Topic: The church & ministry

Question

Should the teacher for the adult class be someone other than the pastor?

Answer

If it’s so agreed. If the pastor wants to teach the Sunday school and then bring the message later, that’s fine and dandy if he wants to do the double service. But if he doesn’t, then have your adult Sunday school teacher, see, for your adult class. And then if—if the pastor has somebody else there...

Question

How many classes should there be?

Answer

You should put your classes in…Like a little bitty class that wants to have flannelgraph, that’s too much for a fourteen-year-old boy or girl. See? You should have someone to take a class for those little babies, some old mother or something who knows how to take care of them. Other classes, I think...

Question

Who should be the teachers?

Answer

There you are, that’s up to you to vote your own teachers in. And you ought to do that, put them in there, get somebody. And meet with the church, and say, “Who’s…Who here feels led of the Lord?” And then get a qualified teacher. And then let it be done. It’s got to be strictly business, brethren. I...

Question

Who should be over the Sunday school to keep it in order?

Answer

The Sunday school superintendent. And that’s what his business is. He’s not supposed to have anything to do with the deacons, trustees, pastors, or nobody else, he’s got a office of his own. Whoever your Sunday school teacher is, I know not. But that Sunday school teacher is supposed to see that eve...

Question

Brother Branham, in respect to the order of the church, we have tried to go accordingly to the way we understand the orders given in the dedication of the new church. And by doing so, some have gotten mad and left the church. And others will not listen to anything we say, especially the children. We have talked to the parents about their children, and they won’t take care of them. Now, have we misunderstood? Or, are we going about it in the wrong way? Thanks. Now let me answer this as they come down. In respect to the order of the church, we have tried to go accordingly to the way we understood it given in the dedication of the new church.

Answer

Now, that’s correct, you’re doing right. Now, this is supposed to be deacons, I suppose, ’cause it’s right here, it’s a deacon’s job. All right. And by doing so, we have often…people has often gotten mad at us. They do at me, too! They’ll do at any man. See? A person that does that, there’s somethi...

Question

Brother Branham… There’s three, two questions on this card here. Brother Branham, what should be the policy of taking up offerings in the church for people? How should this be done?

Answer

I think taking up offerings in the church for people should not be done unless it’s for your pastor. And I think if someone comes in for charity, or something like that, that…Or someone in—in bad need, like one of our members here, our congregation, say if one of our brothers, and they have some tro...

Question

How far, Brother Branham, can or should a deacon go to keep order in the church? Should we keep the order or wait until Brother Neville tells us what we should do?

Answer

That isn’t Brother Neville’s job, that’s your job. See? You don’t tell Brother Neville what to preach on, how to preach it. See, that’s your job, you deacons, you’re supposed to do that. You take care of that. That’s nothing to Brother Neville, that’s your job. See? Now, if a policeman’s out here o...

Question

Please explain just how we are to…how we deacons can keep the people just in the sanctuary before or after…Please explain. [Brother Billy Paul reads: “How do the deacons keep the people quiet in the sanctuary before and after church?”—Ed.] Oh. All right.

Answer

I would suggest this, brethren. Now, there’s a great thing. Wish we had more time to put on it, for it’s—it’s…it—it means something to us, see. Now, the church is not a… If you wants to…If you want to run this tape down some night and play it before the meetings, that the people will understand it,...

Question

Should evangelists continue on the field?

Answer

“In this hour,” of course, what they mean. Certainly, by all means. Don’t change a thing. If Jesus is coming in the morning, preach today like if it was going to be ten years from today, but live like it’s going to be at this hour. Don’t—don’t get scrupled up now. That’s what I’m trying to warn you...

Question

Brother Branham, would you please answer this one for me, about baptism? Matthew 28:19 teaches, “the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.” And Peter, in Acts 2:38, “in the Name of the Lord Jesus.” When was this change come about in Acts of the Apostles? Now, I believe, “in the Lord Jesus.”

Answer

Well, brother or sister, ever who wrote it, there—there was no change come about, see. It…And Peter done exactly what Jesus said do. Now, if somebody come and say, “Use the titles of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” they did what Peter said not do, but what God said not do. See? Now, Jesus said that…...

Question

What happened to the born-again believers who are in the various denominations but not in the Bride of Christ? What happens to them?

Answer

Well, I think we explained that, a while ago. See? They go into the Tribulation. They are martyred in the Tribulation. Come up in the last, after the Millennium, for their judgment. See? Because, the Bible said that the rest of the living…“The rest of the dead lived not until the thousand years was...

Question

Is the Bride of Christ, and the Body of Christ, the same?

Answer

Yes, sir! See? Now, here, now see, I don’t want to get started on it, ’cause I get a se-…preach a sermon on it, see. But I won’t do that. But I want to show you. When God gave Adam his bride, from his side, he said, “She is flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bone.” Is that right? When God gave Chris...

Question

Would the Bride of Christ have…? Would the Bride of Christ have a ministry before the Rapture?

Answer

Sure. That’s what’s going on right now, see, the Bride of Christ. Certainly. It is the Message of the hour, see, the Bride of Christ. Sure. She is consist of apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists, and pastors. Is that right? That’s the Bride of Christ. Sure. She’s got a ministry, great ministry,...

Question

Does the what and wine, or wheat and wine, what does the…of Revelation 6:6? Let’s see what it is, when I get down here now, this here. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts saying, A measure of wheat for a penny, and a measure of barley for a penny;…see that thou hurt not the wine and…oil.

Answer

I guess that’s meaning “the wheat and the wine.” That was one, to the other. Rather, is a symbol, the wine taken at the communion table, of Rev-…of First Corinthians 11:24? “Does the wine—the wine…?” No. One of them is a spiritual symbol, see. And the other one is actually the—the revelation of the...

Question

Could it be that the reason many are sick, because we did not discern the Lord’s Body? (Correct!) …but now revealed by the opening of the Sixth Seal?

Answer

Now, let’s see. Let me just see if I can get that now. It’s not you; it’s me. You didn’t…You wrote it all right; it’s just me. Could it be that the reason many are sick, because we do not discern the Lord’s Body? (That’s got a question mark, the end of that.) Well, the Scripture says, that, “Many a...

Question

If one is in an association organization by our government, and can speak the dictates of his own heart, or in the last-day’s Truth, will he be termed as one of the “harlots”?

Answer

Let’s see. “If one in the association organization is…?” Well, see, the association organization; the—the organization, it’s given rights by the government, to speak. See, that don’t have anything to do with his heart. See? Now, if he is a real believer, and born of the Spirit of God, sometime or ot...

Question

We believe in being baptized…Acts 2:38, but how can we answer people concerning the other baptism? Are they saved or not? Also those that have gone on and never received the light?

Answer

Now, that is a—a good question. Now, let me say again (see?) on these questions, if you—if I don’t answer them according to your thoughts…I’m going to answer them just as close to the Scripture as I know how, to make them Scriptural. Now, the Scriptural way of water baptism is in the Name of the Lo...

Question

Brother Branham, what did Jesus mean in Saint John 21:15 through 17 when He asked Peter if he loved Him and told him to feed His lamb, then He said, “Feed My sheep,” and in the 17th verse He said again, “Feed My sheep”?

Answer

Well, that is merely this: See, Christ is the Shepherd, He was going away, and He was leaving the commission of His Sheep, which any shepherd feeds, which is His Flock, His Church, see, He was leading, or, leaving the commission with these disciples to continue to feed the flock, the, to be a shephe...

Question

Brother Branham, is it not Scriptural that women should not speak in the church?

Answer

He’s got two questions here. That is true. That—that is true. It’s not right for women to be ministers and—and speak in the church. That is right, First Corinthians the 14th chapter. Of course all of the church here, you all know this. And this may be a stranger in here this morning; I don’t know....

Question

Brother Branham, please explain—please make clear if women should testify or speak in tongues in the assembly.

Answer

Well, I believe that if the woman is a—a preacher in the assembly, she isn’t supposed to be a preacher. But if she has a gift of tongues and speaks in the assembly, where there are—there are prophets and—and the gifts are gathered together, I believe she has a right to do that. Because in the Bible...