No. He isn’t the same. See, it’s two different men. The Elisha that come in the form of Elijah was not Elijah. And the spirit of Elijah who came upon a man called John the Baptist was not Elijah. And the man of the seventh angel messenger, at the end of the Laodicean Age, will not be the literal Elijah. He’ll be a Gentile, to his people.

Elijah will, or the spirit of Elijah then, coming in the…and to the people there, he will be a Jew, see, for they’re sent to their own people. That’s my revelation. The reason I…Of Tommy Osborn, when we talked that over, that time, Tommy and I, I never knowed. I was just praying for the sick.

And I come up there, and there was a lady come down from the Fort Wayne Gospel Tabernacle, a missionary in the foreign fields. Her breast was that big, was just eat up with cancer. And she was right there in the little house where we used to live, up here in the lane. And I prayed for the dear sister. And she was healed, and returned to the field. And when…She come from Africa. And she had left a little book there, on missions.

I—I thought, “Well, missionaries are fine.” And I’m…I’ve never thought much about missionaries. And so I thought, “Well, they’re just an office of God out there. So that’s…This is my place right here, on Eighth and Penn Street.” So I was just carrying on the best I could.

But one day, sitting in the study, I picked up that book. And it had a picture of—of the Negro race, an elderly old father, and he had this little white rim of hair. And underneath was written like this, “White man, white man, where was your father? See, I’m now old and dull at mind, and I don’t understand too well. If I would have known Jesus when I was a young man, I would have took Him to my people.” Well, I read it.

And Something just kept saying, “Read it again. Read it again.” I kept reading. Oh, you’ve had them times. “Read it over and over. There is something in there.”

Like up there that day at Green’s Mill, when I come out of the cave. I couldn’t understand that, how people could speak with tongues and shout, and with the genuine Holy Ghost, and still be antichrist. Speak with tongues, the genuine Holy Ghost tongues-speaking, and still be a devil. That’s right. I can prove that to you. Yes, indeedy. And then notice…when they stood there.

So, tongues is no evidence of the Holy Ghost. It’s one of the gifts of the Holy Ghost. See? And the devil can impersonate everything He’s got, Divine healing and everything else. He said, “Many will come to Me that day, and say, ‘Lord, haven’t I cast out devils? Haven’t I…’” That’s preaching the Gospel. “‘Haven’t I done mighty works in Your Name, and all these things there?’ I’ll say, ‘Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity. I didn’t even know you.’”

The Bible said, that, “The rain falls on the just and the unjust, the same.” And the same cocklebur, standing in the wheat field there, can be as happy and shout, with the same water that fell upon him, as is both sent to the rain. “But by their fruits you know them.” That little old cocklebur can stand up there, and just as happy and shouting as he can be, just as full of the same rain that the wheat is.

There you are. So they can shout, speak with tongues, and impersonate everything they want to; in that day, be called, “Workers of iniquity.”

As I told you, a while ago, listen to what I say! Listen close. Look back down, examine yourself with the Word and see where you’re at.

You women that’s got short hair, let her grow; you’re wearing shorts, take them off, act like a lady. If you men still smoking cigarettes, and running to pool halls, stop it. I don’t care how much you profess. If you’re still holding that organization, and saying, “This is It, and this is It,” you better stop. Look back down, examine it with the Word. We’re getting plumb out of…

We ought to have lived above the short hair and all. This age now, we’re back into Something now, that God is revealing the hidden mysteries, had been put on the Book before the foundation of the world. And those who have obeyed in these small things, will catch It in these other things. If they haven’t, It’ll go over the top of their head, as far as the east is from the west. It’ll just…

Like Gideon, separating his men. There was thousands and thousand. God said, “That’s too many. Separate them again.” He give them another test. And, “Separate them again. Separate them again.” And on down, till he had a little handful. He said, “That’s the group I want to do the job.” That’s exactly what happened.

Pentecostal women (going back and forth) sitting there, hearing and knowing, by the Word, that’s wrong. You think they’ll cope with It? No, sir. Every year, when I pass by, there is more with bobbed hair than there was when I started.

Said, “What’s that got to do…You ought to…” Someone said, “Why, Brother Branham, people regard you as a prophet.” Now, I don’t say I was a prophet. Nobody hears me to say that. But I’ll say this, that if—if you did do that, if you regard it… Said, “Why don’t you teach people how to receive the Holy Ghost, and how to get this, and how to get great spiritual gifts and help the church?” How can I teach them algebra when they won’t even listen to their ABC’s? That’s right. You do these little things. Get down here at the bottom and brush it off, and start right. Amen. All right.

What was I talking about, anyhow? Let’s see. I didn’t mean to get off that subject. Excuse me, see. All right. “Some of the…some of us are mixed up. Is the Elijah the same as the…” Yeah, uh-huh, that’s right. No. This Elijah that will come to the Gentiles, will be a Gentile anointed with that spirit, because God used that same spirit to bring His people out of chaos every time. And it served His purpose well, so He comes it right back down again. Because, see… Cause, now, if He uses a high-polished, educated, that’s the kind it would catch.

He brings a man that hardly knows his ABC’s, and can’t pronounce his words right, and everything like that; some old wilderness something out yonder somewhere, and brings It in and shoves right down to that simple-minded people. [Brother Branham snaps his fingers—Ed.] And they get It, like that. They get It, see. If It come, and collar…

Like Paul said, “I didn’t come to you with the polish of an education, but I come to you in the Power of the resurrection.” It taken God three and a half years, down in Arabia there, to knock it out of him, his education. Took—took Him forty years to get it out of Moses. See? So there you are. That’s… I don’t say God don’t…I’m not supporting illiteracy now, but I’m—I’m trying to tell you it don’t take…Education don’t…

The wisdom of this world is contrary. Education has been the biggest hindrance that the Gospel has ever had. If we didn’t have education, we wouldn’t have all these big seminaries and things that we got now. It’d be people, simple-minded, who would listen to the Word. But they’re so polished and messed up, and tightened up out there, although, them organizations, till that they’re going to stay with it. That’s all. They take on that spirit. Did you ever take a good woman, marry into a low-down man? That low-down man either becomes a—a good man like the woman is, or the woman becomes low-down as he is. See? That’s right.

That’s the reason He said, “Come out from among them, when I’m getting ready to take that Rapture.” You got to have some kind of faith that’ll take you out of here.

Questions and Answers on the Seals, 1963-03-24, Jeffersonville, IN, §203