking word to the Father that sin is heaped so high 'til the stars can hardly shine. Soon the whole world will reel, like a drunk man coming in at night (Isaiah 24:20; Hebrews 12:26).
Soon comes the earthquake that marks the end of Gentile days.
I'll tell you what I think about flying saucers. I don't believe they're shadows. I do not believe that they're mythical. I do believe that by looking in the Scriptures, we can find all things.
Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom, so shall it be in the Coming of the Son of man." Before Fire fell, and burned up Sodom and the cities of the plains, angels were sent from heaven to investigate whether these things were true.
How like God, to send back His angels today, to investigate and to find out - just before the great destruction comes. And did you notice, there was one Angel who stayed with an old man, Abraham, who'd made a decision for God; and was living despised by the world in a tent on the desert, because Lot chose to take all of his wealth. But he said, "That's alright. I'll just stay here in the will of God."
Today, men are stricken blind because they're rejecting God's mercy. That only leaves judgment. But God, in His love and mercy, has made a way. Before Divine judgment strikes, God makes a way of escape for all who desire to follow that way. That's His mercy, making a way of escape. "Not willing that any should perish, but that all might come to repentance."
He's in the world today, showing signs and wonders, healing the sick, raising up people, great things taking place, showing signs in the heaven above, and on earth. Signs. Signs of saucers flying through the air. Even the Air Force doesn't know what to think of it. Signs in the heaven above. And on earth, healing of the sick, raising the dead, opening blind eyes, casting out demons, the gospel being preached, signs before His Coming. "Not willing that any should perish, but that all might come humbly, to repentance." But those who reject Christ, have to walk blind.
What if I were to reject my sight, let it be put out? If I refused to keep my eyes, I'd take something and stab them out. I wouldn't want to see.
That's how it is Spiritually. If a man refuses to look into God's Word, and see His plan, and see God, he automatically puts out his eyes. He intentionally shuts up his eyes to the things of God.
All these things coming up like flying saucers, and little wee men coming through testing the power of God, is fanaticism. Stay in the Word. Stay right with the Word; believe the Word.
I'm not a flying saucer man. A lot of nonsense has been spoken. There's nothing to it. Don't you believe it. But they are signs! They're seen constantly. Investigation judgments coming to the earth. The world doesn't know what that is. We know it's investigating Judgment Angels. They don't realize what it is. Let them think whatever they want to. They call them flying saucers or whatever; they don't know.
This is the time of the investigation judgment as we read in the Vials. Just before the Woes went forth, three angels struck the earth crying, "Woe, woe, woe, unto the inhabitants of the earth."
In the days of Lot, one talked to Abraham. He said He was Elohim. He'd come down to investigate - as He has now, in an investigation judgment, to see who really is a believer. And He made Himself manifest today as He did in that day.
People are going to find out some day, that they're not seeing a hundred and fifty million years of light space; they're just going right around in a circle. And you're going to find out one of these days that when you go to heaven, you don't fly off somewhere else, you're still right here - just in another dimension faster than this.
I'll prove it. Right through this room's coming color. Every color shirt, dress: whatever you have on and every thing you do is recorded. And going around and around the world. Every time you blink your eyes, it's on record. Television will prove that.
When you're born, God starts a record. It doesn't make much noise for a little while - until you come to the age of accountability. Then the noise starts. You start saying and doing things you have to answer for. When that life ends, the record or tape is taken off, and laid in the great big library of God. How're you going to get around it at the judgment? It'll be played right back in front of you - every move you made, every thought that went through your mind. Can you see that?
That explains visions and prophecies. A vision is a preview of some future event that has not yet happened. It's just like a film clip God shows to His prophets of a scene that will come to pass in real life. It could be tomorrow, or thousands of years into the future. The prophet sees it now. Spiritual dreams are the same sort of thing. Sometimes God shows it in symbols. Sometimes it's an actual view of future events. The Bible's full of such visions.
Well, if He can reveal the future, why can't he show the sinner his past? And condemn him at the judgment for rejecting God's Word and doing what he knew to be wrong.
There's not an error in Scripture. Jesus is the Word of God, and the Word is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 says, "The Word of God is sharper, more powerful than a two-edged sword, even a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the mind." It goes way down into the desires and makes them known. The Word is the revelation, It is God's thoughts revealed.
Now there is no agreement amongst doctors and scientists, and the different schools. If Einstein only had the Spiritual application, as he had the physical understanding of his theory of relativity - light and time - he could've told us something. Einstein taught that there was a great center, somewhere in the universe, and that if we could just contact that center, we could create a world, and go live on it. He'd seen that the power would be unlimited.
These little pockets going through the air they call "saucers". "Hear how these people are said to come up missing?" We don't hear from them; they're standing there, and they're not there. That's the way the translation's going to be. One of them would drop right down, and this terrestrial body will take on a celestial body. And they'll be neither hide nor hair left. It'll be changed in a moment of time, dropping right out of space and taking that home. We see all this going on now, and the military wondering about these mystic lights they're seeing in the sky. They don't know what that is." But it's going to pick you up one of these days
Just before Sodom, God came down with some angels, and they had an investigation judgment. They'd heard that the sin was so great and they came down to find out the truth. Is that right? Watch, that main One that stayed with Abraham, and discerned the thoughts in Sarah's heart behind Him.
Now if you look around a little, you'll notice It's done the same thing today. It's an investigation judgment. And When the true Church knows its position, and every seed has been brought to that spot, they'll be gone. No one will know what's happened to them. One will be going ONE way. One will be going to the pastor's house, and one will be going here, or down there; and the first thing you know, they're not there. Enoch was the type. God took him, and he was not found.
"And it shall come to pass," said God, "that in the last days I will pour out My Spirit. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy." Prophets promised. "Your young men shall see visions, and I will show wonders in the heavens above." Flying saucers and so-forth, great distress. The earth will be shaken with big earthquakes, and great volcanics will take place; great troubles and distress among the nations. They'll be trying to find peace with the North behind their back, Russia. They'll be troubles everywhere. And men shall grow worse and worse. We live in dangerous times.
The Son of man was potentially revealed for a few moments just before Sodom was burned. That Man was Elohim. That was God, and Jesus is God. God was revealed potentially right there for a few moments to talk to Abraham in the investigation judgment.
The last Sign Jesus promised us was God veiled behind the flesh of the angel or prophet-messenger to the Seventh or Laodicean Church Age revealing the Son of Man, 'the same, yesterday, and today, and forever' by discerning the thoughts and intents of people's hearts - around and around the world - 'as it was in the days of Lot'.
This is the LAST sign Jesus promised to we Gentiles. And it was fulfilled in the ministry of the late William Branham who was the ANGEL to the Laodicean or Pentecostal Church Age. It is LATER than people think. radio047.html